The Warner corporate suits told us about the plans for this year's DVD releases, Warren Beatty told a few stories about meeting Rita Hayworth back in the day (and he shamelessly hit on the two female representatives from Amazon and Best Buy), and Richard Schickel showed off 10 minutes from his in-progress, five-hour documentary about the history of Warner Bros.

However, the real highlight was the party in the Warner Bros. Museum afterwards. Of course, we geeked out and headed straight to the superhero junk, like Wonder Woman's costume (with dress cape!) from the television years, although the bright blues have faded to purple. Plus we never realized just how generous that crotch was until we got close. It almost outshines Batman's codpiece, seen above.

They also had Superman's suit from Lois & Clark on display, as well as the Batman Begins batsuit and Superman's duds from Superman Returns. Did you know those super-boots have the S-shield on the heel? We didn't. Plus there are lines of satin-like piping running down the arms of the costume, which we also didn't know about. If only the public knew! It could have saved the film.

We also spoke with McG who talked about his upcoming Terminator Salvation film. He says he "wants to do what they did with Batman Begins, which is respectful of the previous movies, but is also something wholly new." He wants the film to explore "Asimov ideas and the Phillip K. Dick ideas. In a day and age where we can clone sheep and give someone a titanium shoulder, science fiction is becoming reality."

He also wouldn't spill on who his dream Terminator would be, although he admitted he loves Robert Patrick, whom he cast in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and We Are Marshall. He also loves actors like Eric Bana, although "at the end of the day, he's just not the right guy for it. That's a masculine role, and you really need someone to step in and fill those shoes." He promised us a sit-down sometime in the near future, although we could tell he wanted to punch us in the back of the head when we asked him to pose with the Superman Returns suit. Such missed opportunities.

• The budget: According to several different sources, the budget on the film was spiraling out of control. Although we wonder what "out of control" really means, because the effects powerhouse Weta was onboard to do the costumes, and "maybe" some digital effects... if they had time. If a studio waves a $25 million dollar check at you, we have a feeling you'd make the time.
• The rumblings from the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman camps: Christian Bale was not happy that they were making a movie that would feature another Batman in it, saying it'd screw up what they'd been working on as part of the whole Batman Begins / The Dark Knight series. Plus with the constant rumors that Warners wants to return to basics with a new Superman movie (sans Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh), and a Wonder Woman flick, then it doesn't make any sense to populate a big budget film with other actors playing the parts of the Big Three members of the JLA.
• The cast: Director George Miller wanted this film to be huge, which could account for the budget being pushed up, but his cast was cast with a slew of B-list actors, at best, and didn't feature a name that would draw masses of people to the theaters. Did you want to shell out $12 bucks to go see some unknown amateur magician play Batman, or would you rather wait for Christian Bale? That's what we thought.
• The script: Apparently everyone and their mom thought the script needed work, and this will probably be the ultimate reason for the movie coming to a dead stop. Due to the strike, no rewrites can happen no matter how hard anyone begs. It's the kryptonite to this project, and maybe that means we'll get a quality JLA movie sometime down the road. Probably after Marvel releases The Avengers and it rakes in a boatload of cash.

The cake-baking was our first clue that Warners had gone over the edge. The viral marketing for Knight involved following clues on various websites, which led you to even more websites, which led you to phone lines. Eventually you would be led to a bakery, where you could pick up a free mystery cake. Baked inside the cake was a cell phone, and further instructions. Thankfully, no one actually ingested one of the phones. We can just imagine the lawsuits.

Now, they're taking things in a strangely different direction, by sending muddied novelty packages to people like rock-lite star John Mayer, who promptly posted about the thing on his blog. Is it any surprise that Mayer's label is Warner Music? No, no really. So what are they trying to prove by having their own artists shill the goods and drink the kool-aid?

This reminds us about what Kevin Smith said at Comic-Con last year. It's not like Steven Spielberg has to come down to the Con and promise everyone free handjobs to go see Indy IV. People will go see it regardless. The Dark Knight probably falls into that same camp, right? We just wonder what marketing ploy they'll pull off next. Will Heath Ledger come to your house in Joker-wear and spend the night with you? It could still happen.

Cool Stuff: Dark Knight Promotional Items From The Joker [/Film]

With the strike going on, even rewrites can't be made to the film during shooting, so that nixes any possible fixes to the script, which is probably the main reason the studio is slowly turning around and saying, "Hmmm." That's also given them some time to consider the fan reaction to the cast of mostly unknowns and minor leaguers, and possibly to even consider the fact that they don't really want to alienate or piss off Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, especially if there's now a possible third new Batman movie in the works.

We hope this means there's still hope for movies like Terminator 4, which even the producers have mentioned needs a bit of script work. When asked about the script for the movie yesterday, producer James Middleton had said they would have liked to do a rewrite on it but, "We have a very strong script going into production, and it's absolutely viable to shoot." However, given the news about the JLA film, they may reconsider and press pause on this film in order to get the script they want.

Justice League Movie has been delayed! [IESB]

Just because there's going to be a drought of entertainment doesn't mean we want lame crud rushed to the screen for our benefit. Take your time, smell the roses, and give those scripts another read. If they suck, toss 'em. We'll be paying especially close attention to Neuromancer, Ender's Game, The Diamond Age and all the other upcoming sci fi movies. You have been warned!

For those of you who haven't seen it, the Joker (who also is the central baddie in the upcoming movie) goes nuts in this film and dehydrates the world leaders at the United Nations, turning them into piles of dust. Luckily, Batman and Robin save the day, but screw things up a bit when they rehydrate everyone: everyone now speaks the wrong language. Hilarity! The dynamic duo then head off, leaving the leaders to deal with the problem on their own.

I'm surprised it's taken someone this long to do a Batman mashup with the old series, but this one made me laugh pretty hard. Especially the "Like me!" shot. I don't know why I'm finding Cesar Romero speaking with Heath Ledger's voice so amusing, but chalk it up to fumes and crossed wires. If someone could make us a some high-quality Heroes, or better yet, Misfits of Science meets meets X-Men mashups, we might be okay with the current state of television.

Note: hit the links to read these suckers for yourselves. The Alex Tse draft was out there at one point (we saved an older copy), so you might be able to find it by sifting the web. Or you could just put David Hayter's draft in a tumbler and give it a couple of shakes, it's roughly the same experience.

Sam Hamm, 1989: Hamm is probably best-known for writing Batman, also in 1989, so it's probably no small wonder that studios suits thought he'd be perfect to adapt Watchmen for Joel Silver at Fox. However, the resulting script is pretty much utter trash.

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• In the opening scene, the Watchmen try to foil a terrorist scheme in the Statue of Liberty, although it results in the death of their teammate Captain Metropolis, and Lady Liberty gets blown up. Cue the government's war on "masks" and superheroes.
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• The opening credits are described as dozens of watches floating around the screen. Lame.
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• Adrian Veidt has developed smokeless cigarettes that are supposedly non-cancerous, while "cleaning your lungs at the same time." A far cry from the glass pipes in the original, plus it turns out Veidt was actually giving them cancer. Evil.
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• Veidt has also created "Nostalgia," which isn't a perfume like in the comics, but rather an "anti-aging" Dick Clark-esque skin cream.
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• The whole premise is built on the fact that the creation of Dr. Manhattan changed the world forever, so Veidt spends his time and millions trying to create a wormhole in time and space so he can kill Jon Osterman before he becomes the good doc. Dr. Manhattan stops him, but realizes he was right and goes back in time to prevent himself from existing, thereby changing the future.
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• This "new world" (actually, our own present-day New York City) shimmers into existence around Dan (Night Owl), Laurie (Silk Spectre), and Rorschach, leaving them confused and wondering what happened. Fin.
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• Lamest moment: EXT. SEAPORT - THAT MOMENT - DUSK
  Ground level. From the midst of the bewildered CROWD we watch as the OWLSHIP and the CTU talk some serious trash:

  NIGHT OWL OVER OWLSHIP LOUDSPEAKER— "or we'll BLOW YOUR ASSES OUT OF THE SKY!"

  CTU LOUDSPEAKER — "UNREGISTERED CRAFT. IDENTIFY YOURSELF."

  OWLSHIP LOUDSPEAKER — "BABY . . . WE'RE A BLAST FROM THE PAST."

• David Hayter, 2003: Hayter was tapped to write the script once the project ended up at Paramount in turnaround from Fox. Hayter, who also wrote X-Men and X-Men 2 (and plays the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid video games) stayed much closer to the source material than Hamm did, but he took some liberties as well.

• Dr. Manhattan is much more godlike in this script, creating a "magic mirror" for Laurie that can allow her to see any point in her past. This only seems to serve as a plot device so that we can see her fighting with The Comedian in the past.
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• Dr. M also uses his abilities to give Laurie one of the lamest superpowers since Jubilee: she can now shoot a blue ball of energy from her fingers, slingshot-style.
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• She uses this power to try and stop Adrian, but he catches the ball and pummels her. Not quite as dramatic as catching a bullet, is it?
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• Instead of a vat-grown alien-tentacled telepath, Veidt fires a concentrated beam of radiation at orbital mirrors which reflect into New York City, killing 20 million people.
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• Night Owl and Veidt square off in the end, and although Veidt beats the crap out of him, Night Owl still wins by tricking Veidt with an Owl-o-rang and killing him. Yes, really.
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• Lamest moment: ADRIAN — "Why an Owl? I mean, assuming your intention is to intimidate the criminal element... What's so frightening about an owl?"

  DAN — "I don't know, really. I guess it's because... No matter how hard you listen, you never hear them coming."

  Dan DUCKS. Having circled the room, the OWL-WING ZOOMS OUT OF THE DARKNESS, OWL-FACE SCREECHING INTO FRAME —

  — And STRIKES ADIAN THE IN THE CHEST, KNOCK HIM OFF HIS FEET. Adrian SLAMS to the ground, THE BOOMERANG'S LEFT WIND IMBEDDED IN HIS SOLAR PLEXUS. He wheezes blood.

• Alex Tse, 2006: Novice writer Tse was hired to come in and work on David Hayter's draft, which remains mostly intact. He changes a few things, but it still seems like it's mostly Hayter's script.

• Dr. Manhattan is seen as the "peacekeeper of the world," keeping all of the world's government in check, for better or for worse.
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• Rorschach busts in on an army officer with a hooker, beats the crap out of him (and her) and takes his uniform. Later, he disguises himself as the officer, so he can enter Dr. Manhattan's army lab and tell him about The Comedian's death.
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• Veidt impersonates Dr. Manhattan, and fires beams of concentrated... er, "big blue energy clouds" into key cities around the globe, killing three million people.
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• Dan and Veidt square off again, but this time Dan crashes the Owl-Ship via remote control into Veidt, wounding him badly. You think he might survive, but as Laurie flies the ship out, she sets his body on fire. Whoops.
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• Lamest moment: ADRIAN — "I have to say, I've always thought your choice of an owl was quite juvenile."

  DAN — "Really? I've always liked owls..."

  Adrian sees that Dan has pulled one last item from his belt. Adrian STEPS on Dan's WRIST, bones crunching. Dan's hand falls OPEN, revealing the OWL-SHIP REMOTE.

  DAN (cont'd) — "... because you can never hear them coming."

  BEHIND ADRIAN: FLOODLIGHTS BLAZE, targeting Adrian as the OWL-SHIP CRASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW and into Adrian and Dan.

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At any rate, we'll be watching these Watchmen.

Warner Bros. have launched a new "interactive experience" website based around the movie, called I Am Immune. For just the cost of your email address and probably receiving WB-related spam for the rest of your natural life, you too can get your own "patient ID" that allows you to access movie-related message boards and take part in real-life scavenger hunts that may win you tickets to the movie's New York City premiere, where viewers will die as part of the near-complete destruction of humanity that leaves only a tall man who once celebrated his love for Miami in rap form as a reminder of what mankind once stood for.

Okay, maybe not that last part.

I Am Immune [via Movie Marketing Madness]