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[07/28/07 - 01:21 PM]
Live at the San Diego Comic-Con: "Heroes"
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)

Please note: As a courtesy, please do not reproduce these comments to newsgroups, forums or other online places. Links only please.

12:52 p.m. - Hey kids it's day three! The sellout crowd is as crazy as you can imagine. But we'll save those details for later. Anyway, for those just joining us - please forgive any spelling and/or grammatical errors as I'm literally typing this as it happens. So with that in mind Jeph Loeb is here! He promises us some exciting announcements.

12:54 p.m. - And here comes the cast, most of which are wearing fun shirts. Jack Coleman's says "I'm just a paper salesman" with a pair of horn rimmed glasses. Noah is here (but no crazy shirt.) James Kyson Lee is here. Grunny's shirt notes that "Milo Is My Hero." Sendhil is here. Ali doesn't have anything crazy on her shirt... and we're cool with that. Masi's shirt notes that "Hayden Is My Hiro." (For those who remember last year, the cast wore shirts in solidarity for those who couldn't make it.) But it's a lie! Hayden is here. Adrian Pasdar is here (and clean shaven). Zachary Quinto - a.k.a. the new Spock - is here. And there's a new kid on the block - Dania Ramirez. Milo is here (and still with short locks). Tim Sale is here. And rounding out the bunch is the man himself, Tim Kring. (No Leonard Roberts again, which will undoubtedly add more fuel to the fire he's not coming back full time.)

1:02 p.m. - Tim issues the crowd a warm thank you for all their support.

1:03 p.m. - Jeph reveals the winners of a pair of contests - the graphic novel artist winner is Andrew Chandler while the music video winner is "Destiny Calls." I assume you can find more about this at NBC.com.

1:05 p.m. - Someone tells Grunny he and his wife love his character. "Yes, I swing," Grunny quips. The fan says his wife has a present for him, prompting Grunny to reveal he has his own present - he takes off his shirt (revealing another "Milo Is My Hero" t-shirt underneath) and gives it to him.

1:08 p.m. - A fan asks about the cast's favorite moments from season one. Among the highlights - James: the first time he set foot on the Linderman set, Sendhil: "Being alive at the end," Grunny: five years in the future "when I got to be a badass... that and working with Adrian Pasdar," Adrian: echoes Sendhil's sentiments "and working with Greg Grunberg"; Hayden: jumping out of the window; Milo: "being a total badass in the future and actually stopping Greg Grunberg's badass advances," Zachary: "I shot Greg Grunberg in the chest four times," Jack: being upped from guest star to series regular and Tim: premiering the pilot at Comic-Con last year ("I had never see the pilot screened in anything other than a 10X10 editing bay.")

1:13 p.m. - More thanks to the fans from Tim.

1:15 p.m. - Jeph says they're going to show us "something special." The person running the projector accidentally shows something we're not supposed to see yet - part of a clip from "Volume Two." Anywho, the point was to show us a piece of artwork from Alex Ross and Jim Lee which will be used as the cover to the "Heroes" graphic novel.

1:17 p.m. - The cast is asked what their favorite part of being on "Heroes" is. "Being loved by you," Ali says while Hayden jokes, "My family up here, my brothers and sisters and many dads." Grunny notes, "Sitting next to Sendhil - he is gorgeous!" And the two proceed to make out. Funny stuff.

1:22 p.m. - Scoop! Tim reveals Kevin Smith will be writing and directing one of the "Heroes: Origins" episodes. And he's here to talk about it! It's news that's so new - Tim and Kevin have never met face to face. "I was like, 'I would love to write and direct an episode about the two gay heroes,'" Kevin jokes. "And he said, 'What are you talking about?' And I said, 'You know, the Japanese dudes!' And he was like, 'I don't think you understand the show at all.' And then he explained what it was and I was like, 'Oh, alright I'll do that too.'" He later adds, all kidding aside: "I don't want to be the guy who ruins 'Heroes.'"

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I had to step out at this point for "Supernatural's" press event. The following is pulled from the transcript after the panel.]

1:35 p.m. - Someone asks about what aspects from their own personality the actors brought to their characters. Grunny answers, "Masi Oka likes to go commando." James later adds, "I guess I brought my enthusiasm for women."

1:39 p.m. - Danny Bonaduce - wait a second, Danny Bonaduce? (yes, it really was him) - asks if the actors are scared to read the script each week knowing they could probably be killed off at any time. "It keeps you on your toes and it's what keeps you guys watching right?" Ali says. "You know, it's the nature of the show," Grunny adds. Danny follows up with, "[Once] you get off a hit show, the rest of your life kind of sucks."

1:46 p.m. - Someone asks Tim if we'll ever see Uluru, the character featured on the cover of the comic Micah was reading the pilot. "That character actually exists in the world of 9th Wonders which is the comic book that was introduced in the pilot that Noah's character read," he responds. "So if you pay attention to the pilot and you saw 9th Wonders that was actually on the cover. That cover art actually existed in Isaac's loft... so it only exists in that idea."

1:55 p.m. - Tim on how the show will end: "This show doesn't really present or posit an ending. That's no final moment... so you can watch the pilot and think, 'Where's the ending to that?' Obviously in the first season, it's about saving the world and we did that so the idea is to reinvent the show each season with the idea of [these] volumes. Season one just happened to be 23 episodes long... Volume Two started at the end of season one, the last minutes of season one. It may or may not be an entire season long."

1:59 p.m. - A female fan asks - followed by thunderous applause - if they'll ever create a strong female character that isn't a cheerleader or a stripper. Jeph says to keep an eye out for Maya, Dania's character, as well as Monica, a fellow newcomer from New Orleans. Tim adds that "Heroes" has "become a show that defies expectations so when you meet these characters... they become something more, they find the hero within them."

2:01 p.m. - Hayden mentions - during a question about being a young actor in a challenging series - that she'll turn 18 next month. This is followed by several guys in the crowd yelling and clapping. Way to stay classy San Diego!

2:03 p.m. - A fan asks about Milo and Hayden's reaction after learning they were niece and uncle, considering they kind of flirted the first time they met. Hayden notes that it wasn't really ever the case - he's about 30 on the show while she's 15.

2:07 p.m. - The cast reveals they initially auditioned for other roles on the show - Milo for Isaac, Greg for Peter. The latter jokes, "Had I [gotten] that part, Hayden and I would not be related." Sendhil adds that the role of Mohinder came down to him and "a really nice 55-year-old gentleman." (The character was originally Mohinder's father in the pilot script.) Grunny and co. then egg him on to say his oft-repeated line - "my father's research."

2:09 p.m. - Tim talks about trying to "harness the power that's right here in this room" to actually do some real good in the world via 9thWonders.com. "In a couple of months I'm gonna be doing an open dialogue with everybody to discuss how to do that."

2:13 p.m. - Hey it's the footage (barely a minute total) we weren't supposed to see before! In short - glimpses of Peter cowering in a corner, Claire removing her own toe (yes, you read that right), samurais, Sylar being his creepy self, Takezo Kensei removing his mask to reveal David Anders, Matt looking after a little girl, Angela Petrelli talking to a bearded Nathan plus brief shots of Hiro, Mohinder and Ando.

2:15 p.m. - And that's a wrap! I'll be adding a "non"-live blog of the "Battlestar Galactica" panel - which I also missed due to press scheduling conflicts - shortly.





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· HEROES (NBC)
· SAN DIEGO COMIC CON (TFC)





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