Expert geeks and contributing cynics Luke Y. Thompson & Gary Hodges are covering Comic-Con for Deadline. The following is a list of panels that they consider to be of most likely interest to Deadline readers. As there are not enough hours in the day, a panel’s inclusion on this list does not necessarily mean they will report on it in more detail later. This covers official convention events only; numerous other things, like the Cowboys and Aliens premiere, will be happening but are not necessarily open to all badgeholders. Opinions and commentary are those of Luke or Gary alone, and do not necessarily represent those of anyone else at Deadline. (Remember, Nikki doesn’t do geek…) All panels are subject to change, especially if somebody gets stabbed in the eye again this year:
SUNDAY JULY 24
Sunday is traditionally a slow day at the Con, with very little movie stuff. But this year, TV is taking advantage and taking over Hall H on the day the cinematic studios neglect it…
10:00-11:00 – Archaia Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company: The Early Works of Jim Henson Screening with Special Tale of Sand Discussion. Due to Disney owning the Muppets, we’re not getting any of their new movie until the D-23 convention. That doesn’t mean no Henson goodness. Rarely seen archival footage of fandom’s original Master of Puppets will be shown, along with an advance look at the graphic novel Tale of Sand, based on an unproduced Henson screenplay. Yes, a new Jim Henson movie, sort of. If the comic sells well, it should be, anyway. We hope. Right? (LYT) Room 4
10:00-11:00 – Young Justice Screening and Q&A. Cartoon Network will show a little something from their animated series about teenaged DC superheroes, and remind everyone that season 1 is available on DVD now. (GH) Room 7AB
10:00-5:00 – San Diego International Children’s Film Festival. The 8th annual San Diego International Children’s Film Festival features more than 60 short films from around the world. And we get to see them in a convention meeting room? Not the greatest film-fest venue, but one must assume a lot of places were booked. (LYT) Room 9
10:00-11:00 – Glee. Yes, the cast and crew of Glee will be there talking up the 3D concert film they have coming out in a few weeks. First Twilight invades Comic-Con, now Glee? If there aren’t protesters wearing Yoda ears and flashing the Vulcan “live long and prosper” gesture, I’ll be very disappointed. (GH) Hall H
10:15-11:15 – Disney Channel: Fish Hooks. Disney’s series about fish living in a fish tank, dealing with normal teenage issues. Glee isn’t sounding so bad right now. (GH) Room 6A
11:00-12:00 – Allen Gregory. Yes, another animated series, but this one at least sounds a little promising: precocious 7-year-old Allen Gregory (voiced by Jonah Hill) being raised by his father and father’s life partner. If you listen real close, you can hear the angry social conservative polemics already. (GH) Room 25ABC
11:15-12:15 – Supernatural Screening and Q&A. Supernatural graduates to Hall H – a heroic accomplishment for a show that’s never had huge ratings but nevertheless has been able to put together a very loyal fanbase (Comic-Con’s favorite kind of story, even more so than the ones about vampires or superheroes). Stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles – and a few unnamed others – will be on hand doing the normal talk-about-the-show/promote-the-DVD-thing, but also showing a little of the Supernatural animated series that’s in the works. (GH) Hall H
11:45-12:45 – One-on-One with Castle Star Nathan Fillion. Geek royalty for his part in the Firefly series, the crowd will turn out for this even though Comic-Con isn’t really the place you’d expect to find a lot of Castle fans. (GH) Room 6BCF
12:00-1:00 – Star Wars Crafts. Learn how to make a Yoda puppet out of felt! Do it! Ehhh, or don’t do it. But there is no try. (LYT) Room 30CDE
12:30-1:30 – BBC America’s Doctor Who. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, along with writers and producers, make their first Comic-Con appearance for a panel and Q&A, with the move you’ve come to expect if you’ve read the whole schedule so far (talk about the next season, sell the old season on DVD). Nevertheless, Doctor Who is always enthusiastically received at the convention and the fact it’s appearing in spacious Hall H should be no surprise. (GH) Hall H
1:00-2:00 – Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Screening and Q&A. It was Old Man Johnson. He only dressed like a ghost to scare that van full of stoners and their dog away from his house. And who could really blame him? (GH) Room 6A
1:00-2:00 – International Hit Merlin Returns to Comic-Con with its Popular Cast. Anthony Head appears with three of his fellow castmates: Colin Morgan (Merlin), Bradley James (Arthur), and Katie McGrath (Morgana) to – you guessed it – talk about the upcoming season. But I think the sameyness of it will be masked by being able to watch Miss McGrath sip ice water from a glass and fiddle with her microphone. (GH) Room 6BCF
1:00-2:00 – Nickelodeon: The Fairly OddParents: the 10th Anniversary and T.U.F.F. Puppy Year Two. Yet another panel aimed at the kiddies, where cast members of the shows and story editor Ray DeLaurentis will appear to answer questions and perform a live script reading, with a little audience participation. (GH) Room 7AB
1:45-2:45 – The Cleveland Show. Back in massive Hall H, a look at The Cleveland Show‘s parody of Die Hard, chased by a discussion with panelists Mike Henry, Sanaa Lathan, Kevin Michael Richardson, Reagan Gomez, Rich Appel, and Kara Vallow. (GH) Hall H
2:00-3:00 – Max Brooks: Zombie Survival 101. Mel Brooks’ son max, author of World War z (soon to be a major motion picture) is being billed here as “the world’s leading authority on the defense against a ghoulish uprising!” I’m sorry, is George Romero dead yet? And even if he were, could you be sure his zombiefied noggin didn’t still contain the definitive knowhow? Patience, young Max: you may yet grow into the role. Just not while the guy who defined the genre is still kicking and biting. (LYT) Room 7AB
2:00-3:00 – Drawing The Simpsons. Phil Ortiz, Emmy Award-winning artist of The Simpsons comic books, shows kids how to draw Simpsons characters. The ironic thing? I don’t think anyone has actually hand-drawn a Simpsons character for the show in a decade. (GH) Room 30CDE
2:00-4:00 – Browncoats. Fans of Joss Whedon’s TV show Firefly and its spin-off movie Serenity, in which characters used way more words to say what they meant than will ever be considered necessary in the future. We’d like to see them fight the Twi-hards. (LYT) Room 32AB
2:15-3:15 – The Looney Tunes Show Screening and Q&A. Get your fill of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck here. And then after that there’s a Q&A, so you can ask all those pressing questions you have about Bugs’ motivation. (GH) Room 6A
2:15-3:15 – Cartoon Network Action: Ben 10/Generator Rex. A little bit about the crossover of the two animated series, and a preview of the new Ben 10 CGI movie. (GH) Room 6BCF
2:45-3:30 – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The beloved cast (Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito) all appear to answer questions. Season 7 is set to start right around the time Season 6 shows up on DVD – just a couple months from now – so expect lots of conversation about that, and maybe a few people asking Charlie Day what it was like to be sexually harassed by Jennifer Aniston in Horrible Bosses. I’m thinking it’s definitely not Charlie Work. (GH) Hall H
3:00-4:30 – Starship Smackdown XIIX: 10th Anniversary: Ultimate Platinum Collector’s Edition. Often overlong, but always worth a visit, the hilarious ubergeek debate over what starship would win and why is a giddy chaser to the heavy stimulation of the prior three days. Laughing at this panel is like watching rednecks crack up at Jeff Foxworthy – a combination of mockery and knowing. Room 7AB
3:30-4:30 – Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz Premiere Screening. Okay, WHATEVER the deal is with that Oz prequel starring Martin Short and Patrick Stewart, it’s guaranteed to be way better than this. Tom may be feline, but he’s no cowardly lion. And Oz doesn’t need to be enhanced with a bunch of mousetraps, anvils, hammers, and whatever else. Itchy and Scratchy Meet Robocop…now there’s an idea. (LYT) Room 6A
3:30-4:00 Sons of Anarchy. Creator Kurt Sutter and stars Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, and Ron Perlman will try to calm down fans champing at the bit for the fourth season of the hit drama with an “inside look” at the series. No, I don’t know what that means either. (GH) Hall H
3:45-4:45 – The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child, Animated by a Child. Fascinating. An 11 year-old animator named Perry Chen and Oscar nominee Bill Plympton collaborate on a short cartoon about 8 year-old Ingrid Pitt’s escape from the Nazis to become a movie star in England. Also screening will be a trailer for the new documentary on Plympton (who rules), Adventures in Plymptoons! For some reason, Troma‘s Lloyd Kaufman, ever-sensitive to hot-button material (he often claims he was one of the first filmmakers to mention AIDS, but let’s just say it was not in the most socially aware context), will be moderating. (LYT) Room 5AB
4:00-5:00 – The Superhero Battlefield. Psychologists, and Wolverine creator Len Wein, discuss what drives superheroes to do what they do. Methinks it’s the whole “having powers” bit. (LYT) Room 4
4:00-5:00 – Costuming for Conventions. Okay, so there IS a class for this sort of stuff. Good to know. (LYT) Room 24ABC
4:00-5:00 – Full-Time Creative Work on a Part-Time Schedule. How do you break into the business and stay alive? Maybe we’ll get some answers. Or everyone at the panel will tell us all it’s blind luck, then laugh and point. That would be mean, but funny. (LYT) Room 32AB
4:00-5:00 – Buffy the Musical. Fandom Charities Inc. and Whedonopolis.com present a screening of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode “Once More With Feeling” as Comic-Con 2011’s big Hall H closing event. Sarah Michelle Gellar will be at the convention to promote her new series, Ringer, so in theory she could show… but I wouldn’t count on it. Because it’s huge, they’re encouraging audience participation, and frankly adding Buffy herself to the mix might just start a giant geek riot. (GH) Hall H
One last disclaimer: This preview is hardly all-encompassing: studio parties, secret screenings, and offsite events are always an unofficial part of the show. Many of these are just rumors for now; others, like a press event for Shark Night 3-D, aren’t open to the public as far as we know. Keep your eyes open and spider-senses keen, and your experience may ultimately be more than meets the eye.
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