Saturday updates

24 JULY 2011


I originally thought Friday would be a better day than Saturday, but yesterday brought a lot of exciting news and events.

On the gossipy side of things - Rhys Ifans got in an altercation with a Comic Con security guard after she refused to admit a member of his "entourage" into his panel. He shoved her, was charged with misdemeanor battery and released. Why was Ifans at Comic Con? Because he plays The Lizard in the new Spider-Man movie. I think we all have battled the urge to shove a Comic Con security guard, but the woman was just doing her job and this article makes him sound like a belligerent idiot.

Speaking of Spider-Man: Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have already gotten favorable buzz from just their shoot stills, but the (Friday) panel made a lot of new fans, especially from Garfield's speech about his love for the character. This is what attendees fall for: a celebrity they already like coming out of the nerd closet and professing their investment in the character they're playing.

Immortals is getting major buzz. Granted it's starring a bunch of Hollywood "It" boys like Kellan Lutz and Henry Cavill, but it worked the desired Comic Con magic and is now getting major online word of mouth. I didn't see this panel and I'll admit to being indifferent to 300, but people who attended seemed to come away impressed.

Word on Terra Nova isn't great. That doesn't mean the show itself will fail; at the risk of sounding elitist, I'll say that Comic Con nerds are more likely to understand both time travel and recent dinosaur research, and therefore be tougher judges than the average TV audience who might just be thrilled to see dinosaurs and humans coexisting. The panel showed the first hour of the pilot; the footage is extremely pretty, but the storylines seem dicey. Still, everyone loved Stephen Lang and seemed interested in seeing the pilot's second hour.

New clips from Thundercats! Also from Fright Night, which looks really campy and fun if you like that kind of thing - but will probably annoy you if you don't.

Comic book news: Brian K. Vaughan - you know, of Y The Last Man, more recently of Hollywood  - is back to comic books and gifting us all with his new sci-fi series "Saga" come 2012. If you've been restless for a truly great new comic book (and aren't we all) maybe this will be it. Good interview here.

Remember how Scott Pilgrim was supposed to be the geek Hollywood hit of all time? And then it wasn't? Knights of Badassdom strikes more accurately into the nerdy collective heart of Comic Con and seems poised to become a real hit, possibly with cult status. It has a cast of Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau, Steve Zahn and Michael Gladis and is about live-action role-playing where an incantation summons a real succubus. The panel made it clear that actual live LARPers were included in the creative process. Fingers crossed.

More comic book news: SDCC fixture Joss Whedon talked about Buffy and said he's interested in writing a gay male character. This is progress, because while comic books seem tentatively willing to admit lesbian and bi girls to their pages, gay males are often conspicuously absent. Of course Whedon is going to do it if anyone.

Did anyone go to last night's red-carpet Cowboys and Aliens premiere? Harrison Ford was there and so was Olivia Wilde and other luminaries. I heard glowing things about the movie and the premiere, which was one of those special Comic Con events that make attendees feel it's worth all the trouble.


Hall H has a great line-up today of Supernatural and Dr. Who and others. It's also Kids Day, so be mindful of the little people if you're in the Exhibit Hall. Sometimes that's not empty space you spot ahead of you, it's just occupied by someone who's three feet tall.