Fox bails on Con

Were you that one guy who was looking forward to seeing footage from ALIENS VS. PREDATOR 2 at Comic-Con this year? Sorry buddy – no can do. Fox has abruptly cancelled their planned presentation at this year’s Comic-Con just one week before the convention was about to kick-off. In addition to AVP2, Fox was also planning on promoting JUMPER, HITMAN, BABYLON AD, THE DARK IS RISING and CITY OF EMBER. Fox Atomic will still be promoting both DEATH SENTENCE and THE ROCKER and a separate SIMPSONS panel will still take place. Fox said in a statement, “The material wasn’t ready and we only want to go out when we can put our best foot forward.” They said that they hoped to still have some “surprises” at the Con but without any reserved space at Hall H, that might be difficult. Comic-Con Director of Marketing David Glanzer said, “Fox to pull out a week before is very unusual…every major studio has committed to show up and participate.” I don’t think it’s a huge loss for the Con, but still very unusual. I still was looking forward to seeing more on HITMAN and JUMPER and I’m curious how the Con officials will fill that void. Stay tuned for more as it develops… UPDATE – After looking into the situation, it seems the decision was the product of an ongoing dispute between the organizers of the Con and Fox. The Con people were trying to clean up their act after a lot of R-rated footage screened last year (300 and BORAT among others). Fox felt that didn’t jive with their line-up, hence the decision to sit this one out. Most of the footage was already cut though so expect to see a good deal of it making its way online sometime soon.