Mandy's Mind

Sunday, July 21, 2013

#TrueBlood at #SDCC 2013

I was sitting FRONT ROW in Ballroom 20 for the True Blood panel that started off with Joe Manganiello blowing me a kiss. (I blew one first and he returned it, apparently, I was in heaven and now exactly feeling anything but bliss ha ha)

Some highlights included:

Michael McMillian and Anna Camp banter as Steve and Sarah Newlin.
Rob Kazinsky and Ryan Kwantlen discussing the preparation for their "shaving" scene together (homoerotic dream 'Jason' has about 'Ben')
Anna Paquin talking about Sookie always being in danger, and finally learning somethings after everything she has been through.
Brian Buckner said they would 'return to their roots' with on central storyline versus the multiples as of late. (Thank Billith!)

“We’re going to try to condense the number of stories we’re telling and make this really feel like we’re coming home. I wanna bring it in a little bit. Not to discount Charlaine [Harris’] books at all, but my hope is to get all these people we love living under this one story and one threat. Really just make it about this small town we’ve all come to know and love.”

The preview for the rest of the season shows Sookie giving a eulogy, shows some major action (sexy and violent rawr!) Check it out here:

Loved seeing everyone on the panel, though disappointing Alexander Skarsgård and Stephen Moyer were not there, it worked out as it was already a pretty packed panel and felt too short.

And of course Nelsan Ellis saying "Rihanna and make-up" get him into the "Lafayette" mood. Another fan asked how Lafayette would use the scard Nelsan was wearing and he showed us this:

Ryan Kwantlen demonstrated how he was doing pull ups and Anna Paquin was supposed to walk in after three, but would delay coming in, then do her lines extra slow to make him suffer doing the pull-up's even longer.

Here are some more photos from the panel....

Seriously my new fave is Warlow akak Ben aka Rob Kazinsky.

Here are videos from the panel:

Saturday, July 20, 2013

#OUAT at #SDCC - Once Upon a Time in Wonderland Panel

I was lucky enough to secure a row 7 seat front and center in Ballroom 20 for OUATIW and OUAT panels at Comic-Con.

We got to watch about 20 minutes of the pilot to Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I really enjoyed it. I have never been a fan of the CGI/Green Screening on OUAT, and this spin-off will require a lot of green screen and CGI, but it seemed better.

We got to meet the cast:

Peter Gadiot as Cyrus/Genie
Sophie Lowe as Alice
Michael Socha as Knave of Hearts
John Lithgow as the voice of the White Rabbit (which was a cute CGI with pink eyes)
Emma Rogby as the Queen of Hearts

and when asked about a possible "JAFAR" character, it was revealed that Naveen Andrews would be Jafar, and out he came to join the panel!

Here are some photos of the panel:

First of all, Peter Gadiot is VERY attractive and very kind. I met him Saturday night.

Here is the clip as I remember it: ***SPOILER ALERT***
Also this is based on memory so I may have the order or some minor details incorrect.

A "bad boy" is in Storybrooke during the finale of OUAT. It is funny he takes a drink and puts down some money, looks around realizing no one is around, takes the money back. There is a cameo from OUAT cast. The rabbit appears and it seems the "bad boy" is needed, but doesn't want to go. He eventually agrees to and jumps down the "porthole"

We also see a "flashback" of wonderland and Alice. At one point she is being chased and shrinks to small size and slips into the Genie's lamp. She says she needs to get "back" with her "proof" that Wonderland is real (She has the rabbit in her sack)

Flash forward and back a few times but essentially Alice and the genie fall in love and the queen of hearts arrives and pushed him over the cliff.

We flash to present time to see Alice in an insane Asylum where she is being questioned about her story of wonderland. Through a series of flashbacks we learn of the genie and what happened.

Back in her "cell" the "bad boy" arrives, we learn he is the Knave of Hearts and he tries to get Alice to leave with him. She won't. He tells her Cyrus (the genie) is alive. She has a kick-ass fight scene where she knocks out the guards, uses her shoes to hit a guard and leave with the Knave.

We also learned that:

Cheshire cat and Roger daltry will voice hookah smoking caterpillar
We will learn more about how the Knave has history in Storybrooke (or the enchanted forest rather)
We will also learn more about Jafar's past
There will be some twists involving traditional fairy tales and their own twists.
It will be one complete story within one season, if successful it will continue with another complete story.

I did not get video, but here is one I found on youtube that is from the opposite side of the room as my photos:

SEE MORE SDCC HERE

#SDCC #OUAT Panel - Once Upon a Time

The OUAT Panel was pretty amazing. I really enjoy panels that have special things prepared.

On the panel:

Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Robert Caryle, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O'Donoghue and Michael Raymond James, along with executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

One of my most fave parts of this panel was "Good Morning Storybrooke" video which I have to share with you because it was so awesome:

Some details:

We will see Tinkerbell and a surprising connection to someone in Storybrooke on the panel today
Peter Pan has "complicated motivation" and may be seen as a bit scary or evil
Show will run 11 episodes in Fall then 11 episodes in Spring to avoid the big breaks and mixed up schedules again.
We discussed all the relationships being shipped (Swan Queens for example) writers mentioned they get a lot of tweets about who fans want together and reminded fans to be respectful of each other.
A same-sex relationship may be coming, but they want to do it right and celebrate love
Parrilla's fave kill is coming this season
Hook (O'Donoghue) is a real gentleman, until his leather jacket is on then he is "a spicy gentleman" says Morrison. He adds that he is a mix of Princess Bride and his friends
Talked about climing a screen screen with one hand (O'Donaghue) and having to bite it and get bruised up (Morrison)

Here is the "trailer" they showed introducing a red haired mermaid coming next season:

Here is the panel I found online, as I didn't record the session:

See more of my SDCC here

Day Three SDCC 2013

Friday at SDCC. My main goal was to get into Hall H for Veronica Mars, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Sony Screen Gems. We went to line at 8am and after 8.5 hours of waiting in line, we got into Hall H.

The line went around Hall H, down the street by Bayfront, along the water (wrapped up/down three rows worth) down around the Symphony Stage and along the water to the parking lot.

Sadly at that time the following things had occured:

Missed Veronica Mars
Missed Walking Dead, but saw Norman Reedus wave from the rooftop
Missed Game of Thrones, cried a bit as cosplayers for Game of Thrones left the Hall H line that they had sat in for hours like us
left the line to use the bathroom, which had no t.p. thank goodness I had stuff in my bag to use
got heart burn from living off of trail mix, gatorade, bottled water and dried fruit snacks
sun burned patched of my arms that were not correctly sunscreened due to being hung over and under rested
burned the top of my head/scalp from sun beating down on us
rubbed black ink all over my face when the magazine I was using as a fan began to make my hands black and my hands began to make my face black as I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
sat on sidewalks, curbs, grassy areas, cement areas, by the water, along the road, under the Hall H line tents and finally in a seat inside.
met amazing SDCC fans
collected some more Ender's Game buttons from "recruiters"
complained enough that I am shocked no one around me smacked me upside the head

Charming right? It was a rough day for sure. Besides being hung over from the night before, getting 2 hours sleep only, and dealing with hot sun beating down on me, we waited a very long time only to miss everything.

Amazing cosplay. When we all didn't get into Game of Thrones panel these guys left and we all gave them a round of applause.

It felt this year, like there were more lines, more camping out (for hall h and just to get IN to the convention) I don't know that this was because of Twilight fans in the past setting the bar high, or if people actually enjoy laying in a sleepinng bag on the sidewalks of San Diego, but it was pretty crazy this year!

Anyhow, I did enjoy Sony Screen Gems (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Robocop, Moral Instrument, Spiderman 2) amazing stars, amazing clips, trailers, surprises and a fun time.

Metallica was also incredible. Their new movie is 3-D and looks like a pretty interesting film. They also gave our tickets for a secret concert that night, I didn't win, sadly. I felt the process was b.s. they hadn't given out all the tickets yet, but the winning #s were put on the board. Then we got tickets, and the same numbers won, but some people who just got tickets won, so how easy was it to just find the "winning #" to win? total bs but ah well.

Here are some cool things we did see along the journey:

Minion Blimp! I saw this at Long Beach airport when I left SDCC also!

We did not make it INSIDE, but Norman Reedus came to us, kinda of, Still very cool!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 panel

Mortal INstruments Panel

Robo Cop panel

Metallica movie panel

Amy and I went to dinner and chillaxed that evening after a long day.Much more to say and share, but I do indeed need some sleep... check back soon!

MORE SDCC HERE

Friday, July 19, 2013

In Memory of... those lost on Game of Thrones (from Comic-Con)

Day Two SDCC 2013

What a busy day! I had an opportunity to interview some of the cast of Divergent and attend the press conferences. I did not make it into the panel, sadly, because the press conference ended only 20 minutes before the panel and it was in Hall H. So I took that time to relax and upload pics from the press conference and interview (Watch video HERE)

Then I went to the Scholastic Party which was amazing. They had fantastic food, a photo booth, swag bag of new books, authors of those books, and the reveal of the new Harry Potter book cover, which the artist was signing (lithographs of them)

I mingled and saw a few familiar faces... including the adorable Erik Odom

There was a great swag bag of books and I had some of the author sign them....

My bag was heavy and I sat down to sort everything out and started chatting to a beautiful young lady, who I embarrassingly did not recognize because I do not watch Castle. Those of you who DO watch Castle will know Molly Quinn, but I didn't and once we introduced ourselves and talked more she told me she was an actress and so on and so forth. She was super chill, we did some photobooth photos together and I met her friends she was with. We actually ended up taking a taxi together to Hard Rock where she had a party upstairs and I was attending a party downstairs.

I was still in sneakers and casual clothes so I whipped back to the hotel to "prettify" and took a bike taxi to the party. You saw before photos above, here is an after photo ha ha.... I never get dolled up so it was fun for once...

As I was entering so was Grey Damon, who I had met at my hotel the night before and got photos with. He remembered me and we chatted. Later someone came up to me "you came with Grey right?" bahaha no, we just arrived at the same time. I went to get a pic with him later in the night after I had consumed sevceral cocktails. We tried, tried, but I kept cutting myself out so he did the photo finally...

The party was pretty epic, the cast of Ender's Game and Divergent were there and other awesome people (celebrities, producers, stunt doubles, authors, just cool people in general) I had some drinks, danced, mingled, got some really great photos with people who are pretty amazing and just had an amazing evening. I have a lot of photos from the party, I tweeted a few and can post some more later, but for now I just want to enjoy them for me =) Here are a couple cute ones...

Theo James and I with Shailene Woodley photobomb peeking behind

Mekhi Phifer and I - his lovely wife took this photo

Shailene Woodley and I

Asa Butterfield (Ender's Game) and I making goofy faces at the camera

I have so many great pics, I hope I can make prints and do a scrapbook... so much fun!

It was an incredible night, however, I did lose my wallet, but luckily it was my mini-going out wallet so I didn't have all of my cash or my passport or any major valuables in there. Still sucks big time though! I got home really late and slept very little before startingon Day Three of SDCC 2013.

EPIC Night!!