Festival Season 2018

I like crying a lot on film, but not necessarily in public,” said Andrew Lincoln in a special conversation at the HFPA's Comic-Con lounge yesterday. “So when I finished the (Hall H) panel yesterday, it was very emotional directly afterward.

Bill Skarsgård terrified moviegoers worldwide last year as Pennywise the Clown in the $700 million-grossing smash hit It, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. He’ll soon be unnerving viewers again, in a slightly different way.

Once again, the HFPA is at Comic-Con with a dedicated lounge overlooking the proceedings and steady streams of special guests, old and new, who stop by to chat about their current projects as they head to Hall H, meet fans or simply to people watch in what is the biggest cos-play convention in the world. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould pulled double duty this year, as authors of Better Call Saul and creators of Breaking Bad, which had its 10th Anniversary Reunion here.

Once again, the HFPA is at Comic-Con with a dedicated lounge overlooking the proceedings and steady streams of special guests, old and new, who stop by to chat about their current projects as they head to Hall H, meet fans or simply to people watch in what is the biggest cos-play convention in the world. The HFPA's Mirai Konishi and Gabriel Lerman talked to Bob Odenkirk about the upcoming Fourth Season of Better Call Saul.

Gone were the days when only ultrafans and memorabilia collectors gathered to celebrate the fantastic. Comic-Con is big business, and every studio, channel and production company makes sure to bring out the best - stars! props! activations! - to entice the crowds.

Going to Comic-Con this year couldn't have been a more rewarding experience for Bob Odenkirk. It started with a reunion with the rest of the cast of Breaking Bad in front of the cameras of the Conan show on Wednesday night, and then it continued the next day with the first panel in the history of Better Call Saul in Hall H.

By her own admission, Sissy Spacek is inextricably linked to Stephen King, owing to her starring role in 1976’s Carrie, for which she was nominated for the first of her six Academy Award nods; eight nominations and three Golden Globes would eventually also stack up. “Fifteen years ago, this girl who couldn’t have been more than 17 came running up to me, pulled her sleeve down and showed me a tattoo of Carrie holding the flowers, with the crown, but no blood,” the actress told the HFPA in a special conversation at Comic-Con 2018.

Reunion gatherings are a tricky thing. Held too soon, sometimes not enough time has passed to either create or sustain a nostalgic appreciation for days gone by; held too late, they sometimes merely turn into a meandering rehash of hazy recollections.

It's a rite of Summer: if it's mid-July, fanboys and fangirls will be flocking to San Diego in a form of pilgrimage better known as Comic-Con International. The event, now a mandatory stop for stars and filmmakers of the pop/sci-fi/genre persuasion and a huge business for the city of San Diego, started out as an act of pure fan passion.

Jay Hernandez has experienced a pronounced change in his fashion sense recently. “My closet is basically all black (clothes), but when you get on an island it doesn’t feel right,” he told us with a laugh when he stopped by the HFPA Comic-Con lounge.