Comic-Con 2007 Wrap

As promised, here is the Saturday Photo of The Day! "Iron Man" Director Jon Favereau & Robert Downey, Jr signing autographs at the Marvel booth. A few moments later I would be meeting them!

Hey where did it go?! Even though this year's Comic-Con was the best I've attended so far, it also seemed to go by much too quickly.

After an appointment with my pariodontist just north of San Diego on Wednesday, I proceeded to the San Diego Marriott & Marina to check in. Traffic caused me to miss the first hour of preview night, but that was O.K. Wednesday evening's three-hour advance peek at the exhibit hall certainly was crowded. A lot in fact was going on and the fans knew one of the places to head was the Marvel booth where several "Iron Man" events would be taking place later during the weekend.

Thursday's Paramount Pictures preview saw two absolutely amazing events. First was the unplanned visit by "Iron Man" Director Jon Favereau. Originally switched from the Paramount to the Marvel Studios event on Saturday, Jon surprised everyone with an advanced Comic-Con exclusive trailer for the movie. Which of course was repeated two days later. Oh. My. God! This movie is going to ROCK! Clips included some of the origin and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) in the Mark I suit busting out of captivity, taking on (with wrist affixed flame throwers!) dozens of machine gun touting bad guys. WOW! They even had a finished shot of Iron Man flying away from a couple of F-16 jets and taking on some bad guy robot on the ground. Amazing stuff!!!

Then came the "Indy 4" panel. Right next to "Iron Man" this was the jewel in the crown of the event for me...as well as a few thousand other fans! Of course the payoff to Steven Spielberg's live 'hello' from the set was the exclusive announcement that Karen Allen will be returning as Marion Ravenwood! I'll let the official video tell the story much better. The minute I saw 'Marion Ravenwood' on the back of that director's chair I screamed, "YESSS!!!". Karen Allen still looks fantastic and now I know this movie is going to be GREAT!

Friday became a bit more crowded as word spread that Comic-Con was quickly selling out for the first time in its history! The four-day memberships had sold out two weeks before, as had the individual Saturday badges. By the time Saturday rolled around the entire event was completely sold out! Friday morning was the Warner Bros. preview event with one thing strangely missing: "The Dark Knight". I had read in advance that there probably would not be anything to promote the film here, but still had my hopes. Apparently there had been some problem between Warner's and Comic-Con that caused them to pass on bringing anything from the next Batman film and placing the first teaser trailer officially online right when the panel began. Curious. Never did find out the details. However, amongst some other movies that looked O.K., the one that stuck out was "Get Smart". They showed an extended Comic-Con exclusive trailer that was really hilarious and even action packed. This is not just a "Get Smart" remake, it's also a Steve Carrell vehicle all it's own which I think is a 'smart' move. Looks great!

Friday afternoon's Warner Home Video brought some of the stars of "Blade Runner" to the Hall H stage to promote the 25th anniversary re-release of the film this September as well as the subsequent DVD release later in the year. In attendance to talk "BR" and answer questions were Director Ridley Scott, actors Sean Young, Joanna Cassidy, James Hong, Joe Turkel, and futurist Syd Mead. They showed a new film trailer created for this new release as well as an amazing preview for a brand new documentary that will be included on the 5-disc DVD set. After several actors appeared talking about their experience on the movie against b-roll of never before seen behind the scenes footage, Edward James Olmos piped in by saying everyone has a fascinating story to tell, including Harrison Ford. He ended by asking the interview, 'did you talk to him?'. The screen abruptly went dark for several beats and when picture came back up, there was Harrison Ford! A sight that was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from everyone in the room. For the last two and a half decades Ford has repeatedly refused to comment on the movie because of his bad on-set relationship with Ridley Scott.

Saturday was certainly the big day and probably the most anticipated event of this year's Comic-Con: The unveiling of the actual Mark I suit from "Iron Man", autographs with Director Jon Favereau and Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey, Jr. as well as an appearance by the creator of all of Iron Man's movie suits, Stan Winston...AND Marvel Studios preview presentation of "Iron Man" with several more of the cast were on hand, including Gwyneth Paltrow. I was 20th in line when I arrived two hours early to see the Mark I unveiling and to get Jon and Robert's autograph. They were both great and really funny. A wall of blinding flashbulb lights greeted the giant 'Stark Industries' crate being split open, as well as cheers from a crowd that literally stopped traffic on the floor in every direction for a good half hour. An hour and a half later at the Marvel preview the trailer was shown twice to even more screaming fans. I was pretty lucky to actually get into Hall H, where most of the big studio previews and guest appearances take place. The line was insanely long since just about everyone wanted to see what the new comic studio had on their plate. This also included a peek at next year's "The Incredible Hulk".

Edward Norton and Liv Tyler were on hand to describe how this new Hulk will be more like the Bill Bixby TV series. Something a lot of fans, including myself, are glad to hear. They also showed on head and shoulders concept painting of how the character wlll look. Right now they are about two weeks into filming. Can't wait for this one either.

Sunday came all too quickly. Bought a lot of goodies and was amazed by all the eye candy while Crystal, who took the train down on Thursday, enjoyed the Marriott's pool and finished reading "Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince". Today she picked up the final book. She also perused the exhibit hall on Friday but smartly avoided the whole place on Saturday where you literally can't move there are SOOO many people! This year was no exception although there were times both Friday and Saturday (prime days) when the crowds seemed to ebb a bit. Might have been because people were scared of the sell out news and tried to hit a different day, causing attendance to be spread out a little.

Decided at the last minute to check out on Sunday instead of the originally planned Monday. Mostly due to the fact that KO Creative had work for me to continue with on site this week, as well as the financial end of it. Every day I just felt was incredible this year. Cool events, action packed programming, and plenty of star sightings. Aside from those I mentioned above, I also saw Rosario Dawson stop by the Jon Favereau / Robert Downey, Jr. signing on Saturday to the amazement of the crowd. Seth Rogan ("Knocked Up", "The 40 Year Old Virgin") roamed the exhibit hall before his "Superbad" panel. Gene Simmons was escorted in to promote his new comic. I even saw Cindy Morgan ("Tron", "Caddyshack") up in the autograph area.

As usual I took an insane amount of photos I am now going through to post the best of the best. Stay tuned, should have those up in the next day.