Delivering a massive event with his trademarked smile behind the camera, Morgan Spurlock‘s Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope is the kind of joyous celebration that might also serve as a gateway drug for those not initiated into geek culture. It’s a documentary that easily straddles the line between service to those already fascinated by the subject and to those that haven’t ever heard of a comic book. It could have been annoyingly fluffy, but Spurlock has crafted a film that doesn’t just act as advertisement for the largest comic book/multimedia convention in the country. In fact, the question of whether the convention is still faithful to its comic book roots is at the center of the multi-faced exploration that gives the movie much more dimension than it initially lets on. The doc is composed of several stories – a pair of artists looking to break into the business, a costume designer and her crew looking to make a mark, a young couple who fell in love at the event, and a comic book dealer who is trying to justify coming back financially. All are woven together with expert timing (and a fun, comic book style art element that turns them into characters of a different sort).

Last week the programmers for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival introduced the main course of this year’s festival lineup, fifty-three films from all over the world, big and small, about any number of subjects. The list was so impressive I ran out and booked a hotel room. So, now that I’m financially locked in to heading up to the city of David Cronenberg and that rapper who called himself SNOW, I’ll be following future announcements by the festival pretty closely. Today brought a big one. Adding to their initial lineup of films, TIFF has added a bunch of documentary works by fairly large documentary filmmakers and a bunch of genre works from fairly deranged genre filmmakers. First let’s take a look at some of the docs. Thom Powers is the lead programmer for documentaries, and about this year’s lineup he said, “I’m thrilled at the large number of veteran filmmakers who have brought us new works this year. The line-up contains a wide range of memorable characters – crusaders, convicts, artists, athletes, nude dancers, comic book fans, dog lovers and more. Not to mention the epic 15-hour Story of Film. These documentaries will have audiences discussing and debating for months to come.” I don’t think I’ll have time for that fifteen hour one, I’ve only got five days in the city, but the one about nude dancers is definitely on my docket.

The Hall H floor at Comic-Con was an easy audience for it, and Morgan Spurlock took full use of the home field advantage when he introduced a trailer for his new documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. He’s partnered with Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Harry Knowles from Aint It Cool to make a film about the event that offers fans the freedom to dust off their Ryuk costume and wear it without shame. The trailer was sleek and featured memories and observations from Whedon, Eli Roth (who brought up the first time he “took a piss next to a stormtrooper and a Klingon), Seth Rogen, Kevin Smith, Seth Green and Guillermo del Toro. All Con favorites, they were joined by a few fans as well as what appeared to be an aspiring artist getting his work reviewed from working comic book producers. The trailer itself was otherwise vague, but it looks like it will have the same humor and heart that Spurlock’s work is marked by, and with full access, there are a ton of great stories that might be told.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s like watching CNN or the New York Times, but funnier and without all of the big words. It covers movie news every night in a way that no other movie news column set to run at 11p CST can. It was also far more punctual than President Obama’s speech tonight. So it’s got that going for it. Earlier this evening it was announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces. Great job to our fighting men and women. That guy was a real douche. Perhaps just as interesting, as Badass Digest points out, was the fact that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was aware of the news before anyone else. This is what happens when you kick ass in Fast Five and open with an $83 million dollar weekend.

I am not a fan of 3D. Even in the most technologically adept cases where the 3D landscape has layers of depth, even in those most “Cameronesque” of instances, I am unable to get past the gimmickry in the mode of viewing. As a human being, I’m already trained to perceive two-dimensional images in three dimensions, why would I need to attach cumbersome glasses to my face to show me a pronounced version of what I already perceive? I had never encountered a situation in which the forced depth of 3D actually added to any depth in content of the film itself. That is, until I saw Werner Herzog’s The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

In this season of meta (Rubber, Scream 4), Morgan Spurlock trumps all. Leave it to the Super Size Me documentarian, who has made a career out of sacrificing his mind and body for his projects, to humorously sell out his dignity to corporations for the most painstakingly self-reflexive movie of any sort since Adaptation. His POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is, yes, exactly what that above-title sponsorship suggests it to be. Rightfully disturbed by the ubiquity of product placement in modern entertainment, Spurlock sets out to spoof that synchronous blend of corporate schilling and art by crafting a documentary about his attempts to accrue corporate sponsors for a documentary about his attempts to accrue corporate sponsors for a documentary. And on and on we go.

Does anyone drink POM Wonderful? Who actually consumes that stuff? Besides the snoods who shop at the high-market grocery stores, it seems impossible to meet someone that genuinely enjoys POM Wonderful… except for Morgan Spurlock who, of course, just loves POM Wonderful. Whether or not he actually likes them for their product is neither here nor there, but he should love them for financing a huge chunk of his latest film, POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Spurlock’s doc is a comedic exploration into the shady and vicious advertising world. Spurlock has become known for his signature humor, and Greatest Movie Ever Sold fits the filmmaker’s bill that we all know. But if you had told Morgan Spurlock 20 years ago he’d be in the documentary business that may have not appealed to him. Surprisingly, Spurlock originally aspired to make horror films, and he names Clive Barker and the head explosion scene from Scanners as early inspirations. In some ways Spurlock did wind up making horror films, but instead of monsters and gore he’s focusing on the far more subtle horrors inherent in modern society. Here’s what director Morgan Spurlock, a film school reject himself that got turned down five times from USC, had to say about how he defines selling out as a director, commercialism, and that delicious pomegranate juice:

Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock has another one of his investigative documentaries making the rounds of the festival circuit and about to be released in theaters. This time his subject is ad culture and the out of control way that corporate branding is taking over our lives. In a sort of Meta exercise, Spurlock funded the movie entirely on corporate endorsements and sponsorship deals. What a cheeky monkey. But the biggest stunt ever pulled in the history of this film’s promotion is to come on April 27th when Spurlock turns the tables and does some sponsoring of his own. The struggling town of Altoona, PA has agreed to rename their burg “POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold” after Spurlock’s upcoming documentary POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Suddenly I’m feeling like this story has so many layers that I need Christopher Nolan to come explain it to me. But, concrete details: there will be a ceremony on April 27th at Altoona City Hall at 1PM where the name change will officially take place, followed by a screening of Spurlock’s film afterwards at the Jaffa Shrine, and the name change is set to last for 60 days. On why he is pulling this stunt, Spurlock said, “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the shifting tide of business in America than by purchasing the naming rights to Altoona. For the next 60 days, POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold, PA will be the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Morgan Spurlock is headed back to Sundance, but the frosty air of Utah might seem a bit warmer if his movie is already sold by the time it gets there. The Hollywood Reporter is Hollywood reporting that The Greatest Film Ever Sold has already gotten a lot of interest from Sony Pictures Classics – a natural fit for the think-piece documentary from the ginger mustachioed cultural gadfly. If you were tired of the story crisis currently going on in Hollywood, maybe your eyes will open wide to the prospect of Spurlock making a movie by asking corporations to sponsor his movie. While he’s making the movie. His asking them to sponsor the movie is part of the movie, so whether they do it or not, they become part of the movie, making the question moot and the person trying to create a logline jumping off the roof. Yes, it sounds fantastic, and since Spurlock saved Neil’s life once, we owe it to the man to check out his new film. Fingers crossed that he approached McDonald’s about the hot new sponsorship opportunity.

With the release of Pixar’s Up, last year saw a great deal of conversation surrounding the ghettoization of animated movies at major awards shows. This debate resulted in something of a minor, qualified victory for animated cinema of 2009, as Up was the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture since Beauty and the Beast, but then again it sat amongst a crowded bevy of nine fellow nominations, and animated films remain unthreatening to their live action competitors because of the separate-but-unequal Best Animated Feature Category. I’d like to take this space to advocate for the big-category acceptance of yet another marginalized and underappreciated category around awards time: non-fiction films.

Reading “Freakonomics” was sort of a badge of honor for presumably independent-thinking business school students back in college, but its effect cannot be overstated. It was part of the non-fiction revolution taking a deeper look into the world that we live in from a younger generation that refused to wear tweed jackets or talk quietly in class. A generation more pop-cultured than cultured. It makes sense that in adapting the best-selling book into a film, the younger generation of well-known documentary filmmakers would be asked to add their own true story about connectivity to the mix.

Morgan Spurlock is teaming with Stan Lee, Thomas Tull, Joss Whedon and Harry Knowles to deliver a documentary…and they want you.

For our final Tribeca review, we look at the disappointing ‘Freakonomics,’ which was the fest’s closing night feature.

Word from Marc Malkin at E! Online is that geek favorite Joss Whedon and documentarian Morgan Spurlock are looking to follow around a bunch of costumed lovers of the arts in the months leading up to August’s San Diego Comic-Con. According to a source, the pair are currently developing the idea, which will focus on a small group of convention-going supergeeks and the people around them.

In the year of our lord, 1996, pop culture commentator and writer extraordinaire Chuck Klosterman ate nothing but McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets for a week. He would later go on to chronicle this feat in an Esquire article about a man who made a name for himself eating McDonald’s for an entire month for the purposes of making a film. That film was Super Size Me, and that man was Morgan Spurlock. In 2010, two idiots from Film School Rejects would prove that history does repeat itself, despite itself.

Sundance is fast approaching. But while I have forgotten to reply to emails or make a schedule, it appears as if the folks at Sundance are on the ball.

It tries to say too many things at times, but ultimately has a good message. Unfortunately, it spends too much time trying to live up to the cool, marketable title when Osama Bin Laden isn’t even the focus of the message.

First, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonalds for a month. And it almost killed him. Now, he’s got his wife pregnant, and he’s looking for Osama Bin Laden. What does that have to do with drinking? Nothing! But that’s not going to stop me from doing it.

We take a break from drinking like sailors to see movies, stalk celebs and then… drink more!

Morgan Spurlock goes in search of the world’s most wanted man…