Tag: NY Comic Con 2009

I’m going to be honest with all of you; I got home from the convention a few hours ago. It ended early today (5 pm) and I left a little before closing time (about 4:30 pm) just because most of the booths were shutting down and there were no more panels or screenings. Instead of getting home, eating and then rushing to write my update for you guys, I instead came home, ate and fell asleep. I am truly exhausted. 3 days walking around a huge convention center carrying 3 bags plus a camera took a lot out of me. But I am awake now (barely) to let you all know about the last day of NY Comic Con 2009.

This morning, I arrived just in time for the Chuck panel but I instead decided to skip it. From my experience at the Con, I knew it would end late and that there would be a huge line for the Dollhouse panel so I decided to walk around the floor a little. Walking around, you could tell it was the last day. Some booths already had half their merchandise gone and most of the free swag had all been given out. Also, it was kids day so there were a lot more kids there and   more children oriented programs throughout the day.  Ã‚  

  

There wasn’t a line for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Video Game demo area and that had been packed the previous 2 days so I decided to wait. The game is based on the upcoming film; however, the concept for the game was actually around before the film according to the representative. The developer had wanted to make a stand alone Wolverine game so when the film was announced, they immediately got themselves involved with it by weaving their ideas with the storyline of the film. Although it was called a demo, we only got to watch as a representative played but based on what I saw, I will definitely be buying this game when it comes out. The fun factor looks high and the gore factor is higher. Wolverine takes tons of damage and heals completely in real time all while you are slicing and dicing through dozens of bad guys. The game is insanely violent; hopefully this is an indication of a dark and violent Wolverine film. After the demo, they gave us foam Wolverine hands and dog tags.

  

I headed back to the IGN Theater and was shocked to see that the line for Dollhouse had already filled the waiting area, wrapped around the back, went down a hallway and ended halfway into the food court. I got on line and a few minutes later they let us in. I was in the very back, last row. If I had gone to Chuck, I would not have gotten in even if it ended on time. They showed a clip from the show and the creator Joss Whedon talked a little about it. One of the actors from the show, Tahmoh Penikett was also on hand. They both joked around, talked about some past work and about some of the themes of Dollhouse. One thing I found really cool was that the birth of the shows premise happened over lunch between Eliza Dusku, the shows star, and Joss Whedon. Eliza was complaining to him how underutilized she is and how she wished she could show her diversity and the idea for this series came about where she essentially plays a new character every week. The clip they showed gave a glimpse at how people pay to essentially “rent† a person and a personality is then implanted into them. At the end of the session, the personality is erased along with all memories and Dushku becomes the carefree Echo wandering around the Dollhouse with the other “dolls.† Tahmoh plays an agent on the case of the Dollhouse trying to prove it exists and stop it. While the clip did not get me that excited for the show, Joss Whedon talking about it did. I am also curious as to how they could create stories and make us care for Eliza Dushku who is pretty much a new character every week. It starts this Friday night on Fox.

  

Today was essentially TV day at the Comic Con since almost all the panels for televsion shows were today. Immediately following the Dollhouse panel was the Fringe panel, which I was really looking forward to. If you are not watching Fringe, you better start. I love this show and am completely addicted to it. The whole cast was on hand for the panel as well as Producer Jeff Pinkner to field questions from a moderator and the audience. The moderator’s questions brought some awkward moments but some real gems came out during the Q and A with the fans. If you watch the show, you probably know who The Observer is. If you don’t watch (shame on you), the Observer played by Michael Cerveris, is a strange bald man that appears in every episode, usually when some major event is about to go down. When asked about the Observer, Pinkner said that there may be more than one Observer and the The Observer is not an alien. In fact, there will not be any aliens on the show in the near future because the X-Files did so much with aliens and did it so well that they don’t want to even cover the topic on Fringe. But back to The Observer, apparently Fox has gone crazy trying to market The Observer by placing him at many differrent events. He was at the Sidelines during an Eagles/Giants playoff game and apparently Fox tried but was unsuccessful in getting him at the inauguration of President Obama. Pinkner also revealed that every episode has hints towards the next week’s episode and that the symbols that show on screen during every commercial break are actually part of a complicated puzzle for the viewer to solve. Joshua Jackson admitted that he has trouble following the show so he has created a plotline/Fringe secrets diagram. He made a joke about being “an actor with a flow chart.† Overall, I really enjoyed the panel and it made me love the show even more.

  

After the panel, which ended late, I decided to walk around the floor one last time. Some booths were already closed and others were taking inventory/packing up. I got some footage of a few more costumes and some cute/funny footage of a little kid dressed as Batman who was too afraid to go and hug Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck kept pointing and laughing from nearby. When that became a highlight of what I was taping, I decided it was time to call it quits. The con was only open for another 30 minutes anyway so I headed to the pressroom, got my stuff and left the Javitz Center. NY Comic Con 2009 is over.

Tomorrow I’ll post my first batch of photos, plus my overall thoughts on NY Comic Con 2009. And keep checking back because I will be uploading interviews, videos and photos all week long. Plus, I will be announcing contests to win some of my Comic Con swag. So NY Comic Con 2009 may be over but for WAMG the Con is still On!

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

  

Today started off with a blast. Well it started off with me waking up a little late, getting to the bus just in time but it showing up late and then rushing to my first panel, which started late, but then it started with a blast. It started with the first 18 minutes of Watchmen.

That’s right, my day at the con started out with co-creator of the graphic novel Dave Gibbons giving an introduction to the film followed by the first 18 minutes. I will admit that I was not one of the fanboys that couldn’t wait to see this film. I never read the graphic novel (please don’t kill me) and the trailer didn’t do much for me. (really, don’t kill me) However, after watching the first 18 minutes, I cannot wait to see this film. The 18 minutes flew by and unlike the crowd, I did not know the source material so it was a lot to take in. Zack Snyder uses similar techniques to 300 like the fast/slow motion but he apparently also took panels directly from the graphic novel and stayed true to the source. The action/choreography was great, there was a level of dark humor throughout what I saw and the screen was always filled with tons of tiny details. There’s not really much more I can say since most of you are already looking forward to the film. I have some footage from the Q and A session that will be posted online next week.

Following Watchmen was a trip to camp Crystal Lake. After showing the trailer, the producers of the film, star Jared Padalecki and the new Jason, Dereck Mears, talked about the film and then introduced a clip of about 5 minutes from the beginning of the film. Yes there was blood and yes the effects looked good. The video made the film look promising, if for nothing else it will be a fun violent flick. However, one of the kills we saw seemed a little ridiculous in a “this doesn’t make sense† sort of way but the crowd seemed to be on board. I did hear a few people laugh though but for the most part, it was a good 5 minutes. I’ll post more about the panel along with some video but I want to share that the first question was “why do we need another Friday the 13^th?† which got some cheers but I must hand it to the producers. Their answer was we don’t but it’s still a damn fun movie. I liked their honesty.

  

The Warner Brothers panel ended with a visit from McG and a 6-minute reel from Terminator Salvation. I know there is a lot of McG hate on the internet (Charlie’s Angels, cough) but after seeing him talk, I like this guy. He is funny and really passionate. Definitely seems like a movie geek. Then again he might just know how to spin some BS. The 6-minute clip featured finished footage, unedited video, footage with no effects and some animated visual storyboards but you know what they are going for in this footage. The finished stuff looks beautiful, the war between man and machine will be epic and the future does look bleak. Will it look good? Yes. Will it be a good movie? I have no idea. I really can’t make any judgment, especially since McG kept saying how the story and character development plays such an important part and the 6 minutes shown were almost all action footage with a few snippets of dialogue out of context. Next week I’ll post some footage from his great Q & A, which followed the clip.

After the panel, I left the IGN Theater and tried to meet up with Stephen. When I finally got through to him (horrible reception in the Javitz) I found out he couldn’t get in because tickets sold out. He did say he bought tix for tomorrow though so hopefully I’ll catch up with him then. Because he didn’t make it, there were a few panels I wanted to cover for you guys that I just wasn’t able to. But here’s what I did do†¦

I walked around the convention floor and got some more great footage of people in costumes and other cool stuff. Then I set up for my first secret interview of the day. I spoke with Don Murphy, producer of such films as Transformers and the (completely amazing I can’t believe this movie is not loved by more people) Shoot ‘Em Up. I spoke to him about his new film, While She Was Out, which stars Kim Bassinger. In it Bassinger plays a mom who due to unfortunate circumstances is hunted in the woods on Christmas Eve by 4 thugs and she only has a toolbox to protect herself. I’ll post the full interview next week. I do want to share one tidbit though. I had to ask Don if we would see a Shoot ‘Em Up 2 (you can tell I’m a fan right?) and he said it was unlikely but they are working on a similar film with the same director. This is a spy movie that takes place in a world where gun fights and car chases happen on a regular basis and people are used to crazy action movie stuff breaking out at any moment. I’m already looking forward to it.

Since the interview ran late, I wasn’t able to make the Up/Surrogates panel in time so instead I stayed on the floor. And it paid off. I got an interview with Michale Graves. He is probably best known as lead singer for The Misfits but he was at the After Dark Films booth promoting his film Perkins 14. I spoke with him briefly about the film and his future as an actor. He also talked about how the film came in to fruition through massify.com, which is a unique production concept. Afterwards I headed over to the Magnolia Pictures booth and spoke with them about some upcoming stuff. At the booth was a guy who spoke about Mutant Chronicles at the screening I attended earlier so I told him about the screening and how I enjoyed the film. He turned out to be the guy in charge of the film’s publicity and as a thank you for my kind words about the film, he said he will mail me some posters to give out on the site. If we are lucky, we may even score some interviews with the cast when it gets closer to release time. The rest of the people at the booth were also really nice and gave me some posters and postcards to give out to you guys.

Afterwards, I went to my next Secret Interview. It was for with the cast of Dead Like Me. They were at the con promoting the new DVD movie, Dead Like Me: Life After Death, which is out in stores on February 17th. The cast assured me that even if you didn’t watch the show, you can still enjoy the film and that there is even a little review of the series in the film’s opening. I unfortunately never got to watch the show but the few episodes I did see were always very good. I’ll try to get a copy of the film and I will let you know what I think of it. I will also post the full interview soon. It was a very strange interview, the cast was tired and it showed. It was very laid back and casual though and I enjoyed it. Hopefully they did too. Afterwards, I got them to sign a few posters that we will give out. What was really strange is that I gave them a perfectly good sharpie and when they tried to sign the poster it wouldn’t. It dried up, apparently overnight since it was working fine just yesterday. My back up sharpie was missing so I had to resort to a pen, which ran out of ink mid signing. I gave them another pen, one that was working fine when I took notes earlier in the day, and it too dried up rather quickly. Another press crew had a sharpie for them to complete the signatures but I just wanted to share that because I find it funny how the grim reapers of Dead Like Me killed my writing utensils.

After, I filmed some more floor stuff and then headed back to the interview room for my final Secret Interview of the day. I met with the cast and creators of Comedy Central’s new action fantasy comedy series, Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire. While the trailer available on comedy central’s website was decent, there was nothing that really stood out in my opinion. However, after speaking with the cast and creators, if the show is what they promise it will be, there is great potential for this show to be great. The way they seemed to keep describing the series is what happens when the fantasy hero is not fighting and instead is dealing with his relationship, family problems and other modern problems. But don’t worry, they insist there is also some great action as well. Before I let them go, I had to ask Sean Maguire about Off Centre because it was one of my favorite tv shows. I wanted to know when it would be out on DVD and he said he didn’t know but that we should start a petition to get it released. I just may do that.

After thanking them all, I headed out of the Con for my long walk to my bus stop. Thus concludes day 2 of the Con. Just one more day left. The Con is still On!

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com