Day Four… of Five. DC and Marvel are competing in Hall H today. (Marvel is last, so you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to get the low-down.)
Quite a lot of stuff! DC and Marvel hold their big panels today, most people have the day off, so let’s get going!
Ready Player One – SDCC Teaser [HD]
Normally, we don’t really post trailers here, unless there’s a bigger article to write. But… you’ll have noticed lots of Easter eggs in this trailer, like The Iron Giant. But.. here’s one I think most people have overlooked, or actually, overheard… that three-note chime upon entering The Oasis…it’s reminiscent of the opening chimes of “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.
If that’s true, then well played (HAR!) Alan Silvestri.
Yes, Some Comics Are For Kids — And They’re Big Business
Strother says graphic novels are an important way to get kids used to reading longer chapter books with more mature ideas. And for her students, there’s one author who reigns supreme. “The queen of my classroom is Raina Telgemeier.”
“My name does mean queen,” Telgemeier laughs. She’s here at Comic-Con to talk comics and meet young readers; her latest graphic novel, Ghosts, is a gentle, lovely story for middle grade readers, about a girl coming to terms with her little sister’s serious illness.
“Comics are good for so many different kinds of readers,” she says. “Kids who have never finished a book on their own before can pick up a graphic novel and be done in an hour and feel empowered, that they’ve never had that experience before. They finished something.”
If a supervillain destroyed San Diego, how would you rebuild it?
Alvarez and other officials and politicians will sit on a panel on Saturday at Comic-Con where they’ll discuss how they’d respond and clean up after a destructive battle between two superheroes, filling a wonky plot hole left in many action movies.
If the battles between heroes and villains were real, it would be a bizarre and novel type of emergency. But cities already have some relevant experience in disasters, public health threats, and massive public events that could be transferable to handling whatever Stan Lee could imagine.
“We do catastrophic planning, but none of those have involved a battle of superheroes,” said Holly Crawford, director of the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services.
“But we go through a lot of real events, like Zika and Ebola, and planned events like the Trump rally, and the (Major League Baseball) All-Star Game, that we prepare for and challenge us.”
There have been detailed contingency plans for massive wildfires, meltdowns at the San Onofre nuclear power plant and earthquakes that could be adapted to respond to a villain’s evil plans to take over the world.
Spending the night in the Hall H line is a ‘psychotic, living nightmare,’ but worth it
One does not simply walk into Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. To gain access to the hallowed hall of pop culture madness, first you must pass the trials of the line.
We spent the night talking to the folks who spend the large majority of their Comic-Con waiting in line. How can a mere mortal survive this test of patience? What does one need? The answer: friendship.
Wonder Woman 2 officially announced at Comic-Con
In addition to Wonder Woman 2, Warner Bros. revealed plans for Suicide Squad 2, The Batman, Justice League Dark, Batgirl (from Joss Whedon), Green Lantern Corps, and The Flash: Flashpoint. The studio also teased Aquaman with Momoa which James Wan will direct.
Caveat: There are NO official release dates attached to these movies, aside from Aquaman.
Ashley Eckstein Is A Star Wars Rebel — And A Force For Change
Since 2014, the kids-helping-kids movement UNICEF Kid Power has been raising the funds needed to provide severely malnourished children the nutrition they need to survive. Helping to fuel this movement is UNICEF USA’s partner Star Wars: Force for Change, which has raised more than $9 million in just three years for the program — and inspired tens of thousands of kids to be a Force for Change by getting active to save lives.
In April, many of these young fans showed up in full force at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando to get active with the newest UNICEF Kid Power Champion, Ashley Eckstein. Voice of Star Wars Rebels’ Ahsoka Tano, Ashley has headlined two Star Wars: Force for Change Missions for the UNICEF Kid Power app.
The Sneaky New Way Studios Are Fast-Tracking Super Franchises
Warner Bros. seems to be rolling with the punches, but that franchise wasn’t exactly a smooth launch. But just a few years ago, Warner Bros. had already launched a massively succesful movie co-starring Justice League members Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and more. The Lego Movie—which took the 2014 box office by surprise raking in $470 million worldwide—had the benefit of an all-star character cast without the need for any potentially risky origin films leading up to it.
And while the film featured some rogue players from other studios—Fox’s Millhouse, Paramount’s Ninja Turtles, a few Star Wars cameos—The Lego Movie mainly served as advertising for other Warner Bros. properties. In fact, directors Phil Lord and Chris Millerwanted Disney’s R2-D2 to be a main character in The Lego Movie and were, unsurprisingly shut down. (Not their last Star Wars-based disappointment.) Instead, Lord and Miller mainly deployed self-spoofing depictions of characters from other Warner Bros.-owned franchises, like The Lord of the Ring’s Gandalf and Harry Potter’s Dumbledore.
This irreverent gambit paid off so well that Warner Bros. is at it again this time basing it’s all-star character mash-up movie on Ernest Cline’s nostalgia-heavy geek pastiche novel Ready Player One.
‘Simpsons’ Creator Says Owner Asked for Nicer Treatment After “Racist” Fox News Joke
After opening with a clip of animated Trump from this past season, the conversation turned to politics when Groening revealed that they had been asked by parent company 21st Century Fox to take it easy on Fox News after a joke that dubbed Fox News “not racist, but No. 1 with racists.”
“Then Bill O’Reilly called us pinheads and look what happened,” Groening added with a laugh of the now-ousted anchor.
