If you have any hope of seeing them at all, you'd better get in line right about now.
Filmmaker Peter Jackson has done many things in his life. He has built himself an incredibly successful career as a director, he accomplished the impossible and made live-action Lord of the Rings films cool, he even tamed King Kong. However, there's one thing the fan favorite director has never done. He's never come face-to-face with his fans at the annual Mecca of geekdom . . . San Diego's Comic Con International.
That's about to change though. According to the NY Times, Jackson has announced his intentions to take part in this year's convention. He'll be appearing with fellow Director Neill Blomkamp to promote the latter director's new sci-fi film District 9.
“I’m thrilled that I finally have the opportunity,” Mr. Jackson said in an e-mail message. “Neill is a tremendously talented young director, and he’s made an extraordinary film, so it was important to me to come to San Diego to spread the word.” He added that attendees will be in for “quite a ride,” but did not elaborate.
“District 9,” starring a cast of unknowns, is about an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slumlike conditions on Earth. The aliens find help in a government agent sympathetic to their plight.
“We are overjoyed that the stars have aligned for this,” said David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations. Mr. Jackson “has a huge fan base here and is notorious for listening to his fans,” he said, “which should make for a really interesting panel.”
Interesting is an understatement. The fact that Jackson couldn't make it to Comic Con during the height of the Lord of the Rings films' popularity was a suprise and a disappointment to fans who wanted to personally thank Jackson for doing the novels justice and for making such entertaining films. That he's only just now making his presence known at the biggest entertainment convention in the United States means that Hall H is going to be a full on madhouse the day he arrives. I don't even want to think about how long that line is going to be.
If there could possibly be one line longer than Jackson's though, it would be if filmmaker James Cameron were to show up to promote his own upcoming sci-fi film Avatar. And just such a thing might happen too.
Comic-Con is still finalizing its schedule, and it is entirely possible that Mr. Jackson could be upstaged by another science-fiction heavyweight: James Cameron (“Aliens,” “Titanic”). A 20th Century Fox executive said the studio was weighing whether to screen footage from Mr. Cameron’s coming behemoth, “Avatar,” his first narrative film since “Titanic” became the all-time box office champion 12 years ago.
Fox Pictures would be absolutely retarded not to have James Cameron show up at Comic Con to promote Avatar. If there is one event in the world that is absolutely positively 100% guaranteed to get your upcoming movie some major buzz, it's Comic Con. Sure, some people would say that event would be a commercial during the Super Bowl, but those people are idiots. Super Bowl commercials are forgotten about a week after the game. Comic Con moments though are remembered for months and years afterwards. Even to people who can't make it to the Con will either see or hear something about the film from one of the millions of news and media organizations that covers every seconds of the event LIVE nowadays. To have a headlining panel at Comic Con these days basically guarantees you tons of free press. For Fox not to have Cameron show up would be one of the most bone headed things the company could possibly do.
Well . . . other than make X-Men Origins: Wolverine as crappy as it was, of course. That was pretty boneheaded too.
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