Hi-yo, Silver! We're off to Comic-Con

SAN DIEGO -- Johnny Depp made a splash at Comic-Con, and he wasn't even there.

About 6,000 fans at the San Diego Convention Center Thursday got the first look at The Lone Ranger, which stars Depp as Tonto.

He wears long hair and full-face makeup to portray the Lone Ranger's Native American companion. The brief clip hinted at the character's craftiness, with one scene showing him riding beneath a speeding train. It also offered a peek at Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger and Helena Bonham Carter as a dame of interest, amid a backdrop of trains crossing the Western desert. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the film.

Disney unveiled the footage at the conclusion of its panel presentation that included glimpses of the video-game romp Wreck-It Ralph. It won't hit theatres until November, but fans at Comic-Con got to see 10 minutes of it on Thursday.

The Disney Animation film takes viewers inside the world of vintage arcade games, where characters such as Q-Bert, Clyde the Ghost from Pac-Man and Kano from Mortal Kombat consider their video-game gigs day jobs, and after 30 years, Wreck-It Ralph is sick of his.

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There's no scarecrow, tin man or Dorothy in Sam Raimi's Land of Oz. No ruby slippers or Toto, too.

Raimi offered a crowd at the Comic-Con fan convention a sneak peek at his prequel Oz: The Great and Powerful, due in theatres next year.

The maker of Spider-Man and its two sequels told fans that his film is the story of how the ruler of Emerald City came to Oz, so characters and many other familiar facets of the classic 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz do not appear.

The film stars James Franco as a Kansas carnival magician whose hot-air balloon is blown to the magical realm by a tornado. Raimi says Franco's Oz is a selfish womanizer who's forced to become a nobler man in Oz.

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Tim Burton knows what it's like to be a boy with a dead dog.

The filmmaker came to Comic-Con Thursday to show footage of Frankenweenie, an expanded take on his 1984 short film of the same name.

The film tells the story of a boy who brings his beloved dog back to life after the pet dies in an accident, using a kid's variation of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.

"It stemmed from having a dead dog when I was a child and that sort of special first relationship you have with a pet," said Burton, who later mixed in his love of monster movies such as Dracula and Frankenstein. The feature-length version is done in black and white through stop-motion animation using puppets meticulously shot one frame at a time. It hits theatres Oct. 5.

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Could there be any doubt over what the first two words would be out of Arnold Schwarzenegger's mouth at Comic-Con?

"I'm back," said the former California governor, who has leaped back to acting with a series of upcoming action roles including The Expendables 2, due out Aug. 17.

Schwarzenegger joined fellow stars Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Randy Couture on a panel to preview footage for Comic-Con.

Quoting his famous line from the Terminator films, Schwarzenegger said that after eight years away from action films while governor, he took some ribbing from his co-stars. But after the verbal sparring of state government, Schwarzenegger found he was able to pick up where he left off as an action star fairly fast, doing fun things like taking out a knife and killing a guy and cutting his head off.

"You wish you could do some of those things when you're in politics, but you know, you can't," Schwarzenegger said.

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About 6,000 fans of The Twilight Saga were treated to a surprise look at the first seven minutes of the final film instalment, Breaking Dawn -- Part 2, which hits theatres in November, showing Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) adjusting to her new life as a vampire.

Many slept overnight for a chance to attend the panel presentation on Thursday, which featured appearances by the stars of the vampire-romance series, including Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

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The Twilight blood-suckers aren't the only big-screen vampires at Comic-Con. Adam Sandler's putting the bite on audiences, too.

On Thursday, Sony Pictures previewed footage of Sandler's animated comedy Hotel Transylvania, in which he provides the voice of the grand-daddy of vampires, Dracula. The film opens Sept. 28.

It's the followup to a rare flop for Sandler, whose string of hits came to an end this summer with the dud That's My Boy.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 14, 2012 G2