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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 - 10 Comments »
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More ComicCon

ADDED, Wed 10:30a – Gavin Hood is now not heading to San Diego, as otehr business commitments came up. Also, the latest word is that Sweeney Todd is now not showing footage, in spite of Entertainment Weekly saying so… which actually surprised me… they generally don’t jump the gun. And I won’t be shocked, really, if the footage ends up turning up in spite of all the flipping.
The thing about all of this is that any veteran of studio events is aware that lots of stuff like this changes all the time… lots of talent to wrangle, lots of personal publicists to deal with, lots of choices to make (like showing Beowulf in 2-D in Hall H, but screening that footage in 3-D for press tonight).
So ComicCon is just another battleground for “scoops,” that are really gifts a day before showing this stuff to the whole world… which makes you wonder whether the generosity pulls the bottom out of the reveal?
================================================
This e-mail came across the desktop today…
BY ALL MEANS SEND THIS OUT…
A director friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) presenting materials from his film at Comicon, just told me he has had to CENSOR some of those materials because the Con wants to cater to the family audience. He’s actually making edits in his finished film footage so he’ll be allowed to show the material at the con…!
That’s right…Comicon staff is now CENSORING the material presented there.
I wonder how long it will be before they censor the outfits the girls are wearing and ban all R. Crumb and Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic from the Convention Hall Floor…?
He also speculated this is part of the reason Fox pulled out of the Con, because of HITMAN and AVP 2 and their desire to not censor their materials (see below).
Since when did Comicon cater only to the family audience? Like…ah…how about NEVER?!?
SUNDAY is supposed to be KIDS DAY. COMICON WAS NEVER MEANT FOR FAMILIES.
Comicon is dead. Long live Comicon.
I also have this:
Fox pulls out of Comic-Con after organizers nix its violent presentation
Fox will not be making a presentation at next week’s Comic-Con because organizers said their planned montages from the R-rated movies Alien vs. Predator 2 and Hitman were too violent for the increasing number of families and children that show up in San Diego for the convention. Fox said it is backing out simply because its presentations won’t be ready for the event, but sources close to situation said the studio decided if it couldn’t promote those two films it would rather show nothing at all. Comic-Con has established itself as the place where studios unveil the first looks at projects they want fanboys to buzz about.
Nearly 120,000 people are expected to attend this year’s convention, which starts its four-day run next Thursday (July 26). The event used to cater to young men, but has in recent years attracted more families with children.
This year’s panels include comedies Superbad and Get Smart and fantasy films The Golden Compass, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Pixar’s Wall-E. Fox will be the only major studio not participating.
=====================
Furthermore…
It turns out that Fox will be in San Diego, in spite of pulling out of the drama over them pulling out of the Room H spectacle. Gavin Hood will be there for Wolverine, though it is not clear whether Hugh Jackman will get off of Baz’s set long enough to come to The Con.
In addition, there will be a breakfast on Saturday morning where they will show some footage from Death Sentence. James Wan and Garrett Hedlund will be there and star Kevin Bacon will be in right after the breakfast (late flight).

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10 Comments »

10 Responses to “More ComicCon”

  1. Ian Sinclair says:
    July 24, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    I wonder if Grizzly Don will be there to officially announce Neil Gaiman’s directorial debut – DEATH, THE HIGH COST OF LIVING? Hmmn?

  2. Aladdin Sane says:
    July 24, 2007 at 6:11 pm

    Family day = lame.

  3. The Hey says:
    July 24, 2007 at 6:21 pm

    I was last at ComicCon in 2005 and truly believe that was the last true ComicCon.
    Not only has the con jumped the shark with all the hype but the number of people attending is just way out there. It has gone from a geek-friendly event to just another event to see and be seen.

  4. anghus says:
    July 24, 2007 at 6:38 pm

    Southland Tales has a release date: November 9th.
    Has hell frozen over? Did i miss the memo?

  5. David Poland says:
    July 24, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    My guess is that the rights will go south about then (18 months from purchase) and they were required to do some kind of theatrical.
    Of course, the guy who bought the movie at Sony HE was dumped a bunch of months ago.

  6. sky_capitan says:
    July 24, 2007 at 8:09 pm

    I wonder how many people uploaded today’s Lindsay Lohan mugshot to Fox’s “simpsonizeme” website. I’ll be conservative and say, oh, 5 thousand times (I being one of them). Thanks Fox.

  7. a1amoeba says:
    July 24, 2007 at 11:05 pm

    Hmm, maybe we should make the AVN convention a bit more tame so more families can attend that too…
    And like it would kill the kids to see some violent death and gore. Good reminder of what can happen if you piss Mommy off during certain weeks of the month…

  8. LYT says:
    July 25, 2007 at 1:03 am

    I’m a big fan of R-rated content, and would say that Comic-con may be overreacting. But I’m also not surprised. Last year, Fox screened the entire naked fight scene from BORAT without any prior warning as to its content. The scene begins with Ken Davitian in his underwear masturbating to porn.
    As hardcore as I am, I can understand a parent with kids being a bit bothered by that. If they had said before playing a clip, “This contains sexual content and nudity,” it would have covered their asses a bit, figuratively speaking.
    My guess is that Lionsgate will still show the first deathtrap from the new SAW film. But people expect that. I’m not sure even Ali G fans knew how far the Borat clip would go.

  9. EDouglas says:
    July 25, 2007 at 4:06 am

    Asked someone at Fox and they denied that they’re bringing Gavin Hood to Comic-Con. I believe them because there’s no reason when he’s just been announced and probably hasn’t even started working on the script.

  10. David Poland says:
    July 25, 2007 at 10:26 am

    Actually, Gavin Hood canceled in the last 24 hours due to work conflict.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

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There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
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~ David Simon