UPDATE: Lucasfilm confirms that none of this is true.

Badass Digest and Collider are reporting that they’ve heard from “multiple sources” that Abrams looks as though he’s dropping out of Episode VII.

From Badass Digest:

I know that he didn’t want to shoot the movie in England and was overruled, but that happened a while ago. This weekend at Comic Con I continued to hear these whispers. No director for Trek 3 has been found yet – might Abrams end up coming back after all, leaving Star Wars to someone else? I’m expecting Star Wars news out of the German Star Wars Celebration at the end of the month – if there is some sort of announcement of a title or casting and Abrams isn’t there, start wondering.

I’m not sure where I come down on this one. Sure, it’s likely he’s not got the clout on this movie that he’s had in the past and might want to leave. But this is Star Wars.  This would be a significant hit for Bad Robot to welch on a deal that’s already been signed, too. And for Abram to accept it so publicly, and to be such a large Star Wars fanboy, and then to drop out this close to shooting? There’d have to be much more at play there.

The reason Collider gives for him not wanting to shoot in England is that he doesn’t want to be away from his family. That’s a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. He can take his family with him at the drop of a hat. And it seems like he’d be excited to get back to the roots of Star Wars.

I will agree, though. If news about Abrams is light coming out of Germany at this week’s Star Wars Celebration: Europe, then worry. Until then, toss this into the trash bin marked “rumours.”

For the most up to date in Star Wars rumours and discussion, be sure to listen to the Full of Sith podcast.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story made mention of a picture tweeted by the Bad Robot twitter account as possibly being the script for Episode VII. Sources have informed TheForce.Net that this is indeed NOT the screenplay.

Official details about Batman/Superman was released from Warner Brothers.

It feels so much like they’re reacting instead of investing into a long-term strategy. They should have known this was coming and blown everyone away with Bruce Wayne post-credits in Man of Steel. Or something that implied Wayne industries. Instead, they wait until the morning of Comic-Con to say, “Hey! We’ve finally started to kinda think about this.”

Oh well.

Let’s hope it doesn’t suck. Summer 2015 can’t come soon enough, but for altogether better reasons (*cough*Star Wars*cough*)

NEXT DC SUPER HERO MOVIE IN PRE-PRODUCTION

Director Zack Snyder Unites Superman and Batman in One Explosive New Film

BURBANK, CA, July 20, 2013 – On the heels of the worldwide success of “Man of Steel,” director Zack Snyder is bringing together the two greatest Super Heroes of all time—Batman and Superman—for the first time on the big screen. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The current hit, “Man of Steel,” has taken in more than $630 million at the worldwide box office to date, and climbing. Along with its star, Henry Cavill, the upcoming film brings back Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane. The new Batman has yet to be cast.

Snyder is co-writing the story with David S. Goyer, who will then pen the screenplay. Production is expected to begin in 2014, with an anticipated release date in Summer 2015.
Silverman stated, “Zack Snyder is an incredibly talented filmmaker, but beyond that, he’s a fan first and he utterly gets this genre. We could not think of anyone better suited to the task of bringing these iconic Super Heroes to the screen in his own way.” Kroll added, “We are thrilled to be back in business with Zack and his team on this next movie. The success of ‘Man of Steel’ is a wonderful testament to the love and support that both fans and new audiences, worldwide, have for these characters. We are very excited to see what Zack has in store for all of us.”
Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment, noted, “Superman and Batman together on the big screen is a dream come true for DC fans everywhere. All of us at DC Entertainment could not be more excited for Zack’s continuing vision for the DC Universe.”

Zack Snyder, who made a surprise appearance at Comic-Con today, breaking the news to audiences there, later said, “I’m so excited to begin working again with Henry Cavill in the world we created, and I can’t wait to expand the DC Universe in this next chapter. Let’s face it, it’s beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest Super Heroes in the world.”

The new film brings back Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder as producers. This time, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are serving as executive producers, along with Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan.

Thomas offered, “Whilst our ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy is complete, we have every confidence that Zack’s fresh interpretation will take the character in a new and exciting direction. His vision for Superman opened the door to a whole new universe and we can’t wait to see what Zack does with these characters.”

The film is based on Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, and Batman characters created by Bob Kane, published by DC Entertainment.

And now to the big surprise announcement:

Zack Snyder is introduced. He seems a bit confused and out of sorts, to be honest. He has no script and is kind of rambling. It felt as though whatever he was about to say was VERY last minute.

He explains he’s going to have Harry Lennix come up and read a passage from a book that people might recognize. He assured everyone it wasn’t the material that was being adapted, but that people would definitely know what the common element was and the spirit of things.

I’m not quite sure what that means, and it was definitely confusing, muddling the marketing message that DC and Warner Brothers should have had honed to perfection.

Here’s the quote:

Yes. That’s Batman, kicking Superman’s ass in The Dark Knight Returns.

Then, as we’re left wondering, “How does that all fit together?” They flash the logo on the screen:

They’re making a Superman/Batman movie. It’s not clear if it’s going to be billed as Man of Steel 2 featuring Batman, if it’s going to be Superman/Batman, Batman/Superman, World’s Finest…. nothing. The script, according to Snyder, is still being written, so even they’re not sure.

But…  We got this logo.

And it seemed to jazz some people up.

I’m excited to see the possibility, but my favorite renditions of Batman and Superman haven’t been under the watch of Nolan and Snyder.

And it seems like DC is desperate to catch up to Marvel, but they have no real long term strategy, they aren’t building to anything, no one is in charge, and it shows. Read my recaps of the Marvel panels later and you’ll see what strong leadership in this worlds brings to Comic-Con.

After the strong start for the Warner/Legendary Presentation (documented here) we were treated to Chris Hardwick killing time until the next panel was ready to go.

The next panel was: 300: Rise of an Empire.

Yawn.

This movie looks like a video game and that’s not a good thing. It looks boring, to be honest. Pretty, but boring. Eva Green looks fantastic in it, though.

Where the first 300 was a cartoon caraciature for historical events, this film looks like it’s just a superhero comic book version of things. It’s turning into its own sub-genre.

They showed an extended trailer and it looks exactly like the first 300, but with a different color palate, since so much of it happens on boats over water. If you liked the first 300, this is going to be a movie you’re going to see. If you found the first 300 lacking, I don’t see why you’d think differently of this one.

The next film, I think, took everyone’s breath away.

Here’s Alfonso Cuaron, presenting Gravity:

Gravity

Alfonso Cuaraon: “The story is about two astronauts in space. There’s only two all the way through the film, there is no other cast. It’s only Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. If I was going to be stranded in space, I wouldn’t mind being stranded with them. It’s a non stop ride, very dense. It’s a journey with the characters and we wanted to give the audience the feeling that they’re floating in space.”

Then, Cuaron went on to explain that the trailer is a bit misleading. The actual film doesn’t have that sound in space. The trailer did that for audiences, but the film is not that way. He also mentioned that the film has lots of extended takes, like Children of Men.

Then they ran a clip. It went on and on, through the inciting event of the movie, with very few cuts if any. It floated around and so gorgeously captured what being in space might be like.

This movie looks absolutely daring. Like Children of Men stylistically, but in space. It’s anxiety inducing, thrilling to watch, and just… Wow.

Sandra Bullock came out on stage and talked quite a bit about why she liked doing it, and explained how challenging it was, and how this was a way to address some of her fear of flying and claustrophobia. And why she went right after to do a comedy.

The film comes out 10/4/13 and it’s not coming soon enough. To be honest, I think this was the absolute highlight of the WB/Legendary panels.

Next on the docket was The LEGO Movie, which I’ll admit looked much, much funnier than I was expecting.

The filmmakers came out and explained that EVERYTHING in this movie is something you could have assembled with bricks. The water is bricks. The clouds are bricks. Everything. And the voice cast they’ve assembled is incredible. Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrel, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett…

But they also made some announcements about other voices and characters that will be in the film: Channing Tatum is Superman; Jonah Hill Green Lantern; Wonder Woman is Cobie Smulders.

There will also be Ninja Turtles in the movie. There will be other franchises that LEGO has licensed, but it’s too early to talk about them. The other two major franchises are Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, which I think would be achingly cool to see, but somehow, I don’t see Disney letting them put Star Wars on the big screen again before they get to.

This film comes out 2/7/14.

Penultimately, we were treated to Edge of Tomorrow, more recently known as All You Need is Kill.

The trailer was shown first. Tom Cruise, who seems to be showing his age a bit, is some sort of soldier in a war, and he keeps meeting Emily Blunt, who’s a soldier in that same war. They wear these massive exo-skeletons with guns attached and it looks painful. Tom Cruise’s character is having visions of things and… it’s all pretty vague. They explained on the panel and the impression that I got is that it’s Groundhog Day with a war, the day he’s repeating is the first day of an alien invasion.

When the panel came out, Tom Cruise revealed that he and Chris Hardwick had both played Stacey Jaxx in versions of Rock of Ages and the two of them started singing a Foreigner song as a duet. It was quite bizarre.

The film, written by Christopher McQuarrie, actually looks quite good. The release date is a very confident June 6, 2014.

Come back for Part 3 for information about the Superman/Batman announcement!

Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures had the single largest block of time in the Hall H schedule on Saturday, and it made me hopeful that we’d see something truly special to kick off the day in the hall.

The room buzzed with the idea that a major announcement would probably be made by the end and we were all hoping for something truly special. But we can get to that at the end.

First, we had Seventh Son, which looks far better than I could have expected.

Here are my notes as I took them live in the panel:

The clip showed first off was longer than the trailer, but only really expanded on the ideas portrayed there. Chris Hardwick brought Jeff Bridges out, as well as the director, and other members of the cast, including Kit Harington, Jon Snow.

The film looks awesome, but it’s worrisome that the release date is 1/17/14, not a traditionally confident release date.

Jeff Bridges basically is The Dude, reading snippets of quotes and notes about his character and needing to realize peace through imagination.

The panel moved at a very brisk pace. Jon Snow and the Dude were ushered off stage and we were treated to the sights of Godzilla.

This movie looks like it could be truly special. The trailer implies that it has the real world gravitas that Pacific Rim brought to the world of Kaiju, but it will also just kick ass.

At the start, we were shown a black and white clip of an A-bomb in the Pacific. They then played last year’s sizzle clip and then brought out the director, Gareth Edwards, and cast, including Bryan Cranston.

The crew finished their last day of shooting just two days ago on a night shoot in Hawaii. They came to San Diego straight from the wrap.

Cranston: “Godzilla was always my favorite monster when I was growing up. He was unapologetic. King Kong was… (mimes feelings)… I was a boy, I wanted to see destruction.”

Cranston wasn’t sure he wanted to take the role, but had a conversation with Gareth and watched “Monsters.” Because it was a monster movie that was character driven, that’s what attracted him to Godzilla. “You get all of the character stuff AND Godzilla, which makes it the best.”

The codename on the film was “Nautilus.”

Perhaps one of the best stories told was Gareth Edwards giving the codename of the film to Canadian customs on their way to filming and the customs guys not quite buying it, so they go to the Internet quickly as they’re holding them, do research, and come back and say, “You’re directing Godzilla, aren’t you?”

To which Edwards replies, defeated, “Yes.”

To which the customs agent says, “Don’t fuck it up.”

Just after Cranston almost whipped out his penis, they showed a teasing trailer that looked phenomenal. Cranston appears to be a scientist, Ken Watanabe looks to be in it, as well as David Straithairn. There’s lots of footage of people running and human destruction. Then a Mothra like villain attacks an airport. Hope looks lost… And then Godzilla arrives.

My god. The sound of his roar was incredible. This film hits theatres May 16, 2014

The next film on the docket was Warcraft.

Since this film doesn’t even start shooting until early 2014, it was obvious they were just making an announcement here. They played a sizzle reel of a human fighting an Orc. It looked pretty clearly like test footage.

After the trailer, Duncan Jones, director of Moon, was brought out and announced to be directing this film.

Anticipation in the crowd was very high for this one.

That’s it for Part 1. In Part 2 we’ll talk about 300, Gravity, The LEGO Movie, and… Superman/Batman.

Round two of the Hunger Games, heading our way this fall.

It’s time for the Quarter Quell, and Katniss and Peeta find out just how badly Snow wants them to disappear. It’s right around here in the trilogy that shit starts to go down, yo.

I love when trailers do something different than just show cool scenes from the movie. In this case, it is actually meant to be used as propaganda for the characters in the film’s world as to why they (or their children) should join the I.F. The clip showcases the smart uniforms, the unity within a crew, fun training video games and a glimpse of the Battle Room, all the while trying to convince the viewer that they COULD be the chosen one to bring victory to the human race.

From what I can tell from here in Utah and notin San Diego, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is looking to have a big presence at Comic Con. Looking to start the hype right from the get go, the following teaser was released earlier this week showcasing a quick look at Electro.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am very much looking forward to this movie and have high hopes for this new franchise. So far I have been very pleased with Electro’s look, and now hearing Jaime Foxx speak with the effects applied to his voice I am even more looking forward to what kind mayhem he causes for ol’ Web Head.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 SDCC panel is scheduled for later this afternoon in Hall H, so watch for even more exciting news to come out of that!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters May 2, 2014.

This brief new clip shows Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff welcoming the new students to Battle School while also giving them a brief history lesson on Mazer Rackham and what they hope to accomplish. Most of this we have seen before, but there is some slightly new footage of Rackham taking down one of the alien ships.

Our Editor Bryan Young has sent us these photos from SDCC at the Gaslamp. With no signage or labels indicating it links to Days of Future Past, he was able to confirm by asking the friendly young lady next to the statues. It is indeed a Sentinel Head from Days of Future Past releasing next year! I’m not sure how I feel about them looking more I Robot than 90’s X-men Cartoon, but if it fits the movie stylistically it could be phenomenal. Not to mention Sentinels are in my mind one of the most iconic X-Men challenges.

Thomas Winkley is the Video Game Editor for Big Shiny Robot. Find him on twitter @thomaswinkley, or via email thomas@bigshinyrobot.com