In what sounds like a truly awesome job, Mike Vogel has headed all development for Hasbro Studios, the Los Angeles-based production division of Hasbro, Inc., since March 2011, shepherding many of the studio’s well-known brands from inception through success on The Hub, a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications, and on networks reaching more than 160 countries, globally.  He works closely with producers, writers and artists, as well as independent entities, to re-imagine, reinvent and reignite the company’s beloved brands while collaborating on possible toys, products and licensing.  Essentially, he makes a living being a big kid and bringing his childhood geek fantasies to life.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Mike Vogel talked about what his day-to-day duties entail, what the biggest surprise has been, in terms of toy sales, how often they decide to rotate or add characters on their shows, how much they listen to fans to make sure their ideas are also incorporated, what they’re doing to reach the comic book movie audience, that they’ll have some big news and really cool stuff for fans at Comic-Con, the coolest toys and merchandise that he has in his office, the challenges of developing new properties, and the possibility of a Candyland cartoon or a KREO animated series.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Director Bryan Singer has been making excellent use of Twitter lately, as he’s been using the social media website to actually break casting news for the upcoming sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Now, as production on the film looms closer, Singer has started teasing the actual film on Twitter.  Just yesterday he shared an image of the wheelchairs for the young and old versions of Professor X, and today he’s revealed a photo of a set that will look very familiar to fans of the past X-Men films.  Moreover, Singer’s caption of “How many days until Comic-Con?” appears to confirm that Days of Future Past will indeed have a panel at the convention as we previously surmised.

Hit the jump to take a look at the set photo.  The film stars Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Hugh Jackman, and Peter Dinklage.  X-Men: Days of Future Past opens in 3D on July 18, 2014.

It’s February, so you know what that means: it’s time to start making preparations for this summer’s Comic-Con.  Public badges for SDCC 2013 went on sale this morning and, quite amazingly, completely sold out in an hour and a half.  Indeed, demand for Comic-Con only seems to be growing as time goes on, and it appears that thousands of fans will be descending on San Diego this coming July to catch a sneak peek of upcoming film and TV fare and to peruse the ginormous convention floor for some geek-friendly finds.

Last year was my second time to attend SDCC, but I found that the lines and overall madness descending on Hall H had grown exponentially since the previous year.  My more experienced colleagues confirmed that demand for the 6500 seater was higher and crazier than ever before.  If these badge sales are any indication, the nuttiness is likely to continue this year.  Hit the jump as we wildly speculate about which films and TV shows might be making hosting panels at Comic-Con 2013.

As we previously reported, the mad rush to get badges to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con will begin on Saturday, February 16th at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.  Comic-Con has done their best in past years to make the registration as painless as possible, but the hard truth is that there are millions of people fighting for a hundred thousand badges.  It’s unfair, but if you want to go to the biggest geek event of the year, you have to try.

To help give you your best shot and make sure you don’t screw up the registration process, Comic-Con has released a video to help walk you through the process.  You can check it out after the jump.  For more information, check out the official Comic-Con site for all the necessary information on registration, purchasing, deadlines and much more.   If you can’t make it to this year’s Con in San Diego, make sure to follow our coverage here.  The 2013 San Diego Comic-Con Runs from July 18 – 21st.

It was announced earlier today that badges for San Diego’s Comic-Con International 2013 will go on sale Saturday, February 16th at 9AM Pacific Time. Per Comic-Con’s site:

The link to EPIC Open Online Registration will be sent to everyone with a valid and confirmed Comic-Con Member ID via email 48 hours prior to the start of badge sales.  You may click the link, or copy-and-paste it into you browser. Comic-Con will NOT post this link on our website, Facebook, or Twitter.

Be sure to check out the official Comic-Con site for all the necessary information on registration, purchasing, deadlines and much more.   If you can’t make it to this year’s Con in San Diego, make sure to follow our coverage here.

One of my favorite things about Comic-Con are all the people that cosplay.  Since I’d never been to a convention outside the United States, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to London Comic-Con yesterday afternoon.  Would anyone dress up?  Are fans in London the same as the rest of the world?  After spending hours walking around the convention, I’m happy to report geeks and nerds are the same no matter where you live.

However, while many at London Comic-Con cosplay, I found more people dressed up as their favorite anime/manga/video game character instead of a movie/TV show character.  Since I only attended London Comic-Con yesterday, it’s possible that over the weekend, the percentage would be the same.  Either way, some of the costumes were pretty great, so hit the jump to check out about 100 pictures including Doctor Who, The Last Airbender, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Thor, Portal, Batman, Zelda, Mortal Kombat, and a lot more.

If you happen to be in London this weekend, I recommend heading over to London Comic-Con (also known as MCM Expo).  Located at ExCeL London, the convention is really easy to get to and it’s loaded with a ton of independent dealers selling a wide variety of merchandise.  While smaller than San Diego and New York Comic-Con, London’s version of the event is starting to make a name for itself and the more people that turn out this weekend, the bigger it’ll be next year.  For info on how to get tickets and a list of guests, click here.

Since I happened to be in London this week (will explain why next year), I headed over to the con yesterday to interview Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and take photos of the convention floor.  As you’ll see in the pics, the con has an independent vibe while still featuring big companies like Nintendo and a few of the movie studios.  Hit the jump to check out a ton of Doctor Who merchandise (and a cool display of Daleks), Star Trek, Star Wars (including a life-size landspeeder), movie posters, limited hand painted sneakers, and a lot more.

With Texas Chainsaw 3D opening January 4th, 2013, star Alexandra Daddario came to New York Comic-Con this weekend to promote the film.  Directed by John Luessenhop (Takers), the pic is a direct sequel to the 1974 original and picks up where that film left off: “a young woman has escaped the horrors of the Sawyer family and alerted authorities, leading the townspeople to descend on the Sawyer household and seemingly put an end to the family’s reign of terror.  The story then jumps forward to present day where a young woman (Daddario) has inherited a Texas estate from a grandmother she didn’t know she had.”  Needless to say, after she arrives, things go bad.  For more on the film, here’s the trailer and all our previous coverage.

During my exclusive interview with Daddario we talked about being at NYCC, how she got cast, the gore, how the film changed from the initial conception through to the final cut (she reveals that there was an alternate ending filmed), what it was like to film in Shreveport, Louisiana, and a lot more.  In addition, we also talked about White Collar (she played Kate), Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (she just filmed an episode) and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

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.

If you’re not able to attend New York Comic-Con this weekend, I’ve got the next best thing: over 100 images from the convention floor.  While NYCC is smaller than San Diego Comic-Con, it’s filled with many of the same dealers selling 90% of the same merchandise.  However, unlike San Diego, the other 10% are smaller merchants selling some unique and interesting wares.  If you’re in the area and can land a badge, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Hit the jump for a ton of pictures and look for a number of exclusive interviews and panel recaps over the next three days.

With New York Comic-Con starting later today, just a few minutes ago I went over to pick up my badge and managed to take a number of pictures.  While the doors don’t open until later today for professionals and press, a number of cool things were on display in the lobby and I used my phone to snap about twenty pics.  Included were movie logos for Screen Gems Carrie and Evil Dead (both of which of panels on Saturday), a huge display for Aliens: Colonial Marines,  a bunch of Chevy cars that have been painted with TV and comic book characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Locke & Key, Bravest Warrior, and a few other random things.

Hit the jump for the pics and check back later today for a massive image gallery featuring everything on the convention floor.  In addition, Matt Goldberg and I are here all weekend and we’ll be covering all the panels and conducting a number of exclusive interviews, so look for extensive NYCC coverage on Collider all weekend.

Of the many cool things that Marvel did at Comic-Con, I was most intrigued by the Ant-Man test footage.  The basic premise of Ant-Man (a man who can shrink to the size of an ant fights crime) is not guaranteed to work on film.  But the word on the street says director Edgar Wright nailed out the big/small transition effects, and I want to see for myself.  Marvel executive Victoria Alonso implies that I will probably get my wish.  Alonso told our partners at Omelete (roughly translated):

“What we showed at Comic-Con was a work in progress.  We’re working on finishing it, and I think you might see it.  Not sure where, but we always listen to the fans.  And if the fans demand it we make sure they get it.  I don’t know if we are going to post it online, but I don’t have [any reason] to believe we may not.”

So please demand it.  For my sake.  Hit the jump for more from Alonso, including confirmation that Wright will direct and a comment on the Viggo Mortensen/Doctor Strange rumor.

Opening this Friday is director Len Wiseman‘s remake of Total Recall.  Based on the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick, Total Recall stars Colin Farrell in the role originated by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  In the film, Farrell stars as Douglas Quaid, a man who is bored with his life (even though he’s married to Kate Beckinsale) and seeks to have adventurous memories implanted in his brain.  However, after visiting Recall, both friends and family are after him for different reasons.  But the big problem is he doesn’t know what’s real.  The film also stars Jessica Biel, John Cho, Bill Nighy, and Bryan Cranston.

The other day I got to speak with Bryan Cranston here in Los Angeles.  We talked about his reaction to the finished film, his experiences at this year’s Comic-Con, deleted scenes, The Lincoln Lawyer sequel, and Breaking Bad.  For fans of Breaking Bad, Cranston told me, “episode 5 of the fifth season is the biggest episode we’ve ever done as far as scope and cost.”  Hit the jump to watch.

If you’re a fan of director Guillermo del Toro, you’re about to be very happy.  I recently sat down with the filmmaker for an epic hour-long video interview and every day this week I’ll be posting part of it.  Over the course of sixty minutes we talked about his past projects, Pacific Rim, what he has coming up, and everything in between.  Trust me, this is one of those special interviews that you’re all going to love.

In this first part del Toro talks about how their amazing Comic-Con presentation in Hall H came together (it was the best Hall H presentation I’ve ever seen), when the teaser trailer will get released, how he got involved with Pacific Rim, what it’s like to work for Legendary Pictures and Thomas Tull, what kind of notes he got from the studio, what changed during production, the physical nature of the shoot, and so much more.  In addition, while you often hear about studios interfering with a director, del Toro said that he once got a note from Tull that said, “can you make it more kick-ass?”  Hit the jump to watch and check back tomorrow night for part two.

TNT’s hit sci-fi drama Falling Skies stopped by Comic-Con to talk about the current second season, the network’s renewal of the show for a third season and how inspiring it is to have the audience’s support.  You can check out our previous interviews with the Falling Skies cast here.  Noah Wyle and Will Patton completed the round table interviews, talking about what we can expect to see between their characters this season, the appearance of Weaver’s daughter and the possibility of an alien invasion.  Hit the jump to read the interview.