Posted by SH
My first Comic-Con, and — to borrow a phrase from its patron saint — I’m now a true believer. An estimated 125,000 pop-culture devotees descended upon San Diego, and despite the prevailing pale skin tone of the crowd, the sun did not scare them away. This is indeed Sundance for fanboys (and, increasingly, fangirls), and Hollywood dares not stay away. Even Triumph the Insult Comic Dog can see it. He took his shots at the crowd, addressing them as “mouth-breathers,” among other things, but his overall point was, Geeks now rule Hollywood.
The biggest buzz was created by Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of “Watchmen,” which Kevin Smith called the sole reason for there ever being a Comic-Con. He’s off by a few years — the graphic novel came out in 1986, while Comic-Con has been around since 1970 — but his point is taken. “Watchmen” is the “Ulysses” of comic books, the seminal work that no one said could be filmed, especially not in a two-and-a-half-hour movie. But everything Snyder has shown us so far — the trailer, and the scenes he brought with him to San Diego — have quieted the doubters. “Cathartic,” “life-changing,” “a religious experience” are just some of the terms that were batted around by the crowd. It’s the kind of reaction that can assure a movie will be a hit. March has never seemed so far away.
In less spiritual movie news, Smith was on hand — as he usually is at Comic-Con — holding court with some fellow filmmakers at an Entertainment Weekly panel labeled “Visionaries.” Joining the “Clerks” filmmaker were hit machine Judd Apatow, Snyder and legendary comic scribe Frank Miller, who is stepping behind the camera to helm his “Sin City”-style adaptation of Will Eisner’s “The Spirit.” Smith and Apatow sat next to each other, trading in blue humor and self-deprecating jabs, and they seemed almost to be in a different building than Snyder and Miller, who basically spoke only when spoken to. Most of the time when Miller was called on to answer a question, in fact, his initial response was a quizzical “What?” After a while, it was hard to tell whether he hadn’t heard the question or was mortified by how silly it was. No one questions Miller’s genius on the page. He certainly wasn’t the only guy writing serious comics, but his “The Dark Knight Returns” almost single-handedly made people start taking them seriously. But he is on shakier ground with the movies. While “Sin City” has its admirers, his original screenplays consist of Robocops 2 and 3. And, truthfully, I’m just not on board with “The Spirit.” I’m no purist when it comes to the comic, which was made in a different time with more problematic racial sensitivities. But it just looks like a mess, a low-rent “Sin City.” I hope I’m wrong.
Smith took center stage with his own panel consisting of the cast of his latest View Askew flick, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” about … well, doesn’t the title pretty much say it all? He showed a quick clip where Zack (Seth Rogen) chats up a guy (Justin Long) at a high-school reunion and finds out he is a gay porn star, and the boyfriend of the guy his friend Miri (Elizabeth Banks) is trying to seduce. Said guy is played by Brandon Routh, in his first role since donning Superman’s tights. It’s a funny scene, and neither Jay nor Silent Bob are anywhere in sight. The panel also included Rogen and Banks, some real porn stars past and present — Katie Morgan and Traci Lords — as well as former “Lassie” star Ricky Mabe, and Smith regulars, producer Scott Mosier and Jay himself, Jason Mewes. The highlight for me, though, was Rogen’s Ian McKellen joke about how lucky the actor was for getting famous late in life so that his romantic encounters would go from 80-year-old men to 20-year-old men, and the fact that the goofy Rogen laugh we hear in the movies is not an act. Eddie Murphy has nothing on this guy.
Keep checking back for more Comic-Con postings. I’m also going to write about the new “Knight Rider,” J.J. Abrams’ adventures out in the “Fringe” and what else Batman is up to this fall.
