Reporters line up outside the press-conference room at the Hilton on the Bay, San Diego, that will soon host Roger Corman and William Shatner. // photo by Michael E. Bakich
Today was the day I looked forward to when I signed up for Comic-Con. At 2:30 p.m., two giants in the history of science-fiction cinema — director Roger Corman and actor William Shatner — would appear at a press conference. And I’d be there.
I arrived at the designated room in the Hilton on the Bay, San Diego, 15 minutes early. By the time the organizers from the Epix Channel opened the doors, roughly 60 members of the press had queued up. Inside, we found round tables that accommodated 10 people each, plus an extra — empty — chair.
Corman, Shatner, and others arrived a few minutes later and took to the open seats at each table. They allotted each group about 10 minutes to hear and ask questions about their latest ventures, before, as if playing musical chairs, they moved to interact with the next group. Corman’s
Attack of the 50-foot Cheerleader (in 3-D) will air August 25 at 10 p.m. EST, and Shatner’s documentary,
Get A Life, will air at 8 p.m. EST July 28. Both projects will debut on the Epix Channel.
Shatner (center) and Corman (left, entering the doorway) were the stars of this event. Before they arrived, we killed time by discussing our favorite Corman movies and Shatner TV shows. // photo by Michael E. Bakich
Because our table was just to the right of the door, one of Roger Corman’s handlers led him toward us, making our group his first stop. I was struck by how pleasant a man he was. He answered every question in detail and seemed to relish the attention.
I asked him about making classic science-fiction movies (
It Conquered the World,
Attack of the Crab Monsters, and
The Little Shop of Horrors, to name just a few) and how much science entered into his writing and directorial formulations.
“It absolutely does,” he said, “and here’s how: In all my movies, I have asked the audience to accept only one fantastic premise. Just one. If they do that, the rest of the film stays consistent with the science of the world around us in the context of that premise.”
“So, for my latest effort,” he continued, “I ask the audience to believe that someone can become 50 feet tall. That’s certainly fantastic. But everything else is consistent with what we’re all familiar with.”
Roger Corman, 86, exuded a childlike enthusiasm as he chatted away about his new project, Attack of the 50-foot Cheerleader. // photo by Michael E. Bakich
Corman also discussed some of the technical details involved in producing this film in 3-D and the flak he thought the film would take for perhaps being regarded as exploitative. “We haven’t had any criticism at all,” he said, attributing this to “the fact that it’s done with humor and that we take the girls seriously; we don’t put them down.”
About 40 minutes later, our table was the final stop for Shatner. In 1999, three decades after NBC canceled
Star Trek (the original series), the man who played Captain James Tiberius Kirk appeared in a comedy skit on
Saturday Night Live spoofing Star Trek conventions and fans. Actors Dana Carvey, Kevin Neilon, and Jon Lovitz, each playing a rabid Trekker, asked questions about the minutiae of
Star Trek, prompting Shatner to lash out and urge them to “Get a life!”
William Shatner, 81, neither looks nor sounds his age. His high-energy interaction with our group left all of us wishing we had days to spend with him, and not just minutes. // photo by Michael E. Bakich
That three-word utterance became the title of an autobiography Shatner wrote the same year. Now, more than 40 years since the original series aired, he’s produced a documentary by the same name. I guess if it works, why change it?
At the press conference, Shatner told us he wrote that fans “are coming to these conventions to see each other, renew old friendships, and be part of a community. That was the conclusion that I came to in the book, but when I asked that question again years later — this year — and made a documentary, I concluded that conclusion was very surface, that in fact there was something very mystical and ritualistic and sociological about these conventions and that they have a far deeper meaning than even the people themselves know. And that is the conclusion of the documentary.”
Was it good fortune or sly planning that got me the prime seat next to our guests at the press conference? I’ll just say that no money changed hands. // photo by Donald Harrison/San Diego Jewish World
follows another retrospective film Shatner made last year. One person at our table asked him why he kept looking back. “I’m dying,” he said. “Well I am — it’s just when? I am not making them because I want to leave a legacy. I don’t even know what that word means. It’s just that I am having a sense of an entirety. I am beginning to see the whole. I am being given the opportunity by Epix to do that — to make these documentaries.”
I’m thankful to Epix for inviting me to be part of this press conference. Meeting Roger Corman and William Shatner truly was the highlight of my trip to Comic-Con 2012.