For the last few years there has been a lot of talk about Comic Con moving out of San Diego. The show was born there, but in the last decade, as ‘geek culture’ has exploded into the mainstream, the con has been bursting at the seams. Once a playground for actual comic book fans, the show has become a massive promo market for movies, television and video games, as well as a meeting ground for those who like to dress up in Slave Leia costumes.
Currently, the organization behind the show has a contract to stay in San Diego through 2012. But other cities like Anaheim and Las Vegas are trying to lure the Con to their convention centers starting in 2013. Will Comic Con soon have a new home? Read More »
Super-Size Me director Morgan Spurlock is supposedly teaming-up with geek writer/director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) for a documentary about San Diego Comic-Con and fanboy culture. Sources tell E! that Spurlock and Whedon are currently searching for three super geeks to follow around at this year’s Comic-Con, and the three months leading up to the mega-geek convention. No more information has been revealed at this time. Spurlock was at Comic-con last year interviewing people for the Simpsons 20th anniversary fan documentary The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice! What might Spurlock and Whedon be up to?
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (featured right to left above, respectively) first made a name for themselves in 2006 with their adrenaline-rush of an indie action flick, the low-budget Crank. Three years later, they solidified their reputation as unstoppable forces of pure insanity with its sequel, Crank: High Voltage. Today though, they bring us their first non-Crank-related directorial effort, the Gerard Butler vehicle Gamer, which also co-stars Dexter’s Michael C. Hall.
I had a chance to chat with Neveldine/Taylor (as they’re so often credited in their films) a couple of months back at Comic-Con, which they were at to promote their latest helping of blood-splattered delirium.
You can read the full exclusive interview with Neveldine and Taylor after the jump.
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A promotional trailer for Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland has been discovered online. From what I can tell, thus is basically an earlier version of the cut of the trailer which premiered at San Diego Comic-Con last week. I must warn you, some of the footage is not yet finished (green screens and all), and the quality is as you might expect — rough, but the promo reel gives you a better look at what Zombieland is about. My favorite part is when Woody Harrelson’s character is shooting zombies while riding on a roller coaster. Watch the trailer after the jump.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 by David Chen
San Diego Comic-Con 2009 is over, but you can still read up on all our coverage and listen to our wrap-up podcast. During the course of the Con, I used my iPhone, Flip camera, and Canon SD camera to compile a lot of photo and video that helped give some flavor for what it was like to be there (the photo above was the view from our hotel room). Most of this stuff isn’t of any interest to film news fans, but I wrote it up so that those of you who want some more Comic-Con coverage can have it (i.e. if you’re not interested, just skip this post). Hit the jump to see some of the stuff that we saw, and please note that a lot of the video is really shaky. You’ve been warned. Read More »
So much info comes out of Comic Con about comic-related projects that it sometimes takes a couple days to filter through. Collider and CHUD have posted interview bites with Marvel Studios prez Kevin Feige, who reveals some interesting things about both the The First Avenger: Captain America and Avengers films. First up is the roster for The Avengers, not that it really takes rocket science to figure it out. Feige says:
I think we know. It’s going to be Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury. I think it’s safe to assume that there will be some members of the Hulk universe in the film as well. In terms of the additional, I think Black Widow for sure. SHIELD’s organization for sure. And, again, what’s exciting to me about the Avengers movie are seeing those four characters together and interact with each other.
He hedges on whether or not the Hulk will actually be part of the team, so the rumor/suspicion that the Hulk would be the initial villain in the film is still hanging. But Devin at CHUD found that Marvel still owns the rights to shape-changing alien race the Skrulls, and supposes that they’ll be the real villain in the film. As he explains, that makes the scope of the movie truly huge, and allows for all sorts of screenwriting fun. What if one incarnation of the Hulk was revealed to be a Skrull (the sort of thing that often happened in the comics) or if a character from an earlier Marvel film (say…Terrence Howard’s Jim Rhodes) had been a Skrull? Regardless, it’s good to see that Marvel seems determined to keep the team from becoming a sprawling organization. At least at first. Zak Penn is outlining The Avengers now. More details on Captain America after the break. Read More »
This past week at the San Diego Comic-Con, Dave Chen, Peter Sciretta, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley all met in-person for the first time ever. After a week of covering the Con together, they recorded this podcast episode using Peter’s Macbook microphone. Listen in as they share some of their favorite experiences this time around and discuss their reactions to the footage and panels. Make sure you hit up our massive blog post detailing everything we saw while at Comic-Con.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review Funny People.
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Shownotes
Topics Discussed
- Avatar
- A Christmas Carol
- Getting Recognized
- Dave pulls a Ned Ryerson
- Awesome people
- The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day
- What do Twilight fans have in common with Boondock Saints fans?
- Kick-Ass
- The Final Destination
- Adam gets sunburned
- Iron Man 2
- Tron 2 Viral at Flynn’s Arcade
- Where The Wild Things Are
- The Box
Read More »
For the past week, /Film was at at the San Diego Comic-Con 2009. We definitely had a lot of expectations going in, but regardless of whether or not they were met, the experience of seeing the excellent footage/panels, meeting other cool journalists, and partaking in the overwhelming geek atmosphere combined to make an unforgettable experience.
With all the non-stop coverage going on at our site, you might have missed some of our best posts. That’s why we’ve created this handy guide for you of everything we’ve done over the course of the past week, to help you catch up and to experience the Con with us again. You can also hear our thoughts about San Diego Comic-Con in a podcast wrap-up we recorded on the last night.
Movies
Director Robert Zemeckis showed off some footage from A Christmas Carol, which was somewhat impressive, but also extremely dark.
At the Disney panel, we learned that Tron 2 has been retitled Tron Legacy and we also got a nice glimpse at a lot of concept art for the new film. You can also watch the teaser trailer for Tron Legacy.
Tim Burton unveiled a 3-D teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland that was short but sweet.
James Cameron surprised the audience by showing 24 minutes of his upcoming science fiction film, Avatar. We shared our thoughts about it in a video blog afterwards.
Everyone was completely blown away by the footage from Kick-Ass that Matthew Vaughn showed. We talked about what we learned at the panel, but also made a video blog with our reactions.
Peter and Alex Billington from Firstshowing saw Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and thoroughly, so much so that they recorded a video review of it.
Russ saw 15 minutes of footage from Jennifer’s Body and described some of its similarities to Drag Me To Hell.
Dave saw some footage from the new Nightmare on Elm Street film and compared it with the Friday the 13th remake. We also gave our thoughts to this footage and to Jonah Hex in a video blog.
Screen Gems premiered footage for their new film, Legion, which Russ says looks like a real B-picture with a mostly A-list cast.
Dave saw the trailer for Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day and thought the Boondocks panel was completely out of control.
Footage from Iron Man 2 was unveiled, showing glimpses of characters such as War Machine.
Russ saw the red band trailer for Zombieland and found it sufficiently gory for his tastes.
We saw footage from Where The Wild Things Are and agreed in a video blog that it was the most beautiful thing we saw at Comic-Con.
Television
Adam and Devindra saw the pilot episodes for V and Human Target and discussed some of their thoughts.
Russ attended a panel on Dexter and caught a glimpse of the upcoming animated webisodes, and learned some other interesting tidbits about the series.
Adam saw some footage from AMC’s new series, The Prisoner, and found it extremely promising.
Devindra learned a few more things about the upcoming series Caprica, as well as the Battlestar GalacticaThe Plan. film,
Dave saw parts of a fairly thrilling pilot to David Goyer’s new series, Flashforward. He also learned that Dominic Monaghan would join the cast of the show.
At a panel for 24: Season 8, Devindra found out more about how the producers of the show are going to destroy Jack Bauer’s life all over again.
At a Dollhouse panel, Adam learned that Summer Glau and Alexis Denisof might appear in the upcoming season of Dollhouse. He also watched an unaired episode of the show that completely transformed the way he looked at the series.
The Simpsons received yet another accolade when it was awarded the Guinness World Record for longest-running sitcom.
Adam tried to make sense of what he learned at Saturday morning’s highly entertaining Lost panel.
Devindra learned a few spoilers about the second season of Fringe.
Devindra saw a teaser trailer for the second season of True Blood and wrote up some of his reactions to the panel’s Q&A.
Interviews
Dave spoke with director Michel Gondry, writer Evan Goldberg, and star Seth Rogen about The Green Hornet.
Twilight fans waiting in line for Summit Entertainment’s New Moon panel are hardcore to an extent you cannot possibly imagine.
Dave spoke with director Neill Blomkamp about his inspirations for District 9 and about how the film got made.
Dave and Peter spoke with John Lasseter about some of the work he’s doing at Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as his inspiration for Toy Story 3.
Dave interviewed Lee Unkrich, Pixar veteran and director of Toy Story 3 to try to find out more about the new Toy Story sequel.
Dave interviewed 2012 Director Roland Emmerich about the characters in his films (past and present), his use of miniatures vs. CGI, and how he came up with the staging for some of his disasters.
Breaking News
Jason Bateman insisted that the Arrested Development movie isn’t dead.
Gary Oldman stunned the audience in Hall H when he announced that the sequel to The Dark Knight might begin shooting next year.
Director Robert Zemeckis strongly hinted at the possibility of a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and provided a few details about it too.
James Cameron announced that August 21st, 2009, would be International Avatar Day.
Neill Blomkamp confirmed with us that he would probably not do a Halo film, even if he was offered one. We did, however, find out some details about his next project.
Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) revealed a few reasons why his next script might be monstrously expensive.
Ubisoft is making a game based on Scott Pilgrim to coincide with the movie’s release.
Russ spoke with the director and producer of Tron Legacy and learned that the sequel will have an 80s flashback sequence.
Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown will voice characters in the Fincher-produced film adaptation of The Goon.
Roland Emmerich hired Saving Private Ryan writer Bob Rodat to help pen an adaptation of one of Asimov’s Foundation books.
Kevin Smith may be forced to re-title his next film, A Couple of Dicks.
Adam learned that Lost viral campaigns will continue with the creation of Lost University.
The team behind the indie hybrid documentary Paper heart are making a Whimsical “Kiddie Show”.
Other Cool Stuff
On the first night, a massive scavenger hunt took place through the streets of San Francisco, culminating in the reveal of Flynn’s Arcade, an elaborate viral set piece for Tron Legacy
The Comic-Con show floor is home to a ton of interesting, creative geek paraphernalia. Russ took us on a photographic tour of the show floor.
District 9 and 2012 both had some interesting viral marketing going on.
Disney launched a viral campaign for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which involved an elaborate art installation which recreated Wonderland in San Diego, complete with props, costumes and concept art.
I’m still trying to post some of the video clips that, for whatever reason, weren’t posted over the weekend. At the Sony panel, Roland Emmerich premiered a 4 minute sequence from the beginning of his new disaster film 2012, which involves the main characters outrunning an earthquake in a limo. The scene is so over the top ridiculous, but awesome at the same time. I recorded a video blog with Adam Quigley and Russ Fischer, which you can watch after the jump.
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