What happens when you have Tim Burton and Russian great Timur Bekmambetov on your panel? If you’re Shane Acker, a first-time director who took the stage today to present 9, an animated feature based on his 2005 short, it’s what Burton and Bekmambetov have to say about the other films they’re involved in that takes over the spotlight.

A 9 pedicab idling outside the Convention Center

Both film giants are producing 9 and they clearly are the young filmmaker’s mentors — though I realized that Burton and Acker are tied for their number of Oscar nominations — but the Hall H crowded was way more interested in getting updates on Wanted 2, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and whether or not there will be a third and final installment of Bekmambetov’s Night Watch saga.

I found myself more engaged by the news on these projects, and realized I was disinterested in 9‘s footage and the rest of the panel. If some secrets had been shared, perhaps I would have felt drawn into Acker’s animated world, but it clangs loudly and still triggers feelings of claustrophobia and anxiety in me.

So, those other projects?

Burton made it known that Ripley‘s is dead; Bekmambetov’s Dusk Watch probably will never happen, either. However, Wanted 2 will begin shooting in a few months with James McAvoy.

Whoa, I almost forgot: Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly were on the panel. See how distracting those two mega-producers can be?