“Superbad,” the sweet and sticky and sometimes icky teen comedy brought to you by, among others, “Knocked Up’s” Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen, has been screening for critics and test audiences for awhile now.

The word is out, and the word is good. You could say that it’s in the tradition of teen comedies like “Porky’s” and “American Pie,” except “Superbad” is actually funny, provided you’re able to laugh at expertly crafted jokes about bodily functions and fluids.

 
As Rogen told me back in June: “It’s the dirtiest movie ever made.”

 
Apatow and Rogen brought “Superbad” to Comic-Con, to what Apatow calls “our crowd,” the freaks and geeks that these guys really are. Cast members Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse were also there, as was Apatow’s wife, actress Leslie Mann.

 
And before the panel discussion, they all stayed in the theater and watched the movie with the audience.

 
“We will sit among you and be with you because we are you,” Apatow told the crowd at Pacific’s Gaslamp multiplex.

 
Afterward, the gang fielded questions – when their microphones were working.

 
“Is there anyone here who knows something about audio visual?” Rogen cracked after one power outage.

 
The movie follows a couple of high school seniors (Hill and Cera) as they learn a little something about friendship, girls and the difficulties of getting booze when you’re under 21. The comedy is raunchy, but as was the case in “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” there’s an emotional honesty that keeps you invested in the characters and story.

 
Not that any of that matters to the MPAA.

 
“I wondered,” Rogen says. “Can you say something so dirty that you get an NC-17 rating? The answer is … no.”

 “Superbad” opens Aug. 17.

-- Glenn Whipp

Mention Alan Moore’s graphic novel “The Watchmen” to Comic-Con denizens and you’ll be greeted with a hushed reverence. The 12-issue comic series, illustrated by Dave Gibbons, came out in 1986-87, and Hollywood has been trying to make a movie version for the past 20 years.

 


Last summer, fresh off the success of “300,” Zack Snyder became the latest director to get the “Watchmen” gig. And he hopes to be the first director to win the approval of Moore, who hates what Hollywood does to his work. (“V For Vendetta” was the last project to suffer his wrath.)


“When I was first approached about the film, and was asked if I wanted to do it, I said no,” Snyder says. “Then I sat in some meetings, and they talked about bringing the story into the modern-day and fit it in with our current political climate. I thought, ‘OK,’ and went away to think about that."


“Finally I decided that ‘Watchmen’ shouldn’t come to the people, but that the people should come to ‘Watchmen.’ ”

Naturally Snyder’s words elicited a thunderous roar from a group that has already come to the comic series, which is set during the Cold War in an alternate where superheroes confront ordinary ethical and emotional issues.



“Is ‘Watchmen’ better if it’s updated or more accessible?” asks Snyder. “To me, this isn’t a movie for teenyboppers. It doesn’t feel like a PG-13 movie."


Snyder has adapted the graphic novel much the same way he did with Frank Miller’s “300.”


“Somebody drew it already, so you shoot that,” he says. “And I’ve done that pretty much through the whole book.”

 
Sounds like Moore might finally approve.

 
“Maybe one rainy day in , he’ll put in the DVD and say, ‘Well they didn’t (mess) it up that bad,” Snyder says. “He probably won’t, but you never know.”

“The Watchmen” is scheduled for a 03/06/09 release.

 -- Glenn Whipp

You could understand why Kate Beckinsale showed up late to the panel presentation for her upcoming Antarctica murder-mystery “Whiteout.”

There was director Dominic Sena, answering a question from a young boy in the audience who had innocently wondered if any pranks were pulled on the set.

“Well, not many except when Kate Beckinsale was there,” Sena replied. “It was pretty dirty and involved her mother and dildos."

 
OK, youngster, hope that answers your question.

 Later, producer Joel Silver said it was “weird” putting the “Underworld” star in a parka the whole movie. Even later, when Beckinsale still hadn’t showed, Sena explained “they’re still trying to get her in that black leather.”

Boys will be boys, but when Beckinsale did make it to the stage (wearing jeans and a brown, sarong-style top), she managed to outdo the men.

 
On the wardrobe differences between “Underworld” and “Whiteout”: “When I was in costume on ‘Underworld’ and I bent over, someone behind me would always go (and here, she emits a primal grunt), ‘Uuuuuh.’ On this film, I got to wear parkas so that didn’t really happen.” (Sena: “Oh it happened. You just didn’t hear it.”)

 
On the working differences between “Underworld” and “Whiteout”: “I slept with the director way fewer times. (“Underworld” director Len Wiseman is her husband.) I got to use my own teeth, which was awesome. I still got bruised and beat up. And I liked that.”

On turning down Bond a few years ago: “I’m becoming a bit elderly for that sort of thing. I think I’ve embarrassed my daughter enough. You’re always required to be in your underwear in a ‘James Bond’ movie, and when your kid reaches third grade, you don’t want to shame them. It’s the same thing with Wonder Woman. The costume is basically underwear.”

 “Whiteout” opens some time next year.

-- Glenn Whipp

The shoe phone was dialed, the sporty red convertible busted out of the garage and Agent 86 dropped down the shoot in the pay phone booth. (Just where do you find a phone booth these days?)

“Get Smart” the movie is coming next summer, and judging from the footage shown at Comic-Con, it doesn’t look like anyone will have to tell the filmmakers that they “missed it by that much.”

 
Steve Carrell looks in his element as the bumbling Maxwell Smart, and Anne Hathaway, playing Agent 99, sports a better (sexier, certainly) wardrobe than she did in “The Devil Wears Prada.” The cast is so good – Alan Arkin is KAOS bad guy Siegfried – that you can almost overlook that Adam Sandler buddy Peter Segal (“The Longest Yard,” “50 First Dates) is the director.

Almost.

Segal was actually pretty funny in a panel discussion that featured Carrell, The Rock, Masi Oka from “Heroes,” Nate Torrence from “Studio 60” and Ken Davitian (aka the Large Naked Guy from “Borat”).

 

“The movie looks like a comedic ‘Bourne Identity,’ ” Carrell said. “The villains are quite ominous and scary.


Segal said that Hymie the Robot would be in the movie, as would Agent 13. (“13 is a pretty good cameo,” he teased. “But I can’t tell you yet.)

Carrell, who grew up watching the show, still seems somewhat amazed that he’s playing Smart.

“I have such respect for Don Adams and what he did,” Carrell said. “I can never be as good as he was. It’s just an honor to do this.”

-- Glenn Whipp

Jessica Alba’s appearance at Comic-Con for the Lionsgate comedy “Good Luck Chuck” confirmed two things:

 
1)      Alba is really, really popular. When she walked on stage, the geeks and geekettes stormed to the front, cameras and camera phones held high to take a picture of Alba … sitting behind a conference table.

 
2)      Alba isn’t particularly compelling beyond her looks.

 

In “Good Luck Chuck,” Dane Cook learns he has a secret power. If he sleeps with a woman, she goes on to meet her soul mate. This makes Chuck a popular guy. But then Chuck meets the girl played by Alba, and falls for her. He can’t sleep with her because he’s afraid if he does, he’ll lose her to another guy.

This leads to sexual tension. Shots of Alba in the bathtub, flashing her underwear, coyly lying in bed wrapped in a sheet.

Alba, wearing a low-cut denim dress, was asked what the best thing was about working with Cook. Not a hard question. A softball. But you could hear the gears turning in her head.

“Everything was the best thing,” she said. “He has a good heart. I don’t know if you guys know that.”

Well, no. We weren’t privy to that stunning revelation. We also learned that Cook made Alba laugh so hard that her tummy hurt, that Alba is a klutz in real life and she wears shoes that look like C-3PO’s feet.

Unctuous Fox entertainment reporter Bill McCuddy then asked Alba about her upcoming horror movie, “The Eye.”

“Tell us a little about that,” McCuddy said.


“It’s gonna come out,” Alba said, then paused, thinking. “And it’s gonna be scary.”

All right then. Small wonder that after that bombshell, Alba posed for some more pictures, showed off her shiny shoes and then left to do what she does best – look fabulous, be photographed, sign autographs and hop in the back seat of a limousine.

-- Glenn Whipp

How do you follow dual Spocks, Indiana Jones and J.J. Abrams?

If you’re Lionsgate, you hire Plastic Man Bill McCuddy and put on a presentation so patently false and hollow that you empty cavernous Hall H before the gig is even half-way over.

McCuddy is apparently an entertainment reporter on the Fox News Channel. Having this old-school dunderhead shill for the studio behind “Saw” and “Hostel: Part 2” seemed an odd choice, but not as odd as the questions McCuddy asked the Lionsgate panel members.

 

For the western “3:10 To Yuma ,” he had the following exchange with actor Ben Foster:

 

McCuddy: Did you live out in the desert?

 

Foster: Yeah, we were at Georgia O’Keefe’s old ghost ranch.

 

McCuddy: Did you bump into any ghosts?

 

Foster: (Long, uncomfortable pause) Uh … yeah.

McCuddy’s butt-kissing was almost as painful.

To Foster: “I gotta tell you, not to suck up because you’re sitting right here, but … an amazing turn!”

To Peter Fonda: “Wherever you want to sit, Peter. You’re the man!”

To Jessica Alba: “What was the best thing about working with Dane Cook?”

 

To Cook: “Were you surprised that Jessica was such a gifted physical comedienne?”

I wasn’t surprised when I fled the room and saw hundred of other people high-tailing it out of Hall H, too. People can smell a fake, and 30 minutes into McCuddy’s used car salesman bit, Hall H stunk to high heaven.

-- Glenn Whipp

Christmas ’08 will be a merry one for “Star Trek” fans if director J.J. Abrams can carry the excitement from his Comic-Con presentation into the actual movie.

Abrams had two bits of casting news for fans – both involving the same character, Spock. (Abrams’ “Star Trek,” the 11^th movie in the franchise, will take place in the final frontier of the original series.)

As had been widely speculated “Heroes” villain Zachary Quinto will play Spock, as will the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

 

“He’s going to put on the ears one more time,” Abrams told the jubilant Comic-Con audience without divulging the specifics of the two actors playing one character.

Quinto has Nimoy’s hairline and arched eyebrow look down pat. As producer Stratton Leopold noted, “The resemblance is scary.”

 

So, if Nimoy’s on board, where’s William Shatner?

“We’re desperately trying to figure a way to put him in this movie,” Abrams says. “It needs to be worthy of him and the movie. We can’t just shove him in. That would be a disaster.”

 
Abrams doesn’t have a replacement Kirk, either.

“Any ideas?” he asked the Comic-Con throng. (Before we answer, we must ask: Can the actor actually use normal cadences to speak his lines without resorting to the … Strange … Shatnerian … Histrionics?)

As for Nimoy, the homecoming seems to be a happy event.

“People ask me why I’m doing this movie,” Nimoy says. “The answer is, it was logical.”

-- Glenn Whipp

The hands-down, slam-dunk movie presentation at Comic-Con was Jon Favreau’s four minute montage from “Iron Man,” which has the look of a huge hit when it opens next May.

Favreau initially appeared on screen in a taped clip, facetiously introducing some “preliminary animation” from his movie, which turned out to be a rudimentary, ancient Iron Man cartoon.

 
Then to the crunching chords of the Black Sabbath song, Favreau took the stage and surprised the crowd with a taste of “Iron Man” before Saturday’s full-blown Marvel Comics panel.

 

Favreau has said he wants “Iron Man” (which is based on a Stan Lee Marvel Comic about an armored super hero) to be the “ultimate spy movie” that would play as if  Robert Altman had directed “Superman.”

What little we saw Thursday hints at that, with Robert Downey, Jr. absolutely killing in the role of a billionaire weapons king who goes to Afghanistan, gets caught in a booby trap and has an electromagnet hooked up to his chest to keep shrapnel from reaching his heart. Then comes the suit of armor, the heavy metal music and shots – all practical – of Iron Man flying through the air.



Favreau looked fit and trim, having lost at least 50 pounds since I talked to him for “Zathura.” That movie didn’t work. But “Elf” did. And so did “Made.” He has shown himself to be a wildly imaginative filmmaker, and he has plans for two more “Iron Man” movies if this one hits.

 

And it will.

 
-- Glenn Whipp

 
J.J. Abrams had other things on his mind besides “Star Trek.”

 

So did his fans. Beyond even “Iron Man” and “Indy IV,” the most-anticipated movie for the Comic-Con crowd is Abrams’ still untitled monster movie.

 

The trailer, shown again at Comic-Con, has been drawing raves, particularly for its shot of the Statue of Liberty’s head rolling down a New York city street, the victim of some hideous, roaring beastie loose on the streets of Manhattan.

“I wanted a monster movie for so long,” Abrams says. “I was in a year ago with my son who is eight, and all he wanted to do was to toy stores. We went to a store and saw Godzillas everywhere and I thought, ‘We need our own monster.’

“Now, I love King Kong. King Kong is just adorable and Godzilla is a charming monster. But I wanted something that was just insane and intense. So we started making this movie and we’re working on it now. I watch dailies and I’m more excited about the movie itself than the trailer, which has gotten an amazing response.”

 

That was it. Abrams did say the movie won’t be called “Monstrous” and he unveiled a cool-looking one-sheet of a headless Lady Liberty.

Teaser that he is, we’ll be getting more info in dribs and drabs for the next few months until the movie’s Jan. 18 release date.

-- Glenn Whipp

To the strains of John Williams famous score, Comic-Con got a live feed from the set of “Indiana Jones IV” (or whatever it’s going to be called). Steven Spielberg greeted the audience, and just barely in the shot was the khaki-covered arm of …, yes, Harrison Ford, who gritted his teeth and said how great it was being back in the “sweaty, dirty clothes Indy always wears.”