Raf: It was a good thing I allotted a couple of hours on Friday for mingling and meandering around the exhibition floor, because once I looked at Saturday's schedule, I knew it was going to be jam-packed. And I don't just mean the panels, discussions, etc. - the entire convention center was literally jam-packed with hordes of fans. Saturday was definitely the big day of the Con.
Tim: If I thought Friday was hectic, then Saturday was chaos incarnate. Hordes of people descended upon the San Diego Convention, and the studios responded by bringing out all their big guns. From film to television, some of the best and brightest were out there to share their opinions and promote their upcoming products. I even had a chance to conduct interviews with several Hollywood stars which are coming your way soon.
Raf: Once inside the building, I headed straight for the pressroom, where Angelina Jolie was scheduled to answer a few questions before meeting the masses. Once inside the ballroom for the Paramount presentation, pure chaos reigned, and it was great stuff. I could say a lot about this, but Danna was all over it. For all the Angelina Jolie/Tomb Raider coverage you can handle, click here.
Tim: The first panel I attended was the Warner Bros. Presentation of their upcoming films. There were a couple of taped messages from the stars of some of their upcoming films. The Scooby Gang promoted Scooby Two, Daniel Radcliffe and director Alfredo Mazeco talked about all the new elements of the third Harry Potter film without revealing anything that wasn't previously known. Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller also had a humorous video message promoting the upcoming Starsky and Hutch. They also showed us some advanced footage for the upcoming Looney Tunes film, which looked surprisingly funny. Plus it puts Daffy Duck front and center, and that's always a good thing. We were also told that over the next year, Warner Bros. would start creating new Looney Tunes shorts that would air in front of movies. But Warner Bros. big gun was still coming, Halle Berry.
After the Oscar winning actress received a rather lengthy amount of applause, she showed a making of featurette of her new horror film Gothika. Co-Starring Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz, and Charles S. Dutton the film looks extremely promising. The plot revolves around a female psychologist who works at an institution for the criminally insane who wakes up one day to find herself committed in the institution. Halle then held a brief question and answer panel that revealed some more tidbits.
She loves doing genre films in general, appreciating the creativity of them. She would define Gothika as a thriller/horror film, because why it does include a fair bit of carnage, the majority of it is very psychological. In regards to X-Men 3 she doesn't know if she'll be coming back to play the part of Storm. She just doesn't feel like the character does enough to make her truly interesting to portray. Finally, she did just receive the script for the Jinx film, but hasn't had a chance to read it. She is currently gearing up for her role as Catwoman.
Raf: I had a 30 minute window between the Tomb Raider presentation and the Star Trek writers panel, so I decided to pop my head in the Futurama panel. Featuring creator Matt Groening, exec producer David X. Cohen, writer Bill Odenkirk, and perhaps most amusingly, the man behind Bender - John DiMaggio, they were introducing an apparently never-before-seen episode, "Bender Doesn't Belong on Television" when I came in. Not only was it a great episode, but the single funniest moment came as a few audience members were still talking as the show was about to start and DiMaggio yelled out "Everyone shut the Hell up!"
Tim: I was off interviewing the actors, director, writer, and producer of the upcoming Freddy vs. Jason. And then I talked with a pair of hobbits about Return of the King. Coming soon.
Raf: At 1:30 I attended the "How to write and pitch for Star Trek" discussion, featuring top Trek writers D.C. Fontana (TOS and TNG), Eric Stillwell (TNG's Yesterday's Enterprise) Keith de Candido (many Trek books), Jimmy Diggs (freelance writer of seven DS9 and Voyager eps), and Steve Fratt - a man who's pitched to four separate ST series without ever making a sale. So this was a workshop of sorts for helping all the aspiring writers to get in the door, but it was also a great opportunity to hear many insights from guys who are old pros at pitching to the big wigs. Unfortunately, they lamented the fact that these days, for better or worse, most of the story ideas seem to come directly from Berman & Braga. Towards the end, they allowed several attendees to come to the front, and pitch their ideas to the entire panel, and the whole room. To anyone who wants to write in the sci fi genre, of television period, this was an invaluable experience.
Tim: I was talking to the cast and director of Underworld. Yes, this too is coming soon. Really . . . I promise. Get off my back already!
Raf: Before heading over to the Sony panel, I managed to catch the tail-end of J. Michael Straczynski's forum, where he fielded questions on everything from B5 to Jeremiah and beyond. A tidbit for Jeremiah fans - even if the show is renewed by Showtime for a third season, JMS will not be a part of it. Apparently, he and MGM have come a point where collaboration is no longer possible.
Raf: On to the Sony panel! Lots of good stuff here to talk about - Underworld, Hellboy, and of course, Spider-Man 2. First up, Underworld. Admittedly I didn't know a whole lot about this movie going in, but I've got to tell you it looks sweet. Finally, a modern movie about vampires vs. werewolves… starring Kate Beckinsale! Not who I'd have pegged as a hero-type, but from the trailer, she looked great in the part. Aside from Beckinsale, co-stars Scott Speedman and Kevin Grevioux (also story/associate producer), along with director Len Wiseman and screenwriter Danny McBride all showed up. Now for the record, Grevioux has the deepest baritone on the entire planet. Everyone thought it was some sort of microphone malfunction at first, but no. This will be Wiseman's first feature film, but his background in music videos should serve this movie well. It's look and atmosphere recall Alex Proyas' work in Dark City and The Crow - two movies I'd call modern classics. Wiseman and Beckinsale were definitely tight-lipped, however, about their reported on-set romance. I suppose they don't want it to distract from the film, but come on - give us something already!
While I can't wait for Underworld, I must admit I was less than blown away by the first look at Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy. Okay, I'm not even that familiar with Hellboy so I'm probably not the guy to say how it looked or not, but I just have a feeling that this could be the first comic-to-film superhero in this recent craze to bomb. I'm just not sure if people who are unfamiliar with the character (i.e. most people) are going to be able to identify with the guy. There was, however, one really cool shot of him punching an oncoming SUV and flipping it over his head, so hopefully I'll be mistaken.
Spider-Man 2 was a mixed bag as well. Director Sam Raimi was forced to stay home due to illness, so we only had the producers on hand to discuss the film. The highlight, of course, was when they unveiled the Doc Ock poster and showed a short clip of his 'awakening', so to speak. It seemed to have exactly the same tone of comedic yet brutal violence of the first installment, with a nice little homage to Evil Dead II to boot. Of the three, however, I definitely walked out with Underworld on my mind.
Tim: I was blown away by Amazing Spider-Man myself. The featured scene which showed Doc Ock going on a rampage in a hospital brought to life the true power and menace someone of his abilities could wreak upon people. After seeing the way that animatronics and CGI brought to life his tentacles, I can only assume that the fight between the multi-limbed doctor and the agile Spidey is going to kick great amounts of ass. I'm definitely more psyched about Amazing Spider-Man now.
Tim: Doing my best to navigate the recesses of the convention, I scrambled to get to the panel of the Angel writers as they did their best not to spill too much about the upcoming season. Writers Ben Edlund, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Sara Fain, Elizabeth Craft, Stephen DeKnight, and Jeffrey Bell were there to answer questions from the rabid Angel fanbase. They re-iterated that this season of Angel will be less serial and more episodic in nature in order to allow for easier accessibility to viewers. Obviously they're hoping positive word of mouth and a strong lead in with Smallville will lead to a ratings boost.
The writers couldn't reveal too much about the upcoming season, but they did state that Gunn would be undergoing a great deal of transformation this season, akin to what happened with Wesley in Seasons three and four. They are also working on getting Charisma to come back and do a story arc to properly finish off Cordelia's story.
The highlights of the panel were Danny Armstrong (Jonathan) coming to the mic and asking Drew Goddard what it felt like to be a murderer (the response . . . pretty good) and Joss Whedon/Nathan Fillion coming to the mic to hit on Fain/Craft.
The writers did reveal where their nearly trademark snappy dialogue comes from. If they don't write it, Joss makes fun of them.
Raf: I also sat in on this discussion, but Tim covered it quite nicely.
Tim: I finished the day off with Universal's presentation of their big summer film for next year, Van Helsing. A gothic, horror, action, adventure film that stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, the preview footage I saw looked really sweet. It's by Stephen Sommers, the man behind The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and reinvents many of the classic literary monsters. Dracula (complete with Sisters Three), Frankenstein, and the Wolf-Man who will serve as the foes in this film.
It was quite obvious from the rapport up there that everyone involved in the film had an absolute blast in making it. Jackman also said that he was impressed with the actual depth of Van Helsing, stating that it was more then just another mindless summer action flick. The reason he took the film was because Van Helsing was one of the most complex characters he's had a chance to play yet.
Ditto for Beckinsale who plays a gypsy warrior in the film. She didn't want to follow up a vampire film (Underworld) with another vampire film (Van Helsing), but the script for Van Helsing was just too good for her to turn down. Besides the big three monsters mentioned above, Sommers promised plenty of other classic creatures would make cameos in the film. Should it hit like they all hope it will, this could also be the birth of a new franchise.
class="dent">Speaking of franchises, Jackman once again expressed his love for the character of Wolverine. And while he won't comment beyond X-Men 3, he's not willing to rule anything out either. When someone asked about the Broadway musical that Jackman was going to be working on shortly, he treated the audience to a rendition of Summer Loving, singing both the male and female parts. Needless to say, Hugh is not a shy person.
Tim: So this wrapped up the second day of the Con, and though I was still a bit taken aback at the sheer amount of presentations and interviews I had seen this day, I was also getting my second wind back. Which was good, because I still had one more day of Comic-Con to get through. Of course a little bar hopping didn't hurt either.
Raf: So that was it for my second day at the con, but the fun didn't stop there! With all the restaurants and bars conveniently located across the train tracks, we set out to have ourselves some good times. It was at one Irish pub in particular where we ran into some folks from Mattel and actor Mark Lutz (rhymes with boots, not utz, I found out) who you'll remember as Groo from Angel. Keep checking in during the coming weeks as we conduct follow-up interviews with writers from Transformers, Star Trek, and Angel. This was my last day at the convention, so I'll close by saying the San Diego Comic-Con is the definitive sci-fi convention in the U.S., but if you read this far, you probably already knew that. See you there next year.
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