Comic-Con 2012: Movie Preview

Which studios are coming to San Diego, and what movies will they bring?

By Don Kaye
Special to MSN Movies

The 2012 edition of San Diego's annual Comic-Con International is here, and it seems like the four-day pop/geek culture blowout has arrived faster than a speeding locomotive. That may be because this year's event, which is expected to draw the usual 130,000 attendees, runs from today (July 12) through Sunday (July 15), almost two weeks earlier than its usual berth at the end of the month. Yet here it is, with its hundreds of exhibitors and retailers promoting and selling their wares, the countless panels, interviews and presentations going on every single second of every single day of the show, and tens of thousands of fans clogging the San Diego Convention Center with glee.

What can we expect to see this year in terms of movie presentations in Hall H? We know that some of the companies that sat out last year's show -- Warner Bros., Disney and Marvel -- are back this year, while others, like Fox and Paramount, are taking a break. There will still be plenty to see, however, and we've broken down, studio by studio, what movies are making their pitches to the 6,000 lucky fans gathered at any time in Hall H.

We can tell you already that there's a batch of presentations we're already looking forward to -- like "Man of Steel," "The Hobbit" and "Iron Man 3" -- and we're sure that, as always, something will spring up and genuinely surprise us as well. See you on the convention floor ...

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Warner Bros. Pictures: Warner Bros. has reserved a three-hour block of time in Hall H, but let's get one thing off the table first: Although it opens one week later, don't expect to see "The Dark Knight Rises" at Comic-Con. Christopher Nolan did not bring his two previous Batman films to the show, and apparently that policy is not changing (personally, we think an exclusive clip and maybe a walk-through-and-wave from the director would be nice). However, you can almost certainly count on seeing the first footage from "Man of Steel," which is gearing up for a big June 2013 arrival. Nolan is producing this latest "Superman" reboot, but Zack Snyder is directing and he'll be anxious to get the Comic-Con stamp of approval.

The other big Warner title will be "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which is set for release this December. The first presentation of footage at CinemaCon in April, shot at 48 frames per second instead of 24, was wildly divisive and controversial for its video-like look. Director Peter Jackson may want to wash that away with a solid Comic-Con outing, so expect to see a healthy dose of material. And stomping right behind "The Hobbit" will be Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim." The director is a Comic-Con regular, and he'll be champing at the bit to show off footage from his colossal homage to Japanese kaiju films as soon as he can -- which means now.

Are you looking forward to this year's Comic-Con? Tell us on MSN Movies Facebook.

Disney: Disney more or less sat out last year's Comic-Con, but the Mouse House is showing up with a bigger bag of goodies this time in addition to its Marvel output (more on that in a minute).

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