As we round the corner into the last few weeks before this year's San Diego Comic Con (which I will be covering on FanGrrl Magnet starting today and have been following on my Twitter for over a month), Wired announced something hilarious. Apparently the STAR WARS folks figured out a great new merch item for SDCC this year... and it looks vaguely familiar...
Says Wired: It’ll be a surprise to precisely no one that Lucasfilm leads the vanguard of Comic-Con must-have gimmicks and gadgets. The marketing machine that put the action in action figures will introduce the Star Wars toaster at this year’s convention. The device turns every piece of toast over to the dark side — burning an image of everyone’s favorite Dark Lord of the Sith onto your Wonder-bread. Where else will you get a chance to smudge jam into Darth Vader’s grill?
Umm...the vanguard? LOL. Well, you know what they say about plagiarism, don't you. ;-)
Meanwhile, SciFi SyFy and NBC have announced that there are six special SDCC 09 swag items going on sale at the NBCU store, including a yet-to-be-announced CAPRICA item, this hilarious OFFICE Schrute Farms watch, a great CHUCK polo shirt...and a new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Frakkin Toaster with LED. See the demo vid below:
Seriously, this guy is the Jamie Bamber of TRUE BLOOD crew spokespersons. Just like with Bamber's interviews for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, he can always be counted on to give great answers to every question. Love it! 2 more day!
Showrunner (and a ton of potential-Emmy-nominee showrunners) mocking half the target audience. Fine sure just keep making the dang show...(see 2:14) Given that Ball told the PaleyFest09 audience that he fell for Charlaine's book series like a crack addict (see video here), one would imagine Ball is just trying to be cool in front of a room of his peers. Meanwhile: what the frak does Matt Weiner have against vampires and their fans? ;-)
An interview with Evan Rachel Wood, who is playing the 400-year-old lesbian vampire queen as "a cross between Patrick Bateman and Paris Hilton"...good times.
Team Watch With Kristen is now on the Comic Con case, hunting down dates, times, and details. I'm sure they will keep updating this post, may be worth checking back a few more times later in the week. Very cool: airing entire "V" Pilot on Saturday! So jealous!
You can also go back to the previously mentioned Seat42F post -- it's been updated several times already with news of EASTWICK, VAMPIRE DIARIES, DOLLHOUSE, HUMAN TARGET, BONES and others.
Another neat tidbit: Mark Sheppard mentioned in an interview this week that there may be a reading of an un-aired MIDDLEMAN episode at con. Clever idea...
Here's deets on the special Comic Con edition of the DOLLHOUSE season 1 DVD set. We've heard in the past that Fox may screen the unaired episode #113 at con as well. 113 is definitely on the DVD set (on all versions, not just the Comic Con one).
I'm also happy to hear today that CAPRICA's original cylon Zoe, actress Alessandra Torresani, has been cast in the RUNAWAYS biopic to play Lita Ford. Very cool, AT's got sass. She's Lita to Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning's Cherie Curry. Let's hope this one don't suck.
Seat42F, who provided an endless stream of useful TV-related Comic Con goodies last year, has just posted his own list of comings for this year's con:
It's never too early for Comic Con news. In addition to all 4 days being sold out news is trickling in at Seat42f on the hour at who will and won't be there this year. Check back for more updates as most of the studios and networks have had their big Comic Con meetings. Complete details should start to roll out over the next few weeks. We will continue to update this list as we get word from the studios and networks on other shows and movies making the trip to San Diego.
Will Be At Comic Con 2009:
The Big Bang Theory
Chuck
Psych
Ghost Whisperer
Flash Forward
Fringe
Lost
V
True Blood
Dexter
Supernatural
Eastwick
Will NOT Be At Comic Con 2009:
I know, what a tease! I promised I wouldn't say who, but there is at least one big show that won't be taking their annual trip to Comic Con this year.
I'm guessing that the no-show this year is either SUPERNATURAL or the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA/CAPRICA folks. The latter makes sense since the show will just be starting to shoot next month, the producers will be busy and there won't be any new footage yet. But hey, we'll see. ETA: My own sources in the BSG camp suggest there will be a BSG presence for THE PLAN, but not for CAPRICA this year.
Very excited about V and FLASH FORWARD. Maybe they'll screen entire pilots?
First few bits of news about what is coming this year to Geek Prom:
Stephen Moyer confirmed to DaemonsTV that there will be a TRUE BLOOD panel.
MTV Movies Blog was the first to announce that there will be a TWILIGHT: NEW MOON panel again this year. The NY Times has reconfirmed it this week. The NY Times has just announced that Peter Jackson will be at the con pimping DISTRICT 9, which he produced. BTW that one is based on a short film you can see here. This is the first-ever live appearance at Comic Con by Jackson.
That NY Times piece also wonders if James Cameron will be at the con promoting AVATAR. No word yet.
"I think that war exerts a really powerful pull on people. War is one of the most profound, meaningful, intense, scary, exhilarating, horrifying, horrible experiences anybody can ever have. The thing nobody talks about when they talk about war, which is just so striking to me, is that a lot of men find it pleasurable. And that's just the way it is."
"Stephanie Meyer gives a kind of supernatural context to people's real feelings, which sums up what we all go through." -- Chris Weitz, director TWILIGHT: NEW MOON
A funny thing happened to me recently...I know some of you will relate.
[click to enlarge]
It all started when I heard Radiohead's 15 Step recently...and recalled the credit roll at the end of movie TWILIGHT. When I first saw the film last fall, I had noted it as one of the cooler, sexier credit rolls in a while. This was back when I was more of a "uh Twilight, what's that?" type person. Somehow it had stayed with me. Music does that to you.*
Meanwhile, about a month ago I lucked upon the entire Meyer 4-book saga, fresh paperback copies, at a stoop sale up my block and nabbed them for a shockingly low $10. They've been sitting on my shelf ever since, staring blackly at me with apples, tulips...
So I watched the film again, out of curiosity mostly...but also figuring to see if I could read one of the books. Maybe I'd give the rest to my little sister or something if I didn't enjoy it.
That was a week ago. And now? See comic strip above, panels 6 and on! I'm midway through BREAKING DAWN and can barely restrain myself from staying up all night on reading jags. And a new young "Twihard" has been made, overnight...
It was inevitable I suppose. I recall losing myself to the thrall of Anne Rice's tortured Louis and ecstatic, devilish Lestat at a very early age. To films THE HUNGER, NEAR DARK, Coppola's DRACULA, DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, the Rice films. And again to Buffy, her Angel and her unique talents in the late 90s, when I realized how good TV could be. Then just a year ago, to Sookie Stackhouse and her violent, brooding, sexy world, made even more lethal through the Alan Ball filter.
All credit to Catherine Hardwicke and her team for reeling me in here -- I never would have made it to pick up TWILIGHT the novel, if they hadn't made such a dreamy, soulful, sexy film with perfectly cast leads. The second time seeing this movie I really appreciated what a great job they did. It worries and saddens me that Hardwicke has moved on, and it looks like men will be helming the rest of the series (though the producers have yet to decide who will direct the fourth film). We'll see if they can keep it real, with the right blend of sensuality, emotional intelligence and horror.
With the TWILIGHT film series in full swing, TRUE BLOOD just weeks away and my season 1 rewatch coming any day now, my mind is marinating... in Vampires. Mind-readers. Wolves, shapeshifters, dogs. Magic, immortality, mythical creatures, soulmates. Abstinent, turn-of-the-century, modest vampires... Over-sexed, murderous vampires. And virgins...lots of godamned virgins. The metaphors and myths are swirling in my head till I'm dizzy with 'em.
OK, TWILIGHT SAGA. I'm totally hooked and there's no stopping me now. Love to all the die-hard fan(girls) of both shows -- thanks to them I get more than my share of in depth info. For TRUE BLOOD that includes every promo on HBO a day after it first airs... casting news (and the accompanying spoiilers I don't listen to)... everything else from celeb playlists on iTunes to interviews and whatnot. For TWILIGHT, since I'm jumping right in mid-stream, it means scripts, photos, lots of catch-up news, that leaked draft of Meyer's possible 5th novel**, and so much more. Thank you fandom!
"Vampires are a timeless powerful archetype that can tap into people's psyches... Sexuality is a window into someone's soul... But TRUE BLOOD is fun. It's popcorn TV — it's like a ride. SIX FEET UNDER was all about repression, and this show seemed to me to be about abandon. It's escapist — totally escapist." -- Alan Ball
I've found some fansites I wanted to mention here, listed below, for both my beloved stories of intense, smart, unusual human women and the vamps who love them. If any of you have other sites you want to mention that you use to stay connected to these two shows (especially on livejournal) -- leave a comment, would you.
Right now my favorite blog is What The Forks, they have the right attitude about our guilty, guilty pleasure. And the infamous and useful Spoiler TV seems to have more than enough video and links to keep an adult n00b like me happy (if you haven't seen theseETclips, you should! Lots of peeks at scenes filming in VC). I can tell from their coverage of the NEW MOON Italy shoot, and the clip and trailer premieres happening this weekend, that I will also be combing these sites for the latest info: TwiFans, Twilight Examiner, Twilight Poison, Twilight Moms.
Seriously: only fansites would take photos from set less than 24 hours old, and do this with them(spoiler warning for NEW MOON).
One other special mention to the dedicated fan who put this list together regarding all the music in the film -- music that I adored and have on endless replay in my iTouch this week. Delicious.
Journalists:
Thompson on Hollywood has been keeping her professional eye on the films since the buzz started last year, and much like her reaction to MAD MEN's Jon Hamm, she knows a star when she sees one in Rob Pattinson. The Hero Complex has exhaustive geek coverage, complete with pre-requisite "We are so above this madness" anti-fangirl stance. EW and Rotten Tomatoes are covering the more OMGfansquee angle, while trying to remain professional. Giggle.
RT has an excellent TWILIGHT DVD Release Guide that helped me to figure out I *had* to have the 3-disk Target version, FTW.
Thanks to EW's sneak peek at Hardwicke's Director Notebook, I now know that the beloved Meadow scene was shot in the magical little forest next to the Los Feliz golf course in Los Angeles... an area I have hiked many a morning while living in LA. Awwww...
Let's party, bloodsuckers and fangbangers.
"I've read them all. Breaking Dawn? I finished that in two days. I have to tell you, every time I finished one of them, a little piece of me died. I’d become invested in that world. I really felt sad. After the fourth one, I was like, ‘What am I going to do with my life?'" -- Edi Gathegi, actor (Vampire Laurent)
(*A couple of my other favorite end credit music segueways, off the top of my head: The Pixies in FIGHT CLUB, Prodigy in THE MATRIX. Music is pure emotion.)
(**Anyone know what's up with that possible 5th Meyer novel? Any news since the leak and Meyer's announcement...is that the final word?)
I just got a great press release for this cool event in Burbank, California, for you sci-fi music hounds in the area, check it out in full below.
Key info:
BSG/TSCC/CAPRICA fans - You can meet composer Bear McCreary, have him sign CDs...and get a chance to purchase his CAPRICA soundtrack CD in advance of the actual June 16 street date.
La-La Land Records presents A SPECIAL COMPOSER SIGNING EVENT
When: May 31st, 2009, 2pm Where: DARK DELICACIES 4213 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505
Full press release:
Come join La-La Land Records and Dark Delicacies in a rare opportunity to meet some of the most exciting composing talents in motion pictures and television. Several composers with La-La Land releases (along with talents from additional soundtrack labels), will be greeting fans and signing their CDs.
Bear McCreary, (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, TERMINATOR: SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES), will sign his TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES soundtrack as well as his upcoming CAPRICA CD (soundtrack to the new GALACTICA spinoff). This is a very special opportunity for fans to get CAPRICA in advance of its official release next month.
Michael Giacchino (THE INCREDIBLES, LOST) will be signing his videogame soundtracks SECRET WEAPONS OVER NORMANDY and MERCENARIES, as well his STAR TREK ’09 and LOST: SEASON 4 soundtracks.
Mark Isham (POINT BREAK, CRASH) signs his acclaimed score to the cult action hit POINT BREAK, as well as his music to CROSSING OVER and PRIDE AND GLORY.
Wendy Coleman and Lisa Melvoin aka “Wendy & Lisa” (HEROES, CROSSING JORDAN) will sign their new release of their score to the hit NBC series HEROES.
John Murphy (28 WEEKS LATER, SUNSHINE) will be signing the current release of his score to the terrifying new LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake, as well as the premiere of his spellbinding 28 WEEKS LATER cd. This is a special opportunity to get 28 WEEKS LATER in advance of its official release next month. Murphy will also be signing his score to BASIC INSTINCT 2.
Geoff Zanelli (HITMAN, GHOST TOWN) will sign his score to the sci-fi/horror creature-feature film OUTLANDER, as well as the soundtrack to the feature actioner HITMAN, based on the famous videogame.
John Harrison (CREEPSHOW, DAY OF THE DEAD) will be signing his classic score to the beloved George Romero-directed CREEPSHOW as well as his soundtrack to the cult shocker EFFECTS.
Also appearing and signing soundtracks are composers Christopher Young (DRAG ME TO HELL, HELLRAISER), Richard Band (RE-ANIMATOR), Stu Phillips (BUCK RODGERS), Arthur B. Rubinstein (WARGAMES), Ron Jones & Ken Thorne (SUPERMAN BOX SET) and Harry Manfredini (FRIDAY THE 13th, SWAMP THING) Film director/screenwriter Nicholas Meyer signs the soundtrack to his film TIME AFTER TIME.
