Saturday, July 26, 2008

DAKOTA STUCK IN TRAFFIC

Thursday
July 24, 2008

SAN DIEGO, CA―PUSH, starring Chris Evans (Nick), Dakota Fanning (Cassie), Djimon Hounsou (Carver), Camilla Belle (Kira) and director Paul McGuigan (LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN) will present a first look at footage and answer questions about the film. In this futuristic sci-fi thriller set in Hong Kong, a group of young American ex-pats with extraordinary psychic abilities must band together and use their different talents on a final mission to escape a clandestine government agency. In her first action heroine role, director Paul McGuigan reveals Dakota even gets drunk and swears. Yes, our little girl is indeed all grown up. PUSH is scheduled for a February '09 release. Dakota Fanning was scheduled to appear for the PUSH preview and Summit Entertainment panel discussion at Comic Con 2008, but was stuck in traffic for 7 hours due to an accident. She did make a brief appearance at the end of the panel just to say “Hi” and tell her fans she was sorry to be so late.

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I’ve attended the San Diego Comic Con numerous times over the past years and it’s a wild and fabulous four days―if you enjoy comic books, super-heroes, sci-fi or anime. The San Diego Comic Con is your destination of choice. I have many fond memories of oil can size beers, buckets of crab legs and late night parties at the Hotel San Diego. I was doing a little reminiscing about back in the days when I did do stuff like pack my bags, jump on a plane and head west to the Con. I happened to think about what “IF” I had gone this year. What if I had attended the Con not for comics, artist sketches, or hentai porn. What if I flew out to San Diego for the express chance to see Dakota Fanning live at the Summit Entertainment panel. I thought about the roller coaster ride of emotions. First, there’s the whole plane, taxi, hotel experience, then there’s the usual excitement of just being at the Con, catching up with old friends, making new friends, you meet have dinner. It’s a blast!

Of course everything amounts to a mere distraction. The whole time there is this nagging anticipation, excitement, the real reason why you’ve come: To see Dakota Fanning LIVE. I have my ticket; I’m sitting in the audience. At this point, just the chance to see Dakota, let alone meet her is only an unrequited fantasy. Yet in twenty minutes, now just five minutes, I find the suspense unbearable! I am in the same State, the same city, the same ballroom as Dakota Fanning. It’s possible . . . then come the various announcements about how “Dakota is going to be late,” then the disastrous news that “Dakota isn’t coming.” I thought about my own disappointment upon learning that Dakota (through no fault of her own) is unable to attend the Summit panel. Then I leave the ballroom in a state of utter despair, my hopes dashed, only to learn the next morning that if I had only stayed on a half hour longer that Dakota finally came. That she bounded on the stage, as big as life to say “Hi” to her fans and how sorry she was for being late. I discover, its always possible to feel worse. I missed her! The bitter irony is, even though I wasn’t there, this didn't happen, this is just my luck . . .

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