The geeks are pulling Hollywood's strings right now, and that's not a good thing

The geeks have inherited the Earth. Or at least Hollywood.

After decades on the fringes, fanboys and comic-book nerds have become the most important demographic in the entertainment business.

Their influence on what we see at the megaplex and on television is vast and powerful. The Ain't It Cool News websites of the world are in effect telling those who are in charge what to do.

This is an awful development.

At last month's Comic-Con, 100,000 fan boys (and girls) — many in homemade costumes patterned after those of their favorite characters (and ignoring that most of us do not have spandex-friendly bodies) — descended on San Diego for their big annual fix.

Comic-Con was once just a comic-book convention where lonely guys thumbed through bins of back issues in search of buried treasure.

Today the gathering may be the most influential weapon in Hollywood's marketing arsenal, an opportunity to introduce ideas and projects to a rabid and loyal fan base. Comic-Con is seen as capable of creating a buzz that will carry the right project through many months of production and practically guarantee a big opening weekend.

It wasn't always like this. A quarter century ago, the heavy hitters of movies and television would have sneeringly dismissed these Comic-Con revelers as laughable losers.

Why waste time and money courting a bunch of dweebs obsessed with comic books, sci-fi, horror and fantasy? After all, isn't that the stuff of B movies and cheap exploitation?

But that was then. In 2010, titles that formerly would have been dismissed as B movies are now big-budget A-list projects. The reason is that the entertainment industry, always in search of a sure thing, thinks it has found one in geek culture.

This has been good for the movie industry.

It has been terrible for movies.

I do understand that among the geek community there are smart people and the not-so-smart, garrulous charmers and creepy misfits.

I realize that among comic books and graphic novels are many titles that genuinely qualify as works of art. I just don't see many of them making the leap to film or TV.

But judging from the entertainments that are being pitched to this community of true believers, we can draw some conclusions.