ComicCon Countdown: Who’s coming?
To use a well-worn phrase…Good News, Everyone! Your friends over here at TV are heading on out to San Diego during the last week in July to cover one of the bigger, if not biggest, comic book and science fiction conventions on mainland America and the world. I speak, of course, of ComicCon.
From July 24th through July 27th you’ll see us with our TV T-Shirts (and underwear — viewings of those by appointment) as we join the rest of the throngs attending the convention. At some point we may even be doing a bit of Twittering to find out where you are at the convention so you can find us in order to shake our hands (or, in the case of some of our commenters, punch and kick us) and potentially get some free stuff as well.
Now, some of you may be saying ’While I’d love to meet you at ComicCon to tell you how I really feel about you and your site, why are you going to a comic book and science fiction convention?’ Well, truth be told, ComicCon is more than just a comic book and science fiction convention these days. Fact is, aside from The Television Critics Association press tour that takes place in Los Angeles the week before, ComicCon has become one of the premiere television events of the summer.
Shows like Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Stargate Atlantis and Heroes are not the only ones making appearances at the convention. This year there are some shows that don’t really fit the science fiction or comic book genres. Shows like Chuck, Bones, The Big Bang Theory and, most unusually, The Office. Why the change? According to an article at TVWeek, the convention is moving away from its sci fi roots.
Studios are bringing these shows to the convention not because they use any hi-tech gadgetry or say “frack” a lot. They are coming because these shows have strong fan and cult followings. Bones is one example of this. It has such as devoted fan community that viewers were calling for the heads of the show’s producers after the season finale. Prison Break, Chuck, and 24 also have their huge fan followings as well, which make them a perfect fit for this convention.
One would think at this point that the convention organizers would be upset. On the contrary, they are quite happy about the whole situation. According to David Glanzer, convention director of marketing and public relations, having more television shows at the Con is a good thing. As opposed to movie people that appear at the Con, television people talk and interact more with the fans. They also give more behind-the-scenes information out, which makes the fans very happy.
Having said that, here is a breakdown of some of the shows that will be at the convention:
Warner Brothers: Chuck, Fringe, Pushing Daisies, Smallville, Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and The Big Bang Theory
20th Century Television: 24, Bones, Prison Break, Dollhouse, Life on Mars, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and Futurama
Universal Media Studios: Kings, Knight Rider, The Office, Heroes
SciFi: Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Stargate Atlantis
ABC Studios: Lost, Kyle XY, Ghost Whisperer, Wizard’s First Rule
More on the shows that are appearing and who will be appearing as more items are finalized.
Fanboys Delayed Until January 2008
Bad news for the Star Wars fans, the much anticipated Kyle Newman road trip comedy Fanboys has been delayed, yes - again. TheForce.net published the following letter from the director:
“Fanboys has been delayed. As a Star Wars fan, I am devastated. Fanboys is the love letter to the greatest movie franchise of all time. And this year marks the 30th Anniversary. I wanted the film to be my gift back to Star Wars and to the fan community. But ultimately the shift in release will be a good thing for the movie. We made Fanboys for under five million dollars. And the studio has given us the go-ahead to do the things to it that we couldnt do with our initial limited schedule and budget. There are one or two hilarious things that I wanted to shoot and they are giving me the funds to do it. Which is great!!! As a filmmaker, it’s not often someone says — here’s more money - what else do you want to do? But that’s the situation we are in. Unfortunately, I dont get the actors back together for four months! (The one drawback to having such a hot young cast at the top of their game.) But rest assured fans won’t escape Fanboys this year. We kick it off with our presence at Celebration IV in a big way (sneak-peaking scenes, releasing our prequel comic book and teaser poster)… then we will heat things up at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. And from there we just keep building toward January. I am so excited to unleash this movie. It’s going to be huge!”