If Comic-Con has a recuring theme it's queuing. Hordes of Twilight Saga fans effectively closed the main presentation hall early on by queuing round the block since yesterday. They seemed to have erected some kind of unofficial shanty town near the entrance where they all camped over night.
Above: huge crowds gather outside the convention hall.
Can't get into the main hall? Why not queue for a coffee before joining the queue for the freebie pin badges on the DC stand, and then head upstairs to queue for the Stan Lee and Disney panels? SFX discovered early on that once you're in a room, it's worth waiting there for the next thing you're interested in even if it means sitting through a panel about collectable card games or something - if you leave you might never get back in.
Highlights of the day included the Middleman session and the Tron screening. Apparently the latter only finished shooting on Monday. Disney showed loads of concept art , not much new but darned impressive. The official title is Tron: Legacy and it takes the original Tron as canon, setting the story 20 years in the future with the son of Flynn looking for his father who disappeared years ago. A scene was shown with Sam Flynn going to Flynn's arcade - it's all dusty, but the sofa and the jukebox are still there. Bruce Boxleitner is still there in the form of a cameo voiceover.
Above: Stan Lee and Natasha Henstridge discuss Time Jumper.
Other announcements included the fact burst that there's a Warcraft movie in the offing with Sam Raimi at the helm. We also saw the legendary Stan Lee on stage announcing his motion comic Time Jumper in conjunction with Disney. He was a total gent, chivalrously welcoming Natasha Henstridge to the stage as they announced the new series she's voice acting in (available via iTunes) - a story in which Lee plays boss Lee Excelsior. After outlining what motion comics are all about, Lee said, "I just explained it so beautifully, I hope somebody recorded it!" We did, Stan. We did. The first episode is on iTunes this Friday .
Above: checking out the packed exhibition hall.
Then this afternoon SFX went en masse to see the Avatar panel. You can read more about this in a future issue of SFX, but basically we sat with James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana as they talked about making this amazing new 3D sci-fi movie. The big announcement was that around the world 21 August is the big day when it's going to be revealed in cinemas in the form of trailers and 3D footage - look out for the update then.
Above: James Cameron chats about Avatar.
After dark the SFX team was to be found atop the Solamar hotel where Stargate: Universe launched. A couple of pints and a firm handshake from Robert "Begibe" Carlyle" made our evening complete.
Above: the Stargate: Universe party gets under way.
Hopes for tomorrow include news on District 9 and The Prisoner, but mostly our fingers are crossed a giant ship on the bay won't wake everybody up in the early hours with its fog horn like on Thursday. Be seeing you.
