zack snyder

How do you follow up the headshot-loving Dawn of the Dead remake, the limb-chopping frenzy of 300, and the adults-only superhero mentality of Watchmen? With a 3D CGI fantasy film for kids, of course! Yep, Zack Snyder is breaking the mold of making violent, blood-spilling films that earn their R rating with Legend of the Guardians, an adaptation of the fantasy series Guardians of Ga'Hoole written by Kathryn Lasky. If, like myself, you have no idea what the source material is about, the above picture of an owl's face might be a little confusing.

The series, which began back in 2003 and ended in 2008 after 15 books, is about a young Barn Owl who gets kidnapped by a group of malicious owls that run an orphanage that brainwashes other young owls into becoming soldiers; soldiers who will then go on to fight the innocent group of Ga'Hoole owls. Now I realize that brief description may sound like a light and fluffy adventure story for kids only, but I think it's safe to say that with Snyder at the helm of a $100 million budget at Warner Brothers (which is only $30mil less than he was given for Watchmen), Legend of the Guardians may be one of the surprise spectacle films of the year.

The release date of September 24th is still a ways off. In the mean time, USA Today has some new stills from the movie, but if you're more into pictures that move about and such, the first teaser trailer is embedded below.

From Cinematical

While Cinematical has been busy covering all the movie-related Comic Con treats, our sister site TV Squad has been knee deep in all-things boob tube. Similar to film, all the genre-based TV shows bring their stars to Comic Con to preview upcoming seasons and geek out with fellow fans. Today is the biggest day for television at Con, and so we'll report back tomorrow with some of the stuff our friends over at TV Squad managed to uncover -- but in the meantime, here's a taste of what they've been up to so far.

-- Did you know Starz was getting ready to premiere a new show called Spartacus: Blood and Sand? No, it's not Sparta or anything (it actually takes place in Rome and follows the city's most famous gladiator), though the brand new trailer totally looks like Ridley Scott's Gladiator ... if Zack Snyder directed it instead. Seriously, the thing has such a 300 vibe that for a second I thought it was from the same team, but it's not. Know who's behind this? Sam Raimi. Yup, it's Raimi, Rob Talpert (Drag Me to Hell) and Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville) executive producing, while Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), Peter Mensa (300) and Erin Cummings (Dollhouse) star. The show itself looks bloody, vicious and pretty awesome, especially for those who dug the violence overload in 300.

Watch the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think ...

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening today:

- AICN has a list of the added/reworked scenes from Zack Snyder's Watchmen Director's Cut. It features a lot more dialogue and violence than the theatrical version. Surprise!

- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosarus earned $13.8 million Wednesday, taking the top box office spot from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Maybe next time Michael Bay will deliver the Dinobots instead of close-ups of John Turturro's ass and giant Decepticon balls.

- You know the Beyond Thunderdome-esque get-up Mickey Rourke is wearing in that Iron Man 2 set photo? Turns out that's probably only for an early scene. Rourke will be outfitted in more imposing Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash armor later on in the movie.

More sci-fi awesomeness after the jump.