Back in February, rumours emerged that Super-Size Me director Morgan Spurlock and Buffy creator Joss Whedon were thinking about making a documentary abot Comic-Con, the massive San Diego based comic book convention that’s become a important launching ground for sci-fi and fantasy movies (as well as comic books), with Hollywood sending its best and brightest to get the geek fanboys in a lather about upcoming projects.
Now the documentary has been officially announced, and won’t just involve Spurlock and Whedon, but also has comic legend Stan Lee and Aint It Cool News’ super-geek founder Harry Knowles on the producing credits. The film will be called – in true geek style – Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fans Hope, and will see director Spurlock not just filming at Comic-Con itself, but also covering the three-months running up to the event.
/Film has the full press release, which states: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, producers Thomas Tull and Jeremy Chilnick along with comics icon Stan Lee, writer/producer Joss Whedon and online film guru Harry Knowles have joined together to bring audiences the feature length documentary Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fans Hope. The concept for the film is spurred by the ever-growing influence that San Diego Comic-Con continues to have on comics, film, television and pop-culture. The feature documentary will follow seven different people from across America, and around the world, as they descend upon and the veritable Mecca of fandom and experience the rapture that is Comic-Con…
CComic-Con Episode Four: A Fans Hope will begin shooting in June and culminate its principal photography at this years Comic-Con in July… The film will capture not only a moment in time that literally touches hundreds of thousands of people, but a world that inspires us all but more than anything else, it will show us that whether at home or away, in costume or not, en masse or alone, we should all have the courage and confidence to be ourselves.
It’ll be interesting to see what Spurlock does, as there’s a lot of debate with Comic-Con, over whether the massive explosion in its size and importance has been a boon for true geeks, giving them the chance to meet their heroes and get exclusive sneaks of upcoming projects, or whether its made it too commercial, drawn in a crowd of hangers-on who don’t understand what the event is really about (hence the anger some Comic-Con attendees had towards those who queued for the Twilight panel last year) and whether that’s diluted it for the hardcore elite. Of course, it could just be an excuse to look at socially inept people who like to dress up in costumes, and who find their kindred spirits at Comic-Con, but we’ll just have to wait and see.