'Twilight' dominates Comic Con, drawing thousands

[July 24, 2009]  SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Most camped out overnight. Some spent two nights outside the San Diego Convention Center. They wore homemade T-shirts, made friends with fellow fans and talked about their allegiance to Team Edward or Team Jacob.

They are the "Twilight" fangirls, and they came to Comic Con by the thousands to see the movie's stars in person at a panel Thursday for the film's sequel.

Director Chris Weitz was joined by Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Ashley Greene. High-pitched screams drowned out the introductions.

Those same shrill screams (of joy) also threatened to overwhelm the dialogue during the clips filmmakers showed.

The first showed Jacob (Lautner) teaching Bella Swan (Stewart) how to ride a motorcycle, but she's distracted by visions of the vampire Edward (Pattinson) with whom she fell in love. She crashes, and Jacob sheds his T-shirt and uses it to soothe her wound, provoking more fangirl screams. Lautner famously gained more than 20 pounds of muscle for the role.

A second clip featured Bella running through Italy to save Edward. He, too, doffs his top in the scene. Screams ensue.

So many women and girls relate to the "Twilight" series because they identify with Bella, Stewart said.

"Because it's a first-person narrative and you're always so very inside of her head, I don't know, it's just closer to home," she said. "You feel like it's not happening to someone else, like it's happening to you."

Fourteen-year-old Tori Kaiser waited more than 24 hours for her seat near the front during the "Twilight" exhibition.

"It was so worth it," she said. "I had this big Taylor Lauter poster and he pointed at me twice and waved at me, so my life is totally complete right now. I'm, like, really happy."

Attending her first Comic Con, Kaiser planned to hit the Summit Entertainment booth on the convention's main floor to see what kind of "Twilight" swag she could snag.

Lautner said the overwhelming response from fans bolstered the cast's performance in "New Moon."

On the first film, "we didn't know the reaction we would get," he said. With the sequel, "we were more confident because we know we have you behind us."

"New Moon" opens November 20.

Other fan-fueled highlights from Comic Con Thursday:

• James Cameron showed never-before-seen footage from his anticipated 3D adventure, "Avatar." Conventioneers wearing 3D glasses spent more than 20 minutes immersed in the otherworldly Pandora, a faraway planet where humans embody avatars rather than brave the landscape themselves. "Avatar" opens Dec. 18.

• Johnny Depp briefly joined director Tim Burton on stage for a sneak peek at "Alice in Wonderland," set to hit theaters in March of 2010. The 3D Disney tale, which Burton described as his most challenging film yet, also stars Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway.

• Jeff Bridges returns to the world of "TRON," 27 years after the original film. He joined the film's director and cast to present concept sketches and a brief clip from the futuristic tale of life in a digital world. The film is due in 2010.

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On the Net:

Comic Con: http://www.comic-con.org/

[Associated Press; By SANDY COHEN]

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