SDCC 2009: Nerd Prom Guest Line-Up
Yesterday, Lawrence discussed the people he’s most excited about meeting and interviewing here at Comic-Con 2009, so I thought I’d so the same. The thing that’s especially interesting to me this year is the number of high-profile genre filmmakers in attendance. For the first time, we’ve got none other than Tim Burton here. And he’s joined by James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, John Lasseter, Hayao Miyazaki, Terry Gilliam. Then we’ve got some faces that are more familiar, but no less welcome, at Comic-Con. Folks like Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon and our friends Darren Lynn Bousman and Mike Dougherty.
I’m especially psyched that Dougherty will have a chance to show his film Trick ‘r Treat to a large audience here at the Con, and I can’t wait to see the reaction it gets from several thousand horror nerds. Of course, I still can’t quite believe that I also get paid to chat with my boyhood heroes, guys like Burton and Gilliam, who’ll be unspooling footage from their Alice in Wonderland and Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, respectively. Then there are the non-filmmaker – but no less welcome – genre vets, guys like Stan Lee and Mark Hamill. Hamill will talk with us about the upcoming videogames for which he’ll be providing voices, including the very-cool-sounding Arkham Asylum, in which he’ll again provide the voice of the Joker, and be joined by Kevin Conroy, once again voicing Batman (the two created what remains, for my money, the definitive portraits of these characters years ago, in Batman: The Animated Series).
One of the true joys of Comic-Con is seeing how many of the filmmakers whose work we enjoy are just as big fans as we are. Tonight, walking around the exhibition hall on Preview Night, I stumbled upon Frank Darabont, just hanging out, doing a little shopping, taking in the sights. Then I saw Weta mastermind Richard Taylor meeting and greeting fans as Weta’s booth, flashing that fabulous grin he sports every year here at the Con. I’ll probably try to manage a similar grin when I run into Meghan Fox at tomorrow night’s Jennifer’s Body press conference. But that’s a completely different story…
But hey, enough of my yakkin’ – tell me who you’d most want to meet here at Nerd Prom!
