Yes, believe it or not, in the four-plus years I’ve been covering movies I had, up until this point, managed to avoid the madness that is Comic-Con. Over at IGN, I was always out-geeked by the Comic Book aficionados who looked forward to this yearly event like most look forward to Christmas.
But this year I could escape no longer.
Last Wednesday I boarded the train with our main video guy, Travis, and headed down to the convention. It was immediately obvious that this wasn’t your usual Wednesday afternoon train-hopping crowd. A few Superman shirts, people carrying empty bags to fill with Comic loot over the course of the weekend, and extra suitcases to hide those Stormtrooper, Slave Leia, Wonder Woman, Rorschach, Starfleet Academy and Matrix costumes.
People told me to expect total insanity, but even with that said, you have to experience Comic-Con to believe it.
Our first day was tame at first. Everyone was just starting to get to town, so we picked up our press credentials and did a quick tour through the moderately crowded hall. This first day was solely a preview night mind you, meaning access was only being permitted to Four-Day ticket holders, Press and Exhibitors. Still, there was a decent crowd.
Next was a Paramount Beowulf event in which we were given a first sneak at footage from Paramount’s big C.G. November releases. Sadly, I was under-whelmed, but you can read more about that here. 
(click here for the trailer)
The Paramount after-party was where the real fun began. Amidst schmoozing, drinking and star-watching, assorted ReelzChannelel staffers managed to hook up with our buddy Brad Miska, webmaster for BloodyDisgusting.com, some of his fellow writers as the writer/director of Saw, Dead Silence and the upcoming Death Sentence, James Wan.
We had some, um, beverages and talked the usual geek-talk until the wee hours of the morning. Wan was very cordial, inviting us to his hotel suite for a mini-bar raid. It was a good time.
The next day was where the work began. First up was the Paramount Presentation. This was my first introduction to the cavernous Hall H, a conference room which seated 6,500 people. Giant video screens were located throughout the room and a stage was set for the stars, directors and producers to present their movies.
We saw the same Beowulf footage again (ho, hum), but almost everything else they had for us was top-notch. We saw an amusing clip from Hot Rod and heard from star Andy Samberg and members of his comedy troop, we saw a trailer for the tentatively titled Cloverfield project from J.J. Abrams. Abrams 
unveiled the poster in true showman fashion when a gigantic rolled poster dropped behind him like a magic trick. Abrams then gave the Star Trek crowd their fix by announcing Zachary Quinto as the new Spock and bringing him out to raucous applause. Abrams gave fans one more surprise by bringing out the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and announcing that he would also be in the new film.
But the biggest announcements from Paramount involved a man in a hat and a man in iron.
Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford and Shia Lebeouf joined us direct from the Indy IV set to announce that Karen Allen would be returning to the role of Marion Ravenwood from the first film. She came onscreen to big applause, looking pretty good for her 56-years. (Youtube and G4 has that footage here)
Jon Favreau joined us on a satellite feed himself, apologizing for not being able to make it. He offered some so-called Iron Man footage, but what appeared were scenes from the terribly cheesy 70’s cartoon. The crowd reacted with a mixture of chuckles and nervous mumbling that this was all we were getting.
The satellite-feed turned out to be a fake, and the director soon emerged with a camcorder aimed at the massive crowd. He then teased everyone about real Iron Man footage before unleashing roughly 7-8 minutes of eye-popping scenes from the eagerly anticipated comic flick coming out in May of 2008. For any doubters on the casting of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, they were quieted, slack-jawed in nerd heaven. Downey was great, funny and cool. The footage itself was exception, with Favreau adding that the majority of what we saw involved only practical effects. 
All in all, Paramount did a bang-up job and set the bar impressively high for the other studio presentations. Sadly, I missed the presentation from Lionsgate, but Tom Leupp was there to catch a highly entertaining Clive Barker discuss his Midnight Meat Train. (more on that here)
Now, time to party again.
Atop the swanky Ivy Hotel in Downtown San Diego was the Lionsgate/EW party. Attendees included Jessica Biel, Jon Favreau, Dane Cook, Ben Foster and Clive Barker.
Tom managed to congratulate Barker on his entertaining speech, while I made a beeline to Ben Foster to congratulate him on his exceptional performance in 3:10 to Yuma (caught an early screening and it’s fantastic, but more on that later). Foster was highly appreciative, admitting that he hadn’t heard a lot of feedback yet on the movie and was happy to hear I had enjoyed the movie so much.
Next was a screening of Shoot ‘Em Up, the upcoming action flick starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Belucci. Director Michael Davis enthusiastically introduced the film, a wild-ride homage to John Woo flicks and the like. Shoot ‘Em Up was great, filled with fun, over-the-top action and amusing cornball one-liners in the vein 80’s Schwarzenegger and Stallone movies. Fun stuff!
Friday was the Warner Bros. presentation and the buzz of rumored footage from The Dark Knight was in full swing. Heading into the convention, we were handed flyers portraying a picture of Uncle Sam with darkened Joker eyes promising, well, something. Although some Dark Knight stuff did appear online,Warner’s presentation didn’t even mention Dark Knight. 
Warner’s presentation was pretty much a bust from start to finish. Actually, I take that back. They opened with some Get Smart footage and that was great. The panel with Steve Carell, The Rock, Pete Segal, Ken Davitian (Azamat from Borat), etc. from Get Smart was great. Everything after that was a bust. (you can read the live panel blog here)
The worst part was the excruciatingly extensive Whiteout panel. We saw some footage which received generally indifferent reaction from the audience. Then producer Joel Silver joined the panel to talk about the movie, promising Kate Beckinsale will be out shortly. Time passes and people are running out of questions for Silver, but still no Kate. They offer the Whiteout footage up again to groans and eye rolls. Finally, Kate comes out, beautiful as always, but by this point people are already over it.
The big Watchmen panel was supposed to be where the cast was first announced, but since that was leaked online the week before, the appearance of Zack Snyder and stars Malin Ackerman and Jackie Earle Hayley wasn’t as big a deal as expected. Of course, the movie hasn’t even started shooting yet, so Snyder and crew were left to answer speculative questions and basically promise that the movie won’t suck.
Finally, when the lights went up, fans and press alike looked around in surprise. “Seriously, that’s it?!?” was the general vibe. No Dark Knight.
But I’ve got no time to worry about that as I’m off to talk to Clive Owen about Shoot ‘Em Up. We had some audio issues, but managed to still get some cool quotes about Sin City 2 and the rumored Frank Miller/Raymond Chandler project, which Owen confirmed.
I also spoke to Pee Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens, who promises fans there will be another Pee Wee movie! (check that interview out here!)
Reubens was there to promote David Arquette's directorial debut, The Tripper, and the actor/director joined us to talk about that movie. Arquette also mentioned the possibility of a Scream 4 when we were amusingly interupted by a singing Thomas Jane, who also appears in The Tripper and just so happens to be Arquette's brother-in-law. Only at Comic-Con, right?
Now a short bit of downtime to write about the day’s happenings before heading to the Warner Bros. party for the 300 DVD release. For a home video party, it’s nothing short of extravagant.
300 took over Petco field with thousands of fans sitting in the baseball stadium for a gigantic screening of the movie. Meanwhile, for V.I.P.’s like ourselves, we were lead into a party in the outfield stands. There were appropriately 6-packed Spartans, dancing ladies and food aplenty. We even got the chance to be green-screened in to a famous battle scene from the movie. It was a great time!
Finally, Saturday came and Comic-Con is reaching its fever-pitch. This is expected to be the most crowded day yet, but as long as I can make it to Hall H unaccosted, I’ll be all right. That’s where I’ll be spending the rest of my day. There are presentations from Focus/Rogue, Disney, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures.
Surprisingly, the Hall H line on Saturday was short and I got right in. Previous days had required special admission tickets in addition to our press passes to avoid crazy long lines. Other times involved finding publicists I knew and relying purely on charm to bypass lines, and you can imagine what an obstacle that was.
Focus/Rogue had Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman talking about The Strangers, an upcoming thriller/horror flick. We saw a preview trailer with some very cool, creepy footage reminiscent of The Shining and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Our own Tom Leupp actually did a set visit on The Stranger earlier in the year in South Carolina, but he’s currently tight-lipped under embargo from the studio. Hopefully we’ll have more info on that one soon.
Disney’s panel focused on two highly anticipated releases: the second movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian, and Pixar’s next release, Wall-E.
The big news from Narnia was that they are now officially going forward with the full seven films. Producer Mark Johnson confirmed that the new plan is to release a Narnia movie every May from here on out. They also showed one of the warrior outfits (right) and gave us a demo of a practical effects creature created by Howard Berger.
Director Andrew Adamson joined us via satellite from New Zealand and showed us a brief bit of early footage as well as a digital representation of one of the battle scenes. Fans seemed excited, but for me it was too little to tell a whole lot about how good the final movie will be.
Wall-E was a pleasant surprise, especially since I’ve personally been under whelmed by Pixar’s last two movies. The designs on the characters are very cool; a far imaginative stretch from more mundane takes on talking robots such as the bland Robots. We saw animation tests and an opening scene from the movie that was both visually amazing and fun. Pixar even had the sound designer come out with an effects board and demonstrate the sounds of Wall-E. Pretty cool. (more on all of that here)
The most anticipated presentation of the day was from Marvel Studios. Their new Incredible Hulk movie just went into production and, while they didn’t have footage, they did quickly show a concept shot of the green beast, which
drew a nice applause from the crowd. Director Louis Leterrier, producer Avi Arad and stars Edward Norton and Liv Tyler joined for a panel discussion.
There wasn’t a lot to say since the movie just started, but we did receive the intriguing tidbit from Norton that he actually wrote the final screenplay from the movie. Who knew? Multi-talented guy, that Norton.
The Iron Man panel followed, and even though we’d already seen the footage on Thursday, seeing it again (and again) was just as fun. Favreau came out with cast and aired the footage twice, which received thunderous applause each viewing. Downey, Jr. and Terrence Howard also joined for the discussion, but a surprise guest was also announced when Downey, Jr. walked a recently injured Gwyneth Paltrow out for the presentation. As fans know, she plays ‘Pepper’ Potts in the movie. (click here for the entire Marvel Presentation blog). 
To finish of the day was the Sony Pictures presentation, which was lead off by Resident Evil: Extinction. I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m not a particular fan of these movies and the footage shown looked like a dozen other zombie horror flicks.
Still, Sony gave the presentation some flair when Milla Jovovich was announced. A look-alike in the red dress from the first movie entered the panel instead and vamped it up for photographers. Suddenly, dozens of women in those red dresses descended upon the panel and the floor of the auditorium. Finally, the real Jovovich emerged, looking very pregnant in a white maternity blouse.
Heroes’ Ali Larter joined to the whistles of men across the room. The panel itself was a lighthearted discussion of the movies and the upcoming Extinction.
Unfortunately for Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed the first two films and produced this one, the biggest laughs came when an audience member said, “For the record, I didn’t like Alien Vs. Predator. What was that???” A surprised Anderson responded with, “Well, I’m sorry, a lot of people did.” Can you say awkward?
Next was 30 Days of Night, another graphic novel-based vampire movie. We saw a short trailer and then were joined by Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster, director David Slade (Hard Candy) and producer Sam Raimi.
The best was reserved for last, as Judd Apatow and his growing gang of miscreants came out to present Superbad and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Apatow was right at home in front of the gigantic room of nerds, launching into a playful comedy routine before getting down to business.
“This is too many people for us not to rock hard!”
“This is my first time at Comic-Con, and obviously I’m a big fan of comic books,” Apatow said to applause.
“I’m also quite surprised how many hot ladies are here at Comic-Con. I think there’s some sex happening at Comic-Con. How many people got laid today?”
The crowd reacts with a smattering of applause.
“That is not bad for Comic-Con.”
“One thing before we start, I would just like to say, I don’t know if you guys have noticed this, but when you walk here around the halls, it smells like a fart a lot of the time. Just because you’re dressed as a Stormtrooper, it doesn’t mean you can just fart at will.”
Big laughs continue as Apatow introduces his esteemed panel that included Superbad stars Michael Cera and Jonah Hill as well as writers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
I’ve actually already seen Superbad (it’s hysterical!), so the clips were a repeat for me, but they were still hysterical the second time around. The crowd ate it up.
Apatow finished off with a series of clips from Walk Hard, which is a parody music biopic of movies like Ray and Walk the Line.
The first scene involved the lead character, Dewey Cox, played by John C. Reilly, reflecting upon his life before a performance. This lead’s to a childhood flashback with an unspeakable tragedy, an obvious mocking of the movies Walk Hard is based on.
The next scene showed a Carter/Cash-like duet between Reilly and co-star Jenna Fischer. Their duet was an amusing parody filled with sexual double entendres like “I’m gonna beat off… (pause) …all my demons” and “In my dreams you’re blowing me… (pause) …some kisses.”
And with that, Comic-Con 2007 finally drew to a close. We hit up a party thrown by some of the fanboy websites later that night, but aside from that, Saturday was a mellow night.
So what do I make of my first trip down into the trenches of Comic-Con? Well, I had a pretty good time all-in-all. Paramount set the bar high the first day, which made the other presentations a bit of a letdown, but then others with years of Comic-Con experiences were telling me it was a generally weak year.
There was a ton to keep up with, but as a movie fan it was fun and exciting. Studios are continuing to have a larger presence at "the con," somewhat to the dismay of comic fans and event loyalists. For me, it was cool to see the studios build buzz and excitement, trying to top each other with the next "big surprise."
I can't wait for Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Watchmen, Wall-E, etc. etc. etc.
And I can't wait to see what they unveil at Comic-Con 2008!