San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Diary: Day One

Apologies for not writing or tweeting yesterday during the first official day of San Diego Comic-Con. I was stuck in the cavernous expanse of the behemoth Hall H all day yesterday (yes, from waiting in line at 8 am until I left Hall H at 7 pm last night) and had limited internet connectivity and no access to Twitter. (Thank you, AT&T, for making the first day of SDCC so bloody unbearable.)

But while internet issues were a headache, the day was actually quite a lot of fun. I spent the day covering the various film panels that were going on for The Daily Beast's Cheat Sheet, firing off small news items about such films as Megamind, Tron: Legacy, Salt, The Expendables, RED, Scott Pilgrim, and the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel for J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon.

While there wasn't much in the way of news emanating from the latter (other than Joss "officially" confirming that he is directing The Avengers), it was a blast to see these two genius creators in conversation together as they discussed everything from 3D filmmaking, the differences between creating for film and television, their passions and their inspirations.

And the end of the day brought with it the chance to see Edgar Wright's new film Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World with the cast, the press, and some very lucky fans who grabbed 1-UP buttons during the Scott Pilgrim panel. As for the film itself? I absolutely adored it in all of its hyper-surreal fantasy trappings. It opens nationwide on August 13th and if you're fans of Bryan Lee O'Malley, Michael Cera, Wright, or Spaced, I urge you to see it that very day.

Today's schedule is a little looser though still without a break: a bunch of one-on-one interviews this morning including Edgar Wright, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Matt Reeves, and Richard Jenkins, along with the panel for HBO's True Blood, and--hopefully--more Joss Whedon.

Let's just hope my internet connection is better today...

Comments

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj

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