Movie-Con II Day One: District 9, Downey Jnr and Dr Parnassus

This weekend I'm in film geek heaven, joining 499 other film fans at London's BFI cinema on the Southbank for Movie-Con II, two days of trailers, interviews, sneak peeks and exclusive screenings from the world of cinema.

Kicking off at 10am, we were treated to footage from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who had provided a pre-filmed introduction from the New Zealand, for the much anticipated Lovely Bones.

Opening in the 1970s, the film starts with the murder of a young girl and the failure of the police to capture her killer. Although she's dead, the girl can see everything taking place in her home from a kind of limbo, somewhere between heaven and hell.

There she does everything she can to help her parents find out the truth behind her death.

The film looks gorgeous, Jackson using CGI to enhance the look of the afterlife rather than overwhelm it. It looks dark, scary and strangely uplifting and I can't wait to see this on release.

There was also footage from the next film in the Twilight saga, New Moon. The clip shown was of Bella (Kristin Stewart) tried to ride a motorbike for the first time. As she takes off on said bike she sees visions of Edward (Robert Pattinson), causing her to crash the bike.

The next scene, of a man noticing her cut head and taking his T-shirt off to wipe the blood, caused a wave of laughter from the audience, while the acting was extremely ropey.

I didn't have high hopes for this one before and have even less now, but rest assured it'll be a hit at the box office with the target audience of young girls.

Extended clips from new animated adventure Astroboy followed, which looks like it could be good fun if a little simplistic in tone, and a trailer for US teen horror Sorority Row, which looks like it could be good fun, if quite bloody.

One of the highlights of the day came with footage from the next Michael Caine film, Harry Brown, which stars the Cockney legend as a retired war veteran tired of the intimidation from local Hoodies on his London housing estate.

When his best friend is killed, Harry decides to take his revenge by buying a gun from local drug dealers and wreaking havoc on the gun-toting youngsters.

With echoes of the recent Clint Eastwood thriller Grand Torino, the clips shown were very encouraging, as was the enthusiasm from the film's director, who seems to have put a lot of love and attention into the picture.

Next was ex-Python Terry Gilliam, here to promote his new film, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, a story about a fantastical travelling circus.

Any new Gilliam movie is worth getting excited about, but this one looks particularly exciting, not least because of the involvement of the late Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and the always-watchable Johnny Depp.

The film first hit the headlines when Ledger died, leaving Law, Farrell and Depp to complete his scenes in the stunning fantasy sequences inside the Imaginarium. Gilliam urged people not to think of this as merely Heath's final film but as Dr Parnassus' film, and I'm sure this will be a highlight of the next twelve months at the cinema.

There was also footage shown of superhero comedy Kick-Ass, focussing on a teenager who's sick of being bullied and who decides to become a crimefighter, the Kick-Ass of the title, to take revenge on the local tough guys.

Moving from comedy to drama and back to comedy in the space of a few seconds, this is bound to be a controversial one when it comes out, not least because of the knife wielding little girl who wreaks bloody havoc. One scene involving Nicolas Cage, the girl and the use of a gun will certainly provoke outrage, but it's all done with tongue firmly in cheek.

The surprise movie of the day was new science fiction film District 9, more of which in my Evening News column when the film is released, though I can say the CGI is amazing and the plot just about manages to stretch to the 107 minute run time.

Most unexpected event of the day was an appearance by Mr Robert Downey Jnr and Guy Richie to introduce their new collaboration, Sherlock Holmes.

The crowd went wild when Downey Jnr appeared on stage, a touch of Hollywood style brought to the Southbank on a warm day in August - the film itself looks like it could be good fun, if not exactly faithful to the source material.

Elsewhere there was footage from the remake of the first Nightmare on Elm Street, Jonah Hex, Where the Wild Things Are (which could either be a masterpiece or a grand failure judging by the scenes shown), Ninja Assassin and Dorian Gray.

Tomorrow promises even more excitement, including footage from James Cameron's Avatar and Tron 2 - follow me on Twitter for the latest updates from the event.