Marvel Live Blogs From Comic-Con: Marvel Studios Panel

Tonight, 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. PST.

Is Mark Ruffalo going to be Bruce Banner in Joss Whedon's "The Avengers?"

The Hollywood Reporter Interviews Guillermo del Toro Concerning The Haunted Mansion

Co-writing with Matthew Robbins and producing, though he may eventually decide to direct.

No release date in sight, and both Disney and del Toro expect the development process to be long.

DisneylandLive: Untethered Tinker Bell Coming to Disneyland?

I would ignore this story, but it's gathering some traction in fan circles, so let's be completely clear about what the story says concerning Disney developing a Tinker Bell animatronic capable of flight:

...

Nothing.

DisneylandLive quotes a MIT press release touting a computerized control system that allows a foam glider to touch down on a wire, like a bird. It was developed by MIT Associate Professor Russ Tedrake and graduate student Rick Cory.

The leap is that Cory is taking a job developing advanced robotics at Disney (Imagineering, presumably, though the release doesn't specify). Cory is quoted in the article saying:

"The air force [sic] wants an airplane that can land on a power line, and Disney wants a flying Tinker Bell that can land on a lantern. But the technology's similar."

That's the money shot?

I don't question for a second that Disney would eventually be interested in creating a Tinker Bell character capable of realistic flight. They've dabbled with prototypes in the past. But this gruel is a little too thin.

Fan Has Ridden Indiana Jones Adventure More Than 1,800 Times

We should all be so lucky as to find something in this world that makes us happy, but if I wanted to be hired by Disney this is not the way I would go about doing it.

Scaffolding Up Around Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland

That was fast.

New Tron: Legacy Trailer

I never thought that in a million years there would be a Tron sequel, much less one costing $200 million. It looks awesome.

Comic-Con: Guillermo Del Toro Reboots Haunted Mansion

Pretty crazy news. It'll be a family film, but he's promising it'll be scary. The main character is going to be the Hatbox Ghost. Of course it's going to be in 3D.

And about the 2003 original?

"We are not returning Eddie Murphy's calls," he quipped.

Sounds great, but does this mean Universal has decided not to move forward with any of the myriad of projects he has under development there?

GeekTyrant: PIXAR Changes Mind on Cars 2, Moving to Planes?

There has been a lot of egregious reporting when it comes to Planes, but GeekTyrant's story has to be the worst.

Cars 2 is, of course, still in production and on schedule for its 24 June 2011 release. Planes is not a PIXAR project. It's being handled by Disney Toon Studios in Glendale and Prana in India, the same studios that most recently produced the Tinkerbell films.

It's probably true that Planes is set in the same universe as Cars, but I don't know.

Concept Art for Shanghai Disneyland From Walt Disney Family Museum

Pretty boilerplate stuff. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Laughingplace: Disneyland Statement Regarding Alice in Wonderland Closure

The temporary measures sound less than delightful.

Bloomberg: OLC May Work With Disney on Shanghai Park

Late to this, but if it ends up happening Hong Kong Disneyland (and the Hong Kong government) get royally screwed.

Jim Hill on the Changing Plans for WDW's Fantasyland

The original budget for the Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom was somewhere around $750 million. The new figure has been whittled down to ~$300 million and counting.

My understanding is that Staggs took one look at original plans and balked. What is there to do for anyone who doesn't care to color with the Princesses? TDO's panicked response was to change the name of the carousel to include Prince Charming. 

Pixie Hollow is dead, dead, dead. 

My guess is that the plans for Fantasyland will be significantly scaled back, Mickey's Toontown Fair, which was supposed to close way back when the first walls went up, will stick around indefinitely. There will be talk of a Phase II which will never, ever happen.