CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
Reporting From The Floor of Comic-Con 2019
Article by Paul Preston
Another year is in the books for the mighty San Diego Comic-Con. And it was no random year, but the 50th anniversary of the humble gathering, which started as ten to twenty tables under tents with people selling comic paraphernalia to hundreds of thousands of fans at the largest celebration of pop culture in the country. It stands as true today as it ever has that every event you plan to attend means you’re missing about a dozen other awesome sights.
There will be pictures below of a behind-the-scenes at Comic-Con panel I attended. It was there that head programmer for the event, Eddie Ibrahim, said Comic-Con is so huge, it’s become a choose-your-own-adventure novel (to paraphrase). He’s right, whatever you love will be talked about, loved on and exalted for four days. If you love movies, there’s no shortage of things to do and see. If you love comics, there’s no shortage of things to do and see. Same with TV, books, collectibles, video games and right on down. There’s room for everybody and everything. Naturally, how you choose to navigate it depends on your willingness to be either proactive, or sometimes aggressive!
Here’s how my Thursday thru Saturday went:
Thursday started at the legendary Hall H. I hate to tell anyone Thursday is THE day to go because next thing you know everyone will be there and it’ll be just as busy as Friday and Saturday. But…as of now…Thursday is the day to go.
Over the ten years I’ve been going to Comic-Con, I’ve seen major celebs talk about big time movies on Thursday, but people must be at work or something ’cause I can usually walk right in. Over the years, I’ve seen Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Will Ferrell, Bruce Willis, Tina Fey, Matthew McConaughey, Jeff Bridges, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Stone, Michelle Williams, Halle Berry, J.J. Abrams and dozens more talk about their projects – big ones! This Thursday was no different, starting with the Paramount Pictures panel for James Cameron’s return to the franchise that put him on the map – Terminator: Dark Fate.
Director Tim Miller (left) was on hand to talk about the film and immediately dismiss the no-swearing policy. By the time a firmly rated R clip from the film was played, it was clear his language wasn’t going to offend anyone any more than the movie’s dialogue would. Miller is a gregarious, funny guy, you can see why his sensibilities made him the right guy for Deadpool. The action sequence on display in the Hall H footage looked to have some of the inventiveness that movie had.
Linda Hamilton, also featured above, got a rousing applause from the crowd, a welcome return to the franchise’s fans.
Joining them were new Terminator Gabriel Luna (pictured above), Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes and Diego Boneta. But all eyes were waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger, who did his trademark court-holding. Arriving to get paid from Luna that Tim Miller will have already broken the no-swearing rule that usually handcuffs Hall H. Then there were laughs with Arnold breaking out all his catch phrases as the cast told stories of working with the legend.
Then, an unexpected surprise. Conan O’Brien shows up to introduce “The biggest movie star you’re gonna meet in a long, long time…”
Arnold was just here, who could he be talking about?
Of course! The LAST movie star! Tom Cruise showed up to drop the new Top Gun: Maverick trailer. It looked to not disappoint as Cruise swore there would be no CGI, all the plane flying would be real and sure enough, there was Cruise, right in the cockpit, doing his own signature stunts.
Next, I was off to a panel called “You’re Wrong, Leonard Maltin” where you could go hold Leonard Maltin to task for some of his opinions on your favorite movies.
Moderated by his daughter Jessie, I flipped through his reviews to see what I took issue with, then I headed to the mic to have him explain…to a COMIC-CON audience…how he could give a measly 2.5 stars to Captain America: Civil War. He first checked with Jessie to try and remember if that was the one they saw that was too dark (which could be the projection’s fault, no the movie’s). I told him he was thinking of Game of Thrones, which got a laugh from the audience.
His conclusion was that he liked the first half of the movie, not the second. That was pretty much all I got out of him. I tried to tell him that it’s at least enjoyable as a drinking game where you hoist one every time a new Avenger shows up and he said we have a differing opinion. Not gonna lie, that disappointed me quiet a bit. I was hoping for something more than “we differ”, but c’est la vie, I wasn’t going to get any details. Point is, he was WRONG.
The afternoon took me out to a Ghostbusters 35th anniversary panel at the new Comic-Con Museum, enjoying a soft open in Balboa Park. This was a bit of a let-down after attending the Ghostbusters Fan Fest on the SONY lot in June. That event had crazy access to the biggest names from the ’84 movie like Dan Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman. This one had Marc Zicree and Craig Miller, writers from The Real Ghostbusters TV show and Keith Dallas, who was commissioned to write a 35th anniversary comic.
They had some interesting things to say, but Zicree seemed more intent on promoting the panel for Space Command, a still-unfinished project he’s been plugging at Comic-Con for literally five years. As ever, the cosplay was in good form.
And it’s always good to see the kids interested in this property.
The rest of the Museum was sparse, but showed promise of what it could become. There was a Batman experience going on with an indoor skydiving set-up and props and costumes from the movies.
From there, this Movie Guy went all TV. I was not about to miss the Cobra Kai panel – the best show on television.
It was not unlike the panel at Wonder-Con, except Ralph Macchio was included here. Elsewhere on the panel were filmmakers Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald. Actors Tanner Buchanan (Robby) and Mary Mouser (Sam) joined Wonder-Con holdovers William Zabka, Xolo Meridueña and Martin Kove.
Great set stories, overall fun camaraderie and one small leak as to what to expect in season three. I thought it would be about Elisabeth Shue’s involvement as Ali, but instead one of the show’s producers said there will be a trip to Japan.
Thursday wrapped with a documentary filmmakers panel I go to every year to see friend of The Movie Guys Mike J. Nichols talk about editing. He’s fresh off of editing Echo in the Canyon and is working on a Frank Zappa doc.
Joining him were film and TV show filmmakers who talked about film fests, fair use and more. I mentioned that Comic-Con is extremely vast now. That’s true to the point where there’s a whole film FESTIVAL that happens in conjunction with the Con. Their programming consists of animé and classic film screenings along with original works selected from submissions (free to do!) with filmmaker talk-backs. In between screening sessions, they have filmmaker-centric panels like this doc one. Again, the Con is what you make it and if you’re into making movies, there’s a whole Marriott Marquis full of programming just for you.
Did I say Thursday wrapped with the doc filmmaking panel? No. Thursday actually wrapped at The Gaslamp Strip Club. I NEVER go to San Diego without a visit to my favorite steak joint. You cook your own! Turns out I’m pretty damn good at it! Make a point to check this place out, the sides are crazy good, the bread and salad are served family style and the whole building used to be a brothel (hence the name). Plus, it’s just fun to see people’s faces when you invite them to The Strip Club.
Friday started with…sleeping in. Did you see how busy Thursday was? Actually, I regret not attempting a couple early panels, including Hall H face time with the writers of Avengers: Endgame (Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely), followed by the directors, The Russo Brothers. More and more studios are bowing out of Comic-Con, for some reason. I know there have been privacy issues with their content in the past, but they’ve left the whole weekend to Marvel. Especially when Star Wars and Warner Brothers don’t show. I know Star Wars will most likely do something at D23 in August, but no Universal? DreamWorks? Fox? As a result, much of Hall H was made up of retrospectives or post-mortems of things that already happened (as opposed to the usual hype machines for what’s to come) – Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones, Batman Beyond & Animation Show of Shows (20th anniversaries).
By skipping Hall H, my day started on 5th Ave., taking in the sights.
There’s never NOT a party somewhere. This year, a marching band and trivia contest run by Orlando Jones (American Gods) lit up the Gaslamp District on the regular.
My favorite cosplayers!
Anything Pixar is a win in my book. This Pizza Planet truck wins all over the place.
NBC made a splash, wrapping a whole series of buildings with branding for their comedies. One restaurant was entirely taken over by The Good Place, promising an “Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes”, capping in a Brooklyn Nine-Nine escape room right next to the railroad tracks that divide the Gaslamp from the convention center.
Scenes like this are amazing, ’cause it’s very likely these guys don’t even know each other.
Cosplaying so hard has to crimp your schedule, though. These three BROUGHT IT with the Into the Spider-Verse costumes, but they were posing for a LOT of photos to where you wonder if they even got to go in and enjoy the Con…!
Every year, there are pop-ups all over downtown San Diego, from last year’s Demolition Man Taco Bell to Flynn’s Arcade about a decade ago, promoting Tron: Legacy. This year, a museum for Jean-Luc Picard opened up, allowing guests to stroll through the history of the venerable Enterprise captain (as he preps for a return in 2020 on CBS All Access!). Some sights from the “career retrospective”:
Next up, the Comic-Con BTS panel I referenced. Eddie Ibrahim led the talk with the team who plan events, acquire permits, hire staff, provide transportation and do all the other MASSIVE tasks to pull off the Con each year. It was here that you learn fun facts like Con-goers eat about 800 gallons of nacho cheese in four days. You also get to hear about the nixed ideas. One of the best was offered up by the producers of Snakes on a Plane – Wouldn’t it be fun to turn the lights off in Hall H and drop rubber snakes on the 6,000 guests below?
No, it wouldn’t be fun, it would be deadly AF. Also cut – Schwarzenegger’s request to repel off of a helicopter onto the convention center roof to promote True Lies. Potentially witnessing the death of the world’s biggest movie star was not in the plans of the Con planning team that day, so…nixed!
Then I caught the second half of the Pennyworth panel, the origin story take on Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, and his younger day exploits with British Special Forces.
Danny Cannon and Bruno Heller were on hand to lure everyone who thought they did a fine job with Gotham to come see their latest take on a DC character.
But I was mainly hanging around that panel to get to the next one – Creepshow! The classic horror film from George A. Romero and Stephen King is being rebooted as an anthology on Shudder, which absolutely makes sense since the film was an anthology to begin with.
It took the likes of Greg Nicotero to make it happen, and even then they worked with a shoestring budget and a very, very limited schedule. Sometimes four shoot days to finish a half hour episode! Stories of the making-of were delivered by one of the best lineups of the day – original Creepshow vet Adrienne Barbeau, Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad , Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer and Fargo‘s DJ Qualls. It was a rogue’s gallery of actors from projects you love and they were joined by Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill (who’s role in the project I’m still trying to figure out…!)
The trailer looked good, retaining a lot of the fun the original film had in creeping you out and scaring you. Also, I got to shake Giancarlo Esposito’s hand and thank him for calling into The Movie Guys to talk about his movie Stuck from the set of Better Call Saul. Moments like that make Comic-Con awesome.
Friday night ended the way it has a number of times at Comic-Con for me, with a DC animated feature. The animated wing of DC is running a MUCH better winning percentage than their live-action counterparts. Of course, the box office or DC live-action films is huge, but these are not great movies that are not capturing the imagination the way the MCU is. But over at DC Animation, they’re telling dense stories with humor and intrigue. This year was no different as Batman: Hush got its world premiere in Ballroom 20 Friday night.
A huge panel of the filmmakers and voice actors followed, featuring Jason O’Mara as Batman and Firefly‘s Sean Maher as Nightwing, among many others. There will be a review of this in the pages of TheMovieGuys.net soon, but I’ll say here that you won’t be disappointed by the large number of Batman villains and ancillary characters who show up here (it’s another drinking game!). The scriptwriters juggle these twenty plus major characters better than live-action Justice League did with six.
I stepped outside and saw a human-sized LEGO Batman (perfect timing)…
…and a human-sized Fartman.
You may remember Fartman from one of Howard Stern’s self-described worst moments. Naturally, in Stern fashion, it’s an awful moment that continues to spin gold on his show. And this guy went so far to be authentic, yes, the ass was cut out of the pants (no photo for you). Then, he blew the authenticity by wearing an Infinity Gauntlet. What are you gonna do? It’s Comic-Con.
Saturday morning started out with more sights from outside the Con:
…and inside:
As busy as the show floor gets, they all paused to watch the Rise of Skywalker trailer.
The biggest celebrity at the Con!
These phones were playing Crank Yankers prank calls all day long, you could just pick up and listen (the show is being rebooted!).
Eventually landing back at the Marriott Marquis for another filmmaking panel, but this one I was hosting! Thanks to fellow Movie Guy Justin Bowler who gave me the opportunity. I’ve attended the stunt performers panel before and I was thrilled to head it up this time with this amazing crew of panelists:
L. to R. – Esteban Cueto, Joette Nicole Orman, Tammie Baird, Janeshia Adams-Runyard and Brian Danner.
This panel was a winner last year and was a success again this year (growing crowd year to year, hundreds are finding out about it!). The thing that I believe makes it great is that the actors aren’t constantly plugging anything. It’s a celebration of the job and these performers of the job are like a family (proven when Esteban, mid-panel fetched water for everyone on stage).
Mid-panel action!
The crowd!
The whole trip culminated in The Movie Trivia Schmoedown LIVE! at Comic-Con, as two big matches were held at the Kroc Theater to determine the Innergeekdom champion and showcase some big stars in the sport.
Wait, you…may not know what I’m talking about.
The Schmoedown is the brainchild of The Schmoes Know, a podcast duo The Movie Guys were playing alongside on The Toadhop Network many moons ago. Since then, they started an online movie trivia league and combined it with the sensibility of the WWE (an idea I’m jealous I didn’t come up with!). The match outcomes aren’t predetermined, like in pro wrestling, but there are alliances, there is smack talk, backstabbing, storylines and more.
As of 2019, The Movie Guys are involved! We appeared at a Royal Rumble-esque live event and followed that quickly with our first teams match. If you like the “bro” characters we’re about…get ready, ’cause there’s a lot more Movie Guys coming to the Schmoedown.
In San Diego, Mike Kalinowski won the Innergeekdom belt (a belt that specifically deals with trivia from ultra-geeky properties like LOTR, Potter, Star Wars, The MCU, etc.) from Rachel Cushing while the undercard saw rookie Kevin Smets get back on the winning streak. 200+ fans showed up. To watch movie trivia. This “sport” is no joke and it’s growing. Catch a live show if you can, you won’t be disappointed.
Then it was back to CA late at night on Saturday ’cause I had to fly home for family nonsense on Sunday. This is why my recap is so delayed. But it’s really as if I just experienced it. Comic-Con truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
(…Paul’s yearly Comic-Con recap article will return in July, 2020!)
