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Starting this Labor Day, PBS stations will start airing a slice of fandom with the one-hour documentary, Four Days at DragonCon. Filmed by Atlanta- based documentarians, Jack Walsh and Gordon Ray during the 2009 con, the film is set to debut 9 p.m. (ET) Aug. 28 on WPBA PBS 30 in Atlanta and then roll out nationwide to other PBS member stations in the following months.

Dubbed in the media as “Woodstock for nerds,”  ”the ultimate pop culture convention” and “the South’s sci-fi fantasy Mardi Gras,” this is no small regional sparsely-attended fan convention as Dragon*Con has grown to become the largest fan-run science fiction and fantasy convention in the world with tens of thousands of attendees taking up more Atlanta hotel space than the 1996 Summer Olympics (true, ComiCon is larger and gets more attention – but it is put on by a large corporation, not volunteer fans – and it shows.)

Below is a sneak preview of “Four Days at DragonCon”

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OPENS: May 21, 2009
RATING: PG-13 (Violence, Gore, Language)
GENRE: Science Fiction, Horror

Starring: Christian Bale , Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Blair Williams , Bryce Dallas Howard, Jane Alexander, Helena Bonham Carter

Director: McG

Writer: John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris

Plot: Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its

army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind

the possible annihilation of mankind.

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OPENS: April 24, 2009
RATING: R (Violence, Language)
GENRE: Horror, Science Fiction

Starring: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, Sean Pertwee, Benno Fürmann, John Malkovich

Director: Simon Hunter

Writer: Philip Eisner

Plot: In the year 2707, war rages between earths four giant corporations as they battle over the planet’s dwindling resources. In an era marked by warfare and social regression, the earth is on the verge of ruin, destruction is everywhere; battles explode on every ravaged continent. Amidst heavy combat, an errant shell shatters an ancient buried seal releasing a horrific mutant army from its eternal prison deep within the earth. As the mutant scourge threatens human extinction, a single squad of soldiers descends into the earth to fulfill the ages-old prophesy of the MUTANT CHRONICLES and save mankind.

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• Mutant Chronicles – A Review (manodogs.blogspot.com)

Starring: Robbie Coltrane, Matthew Knight, Eugene Levy, David James Elliott, Ingrid Kavelaars

Director: Wilson Coneybeare

Writer: Wilson Coneybeare

Plot: Willy (Matthew Knight, The Grudge 2 & 3) is terrified about moving into the family’s new house. He’s convinced it’s filled with evil space aliens out to get him. In response to his longing for someone to save him, Gooby (voiced by Robbie Coltrane, Harry Potter‘s Hagrid) comes to life as a big, lovable, scruffy creature who quite possibly may be more frightened of the world than Willy. The two new pals embark on hair-raising adventures and learn about courage and the power of friendship. In the end, Gooby fulfills Willy’s wish by bringing Willy and his dad (David James Elliott, JAG) together in a heart-warming and exciting climax.

Starring: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry, Tyler Steelman, Allison Miller, Sterling Knight, Michelle Trachtenberg

Director: Burr Steers

Writer: Jason Filardi

Plot: What would you do if you got a second shot at life? Class of 1989, Mike O’Donnell is a star on his high school basketball court with a college scout in the stands and a bright future in his grasp. But instead, he decides to throw it all away to share his life with his girlfriend Scarlett and the baby he just learned they are expecting. Almost 20 years later, Mike’s glory days are decidedly behind him. His marriage to Scarlett has fallen apart, he has been passed over for a promotion at work, his teenage kids think he is a loser, and he has been reduced to crashing with his high school nerd-turned-techno-billionaire best friend Ned. But Mike is given another chance when he is miraculously transformed back to the age of 17. Unfortunately, Mike may look 17 again, but his thirtysomething outlook is totally uncool in the class of 2009. And in trying to recapture his best years, Mike could lose the best things that ever happened to him.

Starring: Justin Chatwin, Yun-Fat Chow, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, James Marsters, Joon Park, Eriko Tamura, Randall Duk Kim, Ernie Hudson, Texas Battle, Megumi Seki, Ian Whyte, Richard Blake

Director: James Wong

Writer: Ben Ramsey based on Akira Toriyama’s manga novel.

Plot: Dragonball Evolution is adapted from the manga created by Akira Toriyama; the work was also turned into a Japanese anime series that played all over the world. It tells the story of an alien sent to destroy Earth, who has a change of heart and decides to join the humans in their fight against various aliens and bad guys.

Starring: Eric McCormack, Jenni Baird, Robert Patrick, Jody Thompson

Director: R.W. Goodwin

Writer: Steven P. Fisher based on the story by Steven P. Fisher and James Swift.

Plot: Aliens invade – and hilarity ensues. Set in 1957, Alien Trespass chronicles a fiery object from space that crashes into a mountaintop in the California desert, bringing the threat of disaster to Earth. Out of the flying saucer escapes a murderous creature – the Ghota, which is bent on destroying all life forms on the planet. A benevolent alien from the spaceship, Urp, inhabits the body of Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack) – a local astronomer – and with the help of Tammy, (Jenni Baird) a waitress from the local diner, sets out to save mankind.

Starring: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Alice Braga, Gael García Bernal, Sandra Oh, Yusuke Iseya

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Writer: Don McKellarbased on Don McKellar’s novel.

Plot: From Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago and acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles (“The Constant Gardener” and “City of God”) comes “Blindness.” It is described as “the compelling story of humanity in the grip of an epidemic of mysterious blindness. It is an unflinching exploration of human nature, both bad and good – people’s selfishness, opportunism, and indifference, but also their capacity for empathy, love, and sheer perseverance.”

It begins in a flash, as one man is instantaneously struck blind while driving home from work. His whole world is suddenly turned to an eerie, milky haze. One by one, each person he encounters – his wife, his doctor, even the seemingly Good Samaritan who gives him a lift home – will in due course suffer the same unsettling fate. As the contagion spreads, and panic and paranoia set in across the city, the newly blind victims of the “White Sickness” are rounded up and quarantined within a crumbling, abandoned mental asylum, where all semblance of ordinary life begins to break down.

But inside the quarantined hospital, there is one secret eyewitness: one woman (Moore) who has not been affected but has pretended she is blind in order to stay beside her beloved husband (Mark Ruffalo). Armed with increasing courage and the will to survive, she will lead a makeshift family of seven people on a journey, through horror and love, depravity and beauty, warfare and wonder, to break out of the hospital and into the devastated city where they may be the only hope left.

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Téa Leoni

Director: David Koepp

Writer: David Koepp & John Kamps

Plot: He sees dead people… and they annoy him.

Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Téa Leoni). That puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a triangle with spirited results.

Starring: (voices of) John Cusak, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon

Director: Anthony Leondis 

Writer: Chris McKenna

Plot: In a land of mad scientists and diabolical inventions, what do you do when you’re born with a hunch on your back? You become an Igor. A hilarious twist on the classic monster movie, “Igor” tells the story of one Igor who’s sick of being a lowly lab assistant with a Yes Master’s degree and dreams of becoming a scientist. When his cruel master kicks the bucket a week before the annual Evil Science Fair, Igor finally gets his chance.

With the help of two of his experimental creations – Brain, a brain in a jar who’s a little light on brains, and Scamper, a cynical bunny brought back from being road kill, Igor embarks on building the most evil invention of all time, a huge, ferocious monster. Unfortunately, instead of turning out evil, the monster turns out as Eva, a giant aspiring actress who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Just when the load on his back can’t get any heavier, Igor and his band of monstrous misfits uncover an evil plot that threatens their world. Now, they must fight to save it and prove that heroes come in all shapes and sizes.