More Comic-Con Thoughts: 24, The State on DVD, MORE

Allllllrighty then. Let me first follow up a bit on yesterday's epic Comic-Con post with a few thoughts I forgot to include the first time around:

- For one thing, I totally forgot to mention that my friends and I did in fact catch the tail end of the TWENTY-BY-GOD FOUR (24) panel on Friday afternoon. We missed most of it, but we did catch one VERY interesting tidbit that all of you diehard Tony Almeda fans will want to pay attention to: The 24 producers revealed that, their ORIGINAL but never-shot ending for this past season was for Jack to be standing outside of Heller's home, when all of a sudden a car would pull up, TONY "SOUL-PATCH" ALMEDA would triumphantly step out, and say: "Jack, we've got a lot to talk about." DAAAAAAAAAMN. Why oh why didn't they go with this? That would have been SICK. But even more importantly, does this reveal imply that regardless of whether he appeared last season, that TONY yet lives in the 24 universe in the hearts and minds of the show's creators?!?! If so, does that mean that the be-patched one may yet RETURN to wreak unholy vengeance on those who killed his wife? Please, let it be so! May Season 7 of 24 be the season that the SOUL returns.

- I would have loved to have attended the Warner Bros. panel but alas it was not meant to be. I was uber-curious to hear director Zach Snyder talk about WATCHMEN. That movie is hopefully shaping up to be amazing, and it had better be, as it's the best comic book ever written and probably my personal favorite piece of literature I've ever read. On the other hand, nothing was shown or talked about relating to DARK KNIGHT. I am still chomping at the bit to hear more about this one, to see anything that will reassure me that it will kick ass. I have faith in Chris Nolan, but give us something to sink our teeth into.

- I also forgot to mention this one cool event that I didn't go to but seemed awesome nonetheless. Warner home video coopted all of Petco Park in San Diego and turned it into a giant colliseum, as a special screening of 300 was shown, complete with slave-girls, Spartans, Persians, and shields and helmets for everyone. I think this event was invite-only but man did it seem cool. THIS. IS. SPARRRTAAAAAA!

- Perhaps the greatest single announcement to come out of Comic-Con was when Thomas Lennon announced that, finally, THE STATE was headed to DVD on October 20th!!!!!!!!! This is awesome news, I've been waiting for this to happen seemingly forever and I will be there on day of release to relive Doug, Louie, and the rest of the classic sketch comedy bits from the glory days of MTV. YES!!!! The State on DVD, baby!

- Also interesting that DC's FINAL CRISIS will be penned by Grant Morrison. Grant's last event for DC, DC 1 Million, was one of the better intercompany crossovers in recent memory, so it's one of those things where even if it doesn't live up to the name "Crisis" in terms of scale or game-changing twists, at the very least it's an all-new Grant Morrison penned DC Story, which is rarely a bad thing.

- I'm also glad that Richard Kelly's SOUTHLAND TALES finally got an October release date. It seems like forever since this was supposed to have come out. Kelly is one of those filmmakers who everyone's been holding their breath to see what he has up his sleeve as a follow-up to Donnie Darko. Other than the screenplay to Domino, we've still been holding our breath. But I still can't wait to see this.

- Can't wait for the new FUTURAMA episodes on Comedy Central and the upcoming DVD movies. FUTURAMA was criminally underrated and underwatched when it first aired, no thanks to FOX contiually screwing around with its scheduling. It's great to see this show, which was consistently great for all four of its seasons, come back in such a big way with such a big groundswell of fan support.

- Finally, I can't remember there ever being so many interesting movies coming out in August. BOURNE ULTIMATUM, WAR, the guilty-pleasure that is Rush Hour 3, STARDUST (which should be amazing), and then a ton of great comedies in SUPERBAD, BALLS OF FURY, and THE TEN (can't wait to see that one either - who's with me?). Even Hot Rod looks kinda funny. Plus I still need to see Rescue Dawn and Sunshine.

- I still need to review THE SIMPSONS, I know. I'll get to that ASAP, hopefully. Check back soon. For now, I'm outta heeeeeeeeere.