Geek Prom. That’s what we used to call Comic-Con in the late 90s –– self-mockingly, because we (or, at least, I) weren’t actually cool enough to go to real prom. That was before there was an actual Geek Prom every year in Duluth, and before Comic-Con itself became less a comic convention than an 100 hour press conference, where Hollywood studios are (for the most part) able to bypass the pesky press and sell next year’s product line directly to their most desired demographic.

As you’re reading this, I’m en route to San Diego for my fourth Comic-Con, my first in a couple of years. Kevin and Kevin will be joining me, and starting with tomorrow night’s preview, we’ll be live blogging all the major panels, and some of the not-so-major panels (Lloyd Kaufman, I love you), so plan to refresh the page roughly every 30 seconds from Wednesday night through late Sunday.

But whilst spoilers on the dreaded Wolfman remake are one thing, I’m also interested in how the Con has changed in the ten years since I comfortably fit within its target demo, especially for the fans and kids who––I assume––still make pilgrimages to attend. I have all these half-baked theories about how nerd culture has essentially become the new frat culture; if you’ve ever been bullied on a fanboy blog comment thread, maybe you’ll agree, or maybe I’m just talking out of my ass. Regardless: with the former totems of high school rejects long since transformed into the bread and butter of the mainstream culture industry, will there be any real geeks left at the old Geek Prom?

Whether you’re a long-time Con attendee or if this will be your first time, let me know if you have any thoughts. And if you spot an old lady wandering around the Convention Center in granny glasses, fumbling for her arthritis medicine and her inhaler, come say hi!

With Comic-con running through the weekend and finally wrapping yesterday, you probably opened your RSS reader this morning to find a seemingly endless backlogue of live blogs, Flickr streams and breathless “exclusives”. Me too — and after three hours of skimming, I’ve gleaned the following five takeaways:

1. There’s gonna be a lot of Black Sabbath in Iron Man

2. Rob Zombie might his Halloween remake a “re-imagining”, but he apparently had no interest in re-imagining the dumb-as-rails horror heroine.

3. Sorry, Robert DeNiro: you might have been forgiven for Rocky and Bullwinkle, but we will never, ever forget.

4. Beowulf could be the most Razzie-worth pile of crap since I Know Who Killed Me (more on that later today), but 100 percent of the world’s male film writers (and about 50 percent of the gals) will still give it a pass, and all because of the naked Angelina Jolie.

5. Jenna Jameson knows her way around a pun (scroll down to the part about Scarlett Johansson and “ins and outs”).

The massive Paramount panel took place at Comic-con yesterday afternoon, where the studio leaked tidbits on Iron Man, Beowulf, Indiana Jones 4, and two J.J. Abrams projects. Here’s some notes from those who were there.

According to MTV, Abrams confirmed that Cloverfield is not going to be titled Monstrous. It still *could* be titled Cloverfield. But probably not. Also, there’s a new poster, which is getting a lot of bloggy attention. While most of the chatter seems to center around the question, “What is this, a Godzilla remake?” MOVIEBOB notes that visually, the poster looks a lot like a certain photograph taken on 09/11/01:

Now, Michael Bay can get away with it when he claims that he doesn’t think of 911 when crafting city-destruction scenes because, well, Michael Bay was born without a human soul. But Abrams and company, being both human and extremely insightful about humanity, MUST have either intended the analogous gut-punch this poster provides or at least recognized it and decided it was appropriate. I’m now even more strongly thinking what I was only considering when the blurry “spy” shots of this first appeared: Is this the real key to what this mystery-movie actually is?

…Read more

The annual nerd bachanal that is Comic-con begins today in San Diego. Here’s a look at some of the chatter going into the comic/horror/sci-fi/fantasy fan’s biggest weekend of the year.

• David Poland got an email from a friend who has a friend who is a director who was told by someone at Comic-con that he won’t be allowed to show “adult” material at his Con presentation this year. Poland’s friend confirms that this was the main reason for Fox’s last minute pull-out. And Poland says they’re actually going to be there anyway–in lieu of the big panel presentation, there will be something involving Wolverine director Gavin Hood, as well as a breakfast screening of footage from Death Sentence.
• If you, like me, are not making it down to San Diego yourself but don’t want to miss a beat, you can follow Alex Billington’s updates on Twitter. Meanwhile, San Diego Dreaming is compiling a Fest Mob-esque ticker tape of Con updates. If you are on the ground and want to participate, the info’s at the link. Both of those tidbits come to us courtesy of The Beat.
• John Campea has posted his schedule at The Movie Blog, in case anyone wants to “take a minute and say ‘hi’.”
• Patton Oswalt won’t be in San Diego, but he’s posted a scavenger hunt for anyone who is. One of the ten items he implores you to find: “Two of the following 7 “variations” on a Star Wars stormtrooper: Elvis, slutty, NASCAR, steampunk, KISS Army, pimp, western.” And yes, I found the above picture by doing a Google Image search for “stormtrooper NASCAR.”

***A Variety story published last night partially backs up the CHUD theory for why Fox pulled out of ComicCon–ie: they couldn’t/didn’t want to tone down their R-rated material after being reprimanded for showing racy Borat footage last year–but also suggests that the studio might have had to do a reality check on their presentation’s “wow” factor. “The pics Fox wanted to promote are all f/x-intensive, with many of the money shots not yet complete.”

***Why is it okay to consistently, pejoratively use words like “doughy” to describe Seth Rogan? Would a casting item about Renee Zellweger refer to her as “the bony, squinty-eyed thesp”? Whatever–the guy’s gonna write and star in The Green Hornet.

***Gavin Hood, who won a Best Foreign Film Oscar two years ago for Tsotsi, has been hired to direct the X-men spin-off Wolverine. Variety describes the pic as an action-loaded “origin story about how Logan emerged from a barbaric experiment as an indestructible mutant with retractable razor-sharp claws.”