SDCC '11: The Avengers Will Not Assemble in Hall H This Year

Marvel Studios officially announced today that they will not hold a panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this year to promote The Avengers, reports Geoff Boucher of the LA Times Hero Complex Blog. The studio wowed all in attendance at last year's panel (including yours truly) by assembling the entire cast and director Joss Whedon on stage and together for the first time (pictured above*), but this year the studio "wasn’t prepared to compete with its own past and wild fan expectations."

Despite the lack of Hall H programming, Marvel Studios promises a strong presence throughout the rest of the convention including a booth on the exhibit hall floor as the studio opens Captain America: The First Avenger the Friday of the convention (July 22, 2011). Boucher theorizes that the studio may, however, have a presence at parent company Disney's D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 19-21 and that this may be the reason they bowed out of Hall H.

Marvel fans feeling the lack of Marvel movie presence at SDCC can still look forward to Sony's presentation of their 2012 offering The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

*(Pictured Left to Right: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man/Tony Stark), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America/Steve Rogers), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye/Clint Barton), Mark Ruffalo/Hulk), director Joss Whedon, and President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige)

Max Beckman is a manager at Pulp Fiction in Long Beach, CA and CheapGraphicNovels.com. You can follow him on Twitter @CheapGNsdotcom and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pulpfictioncomics. Pulp Fiction can be found on the web at www.pulpfictiononline.com and at 1742 Clark Ave. Long Beach, CA 90815.

Warner Bros. Among Film Companies Not Bringing their Goods to Comic-Con This Year

Well, it looks like not everybody is coming to the party.

Movieweb is reporting that Warner Bros., Disney, The Weinstein Company and Dreamworks will not be presenting any panels of their films at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Showing off big genre pictures has become a staple for Saturday’s programming. Remember all the buzz surrounding last year’s Thor, Captain America and Green Lantern panels? Saturday was capped off by the official announcement of Joss Whedon as the director of 2012’s Avengers where he was joined by the film’s enormous cast.

Upon reflection, the absence of Warner Bros. is not totally surprising. Sure, in 2012 the movie company will be releasing adaptations of arguably the most familiar comic book properties on the planet: The Dark Knight Rises and The Man of Steel. But does Warner really need a year’s lead time to garner buzz for their films? Probably not.

Warner Bros. can easily push back promotion of these two comic book movies to the 2012 Comic Con, when anticipation for both films will be at a fever pitch. This leaves ample room for The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man presentations.

The San Diego Comic Con runs from July 20^th through the 24^th.

Ticket Leap CEO Offers Mea Culpa

Saturday things got pretty heated when would-be San Diego Comic-Con fans were met with an glut of technical issues while trying to buy passes for the convention.

“Ticket Leap sucks!”, “Down with Ticket Leap”, and “(Expletive) Ticket Leap… (expletive) Tick-(expletive)-et (expletive) Leap!” were the kinds of vitriolic spewings coming out of the mouths of hopeful ticket buyers after being met with the “We are currently over capacity” message on the Ticket Leap site.

Okay, those were the things I was shouting. But I’m certain I wasn’t alone.

[Update] Comic-Con 2011 Registration is Off to a Rousing Start!

If you're like me, you have gotten this screen about a thousand times. Or the one where the site is down. I've actually gotten through to select my tickets twice, only to be returned back to the screen above after clicking the "Proceed to Checkout" button. Loveliness.

Why do I want to go so badly?

Update #1
(11:54 a.m. PST) I currently have the same amount of tickets for Comic-Con as I did when I woke up this morning.

Update #2
(1:55 p.m. PST) Tickets have been purchased for all days, except Saturday. Ah well, happy to be attending.

San Diego Comic-Con Tickets Go on Sale Feb. 5th

And you thought it would never happen.

San Diego Comic-Con ticket sales have finally been announced. On February 5th ticket registration begins after two failed attempts to conduct online sales late last year crashed the servers. In December, a test was conducted to determine if the problem could be identified and it looks like it finally has. Within seconds 1,000 tickets were sold to thankful fans who were eager to finally cement their plans for the weekend of July 21.

Comic-Con 2011 attendee registration will open at 9am PT on Saturday, February 5.

What Will Go Down in Hall H in 2011?

Twice in the last month prospective ticket holders to the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con have been left out in the cold after being thwarted by server issues after online registration forced sales to a halt.

The biggest draw for me is going to be anything that occurs in Hall H, which features presentations from the film and television studios which are designed to get the hype in gear for movies and programming that might be a year or so away. Typically news starts surfacing immediately about clips from movies that won’t see the light of day for another year. Genre television pilots are often featured months before airing in primetime, again with the hope of channeling early online buzz.

Last summer’s Hall H panels included, as always, big name stars, directors and writers from movies that would not be hitting theaters until 2011 (Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Green Lantern, and Cowboys & Indians to name a few). The Thor and Captain America panel ended with a well publicized gathering of the Avengers cast (above, a whopping two years before the movie is scheduled to hit theaters).

While nothing has been announced yet in terms of what Hall H panels are scheduled for 2011, looking at the slate of films set for release in 2012 should spark some anticipation:

The Wolverine: Darren Aronofsky’s directs the follow-up to 2009’s first solo Wolverine feature. With a script by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), this film is almost certain to be a greater critical success than it’s predecessor (TBA 2012).

Frankenweenie: Based on Tim Burton’s original short subject about a dog that is brought back to life by its owner, the director returns with a full-length stop animation feature (his third such film as producer). The film will be voiced by Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, Martin Short and Catherine O‘Hara (March 9, 2012).

The Avengers: Undisputedly the most ambitious comic book movie project ever. Writer/director Joss Whedon is taking Marvel’s recent film franchises and putting them all together in this hotly anticipated feature. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Black Widow will all be on hand to face off against what will have to be a pretty major threat (May 4, 2012).

Men in Black III: Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back with series director Barry Sonnenfield and writer Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder). This film will receive the 3-D treatment (as it seems perfectly suited) and will also feature Josh Brolin, Gemma Arterton, Emma Thompson, Alec Baldwin, Sharlto Copley, and Rip Torn (May 25, 2012).

John Carter of Mars: Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs serialized stories from the early 1900’s, Andrew Stanton (WALL-E and Finding Nemo) directs his first live-action film with a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) . The film stars Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) as John Carter , a Civil War veteran who travels to Mars where there is life and adventure to be had (concept art above). The film also stars Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Hayden Church and Samantha Morton (June 8, 2012).

Star Trek 2: Now that J.J. Abrahms has retconned the Trek universe, there are endless possibilities for this second follow-up. Screenwriters Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are returning and there is some speculation that the returning crew of the Enterprise will be facing off against the Klingons. This is purely speculation though (June 29, 2012).

The Dark Knight Rises: The final film in Christopher Nolan’s critically and financially successful trilogy is so far a mystery. We know Tom Hardy (Inception) has been cast (presumably as a villain) and a search is being conducted for two female leads (again, presumably one as a villain and the other a love interest). Hardy as Bane? Are the League of Assassins heading to Gotham led by Talia al Gul? Nothing has been revealed yet. (July 20, 2012).

Untitled Spider-Man Reboot: Director Marc Webb is rebooting a beloved franchise that ended on a critically sour note. Based on some of the casting announcements (Martin Sheen is in talks to play Uncle Ben), this is going to be another take on the origin, but I trust Webb and screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) to present their own fresh spin on the web-slinger (July 23, 2012).

The Hobbit: The on again off again production has remained so for the past few years, but it appears to finally be on again and moving ahead. Lord of the Rings helmer Peter Jackson is guiding the film again with some recognizable faces from the original trilogy and Martin Freeman (The Office) as Bilbo Baggins. The Hobbit will be filmed in two parts for release in 2012 and 2013 (December 19, 2012).

Untitled Superman Reboot: Christmas bring a fresh take on the Man of Steel. After Superman Returns failed to capture the steam required to relaunch a franchise, Warner Bros. has tapped Zack Snyder to bring his creative eye to the character. Not much is known about the story (other than some unlikely rumors that came out last week involving warring African tribes); Zack Snyder has said that much of what has been published on the web has been incorrect (TBA December 2012).

PopCultureGeek.com created the following video featuring the coolness that went down at the 2010 Hall H panels.

Tangled Web: 2011 San Diego Comic-Con Registration Bumped Again

A chronicle of my Monday morning:

6:00 a.m.: Awaken to the promise of a new day.

6:02 a.m.: Coffee’s brewing.

6:09 a.m.: Coffee poured. Enhanced with Nestle’s French Vanilla creamer.

6:10 a.m.: First attempt to register for 2011 San Diego Comic-Con.

6:11 a.m.: Three failures in sixty seconds. A lesser person would sigh and point out it’s a Monday.

6:34 a.m.: Have lost count of failed attempts. Read blog entry from Google news feed that swarms of people have faced similar server errors.

6:51 a.m.: Shower time. Feeling frustrated by choice to purchase a hotel room prior to acquiring four-day passes.

7:28 a.m.: Surprise dear mother with call from angelic son. Would she be willing to carry on my quest for tickets in my absence? My employer beckons.

7:42 a.m.: Finally able to enter my name into first registration page. Internal error. Go back. Refresh.

7:54 a.m.: Teased endlessly by registration pages that inched slowly to payment screen before finally fizzling out.

8:06 a.m.: Drive to work deflated.

9:12 a.m.: Learn that registration was canceled for a second time due to server problems (see below). Hope springs anew.

Comic-Con 2011 Tickets on Sale Tomorrow

On Monday morning (at 6 a.m. PST) registration for 2011 San Diego Comic-Con go on sale.  Registration rates are as follows:

San Diego Comic-Con Registration Scheduled for Next Week

After last week's registration snafu, San Diego Comic-Con officials promised that they would announce the new registration date today. That new date is Monday, November 22nd at 6 a.m. (PST). Click here for pricing information and ticket availability.

Website Malfunction: Comic-Con Ticket Sales Halted

The Comic-Con International website crashed today to the chagrin of fans wanting to purchase their tickets well in advance of next summer’s big event.

The disruption does not appear to be due to an overabundance of ticket buyers or hackers. Whatever the reason turns out to be, officials have promised that a new registration date would be announced on Monday, November 8th.

Comic-Con International sells out each year and this one should be no different. This year had panels on Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Green Lantern. Just imagine the excitment if there are similar panels for the 2012 releases: The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, Wolverine 2, and the next Spider-Man and Superman movies.