LOS ANGELES Sci-fi Con - November 12th, 2000

Here is what the DNDMOVIE site posted about the Comic and Scifi Con

On November 12th, Bruce's fans had the chance to ask him questions about the DND film as well as meet with him in person and get his autograph!

THANKS BRUCE!

 

14.Nov.2000 Dave Arneson Reports from LA

Sunday, Nov 12, members of the cast and Corey made an appearance in LA to answer questions, show footage and sign autographs. We didn't get to go, but hey that's what faithful visitors are for, right? Fred over at AllthingsZoe.com come through for us in big way with a report and some piccage, which he generously donated to us. Go see Fred and thank him if you get the chance..He's got a real nice site for Zoe. FYI, nearly all of these pics can be clicked on to see the really large versions. In the Beginning There was Darkness... I attended the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention this past Sunday the 12th. I had never been to one before, and the last time I was near the Shrine Auditorium the crane hoisting up the large Oscar statues was blocking traffic. This time it was before 9AM on a Sunday, and definitely there were fewer cars around. There were, however, a few hundred people in line to get tickets, and it was a bit colder than it had been a few days earlier.

Well, after finally getting inside, where it was only slightly warmer, I proceeded to take in the atmosphere. I hadn't bought comic books for a number of years, though I started to think about my collection of X-Men as I walked the hardwood floors of the convention room. The room itself was rectangular with high ceilings and a second balcony area along the walls above the entire main floor. The section opposite the entrance was separated by a huge black curtain, and this was were the guests were to appear.

There were several hundred chairs placed in this section facing the table on the stage area. Angled to the left of the stage was a large screen with a projector display, and on the right side a HUGE "Sixth Day" poster was hanging from the balcony. As 12PM approached I took my assigned seat, since I bought a reserved seat, and watched the activity on stage. Two full size Dungeons and Dragons movie posters were placed on easels, one on each side of the table, and a box for the poster entries was placed next to one of the posters.

Then the Stars Came Out At this point the large poster, which was to be given away, was displayed as the staff attempted to place it at the front of the table. It was a bit too big so they moved it to the balcony above, but since they didn't have a proper way to hang it they just kept it out of sight.

The presentation started with the playing of the "special" trailer on the large screen. Too bad the sound wasn't so good, it only came out of one side where I was, anyway. The trailer contained additional footage and comments from the cast and Corey interspersed throughout. Honestly, I was trying to get pictures the whole time so I didn't concentrate as much on what was showing. After the screening, each of the guests were announced as they came down the steps from the balcony above. The six people that attended (if you didn't already know) were Thora, Justin, Lee, Bruce, Dave, and Corey. The panel started with the MC asking a few questions and then turning it over to Q&A from the general audience. Again, I don't recall so much since I was trying to get pictures, but luckily you've probably read the other reviews.

Lee was quite funny with his comments, and it was even funnier when he got Bruce to crack up a couple times. Bruce kind of went into this sort of "knee slapping" motion, although I'm not so sure I would go and say it was stereotypically a British mannerism. Most of the questions were things that have been covered in the dndmovie site interviews and articles. Of course there were some extra stuff, like after a fan asked Thora if she had a boyfriend and then gave her the green stuffed toy, she said somewhat loudly (me paraphrasing) "I want some of what you've been smoking." Too bad this guy soon left, since Thora later asked if she could get his autograph on the toy.

A young female fan went up to the mic and flat out asked for their autographs right there and then, of course they all nicley obliged.

Another thing I do happen to remember is the answer to the question "what is your favorite comic book?" Justin said Ritchie Rich since he always wanted to be like him, Lee chose Silver Surfer, and Bruce had some story about some English Christmas comics. I think Dave said Superman, but I'm not clear on that. Corey said Spiderman, (something I forgot), and X-Men, while Thora said Peanuts.

After about an hour, Corey drew from the box the winner for the large poster. I saw it briefly again as it was displayed before the winner claimed it, but I couldn't see who signed it.

At this point, a bunch of movie posters were brought out and passed among the guests who sequentially signed them. People were called to line up by reserved seat number and pick up the posters. Many of the people also had other items they got signed, and Thora was asked to sign quite a number of items.

Unfortunately, after around an hour of signing, they were only able to get through around 100 people, so everyone else just got the movie posters, and yes some people did sort of freak out. I didn't get a signed one either, but then I don't really collect autographs. However, the odd thing is the posters are double-sided. One side is the poster and the other side is the mirror image of the poster with the words all backwards. I wonder if this was intentional or a printing error. If it was a printing error, then I would think a signed double-sided poster would be quite a collector's item, since I noticed some of the later posters they were giving away were blank on the back. All of the guests were quite gracious to spend so much time signing and answering questions. I felt that the event worked out quite well.

13.Nov.2000 Report from the LA comic Book and Scifi Convention

Thanks to "SighFyefeefum" for this tres groovy report of the D&D goodness in LA over the weekend.

The Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention is a monthly event at the Shrine Auditorium, where they hold the Oscars, only the Con is put into the backstage/convention hall which doesn't have all the cool, weird Masonic elements, or heating -brrrr.

It was a clear and chilly Sunday and the hall was packed with traders, collectors, fanboys and the female equivalent (fannies?). The hall was fuller than normal because this afternoon the Con had arranged two very special events, a "persuhnuhl appearuhnce by Ahnuhld" (my words not theirs!) to promote Sixth Day. Arnold is shorter in real life than you'd expect, his hair was a lovely shade of golden brown and he had stubble.

But enough about him..You all know that the real excitement was the Dungeons and Dragons sneak peek (never before seen footage) and panel with Thora, Bruce, Justin, Lee, Dave Arneson (who was a good sport about his name being misspelled in the ads) and Corey.

The area set up for the panel/screener was about 7/8full, about 700 people saw it. First about the special screener (because I know y'all are screaming, "What was in it?!?! What was in it!?!?"): It was 3 minutes, 50 seconds long. There were interviews with Marlon, Justin, Thora, Zoe, Jeremy and Corey. There were some behind the scenes footage of Corey setting up shots, there was Marlon explaining what a "fly dude" Ridley is. The trailer sequences were re-cut and put between the interviews. The sound wasn't great because the auditorium was never designed to be a theatre and has REALLY high ceilings and lots of cement, but you could hear the interviews and see the groovy dragons and mages and effects. (here's hoping they put it up someplace for everyone to see!)

Okay, guys were drooling and practically fainting over Thora who was wearing a low cut black blazer, black skirt with a slit and high heeled red shoes. Vaaaavoom. When asked about the casting process, Thora said,

"What eighteen year old girl wouldn't want to ride a dragon?"

Thora has been acting in a lot of films and good naturedly accepted a stuffed toy from a Little-Nicky lookalike fan who stammered and made NO SENSE trying to talk to her. (Editorial note: Thora is the also cover girl for Mean magazine this month. Look for it at your newsstands or at www.meanmag.com).

Justin explained that he had been involved with the movie for three years and raved about the beauty of Prague. Some scary guy in suit and tie came to the mic. This fan knew all the names of all the characters on Charles in Charge and was really tweaking over the show and asked if there would be a reunion. Justin replied that it had been twelve years, and Lee cracked everyone up by shouting, "Then it's about time!"

Lee said his audition consisted of having to eat ten roast chickens, two roast turkeys and then run into a brick wall, followed by Courtney asking him if he could do any comedy.

The best villains in filmdom, one of the top bad guys EVER, Bruce Payne discussed the Bone Chapel (yes those skulls are real!) and how he enjoyed being evil.

Dave Arneson answered gaming questions (which are sooo over my feeble head). Corey answered questions too (sorry I didn't have pen and paper-ooops, bad fan, bad!)

Mr. A. Chen won the autographed banner, and THERE'S AN ONLINE DRAWING COMING UP to win an AUTOGRAPHED DnD SKATEBOARD (but I dunno any details beyond that and so it's Donsimus' job to let you know)

The panel lasted about 45 mins, followed by an hour of autographing movie posters, photos, etc. Booths were selling Thora pics and people brough Star Trek cards for Lee and other photos for Bruce and Justin to sign.

Thora tried to get her toy giving fan to come up and sign it to her, but he was tooooo shy and ran away. They must have signed over 200 posters and there was still a long line when the cut off came (because the Con had to ready themselves for Ahnuhld).

The cut off announcement caused a mini-freakout because people wanted their stuff signed and wanted a poster signed by everybody, but hey, the Terminator was in the house…

Big thanks to our scooper for the report.

LOS ANGELES COMIC BOOK AND SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS/THE 6TH DAY

By ALBERT L. ORTEGA November 30th, 2000

The monthly show that continues to bring in scads of fanboys to the historic Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium focuses on the New Line Cinema game turned film, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS with cast members Justin Whalin, Thora Birch, Lee Arenberg and Bruce Payne.

However it was evident to see that the crowd was there to see everyone's favorite Austrian son, The Terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the cast of D&D finished signing more than enough signatures to give them cramps, genre publicist extraordinaire Jeffrey Walker announced that Ah-Nuld was en route to The Shrine and showed a featurette of behind the scenes from THE 6TH DAY. The audience felt extremely enthusiastic about the scenes they were able to view and continued to roar as show promoter Bruce Schwartz announced the arrival of Schwarzenegger, waving and flexing for the cheering masses.

Just prior to his arrival his supporting cast of Michael Rooker, Terry Crews, Sarah Wynter and director Roger Spottiswoode made their way onto the dais, but it was plain to see that the people were there for Arnold as most, if not all, the questions were directed towards the gap toothed wonder. A majority of the queries focused on the similarities between THE 6TH DAY and TOTAL RECALL; Arnold assured his fans that while there are some familiar elements in the film the new 6TH DAY stands alone. He also quelled the rumors that he was indeed going to be involved in the TERMINATOR 3 film and utter those familiar words, "I'll be back." After the Q&A session the former Mr. Universe signed a few posters for a lucky select few waved "Hasta La Vista" and charged up the stairs with bodyguards in tow. There you have the end of another successful L.A. Comic Sci-Fi Convention with many happy attendees walking away with signed posters -- not bad for a $5.00 admission!

For more information on future shows go to www.comicbookscifi.com.

Villain BRUCE PAYNE can't believe his luck by having to do autographs for this obvious inferior crowd, bah!

Stars of D&D: The Movie Meet the Fans

LA Comic Book & Science Fiction Convention Includes Movie Press Conference

By Tammie Webb

The stars of Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie -- Justin Whalin (Ridley Freeborne, the rogue protagonist), Lee Arenberg (Elwood, the dwarf), Thora Birch (Empress Savina), and Bruce Payne (the warrior Damodar) -- accompanied by Courtney Solomon, the movie’s director and producer, and Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson, were the special guests of honor at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention.

About 750 fans gathered November 12 in the Exposition Hall of Shrine Auditorium for this monthly event -- the same Shrine that is frequently home to the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. After the guests made their entrances, fans watched a four-minute film about the creative aspects of making Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie. Interspersed with cuts from the movie’s trailer were interviews with Marlon Wayans (Snails), Jeremy Irons (Profion), Justin, Thora, Zoe, and Courtney. They shared their thoughts and feelings about being involved in such a great project with a great cast.

When the short movie ended, the guests assembled in panel fashion to take questions from the audience. The question on most minds was, "Do any of you play Dungeons & Dragons?" Lee admitted to growing up as a "D&D geek," though he hasn’t played in several years. Justin played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time at Gen Con this year and said he was really impressed with the game. Though that experience didn’t convince him to give up his Friday nights for D&D, he has become addicted to online roleplaying games. Courtney, a gamer of many years, promised he didn’t simply make a movie out of his own D&D campaigns.

When asked how she came to be involved in the movie, Thora delighted the audience with her coy reply, "What eighteen-year-old girl doesn’t want to ride a dragon?" Thora appeared very congenial throughout the Q&A session -- even when asked if she had a boyfriend. The fan who posed this question came prepared in case she didn’t: He presented Thora with a little green stuffed animal.

As one can always expect at an open-mike event, the questions ranged from serious inquiries about the soon-to-be-released movie to highly hilarious off-topic questions like, "Justin, do you think there will be a Charles in Charge reunion anytime soon?" When Justin (keeping a straight face) said, "Well, it’s been twelve years since that show," Lee quickly jumped in with a thunderous "Then it’s about time!" and the audience exploded with laughter.

An autographed movie banner was given away in a drawing held at the end of the Q&A session, and the guests spent the following hour signing movie posters for hundreds of fans. All in all, a fascinating glimpse into the making of Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie.