
Friday at Comic Con began with the Sullivan Bros. Carnival staking out the park between the Hilton Gaslamp and the Convention Center. The Carnival, which offers free popcorn, cotton candy, and snowcones, is NBC Universal's promotion for the upcoming season 4 of Heroes on NBC. In addition to the free food, there are trampolines and games of chance for children and adults alike. The games of chance give patrons the opportunity to win tickets to enter into a draw for Heroes merchandise, including t-shirts and scripts autographed by series creator Tim Kring. Several of the new cast members will be signing autographs at the carnival on Saturday, including Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I).

If you were walking down 5th Avenue in the 600 block of the Gaslamp District in downtown San Diego, you may have been offered free beer at 618 N. 5th Avenue as Paramount Home Entertainment was promoting its upcoming film Road Trip Beer Pong. In addition to a free beer and half price appetizers, patrons had the opportunity to compete in beer pong competitions. Special thanks to Milady from Paramount for hosting a great event.

Warner Brothers kicked off Friday in style with a 2 hour presentation of its upcoming genre films. Where The Wild Things Are, a film based on the award-winning children's book of the same name was previewed with some behind the scenes footage as well as a trailer and footage from the film directed by Spike Jonze.

Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, and Gary Oldman appeared to screen a trailer from The Book of Eli and to field questions from the audience. Gary Oldman confirmed that the next Batman film by Christopher Nolan is scheduled to begin filming next year for a theatrical release in 2011. Footage was also screened from the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street with Jackie Earle Haley answering audience questions about what it is like to go from playing Rorschach in the Watchmen to playing Freddie Krueger.

Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) appeared in promotion of his third film, The Box, with his stars James Marsden and Cameron Diaz. One lucky fan in the audience of 6,000 people was given the opportunity to greet the stars onstage and take home a "Box" prop autographed by the stars. Audience members were told to reach under their seats, with the lucky winner having a poster taped under her seat telling her she was the winner.

Josh Brolin and Megan Fox appeared next to promote Jonah Hex, an adaptation of the DC Western hero. Jonah Hex appears to be a very action-packed Western, judging by the trailer for the film. Many audience members were starstruck by Megan Fox, and Josh Brolin had his wickedly funny sense of humor on display in the Q & A.

The Warner Brothers presentation concluded with footage from the new Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie. Robert Downey, Jr., and Rachel Macadams were on hand to talk about their reverence to the source material. Robert Downey, Jr., offered his opinion that this two-fisted version of Holmes is much more in conformity with the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Rachel Macadams confirmed that this film is an original story and is not specifically based on any of the stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar presented an animation panel with more 3-D footage from new and upcoming releases with John Lasseter hosting the festivities. Tim Burton was present again on Friday to preview the new film produced by him titled 9, which is set for release on 9/9/09. Voice actors Jennifer Connelly and Elijah Wood were also present to greet the audience. Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, hosted a panel to discuss Selick's film adaptation of Gaiman's book.
Sony Pictures previewed its new films Legion and District 9. Legion stars Paul Bettany, Doug Jones, Adrianne Palicki, and Tyrese Gibson were present with director Scott Stewart. Peter Jackson made his first ever appearance at Comic Con with director Neill Blomkamp to preview District 9, along with star Sharon Copley. Later, Peter Jackson shared the stage with James Cameron to share their ideas about film narrative and how technology continues to influence the direction of future films.

The stars of The Big Bang Theory returned to Comic Con this year along with series creator Chuck Lorre and producer Bill Prady. A fan clad in Jedi robes succeeded in requesting and obtaining a tissue with the DNA of Jim Parsons (Sheldon) so that the fan's sister can use the DNA to create her own Sheldon. The creators of this series will probably return to Comic Con every year since these types of things probably generate story ideas for the series.

Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 were joined on stage by the series writers and producers, as well as new regulars Anil Kapoor, Katee Sackhoff, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. It was revealed that
Warning Spoiler! Click to showthe new season of 24 will begin with Jack Bauer in a situation we have not seen him in for a long time. Jack is at a happy place in his life. Jack will be living in New York with his daughter Kim and his grand-daughter. One can expect that this will not remain the status quo for very long into the new season.
Several minutes of footage were screened from the premiere of 24.
Bones stars David Boreanz and Emily Deschanel were not on hand for the Bones panel to field questions from fans and talk about the romantic developments in the upcoming season.
Boreanz reportedly had his wife go into labor and could not attend. Creator Hart Hanson joined Emily Deschanel on stage to discuss the upcoming season and answer questions from the audience.

Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku were on hand to discuss with fans the upcoming second season of Dollhouse. The unaired episode Epitaph One was screened for the fans in Ballroom 20 prior to the Q & A. That unaired episode will be available on the Dollhouse Season One DVD and Blu-Ray sets being released next week.
Edward James Olmos and Esai Morales were on hand to preview the new Battlestar Galactica movie, The Plan, directed by Olmos. They were joined by BG producers Ronald Moore, David Eick, and Jane Espenson. Stargate stars Robert Carlyle, Brian J. Smith, Elyse Levesque, David Blue, Alaina Huffman, Jamil Walker Smith, and Ming-Na were present to preview the new series Stargate Universe.
Edited by Timothy E - 7/25/2009 at 06:36 am GMTEdited by Timothy E - 7/26/2009 at 07:24 am GMTEdited by Timothy E - 7/26/2009 at 07:54 am GMTEdited by Timothy E - 7/29/2009 at 03:47 am GMTEdited by Timothy E - 7/29/2009 at 04:06 am GMTEdited by Timothy E - 7/29/2009 at 06:24 pm GMT