Women are an undeniable force in pop entertainment, both in the audience and behind the scenes, as the annual GIRLS GONE GENRE panel at Comic-Con attests. So what is the state of storytelling for women creatives working (and, frankly, kicking ass) today? Why is the genre world such fertile ground for female storytellers and strong, complex female characters? Join me as I moderate a panel of all-stars from TV and film — Marti Noxon (Buffy, Angel, Fright Night), Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood), Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood), Angela Robinson (True Blood, D.E.B.S.) and Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead, The Terminator) — today at Comic-Con. Details after the jump!
Genre entertainment has historically been a man’s world on and off-screen, but these writers, directors, producers, showrunners, and performers have established themselves by bringing compelling characters and stories to audiences hungry for good storytelling, no matter their gender. From Sarah Connor to Buffy Summers to Starbuck and beyond, our panelists have helped shape some of the strongest female screen icons and the most compelling TV and film properties of the past few decades, and I couldn’t be more honored or excited to be a part of this conversation.
If you’re at Comic-Con, join us today from 6:00pm to 7:00pm in Room 7AB in the San Diego Convention Center, and stay tuned for a recap of our discussion…
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For the past few years I’ve had the honor of joining the annual Masters of the Web panel at Comic-Con, a confab of journalists and bloggers from the online film community sharing our experiences in web journalism, troll-taming, geek-baiting, etc. This year I’ll be returning to the panel, joined by a gaggle of fine web masters and mistresses… along with a special guest moderator: Karl Urban, star of Dredd 3-D. (Hit the jump for a chance to snag tickets to a special just-announced Comic-Con Dredd 3-D screening.)
The panel has hosted a number of celebrity moderators before; inviting filmmakers like Edgar Wright and Bob Orci to turn the tables on the journalists who’d covered their films — and in some cases, panned them outright — made for interesting conversation, and wasn’t quite as awkward as you’d imagine. Urban, in town to present footage from Dredd 3-D, will get his turn to grill us at the podium this year. (Maybe he’ll wear his Dredd helmet! Can we ask him to do the whole thing in Bones-speak? Oh, the possibilities…)
Dredd 3-D, meanwhile, will be unveiled in a special sneak screening on Wednesday at Comic-Con — and Movieline has five pairs of tickets to give away. Am I bribing you with advance tickets so that you’ll come to my panel, even though you’re only beholden to the honor system since the panel happens the day after the screening? Yes. Yes, I am. Don’t make me regret it. The first five people who comment below, promise to come to the Masters of the Web panel on Thursday at Comic-Con, and lay claim to a pair of VIP tickets, will get them. (Make sure to sign in with your email address and full name.)
Screening info (more at
Stop. Collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new invention. No, really! He is. Rob Van Winkle, who you know as ‘90s rap sensation Vanilla Ice, has a major role in this summer’s new Adam Sandler comedy That’s My Boy, in which he plays himself, Vanilla Ice. The set-up: Donny Berger (Sandler) became famous in the ‘80s for having an affair with his hot teacher. Donny knew Ice from the flash in the pan/has-been circuit, and goes back to hang out with Ice when he reunites with the grown son (Andy Samberg) he fathered.
Winkle joined the stars of That’s My Boy at a press conference over the weekend, and he stole the panel right from Sandler and Samberg. He’s still dropping mad rhymes, and they’re full of wisdom from his 20 years of growing up and self-reflection on the Vanilla Ice days. We could all take a lesson from Vanilla Ice, so start with some of these.
1. No slippin’ on your pimpin’.
“You keep your hustle tight and you never get caught slippin’ on your pimpin’,” Winkle said when the panel was asked how they deal with failures in their careers. Our takeaway is that he has not been slippin’ on his pimpin’, since Winkle keeps working, even on reality shows like Surreal Life and Celebrity Bull Riding. “If you get caught slippin’ on your pimpin’ you’re up sh*t creek without a paddle.”
2. Well, just in case you need that paddle…
If you end up paddle-less in a creek, all is not lost. “Learn how to swim through the trenches and get to the other side and when you get there it’ll be paradise for you. I was in the trenches, trying to get to the other…
ActionFest, the annual all-action-movie film festival in Asheville, N.C., honored stunt coordinator Jack Gill this weekend with its Man of Action Award. Gill used the platform to discuss his ongoing campaign to add an Oscar category for stunt coordinators, explaining to a panel audience why it’s taken 21 years — and how he’s talking to the voting Academy members of a special committee, one by one — to convince them that stunt professionals are artists just like other film technicians honored on Hollywood’s biggest night.
Speaking to Movieline after the panel, Gill (whose credits include The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Con Air, Bad Boys II, Redbelt, and Fast Five) cited several of the Academy’s concerns — including the impression that technology will eventually make stunt coordinators obsolete. “I think they’re such an old-school type company,” he said, “that they’ve gotten to where they’re now afraid if they put a stunt coordinator category and then five years down the line, digital effects take over everything, what do they now do with the stunt coordinator category?” But, Gill added, even digital milestones like Avatar rely heavily on stunt coordinators. “We’ve proven over the years that it’s really not going to go away.”
During the panel, Gill also explained that he’s not asking for individual stunt men to get Oscars. The stunt coordinator is the artist who pulls off the dangerous fights, crashes and explosions and keeps everybody safe. And pretty much all the Best Picture nominees have a stunt coordinator, whether they’re action or drama films.
As such, Gill has proposed one nominee per movie to an Academy leadership that votes on new categories every year in a closed meeting. The only way to change voters’ minds, he said, is to convince every single member that…
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Well! That was fast: Comic-Con 2011 came and went with the quickness, but not such quickness that Team Movieline couldn’t keep up with all the panels, appearances, news developments and cosplayer awesomeness accompanying the annual San Diego powwow. And no worries if you happened to miss it: Find herewith a digest featuring everything you need to know from the ‘Con. (Hint: Those panel live-blogs? Must-reads.)
PANEL COVERAGE
THURSDAY, JULY 21
· Breaking Dawn
· FilmDistrict (Drive, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark)
· Fox (Prometheus, In Time, Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
· Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids 4, Sin City 2, Heavy Metal)
FRIDAY, JULY 22
· The Adventures of Tintin
· Relativity Media (Haywire, The Raven)
· Fright Night
· Sony (The Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, 30 Minutes or Less, Total Recall)
SATURDAY, JULY 23
· Twixt
· Immortals
· The Knights of Badassdom
· Snow White and the Huntsman
INTERVIEWS
· Aziz Ansari
· Bill Condon
· Stephen Dorff and Nick Swardson
· Katharine McPhee and David R. Ellis
· Sara Paxton
COSPLAYER PROFILES
· Chef Vader
· Halo Spartans
· Hit-Girl
· Mileena (from Mortal Kombat)
COMIC-CON IN PHOTOS (SLIDESHOWS)
· Day 1
· Day 2
· Day 3
And read all of Movieline’s 2011 Comic-Con coverage here. See you next year, San Diego!
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Speaking of The Lizard making a splash at Comic-Con, The Wrap reports that Amazing Spider-Man star Rhys Ifans was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery in San Diego. Ifans, who portrays Dr. Curt Conners a/k/a The Lizard, was on hand among cast and filmmakers yesterday to debut footage in Hall H; apparently, the incident occurred when Ifans “shov[ed] a female security guard” and “insulted” the U.S. prior to the panel.
More from The Wrap:
Ifans, who smelled of alcohol, became irate when a member of his entourage was unable to enter the hall for lack of proper credentialing, police said. He shoved the guard, and was allowed to participate in the panel, but the guard subsequently made a citizen’s arrest.
“He was aggressive and belligerent,” Lt. Andra Brown said of the Welsh actor. “He was… berating everyone from the security staff to the United States of America.”
Developing…
[The Wrap]
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Thousands of fanboys (and girls) travel to Comic-Con each year to breathe the same air as their pop culture heroes, even if that means spending all day with 7,000 strangers in a San Diego Convention Center auditorium. The crowding was worth it though for anyone in yesterday’s phenomenal Tintin panel — where Steven Spielberg broke news of Jurassic Park 4 and offered inspirational wisdom to his audience — especially for one lucky fan who was spontaneously welcomed onstage by the great filmmaker. Let’s relive the adorable moment.
After an hour-long panel during which Tintin footage was screened, E.T. memories were shared and Spielberg fans were graciously thanked, the Comic-Con moderator took a final question. Audience member John Mazzoni stepped up to the mic and asked whether Spielberg planned to keep working on film instead of shooting digitally. Mazzoni was pictured on the auditorium’s display screens as he asked his question. Upon seeing that he was wearing a customized t-shirt which read, “If possible I would love to meet Steven Spielberg just to shake his hand and say thank you very much,” Spielberg laughed and said, “Get up here.”
The audience cheered as Mazzoni, a Seattle resident, made his way to the stage and shared a few words with the director before Peter Jackson snapped a photo of Mazzoni’s t-shirt and then another photo of the director and the fan shaking hands. The moderator joked, “This is the most well-directed picture in history.”
On Mazzoni’s Facebook page, he has listed Spielberg as the sole “Person Who Inspires John.”
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While Danny McBride couldn’t make yesterday’s 30 Minutes or Less panel at Comic-Con because he was busy filming Eastbound & Down, the actor did send a personalized video message. And not just the standard, “Sorry I couldn’t be there” business but a hilariously profane shout-out during which he ridiculed his cast and crew, praised his own performance and shocked the families sitting inside Hall H with some Kenny Powers-style language. Take a look at the transcript below.
“Hi, I’m Danny McBride. If you are viewing this, it mean the apes have won and mankind as we know it ceases to exist. No, that is not the case. This is just another one of those half-assed ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be there videos’ from a celebrity with too much shit on their plate. Seriously, I wish I was there, hanging out with you guys in San Diego for this awesome panel for an even awesomer movie, 30 Minutes or Less, but I’ll have to leave that to the soft, overly Purell-ed hands of the gentleman you see before you [director Ruben Fleischer] and the cast of this kickass movie who, individually, are a bunch of selfish, super assholes who, even as I say this, are beyond pissed that I am getting all of your attention right now. You should know a little something about the film. It stars me and I’m pretty goddamn incredible in it. If you watch it, you will be hearing the phrase “McBride, Oscar caliber.” It’s about a regular guy who gets locked in a bomb vest and is forced to rob a bank or he and everything he loved will die. That’s how you tell a captivating story, Reuben. Face.”
Click here for more Comic-Con coverage from Movieline.
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