In Bed with Christina Lauren
It’s been too long since our last interview with our author besties, but we remedied that with an interview in bed with Christina Lauren. Yes, we make New York Times Bestselling authors sit on our bed in their bare feet to talk to us.
That interview is coming SOON (video! podcast!), but we fangirled over their latest masterpiece Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, got some updates on their book-to-film/book-to-tv progress and caught up on where they are NOW vs. 5 years ago when we had our last hotel-room interview! We will let you know when get this awesome interview up AS SOON as we do!
BekahCon
It’s no secret that I (Bekah) am the least geeky of the crew. I don’t follow comics, ask who everyone is incessantly during Marvel films, and mostly go to SDCC because it gives me street cred* and I like to hang with my friends.
But Friday was BekahCon. There’s usually a day during SDCC where I say I’ll spend it at the pool, sleep in and Uber to the best coffee shop San Diego has to offer for an overpriced pour over coffee. Friday was that day.
After our C&Lo interview, the girls all left for the COMICCon and I started BEKAHCon. BekahCon, sadly, didn’t include the pool, but I pondered a nap (did one of those things where I laid on the bed for 30 minutes questioning if I should nap or not), ran a few miles to Little Italy where I had a great cup of coffee at Bird Rock Coffee and then walked into a place called Herb and Eatery and had THE WORLD’S BEST SALAD.
I’m not kidding— it was a poké avocado salad with the most delicious HUGE chunks of marinated tuna, black sesame seeds, KIMCHEE, greens and the sort of spice that falls from trees in heaven. I was audibly moaning. I also caught up on my podcasts, I enjoyed the San Diego sun, and I was reminded that BekahCon is the best con of all time.
*I actually DO learn some things, guys! It’s the one time of year I stock up on pop culture knowledge and take pics of hot celebs to make that one girl from high school I’m still Facebook friends with jealous because she REALLY loves Jason Momoa.
Castle Rock Premiere
Those of us that LIKE comics and pop culture (everyone but Bekah) had a very busy Friday full of not eating good food – or at all – and absolutely zero naps. Katy stealthily headed out before sunrise to make into Ballroom 20 for KatyCon, aka The Vikings panel (more on that later from her), and after we finished our mimosas with Christina Lauren, Nikki, Julie and I (Beth) hightailed it to the Ballroom 20 line ourselves to get in there in time for Hulu’s newest creation, Castle Rock.
One of the best things about Comic-Con are the surprises: you head into a panel expecting to hear showrunners gab and see actors preen, but sometimes Stan Lee pops down for a chat, or they send the entire crowd to an exclusive Star Wars concert, or, in this case, they show you the world premiere of the pilot episode of what will be everyone’s favorite new show. Castle Rock is a fictional town in Maine created by Stephen King, the setting of some of his novels and short stories, and one of the triad of fictional Maine towns that make the world his books are based in. Most of his works, even if not set there, refer to it in some way. The show, produced by none other than JJ Abrams, explores the themes and worlds uniting King’s entire canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.
The pilot begins with the warden of Shawshank – yes, that Shawshank, committing suicide and in the process dredging up all kinds of crazy mysteries around the town. We were all engrossed from the opening shot, and the tension and surprised and WTFs did not let up. We were also lucky enough to hear from the cast about making the show and what we can expect as the season airs. Sam Shawn, Dusty Thomason, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Lynsky (whose accent always surprises me), Jane Levy and Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgård LITERALLY surprised us as the light came up and they were there on stage. The show is incredibly watchable – think a King novel mixed with Lost. You need it.
EW’s Brave New Warriors … this time with no Sam Heughan
Staying in your great seats for the panel after next is a Comic-Con staple, so after Castle Rock, we chilled with the boys on this year’s EW Brave New Warriors panel, a panel that by all accounts is an excuse to ask hot actors about sex scenes, muscles and their favorite innuendos. That’s right: it’s super uncomfortable. However, sometimes you get really great actors on this panel who are good at making jokes, making fun of themselves, telling stories, deferring to their peers and diffusing tension. (Sometimes this panel is the opposite of those things, and it makes you want to bleed your ears dry, but I digress).
This year Lynette Rice forced the audience to objectify the following bags of meat: Benedict Wong (from Dr. Strange and Deadly Class), Dylan Bruce (from Orphan Black and Texas Midnight – which is apparently still on TV), Santiago Cabrera (Salvation), Jay Hernandez (Magnum P.I.), Eoin Macken (Nightflyers), Tom Ellis (Lucifer) and Stephen Moyer (from True Blood and The Gifted). Good chemistry on this panel can elevate it to something actually fun to partake in (see Chris Meloni and David Harbour and Rik Rankin from 2017). Thankfully, this year, we had Tom Ellis.
The p.
I don’t know what we would have done without him, but I do know this: we all need to start watching Lucifer.
Glass in Hall H
Next up was a trek to Hall H to make sure that we got photos and slow mo vids of the hottest panels of the day: Glass, Bumblebee and Venom. M. Night Shyamalan brought the first Glass trailer to the hall and also brought out the stars: Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis, Sarah Paulson and Anya Taylor-Joy. Glass is a surprise sequel to his recent, Split, starring James McAvoy (who was filming and couldn’t be there) – bringing the superhero world he created in Unbreakable into trilogy territory.
The trailer looks creepy as HECK.
Tom Hardy and Venom… but mostly Tom Hardy… and Riz Ahmed
Sure, I’m excited that Sony is expanding the Spider-verse with the Miles Morales animated film, and the Venom movie, who wouldn’t be? But I’m really mostly psyched because that means we’ll get to see Tom Hardy as a super hero (tho a creepy looking one) this time and not the villain. In Venom, Tom will play a journalist (the real heroes we need), Eddie Brock who attempts to revive his career by investigating the Life Foundation but instead comes into contact with an alien symbiote (WTF?!), becomes one with it (again, WTF) and they then share a body and super powers (triple WTF).
Now, I know this is not the usual lady bait that a Tom Hardy movie might be, but Venom ALSO stars Riz Ahmed from Rogue One, a Star Wars story or that awful story arc from Girls… either way, we’re down for anything Riz is in. Tom + Riz + weird alien = opening night tickets.
PLUS this movie is not just a Sony attempt at a Marvel movie, it’s supposed co-produced by Marvel and if Spider-man Homecoming was any indication, this pairing is a GOOD thing. See Venom October 5, 2018.
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Team Dinner
And because being on Team TN at SDCC means we eat through the best restaurants in San Diego, Nikki got us Friday night reservations at Kettner Exchange where, after a cocktail start, the wine was flowing, the small plates kept coming, and we had a memorable dinner with good conversation and got out of there right as it became a meat market dance party and we REALLY felt our age (not 22).
We capped off our night with a stop into BarCon (The hotels host parties in their bars or lobbies where people casually hang out with other nerds) and one of us chatted up the hottest guy in the room and had her drink paid for. Spoiler: it was Julie. But we all enjoyed it.
