London Film and Comic Con: An Overview

This article can also be found on Step2TV.

Last weekend, the Olympia Grand Hall in Kensington played host to the prestigious annual London Film and Comic Con. With over 90 guests from popular series such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars and Stargate (hang on, I’m seeing a trend in science fiction titles...), as well as renowned comic book artists and writers, and a plethora of guests from numerous other genres, this year’s LFCC promised to be one of the biggest yet! And with it’s array of guests from cult TV shows to blockbuster films, there was certainly something for everyone.

This year marked my one-year anniversary of convention going, with last year's LFCC being my very first experience of this unusual world of costume-clad fans and overly long queues. I had hoped to celebrate with a bottle of champagne, but the best I could do was a large coffee and a blueberry muffin... C'est la vie!

For the preview night, I had arranged to meet friend and colleague Josh Harris at Clapham Junction – a convenient mid-point for the both of us and a short Overground service to Olympia. This worked perfectly for the first night, but apparently the Gods of London Transport thought otherwise. Our plans to arrive early on Saturday were foiled by the Overground being closed between Clapham Junction and Olympia (how typical!). Not wanting to be any later than necessary, we optimistically chose to take the replacement bus service in the hope it would get us there not-that-much later. We were wrong. Buses are invariably a poor transport choice in central London, although they are a nice way to see the scenery (a dubious looking cafe, several closed post offices and a man yelling at a letterbox). We were dropped off at Earls Court station, so we only had a 20 minute walk ahead of us, but that was exactly the moment it decided to rain. Heavily. It took at least an hour for my hair to dry out!

But none of that was anything compared to my Sunday travel escapades... (Best sung to the tune of “Twelve Days of Christmas...”) Three replacement buses, two delayed trains and a one mile long walk! A mile's walk is normally absolutely no problem – that's literally a walk in the park! - but when a journey that should take me only 40-50 minutes from my front door ends up taking 2 hours, that little extra bit to walk is God's final insult to my “early start.” I'm thoroughly looking forward to trying to navigate the city during the Olympics...

Anyway, enough of TFL woes, on to the weekend itself! Aside from the misadventure of trying to get there, the event was really quite brilliant overall. With talks and Q&As with a number of the guests, meet & greet/interview opportunities and a couple of exclusive screenings, there was a lot on offer!

Dredd Panel

Saturday saw the very first, world exclusive preview of Dredd; a new cinematic adaptation of 2000 AD comic book character Judge Dredd, starring Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek) in the titular role, and Olivia Thirby (Juno, The Darkest Hour) as Judge Anderson. We were escorted in by men clad in the iconic Judge armour, and were treated to a few minutes from the film, along with a half-an-hour panel featuring Dredd himself, Karl Urban; producer Allon Reich (28 Days Later); concept artist Jock (Battleship) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later). There was also a brief competition to win one of five exclusive posters, but not being particularly familiar with Judge Dredd lore the questions that were being flung seemed to me as if they may as well have been asking about the implications of discovering the Higgs Boson and how it will influence the future development of the human race.

Anyway, having little to no knowledge of Judge Dredd, I could observe the preview from an unbiased position. Dredd looks futuristic in the dystopian kind of way; it's less shiny metal and skin-tight silver uniforms, and more crumbling, disused shopping centres, irradiated wastelands, screaming civilians, and ethical ambiguity in a totalitarian future state enforced by a super-soldier police force. In short; it looks like it has the potential to be brilliant!

I've always been dubious about the adaptation of comic book characters to the big screen, but in the case of films like the Batman/Dark Knight saga and The Avengers these have turned out exemplary. I should have more faith in the film industry when it adapts comic books (although I'm already feeling uncomfortable about the new Superman film, Man of Steel, and I know nothing about it except the title!), but with so many superheroes clamouring for my attention at the box office it's hard not to feel a little wary...

That being so, from the clip shown Dredd looks like it has the potential to be an enjoyable and action packed film. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what the rest of the film is like when it's released on 7th September this year!

Frank Spotnitz and Melissa George

Sunday treated us to another exclusive preview screening, this time for BBC One's upcoming contemporary spy drama Hunted, produced by the makers of Spooks and written by Frank Spotnitz (best known for writing nearly 50 episodes of The X Files). Starring Melissa George (Alias, Grey's Anatomy) as Sam, a highly skilled operative for an elite private intelligence firm, and Adam Rayner (Hawthorne, Mistresses) as her colleague and love interest, Hunted is the the story of a spy with a bull's eye on her back, a human target unable to trust anyone at any time, even the man she loves.

The 10 minute preview was certainly a tantalising glimpse of what's to come. It was remarkably tense and engaging, to the extent that I'd completely cut out the rest of the Olympia Grand Hall and completely immersed myself in this clip. It's certainly placed itself at the top of my must-watch list! Hunted will air 26th October this year on BBC One.

Hayden Panettiere

Over the course of the weekend, there were also many talks and Q&As, to the extent my schedule had a number of conflicts with an array of Q&As with the likes of Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin, Jeri Ryan, Hayden Panettiere, and the cast of Game of Thrones. On the whole, these were enjoyable, but in some cases the huge gap between guest and audience led to a communications barrier. This was most noticeable during the Game of Thrones Q&A, as the guests couldn't hear the audience's questions, and nor could the audience hear the guests' answers! More often than not, even when one could hear what the other was saying, the sound quality was somewhat muffled (no small part due to the overwhelming volume of the packed-out venue!) - it's certainly made trying to transcribe some of the Q&As an interesting challenge! There was even a moment when a mobile phone caused quite chronic interference during one of the Q&As, but was masterfully turned into a brief Morse-code sketch by Adam Baldwin which came together so perfectly that one would think he'd staged the whole thing!

Chris Judge and I

I was fortunate enough to grab a couple of interviews with some of the people I'd most wanting to chat with; I briefly spoke to Alex Winter about his recent work on Downloaded, a documentary about online music store Napster, as well as the word going around about the hypothetical Bill and Ted 3. I also managed to catch a few words with Ben Browder and Christopher Judge in-between signings, speaking about their time on Stargate SG1, Browder's guest appearance in the next series of Doctor Who, and Judge's experience working on Dark Knight Rises, as well as a new show that's on the horizon which he wasn't at liberty to say anything about!

Sadly, I was unable to interview Hayden Panettiere, as whenever I walked past her stand she was either under a mountain of fans or on a break. I had been looking forward to chatting with her, especially about her work campaigning to save whales and dolphins, her involvement with the Whaleman Foundation, and – having met up with a friend on the Sea Shepherd stall – ask for her support for Captain Paul Watson, who was unjustly imprisoned in Germany over false charges (more on the matter can be found on the Sea Shepherd website and on my blog). Alas, it was not to be...

Overall, London Film and Comic Con 2012 was certainly an enjoyable experience; meeting and interviewing many fantastic people, watching some rather exciting previews, and just generally having a brilliant weekend.

More pictures from LFCC can be found on my website at www.bronjames.co.uk
Transcripts of interviews and Q&As will be posted during the coming week or two, and will be linked to below this line...

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An Interview with Alex Winter
An Interview with Chris Judge
An Interview with Ben Browder