San Diego Comic-Con Roundup: A Look at Thursday’s Highlights

iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(SAN DIEGO) — Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey made an unannounced landing Thursday at Comic-Con in San Diego along with Dark Knight trilogy director Christopher Nolan to promote their upcoming film, Interstellar.

It was both celebrities’ first appearance at the annual geek mecca — surprising considering Nolan’s filmography. The director told the crowd, “I thought I’d see what the fuss was about” this time around.

McConaughey recalled the first time he met Nolan, describing a meeting at Nolan’s home. “He doesn’t say one word about any new film or me being in a role in it, it was just he and I talking,” the actor says. “So I remember leaving there going, ‘What the hell was that about? I’m not sure.’ Anyway, evidently…he liked me,” McConaughey said to laughs.

As for the film — about space travel to find a new planet for mankind to live, according to the trailers — neither man said much about the hush-hush plot.

Nolan spoke about his admiration for the spirit of exploration in the early days of the space program. McConaughey offered, “It’s by far the most ambitious film that Mr. Nolan’s ever directed. When you see it you’ll see why.”

Incidentally, Jeff Bridges isn’t into spoilers, either. He was on hand to promote his own sci-fi movie, The Giver, to an audience of people who haven’t seen it. “Going to the movies myself, I like to know as little as possible,” Bridges said. “So it’s tough….For me, it’s challenging to try to entice people in without telling them too much.”

[PHOTOS: Day 1 at Comic Con 2014]

Other Comic-Con highlights from Thursday included:

• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson making his way through an adoring crowd to promote his upcoming Hercules — for which he apparently bought hundreds of tickets so Comic-Con attendees could go, The Hollywood Reporter notes.

• A close-up of Ben Affleck in Batman’s cowl was tweeted by Zack Snyder ahead of the Saturday panel for his upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Oddly, considering Superman is a Warner Bros. — not a Lucasfilm/Disney — property, Snyder also made waves when he posted a picture of his Man of Steel, Henry Cavill, dressed as a Jedi. Given the Dark Side influence of the picture — as evidenced by the red lightsaber — some fans thought it could be a reference to the DC villain Darkseid.

• Speaking of Star Wars, at a panel for Disney’s upcoming animated series Star Wars: Rebels, an all-new trailer was released.

• Marvel released a pre-production concept art poster for its upcoming Ant-Man specifically created for San Diego Comic-Con. In addition to teasing the hero’s size-changing powers, the poster features the faces of Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd, who will play Dr. Hank Pym and Scott Lang — the scientist who created the technology that gives Ant-Man his power, and the thief he taps to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Marvel’s panel — always a must-see — is Saturday.

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