The Associated Press
• Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey went unannounced to Comic-Con and surprised attendees in San Diego with a first look at Interstellar, but neither offered many details about the highly anticipated space adventure. "I can tell you a lot, but I'm not going to," McConaughey said at Thursday's Paramount Pictures panel. The Oscar winner plays a pilot and engineer grounded in a dystopian land where all space exploration has ceased. His character is a widowed father of two who is given an opportunity to travel into the stars long after he gave up his dreams of flight. "It's by far the most ambitious film Mr. Nolan has ever directed," McConaughey said before the director of Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy emerged onstage for his first Comic-Con appearance. "We thought it'd be fun to come down and see what all the fuss is about," Nolan said to raucous applause. "It's an incredible event. There's nothing like it anywhere in the world." Interstellar is set for release in November.
• Jeff Bridges keeps on giving at Comic-Con. The Academy Award-winning actor, producer, director and musician was on hand Thursday with some of his fellow cast members to show off footage from The Giver, the coming adaptation of the popular young-adult novel by Lois Lowry. An extended trailer shown at the pop-culture convention began with black-and-white footage chronicling the dystopian setting of the book. Comic-Con continues through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center. Bridges, known for Tron and The Big Lebowski, said it took close to 19 years to bring the movie to life. He originally envisioned that his late father, Lloyd Bridges, would play the titular role, but Bridges ultimately cast himself as The Giver. "It proved to be difficult, I think because it was quite controversial," Bridges told the crowd in reference to his struggle to make the film. Lowry, 77, noted that the book, which was originally released in 1993, caused a stir because there are scenes where a baby is killed and a young boy bathes an elderly woman, the latter of which won't be in the movie when it's released Aug. 11.
A Section on 07/26/2014