Well, we've all had our fun and made our jokes, but I think that the fans of the blockbusting vamp romance Twilight have had just about enough of us. At least, that seems to be the case in an editorial titled Enough with the 'Twilight' fan-bashing media antics already, over at The Examiner. The editorial was a response to a piece on The Frisky about Twilight conventions that was full of the usual cheap shots and snark that accompanies all Twilight news. But The Examiner isn't the only one defending the Twi-hards -- here's an editorial from our own Erik Davis over on Movies.com about how Twilight actually saved fandom.
I'll be the first to admit that, yeah, I was one of those people taking cracks. I made jokes about toothless sparkly vamps, and all the rest. But I've started to wonder if us writers have crossed the line of gentle teasing and into 'bullying'. So what makes Twilight jokes any different than cracks about Trekkies or a geek who lives in their mom's basement? For me, it was the idea that these girls (or women) were just silly little hormonally charged chicks looking for a glimpse of Robert Pattinson rather than honest to goodness fans of the series (however flawed it may be).
When it came to Twilight, it seemed that the general consensus was: Girls like it, so it must be stupid. Well, I've had enough conversations over my lifetime about how something is a 'dude thing', that I'm fully versed in the idea that certain stories appeal to men and women sometimes. But what has me ticked is the idea that when you pull the dude card, it's in a tone that says, "You just don't understand, it's a dude thing". Whereas when it comes to us girls, it's more along the lines of disdain as in: 'Eww, that's a chick thing".
After the jump: will I mend my Cullen-bashing ways?...
Just when you were thinking "Say, whatever happened to all that Avatar day talk?", the details have finally come online. According to The Hollywood Reporter, you too can see the footage that made thousands of people lose their minds by getting tickets from AvatarMovie.com starting this Monday. Keep checking the website for information, and the participating IMAX theater nearest you. The tickets will only be available online, and the website will eventually reveal just how and where you get them.
The 16-minute Avatartrailer will show at 6-7 pm on August 21st, sandwiched between IMAX showings of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and will be a blend of what screened at ComicCon, but with some brand new footage added. Though IMAX and Fox are predicting a general geek stampede, they're trying to combat the frenzy by limiting tickets to two per person. (So pick which friend or family member you like the most!) For those of us who don't nab a golden ticket, there's still hope. An alternate, "conventional" trailer will be debuting the same time in 2D and 3D, and will play before Post Grad, Inglourious Basterds, and other summer and fall releases. You won't be able to get away from Avatar footage.
At Comic-Con, legends come a dime a dozen, and those are just the ones on the printed pages of the comics on the exhibition hall floor. But in Hall H, the epicenter of the convention's surprises, revelations and exclusives, true groundbreakers and history-makers are in comparatively short supply. This year, however, there were several, including James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Hayao Miyazaki, and Terry Gilliam; but even in such rarified company, Tim Burton stands head and shoulder above in terms of providing memorable, specific, and ongoing inspiration to the folks who like to look up at these filmmakers' latest projects.
Suffice it to say that a checklist of his most iconic films would be redundant, since virtually all of them qualify, either because of their source material, or his interpretation of it. But the filmmaker has two high-profile projects coming out in the next year or so, each of which applies his inventive style in different ways: first, there's 9, Shane Acker's computer-generated post-apocalyptic odyssey, which Burton is producing; and in 2010, there's Alice in Wonderland, his adaptation of the classic novel by Lewis Carroll.
In between Hall H panels, Cinematical caught up with Burton to discuss his work on 9 and Alice in Wonderland. In addition to talking about the technological opportunities and challenges presented on both films, he offered a few secrets about the forthcoming spectacle of Alice, and reflected on the filmmaking style – and substance – that has made his idiosyncratic body of work a happy home for outsiders and mainstream audiences alike.
If you think you love Jon Favreau from a distance, try sitting next to him at a roundtable. (I know how fangirlish that sounds and I don't care.) Somehow, our seating arrangements switched up, and I ended up sliding into the chair next to him just as things got going. I think I can safely say we were both startled by that arrangement. For my part, I had just come from the Comic-Con floor, and was terrified the smell had rubbed off on me. To make matters worse, he smelled like cupcakes, sunshine, and expensive cologne. (I'm not the only one to remark on that, by the way. Jordan Hoffman did too!) But he is quite lovely to sit beside, and he's the kind of guy you really want to spend hours hanging out with. I mean, look to your right and see the nerdy shirt he was sporting! I do think that's the geekiest shirt I saw all week, and at Comic-Con that's saying something.
Below you'll find some Avengers hints, the lowdown on Mickey Rourke's cockatoo, and just why they rushed the footage to San Diego.
What do you most want fans of the comic book to know?
What do I most want them to know? Well, that we hear them. We're working from the same material that they're familiar with. We're going to stick with it in certain ways, and in certain ways we're going to change it, but we're not changing it out of ignorance. We're changing it as a choice to make it interesting, and maybe make it so they don't always know what to expect. I think that fans have been punished by studios that don't care, and they assume that when you change things, you don't know what you're doing, or you don't care about them. But sometimes, you do things -- sometimes you change it, like when you're telling a joke, to throw things off a little bit, and let there be some surprises when next May rolls around. Because with the level of curiosity, it's very hard to not open every Christmas present before the release date. Go below for the rest!
Do you know what it's like to have the new War Machine just appear before you at a table? It's really kind of startling. Because I wasn't at the panel, I had no idea who (beyond Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau, of course) was actually at ComicCon. But wham, suddenly there was Don Cheadle who just seemed to apparate into the chair from an unspecified location. It was like anIron Man 2 parade which would have only been cooler if they'd been fresh off the set, and still in their costumes. Oh yeah, and obviously he was really nice, too ... and tall. Tall like War Machine!
Check out what Mr. Cheadle has to say on spin-off possibilities, on wearing the suit, on the relationship between Rhodey and Tony, and much more ...
So, that War Machine suit is pretty f--cking cool.
Pretty cool, yeah. I've got a couple of them in back. [laughs] On Ebay so, if anyone wants to jump in on that ... What's the reserve?
I can't go too much into detail, but check them out!
[Reporter asks about the real chemistry Robert Downey Jr. discussed a few minutes before]
You know it's great, especially in a movie that has so much about it that isn't real, that has so [much] that you can't see, or touch, or feel, or understand -- to have an actor like Robert who is steeped in acting tradition, where we really are trying to go after real stuff, and feeling very similar to what I like to do. So it was very encouraging to be able to grab onto something that felt real in that whole huge thing that was Iron Man 2.
Comic-Con 2009 is over and done with, and the word of mouth is that it's grown too big for its britches. Whether or not that's the case will be debated up until the Con's contract with the city of San Diego ends in 2012, but based on my view from the floor on both Wednesday's Preview Night and Saturday, the seams have definitely swelled to the bursting point.
Yesterday on KCRW's public radio show The Business, about the film industry, host Kim Masters spoke with American Original founder Jeff Katz about this year's Comic-Con. You can listen to the episode right here, and for people who have never been before, Katz paints a fairly lopsided picture from his point of view of the entire experience.
He calls Friday and Saturday the "biggies," ... this after a record crowd waited outside to get into Thursday's Twilight / New Moon panel starting on Wednesday, which also included James Cameron's Avatar and Disney's Hall H presentation. He also talks about studios clamoring for a piece of the fanboy pie, while looking to do the exact same thing himself.
With movies like Shoot 'Em Up ($39 million dollar budget, $12.8 million dollar gross in the US),Snakes on a Plane (massive internet buildup and then a huge flameout), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (don't get me started) on his resume, he's positioning himself with his recently announced American Original (which he's self-dubbed a "nerd machine") entertainment company to try and pocket the geek dollar. Does he have his finger on the pulse of thirty-something nerdom, or is he just a wannabe blowhard?
Listen to the show and decide for yourself, while Comic-Con evolves and decides what it wants to be.
I'm going to sound like a broken record with all the "Oh my gosh, he / she was so nice" remarks, but the happy truth is that all the ComicCon talent I encountered this year was ridiculously nice. Sam Rockwell was no exception. He's exactly as you think he would be: quiet, friendly, low-key. One of my finest moments was having my druthers enough to compliment him on Moon, and he was so flattered it was if he had never been complimented on it before. Call it good acting, call it being humble, whatever. He's a cool guy, and I feel so bad for being leery of him after his creepy turn in The Green Mile.
Coming up is Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, so keep reading, they should be up by midweek. [On whether or not it was fun to be out in Hall H and part of Iron Man 2 -- not sure which, impossible to hear. Sorry readers.]
No, it's exciting to see that trailer, you know? That's an exciting thing, because we just wrapped a week ago. So you haven't seen dailies or anything?
No, it was really wild to see that. It was really exciting. One of the cool things looking at this cast, and the people who are making this movie, is that everybody comes from a sort of indie background. I don't want to disparage, but it's real actors and real filmmakers working on this. Does that create a definite vibe on set, a sort of small, indie environment as a result?
It is. It really feels like you're a part of the All-Stars, you really feel like you're there to do something cool. You're right, it's not just a big studio movie with thrills and chills. It's very actor friendly, and cinematically it's just phenomenal. It's big filmmaking, and yet it is very accessible to actors in a way that independent film is. It's very actor friendly for sure. It's cool.
If there's a Marvel man you want to get drunk and pump for information, it's Kevin Feige. This is the man who has all the answers of cinema's Marvel Universe, and while his enthusiasm occasionally lets a spoiler or two slip, he generally just grins knowingly. Seriously, if you run into him, ply him with strong alcohol and see if you can get him to confirm whether or not the Skrulls will be the Big Bad of The Avengers. (Devin Faraci thinks so -- and so do I!) Now, onto the chat -- unfortunately, it's missing some quotes of "what a comic book movie is" at the end because I simply can't hear it behind the background noise. I got the good stuff though, don't worry.
KF: Hello! What are you going to ask me? Are you going to make Green Lantern Vs Black Widow ... ?
Do you mean Marvel Comics Deadpool? [laughs] Anything? You got all your answers?
Coming into this, where you guys at Marvel are right now after Iron Man blew up so big, and the Marvel Universe became much more of a reality .... as you're finishing up Iron Man 2 how much of an eye are you keeping towards future projects?
It's a combination. Clearly, the four films that we've announced -- Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers -- which are are all happening and are all in various stages, not just of development but of prep, clearly we're sowing seeds within them. I've always been very vocal about saying we're not just going to cram in Easter eggs that, you know, 1/10 of the audience will understand at the expense of the experience of watching the movie. That's all that really matters -- the movie itself.
We spoke to Robert Rodriguezon video at Comic-Con, and then we sat down with him for a full interview to get an update on all of his projects, and to find out about his upcoming movie Shorts. He's definitely a man wearing a lot of hats, since he writes, directs, edits, scores, does special effects, and produces. In fact, just about the only thing he doesn't do in these films is act. He brought us up to date on Red Sonja, Sin City 2 and Predators, and spoke about being back at Comic-Con.
Read on after the break for his full interview, including more about Shorts and how his kids help inspire his movies. It's just after the jump, and is (mostly) free of information about who he's dating.
Comic-Con 2009 has come to a close, and we've already begun the countdown to next year. But what were some of the highlights and lowlights? Cinematical sent three writers to cover the Con this year, Elisabeth Rappe, Todd GIlchrist, and myself, and we all three had very different experiences: Todd was locked in Hall H for most of the show watching the giant panel presentations, Elisabeth spent time moving from the floor to the press area to smaller panels, and I was upstairs covering video press lines and interviews, so we all saw a very different slice of the Con.
Listen to the podcast embedded below to hear what we thought of the Con, what our favorite moments were, and what kind of swag we went home with. It's probably a very different experience than that of a regular fan attendee, and we're very envious of the people who were able to attend for fun and not work. But enough of my yakkin'. Give a listen and chime in with your own Comic-Con thoughts below.
I'm not sure what it says about the Hollywood system when the luminous Scarlett Johansson is the most real and ordinary actress I encountered at Comic-Con this year. Now, that sounds like a catty slam on the ladies who made the circuit, or possibly an insult to Johansson, and I don't mean it that way at all. But there was just something about her that was a little less airbrushed and defined, which was unexpected and very refreshing. Also, she's far more gorgeous in person, and incredibly nice. Being around her just makes me want to hide in a hobbit hole, and never go out in public again.
Again, apologies for not being able to credit the proper outlets for their questions. Read on for what Scarlett had to say about Iron Man 2, Black Widow, and joining the Marvel universe ... Hey Scarlett, were you familiar with the character before from comic books, or is this whole world new to you?
It was all new to me. I mean, I had met originally with Jon and Kevin [Feige] to kind of discuss a couple of ... just to kind of talk to them about some of the superheroines of the Marvel Universe, and Black Widow was one of them. But I didn't really know anything about the character until I delved into it , and then I started looking at the suit and was like "Ohhhh my God! I gotta get into that!" [laughs] So it was a whole new world for me. Can you tell us about some of the other female superheroes that you may have discussed?
Oh, let me see if I can remember them! Scarlet Witch was one of them. Blonde Phantom? Is that the other one? And Moon. Am I messing that up? It is the Blonde Phantom, right?
I've never heard of that one ...
Well then, scratch that! That's my own superhero that I'm going to bring to the big screen!
I had dreams of the big scoops of the Iron Man 2 roundtable being up sooner, but I was stuck in the unfortunate position of being seated behind the talent and thus unable to hear any of their soft-spoken quotes. (Or I'd gone deaf from con noise which is quite possible.) But hey, the longer the wait, the sweeter the read!
First out of the gate is Iron Man himself! Allow me to have a fangirl moment as I must say that even staring at the back of Robert Downey Jr.'s head is a thrill. Plus my seat did allow me to get a good look at his awesome choice of footwear, which happened to be the most beautiful pair of lime green tennis shoes. The man is stylish, readers, and unfailingly kind with his time. Thanks to all the outlets present for asking cool questions. I wish I could credit you, but I honestly can't tell any of you apart once you're on my audio.
One of the most impressive parts of Comic-Con are all of the fans who dress up in costume and walk around the show floor. It's like attending a normal trade show where everyone is dressed up in suits, except in this case the suits are Spider-man and Supergirl outfits. That's some hardcore fandom right there. It takes guts (and in some cases these comic fans have an ample supply of those) to wear spandex and walk around like that in public, and these video interviews are a salute to you.
Our own Elisabeth Rappe is no stranger to dressing up and walking the floor, as she's done it for the last two years. Her account of dressing up as Lara Croft last year and showing off her guns (and pistols, as well) can be read right here. You can also see her interviewing two very lovely Age of Conan costumed girls from Florida right here. Our friend Chris Glenn joined us for interviews on Sunday, and you can watch all of those out after the break. We spoke to everyone from Wonder Woman to Waldo, so be sure and check it out!
I'm breaking the Comic Con reporting mold with this one, ladies and gentlemen. Every other site (and yes, ours too) likes to concentrate on the sexy costumers and booth babes that decorate the halls of the convention center. But you know what? There's actually a lot of eye candy for the ladies. Some of them are professional (Lionsgate always seems to bring the booth beefcakes) but a lot of them are just hardcore costumers who are happy to flex their muscles for a photo.
This year was no exception. There were quite a few Indiana Joneses and Captain Mals, a solid Superman, more Wolverines than you could shake a stick at (my favorite!) and even an Edward Cullen. And that's just the floor! The celebrities on display weren't exactly shabby either. I mean, any week where you can see Nathan Fillion, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Josh Brolin, Michael Fassbender, Johnny Depp, and Denzel Washington in one place is a pretty sweet thing. Let the guys have their booth babes and Megan Fox -- we've got Captain Mal and Jonah Hex!
Enjoy the gallery below, ladies ... and yes, one of the boys below is actually made of wax but I'm not going to discriminate. Besides, he was just as popular for photos as any Jack Sparrow lookalike!
This year due to being a bit of an "on-call" girl (in the non prostitute sense), I spent more time than usual haunting the convention floor. I keep joking that I'm one of the few con attendees who was "old school" and spent more time shopping for comic books than haunting Hall H for film footage. (By the way, if you go and spend your time shopping, take my advice and just ship your stuff back via Fed Ex. Cheap trades stop being a good idea when you have to carry a sack of them through the airport. Ugh.)
But the culture of ComicCon is something else. I found myself snapping just a lot of random, weird photos just to try and give Cinematical readers a sense of it all. Sure, there's the ever present cosplayers and the loudness of the booth displays, but there's just something about walking down a hallway and finding sleeping Jedis, or realizing what kind of crappy food a Spartan eats in hell. I find that even when I'm in a bad mood (and I was basically in a crappy mood for five blister-filled days) the site of a Jayne hat never fails to make me smile, and even when I'm trying to get past some noisy, crowd-filled area I do stop and marvel at the sheer hugeness of it all. This year it expanded outside the con like never before, with a Heroes carnival and Flynn's Arcade set up outside of the convention center for geeks to have some free fun at.
Hopefully, the photos below give you some idea of what was there -- from the crowds (that's as close as I got to Stark Industries all week!) to the displays. Maybe they'll tempt you to give it a go some year. As I look at my torn up feet and bruised legs, I think you might just have my place in line come 2010 ... !
Just when you were thinking "Say, whatever happened to all 
If you think you love 
Do you know what it's like to have the new War Machine just appear before you at a table? It's really kind of startling. Because I wasn't at the panel, I had no idea who (beyond Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau, of course) was actually at ComicCon. But wham, suddenly there was 
I'm going to sound like a broken record with all the "Oh my gosh, he / she was so nice" remarks, but the happy truth is that all the ComicCon talent I encountered this year was ridiculously nice. 
If there's a Marvel man you want to get drunk and pump for information, it's 
I'm not sure what it says about the Hollywood system when the luminous
Is Taylor Lautner Our Next Superhero?
100 Greatest Films Beyond the Canon
'Entourage' Movie in the Works?
Spielberg Backs Out of 'Harvey'
Discuss: Should Gay Actors Stay in the Closet?
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
