Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:14PM3 comments ›
Thu Jul 24, 2008 — by Van Jensen
SDCC: Geek Chic Jumps the Shark?
Paris Hilton invades
There are no shortage of reminders of the lack of attention span in today's culture, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that there's already some murmurings that "geek chick" has "jumped the shark." At the very least, those are two phrases that are well beyond cliché.
The Hollywood Reporter gives some thought to the sentiment that this year's massive Comic-Con marks the moment the tide shifts away from all things nerdy, with the ominous mention that -- gasp! -- Paris Hilton is doing San Diego. (No, not the whole city.)
There is talk that despite the high numbers of conventiongoers, or maybe in spite of them, Comic-Con as a measure of geek cool may have reached a tipping point.
Critics are pointing to the scheduled appearances by tabloid mainstays Paris Hilton, who will join Thursday night's panel for Lionsgate's "Repo! The Genetic Opera" as well as host a party, and fellow party girl Kim Kardashian, who is supposed to hit DC Comics' party Friday night before appearing at a "Disaster Movie" panel Saturday. When Comic-Con becomes fodder for the Us Weekly crowd, has the event nuked the fridge? Folks wonder.
"This may be the 2012 of Comic-Cons," said one comic writer-turned-screenwriter, referring to the year on the Mayan calendar that signals the end of the world.
Seriously, one "writer-turned-screenwriter" (whatever the hell that means) made an off the cuff remark and now the comic book renaissance is ending?
Jump to comments (3) 
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Comments (3)
mike weber (12:21 AM on Fri Jul 25, 2008)
I like "nuked the fridge" for a replacement for "jumped the shark" - for the next fifteen minutes or so, anyway.
Vinnie Bartilucci (9:27 AM on Fri Jul 25, 2008)
What's happening is that films and projects less and less connected to comics are coming to comic-con to gear up the fans. So when those projects start to tank, the general belief in Hollywood will suddenly be that "going to Comic-Con doesn't work" and it'll fall off. GI JOE coming to the con makes sense; it's been a comic for years. The Day The Earth Stood Still? Not as much a connection. It's nice to see Keanu Reeves I suppose, but you'll notice seeing Gambit on screen got much more of a pop that hearing (a) Gort will be in tDtESS.
Again, they never admit/realize that their product might not be good enough to generate interest, it's always that it wasn't marketed right, or the internet fans (the very ones they courted beforehand to CREATE buzz) ruined everything by finding out the spoilers and telling everyone the film sucked, or some other damnfool thing.
The part that's so odd is that while SDCC is getting bigger every year, it's not reflecting the growth of the industry as much. It's more that more current fans are making the trip to the show, not that there's a larger base of fans, and the same percentage of a larger base means more attendees.
And have you noticed that more and more the reporting is using "CCI" and not "SDCC" as the acronym of choice? I wonder if that goes back to the idea that other cities are courting the show?
I'm rather surprised that Worldcon (the World Science-Fiction Convention) hasn't tried to become more of a mecca for the entertainment industry. Most likely it's because not only is it in a different city (country, sometimes) each year, it's a whiole different team running it, so there's no guarantee that there'll be anyone who knows how to set those events up.
Rick Taylor (12:01 PM on Fri Jul 25, 2008)
It is kind of frightening that that HOLLYWEIRD is taking it's lead on 'what's cool' from the fanboy set.
Next TARGET will dhave Tommy Hilfiger design a line of inexpensive furniture to look like you parent's basement.
Just kidding!