As the anti-Robin movement marshals its forces against the character’s possible inclusion in the Batman movies, Jeph Loeb — writer of The Long Halloween and Dark Victory – speaks up for the Boy Wonder.

Robin can work in the film universe, Loeb tells MTV News: “Take the time to tell the story properly. There is a story of Dick Grayson and how he becomes Robin that is extremely moving and very helpful.”

The key, he says, is to build the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. And don’t put Grayson in costume too soon.

“I wouldn’t let him become Robin until the third act, if that,” Loeb says. “I think that’s the other problem when you tell that story is that there’s this rush to put him in a costume by the end of the first 20 minutes and in that case I think it’s a disaster.”

Acclaimed director David Fincher is teaming with Blur Studio and Dark Horse to turn Eric Powell’s pulpy paranormal series The Goon into a CG-animated feature film.

The announcement, which is a light on details, was made on Powell’s official website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Powell will write the screenplay.

No studio is attached. However, the trade paper says that Dark Horse, which has a first-look deal with Universal, is hoping to develop the movie in-house before shopping it to a studio.

Created in 1999, The Goon centers on the muscle-bound title character and his sidekick Franky, who fight the Zombie Priest and his minions, cannibal hobos, and countless other supernatural creatures.

It’s been a couple of months since the Internet was last gripped by “Robin Panic,” the fear that the Boy Wonder will appear in the rebooted Batman movie franchise.

The last outbreak was triggered by rumors that the third film will rely heavily on the miniseries The Long Halloween and Dark Victory for its source material. Now fast-forward two months to this current round of sidekickophobia, sparked by a writer at JoBlo.com … reading a two-month-old rumor.

But, hey, it’s an evergreen topic, right? Much like Sturdy’s ages-old arguments against the character’s inclusion: Robin isn’t cool, the presumption of pedophilia, homoeroticism, Joel Schumacher, etc. It must strike a chord, though, because the comments thread is up to six pages, and the discussion has moved on to other sites.

At Cinematical, Erik Davis responds to Sturdy’s assertion that, “if you got together all of today’s best writers and filmmakers and locked them in a room, they wouldn’t be able to come up with a Robin storyline that worked”:

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Here’s something that may be news to Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Warner Bros. — and, well, most everybody else: Mark Millar is planning a Superman movie for 2011.

Sort of. Maybe.

In an interview last week with the Scottish Daily Record, the Wanted co-creator and unrepentant Superman fan said:

“Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to reinvent Superman for the 21st century.

“I’ve been planning this my entire life. I’ve got my director and producer set up, and it’ll be 2011. This is how far ahead you have to think.

“The Superman brand is toxic after that last movie lost $200 million, but in 2011 we’re hoping to restart it.

“Sadly I can’t say who the director is, but we may make it official by Christmas.

“But fingers crossed it could work out, that would be my lifetime’s dream.”

Millar, as he’s wont to do, then clarified the item on his Millarworld message board:

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Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights to the Image Shadowline sci-fi series Hiding in Time for Dan Lin (Terminator Salvation) to produce.

Beau Thorne (Max Payne) will pen the adaptation.

The 2007 miniseries, written by Christopher Long and penciled by Ryan Winn, is set in the near-future, where the Witness Protection Program uses time travel to relocate people. But when an assassin begins finding and killing witnesses, a government technician must go back in time to help save them.

The Dark Knight marketing machine just doesn’t stop.

(Via ComingSoon.net)

I groused yesterday about the obnoxious website watermark on the new posters for Punisher: War Zone. Today Lionsgate has more widely distributed the one-sheets, so now I’ll happily post one image and link to the rest.

Punisher: War Zone opens on Dec. 5.

The summer of the superhero movie continues Friday with the release Will Smith’s latest summertime epic, Hancock, co-starring Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron. The Hollywood red carpet premiere is this evening Monday, June 30th at 9:30 p.m. EST/6:30 p.m. PST) and courtesy of Sony, you can watch the event live streaming right here on Blog@Newsarama after the jump.

The live streaming webcasts begins at 6 p.m. Pacific and until then you can watch the extended Hancock trailer in the player below.

And if you can’t watch this evening’s live webcast, look for a wrap-up show of the premiere event Tuesday, July 1 at 8 a.m.

And look for the main site’s Hancock review Tuesday as well…

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Matthew Fox will star in movie version of Oni’s Billy Smoke

Matthew Fox (Lost, Speed Racer) is in negotiations to star in Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Billy Smoke, the upcoming Oni Press graphic novel by B. Clay Moore and Eric Kim.

Set to be published next year, Billy Smoke centers on an elite hit man who’s nearly killed during a botched assignment. He then realizes his only way to redemption is to rid the world of all assassins.

Moore is best known as the writer of Hawaiian Dick and Leading Man, both of which are being developed as films — the former at New Line, the latter at Universal. Kim illustrated Love As A Foreign Language, also from Oni.

Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road is producing Billy Smoke with Eric Ginter of Closed on Mondays Entertainment, Oni’s film arm.

The Ticker

• New promotional media have been released for Hellboy II: The Golden Army: a third trailer, a featurette, and an animated prologue written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. [Collider]

• Variety’s John Anderson gives Hellboy II a (mostly) glowing review, calling it “the hipster’s hit of the summer.” He doesn’t like Luke Goss as the villainous Prince Nuada, though: “Goss embodies all the menace of Keanu Reeves.” [Variety]

• New one-sheets have been released for Punisher: War Zone. I’d post the actual images, but I’m protesting the obnoxious website watermarks. [IGN.com]

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According to Variety, Frank Miller is working on a follow-up to 300, his comic from Dark Horse that was adapted into a movie last year — and Legendary Pictures confirms they’re developing it into a movie.

Unfortunately they’re short on details about the story, which should prove challenging based on what happens at the end of the first one. So this one could be a prequel or spin-off, they hypothesize.

More from Variety:

“The vision of Frank Miller’s universe that Zack Snyder brought to the screen in ‘300′ is unlike anything ever seen before,” said Legendary topper Thomas Tull. “We want to be certain that the story originates with Frank and be as compelling as the first.”

Another “300″ has been rumored from the start, but last week Snyder and the original producing team stoked a frenzy online when they talked about it at the Saturn Awards.

Snyder has yet to confirm his involvement, as he’d rather wait and see what the story’s going to be first. Both Snyder and Miller are pretty busy on Hollywood sets these days, with Miller directing The Spirit and a Sin City sequel in the works, and Snyder focused on Watchmen and Guardians of Ga’Hoole.

The Umbrella Academy, Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s cult-hit miniseries, could be making its way to the big screen.

In a video interview with IESB at the Saturn Awards, Dark Horse Entertainment President Mike Richardson reveals the title is among the projects the company is “hoping to set up soon, possibly at Universal — we hope at Universal.”

Dark Horse and Universal Pictures announced a first-look deal in March that gives the studio access to all of the publisher’s properties, as well as any material Dark Horse might acquire and want to develop into a movie.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite six-issue miniseries debuted in September. Described by some — including me — as The X-Men meets The Royal Tenenbaums, the comic focuses on a dysfunctional group of disbanded superheroes who reunite after the death of their adoptive father.

Way is best known as the frontman of My Chemical Romance.

Wright’s Ant-Man ‘not really an out-and-out comedy’

Edgar Wright, director of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Shaun of the Dead, says that while his adaptation of Marvel’s Ant-Man will contain humor, it won’t be a spoof.

“It’s not really an out-and-out comedy,” Wright tells PiQ magazine. “I think some people assume that it must be a spoof, but it’s not really. I guess it’s as funny as something like Iron Man is, it’s on that level of entertainment, really. It’s a big, high concept, special effects comic book adaptation, and very character-led and we found a way of… I guess in a similar way to Iron Man, the thing that worked with that and hopefully will with this is that it’s a different way of seeing a superhero origin, because you’ve seen so many of them and we really tried to figure out a fresh take on that story. So it’s definitely a Marvel film but it’s got a little twist on it in terms of the way that it plays out.”

Although IMDB lists Ant-Man’s release date as 2010, it’s not on Marvel’s official slate for that year; Thor and an Iron Man sequel are. However, if Jon Favreau’s recent comments are accurate, Ant-Man could show up in the planned Avengers feature in 2011.

Wall-E will win the weekend, but Wanted should hold its own

Disney-Pixar’s Wall-E undoubtedly will dominate the weekend box office, but Variety reports that Wanted is tracking well, and could debut as high as $40 million.

It also could eat into the audience for The Incredible Hulk, which had a domestic gross of $104.2 million as of Wednesday.

Reviews for Wanted, loosely based on the miniseries by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, have been mostly positive — 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer — praising director Timur Bekmambetov’s visuals over the actual script.

(The poster above, found at IMP Awards, is a new one from the U.K. I like it much better than those released in the United States.)

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USA Today reports that Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Sin City) will produce an adaptation of Red Sonja starring his fiancee Rose McGowan. Longtime Rodriguez associate Douglas Aarniokoski will direct the film, planned for release in 2010.

Created in 1973 Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for use in the Conan comics then published by Marvel, Red Sonja is a sword-wielding heroine in a mesh bikini who has pledged not to lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat. Dynamite Entertainment currently publishes the Red Sonja comics.

Rodriguez told USA Today that McGowan, who starred in his Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse, brought him the Red Sonja script.

“I found it very entertaining,” he said. “Sonja was strong, smart, cunning — just about everything she’d have to be to survive.”

According to Rodriguez, the origin story takes its cues from the Red Sonja comic books, and from the works of Conan creator Robert E. Howard.

Red Sonja last appeared on the big screen in 1985, in the poorly received adaptation starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

– C.B. Cebulski teases two Spider-Man panels by Junko Mizuno.

– ComicMix talks to Neil Kleid about writing Dungeons & Dragons comics.

– Hero Happy Hour on British TV? Not quite …

– DC and Marvel don’t want to talk to Don MacPherson about subscriptions.

– Curt Holman compares Spider-Man 3 to the recent The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon.

– Funky Winkerbean does a Tales of Suspense homage. And they do it very well.

Just in case Batman: The Dark Knight requires more promotion, Warner Bros. has released a full gallery of photos — some of which we haven’t seen before — and posters.

The movie opens on July 18.

Related: The end credits of The Dark Knight will include a tribute to Heath Ledger

Early reviews swoon for Dark Knight – and The Joker

Batman: The Dark Knight doesn’t open for another three weeks, but the first reviews are starting to appear. And they’re incredibly positive.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine gives the sequel three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing it as “raw and elemental,” and marveling at how director Chris Nolan “brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art.”

And at AICN, a reviewer calls Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker “truly one for the books.” That’s something echoed by Travers, who dubs the late actor “mad-crazy-blazing brilliant” in the role.

On that note, Nolan talks to Wired a bit about his vision for The Joker:

The director wasn’t interested in plumbing the murky origins of the Joker himself — the Clown Prince is more a Loki-like force of chaos. “He’s like the shark in Jaws,” Nolan explains. “The Joker cuts through the film, he’s incredibly important, but he’s not a guy with a backstory. He’s a wild card.”

It’s a good article that focuses primarily on the technical aspects of filmmaking, and Nolan’s desire to to shun digital effects: “Anything you notice as technology reminds you that you’re in a movie theater.”

In other Dark Knight, and Joker, news, the viral-marketing campaign continues for the film, which opens in North America on July 18.

Who watches the length of Watchmen?

Watchmen director Zack Snyder says he’s editing down the first director’s cut of the film, which now runs about three hours long — and seems to indicate he’s at odds with the studio over length.

“The balancing act for me is, you want the movie as tight as possible for, I don’t know why, I guess so people can enjoy it,” Snyder tells SciFi Wire. “But for me, the hardest part is just, when is it not Watchmen anymore? I don’t think that’s a danger, but it’s a thing that I am trying to be the gatekeeper of while other forces conspire to say, ‘No. Length, length, length. Playability.’ Whatever the hell that means.”

He goes on to say how everyone who made the movie loves it, and how wonderful the experience was. But then:

And so then you come back from that experience, and you go to the studio, and the studio’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t love it like we do. Right? It’s like just a movie, like, ‘Oh, we have this movie, Watchmen, and it’s f–king long.’ Like, ‘What are these superheroes? They look crazy.’ So you have that experience. So for me, right now, I’m in the middle of that. So for me to go to Comic-Con is to get a chance to go back to people that love it.”

Watchmen, based on the miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is set to open on March 6, 2009.

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Just when you thought we’d seen the last of the posters for Batman: The Dark Knight, Comic Book Movie reveals a new one spotlighting The Joker.

The Dark Knight opens on July 18.

Although Batman: Gotham Knight doesn’t have its premiere until this weekend at Wizard World Chicago, MTV’s Movies Blog has a five-minute sneak peek of the animated anthology.

The direct-to-DVD feature hits stores on July 8.

Wolverine and X-Men cartoon will debut at Comic-Con

Although the new Wolverine and the X-Men animated series won’t air on Nicktoons until early 2009, the three-part pilot will get an early premiere on July 26 at Comic-Con International.

In the cartoon, an attack on the mansion leads to the disappearance of Prof. Xavier and Jean Grey, and the disbanding of the X-Men. But after Emma Frost locates a comatose Xavier in the care of Magneto in Genosha, the professor telepathically orders Wolverine to reassemble the X-Men to save the world from The Sentinels and the Brotherhood of Mutants.

A new trailer is available at Marvel.com.

Does ’some legal trouble’ endanger future Superman movies?