The Comic Con Thread

[Emperor]

A little overdue, but this is where I will post any updates coming from the Con.  Also it seems Dwyn was there so she better update us as the Chan correspondant.

 

 

[Emperor]

More news tidbits from the various TV panels that took place during this year's San Diego Comic Con:

 

Lost

 

The show will arch back to the first season with several characters we haven't seen since then coming back into the mix.

 

Whereas Season Four was heavy on flash forwards and Season Five on time travel, Season Six is "something different".

 

The Dharma Initiative, which played a heavy role this past season, will barely be seen in the final season

 

Despite their apparent fates last season, Faraday and Juliette will continue to be involved.

 

One episode will delve heavily into Richard Albert’s backstory.

 

Various faux ads played during the panel indicate some events seem to have been altered by the ending of last season.

 

Smallville

 

A new trailer showed off some surprising major events in the upcoming ninth and potentially last season, most notably the final shot where Clark dons an early version of the costume, black with a silver chest S and black trenchcoat, at some point in the season. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQbhj1KPpo&feature=player_embedded

 

Erica Durance is booked for eighteen episodes this season (last year it was just twelve). The footage also shows a sex scene between Lois and Clark.

 

Chloe and Clark's relationship will be very strained early in the season after the events of last year.

 

The 'Red Blue Blur' will still be there, Durance says "Lois is dealing with being smitten with Superman and still finds Clark irritating".

 

Green Arrow's storyline will get quite dark and 'hit rock bottom' by the end of the Fall episode run. He and Clark will have a testy relationship this year as well due to Clark's powers and the successful blooming of his relationship with Lois.

 

Metallo (Brian Austin Green) seems to be a big element of the first two episodes. Toyman and Roulette will also appear.

 

Callum Blue's Zod is a younger version of the character - Major Zod. As a result he doesn't have the icy control of the older General Zod-era, and is trying to control the troops he brought with him. He's unaware of both Clark and Krypton's destruction.

 

Lex is "absolutely not dead", while a series finale is ready to go in case the show doesn't get renewed.

 

Chloe will start learning to protect herself this season and come into her own as the Watchtower operator.

 

Though not locked, an appearance by Jor-El was teased as a possibility.

 

Supernatural

 

 

With an all out Armageddon underway, the show will enjoy using twists on some famous Biblical stories. Don't expect huge effects as due to the budget, much of the big scale action takes place offscreen.

 

Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) will be portrayed as a nice guy, a sympathetic version using many elements from Milton's "Paradise Lost"

 

The four horsemen of the apocalypse will be introduced throughout different episodes of the season, though their 'horses' will be muscle cars.

 

Whether the show gets a season six or not, the plan is to finish up the 'apocalypse arc' by the end of this upcoming fifth season, an ending that "will end with a bang...[and] be bittersweet"

 

Unlike the very dark and almost morbid tone of last season, this year is the show's "most hopeful" season and one of the most fun with the brothers seemingly back together throughout after some division last season.

 

Castiel will serve as a recurring character, his angelic powers gone. Stuck on Earth as a human, Dean takes him to a whorehouse.

 

The almost mentor-like character of Bobby (Jim Beaver) will undergo a "dramatic transformation" early in the season that shocked the actor when he read it.

 

The fourth episode will involve a jump five years into the apocalypse-ridden future and will question whether fate can be changed.

 

God, who has disappeared it would seem with the angels kicking off the Apocalypse on their own, will be involved toward's the season's end.

 

Returnees include Ellen, Jessica, Meg (in a new body) and Rufus.

 

 

 

 

[Emperor]

24

 

The producers say this will be the most reality-driven season of the show since the first, and the most connected to the previous season of any season they've done thus far.

 

Jack's storyline of last season, where he's getting his life together and trying to be happy, will keep unrolling.

 

The general plot has Jack, now happily living with Kim in New York, learning from an underground contact that some plans to assassinate a foreign prime minister during his visit to the United Nations that day.

 

Kate Sackhoff's Dana Walsh character will essentially serve as the new CTU's Chloe. The original Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) has been on maternity leave and is thus trying to get up to speed on the new systems and not being 'top dog' anymore.

 

Sackhoff also made it clear that she told the producers she'd take the job so long as she gets to kick some ass and thus will be using a gun at some point in the season.

 

 

 

Fringe

 

While much of the first season was them reacting to events happening, this season will be much more proactive with the group actively hunting down elements of the pattern and their connections.

 

The conversation between Agent Dunham and William Bell that began at the end of last year's season finale will be continued in the new season premiere, though not right off the bat.

 

Leonard Nimoy's involvement on the show will be as much as he possibly can be.

 

Characters from the alternate dimensions will be crossing over more and will meet their alternative counterparts.

 

Heroes

 

A new trailer and the resulting Q&A session revealed the fate of several characters next season, and the resurrection of some familiar faces:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcBBjbkYXpM&feature=player_embedded

 

Ali Larter's Tracy character returns, having 'thawed out' and reassembled herself ala the liquid metal Terminator.

 

Robert Knepper plays Samuel, the head of a carnival show where people with abilities have been hiding in plain sight. After his brother dies, he decides to use his influence to change the world. His scheme will affect all the other heroes this season.

 

Dawn Olivieri's character and Samuel combine powers which cause tattoos to appear on her body that predict the future. Ray Park's character has super speed and gets into a high-speed knife fight with Peter (Milo Ventimiglia).

 

Though they share a kiss, Madeline Zima and Hayden Panettiere's characters won't have a lesbian relationship according to show creator Tim Kring.

 

Matt Parkman is once again a cop and Peter is a paramedic. Nathan is seemingly dead, though will apparently share a body with Sylar who comes back to life.

 

 

True Blood

 

Showrunner Alan Ball plans to incorporate the werelynx character of Debbie Pelt, Russell Eddington, werewolves and the 'Mississippi Vampires' storyline from the novels.

 

The Bill/Eric/Sookie love triangle storyline will be incorporated, but the timing has yet to be decided.

 

Ball has no plans to incorporate Bubba into the show, a character which is essentially Elvis Presley resurrected as a vampire and left mentally defective due to the process. The reason? It would look goofy (like an Elvis impersonator) and pull one out of the story.

 

Ball was adamant there won't be any half-breed vampire babies on the show.

 

A third season is not yet confirmed but Ball seemed pretty certain that it was happening and they've plenty of source material from the books to use. Authoer Charlene Harris was there and confirmed that three further books in the series are being worked on.

 

 

 

[Emperor]

You've got to hand it to actor/director Jon Favreau, he knows how to impress the 6000 plus fans at Comic Con's Hall H and impress them he did. But for Favreau, the pressure is on with his larger than life Iron Man sequel that hits theatres next summer, as he explained to Paul Fischer following the panel.

 

Question: You rocked Hall H Jon.

 

Favreau: Thank you. Boy, it was scary coming in. That’s the problem. Remember that Bugs Bunny where Daffy Duck drinks the gasoline, lights himself on fire and it blows up and everybody claps? It’s like what do you do for an encore? Last time around, we put it all out there because we had a lot to prove.

 

Question: You were the underdog two years ago.

 

Favreau: We were the underdog. We were sandwiched, if you remember, the first time I showed the stuff we were sandwiched between, on I think Thursday at the Paramount panel, everybody was waiting to see Indiana Jones. On the other side was Star Trek and they kinda just stuck us in there and we knew we had to fight our way. We were the runt and we had to fight our way to get the attention. This year it’s ridiculous but even then it was hundreds of properties that were trying to fight for attention. To emerge as one that was talked about was not a fait accompli by any stretch so we knew we had to show a lot of footage. This time, if you look at what other films with established franchises do, they tend to just come, do a little, sort of soft pedal the event, just show up as a sign of respect and don’t do too much, maybe give away a shirt or something. I want every time that I come here, I bring what people expect.

 

Question: How did you avoid the trap of sequels adding too many villains and characters?

 

Favreau: Well, we had to walk a fine line. I think you’re good for number two. Two seems to be the charm because you got your origin story out of the way. You can add some complexity to it and you have room, because you don’t have to tell the origin story, to introduce the characters. When you get to number three, you can get hidebound. You’re like a beached whale sometimes because you have so much, you collapse under the weight of the complexity that you’ve created. We looked at the successful sequels that we liked. I’m not talking about Two Towers or films that are chapters based on novels or Harry Potter. I’m talking about true sequels. The two that we liked the most, this was me and Kevin Feige talking, were Wrath of Kahn and Empire Strikes Back. Those were the two that we said, “They did it right. Now let’s look at what they did right.” There were so many others that didn’t feel as good as the first but for those two, what we found was that it really gave room to explore the characters and the villain plotlines were very simple but the stakes were very high. The less you get bogged down in complexity, the more you could really let the audience enjoy what they really like which are the relationships. Two years later, I know I’m a pretty savvy audience member, I don’t remember the dynamics and the subtleties of it. It’s not as precious to me as it is to the filmmakers. So it’s putting yourself in the seat of the audience and saying, “What do they want to see more but you want to go bigger.” You go from Alien to Aliens and then you want to show them the characters that they’ve invested in and how they’ve changed and change those dynamics by introducing new characters. Don’t just add to the action but throw the relationship into a little bit of a curve ball.

 

Question: Do you have double responsibility to set up part of The Avengers too?

 

Favreau: Yeah, I think that’s fun. I think it’s inevitable and The Avengers might be the thing that helps rescue us from the inevitable sequel slump that you get into because you’re throwing everything on its ear. It might be a failed experiment or it might be something wonderful, but it allows you to add complexity in an organic way where you’re culminating with something bigger as opposed to trying to play out and not repeat the same story over and over again.

 

Question: How do you avoid overloading on villain origin stories?

 

Favreau: It’s very true. With Empire, what you do is you reveal layers of what the larger villain is. We’re not feeling any pressure right now to rush to the whole Mandarin sub-throughline.

 

Question: But that’s still intact?

 

Favreau: It’s still intact. We’re consistent with it. We know where it’s going but I think audiences are pretty sophisticated. I watched the whole first season of Lost and of Heroes not having to know every thing about what was going on but I felt there was a consistency to those worlds. So in this case, with Mickey, we definitely did want to have an origin story because we wanted an origin story to shadow and mirror Tony because he’s introduced this technology into the world and how does that affect the world? We’re dealing with an arms race. That’s what Iron Man has always been. The thing about an arms race is, when you stop, the world doesn’t. You have windows of opportunity to change the world in good ways while all the bad forces are paralyzed and what happens when those other superpowers emerge. It changes your tactics. Iron Man is dealing with as much as he can based on saying, “I am Iron Man.” And what that has meant is to keep the world at bay with that new technology and who he was and how that changes now with the emergence of Mickey.

 

Question: How much pressure was on you to deliver the goods?

 

Favreau: I didn’t feel any pressure. Maybe I’m oblivious but the only pressure I felt was really the people in this room and to the fans. Unfortunately, the way sequels work is they market them and sell them based on the first one. If you have a successful film, they could run it into the ground and sell your second film based on the first one. So commercially, you have a safety net. The trick is, as a filmmaker and somebody who loves the movies that I make and the source material, I don’t want to fall into that trap. So the pressure is completely self-imposed. I want people to like this movie as much, if not better than the first one. That’s the game of chicken I’m playing but there’s a safety net knowing people will check it out. People stay away from our weekends with other movies. It’s going to get marketed well. It’s going to properly get its shot to do business but the success of the first one that I really appreciated wasn’t just that people went to see it. It was that people were charmed by it. We wanted to make a charming film that didn’t lose track of what we did the first time around and that’s my job. In bringing new cast members in that were consistent. You talk about ensemble writing, it’s bringing an ensemble that can be stewards of their character because we change stuff. Writing on these movies is something that’s a living, breathing thing and I want to give us the freedom that if we discover something in one scene, we can change a scene in the next act to support that.

 

Question: Why the new writer?

 

Favreau: Well, I love the first two sets of writers that I had worked with. Robert had a very good relationship with Justin. We found somebody who can help bring a voice to him but the writing is such a collaborative process, it’s not like I wrote Swingers, we shot Swingers. This is like here’s the basic story. Here’s the basic scenes. Here’s the basic structure, here are the basic set pieces. Let’s start drawing and storyboarding these moments. Now, how do we connect all of this and then the last step is the actual writing of it. But I have the whole story in my head by the time the script actually emerges.

 

Question: Will you have a story by credit?

 

Favreau: It’s part of directing. As a writer, I think it’s unfair because of the amount of work that the writers do do. I think that everybody has their role but everybody overlaps. Justin Thereoux shot some footage for me. Robert wrote a lot of his own stuff and was involved with the story process from the beginning. Gwyneth comes in. Everybody improvises.

 

Question: How fluid was it? Was the script lot?

 

Favreau: They never are. We locked script last week when we shot the last scene.

 

Question: Justin was rewriting the whole time?

 

Favreau: He was rewriting the whole time and he shouldered a tremendous burden in conforming to what our new ideas were and then us giving him new ideas and then changing it, him doing it and then ultimately improvising oftentimes.

 

Question: What’s the intensity factor with Robert and Mickey together?

 

Favreau: Mickey and Robert didn’t work together a lot and Robert had really gone out of his way to get Mickey involved. They were on the tour for the awards season last year together. They kept popping up at the same events because they were both nominated. So Mickey was definitely very, I think, appreciative that Robert fought so hard to get him, as did I. So off camera there was a lot of mutual respect and appreciation but of course on camera, they’re two strong forces that definitely squared off against one another.

 

Question: What did Mickey and Scarlett add to the game?

 

Favreau: Well, Scarlett brings a new - - not only works us towards The Avengers but also changed the dynamic between Robert and Gwyneth. One of the other traps you don’t want to fall into is just repeating the same dynamics and turn it into Hart to Hart. You don’t want it to be Moonlighting. You don’t want to have the same thing over and over again. It’s not a television series but I don't know that you would like it for these guys. It’s a movie so you have to change things and you have to create a beginning, middle and an end so that it doesn’t just feel like an episode in a series of films. So by introducing her, that changes their dynamic. Scarlett appears in their life and has, as you can see, just a tremendous presence. With Mickey Rourke, I didn’t want to just have two guys in robot suits hitting each other again. I wanted to have a different type of villain that used the same technology, existed within the same framework and rules of our world, but that was going to present not just a challenge physically but also in how dark he was and also how he’s related and how his fate and Tony’s fate are connected.

 

Question: How do you have time to act?

 

Favreau: I pushed it a little too hard this time. I was shooting I Love You, Man the week this movie came out which was very weird to be on the phone with Jeffrey Katzenberg, sitting getting ready to be on the set of a movie sitting in like a small trailer as a supporting player on a low budget comedy. It was just a surreal experience. Then Couples Retreat I was writing. I was supposed to direct that. Vince had the idea. He was producing it. We were both going to star and I was going to direct but because Iron Man’s release date was coming so fast, I couldn’t. I worked on the script for about a year and had to put it down during the strike even, and then came back to it. Then I had to start working on Iron Man, so Vince rewrote it and Peter Billingsly, who’s been a collaborator with us, directed it. I got to carve out the time in the schedule to act in it but just I went from project to project to project, as did Robert, and it’s a little overwhelming. I’m going to have to try to find time in here somehow.

 

Question: Is the thought that Avengers is the third Iron Man or is there an Iron Man 3?

 

Favreau: There’s an Iron Man 3. Here’s how I know. When they make the option deals, they include Iron Man 3. So I know they’re planning on 3. Whether that would be before or after Avengers, they’ve announced that Avengers is next but they pushed back The Avengers once which I thought was encouraging. It would certainly - -

 

Question: Does that give you more time to breathe?

 

Favreau: It does and my involvement has yet to be determined on that project. Remember, you have to take into account what Thor is and you don’t know that until the film’s locked. You’re not going to know about Thor for two years, what that really means. And Captain America, they haven’t even started prepping yet. So there’s a lot of discovery that has to take place before you can understand what Avengers really is.

 

Question: What’s your place in that process?

 

Favreau: We talk about it and really Iron Man is their flagship franchise right now that we’re making a sequel for. It’s the one that’s informing the others the most so I feel like I’m chopping my way through the jungle and Avengers will eventually be an oasis somewhere down the line. I’m pretty much hands on day to day just on Iron Man but I think they’ll learn from what I’m discovering now that will inform the next one.

 

Question: Couples Retreat looks hilarious.

 

Favreau: I hope so. I haven’t seen it yet. It was very funny on the set so hopefully it’ll work out well.

 

 

[Emperor]

On an otherwise quiet final day at this year's San Diego Comic Con, one of the biggest events took place early on - the "Doctor Who" panel.

 

The 4200-capacity Ballroom 20 was filled to the brim with fans eager to catch a glimpse of outgoing Time Lord David Tennant who turned up to a thunderous standing ovation. Dressed in a black t-shirt with a rhinestone stormtrooper on the front, Tennat joined show runners David Tennant, Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn for what was an extended Q&A session with fans to talk about the show's impact both in the UK and America, and the shooting that took place on the final specials to air later this year.

 

In very good humor and loving the fan feedback, Tennant and Davies had an obvious blast revealing stories of stolen wardrobe from the set to cracking jokes about fellow Who-alumni Billie Piper using a see-through top to cheat on "Top Gear" to John Barrowman stealing set props just to get strip searched on the way out. Right at the beginning they shot down rumors of a "Doctor Who" movie, Gardner saying the film is NOT in any form of development though they love such an idea.

 

Tennant twice laughed off the rumors of his being cast in "The Hobbit" (it's not true at all), though admits after "St. Trinian's 2" his film schedule is clear for now. Asked about potentially returning to the 'Who' franchise in future adventures, he made a remark about the show's 50th anniversary in 2013 before quickly saying that's not a confirmation in any way and "don't Twitter that".

 

Asked about a fourth season of "Torchwood", Davies wouldn't confirm any specifics but indicated the success of 'Children of Earth' means its a certainty and he sounded excited to be involved. Fans though hoping for the return of some previously deceased cast members should not hold out hope.

 

A representative from the Guinness Book of World Records also appeared on stage to give the show an honor. 'Who' already held the current world record title for the longest-running science-fiction television series in history, this award was for being the most successful science-fiction television series in history based on ratings numbers, disc sales and downloads. Davies laughingly said a war was about to break out on the floor over this and jokingly said "take that 'Star Trek'".

 

Early on in the panel they aired the first teaser trailer for 'The End of Time', Tennant's final two-part special to air this Christmas. Timothy Dalton gives a voiceover on the clip saying essentially that when a man comes to his end, his old nightmares come back to haunt him. The shots were flashes of characters who appear in these final eps including ex-companion Donna (Catherine Tate), her grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) and mother, an Ood, and the former PM's wife Lucy Saxon.

 

The most frequent face though was John Simm, returning as The Master. Glimpsed laughing and wandering around some rundown urban environments in a tracksuit, he pulls back his hood to reveal a shock of short bleached blond hair and turns menacingly to Tennant's Doctor who has flame exploding behind him. The clip was played twice and a poorly filmed bootleg version can be found below

 

 

Just before the panel ended, an extended trailer for the second of the four specials, 'The Waters of Mars', aired with a surprisingly large number of effects shots of a Martian space base. The Doctor gives a voiceover saying that while time is in flux, there are certain events that MUST happen and the story here is one of those. We got more of a glimpse of the creatures - creepy zombies that infect people through water. At one point The Doctor, referring to Planet of the Dead's ominous "he will knock four times" prophecy, says "It doesn't end here and now — because I don't hear anyone knocking, do you" before four heavy knocks slam against an airlock door. A proper quality version is available below:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQTDVMq4fY&feature=player_embedded

 

 

[Emperor]

Warner Brothers Pictures started the day on Friday at San Diego Comic Con 2009 with a star-studded 2.5 hour panel devoted to no less than five of their upcoming films.

 

Things kicked off with "Where the Wild Things Are", Spike Jonze's brilliant looking interpretation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's novel. After a brief video of Sendak and Jonze in the former's office basically praising each other's skills, we were treated to a collection of around a half-dozen 3-5 minute scenes showing off various sequences with the creatures and the kid.

 

We see construction of a castle, a playful monster wrestle, a tour through the various lands, and lots of scenes with all the monsters interacting. The important thing is the look and tone truly nails the material. Jonze shot all the scenes on-location and handycam style in forests and barren rocky seaside landscapes. Combined with the monsters which seamlessly blend practical suits with CG animated facial expressions, it gives the whole fantastical element a much greater sense of reality. In fact its often surprising how emotionally affecting the fun and sadness of these various creatures is.

 

The young star of the film, Max Records, was on hand to introduce the footage and actually managed to make a very supportive crowd at the con chuckle several times.

 

Then came "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with the film's producers, director and star Jackie Earle Haley showing up with an essentially extended trailer. Scenes shown include a very scared Krueger being torched (and stumbling out while burned alive). There's various random shots that were tricky to recognise - a guy in a pool rising from the water, what looked like a glass house, random victims, etc.

 

Other shots however definitely evoked the original from creepy girls singing to Tina's famous death, and the nightmare with the body-bagged corpse in the school hallway. A good scare has a girl in an attic with a torch, seeing Freddy's fedora on top of some boxes. She swivels the light away and swivels back to see it and Freddy's eyes looking at her from behind the boxes. The clip ended with a shadowed shot of Krueger - no clear shot of Freddy's new look was revealed but the burns do look different from Englund's more sinewy makeup.

 

During the Q&A, the producers said that while its a remake they weren't slavish to Wes Craven's original by any means so expect it to have a few changes from the original. They said Robert Englund is NOT going to make a cameo though went to great pains to say he's a big supporter of it and Haley in the role. Andrew Clement's make-up design is said to evoke a more realistic take on the burn victim look with Haley calling it more "disconcerting" than the previous film's make-up jobs.

 

Next was "The Box", a sci-fi feature based on an old "Twilight Zone" episode that has been helmed by rising filmmaker Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko," "Southland Tales"). A very buff Kelly was on hand with the sometimes ditzy but very good-humored Cameron Diaz and fellow prankster James Marsden to talk about the film and show off an extended trailer.

 

The early scene shown in the trailer which sets up the premise (push the button, receive $1 million) was played pretty much in full. Unlike the trailer however the dilemma of push/don't push doesn't look to be a focal point as Diaz's character presses it in a scene that obviously takes place quite early in the film.

 

The rest of the footage shows the pair's attempts to find out who Frank Langella's character is and whom he works for. Scenes from the trailer are expanded on and quite trippy with what looks psychically controlled water cubes, group hypnosis, etc.

 

With a film like this, the more kept a mystery the better so answers were generally vague. Yet the 1976 Virginia setting is apparently very keen to the whole idea of the film as Kelly didn't want to do a scene where the couple 'Googled' their mysterious visitor. Diaz made a remark about a larger theme of the film which may have given away some spoilers as to the end.

 

Fourth cab off the rank was "Jonah Hex", the film adaptation of the comic book western with supernatural undertones. Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender and the film's director turned out to premiere an extended trailer and answer questions. The footage was impressive, especially considering the film's limited budget, with a real mix of stuff not really seen in the same film before.

 

The Q&A however turned out to be rather uncomfortable and uninformative as many who got up just made remarks about how hot Fox was - one guy made comments that were WAY out of order and was promptly cut off. Much of it however was saved by Brolin who was able to give sass back to the audience and make fun of himself. The filmmakers did confirm though that there's no Voodoo King or Army of the Dead.

 

Finally came "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downey Jr. walking out unannounced with a hand up in a 'praise me' style salute that sent the crowd wild. Downey was easily the funniest talent on display all day, cracking jokes about his overconfidence and just having an obvious ball playing to a crowd of fans who adored him.

 

An extended trailer of about 6-7 minutes of scenes were shown. Unlike the teaser which reeked of bombast, the new footage was notably better paced and got more into the story. The 'Pirates' take on Doyle's material is evident, and there's still some questions that linger, but the flavour of Holmes both character and story wise were notably more obvious in this footage.

 

The fight scene has Holmes pre-visualising in a very cold and calculated manner how he'll take down the rival boxer before he does it. There was also more of Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler character outfoxing Holmes from his clothes, and some scenes set on Tower Bridge mid-way through construction.

 

The tone is humorous and dark, and as much as love Downey it's his take on the character that remains the standout element from the footage that has yet to convince me. He and the other panelists however said very specifically that they kept going back to the books time and time again and are far more loyal to them than other adaptations have been in the past due to budget and filmmaking limitations.

 

Despite the Occult angle of bodies rising from the grave, the 'supernatural' element seems to be a cover for something more believable. Though it's not based on a specific adventure, the story's time frame is definitely set after Adler's first and only appearance in the story "A Scandal in Bohemia" as several references are made to the end of that story. Asked if other characters in Holmes canon will make it into the film, one of the producers said they might and wouldn't go into detail.

 

[Dwynwen]

I was only there for Saturday, but I still had a good time!  I'll write more later, since I'm pretty tired tonight.

[Dunbar]

Lost

 

CHAAAAAAAAAAARLIEEEEEEEE!

[Barmacral]

I'm not sure what to make of that Heroes trailer, it seems interesting, but... I dunno.

[Majsju]

Is it just me, or did the video from Smallville show a hint that Clark might (finally) give flying a try?

Amd how the hell is Lex not dead? Oliver blew him up!

 

24, considering the end of last season, seems like at least a year has passed, probably more.

[Dwynwen]

Okay, here's more about the things I went to on Saturday:

 

The first panel I attended was called "Is the Joker a Psychopath?  You Decide!"  It was led by two psychologists, Adam West, the guy who created the Joker character, and some guy who worked on the Dark Knight film.  One of the psychologists actually wrote a book called "The Psychology of Superheroes," which is too bad because I had the idea that I should write such a book someday, but I didn't know it already existed!  The panel pretty much went over stuff I already knew, but it was interesting nonetheless.

 

After that, I stood in an ungodly line for an hour and forty-five minutes to see the panel on The Simpsons.  Even after all that, I was lucky to get in for the last half of the panel.  Matt Groening was there, and they basically answered questions from the audience.  Btw, they said Bart is going to get a girlfriend (voiced by Sarah Silverman).  They might bring back Spiderpig since the audience chanted loudly for that, but we shall see.  The Guinness World Records people showed up to say that The Simpsons officially surpassed Ozzy and Harriet for the longest running sitcom in the world and gave Matt Groening that award.

 

Next, I did another psych thing and went to the Poster Session.  Some psych students and professors had poster presentations about such things as vigilantes (cultural influences and personality characteristics that give rise to them), whether certain superpowers could potentially be obtained or developed in real life, the analysis of Batman and Robin's relationship in terms of Aristotle's three types of friendship, and more. 

 

I then used the fancy re-entry pass to Ballroom 20 in order to go back to the same place The Simpsons had been to wait for the True Blood panel.  I ended up having to sit through the Fringe panel (I have never seen the show, so I had no clue what they were talking about) but it was much better than having to go back in line and be uncertain of getting into the True Blood panel.  I was thrilled to see the True Blood panel, since most of the actors and actresses were there.  It looks like Empy already summed up the gist of what they talked about.

 

My last panel was the Watchmen panel.  I almost didn't get in, but was so glad I did because Rorschach was there!  He and the director of the movie took questions from the audience first.  One memorable moment was when a guy dressed as Rorschach asked a question of Jackie Earle Haley (the "real" Rorschach) in a Rorschach voice.  Haley responded in his Rorschach voice, and they kept talking to each other like that.  Haley joked that it was "dueling Rorschachs" and the audience got a good chuckle out of it.  Then, the director's cut of the Watchmen movie was shown while the director took questions from the audience and live from people across the nation as the movie played.

 

Overall, I had a great time, but I was disappointed by the horrible lines and maintenance of crowd traffic.  I also felt that although Comic Con seems to attract bigger stars, Dragon*Con has a broader variety of panels for the mostly fantasy/sci fi oriented people like me.  I was also sad that I missed Friday's Big Bang Theory panel and Thursday's Twilight panel, but at least I got to see them online.  I'll be buying a four-day membership for next year so I won't kick myself for missing some neat things.