Nar Takes On Comic-Con!

Oh yes. Comic-Con. And what an amazing lineup of talent and cool properties they have on panles here this year. Here’s what I did…

THURSDAY

The Hobbit/Weta/Onering.net Panel

Unfortunately there were no middle-earth-shattering announcements about casting. But seeing as they are still writing the first draft, it’s understnadable. (Actors usually like to read scripts.) They did confirm a couple cool things:

– Howard Shore will be back for the score. “Score!” (sorry, that was bad.)

– John Howe, Alan Lee, and Mike Mignola (among others) will be concept artists. Mignola has been given the task to create new distinct monsters and looks for the dwarves and goblins. No problem for Hellboy, right?

– Del Toro has said they split the book exactly in half, and the break point is logical if you look at the book. My guess: Perhaps after Bilbo wins the ring from Gollum? He sent a video message where dispelled rumors about Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford, but said little else.

– It was a treat to see Richard Taylor, head of Weta, at the panel. He showed off some really cool bronze sculptures and official LOTR weapons that you can see at their site, wetanz.com. He spoke about the thrill of working on Tin Tin with Speilberg and Jackson, and Avatar with Cameron.

Richard taylor described Avatar as perhaps “the most visually exciting movies ever made.” I decided I’d be the judge of that, at the…

Avatar Panel

After waiting for hours, getting sunburnt, and talking to fans of Science of the Movies in line, I was in the Avatar panel with 3D glasses in hand. When James Cameron came out and said we were going to get 20-25 minutes of footage the place went ballistic. He described the process of making the film like so: “After digesting all this sci-fi over the years, this is what came out.”

Here’s some highlights of what we saw:

– Sam Worthington as Jake, wheelchair bound, coming to the planet Pandora to become an Avatar operator. Avatars are large catlike creatures that look like the Navi, the natives of the planet.

– Jake in the jungle squaring off against what looked like a rhino with the head of a hammerhead shark, then being chased by a panther-like creature.

– DRAGONS. Oh yes, DRAGONS!!! Jake and the Pandora natives pounce on a herd of dragons, and Jake must wrangle one and learn how to ride. Awesome!!!

– Jake and the native princess Neytiri in the jungle. Neytiri saves Jake from some nasty critters, then witnesses something she considers quite significant: the seeds of a sacred tree, which look like jellyfish floating through the air, coming to rest all over Jake’s arms and head, as if he is a savior of some sort.

Overall, I can describe Avatar like this: when I play D&D, or read a fantasy book, etc. this is what my imagination looks like. It’s colorful, strange, beautiful, and weird. Will it change cinema forever? The jury’s still out on that. I heard some comments that the animation was a little “cartoony”, which I think is fair, although it didn’t bother me.

Cameron then brought out members of the cast Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, and Stephen Lang for a few minutes to discuss their characters. The big announcement was Avatar Day: August 21, in which every IMAX theater in the world will be showing 15 minutes of the film for FREE. Guess Cameron is truly on a mission to convince the public that 3D is the way to watch movies.

Doctor Parnassus Panel

It was a real treat to see one of my favorite directors, Terry Gilliam, come out and show us some exclusive footage from his upcoming film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Gilliam is the defintion of film maverick and has a style all his own — which once again shines in Doctor Parnassus, which tells the story of a once monk (Christopher Plummer) who travels with his Imaginarium but carries a dark secret: he lost a bet with the Devil (Tom Waits), who has come to collect.

– Gilliam says he finished the film after Heath Ledger’s death (Ledger plays Tony in the film) so that everyone could see Ledger’s last performance. “Heath Ledger would have been the greatest actor of his generation and several other generations,” said Gilliam to affirmative applause.

– Gilliam was awarded the Inkpot Award for Film Arts from CCI, and when he was asked how he gets his inspiration he said, “I steal ideas from dead painters.”

Kick Ass Panel

If you are a fan of the Mark Millar comic book, start getting very excited. The Kick Ass panel was the only panel I attended all day that received a standing ovation after we saw footage. Holy crap this movie is going to be insane.

– Director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, who teamed on the fantastic film Stardust, were joined by Millar, John Romita, Jr., and cast members Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist) and Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl).

Scenes screened were some of the most memorable moments straight out of the comic:

– Big Daddy teaching Hit Girl the meaning of pain by shooting her

– Dave getting beat up and knifed when he first tries to intervene with some thugs

– Hit Girl saving Dave’s ass when he tries to confront a drug dealer in his home

– We also saw a “trailer” of scenes cut together to music, which was ultra-violent.

– Mark Millar said he envisioned Kick Ass as a trilogy broken up into 3 graphic novels, which means we won’t see the last issue until we’re all in nursing homes.

– When Vaughn was asked if he was afraid a studio would change the film after they bought it (the movie is an indie with no distributor yet) he said “No” and implied that anyine seeking to change it wouldn’t get it.

If you know the book, you know it’s wickedly funny and super gorey. Believe me, that is all intact here. I laughed my ass off. The action is really well done and it’s so surreal to see a 10-year-old girl slicing thugs up on screen. Amazing.

FRIDAY

Most of my day Friday was spent running around the convention floor with the Heads Up crew. But I did get to make a Geekscape appearance, climb on top of the District 9 tank and give a braveheart speech to passers-by, and attend one panel…

Peter Jackson/James Cameron Panel

– They talked 3D (surprise!) Cameron plans to convert Titanic to 3D, and Jackson said they’re looking at the possibilty of converting LotR, although it’s a huge task.

– Early in the panel, a crazy fan prankster took the stage and perplexed everyone. Here’s the video:

– When asked about their next projects, with Jackson’s The Lovely Bones coming in December and Cameron’s Avatar that same month, Cameron replied: “It’s not a good time to ask a woman if she wants more kids when she’s crowning.”

I spent Friday evening with the Geekscape crew at The Mighty Boosh show, which was amazing. If you haven’t seen this British comedy duo yet, you can catch them on Adult Swim now. Gilmore pulled a VIP move when we all passed by the neverending line that wrapped around the theater and walked right in to the show. It was surreal, hilarious, and insane, to say the least. Definitely check them out.

SATURDAY

It was my turn to pull off some guerrilla comedy and cause some nerd chaos on Saturday, when Ryan McDonald and I donned the mullet and the beard to become Goober & The Viking. We hijacked unsuspecting broadcasters on the floor, crashed The Simpsons auditions, got kicked off the premises by the San Diego Police, and perplexed attendees when we held our very unofficial Goober & The Viking Panel. If you want to see more of the shenanigans, check out Nerdbunker.com!

I’d like to thank all the folks at Geekscape for making this Comic-Con so much fun. Thanks, guys!!!