The title page for this mysterious long-lost project features an impressive list of comedy collaborators, to say the least.

This morning, I sat down with Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Eva Mendes to discuss their new film "The Other Guys," and while I'm still under embargo about that movie, I can share what happened at the very end of my interview with McKay.

I mentioned to him that I was doing this series on this site right now, and he told me he'd love to sit down and talk "SNL" at some point in the future.  I mentioned to him that I was going to write up a script I just discovered for the column this week, and when I told him the title, he looked at me like I'd just tried to describe cell memory in Mandarin Chinese.  "What is that?"  I told him, and I listed some of the writers who were involved, many of whom are friends of McKay's from his time on the show.  "I never even knew that existed," he said, astonished.  Keep in mind, Adam McKay was head writer of the show at one point, and he'd never heard of it.

I know the feeling.  And, honestly, it seems impossible to me that I've never heard of "The Saturday Night Live Movie."

As I've said since the start of this column, this subject has fascinated me for almost as long as the show's been on the air.  Once Chevy Chase made the jump to the bigscreen, he established a path that many others have followed over the years, both in front of the camera and behind it.  There have been films that have capitalized on the cultural currency of "Saturday Night Live" by tapping into the same counterculture comic sensibilities, like "Animal House" or "Caddyshack," as well as films that have directly translated "SNL" characters to the bigscreen like "The Blues Brothers" and "Wayne's World" and "Coneheads."

Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are featured in the exclusive "Scott Pilgrim" remix debut called 'Ramona' today.

Credit: Universal Pictures

Have you been watching the "Scott Pilgrim" remixes?

These are so much fun as a different way of cutting a trailer.  It's all impression, these little mini-movies that are each themed differently, each just a riff on a word or a feeling or an idea.  They're... remixes.  There's nothing else to call them.  DJ Osymyso is the guy who worked with Edgar Wright to put these together, and each one uses music from the film and footage from the film in the most interesting of ways.  What I like most about them is how they're... gentle.  It's a whole lot of "Scott Pilgrim," yes, and you would call these remixes marketing materials by any standard... but they don't feel like a hard sell at all.  They're just these great little tastes of what "Pilgrim" is all about.

One thing I don't think I've really said about any of the "Pilgrim" trailers or materials so far... I think Bill Pope's work here is jaw-dropping.  He's a great cinematographer anyway, a guy whose work I've been consistently impressed by, but this stuff is just gorgeous so far.  It's like the film is made of cotton candy and lasers, sugar sweet and lacerating.  I watched the giant uncompressed HD file that Universal sent over and I'm just drooling.  Edgar's such a strong visual stylist that for him to collaborate with a world-class guy like Pope turns into this wonderful collision.  That's the real reason I've held off from seeing too much of the film so far.  It looks like it's absolutely worth the wait.

Seth Rogen and Jay Chou are The Green Hornet and Kato in next year's action/comedy 'The Green Hornet'

Credit: Sony Pictures

"Katovision," a villain with a mid-life crisis, and missiles in the newsroom.

Yep, this is what a Michel Gondry comic book movie looks like.

The day a group of us were invited to visit the Culver City sets of "The Green Hornet" began in the newsroom of The Daily Sentinel, the newspaper owned by Brett Reid, Seth Rogen's character in the film, and ended with groups of us being driven around Culver City in the Black Beauty, the decked out car that is one of the signatures of the character.  In-between, we saw just enough to convince me that whatever "The Green Hornet" ends up being, it will be sincerely intentioned, and the people behind it seem dedicated to making something that both sincerely honors the genre and mercilessly deconstructs it.

When we first arrived on the Culver lot where they were shooting the film, the small group of us in attendance were taken into the newsroom set first, where they had just finished shooting a major action sequence that involved the Black Beauty actually firing missiles from one end of the newsroom to the other.  This is on the heels of a larger car chase sequence that features the Black Beauty driving into an elevator, then getting cut in half as the elevator goes up, a gag that they staged as a practical effect on another set.  It's an outrageous sequence as designed, and the aftermath was crazy.  They really did blow the set up, and as we walked through it, producer Neal Moritz as our tour guide, we had to step over bullet casings and burnt newspapers, making our way past tubes and cables hanging from the ceiling like someone had disembowled the building.

Here's what you'll see on the front of the new Motion/Captured t-shirt.  On the back?  A treasure map to buried gold! (Note:  part of that statement may be a blatant lie)

Credit: HitFix

I've just seen the final designs for the Comic-Con 2010 t-shirts, and to my great shock and sadness, there's nary a naked image of either myself nor Alan Sepinwall on either shirt.

Ladies, I apologize.

Now, if you can manage to control your disappointment, I think you'll find that the actual shirts are... well, actually cool.  There's one for "What's Alan Watching?" and one for "Motion/Captured" and if you want to get your hands on them, it's easy.  Here's what we're thinking...

• Go to facebook.com/hitfix and post "I want a Motion/Captured t-shirt" on the wall. First 120 come, first 120 served.
• Only one t-shirt per person.
• Winners will be able to pick up their shirts on Thursday at a location very close to the San Diego Convention Center, and will receive details on how to get them after the contest deadline Wednesday at noon Pacific.
• Winners can ask for a specific size, but there's no guarantee that you'll get it, so if you're particularly small or large, once you know where and when to go you may want to get there early in the process.
• The t-shirts are obviously free, and all we ask in return is that anyone who gets one wear it to the Con on Friday, where I'll now be moderating TWO panels in Hall H back to back.  The first is "Drive Angry 3-D," and immediately afterwards is "Skyline."  (Similarly, if you want and win a What's Alan Watching? shirt, try to wear it to the "Chuck" panel Alan's moderating on Saturday with Dan Fienberg in Ballroom 20. Show HitFix some love, people!)

Yes, I know I said yesterday I was only moderating two panels, but things change.

Soren (voiced by Jim Sturgess) is the unlikely hero of the animated adventure movie 'Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole"

Credit: Warner Bros./Village Roadshow

I spent a decent chunk of time on the Warner lot this afternoon, for more than one purpose, and at one point, I found myself standing, stretching my legs, ten free minutes to myself for the first time since waking up, having a Jamba Juice. 

It was hot today in Burbank but not punishing.  At least not on the lot, where there was a constant breeze.  Some scoring session must have just let out, because there were people walking past me carrying instrument cases large and small.  Lots of them, chatting, off work and on their way home.  It was just after 4:00, and I had three more things to do by 6:30, so I was enjoying the sort of brain-off disconnect.

Amidst the musicians, I saw a few people walking toward me, and it was one of those moments where you see them out of focus at first, and there's something vaguely familiar, and then as they get closer, something in the way someone moves, or some distant raised voice that you catch just a hint of sets off some alarm, and you look closer.  Do I know this person?  Or these people?

And sure enough, it was Zack Snyder, his wife and producer Deb Snyder, and their producing partner Wesley Coller, three familiar faces in a row.  They were one of the reasons I was on the lot, and by "they," I mean there was a "roadshow presentation" today on the lot for their new film together, "Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'hoole".  It's a 3-D animated adventure epic... starring owls.  Lots and lots and lots of owls.  As Deb Snyder pointed out later in the afternoon, the first "Star Wars" is still Zack Snyder's favorite movie, and that journey that Luke Skywalker makes, as he learns of his own innate power and he takes his first steps into the larger world... that's the journey that drew Snyder to react to the Kathryn Lasky novels in the first place, and that's the journey you'll find underlining the visually stunning movie that Warner will release September 24 of this year.

Will Ferrell gives voice to the title character in 'Megamind,' one of two films that I'll be helping to introduce at this year's San Diego Comic-Con

Credit: DreamWorks Animation

I've never been on that stage in Hall H to moderate.  I've handled the job on smaller panels in other rooms, and no matter what size venue, I've felt like I've been incredibly lucky to be asked to do some of the things I've been asked to do.  For god's sake, I got to stand a few feet away from Edgar Wright, Jessica Hynes neeeeeee Stevenson, and Simon Pegg in a room full of (understandably) crazed "Spaced" fans, and it was amazing to see how much love that packed room was able to generate for the people who made this thing that they all loved so very, very much.  Introducing "Mystery Team" and DERRICK Comedy to Comic-Con last year or trying to stay afloat in a conversation with the wicked minds behind "Paper Heart," those were things that I'd been hoping to do since seeing those films at Sundance, and going from that fest to a room at Comic-Con just underscored how very, very odd the entire experience has become.

This year, however, I've been invited to moderate two panels at Comic-Con, and both of them are in Hall H, and in both cases, I'm just as curious as anyone else about what we're going to get to see.  I love that these aren't things I'm already completely sold on, because for me, the Comic-Con experience is about the great surprise, that moment where you go, "I had no idea I needed to see that right now" or "I had no idea this book existed, and I don't know how I ever lived without it" or "I will watch every episode of that TV show no matter what," a presentation that just plain sells something.  That is, after all, what Comic-Con's Hall H has become... a parade of what's next, and this is the moment when the first audience gets a very focused look at what you're doing.

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd co-star in "Dinner for Schmucks," opening next week.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Every married couple has "the list."

You know what I mean, too.  Each spouse gets their fantasy list of celebrities they are allowed to indulge any carnal fantasy with if the opportunity ever arises, which it won't, which is the point.  It allows you to admit some stray desires to your spouse safely, under the guise of a game, and then it removes the threat of temptation.

The problem if you work in a business like mine is that celebrities don't just remain images on a TV screen.  I end up interacting with them all the time, and in many cases, you end up in a strange vaguely familiar relationship with them that lasts for years in some cases.  I'm not presumptuous enough to call these people my friends, but I would say you end up being friendly with them, almost as a side effect of just doing the job.

In my case, I had a moment where "the list" became a terrifying prospect, because I'm fairly sure Paul Rudd sits very near the top of my wife's list.  She's not alone, of course, thanks to the almost mythic power of "Clueless" on the girls who saw it at the right age.  Rudd is one of those actors who has always been fairly charming, since his first major roles, and who continues to redefine himself as he works.  When I was invited to the set of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in Hawaii, it was amusing to watch how even the actors who didn't need to be on-set decided to hang around for weeks after they had to be there in some cases.  Often when a film is on location, actors will fly home when they aren't needed, but with "Marshall," there was none of that.  People stayed.  It was probably the longest I saw the various member of the Apatow repertory company all in one place.

Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galiafinakis co-star in the new Todd Phillips comedy 'Due Date'

Credit: Warner Bros./Legendary

I've been watching Zach Galifianakis live onstage here in LA for years now, and it's been strange watching him explode in popularity in the last year since the release of "The Hangover."  It's not even like he was new to movies, but for whatever reason, "The Hangover" turned him into a sudden star, and so it shouldn't be a surprise to see movies being built around his particular comic persona.

If I had to describe that persona, I'd go with "seriously mentally unstable man-baby."

At least, that's what he played in "The Hangover," and that looks to be exactly what he's playing again in the new film from Todd Phillips.  I thought the script for "Due Date" was familiar stuff, funny but definitely a rehash of very familiar ground that we've seen in movies like "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."  Take two mismatched people, stick them together on a hellish road trip, and wait for the comic hijinks to ensue, right?

Casting Galifianakis opposite Robert Downey Jr. is smart casting.  And it looks like there could be some genuine friction between the two of them based on the first trailer for "Due Date," released today.  The problem I'm having is that it just all feels so familiar.  The film may turn out to be very funny in context, but it's one of those films where I think even the most casual moviegoer is going to be ahead of the story from the very start, and no matter how well acted, I'm not sure you can win an audience over completely if they're sitting and waiting for story beats to play out.

Anthony Hopkins has his one eye on his two sons in an exclusive new image online today for next year's Marvel adaptation of 'Thor'

Credit: Marvel Studios

If you'd asked me a few days ago what the most eagerly anticipated panel at Comic-Con was, I would have said "Tron," but now, I don't think that's true.  I think the events of the last few days and the announcement this morning, via Geoff Boucher at the Hero Complex blog, that both "Thor" and "Captain America" will be given the full 3-D treatment before they are released next year makes the Saturday evening Marvel panel the single most important hour for anyone who's covering the event, and for any fan who has any interest in understanding what the next few years of Marvel movies might look like.

When I visited the set of "Thor," a day I hope we get permission to write about soon so I can finally explain some of the enthusiasm I've got for the film, it was obvious that the conversations were already underway about whether or not to release these movies in 3-D.  With "Captain America," the discussion about shooting it in native 3-D was still ongoing, and according to Boucher's article, they actually had Joe Johnston direct a test using the 3-D cameras.  He didn't like the process at all because of the way the gear changed the style of shooting he wanted to do on the film.  He just didn't feel comfortable using the big bulky 3-D rigs.

So now it looks like we're going to see films that are being shot and immediately handed over to 3-D conversion teams a full year before they're in theaters, with all the visual effects work being produced for 3-D specifically.  That last detail may not sound like a big deal, but it could easily make the difference in how the films work visually and how well they integrate the process with the storytelling.

The ensemble cast of the new horror film 'Devil,' sharing the elevator that is the film's central location.

Credit: Universal Pictures

What day is it?  What time is it?  Where am I?

I keep waiting for the twist ending to this week, but I have a feeling I'm just wrapped up in that build-up to Comic-Con whirlwind, and until I'm done with that convention, I don't think things are going to ease up.

As a result, yesterday pretty much vanished without a trace.  The trade-off is that I now have all of Wednesday here at the house, and I plan to try to post about 99 article.  Or six.  Something like that.  We'll see what things look like by Thursday morning.  The point is that I've got a lot of content for you, and before I head to bed, I wanted to catch up on a few things that broke while I was doing things like writing up a set visit, visiting another set, and prepping for some of the crazy stuff going down at Comic-Con next week.

First, have you seen the "Devil" trailer?

I've been an ardent supporter of the horror career of John Erik Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, his creative partner/brother, and considering the heat I took for supporting their unfortunately underseen "The Poughkeepsie Tapes," it's extra-nice to hear the buzz I've been hearing for their new film "Devil," and to see a trailer that promises a crazy, stylish little dark "Twilight Zone" style thriller.  This is the first release under a new anthology banner, presented by M. Night Shyamalan, and it's based on a story idea by him, with the screenplay written by Brian Nelson.  The Dowdles were the ones picked to direct the first film and kick off "The Night Chronicles," and despite the rumors in the days after the release of "The Last Airbender," they've certainly got M. Night's name front and center in the ad campaign that this kicks off.