Comic Con used to be just about comic books, but in 1976 George Lucas debuted photos from STAR WARS and a few years later had the world premier of the trailer for EMPIRE STRIKE BACK at the convention, which opened the door for movie studios to pimp their scifi and fantasy films to this day. As Stan Lee said this year, "Hollywood has become part of Comic Con". Cue the big stars. In the past Charlize Theron has shown up (for Aeon Flux), Angelina Jolie for Tombraider, Keanu Reeves, Hugh Jackman and many more.
My neighbor Niki drove down to watch one of the many panels (this one was all A list directors). She said, "By the time I got to San Clemente it was a parking lot - everywhere I looked it was town cars and limos." All of Hollywood was heading South for the convention.
Probably the most anticipated film was THE WATCHMAN based on the award winning graphic comic of the same name published by DC Comics in 1986. It's the only comic to ever win the Hugo Award, and it's a brilliant deconstructionist telling of the superhero genre, with dark, intertwining stories of complicated characters set against the cold war. In fact, the creators of LOST have credited THE WATCHMEN as their inspiration.
Meanwhile, they also screened TROPIC THUNDER and the new animated Star Wars film, THE CLONE WARS, which you know, I could give a fuck I am so over George Lucas and the Star Wars franchise.
I'm profoundly embarrassed to this day that I skipped school in the tenth grade to stand in line 3 hours to see THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, just so it could all culminate years later into three films that provided me with the deepest sleep I've had all decade.
Let's not even talk about how many hours I spent in the garage with the models for the Millennium Falcon and X Wing fighters. I'm ashamed I bought into that franchise. By the way, if anyone wants to see the original Star Wars, rent THE HIDDEN FORTRESS made my Kurosawa in 1958.
All photos and video for this article were provided by Tom Stilling who - along with 80% of the gay men I know - went to San Diego for the convention. If you notice the cuties in these photos, you'll see why it's so gay.
Just how gay was it? The hotties there included: former underwear model Mark Wahlberg promoting the big screen version of the video game MAX PAYNE, super hunk (and Broadway star portraying uber gay Peter Allen, or Mr Liza Minelli) Hugh Jackman was pimping the new X MEN IV about Wolverine, Brendan Frasier (still hot) was down pimping THE MUMMY 25 (or whatever), dirty-filthy-sexy Jason Statham was down there for DEATH RACE and something for the lesbians, Catherine Harwick's new vampire film TWILIGHT and Jennifer Connolly was down for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
Probably the most anticipated film was THE WATCHMAN based on the award winning graphic comic of the same name published by DC Comics in 1986. It's the only comic to ever win the Hugo Award, and it's a brilliant deconstructionist telling of the superhero genre, with dark, intertwining stories of complicated characters set against the cold war. In fact, the creators of LOST have credited THE WATCHMEN as their inspiration. I'm not sure how I feel about Zack Snyder directing. He helmed the film version Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, which was homo erotic to say the least, but a little too computer animated for my taste.
Was Ridley Scott not available people? (I'm currently waiting for the special edition BLADE RUNNER director's cut number 6579 from Amazon. Yes, I have seen numbers 1-6578, most in theatres over the years.).
Meanwhile, they also screened TROPIC THUNDER and the new animated Star Wars film, THE CLONE WARS, which you know, I could give a fuck I am so over George Lucas and the Star Wars franchise. I'm profoundly embarrassed to this day that I skipped school in the tenth grade to stand in line 3 hours to see THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, just so it could all culminate years later into three films that provided me with the deepest sleep I've had all decade.
Let's not even talk about how many hours I spent in the garage with the models for the Millennium Falcon and X Wing fighters. I'm ashamed I bought into that franchise. By the way, if anyone wants to see the original Star Wars, rent THE HIDDEN FORTRESS made my Kurosawa in 1958.
All photos and video for this article were provided by Tom Stilling who - along with 80% of the gay men I know - went to San Diego for the convention. If you notice the cuties in these photos, you'll see why it's so gay.
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