There have been a number of screenings and interviews with projects that have already been confirmed such as the upcoming Fox show Fringe and the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Notably absent (so far) was news on the recent announcement of a film adaptation of the hit X-Box game Gears of War, which will be produced by New Line Cinema.

Thus far the highlight has been new news on X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Along with a spirited interview with Hugh Jackman, a new trailer for the film was premiered for the audience.

Disney also gave the convention goers a shot of adrenaline when they debuted footage for a sequel to the groundbreaking 1982 classic Tron. The trailer featured an update of the well-known cycle race from the film and Jeff Bridges (star of the original) returning.

What other new announcements in the world of comics and entertainment will be unveiled before the convention closes on Sunday the 27th is anyone’s guess.

-Beans

The updated Dharma logo used at the convention.

Reports are trickling out of San Diego’s Comic-Con regarding the new Lost ARG.

As part of Lost‘s presence at Comic-Con they have set up a booth for the show’s fictional Dharma Initiative that is “testing” people as new recruits.

Lostpedia has a firsthand description from their member Burncycle16 from his testing experience, at the convention which includes psychological evaluations, video recording, and the distribution of i.d. cards which they are instructed to hang on to for the convention’s official Lost panel this Saturday.

Lostpedia’s description from Burncycle16 can be found here.

Lost fans, along with geeks of all geekly denominations will be keeping an ear to the ground for what’s happening at Comic-Con as will we here at Geek in Review.

-Beans

Hey everybody, I forgot to post these earlier this week but here are the continuing webisode episodes for “Heroes: Going Postal” and “The Office” web series “Kevin’s Loan”.

Just a reminder “Heroes” returns September 22 and “The Office” returns September 25.

Click below for the webisodes.

Going Postal Episode II: House Guest

The original is here.

Kevin’s Loan Episode II: Malone’s Cones isn’t available on Youtube yet, but the original from NBC.com can be found here. I’ll post the Youtube version on this site when I can find it.

Will Ferrell is staying classy. This week Will Ferrell and “Anchorman” creator Adam McKay announced that they are writing a sequel about Farrell’s crazy and free-wheeling, 70’s TV news anchor. Although they said that the movie would jump ahead to the 1980’s, they have yet to reveal any other details about the plot.

Dreamworks has yet to talk to the pair, so no official announcement for the film has been made. However, with the success of the first “Anchorman” from 2004, which helped secure Ferrell as one of Hollywood’s leading comedy draws, the studio would be hard-pressed to turn down the new script.

I just thought I should be up-front about it...

It was announced this week that the upcoming Joss Whedon show “Dollhouse” is having a new pilot filmed for its debut in 2009.

However, many of Whedon’s fans who have been looking forward to the new show from the sci-fi creator may blanch when they hear this news. This new development sounds suspiciously familiar to the tragic run-up to his last show on the Fox Network: the now cult favorite “Firefly“. At the time Fox insisted Whedon not air his intended pilot as the first episode of Firefly and air a more action oriented episode in its place; an action that fans of the program still blame as one of the reasons Firefly was soon canceled (most other reasons are also usually attributed to Fox’s attitude towards the showby the program’s fans) .

Whedon insists that the network’s attitude is not the reason this time, and that the decision, while requested by Fox, is one that he agrees with and says that the show will be made the better for it. While some of Whedon’s fans are reassured, others are bound to take this news with a grain of salt until Dollhouse premieres early next year.

He makes his plea in a (strange yet humorous) self-interview on the website WHEDONesque. The message can be found here.

-Beans

Taking place 50 years before the events of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, Caprica tells the story of the Adama and Graystone families during the years preceding the human-cylon war.  While Battlestar Galactica takes place mostly aboard various spacecraft, Caprica will take place entirely on the ground.  The setting is reminscent of the American 1950s.  Creator Ronald Moore equated the difference between Battlestar Galactica and Caprica to that between Black Hawk Down and American Beauty.

Caprica currently exists as a two-hour movie, but if fan reception is good then a full series may be planned.

1. Earlier this year, fans of Portal created a flash-based version of the game, known as Portal: The Flash Version.
2. Inspired by the success of the original Portal (available as part of the Orange Box for XBox 360 and PC), the team behind Portal: The Flash Version ported the maps back to the PC version of Portal.  The maps are known as Portal: The Flash Version MapPack and are free to download here.
3. Portal has become available as a paid download on the XBox Live Marketplace.
4. This fall, Valve will be releasing XBox 360 versions of the map pack created by We Create Stuff, the team behind Portal: The Flash Version.  Pricing details and a specific release date are not yet available.

The gist:

Fans made a map pack for the PC version of Portal that is already available for free.  This fall, Valve will be releasing those maps for the 360, but you have to pay for them.  If you have Portal on the PC, go play the maps now.  If you have it on the 360, wait a few months.

Mirror’s Edge is – if nothing else – unique.  The player controls a woman named Faith, who is a message carrier in a totalitarian distopian future.  In a society where the government watches everyone, confidential communications need to be delivered by hand, face-to-face.  That’s where Faith comes in.  The game features a combination of “true first-person” and complex free-running maneuvers to take the player on a breath-taking ride through a beautiful and immersive environment.  Faith incorporates free-running techniques (previously featured in games like Assassin’s Creed) and hand-to-hand combat to evade and out-maneuver government forces on a series of delivery missions.

The game is incredibly immersive.  There is no HUD on the screen, and the sound effects are brilliant.  In the gameplay trailer, the sounds of Faith’s feet on the ground and her calm, precise breathing inspires unprecedented immersion in the game.  The beautiful landscapes encourage exploration, and the limited HUD inspires us to avoid gunplay where possible in favor of disabling enemy soldiers.  (Guns can be used in the game, but the player can complete the game without ever firing a single round.  Doing so unlocks an achievement.)

Mirror’s Edge was announced quite a while ago, and hype for the game is starting to ramp up now that E3 is over.  EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) released more gameplay footage at E3, but a concrete release date is not yet available.  Watch for Mirror’s Edge to hit shelves at the end of 2008 (Christmas present for myself… I think yes.)

For those that haven’t heard about it yet, Joss Whedon of “Firefly” and “Buffy” fame made a three part comedic musical starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. It revolves around a love-lorn supervillian named Dr. Horrible (Harris) and his nemesis Captain Hammer (Fillion). 

All three parts are free on the site and are between 10 and 15 minutes long. It should be advised that by Sunday the free webisodes are going down and will be only available by purchase after that. Parts I and II can be found on this site and the originals, including part III which was released today, are at www.drhorrible.com.

-Beans

This week in geek featured two major stories which most of you have probably heard about by now. The first was the release of the phenominal “The Dark Knight” (my review of the film is here). This movie knocked my socks off and the socks of everyone else in that general vacinity. If you have not seen this film yet, go buy your tickets now. The second was the annual E3 convention in Los Angeles which previews and promotes the latest in video game development. Bobwise will be posting his highlights on the site soon.

For fans of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment also released the beta patch notes for the upcoming expansion “Wrath of the Lich King” including the new talent calculators for each class in the game. The notes can be found best at wowwiki.com on this page. The talent calculators are at mmo-champion.com along with a bunch more information about the upcoming expansion pack. The talent calculators are here.

Some new trailers were released this week also, including the upcoming “Terminator: Salvation.” After the horrible third installment, “Rise of the Machines.” my hopes for this series were dashed as it committed the cardinal sin of sequels by ruining the ending of the previous (amazing) installment. Fortunetly the new trailer looks to have some of the old edge the series used to have. Next week’s Comic-con may bring fans of the Terminator franchise more information.

Also the film adaptation of the graphic novel “Watchmen” was also released. At the risk of offending the entire geek community, I’ve never been a fan of “Watchmen,” and even had trouble finishing it. I found it too preachy and condescending and frankly I thought that it had all the things that I love about superheroes and comic books sucked right out of it. For fans of the eponymous graphic novel, however, this is big news. The trailer gives a sneak peak of some amazing visuals, which isn’t surprising as it’s directed by Zack Snyder, who directed last year’s hit comic book adaptation “300.” This film is also bound to have a presence at Comic-con.

Next week we’ll be sure to keep everybody posted about what’s happening at Comic-con, including previews of Joss Whedon’s new Fox show “Dollhouse”, J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” re-imagining, and a remake starring Will Farrell of the show (remember this?) “Land of the Lost“. 

That’s all the geek for this week.

-Beans