Megan Fox hadn’t finished taking photos at the end of the Warner Bros. presentation for Jonah Hex before Robert Downey Jr. leaped onstage past the starlet to the surprise and delight of the crowd gathered for the Sherlock Holmes panel. SciFiWire notes Downey acknowledged the applause of the crowd by bowing to the packed hall before screening a clip from the film..

The footage introduces Downey as Holmes, Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, Holmes’ female foil and sometime lover, Jude Law as Watson and Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood. One sequence features Holmes squaring off in a ring against a much larger man; before they battle, he imagines (in slow motion) what he should do to maximize the damage he can inflict, then does it in real time. Later, Holmes is bested by McAdams’ character, who seduces him, chains him to a bed and leaves him for a chambermaid to discover. The clip also featured a lot of big action, including a fight scene atop a drawbridge and a showdown by the docks.

Director Guy Ritchie wasn’t in attendance to promote the film, but producers Susan Downey (Robert’s wife) and Joel Silver and co-star McAdams took the stage with Downey to talk about the character. Susan Downey suggested that Sherlock Holmes “applies as much today as he did” in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, while Silver praised the interpretation of him, saying “Downey really is genius in this role. He made it come to life.”

McAdams pointed out that she had the freedom to develop her character, unencumbered by the legacy and mythology of the Holmes novels, mostly because Irene appears in only one book, for about 10 pages. She also said that Irene was uncharacteristic for Holmes’ era, explaining that “she kind of lives in the underworld. [Holmes and I] develop this kind of strange, unique love affair.”

At the end of the panel, Susan Downey revealed that although Mrs. Hudson makes an appearance in the film, none of the other Baker Street characters are in the film. Regardless, she insisted that the film has “a narrative unique to the movie.” Sherlock Holmes opens Christmas Day.

The first full day at San Diego’s Comic-Con featured revelations and first looks at Tron Legacy, New Moon, Alice in Wonderland and a little film called Avatar. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? James Cameron offered fans an impressive 24 minute 3-D screening of his forthcoming, highly-anticipated film, and by all accounts, especially SciFiWire’s, the material more than lives up to heavy expectations.

The footage clearly impressed the crowd, who made no secret of their appreciation of what they saw. Cameron seemed quite pleased by this and told the crowd, “Everybody always asks: So where’ve you been? Well, that’s where I’ve been. Pandora.”

Avatar’s preview centered around Jake (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic grunt who enlists for the military’s avatar program, which allows the personality of humans to be projected into clones of the Na’vi people, an indigenous race of alien creatures. Once on the surface of Pandora, Jake gets into trouble with native creatures, is reluctantly befriended by a female Na’vi native named Natiri (Zoe Saldana) and learns how to mindmeld and control a pterodactyl-like monster.

Cameron also revealed that 15 minutes of material will available for free at IMAX 3D and regular 3-D theaters across the globe on August 21.

Avatar stars Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana and Giovanni Ribisi and will be released on December 18, 2009.