News is on the Associated Press wire today that the founder of the pop-culture showcase, the San Diego Comic-Con, Sheldon Dorf, has died at age 76. A spokesperson for Dorf’s family, friend Greg Koudoulian, says he died at a San Diego hospital as a result of kidney failure and problems caused by diabetes. At the official Comic-Con Website there is a message from the Board of Directors, Staff and volunteers of the Comic-Con organization as they “mourn the passing of our dear friend Shel”. Continue reading “Comic-Con founder dies”
Category: ComicCon
Say whatever you wish about James Cameron or his movies (“Terminator 2,” “Aliens,” “Titanic” “The Abyss”) but he doesn’t play things safe. He showcased some 3-D footage of the upcoming “Avatar” (December 18) at this summer’s Comic-Con and then in one of the convention’s all-time highlights, took the stage with Peter Jackson to talk about technology, film and the future. Our friends at Weta have been heavily involved and will share some credit or blame for the success or failure of his latest, risky $230 million film. Dana Goodyear at The New Yorker has an excellent profile of the film director with a dose of Weta thrown in. Read it here
Trying to make Comic-Con a bit more Tolkien-centric, and to have a little extra fun and the world’s biggest celebration of pop-culture, we (TheOneRing.net) brought in the crowds at Comic Con in San Diego for a fun competition. With no space at the convention to call our own, we went to Weta for an assist and they provided a perfect setting to hold a “Voice of Gollum,” contest.
A collection of fun-loving convention attendees and some awesome Gollum impersonators stepped in front of the Slaveboy Films’ cameras and impressed TORn, Weta and everybody stopping to look on. We asked Weta to choose the best entries, and the guys at Slaveboy Films have put together a fantastic video of the Top Ten.
Weta has also agreed to donate 20 Weta Dollars (worth US$20 dollars) to each of the Top Ten entries. Now it’s your turn. Weta are going to assist TORn with the voting. Out of these 10 masterful impersonators, only one can be said to possess the true voice of Gollum and therefore be allowed to take home a swag-bag of extra goodies; a TORn T-shirt, a Weta T-shirt, 30 more Weta Dollars, a Weta keyring and a Lord of the Rings Location Guide book. Who is it going to be? Vote Today!
Weta and TheOneRing.net teamed up to create a scavenger hunt this year at Comic-Con. At TheOneRing.net panel regarding the upcoming Hobbit films, Richard Taylor came along to catch us all up on what Weta is up to.
At the end of his presentation he announced the Dragon’s Gold hunt which featured a series of clues on the Con floor with the winners being awarded a pile of prizes. Read all the details and see the winners here at Weta’s website.
The plan was to be impartial and emotionless in the printed word and provide interested parties (hopefully you dear reader) all the facts and information from Peter Jackson’s un-press conference in San Diego as possible.
After all, he had 40 or so of us delighted to be trapped in a room with him in a small but luxurious hotel a few hundred meters from the convention center where the world’s biggest celebration of popular culture was taking place. It was the end of the first day of the four-day event and Jackson had swooped into town, showed off his first ever public screening of “District 9,” and then convened Geek Court. Continue reading “Peter Jackson speaks”
Have you ever wondered who wins those cool, big prizes, like a car? Well, news out of Comic-Con 2009 would seem to indicate that even a little Hobbit can win a car. The car in question would be one of the 4 Nissan Cubes that NBC and ‘Heroes’ was giving away during Comic-Con. The Hobbit in question would be So Cal’s own Rosie Carynn. (Rosie Carynn is one of TORn’s most valued friends and enthusiasts! So its even cooler that she won!)
The only question is, What does a Hobbit do with a Cube wrapped in Heroes artwork? Well, she has fun, that’s what she does.