And that’s a wrap on my first full busy day at San Diego Comic Con. I kicked things off at the press conference for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which featured Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Julia Jones and Booboo Stewart after which Bill Condon, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner took the stage. Before wrapping up things with Summit Entertainment, I spoke with the writer of one of the studio’s next book-to-film adaptations, Warm Bodies author Isaac Marion. Keep an eye out for that interview later this week.
From there it was off to the convention center where I spent some time checking out the goods including vendor booths like MIMOBOT (more to come from them later this week) and studio presentations like Lionsgates’ booth which is all decked out in Hunger Games’ flaming glory.
Time flew fast, so from there it was a brisk walk over to Ballroom 20 where author George R.R. Martin proudly presented the cast and writers who brought the first book of his A Song of Ice and Fire series to life, Game of Thrones. Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Jason Momoa and writers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were all on hand to talk about their experience working on the show’s first season, the goodies that will come with the season one DVD as well as a bit of what to expect for season two and beyond.
After the panel wrapped, it was back to the big screen to conduct interviews for two upcoming FilmDistrict releases, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and Troy Nixey’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Ron Perlman stepped up to talk about his character Nino in Drive while Guy Pearce represented Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark in a one-on-one interview.
The day came to a close with what else, but a party? This bash was for the Final Destination franchise’s fifth installment and featured beer, ping pong, darts, deliciously greasy treats and, best of all, the opening disaster of the film. It began with a plane, then hit a highway after which it demolished a rollercoaster and then a racetrack and, earlier tonight, I got a glimpse of the next stop on Death’s devastation tour, a suspension bridge.
So, day one done. What’s on the schedule for tomorrow? Fingers crossed the line won’t be overwhelmingly long for The Walking Dead panel, a chat with Conan the Barbarian producer Frederick Malmberg, one with Tucker & Dale vs. Evil director Eli Craig, a little Fright Night and then perhaps the Chillerama screening.
That’s the plan for tomorrow, but for now, take a look at some of the action I caught today in the images below.
