Comic-Con isn’t over yet, but if there was a winner of the convention, the trophy might have been handed out early to the Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel.

Chris Hardwick moderated the panel to a packed Hall H in San Diego where some fans had camped for two days and waited all day for the 5:30 event. Star Wars was the first film to try out film previewing back in the late ’70s before the film’s release, setting a precedent that has all but taken over what was traditionally a convention for printed comics. So it was all too fitting to have J.J. Abrams present his new installment of the famous film franchise at Comic-Con.

Along with exec producer Kathleen Kennedy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) writer Lawrence Kasdan, Hardwick generally gushed with the trio for a while about how momentous this project is, the significance of the Star Wars legacy and the wonder of the people who are involved in this new round of Star Wars films.

Abrams expressed awe around having just worked on the film’s soundtrack with John Williams—they have a rough edit of the film at this point—and stated “There’s nothing normal about anything that’s happening.”

They showed the behind the scenes footage (above) and there were many wet eyes at the care Abrams is taking with this sacred franchise. Among the things revealed by the footage: Simon Pegg clearly plays a role in the film (the only Star Trek/Star Wars crossover?) and also emphasized just how NOT CG this film really is going to be. (Though we have a feeling Abrams won’t be able to resist a lens flare or two.)

Abrams, Kennedy and Kasdan were joined by the film’s stars: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac. Shortly after them, the bad guys showed up: Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson (who we hadn’t known previously was on the dark side), and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. One of the things they focused on in the Q&A was the importance to the filmmakers to keep up diversity in the cast, in The Force Awakens and all upcoming Star Wars saga and anthology films.

Not much was revealed, Adam Driver was especially loathe to reveal too much. Gleeson let slip that the base his character presides over is called “Starkiller”.

Then Hardwick sneakily brought out Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford, which rather brought the hall of 6500 to their knees. They bantered about their age and the weirdness of being called the Legacy cast, and Fisher joked about how Star Wars has become a right of passage in families, where parents now strategize when to introduce their kids to the series saying “If we don’t like the same character, I’m not going to like my kid.” Ford expressed gratitude for the franchise, as it kicked off his career. As far as their roles in the new film, Hamill just said he was glad he didn’t have to go to Tashi to pick up any power converters and Fisher lamented that this film wasn’t more girly, suggesting to Abrams there should have been a shopping planet.

As if the audience wasn’t riled up enough, they were walked to an outdoor symphony venue behind the convention center and treated to an exclusive music of Star Wars symphony immediately following the panel, a first in Comic-Con history. It was a true Disney/Star Wars event with everyone receiving a free light saber and ending with an impressive fireworks display. Those of us there won’t soon forget the spectacle and the momentous feeling of the start to a new era of our most beloved franchise.

Stephen King‘s highly anticipated “time-travel thriller” series has already cast James Franco as the show’s lead alongside several other actors. Now it seems Warner Brothers Television has found an additional performer to serve among Franco’s foils in the J.J. Abrams-directed series. Former Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight has joined the Hulu event series 11/22/63 as Johnny Clayton, a salesman in 1960s Texas struggling to move past his estranged wife Sadie Dunhill (Sarah Gadon) despite her developing relationship with Franco’s Jake Epping. The character of Clayton will ultimately pose a threat to exposing Franco’s characters secrets.

11/22/63 is based on a bestseller of King’s from 2011 in which a high school English teacher discovers a portal that transports him back to September 9th, 1958. The teacher attempts to use the portal to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy, while balancing love, and struggling against a course of historical events that does not want to be altered. The Hulu series is expected to premiere in 2016; Chris Cooper, Brooklyn Sudano, George MacKay, Leon Rippy, Lucy Fry and Daniel Webber have all been set for roles on the show.

“There has been an awakening – have you felt it?” Thus begins the all-new teaser for J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It’s a short teaser, that debuted in a select few theaters today and iTunes, but true fans will take whatever morsels Abrams gives us. Not much plot was revealed, and the teaser focuses on the tension around the force apparently waking up. The teaser focuses on the tech goodies, a new droid on a rolling ball, stormtroopers preparing for battle, a lightsaber that looks like a sword with a hilt.

We do get a slight glimpse at newcomers John Boyega and Daisy Riddle. They join Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, and original cast members Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew.

What fans will undoubtedly be amped most about is some awesome action by the Millenium Falcon. This is the seventh film in the franchise and will take place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will hit theaters December of 2015. One more year guys, one more year.

Leave a comment, tell us your thoughts.

We have all seen the buzz in our news feeds. The new J.J. Abrams Star Wars baby has been dubbed Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Every bit of news learned about this upcoming foray into a much beloved world of science fiction is received with either dismay, or frothing, barely-tethered anticipation. But can we glean anything from the title for what we could expect to happen in Episode VII?

If the story lines from similarly titled movies can give us any clues, we might be able to deduct some potential plot themes here.

Since it is supposed to be set 30 years later it could be something like 1990’s Awakenings. In an abandoned Rebel Hospital, Old Luke stumbles upon a ward full of Jedi Knights, catatonic since Anakin “succumbed to his emotions,” and must use the force to slowly help them regain consciousness.  R2D2 and C-3PO serve as nurses in rehabilitating the Jedi. This might be where Andy Serkis comes in as the main comatose Jedi, naturally.

Of course, it might be something more akin to a Disney film — since they most definitely have their gloved hands deep in this mix — so we might see a Snow White or Sleeping Beauty reference with Leia finally tapping into the force and getting zapped into a deep sleep only to be awoken by her true love. Obviously after a failed first attempt by Luke, Han would do the honors, surrounded by a dozen Ewoks (Warwick Davis as Wicket, for one). Unless she’d just as soon kiss a Wookie. Since we know Peter Mayhew has signed on again as Chewy, that’s a distinct possibility.

It might also be feeling a little competitive with Amityville: The Awakening, set for 2015, in which case we could very well see our daring heroes trapped in the decrepit shell of a Death Star, haunted by past dead stormtroopers, with the Solo family experiencing spooky phenomena. Honestly, as long as they’re not planning on delving into any awkward sexual themes between the Solo children, as played by any of the numerous already cast young and beautiful Unknowns, and set on a deserted planet a la The Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012), I think we will all be somewhat contented campers.  Not that George Lucas hasn’t been known to cover that topic pretty thoroughly (we’re looking at you, Luke).

In any case, as always, both Abrams and Disney are forces to be reckoned with when it comes to turning old stories on their heads.  We might, as yet, know nothing.

Morgan Spurlock, who is best known for his Super Size Me documentary that shook up the fast food industry in 2004, is determined to do the same for the advertising industry in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold? Not quite. The film offers more of a satirical look into product placement. He interviews people that go into how much product placements have gotten out of hand in TV shows, while they shameless zoom in on Spurlock drinking a beverage from a main sponsor.

His goal is to make a documentary by transparently showing the process behind getting corporate sponsorship for product placement. He wants to make a “docbuster” of a film with a ton of different sponsors that fund the film but at the same time it is a direct shot at selling out. The whole point is to be contradictory which that makes it interesting and at the same time questions the ethics behind it.

Spurlock gets some help from a bunch of different agency’s that try to help guide him along the process of getting corporate sponsorships. One of the first places he goes is to figure out what is his brand personality. They ask him a bunch of personal questions and eventually tell him he has a playful and mindful personality. That paradox is the exact fundamentals of the film so that came as no surprise.

After finding out what his brand personality is, he decides to start cold calling and pitching his film. He calls several companies such as; Ford, Red Bull, Guess Jeans, Nike and Nintendo but they all end up with the same answer, not interested. Some of their responses are quite funny such as when one said that nudity would help.

The first few companies that bite on the pitch are smaller companies who are willing to take a chance. The biggest concern they have with the documentary is the potential of negative press they would get, a logical concern to have. However, Spurlock is able to talk them into the positives of being a sponsor in a way that a seasoned salesman pitches clients; smooth talking, cracking jokes and a killer presentation.

Within the first half hour of the documentary, Spurlock gets his first large corporation, POM Wonderful. They not only want to be the official beverage of the film but also the main sponsor. He tells them that would cost a million dollars and they agree but not without some strings attached.

POM Wonderful’s contract states before he receives the money he needs to complete certain requirements. Some of them are; the film needs to be shown on over 250 screens worldwide, sell at least 500,000 DVDs, generate 600,000,000 media impressions and make more than $10,000,000 at the box office. Those are just from POM Wonderful’s contract, most of the others have some requirements as well.

One common requirement is that the brands wanted final approval of the film. This worries Spurlock into thinking he will not get to make the film he wanted to make because they will not all agree with the final film. He seeks help from his own lawyer, a former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, Noam Chomsky and even Ralph Nader on what his options are. When asked if there is any truth to advertising Nader responses, “Yes. Advertisements that say they are lying are telling the truth.” But Nader’s witty responses do not end there, when asked where we should go if we do not want to see advertisements he says, “To sleep.”

Next he sits down and interviews some a few big name film directors such as J.J. Abrams and Quentin Tarantino about how important sponsors are now days in film. A few of them agree that if product placement is done in a clever way then no harm no foul, everyone is selling out to someone. But there are still purists who believe in the art of film and about story telling not story selling. One such purist that was mentioned was P.T. Anderson, my favorite director.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold ends up achieving what Morgan Spurlock wanted from the very beginning, a transparent look at product placements with product placements all over. The paradox ingeniously plays into itself and while he is half-jokingly pitching an idea about a shampoo brand, he is in-fact by nature pitching it to film audiences.

While the idea behind the film is smart and is genuinely interesting it is by no means groundbreaking. Most of us are aware to some extend of product placement in films and TV shows so the gist of the film is known. It briefly dives into the moral dilemma of what it means to sell out but the issue treads lightly. The only real obstacle he faces in the film is how to fulfill contract agreements. It does, however, provide some interesting information on what sponsors care and do not care about in a playful make-fun-of-yourself way.

Super 8 is a summer blockbuster film by director J.J. Abrams that contains obvious hints of Spielberg throughout. The film is both entertaining and predictable when a group of adolescent filmmakers stumble upon a magical discovery. It is everything you would expect from a summer blockbuster; it’s exciting, entertaining, mindless and the plot could have used a little work.

Super 8 takes place in a small Ohio town set in 1979, with 12 year old Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) make an 8mm zombie movie for a local film festival. Those two have a few other friends to join them that are committed to filmmaking as well. Together they try keeping it mostly a secret from their parents as best as they can.

Somehow the group of boys gets the attractive girl, Alice (Elle Fanning), to star in their film but she is reluctant when she figures out Joe is a part of it. This is because she is driving her father’s vehicle without a license and Joe’s father is a deputy. Joe is at first shocked that she even knew who he was and tells her that he will never tell his father about it.

Once they arrive at the train station where they are going to shoot the next scene, they begin to setup lights, get makeup on and rehearse the lines. I must say it was truly impressive for a group of 12 year olds. As they are reading their lines everyone is taken aback at how wonderful Alice conveys emotion through her lines. She does so in a way that is brilliant because you can tell she is acting like she is acting.

The scene suddenly gets a huge break when they hear a train coming on the tracks next to them. Charles realizes that this opportunity will add a great amount of production value to the film if they can use it in the scene. So Charles rushes everyone into position and starts filming.

Everything goes as planned and the scene nears the end as the train is passing until Joe witnesses something odd. He spots a pickup truck getting on the tracks and heading towards the train at full speed. The train and pickup collide head-on that derails the train and setting off an enormous explosion. The camera gets knocked over on its side during all the commotion but continues to film the entire thing.

The group slowly wanders around the site looking at all the train parts on fire when they spot the truck that caused the accident. They approach the truck cautiously and find that the person behind the wheel of the truck had a schedule of the train. The man who is barely alive tells them not to tell anyone else about the accident.

You cannot read any reviews of this film without someone comparing this to a Steven Spielberg film but it is easy to see why. First of all, Spielberg is an executive producer of this film. Second of all, the film contains a ton of classic Spielberg elements such as; having a small courageous group of friends who all vary in different talents that are slightly beyond normal for their age. In my head I could not stop comparing this to a modern day version of The Goonies. It did lack one element that Spielberg seemed to always nail, an amazing original soundtrack.

Oddly enough, I was least impressed with the main character’s acting; Joel seemed to lack emotion that Elle and Riley expressed. Elle Fanning’s performance stood out the most for me but knowing that she is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning, it is not surprising she has so much talent. I would be shocked if she did not start getting some larger roles and later down the road pick up an Oscar for one of them.

I very much enjoyed the first two-thirds of Super 8 because it was focused much more on the group of kids trying to make a film together and less on the monster itself. However, the film seemed to abandon that in the last third of the film. This made it seem like the whole idea of them making a film for a festival seem like an afterthought by showing it in the ending credits only instead of referencing it again beforehand. The film is called Super 8 after all. I wonder if they won the local film festival?