endlessly fascinated

On Sunday, the spawnling and I went for photo and autograph with Laurence. Again, he was super nice and, as always with Monopoly Events (seriously the best organised cons I've ever been to), there was no rush through photos. So I asked him to hold the Jack Crawford stag man plushie I had made, and he thought it was great.

I told him that it was a gift for him and I would get it to him later and he was surprised and said thanks 🙏🏾 

A little later at the autographs, I told him that the Fannibals are thrilled he's doing a convention (and will hopefully do more) and they all say hi. I told him that we talked a lot about him last month at Red Dragon Con, which I explained to him, and who the guests had been, and he thought it was really cool.

I gifted him the Jack Crawford stag man plushie and explained I've made/given them to many members of the cast and crew and theme them to their character. He was really sweet about it, really liked it and said it reminded him of dammit dolls (I'll take it lol!). He was really grateful, I told him Fannibals have a gift-giving culture so it's what we do.

I asked him to sign my copy of The Art and Making of Hannibal and he was impressed/shocked with the amount of signatures on my book and took a little time to decide where to squeeze his autograph in. I pointed out a couple of prime locations near the centre and he was like "I'll squeeze in here" and popped himself above Mads and between Hetty and Gina. His signature is tiny, lol. Or at least he made it so because of the space.

He said he's enjoying his first con. Really super nice bloke! He was very sweet to my spawnling, who amused Laurence by trying to recreate a scene in Hannibal by telling him that if Laurence wants him to leave, he will USE THE LADIES ROOM.

Also...

Earlier on Saturday at Sean Pertwee's Q&A Panel, he mentioned he's been good friends with The Fish (as he called Laurence) since they worked on Event Horizon, and was excited he was doing the convention.

Laurence encouraged him to "go for it" with a lady he liked whilst they were working together. This advice led to Sean asking out his now wife, so he credits Laurence with that. He had a lot of lovely things to say.

For those also interested in Neil Marshall (British writer-director who also directed an episode of Hannibal - The Great Red Dragon), Sean mentioned that they were meant to be filming Dog Soldiers 2 this year (originally planned as a trilogy). But sadly, at the last minute the US based funding pulled out and the project went under. He said Neil was so upset about it that he probably won't revisit it again, which is very sad :(

On Sunday, I grabbed an autograph with Sean, and oh my word, that man can talk! He was so nice, he is so generous with his time! In the end I was like... I have to go as my spawn is about to be in the cosplay parade lol.

I mentioned that in Lawrence's Q&A he said his favourite line from The Matrix is "there is no spoon", and I thought it would be funny if Sean's fave line from Dog Soldiers was the same (lols). He had a good chuckle and said it's such a quotable movie. He said again he was so glad the Fish was here and had a laugh that he was suited and booted all weekend. He said that when Laurence arrived in the green room the first day of the con he looked around and saw everyone was dressed casually and said "why the hell am I wearing a suit!?". Sean found this very funny lol.

I said I was a huge fan of Neil's and as much as I love Doomsday, it is a bit of a stretch to buy him (Sean) as a scientist. He thought that was hilarious - I was like, I mean, a soldier I could buy... He agreed and said that one was a stretch but he had to do it because Neil loves to kill him off (he referenced on his panel the day before that he and Sean Bean are always being killed off). He told me that the one male role in The Descent (who gets violently killed almost immediately) Neil had written for him, but he wasn't available so Neil had to cast someone else. Loads of other fun stories from the set of Neil Marshall movies and what it was like at their Horror con Dogs Soldier reunion a few years ago (which sadly I wasn't able to get to). But then I was like... Sean I have to go and he cut himself off, chuckled and shook my hand. Honestly could have hung out and talked him all day, it was like talking to an old mate. What a lovely guy! Glad that he and the Fish get to hang out for the weekend.

All around another great con from Monopoly Events, they always have great guests, game/cinema rooms, lots of great indie traders and set pieces you can take pics in/with.