The San Diego Comic-Con International, started in 1970, used to be North America’s showcase event for comic books. The annual gathering gets bigger every year — and so does the scope of its mission. The four-day event ends Sunday, and just about every piece of news coming out of it this week has been about movies. Directors, producers and their stars now make the trek each year to the edge of the Mexican border to present sneak peeks of their coming attractions. It’s some of the best free publicity Hollywood gets.
The biggest surprise from this year’s Comic-Con must be the declaration made by Ridley Scott. The director appeared by satellite from Iceland, where he’s shooting “Prometheus,” his first science-fiction film since 1982’s “Blade Runner.” He first thought of the new movie as a prequel to his classic 1979 “Alien.” He’s moved on since then, but described “Prometheus” as sharing some of the same DNA as “Alien.” Star Charlize Theron and screenwriter Damon Lindelof were on hand in person to discuss the film, but it’s Scott who made the splash. He insisted, “I’ll never work without 3-D again, even for small dialogue scenes. I love the whole process. [It] opens up the universe of even a small dialogue scene, so I’ve been very impressed with that.”
Fans of “Twilight” have looked forward each year to seeing new teasers of the trilogy. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” (producers have learned from “Harry Potter” they can make more money by turning a single book into two movies) opens in November, and stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson spoke on a panel for insiders, as well as fans who’d stood in line for days to get a glimpse of the pair. The final book in Stephenie Meyers’ vampire series has an infamous scene where Stewart’s Bella gives birth to Pattinson’s child, who’s half-vampire. “The birth scene is so different from everything else in the movie,” Pattinson told attendees. “For a fantasy series, it goes quite far. It’s hard-core, it’s graphic. There’s no other way to do it. It was fun.”
Team Jacob has its devotees, too: Organizers wouldn’t let Taylor Lautner sign autographs on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center, out of fears he’d be mobbed by overenthusiastic fans. He was there not just for the movie in which he plays a werewolf, but for the September thriller “Abduction,” about a young man who sees a picture of himself on a missing persons notice.
Not everything presented at Comic-Con is top-notch entertainment, though just about everything previewed should make a ton of money. Which is why studios spare no expense in hyping their films. The one behind “Final Destination 5” built a portable screening room just to show the opening minutes of the movie.
Kelly Jane Torrance is the Washington Examiner movie critic. Her reviews appear weekly and she can be reached at [email protected].
