once more, with feeling...

Final day of my long-overdue recap of Comic Con 2007!


SATURDAY, JULY 28

This morning has been ridiculous. Esther and I got to the convention center at about 9:30 this morning - though it wasn't supposed to open until 10am, they opened up the main floor about 45 minutes early. We found our friend Brian and managed to get the freebies we wanted the most - the giant WB tote bad, the "Vote Petrelli" buttons (I wish I'd gotten more), and the 300 shield. We also got a ton of stickers and other trinkets - and Tshirts! Now we're in the longest line I've ever seen, trying to get in to see the entire cast of Heroes. It's at 12:45, we got in line at 11... and it was all the way around the building! Dear god.

*****

So, we didn't make it into the Heroes panel. I'm super bummed. We go to Hall H where we intend to camp out until the Superbad panel at the end of the day. We caught the tail end of the Rogue panel, where Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman were talking about The Strangers. Then Neil Marshall (The Descent) talked about the new movie he wrote/directed called Doomsday, which looked like a pretty cool post-apocalyptic thrilla starring Malcolm McDowell.

*****

The Disney/Pixar panel was kind of interesting... first there was a preview of some of the upcoming footage from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, including a live video feed of the director and title character from where they were filming. Then they showed a long clip from WALL-E and character bios. The sound designer (who was the "voice" of R2D2) gave a presentation of how and why the characters sound the way they do. The main brain behind Pixar was there, to great applause.

Then, there was a Marvel panel, where they showed Liv Tyler and Ed Norton from The Incredible Hulk, followed by a panel for Iron Man with debut footage and trailer. Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terence Howard, and Robert Downey, Jr. were all there, and then STAN LEE came onstage! I know I'm not the target audience for a lot of comic book movies, because I'm often not that familiar with the source material, but this movie looks like it is going to be so much damn fun.

The Columbia / Screen Gems panel was the highlight. Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich were onstage with debut footage from the new Resident Evil movie. AND BOB STENCIL WAS THERE AGAIN. Then, Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster, Sam Raimi, the director, and the graphic novel creators of 30 Days of Night came and showed an extended clip of a gruesome scene from the movie. Esther worked for Mandate pictures this summer, which worked on 30 Days of Night, and she said that the graphic novel and the screenplay were some of the scariest things she'd ever seen. I'm generally not really going to seek out non-zombie horror films, but this one looks great.

Then, of course, there was the highlight of my entire trip to San Diego. Esther and I staked out the best seats we could grab in Hall H, and we were SOOOOCLOOOOOOSE to Michael Cera that we thought we might puke. When he finally came onstage I stood up to scream, and my knees gave out. That's why all my pictures of Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Mr. George Michael Bluth are all so blurry! Esther even had the cojones to go ask a question...I almost died.

Apatow also showed clips from Walk Hard, his new musician-biopic-satire starring John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer. It looks very funny, and I'm always happy to see Reilly given a lot of screen time. That man is a gem; he's like, second-in-line after Philip Seymour Hoffman in terms of ugly men who are super hot because of their talent.

*****

So, there are a few things that for some reason I didn't write down, but I remember happening and I have some pictures of. One is that Michel Gondry's new film with Mos Def and Jack Black, Be Kind, Rewind, looks really fun. The other is that Zack Snyder came to talk about 2009's adaptation of Watchmen. I can't wait to come to Comic Con again, because it was so much fun and I honestly feel like I can reference it every day. Also, I bought the graphic novels V for Vendetta and Watchmen, because I am really interested in learning more about this whole world, which is sure to enhance the experience the next time I go to the 'Con.

TO VIEW MY VIDEO DIARY OF COMIC CON 2007, PLEASE VISIT http://www.youtube.com/katexmachina