Comic-Con International 2007: Day one recap

By Maura O'Reilly Jul 27, 2007, 13:35 GMT

Greetings fan boys and girls of all ages.  It is time once again for that festival of all things pop culture Comic Con International.  Day One traditionally has been one of the more sedate days at the Con but that is no longer the case.  The movie portion of the festival set forth with a bang with a pretty amazing panel from Paramount Pictures (with exec Brade Grey in attendance). 

The Lonely Island Comedy Troupe (Andy Samberg, director Akiva Shaffer, and Jorma Taccone) brought the funny: a clip from the upcoming Hot Rod (release date August 10).  They took a few, oh let’s call them interesting questions from the audience including asking Akiva what the differences were between shooting shorts and shooting a feature length film (“uh other than the fact that’s it’s longer, you don’t have to tape microphones to the wall.  Someone else does that for you”).  For those of you wondering about the fate of “The ‘Bu” series, the trio has written a concluding script but have been unable to find the time to shoot it. 

Neil Gaiman came out next for the first of two appearances.  This time he was there with screen writer Jane Goldman to introduce an extended clip from Stardust (release date August 10) and take a few questions from the audience.  When asked how closely the film follows the books Gaiman explained that if the movie was completely faithful to the book then the hero wouldn’t be born until a half-hour into the film and that doesn’t work in Hollywood terms.  He thinks of it as comparing Earth One to Earth Two (a reference only good at something like Comic Con).  The book is 100% faithful to the book and the film is 100% faithful to the film. 

The question of a Sandman movie was once again brought up.  Gaiman has said time and again that he’d rather have no Sandman movie made rather than a bad Sandman movie made.  He’s waiting for a director to surface with passion like Jackson had for Lord of the Rings to take Sandman. The audience member asking the question assured him that in five years he would be that director.  Gaimen joked that he and others like him were the result of careful genetic programming, that these individuals were all being grown in vats and in five years time they’d all be put in a room with knives and whoever emerges victorious would be the director of Sandman.

Roger and Gaimen joined forces after talking about the Beowulf story and the issues joining the two halves of the ancient English-language heroic tale.

Gaimen returned to talk about Beowulf with co-writer Roger Avery.  Roger and Gaimen joined forces after talking about the Beowulf story and the issues joining the two halves of the ancient English-language heroic tale.  The completely CGI film is coming to theaters in several formats: 2-D, Dolby 3-D, Real D, and Imax 3-D.  Paramount offered a short glimpse of the finished 3-D product to lucky audiences at a local theater.  For us if us in Hall H we got a look at the 2-D trailer.

Avery, who grew out his hair and beard in spirit of the project during production (now sheared and shaved) agreed with Gaiman about how their “bullsh*t casting” (you know, when you’re sitting around a bar and throwing out names of actors you’d cast in what movie if it were up to you) was pretty much who they got for this film. Everyone they asked said yes.  And for those of you aspiring artists who think there’s no chance you’ll be discovered by the likes of Neil Gaiman at something like Comic Con: artist Jill Thompson was introduced to Gaiman at a previous Con and she ended up illustrating his Sandman: Brief Lives.

JJ Abrams came out to introduce the now famous trailer for his untitled monster film that’s been causing quite a stir online.  After a trip to Japan where all his son wanted to buy were Godzilla items Abrams was inspired to create a monster movie for America.  A new teaser poster for the January release was revealed to whet the appetites of those in attendance.

Special Effects Guru Phil Tippet along with authors Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi brought along mock ups and animation that showed how the creepy creatures of the Spiderwick Chronicles books are being brought to life for the upcoming 2008 film starring Freddie Highmore in dual roles as Jared and Simon Grace.

A svelte Jon Favreau came and gave the audience a sweet but brief look at some Iron Man footage.  There will be an extended Marvel panel on Saturday.  What we saw was pretty amazing with practical effects provided by Stan Winston.

As if that weren’t exciting enough Steven Speilberg himself sent a video message from the set of the as still untitled Indiana Jones film.  With him he had the always charming Harrison Ford looking ready for action in the classic costume, Ray Winstone (coincidently the voice of the title character in Zemeckis’s Beowulf), summer blockbuster heart throb Shia LaBeouf, and very special surprise Karen Allen returning as Marion Ravenwood.

But to top it all off JJ Abrams came out one more time and brought out screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to talk Trek, Star Trek that is.  The big news was the announcement of the casting of the new Mr. Spock. That honor has gone to Heroes own baddie Zachary Quinto who joined the panel on stage.  He was followed by the original Mr. Spock Leonard Nimoy.  When asked how he felt about the casting choice, Nimoy’s reply: “It was logical.” And looking at the two men standing side by side, even Nimoy’s wife was heard to remark at how scarily similar they were.  The new Trek is another Comic Con AND six months away and Abrams promises more to come about casting and the amazing script they’ve got. 

Lionsgate Films was up next.  Dane Cook and Jessica Alba along with Mark Helfrich brought a clip from the comedy Good Luck Chuck, (releasing September 21) the story of a guy who’s a sort of good luck charm for single ladies. Once they sleep with him they move on to find their true soulmate.  When Chuck meets Cam (Alba) he’s smitten and doesn’t want to blow it by sleeping with her and losing her to the next guy.  Cam, and as it turns out Jessica, are both klutzes which allowed Jessica an opportunity to do some serious physical comedy.

Peter Fonda and Ben Foster came out to discuss firearms, hand-warmers, desert barbeque and 3:10 to Yuma.  From the two clips that were shown Foster is well on his way to making his mark, stealing scenes from the likes of Russell Crowe.  Fonda, the laid back professional and Foster the young gun talked with great respect about their co-stars Crowe and Christian Bale, their craft as well as director James Mangold.  3:10 to Yuma opens September 7th.

What can you expect from a film entitled Midnight Meat Train based on a short story by Clive Barker?  Well pretty much you can expect to go off red meat for a while.  Barker was present to take fan questions along with Director Ryuhei Kitamura and cast members Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb and Bradley Cooper. 

Cooper admitted to a fear/fascination with Jones that led to him following the Brit around, forgetting that they were shooting at one point and thinking Vinnie was coming after him for real.  Barker talked about how some “special cookies” were the catalyst to a torrent of new titles for stories including the one for Midnight Meat Train. When asked if the title Midnight Munchie Train might not have been better, given the circumstances Barker quipped that that was the original title but it lacked the bite (if you will) that the story about a butcher/mass murderer who uses the subway to carry out his diabolical crime spree needed. 

Bibb was mightily impressed when she saw some of Clive’s art used in a gallery scene in the film.  The well endowed phallic images were a great curiosity to the actress who wondered about their inspiration.

If one movie is going to speak to the attendees of this festival it’s Fanboys.  Director Kyle Newman, producers Matt Perniciaro and Dana Brunetti brought a bevy of clips as well as cast members Dan Folger, Chris Marquette, and the lovely Kristen Bell. 

The movie takes place in the heady days six months before Star Wars: Episode One was to come out. Four friends, obsessed beyond reason decide to break into Skywalker Ranch and sneak a peak at the unfinished film.  The movie is chuck full of Star War references (including Ewok humping), Rush music and Kristen Bell in the Leia bikini.  George Lucas had given his blessing for the production to actually shoot at Skywalker Ranch. 

At this point in the editing process his voice is in the film (though he’s not aware of this yet) but producer Rick McCallum does have a cameo along with a host of other celebs from the Star Wars and greater geek universe.  Newman (who read about the project initially on Harry Knowles site) calls the film “Stand By Me for fanboys.”  For folks that are interested there is a contest at www.fanboyscontest.com in which winners will be selected to be in two final scenes for the film.

Coming tomorrow: Hot Fuzz, Clive Owen, and Watchmen!