Comic-Con 2011

From July 21 to July 24, Comic-Con, the premiere comic, sic-fi, horror, and just plain fun conference took over the San Diego Convention Center to celebrate some of the most important artists, directors, actors and writers in the genre field.  Celebrity guests included the cast of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

Huge crowds line up for the 2012 Comic-Con in San Diego

Kristen Stewart from The Twilight Saga arrives at Comic-Con 2011

Twilight's leads: Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Patterson

Robert Patterson listens to a fan's question 

Robert Patterson discusses 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and his role as Edward the vampire

Taylor Lautner gives Team Jacob's side of the story

Ashley Greene, looking lovely

Nikki Reed, wearing a Dolce Gabbana floral dress, talks

of The Twilight Saga 

Julia Jones, Twilight's Leah Clearwater

Elizabeth Reaser, Twilight's Esme Cullen

Directors Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott (by remote), Stephen Soderbergh, Guillermo Del Toro, and Stephen Spielberg participated on panels. Actors Val Kilmer, Jessica Biel, Andrew Garfield, Paul Ruben, and Emma Stone among many others came to the conference.  

Guillermo Del Toro, director of the upcoming Pacific Rim

Guy Pierce, star of the new film Prometheus and

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Charlize Theron talks about Prometheus

Charlize Theron video chats with Prometheus director, Ridley Scott 

who was currently working in Iceland

The always enchanting, Carey Mulligan, whose new film Drive

was showcased at Comic-Con

Ron Perlman of Drive

Versatile actor Andy Serkis of The Adventures of Tin Tin,

The Hobbit, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried of Sci-Fi flick In Time

Jusrin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried talk about how 

how Olivia Wilde, who is younger than Justin, played his 

mother

Paul Reubens alias Pee-Wee Herman

Fans, geeks, nerds, film and comic buffs packed the panel discussions to learn of the upcoming releases of The Amazing Spider-Man, Total Recall, and Ghost Rider 2 from Sony/Columbia. Disney was hyping Tron 3, and the animated Tron: Uprising. Stephen Spielberg was there to promote his new The Adventures of Tin-Tin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Stephen Spielberg pitches his new film, The Adventures of Tin-Tin

Directors Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson kvetch about the 

high cost of 3-D movie tickets

Spielberg's Tin Tin will be in 3-D

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit will also be in 3-D

Haywire star and ex-American Gladiator Gina Carano

Haywire director, Stephen Soderbergh

John Cusak plays Edgar Allan Poe opposite Alice Eve in 2012's 

The Raven

In The Raven, John Cusak, as Poe, hunts down a serial killer.

Pure fiction, of course, but it should be fun

Len Wiseman, director of 2012 Total Recall

Kate Beckinsale of Total Recall also stars in the coming

Underworld 4

Total Recall's Jessica Biel

Actor John Cho of Total Recall

Irish actor Colin Farrell stars in Total Recall

Bryan Cranston also stars in Total Recall

Spider-Man makes a speech from the audience

Andrew Garfield is the new Spidey

Emma Stone is Spider-Man's love interest

Marc Webb takes over from Sam Rami as director 

for the redo of Spider-Man

Ryf Ifans plays villain The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man

Nicolas Cage of Ghost Rider 2

Joe Cornish, Director/Writer of Attack the Block

Edgar Wright, star of Attack the Block is best known for 

Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz

Hugh Jackman didn't show up at the Convention Center, but instead promoted his new film, Real Steel in a parking lot outside Petco Park.  Danny Devito talked about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, while taking some photos of cute girls in the audience with his iPhone.  There's a new version of Fright Night coming from Dreamworks with Colin Farrel and David Tennant.  The BBC celebrated the new British Invasion with the  Dr. Who series coming to America.  

Fright Night star, Anton Yelchin

Fright Night's Colin Farrell

Marti Noxon, Fright Night screenwriter

The most interesting of the presentations may have been by Francis Ford Coppola and Val Kilmer for their new film, Twixt.  The horror film is shot in 3-D, but only for a few scenes.  Instead of wearing 3-D glasses, the audience is asked to put on an Edgar Allan Poe mask with 3-D lenses covering the eye holes.  There is yet another twist to Twixt.  Coppola is going to travel with the film and interactively edit the movie on the fly to suit the audience. Unfortunately, the presentation didn't go all that smoothly. Watching  Coppola using his iPad to control the editing, was like spying on your grandfather trying to get the hang of that new fangled internet contraption.  Coppola finally got the technology down with the help of Kilmer, and the images were amazing.

Legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola presented

his new movie "experience," Twixt

Coppola putting on a mask of Edgar Allan Poe that contains

the 3-D filters for eye holes.

The director controls the order of sequences through the 

use of an iPad interface

When things went south, actor Val Kilmer gave the 

director some direction

Many of the major and independent studios showed their most recent products. But there were a few noticable absentees. Still, the convention was a huge success, celebrating both movies, TV, and comic art.

Graphic Novel author Frank Miller

Many in the crowd dressed as their favorite movie, TV, or comic hero or heroine.  The costumes, as usual, were elaborate, outrageous, and sexy.

We at My Teen Topix can hardly wait unit the 2012 Comic-Con.

All Comic-Con photos © 2011 Gary Teetzel, seen here with

actress Mercedes McNab of Glass Heels