Fannish Items of Interest

At Least 14 Dead, 50 Wounded At Batman Screening In Colorado. The story is still developing—some are saying it started during the previews, some during a scene with gunfire. For a while, they were saying two gunmen—it was one. Deepest sympathies to the victims and their families.

Grace Phipps joins the cast of The Vampire Diaries.

Jennifer Jason Leigh joins the cast of Revenge.

What Viacom and DirecTV Are Really Feuding Over: Epix.

DreamWorks set to buy major library of cartoon, comic characters.

The Dark Knight Rises breaks box office records for advance ticket sales.

A Company Of Women: Fabulous Female TV Ensembles.

Cocktails With Stan Lee: Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira talks about Stan Lee’s Comikaze.

Andy Warhol’s Batman? 10 Wacky And Forgotten Versions Of Famous Movies. Generation X is on this list.

SDCC 2012: Twitter-verse Questions With Kyle Higgins.

Belgium’s Open-Air Library. The main problems I can think of immediately would be rain, birds landing on things, mold, animals tearing things apart…

What It Would Really Be Like To Be Aquaman.

From Think Geek: Alien Chopsticks.

Boomerang Makes Big Schedule Changes Starting July 23 With 11 Shows Returning.

The hit films Hollywood studios didn’t want.

Comic Con 2012: Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, and more talk Doctor Who. There are spoilers for season 7.

Film Sack Podcast #124: The Game.

I'm Off To See The Dark Knight Rises

In about an hour, I'll be off to see The Dark Knight Rises. It starts at 11:30 AM, but given the insane traffic I hit when I went to see X-Men: First Class (which left me with 5 minutes to spare to get inside the building and run at top speed to find a seat) last year and the fact I might not find a seat if I don't go early, I'm going at 10 AM.

I bought tickets about a month in advance of the crowd, so I can just go right on in. I have avoided all spoilers, even if the local news keeps reporting on bits.

The Dark Knight Rises

I refuse to spoil the film for anyone that hasn’t seen it--but if there are comments, proceed at your own risk. I’ll only say four things:

1. The audience where I was burst into applause at the very end.
2. One person screamed out ‘Damn you, NOLAN!’
3. Overall, I definitely enjoyed it.
4. I got there so early that the person taking tickets knew I had to be a fan. "Couldn't wait? Want to only wait 5 minutes?" And since the 10:30 AM showing was starting within 5 minutes—I would be waiting an hour otherwise—he let me go into that one.

We ended up with the trailers for The Hobbit, Total Recall, Man of Steel, and a couple others I don't recall the names of.