WONDER WOMAN

At Sunday's session at Wizard World Long Beach, er, Los Angeles, wunderkind Joss Whedon talked about how he got involved with Themyscria's Finest. "Joel Silver was like, 'you should do 'Wonder Woman,'' and I was like, 'no I don't think so.' But I was thinking about it, so I sent him a memo, saying 'I'm not going to do it, but if I did ..." Then everybody else saw it and was like "you liiiike her." So I really do, and I really am, and I'm gonna make 'Wonder Woman.'" Immediately, some of his "Serenity" cast members raised their hands. "In the sweater," Whedon nodded, referring to actress Jewel Staite. "Can I be in your 'Wonder Woman' movie?" she asked shyly. "I'll love you forever!" Whedon responded, "If Morgan Freeman says no, you are second on the list. Hmm, where will I find a dark haired beauty?" To his left, curvy, raven haired actress Morena Baccarin stared off innocently.

When asked about the Lynda Carter TV series, Whedon said, "I was not a fan of the 'Wonder Woman' show. I was not a non-fan, I don't remember picketing it. It wasn't my cup of milk. But I don't think she was as strong as she's gonna be."

Finally, Entertainment Weekly talked to Whedon about the costume. "'She represents something absolutely pure,' says the 'Buffy' creator, who says his Amazon will not, repeat not, wear 'star-spangled panties' a la Lynda Carter's TV incarnation. Whedon now sees it as a match made in fanboy heaven. 'When I was mulling this over, my friend said, 'Joss, look at your freakin' resume. You have two things on it: wonder and woman. That's all you write!'"

KILLRAVEN

According to Variety (subscription required), Sony Pictures is in talks with Marvel Entertainment to develop comic book character Killraven into a sci-fi motion picture. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan is in negotiations to adapt the property for film.

SIN CITYComingson.net talked to Robert Rodriguez, who easily said he'd be up to work with the property even further. "Yeah, I would do another Sin City. We'll see how the first one does, and if they want another one, we'll do another one."

Also, Sci Fi Wire caught up with the Texan director, who defended the violence in the film. It is so over the top and stylized, like in the book, that's what helped temper it," Rodriguez said. "It was so black and white, so abstract, so representative, that it's ... easier to watch, I think, than if ... it was realistically rendered. It's the tone of it, I think, that really changes it. I never got any flak for Desperado . ... At a time when people would criticize guys like Quentin [Tarantino] for violence in films for cutting an ear off, off camera, I was mowing down people in my movies and no one ever said anything because of the tone. I think that's the same thing for this, that as violent as it is, like in the comic, it felt tempered by the stylization. And that's why we didn't have any trouble with the MPAA [which gave the movie an R rating] or anything, because it was so stylized that they just went, 'This is all right. ... You don't have to cut a frame of it.' Young people shouldn't see it. It's a rated R movie. ... I'm not making it for that [family] audience. ... I made this an R. I didn't try and trick people into making it a PG-13. ... If parents let their kids in, that's their decision. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to change how we're going to make the movie. Frank made his thing in a vacuum, ... and I wanted to do the exact same thing for cinema and suffer the consequences. If people don't go see it because it's R, that's fine. It's not appealing to the mass audience. It's really just about making the movie we want to make and telling the story that we want to do."

Finally, Comics Continuum has some photos of Sin City toys shown at the weekend's 'con.

HELLBOY 2

According to the Hollywood Reporter, actress Selma Blair has been confirmed for the Mike Mignola-minded sequel.

PUNISHER 2IESB caught up with charismatic actor Thomas Jane as he prowled the floor of the Long Beach Convention Center, and cornered him about reloading as Frank Castle. "Thomas Jane told the IESB that the Punisher sequel script is currently being worked on and they expect production to start in two months. Location wise it looks like Tampa is out and New York is in."

THE FLASH/DEADPOOL

Actor Ryan Reynolds told fans at Wizard World Los Angeles, "We had a meeting last night about it and he's writing it right now. If Warner Bros. decides to greenlight it, I will be playing the role." He also implied that Fox has shown an interest in a movie about Wade Wilson. "I would love to play that role," Reynolds said. "The Merc with a Mouth ... it's like that's the reason I stepped out of my mother, to play that role. So someday. Hopefully."

JUSTICE LEAGUE

At Wizard World Los Angeles, actress Morena Baccarin mentioned that she'd gotten the role to give voice to the Black Canary on the Gail Simone-penned episode "Double Date."

GHOST RIDERSuperhero Hype is reporting that Digital Pictures Melbourne has taken delivery of two Sony SRW-5000 HDCAM-SR VTR decks as part of the company's move to use digital technology in the creative processes of feature film production, starting with "Ghost Rider." "The movie is being shot on 35mm film at Central City Studios and some plates are being captured using a Sony HDC-950 camera," said John Fleming, General Manager, Digital Pictures Melbourne.

SUPERMAN

Moviehole claims to have a huge plot spoiler for the film.

SMALLVILLE

Speaking of the Last Son of Krypton, the dueling fan sites are at it again. A pair of twins were used in the upcoming episiode "Ageless," and their mother posted a note about it on their website. "I had the opportunity to meet John Schneider aka Bo Duke! He's a super nice guy. We had a short chat about kids after he introduced himself. Then I met Tom Welling. Again, a super nice guy. During run through, he dropped the doll on the floor to freak me out. Yeah -- very funny! Okay, it was a little funny once I realized it wasn't part of the actual scene. haha Libby seemed rather smitten by him. When we were filming as she stopped being fussy the second he picked her up. I also had a brief chat with Kristen Kreuk, who is also really nice. Annette O'Toole, yet another wonderfully friendly actress, and I had a chat about parenting and how cute the babies are."

They also have a scan of an article on actress Kristin Kreuk in the Canadian edition of TV Guide.

Meanwhile, Devoted to Smallville has added some new promotional photos for season four, and fresh spoilers for the forthcoming episode "Forever."

Finally, actor Michael Rosenbaum gave up some slight spoilers to the New York Daily News.

ERRATA

In yesterday's Comic Wire story on the DC universe (we did a lot of coverage this week, look around), we stated that creator Mark Waid had built a door out of Legos. He wrote in with a minor correction: "Actually, you left a key (no pun intended) word out of that declaration -- I built an entire Fortress door out of Legos." We can only respond with one word: cool. A Fortress of Solitude door is way cooler, and way funnier, than a plain old door. Thanks for the correction, Mssr. Waid.

SANDY, CAN WE ROLL THAT CLIP?

Eight hours sleep in four days ... that's no good. If you have the scoop on anything related to comic book movies, TV adaptations or just want to give us a briefcase full of cash, no questions asked, drop us a line and let's coordinate. You can choose an alias if you'd like, or be mentioned by name -- we honor requests for anonymity. Broadcasting live from Los Angeles, this is your humble scribe Hannibal Tabu saying thanks for your time and indulgence, no I can't tell you the best 'con stories on this site, and "don't blame me, I'm drunk too!"