The LA Times has an article this morning letting everyone know Twentieth Century Fox pulled out of Comic-Con yesterday (Wednesday). This means no sneak peeks of the Hayden Christensen’s Jumper, no updates on Aliens Vs. Predator, nothing from Vin Diesel’s Babylon A. D.,or Hitman staring Timothy Olyphant.
“The material wasn’t ready and we only want to go out when we can put our best foot forward,” Sean Dudas, the studio’s vice president of national publicity, said on Wednesday.
Later in the day, however, the studio was reconsidering its position. Executives said they were still hoping to have some kind of “surprise” for fans at the convention.
So what is the surprise? “Surprise – we got nothing! Oh and go see the Simpson’s movie in theaters now!” Whatever…
Fox Atomic still plans to hold raffles and giveaways, and plan on showing off stuff from its graphic novels based on 28 Days Later, The Hills Have Eyes, and Nightmare Factory.
“Every major studio usually has a presence at Comic-Con so for Fox to pull out a week before is very unusual,” [David] Glanzer [Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations] said, adding that organizers were still trying to figure out how to fill the studio’s time slot. “We’re still going back and forth. We have in excess of 350 hours of programming so scheduling is like a giant Rubik’s Cube. Otherwise, this year every major studio has committed to show up and participate.”
Ok, so I know Comic-Con is the pop-culture convention of the year, but the last couple of years I’ve been more and more concerned about the Hollywoodization of the convention. I certainly don’t mind if the studios want to come a calling to show off the latest comic themed movies like Superman, Spider-Man, etc., but when huge panels are set up for television shows and movies that have a very loose connection to the genre beyond “the attendees of the show meet our demographic”, the convention moves beyond “a good time had by all”, to “one huge commercial that fans pay for just to see a star from 50 rows back”.
