Wonder Con report

Attended the annual WonderCon show for comic fans last weekend. Since the San Diego Comic Con folks took it over, they've really improved the show. Most importantly, they are attracting major talent and Hollywood studios.

I caught a few of the Saturday afternoon movie panels. First up, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy preview. I read these books when I was in middle school and i loved them. The filmmakers really seem to have captured the essense of the books. I'm psyched for the flick.

I skipped Paramount's War of the Worlds panel. From what I understand, they didn't show any new footage, so no loss there.

Caught the tail end of Kevin Smith's talk. I really like Smith as a person and I find his films entertaining, but I think my brother summed it up best when he said, "His popularity has exceeded his talent." Going to a Kevin Smith panel is like going to a taping of Oprah: wild, crazed fans who will applaud anything that comes from Smith's mouth. Sad.

Next up was the Warner Brothers panel for House of Wax. Elisha Cuthbert and producer Joel Silver were on hand. Co-star Paris Hilton cancelled "due to scheduling conflicts" or as I like to call it, the NBA All-Star game. See, if she just flew up to San Francisco, she never would have had her Sidekick Mobile hacked and she wouldn't have all those people pissed at her.

Well, no worries because Cuthbert is ten times the babe Paris is. I did feel sorry for Joel Silver though. It was pretty evident that he had no illusions about the quality of the flick. It sounded like he was just hoping for a big opening weekend and crossing his fingers for strong DVD sales.

Christian Bale showed up for the Batman Begins presentation. Fans were jazzed by the new 7 minute clip reel he brought along, but I was unmoved. I've been burned too many times waiting for a decent Batman flick. I will say that Bale said all the right things about Batman being the real identity and Bruce Wayne being the mask he uses to keep the real him in check. If anything will make me see this picture, it's his sell job.

Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon was on hand to promote the Fantastic Four movie. The trailers have been mediocre at best and I'm not holding my breath for a decent movie.

As for the comic book portion of the weekend, nothing too exciting. I did pick up a Art Adams's Man-Thing pin-up for my comic art collection though.