Shortly before the cast of Arrow hit the WonderCon stage, I was able to participate in a roundtable interview with producer Marc Guggenheim.  He talked about the pacing of Arrow’s storylines, what he learned from working on Eli Stone, whether he’s worried about running out of story, if other heroes and villains from the DC universe will make an appearance, the fan reaction to Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), the show’s plans for her and Oliver (Stephen Amell) going forward, the reveal about what’s going on in The Glades, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The CW’s hit freshman series Arrow delighted fans during a panel presentation this weekend at WonderCon.  Based on DC comics liberal hero Green Arrow, Arrow stars Stephen Amell, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne and Colin Donnell participated in a Q&A along with executive producer Marc Guggenheim, who let a few spoilers out in order to please fans.  They also screened a special montage video of scenes for the upcoming episodes to close out the first season.

Arrow airs Wednesday nights at 8/7c on the CW.  Hit the jump to watch the video montage and to see our panel recap.

Over the past 30 years, PaleyFest has held panel sessions and screenings that connect the worldwide community of television fans with the casts and creators of their favorite TV shows.  One of the drama series celebrated this year was The CW hit Arrow, and Collider was there to get the scoop on what’s to come in the Season 1 finale and what’s in store for Season 2.

While there, we got the opportunity to speak with executive producers/writers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, along with actors Stephen Amell (aka The Arrow) and David Ramsey (who plays John Diggle).  The actors shared their reactions when they heard what the Season 1 finale would entail and talked about what they’ve enjoyed about playing their characters, and the creative team gave some insight about where things are headed for the remainder of this season, how getting an early Season 2 renewal allowed them to get specific with the threads in the finale, that they’ve had 60% of the ideas for this season in their heads since the beginning, how much the big Arrow identity reveals have opened up the story, the biggest challenges in making this show, every week, and that they’re striving for a finale that both gives a sense of closure and also leaves you with enough cliffhangers and nuggets that you’re anxious for more.  Check out what they had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are spoilers.

As a preamble to this week’s Top 5, I’d like to take a few lines to recognize my own personal “Top 2″ from the past 7 days: the St. Louis Cardinals and Warner Premiere’s animated adaptation of Frank Miller‘s classic tale The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Beginning with the former, my beloved Cardinals completed yet another historic comeback last night against the Washington Nationals. Win or lose, I think it’s necessary to get in writing here that I won’t have a single negative thing to say about this team the rest of the way. As for the latter, I had a chance to sit down with director Jay Oliva‘s animated adaptation the other day and I found it to be a worthy retelling of Miller’s classic Bat-story. If you have any interest in animated comic adaptations and have yet to check it out, I recommend doing so.

But enough of my own personal favorites, included in this week’s trip around the bases (yep, that’s another baseball reference) is our coverage of New York Comic-Con 2012, the first trailer for director Sacha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock, Seven Psychopaths interviews with Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and more, a new trailer for Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, and a slew of interviews for The CW’s new superhero series, Arrow. A brief recap and link to each awaits.

The CW’s highly anticipated new drama series Arrow tells the story of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who has returned home to Starling City after being missing and presumed dead for five years, following a violent shipwreck. His devoted mother Moira (Susanna Thompson), much-beloved sister Thea (Willa Holland) and best friend Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) welcome him home, while his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), is not so happy. Now, along with reconnecting to those closest to him, Oliver has secretly created the persona of the vigilante Arrow, to right wrongs and restore the city to its former glory.

During this recent interview held at the DC Comics office in Burbank, producers Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, along with DC’s Geoff Johns, talked about bringing Oliver Queen/Arrow to life in this format, adding characters from the DC universe throughout the season (including The Huntress, Deadshot and The Royal Flush Gang), how often viewers will get flashbacks to what occurred on the island, the darker elements of the series, how someone will discover Oliver Queen’s secret early on, the more long-term plan for the show, adding John Barrowman (Torchwood) to the cast, and big bad villains.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Music is an incredibly important factor in film and television.  That goes without saying, really, but discussions of music in depth and detail with the composers and collaborators that produce the music are rarely done.  That’s why Room 5AB was a treat last night, as composer Blake Neely and executive producer Marc Guggenheim (Arrow), composer Chris Lennertz and showrunner Eric Kripke (Revolution, Supernatural), composer Joseph Trapanese and showrunner Charlie Bean (TRON: Uprising), and composer Nathan Johnson and director Rian Johnson (Looper) joined moderators Anne Cecere, director of film and TV relations of BMI, and Chandler Poling, founder of White Bear PR, to talk about music’s role in TV and movies.   Hit the jump for a full recap.

I don’t know anything about the Green Arrow comics.  Literally, nothing.  All I had was an educated guess that he wears green and wields a bow.  This worked well for my first viewing of the Arrow pilot, because I was fascinated by the backstory.  The opening scene throws you in the middle of the action as a disheveled man in green is climbing about a rock island.  Even with the expository narration, it’s a thrilling way to launch a new series.

They pull back to reveal that the man in green is Oliver Queen (played by Stephen Amell), a billionaire playboy who shipwrecked five years ago and was presumed dead.  Oliver’s awkward attempts to reintegrate with his former life are intercut with flashbacks to the night of the shipwreck.  Unfortunately, as Arrow drifts away from the island and spends more time in the city, the show loses its luster.  Hit the jump for the rest of the brief review and a recap of the Q&A with stars Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy as well as producers Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and David Nutter.

Warner Bros. injects some much-needed life into their Justice League feature by tapping scribe, Will Beall (Gangster Squad).  Clearly, after Disney and Marvel’s The Avengers put a superheroic dent into 2012′s box office, the studio behind the DC version would like to do the same.  Beall has yet to turn in his draft, but the studio has shown strong faith in the screenwriter, having attached him to their reboot of Lethal Weapon and their remake of Logan’s Run.  The latter will reunite Gangster Squad’s Ryan Gosling with his Drive director, Nicolas Winding Refn.  Hit the jump for more on this exciting news for Justice League and to find out who is writing the Wonder Woman screenplay.

We’ve got a couple of screenwriter stories to share with you this afternoon. First up, Warner Bros. is looking at Marc Guggenheim to pen the script for its Perry Mason reboot. The feature film is a reboot of the classic courtroom drama series which centered on Mason, a defense attorney who privately investigates crimes on behalf of his clients. Robert Downey Jr. and executive producer David Gambino came up with the story idea, and Downey Jr. will produce with an eye towards starring as Mason. THR reports that Guggenheim is in talks to pen the script, which will take place in 1930s Los Angeles.

Guggenheim actually practiced as an attorney before heading to Hollywood. He’s scripted for the legal series The Practice and Law & Order, and was a co-creator on Eli Stone. Guggenheim, who penned last summer’s Green Lantern, is becoming a highly sought-after scribe as of late. Disney has tapped him to write a unique time travel pic called Time Zones, and he’s working on the Green Arrow series on The CW called Arrow as well as a Fox drama pilot called Guilty. Hit the jump for news on the latest from Moneyball and The Blind Side author Michael Lewis.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to pilot season. Networks are busy greenlighting pilots left and right in order to boost their Fall 2012 schedules, and we’ve got news concerning two of the more high profile shows being developed. First up, Deadline reports that NBC has given a pilot order for The New Normal. The half-hour comedy was created by Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler and revolves around a blended family of a gay couple and a woman who becomes their surrogate. Book of Mormon breakout Andrew Rannells is set for one of the three leads in the single-camera half-hour comedy, while the other two roles have yet to be cast. Hit the jump for much more, including news concerning a pilot for McG.

The CW already delved into DC Comics universe with their recently concluded Superman series Smallville, and writers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim brought Green Lantern to the big screen last summer. But now THR reports the network and writing duo are teaming up for Arrow, a small screen adaptation of Green Arrow which is currently in development. It’s not surprising considering the response to the hero’s appearance throughout a few seasons on Smallville was pretty strong, however, Justin Hartley, who played Green Arrow in the series, is not attached to this new project. Berlanti and Guggenheim will executive produce the series which serves as the second superhero property in development for Berlanti Productions along with Booster Gold at SyFy. There’s a gaping hole for a fanboy presence on The CW now so we’ll have to wait and see if the Green Arrow can fill it.

Hit the jump to learn more about Green Arrow.

Marc Guggenheim, who was one of the scribes behind this summer’s Green Lantern, has been tapped by Disney to pen a rather unique time travel pic called Time Zones. The sci-fi fantasy adventure takes place in a world where a spontaneous event has caused different geographical regions of the Earth to be replaced with the topographical layout from differing time periods. In essence, it could be 1450 in England, 350 B.C. in Egypt, and 2154 in the United States. The story centers on a man who realizes that the sudden availability of time travel gives him the chance to change the past and prevent his wife’s death. He sets out on an adventure with his estranged daughter in tow to try to change the course of history.

While time travel has become a rather stale staple of contemporary storytelling, this concept actually sounds really cool. The idea of seeing modern civilization forced to cope with the labor-intensive geography of the past is more than a little compelling, and with Disney behind the pic you can expect some big-budget production value. Now it’s time to take bets on what time period each region will get (fingers crossed for colonial America). Heat Vision reports that Mark Gordon (Source Code, 2012) is onboard to produce. Guggenheim, whose resume also includes work on Flash Forward and Eli Stone, is also scripting an untitled female detective feature for the Mouse House.

Back in March, Disney picked up the rights to Agatha Christie’s detective character Miss Marple, and now it seems that one sleuth just wasn’t enough for The Mouse House. The studio has acquired an untitled pitch from Ashley Bradley that involves yet another female detective. Plot details are scarce at this point, but Heat Vision reports that the story revolves around a young woman who discovers that she’s the descendant of a legendary gumshoe and is tasked with picking up the family trade. Marc Guggenheim, who co-wrote this summer’s Green Lantern and was a producer on Flash Forward and Eli Stone, is set to produce the untitled detective pic. Disney’s Marple film will be set in contemporary times, so one wonders if the studio will take a different approach to this mystery flick in order to set the two apart.

Now that all big four superhero movies have come out this summer, Green Lantern is clearly the biggest disappointment of the bunch.  Rather than charge into production on a sequel, Warner Bros. was forced to take a tepid wait-and-see approach to the international box office and home entertainment sales.  But Green Lantern 2 is certainly still in the studio’s mind and President Jeff Robinov believes that the problem wasn’t the concept but the execution.  However, the flaws he sees in the execution weren’t the ones that sunk the movie.

Hit the jump for what Robinov said the sequel needs to do in order to “improve” on the original.

The first footage from director Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern has hit the net as Entertainment Tonight has released a preview for their Tuesday show.  It appears that on Tuesday, they’ll be world premiering footage from the Ryan Reynolds movie and to get you to tune in, they’ve released 30 seconds from the movie.  If you’ve been waiting to see what Reynolds costume looks like as it’s all CGI, hit the jump.  You’ll also get a look at Blake Lively, another Green Lantern (I won’t spoil who), and you’ll get a taste of the first comic book movie to take place partly on another planet.  What are you waiting for!