Geeks unite, for your tale has now been told! COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE, the latest opus from documentarian extraordinaire Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME), warps into select theaters (as well as VOD) today from Wrekin Hill Entertainment and NECA Films. The story of five Con-goers from different parts of the country, it’s hilarious, sometimes touching, and occasionally sad, but always entertaining. Spurlock tells FANGORIA that the project came together with the help of a certain true believer.

“The whole idea for the film came in 2009,” he says. “I got hired by Fox to do THE SIMPSONS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL for them, and I’d been wanting to go to Comic-Con for years, but had never been able to. So as soon as we got the SIMPSONS special, I was like, ‘We’re goin’ to Comic-Con! We’re gonna go there and find SIMPSONS superfans.’ We went and had this kind of AMERICAN IDOL-style casting with us on one side, and SIMPSONS devotees would come in and just wax rhapsodic, spouting their love for all things Homer. While we were there, I was like, ‘This place is like a movie in and of itself.’ The people were so passionate—they were these amazing characters.

“Later on that night,” he continues, “I was at a party where I met Stan Lee [pictured above], and I went over to kiss the ring, as you do when you are in my generation, growing up reading his comic books. I said, ‘Mr. Lee, I just wanted to introduce myself. You changed my life as a kid. Reading your comics really inspired and motivated me and made me want to tell my own stories.’ And he’s like [in Stan Lee voice], ‘Morgan, thank you! It’s great to meet you! We should make a movie together! We should make a documentary about Comic-Con!’ And I was like, ‘Yes, we should, Mr. Lee. I couldn’t agree more.’ Cut to literally a year later, we were there making the movie with Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Thomas Tull, Harry Knowles…I mean, it was amazing.”

The people the documentary follows—wannabe artists, a costume designer, a toy collector, a fanboy planning to propose to his girlfriend at the event and the owner of the world’s biggest comic-book store—were discovered through the Internet and video submissions. “We put out this massive casting call,” Spurlock explains. “We posted it on fan sites, we e-mailed comic-book shops throughout the country and they put it up on their bulletin boards, Harry Knowles blasted it out through Ain’t It Cool News, and we had about 2,000 people submit to be in the film. People from all around the world sent in e-mails, and if we liked their story, we asked them to send in videos to see what they looked like, and as they were telling their stories we could hear their passion.

“But the thing with the submissions was, we weren’t gonna fly you there; you already had to be going. There were plenty of people who were like, ‘Oh, put me in the movie, I don’t have a ticket!’ And it was like, ‘Well, we’re not gonna pay for your ticket.’ We got a lot of people who were like, ‘I wanna go to Comic-Con and meet Stan Lee. So you should follow me.’ ” Spurlock rolls his eyes. “That whittled the list down quite a bit.

“One of the first people we cast was Holly Conrad [pictured below],” he continues. “She sent us this video; here she was, making costumes in her garage that were insane. The girl’s so talented. I sent the tape to Joss, Harry, Thomas and Stan and said, ‘I think she should be our first character; she represents everything that the film should be about.’ And they were like, ‘Absolutely.’ So we cast her first. And then we got tapes from Skip Harvey, from Eric Henson, James Darling—the guy who was gonna propose to his girlfriend—Anthony Calderon, the collector based in California… We had great people.”

The film does a great job portraying the Con’s roots, and also how, with the advances in media and technology, a part of it is dying out. At one point, Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski can’t use the loading docks to unload his comics because Lucasfilm owns them. But while it may seem that Hollywood has stolen Comic-Con’s thunder, Spurlock says that’s not the case. “I don’t agree that [Comic-Con] has been hijacked by Hollywood. There’s two things: I think the media coverage has been hijacked by Hollywood. Ultimately, that’s all about, ‘Angelina Jolie’s here! Whoa, look, and here’s the cast of THE DARK KNIGHT!’ The media coverage has taken over because that’s a better story for them. They have so bought into the idea that all we want to hear about are celebrities so that’s all they talk about. It’s, ‘Look at those weirdos in costumes! And there’s Angelina Jolie!’ That’s the balance.

“So there’s that side of it, but there’s also the fact that people just don’t buy comics anymore. I read and buy more comics than I ever have, but I don’t buy the books. I download them from Comixology onto my iPad. The book business is dying, so it’s not like it’s the comic book that’s dying—books in general are. But I think the idea of having this thing, this [Spurlock picks up a sheet of paper] world is going away just because you don’t need it. You can still have that experience of living through your comic without having that paper thing. It’s very much representative of that past way of looking at business.”

Spurlock’s feelings about stars notwithstanding, the film does contain its fair share of celebrity interviews, including appearances by Seth Rogen, Kevin Smith and The Punisher himself, (a seemingly intoxicated) Thomas Jane. Spurlock says the biggest stars refused to do interviews, but those who agreed truly got what the Con’s about. “Most of the people who said no were involved with a big studio movie, so they were there to do press, driving people to a big movie release, vs. doing something for a bigger Comic-Con audience. But the people we got were people who understand the longevity of this place.”

One scene that has people talking involves Calderon, the aforementioned toy collector (who keeps his most valuable prizes in a massive safe) literally sprinting to get a limited-edition Galactus figure—but Spurlock says the audience only saw half the story. “[That was] one of my favorite parts of the movie. We knew where he was waiting in line, and we had 20 cameras that were ready to shoot at any given moment. We had a couple of SRW-9000s that were able to shoot in real-time slow motion. We had the cameras all set up, so as soon as the doors opened—this was the first day of the Con—he came sprinting through there, running right by the camera. It was one of those moments where you’re like, ‘I can’t believe we got that!’ That was epic. What you don’t see in the film was him camped out for two days before Comic-Con opened, just so he could be first in line. He had literally lived for almost 48 hours on the sidewalk, just to be sure he was the first in to get the toys.”

Spurlock’s absolute favorite thing about the documentary isn’t a scene at all, however—it was not having to step in front of the camera for a change. “That was the best. That was the greatest thing ever. People are like, ‘I didn’t like any of your other movies,’ and I tell them, ‘Well, then, you’re gonna love this one, cause I’m not in one frame of the whole thing. It’s gonna be the best movie you’ve ever seen!’ [Laughs] When we first started going out pitching the film—and I was never going to be in the movie—I would tell investors, ‘This movie is about the fans, I want to show what they go through, etc. etc.’ And the investors would be like, ‘Yeah, we’d like to make it, but you’ve gotta be in it.’ And every time, I’d be like, ‘Well, then, we’ll find another investor, because that’s not what the movie is.’ ”

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