ComicCon! A Last Report

And now the exciting conclusion of Dennis' report from San Diego's Comic Convention. Remember to click on the links for all of his groovy pictures.

15) Quentin Tarantino was a no-show for a planned "Kill Bill" panel on Friday but he did show up Sunday. In tow with him, producer Lawrence Bender and actress Darryl Hannah (Bladerunner, Splash).

16) QT got a question that must follow him around a lot: "Would there be a Vega brothers prequel movie starring John Travolta and Michael Madsen?" (FYI, Travolta's Pulp Fiction character Vince Vega is a brother of Madsen's Mr. Blonde, Vic Vega, from Reservoir Dogs in the QT-verse. But you already knew that.) He said that John Travolta and Michael Madsen are getting a little too old to do a prequel. Then another audience member stepped up to the mike and grumbled, "Who's too old?" It's Madsen, who promptly crashed (?) the panel. And QT right away massages the "too old" remarks. "Have you seen Reservoir Dogs lately? That was more than ten years ago."

17) QT premiered a promo of "Kill Bill" he edited together in a 1970s exploitation movie style. The studio rejected it, he said, saying the trailer spoke to _his_ fans and, well, a trailer is supposed to get people who are NOT his fans into a theater. The promo definitely looked like Bonus Disc fodder. Questions came regarding Uma Thurman's yellow jump suit, which resembles Bruce Lee's get-up in Game of Death. QT said that Thurman's was a two-piece, not a one-piece like Bruce Lee's, and they were riffing off Uma's hair color in designing the outfit. And would QT ever direct a comic-book character movie? He remarked he probably wouldn't but that Kill Bill pretty close to being a comic book movie with the action and revenge plot.

18) QT didn't seem miffed that the studio had decided to cut his movie into two, with release dates set a few months apart. He recounted as a kid watching The Three Musketeers, and then learning there'd be an additional movie, The Four Musketeers and being overwhelmed with the epic nature of it. He said he did his own edit, cutting off the end of the first movie and the beginning of the second to make one sweeping 5 hour movie. So considering all this, in his eyes the epic release of Kill Bill was not a bad thing.

19) One audience member asked to give him a business card, which he told the security staff surrounding him he would accept. ZZZZZtttttttt! The staffers have a little heart attack as he fakes an electric shock and tumbles over the panel table. Okay, he didn't really fool anyone but it was still funny as hell. Afterwards, he did Robert De Niro from Taxi Driver blasting Harvey Keitel: "Suck on this!" "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" For those six people who got the reference it was pretty amusing.

20) Later that same day...Writer and producer Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) introduces a clip for one of three new FOX TV series, Still Life, which is kind of Seventh Heaven narrated by a character who is dead and cremated. His brother carries around the ashes in an urn. Okay. More promising is Wonderfalls, focusing on an underachieving Ivy league graduate working as a Niagara Falls gift shop employee who has inanimate objects talking to her. It looks better than it sounds -- it's obviously aiming for a Northern Exposure sense of whimsy, and the lead, newcomer Caroline Dhavernas, has a charming sort of Alexis Bleidel blitheness. Look for it come January.

21) Further up on the FOX schedule is an outing by a different Buffy alum -- Eliza Dushku (right), who plays Tru in Tru Calling -- a collision of Run Lola Run meets Early Edition meets Groundhog Day. Her character works in a morgue where persons who "died before their time" are brought. The first such corpse speaks to her Tru finds herself waking up to re-live the previous day of her life, which is just enough time to solve the murder of the speaking corpse. Okay. Dushku gets to run around a lot in the pilot (which was aired in its entirety to the Comic-Con audience). "I hope your character gets a car," quipped one audience member in the Q & A afterwards, "or she'll be the one that's dead by the third episode."

22) Other con tidbits: There will be a Starship Troopers 2. There will still be no powered armor. There will be another Robocop ("Robocop's back...and this time he's black!" -- no joke). The Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars series will be about 10-3 1/2 minute episodes, filling in the story between Episodes II and III of the Lucas saga. By the animators of Samurai Jack -- looks really fun, though their Senator Amidala looks a bit like Cindy Lou Who, said one con-goer. Will Smith said hello to conventioneers on videotape from the set of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. Here's hoping it comes off better than the other recent Asimov robot story, The Bicentennial Man (ugh). Harvey Pekar's American Splendor will be coming out as a live-action movie -- it seems from the trailer the film will be based on the story The Cancer Years. Perhaps the strength of Ghost World is giving chances to reality grounded stories like that of Pekar. Let's hope. Pixar looks as though they'll continue their winning streak with their next CGI venture, The Incredibles, about a misfit superhero family. A new Loony Toons adventure combining live-action in a Roger Rabbit style is also up to bat. And topping off, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been remade and will be out this October. (editorial note: For the love of God, why??)

23) Gotta hand it to the SDCC folks -- the con is always a great show but the last two years have been a special boon for starseekers and learning the inside track. Check out their site . Drop me a line if you want to know anything more about the con or the pix.

dennis!