Quick Note on the Famous Monsters of Filmland Convention

As you know, I spent the last weekend in Indianapolis at the Famous Monsters of Filmland Convention.  It was a special event to kick off the republication of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, which was the Holy Grail of magazines for us Monster Kids.  The convention was appropriately spectacular for such an event.  A huge thanks to FMoF publisher Phil Kim and his entire staff for both setting up the convention and for bringing the icon of monster mags back to the bookstores. (For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about, check out the history of FMoF.)

The main attraction for me was the three Dead reunions -- some of the cast and crew from Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead were in attendance.  It was such a pleasure meeting these people.  The panel discussions when they all related their stories of the making of the movies were fascinating.  After each panel, the movie was shown on a large screen as if you were seeing it in a movie theater.  Now that was awesome.

I also spent an interesting morning watching two recent pilots for the reimaging of Irwin Allen's Time Tunnel and Lost in Space.  Time Tunnel was fantastic, and in my opinion rivaled Battlestar Galactica for quality and plot.  Unfortunately, these series will not see the light of day for awhile.  CBS wanted to pick up Time Tunnel for showing, but Fox TV had the right of first rejection, bought the pilot, and then decided to air instead a show they thought would be a bigger hit -- Firefly.  Keep your fingers crossed that persistence pays off, because the new Time Tunnel would be a hit.

And finally, I watched the screening and had a nice talk with Gayle Gallagher (producer) and Wyatt Weed (director) of the upcoming vampire movie Shadowland.  It's not your traditional blood-and-fangs vampire movie, but is more of a vampire love story (without the tweens and glitter).  It's definitely worth checking out.

That's the highlights.  I plan to post some pictures from the convention this weekend when I have more time.  Until then, I'm devouring my new issues of FMoF and looking forward to next year's convention.