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Tuesday, 20 July 2010 16:15

Written by Sharon Eberson

These are the kind of invitations you get as a member of the press going to Comic-Con:

“You might need a break from all the geeky madness. On Friday … Gunnar Optiks are hosting a poolside lounge at the Hard Rock. It’s right across the street and they’ll have drinks and snacks. Gunnar makes computer and gaming glasses as well as the recently released 3D line …”

If I RSVP I will be added to the guest list. “That way you’ll avoid any hassle with the bouncer.”

Friday, which was recently announced as “Star Wars Day” at the con, is a relatively slow day for big names, so it would have been a good time to bring along the gamer in the family, my son Josh, to something like this. But he’s under 21 and probably too young to attend. Last year, before the S.D. Convention Center opened to press and public on Wednesday, we arrived at the EA demo for the Madden NFL game, the one with Troy Polamalu on the cover. Although Josh had been invited and his age was known, it slipped through the cracks that the demo was at a San Diego nightclub where drinks were being served. After a 20-minute debate between the club and EA reps, he was allowed to go from demo station to demo station, with several escorts watching over him.

I think we’ll stick to Exhibition Hall during the down times, and on preview night tomorrow, too.

The big preview screening is the pilot for “Nikita,” starring Maggie Q, and other Warner Bros. TV series. Recent years have included pilots for “Fringe” and “Human Target,” but this year we’ll leave new TV (and "Glee") to Rob Owen and get a look at the merchandise, the artwork, the demos and sheer wackiness amid the studio and publishing booths and costumed attendees.

To promote the Ryan Reynolds thriller “Buried,” for instance, you can step into the star’s shoes and take a turn in a coffin for 30 seconds, with video of your ordeal posted for the masses. In “Buried,” a U.S. contractor (Reynolds) working in Iraq is attacked and wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin.

Reynolds is one of the hottest stars in San Diego, where he will be for the debut of clips from “The Green Lantern.” (In case you missed it, one of the many great fan-made trailers for a Green Lantern film, with more than 2,700,000 hits, is a mash-up with Nathan Fillion as the DC Comics hero.) 

There will be local connections to pursue, of course. For instance, “GAM3RS,” a play co-written by Walter G. Meyer, a Bethel Park native, and Brian Bielawski, will have 17 showings in five days off-site. It’s a “hilarious one-man play about elves, life, love and computers.” Meyers is the author of the novel “Rounding Third” and a sometimes contributor to the Post-Gazette.

You never know who, or what, you’ll run into at Comic-Con.

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