Wondercon 2008
By RonG

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We ran out of the convention up to the St. Regis Hotel to get an interview with John Cho, who you probably know as Harold from Harold and Kumar. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't track him down because he was apparently busy being interviewed somewhere other than the St. Regis Hotel. I'm pretty sure he was taking questions from the press back at the convetion hall. Considering this, maybe we shouldn't have been banging on the doors of the suite level and phoning "his" room repeatedly. Oh well!

However, our trip up the street wasn't a complete waste of time. Right before leaving the hotel, I ran to the bathroom, where I had the honor of pissing next to Steven Strait, star of the upcoming movie 10,000 B.C., who I recognized from the panel discussion I saw earlier. After washing up we shook hands and I asked him a little about his experience in making the movie and if he thought it might be a rip off of Apocalypto. (Was that rude of me?) He said it was a great time, they had a great director, and he felt Apocalypto was a lot less fantastical and creative than his movie, so the comparison wasn't as valid as one might assume from the trailer. He was a genuinely nice guy and very approachable. After talking to Steven, Jsin and I caught up with the lovely Camilla Belle and her small entourage (no, not in the bathroom), also starring in 10,000 B.C., who was kind enough to let us get a picture with her.

We ran back to the convention after that, only to bump into the winning smile and strong jaw of Casper Van Dien, aka Johnny Rico! After snapping Jsin's picture with him, I spotted the G4 crew and giddily got myself a picture with Blair Butler, who is a writer, comic-book guru, comedienne, and segment host for Attack of the Show. (I guess you could say that Blair was my Claude Schnell, since Jsin had no clue who she was.)

Our day at the convention was topped off with all of the Late Nite Sinners crew watching a painfully loud preview and footage from the third Starship Troopers movie and having a fan Q&A with the stars and writer/director. Casper Van Dien was having way too much fun on stage, randomly shouting out one-liners from the movie like some kind of peppy frat boy at a college ball game. I'm half expecting a night at the Improv from that guy after seeing his on-stage shenanigans.

I have to say the new movie looks fantastic and should certainly redeem the fall from grace the second movie initiated. For those of you who didn't really care about the first movie, you obviously didn't get it and should watch it again. For the smart and cool fans of the original, it sounds like the third installment could end up being less subtle with the satirical commentary on propaganda and war. (And yes, Robocop is too a deep dialog about corporatization stealing our humanity from us and limits of technology. The writer of this fine film, present for the Q&A, also helmed the scripts of the first and upcoming Starship Troopers.)

I won't bore you with the hunger-induced drama that ensued after we left the convention (losing the car, a navigation system that didn't work, Bob on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the bumper to bumper traffic, and a wait from hell at Little Star Pizza), but let's just say I'm sorry we didn't get to check out the masquerade ball later on that night. However, the events we were able to check out were a blast and well worth the time.

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