This week has been painfully slow in the way of industry news. Most of us are assuming that’s because next week will be the San Diego Comic-Con, the little comic book convention that has turned into a huge place for movie and television news. One studio, however, has decided they won’t be making the news next week. In fact, probably the only thing you’ll be hearing about from Fox over the next week is how they pulled out from the convention.
That’s right, Twentieth Century Fox pulled out from Comic-Con yesterday, just a week before the huge geekfest begins. With them goes information on Jumper (starring Hayden Christensen), Aliens vs. Predator, Vin Diesel’s Babylon A.D., the upcoming Hitman video game adaptation, as well as teasers for The Dark Is Rising and City of Ember. Filmmakers and actors that were scheduled to promote these flicks are off the schedule as well.
The news comes from the Los Angeles Times, who reported that Fox pulled everything because clips from its effects-heavy films aren’t ready. Wait a minute, doesn’t Hitman open in about two months? They couldn’t even promote that one? Or are they sitting on a bomb that they don’t want to prematurely light a fuse on?
This is a huge blow for Fox, who is now missing a chance to really meet with the target audience for these movies and increase interest. For their sake I hope they really don’t have their material ready, and this isn’t just a dumb move by some blind executive somewhere who doesn’t realize the potential of the convention appearance.
