Bruce Boxleitner, famous for playing TRON in the movie of the same name and later starring in the cult favorite Babylon 5, was the first panel of the day. He was eager to get to the crowd’s questions. Questions ranged from his time on Babylon 5 to the TRON franchise. The inquiries often led to stories from the actor’s past, his personal opinions on projects and even some political stances. Boxleitner believes that space is the real future and is sad to see the cuts that NASA is facing. When working on Babylon 5 he made several contacts within in the space agency and would even deliver speeches for the organization. The 61 year old actor also wondered when the world will get over vampires and zombies and return to the real science fiction. He praised J. Michael Straczynski as the greatest sci-fi writer out there (the two worked on Babylon 5 together). Boxleitner’s future project is the new TRON: Uprising animated series from Disney.
Do you fear zombies? Would you know how to survive if the planet suffered a zombie-virus outbreak? If not, Max Brooks is a name you should become familiar with. The former Saturday Night Live writer has two hugely popular books in the zombie genre, The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, the latter currently being developed into a movie by Brad Pitt. Before saying anything else at the panel, he cleared the air regarding “the movie” and what he knows – basically the same stuff all the fans have read on the Internet; he strongly believes World War Z will see theaters sooner rather than later though. Next he explained the reason he was on stage for those in the audience that had not heard of him. During the question portion of the panel, Brooks clarified that his work was inspired by his fear of the monsters he writes about and at one point challenged a woman that questioned the fictional pieces of his first book to write a book herself and stop “busting his balls.” In addition to appearing at cons, the author has become a foremost expert on Zombies and most recently shared his insights for a future episode of Deadliest Warriors that will explore vampires versus zombies.
By the time the third panel of the day began the ballroom had filled up and there was a line out the door which was not much of surprise considering the next guest was Leonard Nimoy (most famous for his portrayal of Spock from Star Trek). He came to the stage and opened by saying it was too big a crowd to handle all the questions, so instead he would be taking the questions “mentally” and then began to receive inquiries from the crowd. The “loudest” three questions were answered with: He liked the impersonation of him in the recent episode of Fringe; yes, he is voicing Sentinel Prime in the new Transformers movie; and he has heard the new Star Trek sequel will begin filming in late 2011. Questions answered, the geek god began his oral autobiography, complete with a slideshow of photos from his lifetime. He talked about his early days of growing up in Boston to how he decided to become an actor at age 17 that led him to Hollywood where his prolific career as an actor began with the film, “Zombies from the Stratosphere.” He talked of working on the set of Star Trek and how he talked the director into creating the famous Vulcan hand gesture and accompanying “Live Long and Prosper” saying as well as how the Vulcan Nerve Pinch came to be. He mentioned his years in the Westerns and stage acting. After Star Trek he also went back to school to study his other love, photography. He ended up being very good at the skill and has pieces featured in several museums and his third photography book is about to come out. One of the special moments came during the middle of Nimoy’s presentation when his wife called him, causing his cellphone to ring loudly into the microphone. Nimoy repeatedly mentioned honor and the effect it had on his career and his life. He closed by wishing that all his fans “live long and prosper.”
As if the first three guests of the day were not big enough, Stan Lee came to the stage with creator of the hit show Eureka, Jamie Paglia, to answer fan questions and be part of a special presentation. Paglia had to help “translate” some of the questions for Lee that ranged from thoughts on comics characters he created to how the (now cancelled) Governator animated series came to be. During the session, Paglia took a moment to point out Stan Lee’s infamous movie cameo career and share disappointment with Lee that there is not an Oscar Award for cameos. He then went on to announce the first ever Stan Award for “Best Actor in Small Film/TV Roles” and presented a trophy to the comic book creator commemorating the honor. Stan Lee did his best to answer every question best he could. Here are some of the highlights: If he had a super power, he would want it to be Luck because if you are lucky, everything will go your way. He loves to see all his character creations turned into the movies and gets a special bonus out of each film because the film’s casts and crews work so hard but he always ends up getting the credit. The Incredible Hulk was not really inspired by any one thing; the character was sort of a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. His favorite cameos he has done are from Spiderman 2 and Thor. He hates teenage sidekicks. He says the secret to his longevity is he worries – for one hour a day, he sits and worries about things, and the minute that hour is up, he stops worrying about everything for the rest of the day and he enjoys life; then he repeats the practice everyday and he encourages everyone to live that way. Lee closed the panel by graciously thanking the audience for their questions and taking his exit to sign autograph and take pictures downstairs in the exhibit hall.
To close out the day of BIG panels, Jamie Paglia returned to the stage accompanied by another Comicon Icon, Wil Wheaton to discuss the upcoming season 4.5 of the hit SyFy show Eureka. Paglia premiered the trailer of the season as a treat for the audience. The trailers shows the return of old enemies, new faces, lots of kissing and lots of special guest stars including Felicia Day, Dave Foley, and even a cameo by Stan Lee! Wheaton shared the joys of working on the show and how the cast is really like a big family which makes for a great environment to do the creative acting that makes this show great. Paglia shared some tidbits about the new season, like how Wheaton’s Dr. Parish and Felicia Day’s Dr. Martin will be part of a love triangle with one of Eureka’s major characters. He also mentioned that the Season 4 DVDs would have director’s cuts of a few episodes to feature some great scenes that had previously been cut due to time. It was also mentioned that Season 5 is already in production. Season 4.5 of Eureka opens on Monday, July 11 at 8:00pm (PST) on the SyFy channel.
Phoenix Comicon brought big names to Arizona and created an entertaining line up for their third day. The largest programming room of the convention was buzzing with laughter and chats after each session and in some cases social networking posts of the great experiences fans had. And there more big names coming for the final day of the convention in the desert; George Takei, Billy Dee Williams, and Adam Baldwin will be taking the stage in the ballroom on Sunday.
For pictures from the days panels visit the Fanboy Headquarters Web Album and for continued coverage from Phoenix Comicon 2011 keep web browsers pointed to Fanboy Headquarters.
By: Martin Bright, 5/28/11
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