Ten Questions We Want Answered at Comic-Con 2008
by Tom Burns

Forget about December. For the world's thriving population of fanboys, movie nerds, and comic geeks, Christmas comes every July at the San Diego Comic-Con International, the world's biggest convention for all things pop culture-related. In recent years, the Con has moved past its comic book roots and become THE place to debut news for anything related to TV, movies, gaming, and any other form of modern media. Since the San Diego Con gives fans unparalleled access to this menagerie of geekdom - and since there's nothing we like better at The Deadbolt than having people do our jobs for us - here are the top ten questions that we definitely want to have asked and answered at Comic-Con 2008:

Will we get a 3-hour Watchmen at the multiplex?

Chance are, if you've been anywhere near the internet this week, you've seen the trailer for Zack Snyder's Watchmen, his big-budget film adaptation of the 12-issue series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which happens to be, without exaggeration, the most critically acclaimed comic book EVER. If you don't know anything about Watchmen, you probably watched the trailer and thought, "That looks cool," but, if you do know Watchmen, your reaction was probably more, "Wow, it looks like they're being crazy faithful." That's usually a good thing, but it's got us wondering - how faithful can Snyder be and still deliver a movie of a releasable length?

The 12 issues of Watchmen are packed to the edges with story, so any film version is going to have to jettison something. However, lately in the press, we've been hearing different stories about the final length of Watchmen. Snyder keeps referring to the film's three-hour running time, but always qualifies such talk with comments like "I know I have a fight on my hands just with that." Matthew Goode, who's playing Ozymandias, told The Deadbolt that, "He [Zack] said to me, 'It's running about three hours and what Warner Brothers doesn't know, I've made a three-hour arthouse film! There's no action at all!'"

While we hope that Goode is wrong about the "no action" comment, will Warner Brothers actually let Snyder release a 3-hour $100 million R-rated superhero movie to theatres or will they at least demand that he cut the movie to a more Dark Knight-esque 2 hours and a half, and let him run with a 4-hour DVD director's cut? The Watchmen panel at Comic-Con might be the best place to ask.

Will Zack and Miri Make a Porno get a NC-17 rating?

Falling under the category of "well, duh," there are rumors swirling that Kevin Smith's new Seth Rogen/Elizabeth Banks comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, is having problems with the MPAA. CinemaBlend and Smith's own Newsaskew are both reporting that the movie has been slapped with a tentative NC-17 rating for "some graphic sexuality." (Big surprise with that title, eh?) However, since the story has broken, there's been no word from the normally quick-to-respond-to-rumors Smith, either on the Viewaskew.com boards or his blog My Boring Ass Life. While we're sure Zack and Miri won't be released with a NC-17 - Can you name the last profitable comedy that was? - it'd be nice to get an official word from Kevin about what the MPAA isn't going to let us see until the DVD.

How exactly does one make a pre-pilot to Dollhouse?

The two shows we're most excited about from this upcoming TV season are definitely J.J. Abrams' Fringe and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, the Buffy creator's first return to network TV since a previous Fox administration mangled the release of his fan-favorite Firefly series. So far, all the buzz surrounding Dollhouse has been extremely positive, and Whedon has gone out of his way to reassure fans that the new Fox regime that greenlit the series isn't making the same mistakes that their predecessors made with Firefly. Still, fans were a little confused when, earlier this week, Whedon announced that he'd be shooting a new pilot episode for Dollhouse, and that the previous, already-shot pilot would become episode 2.

Now, sensing the potential for fanboy panic, Whedon posted an exhaustive explanation of why he chose to shoot a new pilot and how it's definitely a good thing, and we trust the guy enough that we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But the sheer logistics of the new pilot and how it'll affect the planned storylines still confuses us. If the first pilot was supposed to serve as the start-from-scratch introduction into the world of Dollhouse, what kind of story could come before it and how well will it transition into a second chapter in the series? Hopefully, we'll find out at the Dollhouse Comic-Con panel.

What the hell happened between Christian Bale and his family?

This is definitely the most gossipy and intrusive of our questions, but Christian Bale's recent domestic disturbance in the UK - he's charged with "verbally assaulting" his mother and sister, according to news reports - couldn't come at a worse time for the actor in terms of his fanboy exposure levels. The Dark Knight had the biggest opening weekend EVER last weekend, and Bale is scheduled to attend the Comic-Con's Terminator: Salvation panel to discuss his role as John Connor this weekend. Will any panel attendee be ballsy enough to ask Bale about the incident - or the rumored reports of his temper on the Terminator set - or will they not want to risk the wrath of Bruce Wayne?

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