San Francisco’s 24th annual WonderCon, the budding younger sibling of the mega-popular Comic-Con in San Diego, features three days of panels and programming on comics, movies, television, gaming and animé. I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Disney, Pixar and Warner Bros. panels on Saturday, April 3rd and caught some exclusive footage and enticing Q&As with the filmmakers and cast.

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I started my day with some very muscley footage of Jake Gyllenhaal in PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME. Based on the video game of the same name, Gyllenhaal stars as an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess (played by the lovely Gemma Arterton) to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that has the potential to destroy the world.

The panel included exclusive appearances by producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Mike Newell and lead actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Attendees were given a sneak peak of the action with a never-before-seen battle sequence displaying Gyllenhaal’s sweet wall climbing skills, acrobatics and combat maneuvers, noting that he does many of the stunts himself. The group took questions from the audience that ranged from discussing the complicated computer graphics to compliments on how pretty and tan Gyllenhaal was...sigh. PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME of Time opens theatrically on Friday, May 28th.

After the PRINCE OF PERSIA panel ended, and all the squeaky ladies left the room, Jerry Bruckheimer remained on stage to discuss his other Disney project, THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel and Teresa Palmer. The three actors joined Bruckheimer in the panel, along with director John Turteltaub, to discuss the film and share exclusive clips with the audience; including a glimpse of the infamous (and greatly enhanced) mop scene from the 1940 Disney film FANTASIA, which served as the inspiration for the film.

The Disney panel closed with the lovely folks from Pixar. TOY STORY 3 director Lee Unkrich brought with him a new scene from the film and some very enticing surprise guests: John Ratzenberger (who moderated the discussion and plays the very familiar voice of Hamm the piggy bank), Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords) voicing the glamorous Trixie the triceratops, and Jeff Garlin, who lends his voice to Buttercup, a very adorable unicorn. Unkrich also brought up a lucky audience member to play the part of Mr. Pricklepants, a thespian porcupine, for a script reading on stage. TOY STORY 3 opens on Friday, June 1st.

Going in another direction entirely, the next panel was all about RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, starring Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter. The ladies took questions and discussed the similarities between the game and the film, and how faithful they are trying to remain to it. Director Paul W.S. Anderson was also on hand to discuss his return to the franchise. He noted that this film will be the first to use the James Cameron helmed 3D technology since Avatar, creating an even more vivid viewing experience for moviegoers.

Stay tuned for some very intriguing roundtable interviews with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoë Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Óscar Jaenada and director Sylvain White discussing their new film THE LOSERS, based on the Vertigo comic of the same name. And another roundtable with remarks from Jackie Earl Haley and the new cast of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET!

Photos by: Chas Petersen