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By Gregory Ellwood
Special to MSN Movies
July 27, 2007
Also: See a gallery of stars at the Con
It's amazing how many cool things can occur in just the first 24 hours of San Diego's Comic-Con convention. Every year, Hollywood brings out their big guns, and despite studio's repeated denials beforehand, numerous surprises. This year's first day was dominated by "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones" and "Star Trek," but here's a rundown of all the major highlights:
"Indiana Jones IV" Beams In
It wasn't really a surprise that Steven Spielberg appeared via satellite from the set of the fourth "Indiana Jones" flick to chat to the 6,500 fans in the convention center's Hall H (I'd heard rumors for weeks), but it was his introduction of Indy himself, Harrison Ford, wearing the hero's trademark fedora, that really got the crowd going. Harrison joked, "It's great to be back in the sweaty, dirty, clothes that Indy always wears." Spielberg ended the short visit by introducing a stunning looking Karen Allen (who hasn't appeared in the series since "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and also remarked, "For the past ten or 12 or 13 years, I made a lot of movies I needed to make for myself. But this picture, I promise you, I am making for you -- all the fans of the series."
"Beowulf" Has a Rocky Debut
Hollywood's portion of the convention kicked off Wednesday night with the first public screening of footage from Robert Zemeckis and Neil Gaiman's "Beowulf." Shot in the motion-capture style Zemeckis used in "The Polar Express," the movie stars Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Brendan Gleeson (looking much younger and svelte thanks to CG animation), John Malkovich and Robin Wright Penn. Previewed in 3-D, it's pretty obvious the 20-minute portion we were shown was chosen because of the naked (granted, CG-naked) scene involving Jolie, who plays the demon Grendel's mother. It was certainly intriguing, but most journalists reacted ambivalently about the screening when chatting about it at the after party. The biggest concern about the footage was the dreaded "Final Fantasy" comparisons. While it's certainly more richly detailed than 2001's convoluted sci-fi bomb, "Beowulf" doesn't have a distinctive look (say like "Monster House") that would make it memorable. It also didn't help that the new trailer received tepid applause from attendees the next day. Yikes.
"Star Trek" Gets a New Spock
If you haven't heard already, one of the event's biggest announcements was that Leonard Nimoy will be donning his Vulcan ears one more time to play Spock in the new "Star Trek" movie. Director J.J. Abrams first teased the crowd by introducing the other, new Spock (and the industry's worst-kept secret), Zachary Quinto from the hit TV series "Heroes." Nimoy's introduction received a partial standing ovation from the crowd and Nimoy noted, "People have been asking me why I'm doing this movie. I think the answer is pretty simple: We have a great director, a great actor [playing my younger self].
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