Comic Con 2006
By : Suzanne Philips
DAY 3
To wrap up the convention, we check in with BLADE THE SERIES and New Line Home Video with news on their plans for the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
BLADE: THE SERIES
Creator
David Goyer and writer Geoff Johns joined cast members Kirk “Sticky” Jones
(Blade), Neil Jackson (Marcus), Jessica Gower (Chase), Nelson Lee (Shen) and
Jill Wagner (Krista) for an hour long Q&A session with behind the scenes
info and clips from upcoming shows which will air on the Spike TV network.
Based on the comic book character, BLADE: THE SERIES explores more of the history of the character of Blade than was possible in the prior films starring Wesley Snipes. Goyer knew that they were going to get criticism since the films came out prior to the series. They have gotten some criticism that they don’t have enough action in the series. The first 3 or 4 episodes set up the back-story for the main characters and the upcoming shows will be action packed while still following the storylines of the leads. He also believes that they have more action than any other show on television. They could never have made this show on a standard TV network.
Another
item of contention among critics is that Blade was too weak in the pilot,
but Goyer explains, “TV is not film. Blade can’t just kill 100 bad guys in
every show. That would be really boring. It is a serialized story – you can
see where the storylines of the characters are going. Hopefully the show
will run for 5 or 6 seasons. Wesley Snipes put a huge imprint on the
character of Blade in the films but he was never going to do the TV show.
Sticky is doing a great job. Each episode gets better.” The series is darker than the films; the producers and director are trying to stay true to the original comics. The DVD sets will contain more blood, more nudity and generally more intense scenes than can be shown on television.
Spike TV gave out some BLADE THE SERIES trading cards and backpacks at the convention and had promised fans that attended the panel that they would receive a special T-shirt, but they ran out of these shirts quickly and left a lot of disgruntled fans. Really poor planning on Spike’s part, hopefully next year if the attend Comic-Con they can plan better and leave attendees with a better impression.
BLADE: THE SERIES has multiple airings on Spike TV. Check your local listing
for times.
LORD OF THE RINGS
New Line Home Video, Games Workshop, Sideshow Collectibles, EA Games and
Topps Trading Cards were all on hand to give us a look at what is coming up
in the next year for their LORD OF THE RINGS license.
New Line Home Video is coming out with limited edition DVD’s of all three
films on August 29th, 2006. Each DVD contains both the Theatrical version
and the Extended Edition version of the film on one disk and a 90 minute
documentary from Peter Jackson’s personal videographer on the second disk.
Each film will have a different documentary with never before seen footage
from behind the scenes of the film. Raw footage and “fly on the wall” type
filming will show a special look into the filming of this legendary trilogy.
The packaging from the front, back and inside of the DVD’s will feature
original artwork from Alan Lee. Each DVD will be available for a limited
time only and are set to disappear from stores after Christmas 2006.
EA Games just debuted THE BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH II for Xbox 360 on July
5th and will be bringing us THE RISE OF THE WITCH KING PC expansion pack in
the Fall of this year.
Topps is completing work on a new card set of artwork pieces from the film
and special new artwork commissioned just for this set. Daniel Falconer had
done a set of animated characters from the film, which will be available in
this launch. There will also be a 9 card foil set of the members of the
Fellowship, which were shown during the end credits of THE RETURN OF THE
KING. There will also be 2 special sketch cards in each box of cards
purchased.
Sideshow collectibles has just released Frodo, Legolas, Boromir, Aragorn,
Lurtz and the Witch King 12” figurines and 1:4 scale figurines.
As always, Comic Con was a treat for lovers of Comics, Animation, Film, TV
and Gaming alike. For updates or information on how to purchase tickets for
Comic Con 2007, visit
www.comic-con.org.