[IMG:L]It’s been residing in the same place it was born and raised for 38 years, and it ain’t moving anytime soon. But it’s the furthest thing from uncool.
That’s because, like the legions of uber-passionate fans that live, sleep, breathe and devour once-quirky pop culture genres like comic books, horror, fantasy, science fiction, San Diego’s annual Comic-Con International has become the hippest party of the year. From Superman to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter and Heroes, fantastic genres have emerged as the preeminent form of popular entertainment on the planet–and the Con has lead the way.
Nerdapalooza? Geekstock? Hardly. After all, Hollywood heavy hitters like Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicolas Cage, Jessica Alba, Dane Cook, Steve Carell, Kate Beckinsale, Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Clive Owen, Hayden Panetierre, Robert Downey, Jr., Edward Burns, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Terrence Howard, Milla Jovovich, Seth McFarlane, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Bacon, Kristen Bell, Dwayne Johnson, Rosario Dawson, once and future Spocks Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto and dozens more motored down from L.A. to join the party, which isn’t just for fans dressed as Klingons, Catwomen, Stormtroopers, Manga girls and Hogwarts students anymore–though they are all also totally, deliriously welcome.
Where else can one attend a bash where you could find yourself leaning against the bar in cosmic cocktail conversation with adult industry superstar Jenna Jameson and Stan Lee, the founding father of Marvel Comics while nearby Iron Man director Jon Favreau exchanges Hollywood war stories with Lost guru J.J. Abrams, and Lucy Lawless friskily grabs the backsides of her Battlestar Galactica co-stars Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff?
True story.
Is the triumph of Comic-Con the ultimate “Revenge of the Nerds?” Ha! As Hollywood.com reveals, the REAL nerds were all home watching home makeover shows. (Watch video highlights)
Comic-Con ’07: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Preps for Final Voyage
“Frack!” That pretty much sums up the collective reaction of legions of loyal Battlestar Galactica viewers when they learned the series’ upcoming fourth season next winter will also be its last.
[IMG:L]‘Battlestar Galactica’: The Razor’s Edge
Several members of the creative team and cast were on hand at San Diego’s Comic-Con International and following a fan panel in which they announced a few tantalizing teases of what the final season has to offer and after the panel they shed even more light on what lies ahead. First up, according to Ron Moore, is Razor, a one-off two-hour film airing in November that turns back the clock on the series’ timeline to unseen intrigue on the Battlestar Pegasus under Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes) and featuring appearances by most of the series regulars. The flashback film will be unveiled in an unusual, innovative way, Moore promises. (Read story)
Comic-Con ’07: Making the Real Magic of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’
Bringing The Chronicles of Narnia to life for the second time is director Andrew Adamson and his team. Hollywood.com spoke to a few of the key players who are working behind-the-scenes to make the magic of the newest installment, Prince Caspian, a reality, by May 2008.
[IMG:L]Making the Real Magic of ‘Prince Caspian’: Producer Mark Johnson
“The assumption is that you’ve got to be bigger. You know the first one was really successful and I just heard myself in a film piece we did say “Oh, it’s got to be bigger or better than the last one.” It’s got to be as good certainly. You don’t want to make a movie that’s not as satisfying, but I think bigger is probably wrong. I don’t know if an audience expects [there to be more] effects or more complicated, but it’s like anything else you still have to make a good movie.” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Making the Real Magic of ‘Prince Caspian’: Costume Designer Isis Mussenden
“People just come to my work and I have a 10,000 square foot workspace where we have dyers and agers, screen-printers. Every pair of pants was screened… for the four kids, for their four outfits everything of which is handmade, we made seven of each of them…you have a stunt rider and a stunt coordinator and wear and tear and growth for the two younger ones who are still growing. We just finished the last two pieces for Edmund and Lucy because they’ve already grown. Georgie [Henley] has grown four inches since we started.” (Read interviews)
[IMG:L]Making the Real Magic of ‘Prince Caspian’: F/X Masters Dean Wright and Howard Berger
“The film has become much more wild and I think the whole theme of this film has gotten a much grittier tone to it. And it is reflected in both the production design and the character design…Basically the kids, went back to London. They’ve been there for a year and as they get sucked back to Narnia this time. They’re expecting to find the same place that they left [behind]…they stumble upon the ruins of it and it has been destroyed in a battle. And the plants and vines have overgrown it all.” (Read interview)
Comic-Con ’07’s Fantastic Films and Filmmakers
Hollywood.com set out to find some of the Hollywood’s best filmmakers to talk about their latest projects, including Jon Favreau, who dishes about Iron Man, Steven Spielberg, who offers tantalizing tidbits about his upcoming Indiana Jones movie, and 300 director Zack Snyder, who opens up about Watchmen.
[IMG:L]‘Iron Man”s Movie Team Shows Their Heavy Mettle
“Iron Man, I think, is different certainly from like the DC heroes,” actor-director Jon Favreau, who’s helming the film, told Hollywood.com. “Where Batman is the character and Bruce Wayne is his cover story. Superman is the character and Clark Kent is the disguise. Tony Stark is the character and Iron Man is his alter ego that he only first begins to explore…” (Read interviews)
[IMG:L]Star Trek’s Search for Spock Ends and Quinto Speaks
“You can’t get more iconic than Spock in terms of the zeitgeist. And I feel incredibly honored that J.J. supported me, that Damon supported me, that Leonard Nimoy, who had to approve the actor to play the role, approved me and is involved in this. I mean, it’s like literally an opportunity of a lifetime and none of its lost on me, so I feel incredibly honored.” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Keeping Up with the Indiana Joneses
“For the last 10 or 12 or 13 years I made a lot of different kinds of movies,” Spielberg explains. “Many of them were films that I really passionately needed to make first, for myself. This picture, I promise you, I am making for you guys and girls. This is really all for you and for all the fans of the series. We are back and all in good form…” (Read Interview)
[IMG:L]One Degree of Separation from Bacon and ‘Death Sentence’
“Really the hardest thing physically I ever did was Hollow Man. I was invisible but I was covered in this green suit or a mask glued onto my face or whatever. I thought that it was going to be the easiest gig in the world because I was invisible and that I would just float in, but in fact it was physically demanding, mostly from the standpoint of just claustrophobia…” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]‘300’ Director Snyder Stands Watch Over ‘Watchmen’
“The biggest challenge, really, is things like keeping the Vietnam sequence. Keeping all the festish-y, awesome things that make it what it is. And allowing the studio to go ‘Do they really need to go to Vietnam? Do they really need to do this tenement fire rescue? It doesn’t really move the story along.’ I go ‘Yeah, but if they don’t do the tenement fire rescue, how are they going to get turned on to have sex in Nite-Owl’s ship? [laughs]...” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Paltrow Gets a Kick Out of ‘Iron Man,’ Even After Knee Surgery
“When my son was about 6 months old, I started to feel the fire again and it had been a really long time. I kind of understood and became okay with the fact that there’s a part of me that’s an artist, and that it was okay to work. So I thought I would wait until he was 1 so that he could have all my attention… and then if there was a movie for me – if people haven’t totally forgotten about me – that would be great…” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Whedon Goes into ‘Sugar Shock’
“The future of Buffy in the film is that the girl who plays Buffy is going to go make a bunch of films. That’s pretty much the future of Buffy. Honestly, the future of Buffy right now is in comic books. I had to do some stuff that did not take. If anything happens, it would be extremely tangential, and the Buffy-verse, with all our beloved Scoobies and whatnot, I do not think it will see film again.” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]F/X Titan Harryhausen–and ’20 Million Miles to Earth’–Are More Colorful than Ever
Acknowledging the popularity of computer-generated visual effects, he nonetheless warned of their overuse. “Things change, it’s an entirely different world from when I was making films,” Rayhousen said to auditorium packed with fans both young and old. “If you make fantasy too realistic, you defeat the point of the fantasy.” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Pixar’s Stanton Goes from Hopping Lamp Luxo to Lost Fish Nemo to Lonely Robot ‘Wall-E’
“You know that the other misnomer is that people think we go in with the desire to do a technological advancement. Its more like, wow now that we’re done from making the story, what do we have. Because we always go in with no idea how we’re going to make it. But then when the dust settles and we look back…” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Mane Carves a Niche as ‘Halloween”s New Michael Myers
“I was in Vancouver, getting ready to meet with producers about another project. I got the phone call and Rob [Zombie] said, ‘Hey, I want you to do Michael Myers.’ I said, ‘Why would you want me to play Michael Myers? He’s just a short little guy from Canada.’ He goes, ‘No, no, no. In Halloween… I want you to be my Michael Myers.'” (Read interview)
The Babes of Comic-Con ’07
There’s no better way to prove that the Con brings the hotness than to kick off our coverage than with a round of chats with some of the sexiest stars on this and other planets.
[IMG:L]Jameson Turns Hardcore Heroine in ‘Shadow Hunters’
“When I was young I was a huge fan of the movie Heavy Metal and that’s kind of the vibe I want to bring to it. That edgy, cool artistic fun thing and I think that taking away that whole, my sexual edge, doesn’t really do me justice. So yeah, it’s certainly going to have that….” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Sorry Fanboys, Beckinsale Layers on the Clothes for ‘Whiteout’
“In the comic book I understand the character is a little bit different. They wanted her as kind of jumping-off part–on the whole comic book was fairly different. I found out that my costar actually should have been a woman: Gabriel Macht‘s character is a chick in the comic book. They wanted her to be very real and earthy….” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]‘Battlestar Galactica’ Star Sackhoff Becomes a Bionic Badass
“A show like Bionic Woman needs to be broken up by having a strong villain. This nemesis was written perfectly. She’s the complete opposite of Michelle [Ryan], of Jamie Summers, but at the same time they’re very similar. And Jamie Summers will go through a lot of the same things that Sarah Corbis has gone through that have, in a sense, made her evil. So I think that in a weird, f’d-up way, Sarah Corbis is trying to train Jamie Summers.” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]Hewitt ‘Ghost Whispers’ Sweet Nothings in Our Ear
“I think that everybody has this sort of natural sensitivity to that stuff. It’s just whether you choose to pay attention to it or not. Definitely being on this show and working 17 hours a day, it’s been tough for me to ignore that part of myself. So it’s definitely been heightened. It’s not something that I really pay attention to that much. I kind of let Melinda sort of have that side of things…” (Read interview)
[IMG:L]‘Grindhouse’ Girl Sydney Tamiia Poitier
“I didn’t know that Kurt Russell was such a goofball and just laughs all the time. Quentin? I don’t think I realized how childlike and exuberant he actually was. I knew he was passionate about movies and I knew he was full of this creative energy. But, he is as excited as a 5-year-old kid with his first fire truck or something. He is just so excited, and that was pretty cool to work with… (Read interview)
[IMG:L]It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Babe! Sexy Supergirl Vandervoort Soars Into’Smallville’
“And they are big red boots. I’m wearing those and the short shirts and belly shirts. That was one of my worries was that the fans have a preconceived notion of what they want for Supergirl. But I wanted to make it more of a vulnerable character, not just heroic…[The fans] like asking me to flex my muscles. They’re shaking my hand and welcoming me. It’s like it’s their family. They’re welcoming me to their family. They said they’re excited to see me. (Read interview)
[IMG:L]‘Halloween’ Star Zombie Bares Maternal Side as Michael Myers’ Stripper Mom
“I play Deborah Myers who is Michael Myer’s mom. And she’s a down on her luck mom. She tries her hardest, she’s a stripper mom that’s how she makes the money. She has a loser boyfriend who’s abusive and she has a teenage daughter who’s basically a slut and a little murdering child and then a baby. She tries!”(Read interview)
Comic-Con ’07’ Photo Galleries and Video
Hollywood.com hit several events at this year’s Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center, and covered the stars as well as the fans.
[IMG:L]Comic-Con International Photo Gallery
At the Comic-Con International 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center with Missy Peregrym, Amanda Tapping, David Hewlett, Rosario Dawson, and more.
Comic-Con International Panel Day Photo Gallery
At the Comic-Con International 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center with Katee Sackhoff, Masi Oka, Laura Vandervoort, Crystal Allen, Orlando Jones, and more.
[IMG:R]EW Magazine and Sci-Fi Channel Comic-Con Party Photo Gallery
At the Comic-Con International 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center with Michael Shanks, Kathleen Robertson, Gina Holden, Colin Ferguson, Tricia Helfer, and more.
Video Highlights from Comic-Con ’07
Hollywood.com’s Angela Murrow chats with stars and fans at this year’s Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center to find out what draws them to this event. (Watch video highlights)
