Tag: movies

Reasons to scream during Comic-Con 2025!

More and more reasons to scream in San Diego during Comic-Con 2025 are appearing!

Scream with horror–or delight!

Several building wraps in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter are going up very quickly today, with six days to go until the start of Comic-Con 2025.

I took these photos in the late afternoon…

As usual, the convention center facing side of the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter will feature wraps that promote horror shows on AMC, including Vampire Lestat, an adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire series

Across Fifth Avenue, the Omni San Diego Hotel is now almost entirely wrapped up with graphics promoting the upcoming Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie!

The north-facing side of the Hilton Gaslamp building will promote an Amazon Prime Video series, as usual. This year it’s Gen V, a spinoff of The Boys franchise

If anything will make one scream, it’s the undead! Daryl Dixon has arrived to save the day on the Pendry hotel!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Fantastic Four offsite appears for Comic-Con!

Surprise! There’s going to be an offsite for Fantastic Four in San Diego during Comic-Con 2025. Workers are starting to put it together on the grass next to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter hotel!

This makes sense, considering Fantastic Four banners line Fourth Avenue leading right up to it!

I was told there will be no carnival rides involved, but it’s going to be big and impressive. It will be the sort of activation that people can walk through.

I can’t wait to watch as this Fantastic Four offsite activation takes form. I’ll be taking photos, naturally!

Also, a barge is now docked behind the San Diego Convention Center, which will be the site of the Brawl Stars offsite activation. Workers were busy getting it ready this Thursday morning!

UPDATE!

More photos taken late Thursday of what I was told will be a Fantastic Four related offsite…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

San Diego Comic-Con photos: 1 week to go!

One week to go in San Diego before the start of Comic-Con 2025! Preview Night is next Wednesday, July 23, 2025.

Not surprisingly, preparation in downtown San Diego–particularly in the Gaslamp Quarter and East Village–is kicking into high gear.

Cherry pickers everywhere! Lots of building wraps going up!

I’m always surprised at how quickly these gigantic advertisements can be applied to the sides of our downtown high-rises. They are essentially large format printed stickers. The workers are highly experienced and do an amazing job every year. Some of the guys are from Arizona; others come down from Los Angeles.

I walked down Fifth Avenue this morning, over the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge, then turned around, heading back to my nearby downtown home. I took a bunch of photographs!

First, here’s some cool stuff I saw as I headed down Fifth Avenue.

Peacemaker and Eagly have appeared along the sidewalk…

Check out this ultra-cool Hot Wheels vehicle! I assume it’s here for Comic-Con.

A shop window is painted with Batman, R2-D2 and other pop culture characters.

Outside Happy Does, workers were finishing up with the venue’s usual Paramount+ The Lodge wrap.

Workers were getting busy sorting rolls of printed “wrap segments” at the Hilton Gaslamp building.

And this is how the wrap will appear. Scream For Me!

On my return trip, I noticed they had already made a little progress…

Oh wow! What’s this at the Omni San Diego Hotel?

It’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle! All Out War Begins!

Coming around Petco Park, look what I spy on the Park 12 building!

This huge building wrap must’ve gone up super fast. It’s Dexter: Resurrection on Paramount+. He’s Alive and Killing It!

Looks like local artist Shirish Villaseñor is painting the windows of Sweet Things Frozen Yogurt with Pokémon characters! Every year she creates fun stuff for Comic-Con!

What’s this on the exterior of the Omni? I can see it’s a Sony movie that’s coming up.

Making my way back across Harbor Drive to the Gaslamp…

Heading back up Fifth Avenue mid-morning…

The two Daryl Dixon wraps on the Pendry San Diego Hotel appear more than halfway done!

Stay tuned!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Star Wars prop auction at Comic-Con Museum!

How would you like to own an original Stormtrooper stunt helmet that was screen-used in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope? It’s one of six known.

Or how would you like to own an original lightsaber hilt prop used for the portrayal of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace? Yes, that double-bladed lightsaber that impaled Qui-Gon Jinn.

Or how would you like to own an original prop droid hand worn by Anthony Davis in his portrayal of C-3PO in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? That would be undeniably cool!

These and other rare Star Wars props can be bid upon between now and July 27th, 2025.

The auction items are now on display at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. They’re part of an exhibition titled Echoes From the Galaxy.

Even if you have no intention to place a bid, Star Wars fans need to visit the museum just to see some important bits of cinematic history!

Want to learn more? Perhaps place your own bid? Here’s the Julien’s Auctions webpage concerning this special auction.

You’ll see a very wide variety of Star Wars memorabilia, from posters to patches to signed photos. And, of course, some amazing one-of-a-kind collectibles!

The live auction will take place at 10 am on July 27th, 2025, which is the final day of San Diego Comic-Con.

Some of the cool things on display…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Fantastic Four banners for Comic-Con 2025!

Fantastic 4 banners have appeared in downtown San Diego in anticipation of Comic-Con 2025 and the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps in late July!

The big tentpole Marvel movie is highly anticipated, and it appears promotion of the film is in high gear.

Who doesn’t love the Fantastic Four in the comics? Cool sci-fi action with far-out concepts and cosmic characters, dimensions and places, and a family of likable heroes. A lot of fans are hoping the movie lives up to very high expectations.

This is the third set of street lamp banners in downtown San Diego promoting different movies for Comic-Con 2025, which I believe is unprecedented.

One month until the big international pop culture event!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Another sign Comic-Con is on the way!

Another sign has popped up indicating San Diego Comic-Con 2025 is around the corner. A new set of banners has appeared on lamp posts in the Gaslamp Quarter, and elsewhere in downtown San Diego!

The banners promote Tron: Ares, a science fiction action movie set to release later this year. It’s the third movie in the Tron series.

(The first banners for Comic-Con 2025 promote Predator: Badlands. See those photographs here.)

Can you believe it? I’m so old that I saw the first Tron in movie theaters. The groundbreaking visuals blew everyone away back then, and the concept of virtual intelligence was mind-blowing in 1982, when mass produced home computers were a completely new thing.

Back then I had one of the very first personal computers: a ZX-81. It had, with an added expansion module, all of 16K memory! Forty three years later, the slim phone in your hand might have 16GB or more memory!

Where will we be in another 43 years? Will humans be any wiser?

All I know is that Comic-Con is a month away! Bring it on!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Predator: Badlands banners appear for Comic-Con!

Street lamp banners that promote Predator: Badlands are beginning to appear in San Diego for upcoming Comic-Con 2025!

Predator: Badlands will be released later this year, and will be the–can you believe it–ninth movie in the Predator franchise. Obviously, the film will be heavily hyped during Comic-Con.

A young android will be paired with a young alien Predator in the new science fiction action adventure. Interesting combination. The two characters appear in the Comic-Con banners now going up along sidewalks in downtown San Diego!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes sequel films near USS Midway!

Another sequel to cult classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is filming today in San Diego. I saw the production crew out on the wooden boardwalk just south of the USS Midway, and the scene was of tomato mayhem!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence is the name of this latest sequel according to IMDb. It’s described as “Jurassic Park” meets “Dr. Strangelove” which sounds like more campy absurd crazy fun. I did see an alligator on the set, so there’s at least one reptile among the rolling red vegetables!

Are those giant tomatoes co-stars in the film? Who plays Doctor Doom? Oops–wrong franchise.

Is this what tomato Armageddon looks like? You can spy the alligator on the right in the next photo–or is that a crocodile? Must’ve escaped from the San Diego Zoo.

Thank goodness they’ve caged one of the rampant ripe vegetables. Or, wait–is a tomato a fruit?

Man versus an overgrown villainous vegetable. Who is victorious?

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle trolley for Comic-Con!

It’s still May, and the first trolley wrap for Comic-Con 2025 has already appeared in San Diego! This morning I managed to take a couple good photographs!

The cool trolley graphics promote Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, a movie that’s coming on September 12, 2025. The official anime movie’s name is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle. That’s a mouthful!

You can learn more about the upcoming movie here!

As usual, I’ll be keeping a lookout for Comic-Con stuff this year. Comic-Con will be back in full strength after the pandemic and writers strike a few years ago, so I hope to take lots of colorful photos!

UPDATE!

By sheer chance, I found myself on the same trolley the next day heading down to Barrio Logan. And I captured a couple more photos…

And a couple more…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Meet a Hollywood legend in San Diego!

You can meet Erik Betts, a Hollywood legend, in San Diego this weekend!

Erik, a self-taught gymnast and martial artist, has acted and performed stunts in so many movies and television shows that it would take forever to list them all.

He’ll be hanging out at Black Comix Day in Balboa Park, inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, signing collectibles, comics, posters, action figures, t-shirts and more on Sunday, February 16, 2025, from 10 am to 6 pm.

You’ve almost certainly seen Erik (without possibly knowing it) all over entertainment. He was the Red Power Ranger! He has acted, been a crew member and performed amazing stunts in countless Hollywood movies, including Avatar, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible III, and Ant-Man. He has worked in dozens of television shows, such as Westworld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Heroes, CSI: Miami, even the Young and the Restless, and many, many more! He has also contributed to video games!

Here’s his IMDb page with all of his credits and a full biography. Here’s his Instagram page.

Want to know the coolest thing about Erik? His huge smile and infectious enthusiasm. I was so excited just meeting him, absorbing his incredible energy. At Erik’s table you can watch a video of him creating jaw-dropping action in many of Hollywood’s most popular movies!

Make sure to swing by Black Comix Day on Sunday, February 16, 2025. It’s absolutely overflowing with talented creators–writers, artists, animators, publishers… Here’s the event website!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share this!