By Mary Beth Gentle
Hollywood was out in full force at the annual San Diego International Comic-Con last Month. The Studio’s had rolled out Sneak Peaks of the new TV Season and the upcoming tent pole movies. The Celebrities were paraded around in all their glory. And the fans packed into the convention halls to catch every moment of fun. But, this year there was an added element at Comic-Con, this year the vampire people had come out of the shadows.
On the evening I arrived, I left my hotel to head across the street to check into the convention and get my badge. And that was when I first saw them, the ‘Twilighters’ – the fans of all things related to the Twilight books and movies. It wasn’t just a small gathering of fans of the vampire phenomenon, it was a crowd of close to a thousand, desperate to make sure they were guaranteed entry into the convention auditorium to see and hear the stars of the latest in the saga speak. It was the night before Summit Entertainment’s New Moon panel was set to take the stage and there was already a line wrapping itself around the building. There were tents erected, sleeping bags rolled out and some very confused security guards trying to keep a sense of calm in the vampire madness.
The next day, those who were lucky enough to make it inside the convention hall were treated to a sneak peak of scenes from the upcoming New Moon release and a panel of the full cast from the movie. Was it worth it? The people I talked to on the inside said it made their whole year. One young girl even went so far as to say it made her whole life. Having industry access to the panel, I decided to poke my head in and see what all the fuss was about. And as I looked up to the cast of pretty people and swooned a little at the site of Robert Pattinson, it was the fan base that really caught my attention. For the most part they were all women. In fact, I would have to say that this may have been the first time in Comic-Con history that there were that many Women in attendance at any one event. They were enraptured. And from a Studio point of view, I can only say one thing, ‘Ka-ching’.
When the New Moon Panel was over, I thought the madness would stop. But, it did not stop there, it quickly spilled out onto the floor of the main convention. It consumed anything that got in its way. It seemed as if everything was suddenly vampire related. Everywhere you looked there were T-Shirts with Twilight inspired sayings such as; ‘ Team Edward’ or ‘Team Jacob’. The advertisers were even getting into the act by hanging giant banners all over the convention. Apparently BMW feels that vampires would drive Mini Coopers. And where New Moon left off, HBO’s True Blood took over. True Blood is the more mature telling of forbidden Vampire love. And it was one of the more frightening and frenzied moments on the convention floor when the cast of True Blood made an appearance at the Warner Brothers booth. Neither the Warner Brothers representatives nor Convention Security were ready for the number of vampire people that descended upon them. I was not willing to take any elbows to the ribs, but I did get a ‘True’ Vampire fan to fight her way through the crowd for a great shot of the cast. I, on the other hand, went and stood with a few lone Sci-Fi Fans that were clinging to the hope that the vampire craze would die before their very eyes.
From the amount of vampire material the Studios are filling their movie and TV slates with, it doesn’t sound like the vampire craze will die off anytime soon. The CW will try its hand at vampire love with Vampire Diaries in the fall, Universal will release The Vampire Assistant and Johnny Depp has just signed on for a remake of The Dark Shadows. I am not sure how long the vampire craze will actually last or if Comic-Con will ever be the same again, but I do know that with the vampire people around, things will stay interesting.
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