Showbiz Sandbox 13: Hooliganism At Comic-Con (Or Lack Thereof)

July 28, 2009

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We had a plethora of panelists this week, all of whom were in San Diego over the weekend to experience Comic-Con first hand. KPBS’ Cinema Junkie blogger Beth Accomando covered the event for National Public Radio, Todd Gilchrist was there for Cinematical, SciFi Wire‘s news editor Patrick Lee made the trip, as did Phillip Nakov from MovieSet.com and Harry Medved, who helped out with Fandango’s coverage of the event as their director of public relations.  Also joining in on this week’s fun is New York Daily News writer and Huffington Post blogger, Michael Giltz.

If you weren’t one of the 126,000 people attending Comic-Con, this episode will fill you in on what you missed.  There was whole day devoted to 3D movies, which apparently isn’t just a gimmick anymore.  The big hits of Comic-Con were “District 9”, “Avatar”, “Kick Ass” and “Iron Man 2” and the biggest miss was Roland Emerich’s next movie “2012” which is either so bad it’s good, or so bad it’s just plain bad.  Irrelevant whether it wowed people at the convention or not was “Twilight: New Moon”, because fans just wanted to see Robert Pattinson .  Hundreds of young girls, their moms and a bunch of sensitive men camped out overnight to get into a jam packed “Twilight” panel. The festival was “the redemption of “New Moon” director Chris Weitz, who was clearly adored by his cast. It was definitely the panel with the most security.

This year marked the first appearance by Tim Burton (as a presenter), Peter Jackson and Terry Gilliam. Johnny Depp stopped by to say two words (literally) in promotion of Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”  Robert Downey Jr. also made an appearance to help tout “Iron Man 2” and “Sherlock Holmes”.  “Sherlock Holmes” reminded some of our panelists of “Wild Wild West”, the movie, not the television show.

Speaking of television, Comic-Con had panels for several TV shows, both old and new.  The panel for “Lost” was the big draw at this year’s confab.

Meanwhile, back in the regular world, a bunch of guinea pigs stole Harry Potter’s thunder at the box office.  “G-Force” made $32 million beating out “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” which was in its second week.  Finally, the other shoe dropped at NBC, as the embattled chairman Ben Silverman jumped ship to form a new company with mogul Barry Diller.

Studios Bring Another Dimension To Comic-Con
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24avatar.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Comic-Con Wows Audiences, Studios
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006516.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Comic-Con’s Buzz Makers
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-comicwrap27-2009jul27,0,310594.story

3-D Wins The Day At Comic-Con
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006429.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Comic-Con: Visionaries Jackson, Cameron Talk Future
http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/07/comiccon-visionaries-jackson-cameron-talk-future.html

The Disney 3D Panel: Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton and Special Guest Johnny Depp
http://tv.msn.com/superfans/comic-con/blog/the-disney-3d-panel-zemeckis-burton-torn-and-special-guest-johnny-depp/

Comic-Con Stays Strong Amid Recession
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=hottopic&id=comiccon&articleid=VR1118006465&cs=1

Costumes, Claustrophobia and Coonsumerism: The Exhibitor’s Hall At Comic-Con
http://tv.msn.com/superfans/comic-con/blog/costumes-claustrophobia-and-consumerism-the-exhibitor-s-hall-at-comic-con/

‘Iron Man 2’ Rockets Into Comic-Con
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=hottopic&id=comiccon&articleid=VR1118006497&cs=1

The End Is Coming In 2012
http://tv.msn.com/superfans/comic-con/blog/the-end-is-coming-in-2012/

Sam Raimi Plays “Warcraft”
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006299.html?categoryId=13&cs=1

‘G-Force’ Takes Cake, ‘Potter’ Plummets
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2607&p=.htm

Ben Silverman Out At NBC
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006519.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

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