Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t been to the San Diego Comic-Con since 1991 when he was promoting his adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  However, this year he’ll be making his return to the festival to promote his upcoming film Twixt.  While we can argue over the quality of Coppola’s output over the last couple of decades, the fact of the matter is that a legend of American cinema will be on the stage of Hall H and I find that prospect as exciting as Amazing Spider-Man footage if not moreso.

Coppola describes Twixt as “one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career.”  The film stars Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning, and Ben Chaplin.  Hit the jump for the full press release.  The Twixt panel will be on Saturday, July 23rd.

As usual, there will be plenty of mainstream flicks vying for the attention of the masses at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. This Comic-Con will be slightly different as some films will be dropping Hall H presentations and instead aim their presence to other aspects of the Con. But there will also be marquee films like The Amazing Spider-Man and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 taking the big room. The final schedule has yet to be released but Steve and other movie bloggers have chimed in on what they’re looking forward to at this year’s Comic-Con. Personally, I’m eager to see which smaller films pick up buzz from their presentations and to hang out with my peers from New York and LA who I rarely see. Also, if there was a demo of Batman: Arkham City I could play, that would be all right.

Hit the jump to find out what your favorite movie bloggers are jazzed to see and do at this year’s Comic-Con. The 2011 San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 21 – 24th.

While fandom comes out in droves, the San Diego Comic-Con is a Mecca for entertainment advertising.  Warner Bros. is particularly adept at moving beyond the standard banners and posters and in the past they have used free gigantic bags and room keys to promote their TV shows.  This year, they’ll at least be doing the room keys again and they’ll be showcasing their new TV series Alcatraz and Person of Interest, the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, the DVD box set for Smallville: The Complete Series, and the video game The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.  There will be 40,000 room keys at 36 participating hotels and if you get one it will be a piece of plastic that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life.

Hit the jump to check out images of the room keys along with the press release.

We’ve already seen two trailers for the return of ThunderCats on Cartoon Network, but the premiere of the series itself is nearly upon us as the cable network has announced the series will kick-off with an hour-long premiere on Friday, July 29th at 8/7c. Then the series will hit its regular timeslot at 8:30/7:30c on August 5th. But before all that, audiences at Comic-Con in San Diego will be able to watch the full premiere episode at a ThunderCats panel on Friday, July 22nd at 3:30pm in Room 6A. The panel will include a discussion with producers Michael Jelenic, Ethan Spaulding and art director Dan Norton.

And if you’re anxious to check out some of the old school ThunderCats before this new series takes off, Cartoon Network will also air nine episodes from the classic ThunderCats series over the weekend of July 23 and Boomerang will also host a classic ThunderCats marathon on July 16 and 17 along with airing the series every day at 5 p.m. starting Monday, July 18. For an official synopsis of the new Cartoon Network series, hit the jump.

Last year, the Twihards got a reprieve as Summit, having just released The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, had nothing new from the franchise to bring to Comic-Con.  But the tent city Twilight fans seem to set up around the San Diego Convention Center will return as Summit has announced—to the surprise of no one—that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 will be part of the studio’s Comic-Con presentation.  It will be joined by Paul W.S. Anderson’s atrocious-looking The Three Musketeers and the alien invasion flick The Darkest Hour.  As always, there will be footage and a Q&A.  Twilight fans, telling Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner (if they’re on the panel) “I think you’re hot!” is not a question.

The better news for all of us is that the presentation will be one of the first panels in Hall H on Thursday, July 1st, so it will be out of the way early in the con.  There will also be other, non-panel related activites for Twilight fans and non-Twilight fans so hit the jump for details from the full press release.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 opens November 18, 2011.

Yesterday, we speculated that Jon Favreau’s big Comic-Con stunt for Cowboys & Aliens would be a screening of the film.  Today, Hero Complex has confirmed that suspicion.  Favreau explained, “Not only are we going to premiere it there, we’re going to find a way to include as many of the fans as possible. I feel like they’ve come out for me, they’ve supported me.”  Favreau has certainly been the maestro of Comic-Con for the past several years and while big name stars like Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford will draw interest, at the convention Jon Favreau is a rock star.

Films have offered sneak peeks before in a grand fashion.  Last year, Edgar Wright gave fans in Hall H a big surprise when he informed that those who had received a certain pin would be seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World immeadeately.  Now Universal may be trying to top themselves and have possibly found a great location for the screening.  Hit the jump for more details.  The 2011 San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 21 – July 24th.  Cowboys & Aliens opens nationwide on July 29th. [Update: Universal has informed us that Petco Park will not be the location for the premiere.  No location is announced but we'll be sure to let you know once we have that information.  Our original reporting is after the jump.  You can now consider it a fun daydream of "What if...?"]

[Update 2: Universal has now announced that the premiere will take place at the San Diego Civic Center on Saturday July 23rd. Event begins at 7:00 pm, film starts at 8:00pm. Favreau tweeted that 2000 tickets will be released. The press release is now included below.]

One of the major reasons that the San Diego Comic-Con has become a madhouse is that the studios have made it their own.  People camp out in Hall H just to see a little bit of footage from an upcoming film and to see their favorite stars quasi-up-close-and-personal.  But while studios try to use the potential buzz from the Con as a spring-board, that doesn’t necessarily carry to the box office.  Universal couldn’t have done a better job promoting Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at Comic-Con but it was considered a box office flop.  Kick-Ass flew on to people’s radar at Comic-Con with a killer presentation, but again: lackluster box office.  TRON: Legacy went to Comic-Con three times and it didn’t cross the $200 million mark domestically (and anyone who tells you that wasn’t a serious goal for Disney is lying).  And while box office doesn’t matter to me personally, it matters a lot to studio shareholders and executives.  But the studios are starting to get wise to the cost of running a serious campaign at Comic-Con and how the risks are starting to outweigh the potential benefits.  Hit the jump for more and to learn who’s coming to Comic-Con and who’s not.

There is no lock that a particular blockbuster will have a presence at Comic-Con.  We assume that every big, geek-friendly title will have a presentation, but films that didn’t make a showing at Comic-Con 2010 included Kung Fu Panda 2 (DreamWorks brought Megamind instead), X-Men: First Class, Super 8, Cars 2, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  I’m sure those films had various reasons not to be there (not enough finished footage, secrecy, etc.), but my point is that you don’t 100% know what’s going to be at Comic-Con until the schedule is released.

Or, you can 100% know at least one will be there: The Amazing Spider-Man.  Sony has sent out a press release about how they’re looking for a fan to cover the movie at Comic-Con and interview the cast and filmmakers.  That’s all well and good, but what it means for you and me is that Comic-Con will likely be our first look at footage from the film or possibly even a trailer.  Someone from Collider will be in Hall H during that presentation and we’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Hit the jump for details on the contest.  The Amazing Spider-Man opens in 3D on July 3, 2012.