WonderCon Wrap-up, Inception
The costumes have been taken off and put away (until Comic-Con in late July that is). But Wondercon, held earlier this month in San Francisco, offered a great occasion to put them on! We visited, picked up our Iron Man 2 posters, heard about the upcoming Battlestar Galactica movie, and even learned about the new Jurassic Park comic series (launching in June). Among the crowds, we got autographs from some of our favorite sci-fi stars, and enjoyed some exclusive sneak peeks and previews of shows like Fringe and V. Even Kevin Smith joined the party, offering a funny (and raunchy) Q&A.
We enjoyed a reprise of last year’s Chuck panel, where the cast and crew of the show take audience questions and offer their own takes on the normal guy-turned-spy TV series. It’s always clear that the folks on Chuck pay attention to the fans, and it’s great to see that interplay becoming more common, as talkbacks and forum posts and Twitter comments actually have an effect, and the stars take feedback seriously.
But our favorite part of this year’s convention wasn’t Jake Gyllenhaal and Jerry Bruckheimer discussing the Prince of Persia movie or the Toy Story 3 section (even though we’re suckers for Pixar). Even Kick-Ass’s surprisingly interesting panel, featuring the main cast talking in depth about the graphic novel and the film, couldn’t match the sheer coolness of seeing director Chris Nolan show up on stage and pull the curtain back a bit on his summer movie Inception. For those that haven’t seen the trailer, and probably most of those who have, the movie was and is a bit of a mystery.
Without giving too much away, Chris Nolan cleared up a few things, talking about the synopsis of the plot (finally!) as being the theft of ideas through dreams. Considering the recent iPhone 4G vs Gizmodo conflict, I could almost seeing this scenario happening. We also got a prescient warning that the female characters in this film are very nuanced. The cast looks truly fantastic, including some people he’s worked with before like Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine, and just some great and unique actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe and Lukas Haas.
Chris Nolan rarely speaks at events and so his appearance was a surprise at the festival. Certainly anything from The Dark Knight director is promising, but we’ve been following Nolan’s career, starting with Memento, continuing with the often overlooked Insomnia (starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank) and the truly awesome The Prestige. This guy just doesn’t make a bad film.
