But first I went to see if Noel Neill was still there. She was. There were about six or so people standing around her, but nobody was buying anything. She had about six or eight photos in front of her, really large ones, larger than 8x10. I brought my notebook with me today so that I could carry something back, but these photos were too large. All of them were wonderful -- photos of her backstage as Lois Lane, photos with George Reeves. Even one hugging Christopher Reeve.
But I saw the guy in front of me buying her book. I didn't know she had one. A book I could get home without too much damage to it. So, without looking inside of it, I asked her to sign one to me. I also told her how I had watched her growing up, and said "thank you" over and over. This time I got a good photo as she was about to write the inscription in the book. She smiled at me and thanked me. She's 87, and her last role was two years ago. Wow.I left the dealer's room to go to Hall A, but you can't get there from here. They had us rerouted -- through the dealer's room, if you can imagine -- because the stupid cafe's chairs and tables obstructed the huge crowds going in that direction. I got the two little giveaways -- one for Get Smart and the other for 10,000 BC -- and then took a seat on the far side. My home for the next five hours.
The first panels were 10,000 BC and Get Smart from Warner Bros.
10,000 BC is Roland Emmerich's (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, The Patriot) latest project, and he came out to tell us all about it, he and his two stars, people I have never seen before. He showed us an extended trailer. I have to say, the visual effects are magnificent, and I'm sure there's a little story there, but I doubt if there's really a there there. I doubt if I'll see it. The only thing that Roland said of any import was that he didn't wake up one day deciding to become a director. He went to film school interested in art, and eventually started directing in order to see his vision through. 
Get Smart was one-half hour of a lot of fun. Anne Hathaway kept trying to match Steve Carell's non-sequiturs, and she just couldn't keep up. She did say that Steve and director Peter Segal tried to get her to do some improv, and she did a little bit. Steve, of course, is a master, as he's also a writer. The extended trailer they showed us was terrific. The only thing that bothers me is that Anne Hathaway is no Barbara Feldon, and apparently Agent 99 is not written the same way. Barbara's agent was demure, self-effacing, kind when Max would screw up. No so this time. We did find out that Steve's Maxwell Smart says a lot of the same catchphrases as in the original, which is good.Disney presented The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which is a long way from being completed, and WALL*E, the new Pixar movie. Hearing from the visual effects supervisor for Narnia, and then director Andrew Stanton for WALL*E, well, both were real treats. And the footage they showed up was exceptional. The Narnia footage was really, really rough, and that's always fun. And Stanton showed us three small clips from WALL*E which explained the love story.
Then we got treated to a real bore of a 20th Century Fox release: Shutter, which is about spirit photography. The director, Joshua Jackson, told us that one-third of Americans believe in ghosts, and a show of hands in the crowd seemed to bear that out (although this is a biased group, for sure). And the audience recognized stars Rachael Taylor (from last year's hit, Transformers) and James Kyson Lee (from the T.V. hit, Heroes).
At a break between sessions, Jennifer came by to see me and chat a bit. She was very much looking forward to seeing the X-Files people. I met her and her partner Amy at a Battlestar Galactica convention about a year ago, and they were kind enough to invite me to the Razor premiere at their house in Oakland. And a little while later Amy came by to talk about Highlander, etc. Very nice people. I hope we can get together at the Grand Slam in April in Burbank, maybe for dinner or something.
The second X-Files film is finally being made -- principal photography is still ongoing -- and I was surprised at all the hoopla in the audience when Chris Carter came out, along with Frank Spotnitz. But the crowd really hit the roof when Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny came on out as well. They weren't advertised online in the programming notes, but I see (hours later) that they're mentioned in the WonderCon program. It was a joy to see them again. They were a part of my life, of a lot of our lives, for many years. As Chris Carter said, the T.V. show was all about that poster that Mulder had in his office, the one of the flying saucer: I Want to Believe. It was his search for God. I get that, but I think it was also the relationship between the scientist and the believer, between two people who couldn't be more different. When it was clicking, there was nothing better. 
The clip from the new X-Files movie was a bit confusing - ha! That's no surprise. But it was visually arresting. Both stars said they came onto the set the first day, thinking they knew how to do this, be their characters, and both were stumped, looking for it. It looked to me that the two get along much better than ever before. They've matured. They're servicing the material. I had a chance to see Gillian at a Creation convention many years ago, and always kicked myself for missing it. She said she wanted to see what it was like. She never came back, so I guess that tells you something. So it was a great thrill to see them both on stage, and see them let their hair down. Gillian gave as good as David gave, which at one time may not have been true. And Chris said, as his stars concurred, that seeing the enthusiasm for their project confirms that people haven't forgotten.
Half the crowd left right before writers and directors of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay came out, accompanied by one of their stars, John Cho. The extended clip that I saw didn't look all that funny to me, but -- wait -- come to think of it, I spent most of that time in the line for the bathroom. Still, they reported that Neil Patrick Harris has a lot of time in the new movie, and that can't be bad.
And then, Iron Man. Oh, yeah. We're waiting for this one. The film's director, Jon Favreau, showed us a GREAT clip on how Robert Downey Jr. tests the rocket boots. Really nice sequence, showing Downey's command of the character and his sardonic sense of humor. I just can't get used to the mustache.
Oh, I forgot to add that, contrary to schedule, Steve Sansweet from Lucasfilm squeezed in at some point and showed us a clip of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated T.V. show that's coming soon. He had an hour later, but I guess he wanted to tell us to stick around. I didn't. Still, from what he showed us, the animation and character development looked really good. AND some of our favorite characters come back, like General Grievous. And that Emperor guy. I may have to watch.
So, at 5 pm, I scooted out and ran over to a small room where the new Starship Troopers: Marauder was going to debut. Oh, not the movie, but a clip, and, important to me, Casper van Dien was going to be there! Starship Troopers was one of my favorite movies, a movie where women, whether they were grunts or pilots, were treated the same in the military. Casper was there at the end of some comic book talk and was posing for photos and signing autographs. And, as it turns out, Jolene Blalock is his costar in the movie! 
Jolene, of course, is from Star Trek: Enterprise, and a few people asked her questions about that series. The trailers they showed us, I have to be honest here, looked rather cheesy. There's one scene where one of their men jumps on a bug that's about to explode. And there are several seconds when everybody looks at him and he looks at everybody, and then he dies and they're sad. Geez. Still, I'll probably see it. I understand Paul Verhoeven was involved, but not directly.
And then I stayed another half hour for Gabriel, which is supposed to be an Australian movie. It's about angels and archangels and battles with evil, etc. They showed a lengthy clip, and it's all dialogue and pretty one-dimensional acting. They told us they made it for $175,000 (U.S. money), and yeah, it looks like it.
So that was my day. I packed up, put my coat back on, had the umbrella at the ready, and plunged into the San Francisco night. Only to find...no rain. It wasn't even that cold. I could hear the Chinese New Year parade in the distance, and actually, when I got to Market, I could see a little of it. All the band performers were in transparent rain slickers, ready for the boom that was supposed to come a little later. Since I had posters in my little giveaway poster sack -- I think I'll keep that one! -- I was anxious to get on BART, out of the elements.
I doubt if I'll go back tomorrow even though there's a promotion for Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. I hate to miss it. But I'll see the kid who's in that at the Grand Slam.
After all, I have to prepare for the Oscars on Sunday night.
A good WonderCon! Soooo much smaller than Comic Con, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. That last interaction with Casper Van Dien and Jolene Blalock -- that's one of the best things about WonderCon....it's small. People posed for photos afterwards with them, and got autographs, and you can do that there. Maybe not in Hall A, but certainly for these smaller films in smaller rooms. And that's really nice.
