Empire Big Screen is a bit like Comic-Con in that studios come by the show off footage from their new movies and the filmmakers come to talk up those films.  The festival is run by the good folks at the world's best movie mag, Empire Magazine, so I approve.  Since we don't have anyone at the event, we'll be running quotes from other sites who are attending.  The first piece of news comes from Empire who spoke with Sherlock creator/writer Mark Gatiss.  Gatiss says they're only about a week and a half away from wrapping production and that this season will be "The Woman, The Hound and The Fall" trilogy.  To be more specific, this year's episodes will adapt the Sherlock Holmes stories "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Hound Of The Baskervilles", and "The Final Problem".  The second season of BBC's Sherlock will premiere in early 2012.

Hit the jump for reactions to footage from Titanic 3D, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and more.

Next up, The Playlist attended the Fox presentation, but the studio held back on showing anything from their major upcoming films We Bought a Zoo, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Prometheus.  Instead, they provided the first look at James Cameron's 3D post-converted Titanic.  Oliver Lyttelton said what he saw of the film "is easily the most convincing case of post-conversion this writer has seen," and, "on a technical level alone, it’s undeniably impressive, the remastering making the film look like it hasn’t aged a day (Billy Zane's hairpiece and line readings, not so much…*) Unsurprisingly, considering 3D prophet Cameron has supervised the conversion personally, the dimensionalization is equally strong."  However, Lyttelton added, "While it bodes well for the future of the conversion process, it doesn’t really change the redundancy of the whole exercise: the film feels no more immersive in 3D than it did in 2D a decade and a half ago."  Speaking of 2D, the film will also get a re-release.  The 3D and 2D re-releases of Titanic are due out April 6, 2012.

Also in 3D news, Bleeding Cool posted a quick story confirming with Matt Bristowe, Head of Production at stereo house Prime Focus, that the 3D conversion process is finished for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.  If you honestly think that 3D can make the movie better then I'm sure you already know that the re-release is due out February 10, 2012.

The Playlist also got a look at some scenes from Tomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy during Universal's presentation.  Here are some choice quotes:

"It’s clear that watching their interplay and politicking will be one of the great pleasures of the film. Hurt rants and raves, clearly losing control, Firth observes, amused, and Oldman, nearly unrecognizable as George Smiley, is a picture of calm."

"The detailed eye for period that director Tomas Alfredson showed in Let The Right One In has clearly returned; it’s a beautifully designed, firmly lived-in world, and even minor characters—the receptionist who clearly has a crush on Guillam [Benedict Cumberbatch]—are beautifully played. Perhaps even more exciting is how old-fashioned the thrills are: Straughan described it as “old school,” and it certainly is, but it’s also deeply suspenseful while remaining restrained, aided by what sounds like a very promising score from regular Almodovar collaborator Alberto Iglesias."

"The Istanbul scenes were beautifully shot and characterful, while the final moment, a Rear Window-inspired moment where Tarr [Tom Hardy] watches his target, Boris, beat his wife, was particularly strong."

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will debut at the Venice Film Festival.  It opens in the UK on September 16th and in the US on November 18th.

Universal also showed footage from Contraband ("could be a decent-enough programmer, landing somewhere between The Town and season 2 of The Wire"), The Raven ("seems closer to Seven and could be good gothic fun, with John Cusack surprisingly convincing as Edgar Allan Poe"), and Immortals ("It’s cartoonishly gory in a way reminiscent of video game God of War, immaculately framed, and deathly dull. And from the new trailer we were shown, the performances look awful; lifeless and airless").  Judging by their reactions, it sounds like The Playlist was saw the footage from The Raven and Immortals that was shown at Comic-Con.

Empire Big Screen continues throughout the weekend so expect more news to comve out of the event.

*Zing, Billy Zane.  Zing.