The panel for the hugely popular offshoot series Stargate Atlantis included stars Joe Flanigan, Robert Picardo, and Jewel Staite, along with executive producer Brad Wright and VP of Sci-Fi programming Chris Sanagustin.This panel had a very relaxed attitude with Robert Picardo commenting on the character Woolsey, how the character in the beginning was very timid and did a lot of number crunching. And now he’s been placed in charge of Atlantis and really stepped up.

Joe Flanigan commented he thought Tayla was hot and wished Shepphard could have a thing with Tayla, although that seemed unlikely as she just had a baby on the show.

Jewel Staite, a fairly recent addition to the show, said she is really enjoying her role. She previously starred in the show Firefly and the movie adaptation Serenity. She said to prepare for every Firefly show the prop guy would show her a box of tool props, and he would tell her to pick one and go pretend to fix something somewhere. This got pretty tiresome and her role on Stargate Atlantis has much more variety and substance. She also laughingly stated she hated the famous ruffled dress from Firefly.

by Glenda Glass

Promoting the full-length feature Stargate Continuum, this star-studded panel included director Martin Wood, executive producer and writer Brad Wright, and most of the cast: Amanda Tapping, Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Judge. Asked what they had been doing since the Stargate SG-1 series ended, Amanda Tapping expounded some on her online project called Sanctuary, recently made for syndication on the Sci-Fi channel, and Michael Shanks dropped that he would be making a surprise guest appearance on the new season of 24.Christopher Judge commented that it had been great working on the movie and having the old cast back together again, although some of the cast live within several blocks of eachother, and he and Michael Shanks often went out together with their wives.

When asked what they liked about filming Continuum the cast all agreed it was a great movie and loved filming in Antarctica, and had a great time together.

Richard Dean Anderson managed to inject more than a little humor into the panel with his off-beat comments and behavior. He also said that he really enjoyed the “frozen poo” of Antarctica, as the weather was so cold.

Amanda Tapping commented that after she and Ben Browder walked for awhile for a shot on the tundra for the movie, they had to stop and make snow angels, giggling like little kids.

By Alicia Glass

The highly anticipated next movie in the Terminator franchise is apparently a “reboot” of the series, a word that’s been bandied around a lot for remade or re-started movies at this years Comic-Con. That is to say, this Terminator is set in an alternate future where Judgement Day has already happened, and John Connor has to come in and save the day somehow, again. The few panelists there did their best to expound on how cool the many different robots in this new movie would be, and how they would focus much more on the villainous Skynet mastermind. I’m actually leery of the idea of a “reboot” of these movies, but with Christian Bale starring as John Connor, perhaps it won’t be a Judgement Day for the entire Terminator franchise.

I finally made it into this panel when it was more than half over, as the lines for Hall H were utterly insane. Still, I was there long enough for a surprise visit from Matthew Fox who stars as everyones favorite doctor Jack Shephard, even after the shows producers said all the stars were hard at work on the new show season and wouldn’t be able to make it. The crowded halls reaction when Fox sauntered out on stage proved that the highly unpredictable show Lost is still a favorite for a legion of fans.

Furniture designers and manufacturers Nine Stories make furniture out of car panels. "we are exploring the vast landscape of the american salvage yard to collect textures and colors that ony years of sun and rain can create."

CJ will be doing her first ever cosplay (Lou Fa/Rohfa from D.Gray-man) and will be running her first ever D.Gray-man panel, entitled "Exorcists, Earls and Empty Cups of Coffee." (Yeah, this'll be a fun con for yours truly <3) She will be there only on Saturday and Sunday, though, so don't run around asking people if they've seen a purple-haired meganekko loli on, say, Friday night. :) She is looking forward most to seeing Tristan MacAvery (GENDO IKARI ZOMG) kicking butt at DDR and rocking her knee socks off at the dance. (MOSH PIIIIIIIIT!!!1)

Rakuen will once again be helping the Whose Line panel team, but he is not to be held responsible for anything that happens at the uncensored panel. :D He will also be helping with some Super Smash Brothers Brawl panels. He's interested in seeing Tristan MacAvery and the Gamer Girls panel.

Janette's mad embroidery skillz will be displayed in Artists Alley again this year! She'll be cosplaying as Fakir from Princess Tutu, so keep an eye out for her as well. She doesn't have any definite plans set yet, but she really wants to get some Pokemon battling in. (CJ may also end up dragging her into the game room at some point for some DDR.)

Oh, and pre-reg is still open until today, so maybe if you hand-deliver it to the con staff you can still get in. <3 Otherwise, get there early Friday and get your badges~! We hope to see you there!

~CJ

by Alicia Glass

Watchmen

The incredibly popular alternate world graphic novel comes to vibrant life as a long-anticipated movie. This particular movie and comic is really hard to describe, but I’ll give it a shot. In an alternate 80’s America where costumed heroes are the norm, a washed-up hero uncovers a conspiracy when his former colleague is murdered, and sets out to find the truth for himself, only to discover just how far-reaching the plot and it’s potentially disastrous consequences go, for the entire world.  It may sound odd, but really, the preview looked fantastic and was packed wall-to-wall, I really recommend seeing this movie.

by Alicia Glass

The Wolfman

Okay, so, it’s been done before. Wolfman, Werewolf in London, blah blah. But very few of these movies star Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins and the amazing Hugo Weaving! The preview looked like your rather standard turn of the century setting, with an old man telling a story about the wolfman, his grandfather battled, and then went right into Hopkins and Del Toro running around delightedly chasing pretty morsels and men with guns chasing them! Rick Baker was on the panel, happily explaining about the hours of makeup, not CGI, they had to use on most of the cast, along with a rather shy Benicio Del Toro and lovely Emily Blunt. Not “just a remake” or “same old story, new faces”, rather this movie is an exciting back to basics jaunt on the classic tale of man versus the beast in his own soul.

by Alicia Glass

Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment

The Spirit

Based on a comic book done by Will Eisner since the 50’s, The Spirit finally makes it to the big screen with a hell of a jump. The style of the film is certainly set by its maker, Frank Miller, that shy genius famous for 300 and Sin City. And speaking of Sin City, that black and white tone with splotches of color here and there, that’s very close to how The Spirit will look, especially after seeing the preview, twice. Frank Miller was on hand at the panel, along with Deborah Dell, Samuel Jackson, Jaime King and Gabriel Mockt. Jackson was in fine form, witty and engaging, fielding fan questions about his walk-on in Iron Man as Nick Fury with sharp retorts like, “When I was a kid, Nick Fury was a white guy, and you too can grow up to be a black man!” Gabriel Mockt, who stars as the lead character San Saref/The Spirit, expressed gratitude and awe at being chosen for the role.

  

EL SEGUNDO, CA- Approximately 60,000 square feet of Bright Silver Omega-Lite^® panels are featured on the 220,000 square foot Class-A office park at The Edge in El Segundo, California. The Edge combines 200,000 square feet of office space with 20,000 square feet of support retail. Omega-Lite^® is manufactured by Laminators Incorporated of Hatfield, PA.  The Edge was designed by Warren Malcome Architects, Inc. The general contractor was Lusardi Construction Company of San Marcos, CA. Laminator’s panels were installed by Delta Sheet Metal in Van Nuys, CA. 

The Day the Earth Stood Still

For us movie fans’ previewing pleasure, there was first the remake of the 50’s classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, starring Keanu Reeves as the alien who comes to earth, ostensibly to determine humanities worthiness to continue to exist. Co-star Jennifer Connelly was there along with Mr. Reeves, plus director Scott Derrickson and producer Erwin Stoff. The movie was previewed at ear-splitting volume and missing a few special effects, but quite watchable at any rate.

Max Payne

Starring the redoubtable Mark Wahlberg, along with Mila Kunis of That 70’s Show  Fame and the singer Ludacris, the movie make of the hugely popular video game was previewed. To make the movie come across as similar to the video game play, a new type of camera known as a Phantom Camera was used. The movie preview, full of action sequences and rapid gunfire, looked like quite fun even if you haven’t played the video game.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

And no Comic Con would be complete without the best surprises previews out there. Right after Max Payne, who bounced onto the stage but Hugh Jackman himself, to preview Wolverine! The crowd went wild! The preview was in full vibrant color, full of favorites such as Gambit and Deadpool, and even a younger Sabertooth played by Liev Schreiber, along with of course Jackman as Wolverine! And in Jackman’s own immortal words, “It’s bad-ass!”

Wizard’s First Rule

The acclaimed Sword of Truth book series from Terry Goodkind gets made into a show! The highly popular series, involving rich characters like Richard Cypher and Kahlan, springs to life from the creative team that brought us favorites like Hercules the Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess: Sam Raimi and Robert Tappert. Writer Terry Goodkind was on hand with the rest of the panel, and stayed cool and collected even when a disruptive fan alleged on Goodkind’s negative politics toward women and was booed out of the room. The series, renamed Legend of the Seeker for TV syndication, will be on ABC/Disney and is scheduled to begin November 1^st.  http://www.legendoftheseeker.com

HBO’s True Blood

The Southern Vampire book series by Charlaine Harris gets the bite of life as a show on HBO. Main character Sookie Stackhouse is played by Anna Paquin of X-Men fame, as a blonde. Author Charlaine Harris was on hand to answer questions about her books versus the television series, much too hard-core fans delight. Alan Ball, former director of the hit HBO series Six Feet Under, adds his great style and sense of humor to the show. For example, when asked by a fan if the show really was going to put out a beverage known as Tru-Blood, Ball laughed and said if they did it would be a rockin’ combination of V-8, Valium, Vicodin and Viagra!

Showtime’s Dexter

Everyone’s favorite psycho vigilante returns for a third season. I’ve been a huge fan of this show ever since it came out, so of course I couldn’t wait to see what surprises they had in store for the third season. It was a little disappointing, they did show a preview for season 3 on the big screen, but because Dexter is always full of surprises and the panel didn’t want to give anything away, they lacked for a lot to say. Jimmy Smits of NYPD Blue and Star Wars fame, joins the cast in season 3 as a surprise twist friend for Dexter. Season 3 premieres on Showtime on September 28^th, 2008. Mark Echo of Echo Entertainment made a short visit to plug his new Dexter video game.

  

COLUMBUS, OH- Approximately 9,000 square feet of Omega-Lite ^® panels give the new Yachiyo headquarters in Columbus, Ohio an ultra sleek look.  The Bright Silver Omega-Lite^® panels are manufactured by Laminators Incorporated in Hatfield, Pa. The design was created by Dublin Building Systems of Dublin, Ohio. The panels were installed by Ohio Glass & Aluminum from Columbus, Ohio.

It's the third and last day of con and I aims to make it a good one. I already got a good start by attending the Friday the 13th panel this afternoon. Michael Bay is out to remake a horror classic and man does it look pretty. Even though a remake...excuse me, let's call it a REBOOT...there has been changes in the story compared to the original. Don't expect to see what your mommy and daddy saw. This movie is revamped for the new generation. We were show the movie poster which consists of Jason's Mask in a dark background. Similar to that of Halloween's look but not. SO DON'T COMPARE THEM! We also surprisingly got a teaser trailer that has not been released yet. From what the trailer showed, it looks like Jason is the main bad guy instead of his mom and he still has that super human strength. The directors promise there will be a more creative plot instead of blind killing of teenagers. I'm for either really, as long as there's blood and gore Im down. They also brought in three of the cast members including the person playing Jason. Let's see if my memory serves right. It was Jared Padalecki from Supernatural, Danielle Panabaker, and Derek Mears as Jason. What can I say? The movie looks sweet and is something to try to make it through this year to see.

Mahalo Daily has posted a bunch of cool videos on you tube from Comic-Con. Some highlights include the Watchmen panel, a Clark Duke interview, Red Sonja panel, and the Wolfman panel.

Link to Mahalo Daily's YouTube Channel

in the lineup today we have Harold and Kumar, Fri the 13th (remake), and then Rogue pictures all back to back in this room, then that is it for panels today. we will head down to the dealer floor, do some last minute shopping, pick up our artwork that we bought the other day, and head over to corvette diner for the traditional after con sunday dinner. Not sure if I will get another post done today, but I do plan to do atleast 1 more con post to kind of some things up

C.

By Marcio Guastavino

Ah, the day's end and what better way to end it than with a panel concerning Kevin Smith's new movie Zack and Miri make a Porno. I know what you're thinking, THAT kind of movie? No, it's not a porno haha. Although he did say that he could if he wanted to, but it has to amateur. The panel was filled with hilarity pretty much the whole way through. It's exactly what I expected from a panel concerning Mr. Smith. We got to hear a bit about the movie and what came to the idea of making it. Basically, since 1996 he's always wanted to make it and now his plan has come to fruition. The actors from the movie also made an appearance and answered audience questions, in fact, that's all they did. There was no plan and it still went better than those that would have made plans for it. It was depressing to hear that the characters of Jay and Silent Bob may not be revisited in the future though. His reason for that was the problem of age and material. He felt that he's used up the ideas concerning the two characters and ow wants to concentrate on new and better things. Regardless of what he does I trust him. Getting Seth Rogan in a film by him is gold. This movie is going to have my sides aching I'm sure.

Eoin Colfer is the author responsible for the Artemis Fowl series, as well as stand-alone novels such as The Airman and The Supernaturalist.  These books are generally marketed as kids books, but as a 30-something adult, I've enjoyed every book.

The Comic Con program promised us "a hilarious one man live show that explains to fans the genesis of each of Eoin's characters in the books—both good and evil—all of which come from his four Irish brothers"

Eoin Colfer did deliver a hilarious show, and must be a comfort to him that if his career as a writer ever tanks, he'll be able to support himself and his family as a stand up comedian.  He shared several stories about his brothers and sons, and illustrated his stories with slides that were frequently taken out of context with entertaining results.

He didn't spend a lot of time talking about his characters, which was a little disappointing; however, this was probably a lot more fun!

I had the opportunity to check out the Spore Panel.  Unfortunately I had some problems getting into the Press Section which I should have been able to do right away as I was on the RSVP list which they did not appear to have or look at.  After getting the right names of who our contact was there was no problem at all, but It took a little bit of time to get the information.

Before I talk about Spore, I will talk a little bit about what I learned about Will Wright.  Will Wright grew up in the 60's. With the culture and events of the time, this helped to shape his interest in Sci-Fi and aliens. His favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey.  He also has an interest in modeling. His presentation also showed him to be a comical guy as a number of slides in his PowerPoint had the crowd laughing quite loudly.

As Will Wright went on with his presentation I was blown away.  One of his goals through the games he has created was to understand the world around us through video games. By using models and simulations, users actions could affect the model world they are playing with. He also believes video games are an art form. His presentation only helped to support the idea.  I agree with him and as such Spore appears to a masterpiece.

Will presented the general formula for video games.  You first start with a story, you then deconstruct it to make you model world and then through game play to start reconstructing the story.  Spore did just this and even did a fair amount of research to be as accurate with the science in the game. They even took the idea that users love making content because of the increase in emotional investment and as a result focused more on the creation tools. Spore has about 10 different editors available at various points during game play with a net result of just about everything being editable.  Users have created more than 2 million creatures with the currently available creature creator. As a comparison Will mentioned that there are currently only about 1.6 million known species on Earth. In the user created creatures so far users have managed to create creatures the Will never thought possible such as humanoid creature, robot, and realistic creatures in existence, objects, and even skeletons using a bug in the creator.

In Spore you start the game as a single celled organism and evolve through time. The choices you make affect how your creature evolves and what options are available to you as you progress in the story such as eat mostly plants with evolve you creature to be an herbivore. The game will even create a timeline history of your creature as you play through the game. Eventually you will end up in the space stage. You will be able to explore an entire galaxy. Throughout this galaxy you can run into other user created content. The Spore team also put effort into conveying the beauty of space as well.

In closing, this game simply amazes me. It starts as a game of evolution and then turns into Sim Galaxy. With such a focus on the editing tools, it will fill any person’s god complex. I look forward to this game’s release and was quite fortunate to have gone to this panel.

Upon the start of the panel we were greeted by a slew of people, they went so fast that I was unable to catch their names. This led into discussion about the mechanics of the game and characters shown on powerpoint slides. After talking about the characters for a bit, they went onto the style of game and showed a video. This is the same video that was released during E3 but was not shown at the Capcom E3 Press Conference. The video itself showed off the new feature called "Focus Attack" which I myself still don't get. I think it is a mix between parrying and a super move.

Sometime during the panel they announced that Cammy had won a poll which was running on their Capcom-Unity site. It was a poll to see which character the users wanted to see back the most and she won that. Then they put the question out to the audience, "What character aside from Cammy did they want to see the most?". It turned into a madhouse from there with yells coming from every direction. Everything from Akuma to Sakura filled the air.

At the end of the panel they premiered a new animated story segment. The animation is well done and I can't wait to see the completed product.

On a side note, during the panel my GameSpot friend had setup their area with camera, tripod on the wall. I would assume the general unspoken rule is to not block other cameras or people reporting. Well a media crew from HBO broke all those unspoken rules, first blocking my friend who was typing everything onto his liveblog. After he asked them to move, they set up shop right in front of his camera man, which essentially blocked the GameSpot camera until the tripod was raised even more. These big media guys need to be less douchebags and more polite and courteous of their surroundings.

As for the game itself, I tried it a couple panels later. Stood in line at the Capcom booth for about 15-20 minutes and got a headband upon entry into the playing area. They had 10 machines which meant 5 head-to-head cabinets. Along side that they had 2 SF2 HD Remix running for those that were queued next to hop on SF4. Once you got on, you were able to select from 16 characters; Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, E. Honda, Blanka, Dhalsim, Zangief, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison, Abel, Crimson Viper, El Fuerte, & Rufus. At the top of each machine they had everyone's special moves and a very short "How to Play" if you have never ever EVER played a Street Fighter game in your life. The game itself is smooth and lovely. The moves are all from Street Fighter 2 so everyone will pick it up right away without any problems. Now someone has got to figure out how that "Focus Attack" works and it will be all good again!

-Carl Custodio

Yet another wholecar from the man Files. This one was unfortunately buffed on the windows but you get the picture!

Roid (HA), Gaz (HA) -UK heavyweights on the case at the Hostel Celica.

Plus Crew

? -Near Tivoli Park.

Pistol (Guns), Slay (Guns)

Quiet

Plano

City Rats Crew, Anger, Ezor

CityRats Crew -Streetbombing madness from the rats!

Reks -Near the three bridges.

Chek

Tokio -Metelkova

Taki 183 -????

Taps (?) -OOh yes

Raze

CityRats Crew

Stick

Chek

Schlomo (Germany) -Even streetart gets on the trains here. This birdy thing went all the way down the sides of the train. It was painted with both emulsion and spray.

Mods Crew

Egotrip

Ogre

Mind, Kine

Files, Guns

CityRats crew -Plus some pigeons (Rats and Pigeons..!)

So theres the end of this second slovenia post. Look out for more on GRAFFWARS soon!

Richard Hatch kicked off the panel greeting the full room (200+) and introducing the other panelists.  Dr. Kevin Grazier is the scientific consultant and works at NASA's JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and is an actual "rocket scientist"!  Tom DeSanto (also in Transformers, X-Men) is a screenwriter and producer.  Bear McCreary is the musical composer.  We first got to see an All Along the Watch Tower musical montage of the finale to the 3rd season.    We were also treated to a documentary short on Bear interviewing many members of the cast and getting their feedback on his music.  The problem was that most didn't know that there was any music, nor did they know who Bear was.  In the end, they were asked to just outright lie and say what a great job Bear did.  After all, acting is their business.  It was very funny and brought down the house.   They spent some time discussing the new spin-off series, Caprica, not revealing anything that hasn't already been published online since the series was announced months ago.  During the Q&A, they discussed the research and discipline that goes into the accuracy of the military & pilot procedures used in the show (especially since the writers got to spend some time on one of our Navy's aircraft carriers).  The funniest question asked was that with all of the high technology of a society capable of space travel, why would the remedy for a shot-off leg be a simple (ultra-low tech) crutch.  The panel's answer was lack of resources, since they are busy fleeing from the Cylons (a pretty weak answer at best).

More photos of the panel can be seen here.

I just saw these curtains over at MakingitLovely from West Elm, and I'm in love!

nailhead linen window panel

canterbury window panel

Attention 4-Day Members Only: For the first time ever, Comic-Con adds a special event on Preview Night, and what a special event it is! Be among the first to see the new fall series Fringe!

6:00–7:30 and 7:30-9:00 Fringe Pilot Screenings—Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present two exclusive premiere screenings of the pilot episode of Fringe, the highly anticipated new FOX series from J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind the upcoming Star Trek feature, Mission: Impossible 3 and Alias. When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, The Pacific) is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: He’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter (Josh Jackson, Shutter), in to help. Under Special Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, The Wire), our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth. Fringe also stars Kirk Acevedo (Oz), Blair Brown (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd) and Jasika Nicole (The Mastersons of Manhattan). From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe premieres September 9 and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on FOX. (Please note: we will clear the room between screenings. Seating is limited. Pick the screening time that works best for you!) Ballroom 20