Hot Stuff and Marvel-lous Guests At STGCC 2011

Things may actually get hot and drool-y at this year's STGCC in August 2011.

Red Dot Diva is already contemplating to wear a pair of sparkly wellingtons in case the hall gets flooded with drool whenever one of the key guests named Kipi appears.

Kipi who? She is an insanely popular international cosplay star, with super-kawaii looks set to make fanboys squee. (Trust Red Dot Diva. They do squee. Albeit in a different register.) Check out her blog and get a mental picture.

Kipi will be having meet the fans sessions and will also be a judge for the Cosplay@STGCC competition. So there will be a chance for fans to interact with her during STGCC.

And if Kipi is not one's cup of tea, there are still the Marvel comic folks who will be making their way to Singapore! YESSSS!!

Pixar's New "Brave" Scottish Heroine

At last! A spunky heroine princess who doesn't just sit around combing her hair, singing to little blue birds (or crabs... or talking furniture) and waiting for a darn prince to come.

Pixar will be featuring their first lead heroine in a full-length animation movie called "Brave". The feisty Scottish princess is called Merida and has a head full of wild, flaming red hair! Red Dot Diva luuurvves all things red.

Merida will be voiced by Kelly Macdonald ("Trainspotting", "Boardwalk Empire") and other voices will be done by Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Billy Connolly and Craig Ferguson.

A First Foray To A Comic Con - in Phoenix!

There is always a first time for everything!

One of Red Dot Diva's twitter friends Lindsay, decided to dip her toes into her first comic con recently. She attended the Phoenix ComiCon on the USA Memorial Day Weekend of May 26-29, 2011.

There was a really good list of guests for the convention including Aaron Douglas (best known for his role in the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot), Kristin Bauer ("True Blood"), Nicholas Brendon ("Buffy"/ "Criminal Minds") and Star Trek luminaries like George Takei, Leonard Nimoy and fan favourite Wil Wheaton. Plus many comic-related guests like David Petersen (creator of the Mouse Guard series), Michael Golden, Eisner award-winning artist Rob Guillory and yes, even Mr. Stan Lee!

And with that fantastic guest list was the record-breaking turnout of about 25,000 attendees for this year's Phoenix Comicon.

A definitely appropriate weekend for Lindsay to pop her comic con cherry.

Here's what she recounts from that weekend:

Smouldering Hotness In “Where The Road Meets The Sun”

There’s no easy cure for acute testosterone poisoning, Red Dot Diva sighs.

She is, after all, still feeling feverish from its effects even though Screen Singapore has already ended for more than two weeks.

The infection had begun on the fateful Friday just when the press conference for indie movie “Where The Road Meets The Sun” kicked off.

Set in Los Angeles, “Where The Road Meets The Sun” (WTRMTS) is an anthology about four angsty men from very different backgrounds who meet at a low-rent hotel. There is Blake (Eric Mabius) the depressed hotel manager with a mid-life crisis, Takashi (Will Yun Lee) the mysterious ex-yakuza with a past, Julio (Fernando Noriega) the illegal immigrant from Mexico and Guy (Luke Brandon-Field) the young charming backpacker from London who was estranged from his rich dad. Inevitably, they become enmeshed with each others’ lives and formed some tenuous bonds of friendship.

A Chance To Get SDCC Tickets!

(24 Jun - Post amended to incorporate new link for online resale of tickets)

Desperately needing a SDCC 2011 ticket?

There is a chance one might be able to snag it off from SDCC's website when the organizers put up 1,500 refunded 4-day tickets for sale.

For one thing, Red Dot Diva wonders about the myriad of reasons which led to such a large number of refunded tickets. In any case, she is sure the hoard of Twilight-crazed fans will be all poised to snap them up from the break of dawn.

So, if one wants to grab a ticket before the sparkly vamp-lovers chew 'em all up, do follow SDCC's twitter closely. Like a hawk.

There's only an hour's prior notice given before the tickets go up on sale!

The link for getting the tickets is RIGHT HERE.

Red Dot Diva cautions that one should read the instructions carefully too!

Good luck!

Felicia Day And David Finch To Be At NYCC 2011!

This is a RED Hot announcement!

A red-headed fan favourite will be making her way to NYCC 2011!

Felicia Day has just been announced as an Entertainment Guest today. "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" fans will remember Felicia as Vi in the cult TV series. She also had a role in the internet musical mini-series "Dr Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog".

In addition, Felicia is the star, producer and writer for "The Guild", an award-winning comedy web series about a group of online gamers.

She will be doing a Q and A panel during NYCC as well as signing autographs for fans.

Red Dot Diva is sure her presence at the convention will cause a wave of excited fan-squees.

Collin Chou Takes On A Different Role In "The Mural"

Chinese movie fans would definitely be familiar with action actor Collin Chou (邹兆龙). He has showed off his sleek martial arts moves in about 50 movies in the span of over 20 years in the film business.

To-date, Collin has traded blows with many popular action Asian movie stars like Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen.. and yes, even both Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

For the rest of the world, one would most likely remember him as Seraph the protector of the Oracle, in the scifi films "Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions". Red Dot Diva recalled that a shiver ran up her spine when that "Matrix Reloaded" trailer showing the snippet of Seraph battling with Neo was released. Yes!! An awesome Asian represent!

When it was announced that Collin was to be at Screen Singapore to promote the highly anticipated Chinese movie called "The Mural", Red Dot Diva just had to secure an interview with him.

A Few More STGCC 2011 Updates

The Singapore Toy Games and Comic Con (STGCC) is creeping up on the local geekdom. The two-day convention is only 9 weeks away!!

Red Dot Diva knows that fervent cosplayers would be happy to know that details of the cosplayer competition has already been announced. Up for grabs is the first prize of SGD 1,000 cash!!!

Click here for the competition information, but do register before closing date on 24 July 2011.

And for those aspiring artists, C.B. Cebulski (Senior Vice President, Creator and Content Developer from Marvel) will be back in town to do more portfolio reviews! To find out how to submit your portfolios, click to this page here.

Personally, Red Dot Diva is getting a little impatient about more guest announcements. The curiousity is getting harder to bear as the comic convention draws closer! Ugh.

There is a rumour that the design folks from Devilrobots will be back at this year's STGCC, but don't take Red Dot Diva's word for it.

To whet the appetite of comic lovers, Reed Exhibitions announced that Singpost will be launching an exclusive limited edition “Marvel Comics & Spiderman Ultimate 50 MyStamp Collection” featuring Marvel superheroes and Spiderman’s most unique 50 comic covers. If that is not enough superheroes BIFF-WHAM-BAM for you, SingPost will also be reproducing the very first comic book issue of Spiderman for sale during the convention!

In addition, local movie memorabilia company Popcorn Pop will be hosting a special superheroes gallery at STGCC. The gallery will feature a rare, original 1978 Superman print (worth $750 today) to the latest Captain America banners. Original print posters for the superhero movies "Iron Man", "Green Lantern" and "Captain America" will be available at Popcorn Pop's booth as well.

And that's really all the itty-bitty news Red Dot Diva has for STGCC at the moment. She hopes more information will be released SOON!

Abe Kwang And Gordon Chan Chat About "The Mural" at Screen Singapore

"The Mural" concept poster

For those who were invited to Screen Singapore's gala premiere on opening night, 1 minute was all they got for "The Mural" 's trailer.

When news was released that director Gordon Chan was doing a follow-up to the successful "Painted Skin" (画皮), "The Mural" (画壁) became one of the most highly-anticipated Chinese movie this year. This was especially after knowing that "The Mural" was going to be a action-romance-fantasy film set in a magical fairy land, involving over 2,000 special effects shots.

As it always happens on opening nights, the screening of "The Mural" teaser faced with an initial sound glitch! Red Dot Diva asks, who released those nasty Gremlins in GV Vivocity, huh? Anyway, it was quickly re-screened again so that the audience could take in the fast-moving images for another time.

At Screen Singapore's Premiere of "The Devil Inside Me"

Director Zhang Qi and actress Anya

Red Dot Diva found it a little strange that the opening movie for the inaugural Screen Singapore turned out to be a spooky horror-thriller entitled "The Devil Inside Me".

Are the organizers trying to scare more people into attending next year's event? ;)

The premiere for the movie was held at GV Vivocity, a cineplex nestled within a very crowded shopping mall. The setting itself detracts much from the glamourous aura of celebrity-spotting. But that didn't stop some very excited fans from staking out their places at the cineplex several hours before the celebrities made their appearances.

Because, after all, how often does one get to see Zhang Ziyi in the flesh???

Who Is Coming To STGCC 2011?

That's the simple (and yet not so simple) question on everyone's minds.

Well, other than the ticketing prices, of course.

Finally, in a Straits Times article published this Thursday, Reed Exhibitions announced the ticketing information and two returning guests for the Singapore Toy Games and Comic Convention (STGCC) 2011. The convention will be held at the Suntec Convention Centre on August 20 - 21 this year.

Aspiring local and regional comic creators will be glad to know that Marvel's Senior Vice President, Creator and Content Developer and international travelling-foodie CB Cebulski will be back on the Red Dot Island. He will be spending more time reviewing portfolios and sharing with fans about Marvel's upcoming books.

The other familiar guest is Italian artist Simone Legno - a hot favourite with fans around the region. Thanks to his Tokidoki brand name. Simone will also be working on a limited edition "Zip and Cody" figurine just for STGCC 2011.

But who else will be coming here??!?

Bitten and Poledanced - True Blood Style!

Guests at Bitten convention (pic by Jamie)

When it comes to "True Blood", it's never too late to share a convention report with fans of the series!

Red Dot Diva's Twitter pal @GamerJamie (who loves dishing out fuzzy-feelings from time to time) was at the Bitten convention, held in the UK last year.

After mysteriously holding back all those dirty bloody secrets for several months, he has finally decided to reveal 'em all.

Here goes:

Zhang Ziyi To Be At Screen Singapore 2011

She's as famous as the gossip and scandals that plague her. And she's coming to add more glitz to Screen Singapore this coming weekend!

Her name? Zhang Ziyi, of course.

The Chinese actress is well-known internationally for her breakout role in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and has worked with many famous Asian directors like Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-Wai. Zhang has also acted in the Hollywood-produced movies "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Rush Hour 2".

Last year, Zhang Ziyi had to deal with a scandal concerning her donation funds for the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims. Due to that incident, Red Dot Diva overheard that the Screen Singapore organizers started to receive quite a few strong hate mails when Singapore-based China fans learnt of her impending visit to here!

But then, what's a star without some good old controversy, right?