SAN DIEGO - The red carpet is in place and the fans are lining up as Comic-Con prepares for its first Hollywood-style movie premiere.
"Cowboys & Aliens" will make its world premiere Saturday night at the San Diego Civic Theatre.
Director Jon Favreau and stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde are among the celebrities expected to attend, along with hundreds of Comic-Con attendees, who followed clues texted to their cellphones to win tickets to the event.
"This kind of overshadows Comic-Con," said 22-year-old Khalil Tiner of Las Vegas, a six-year veteran of the fan festival. "This is something new, and it's exciting."
Wendy Lee of Los Angeles and Chris Saguisag of San Francisco, both 44, said they enjoyed dashing around town trying to win tickets.
"We got a lot of cardio running after the bricks" that contained a chance to attend the premiere, Lee said. "It's something we worked for really hard."
The couple was in line hours ahead of the scheduled 8 p.m. showing, but they didn't mind missing the colorful happenings inside the San Diego Convention Center.
"We already saw everything we wanted to see," Lee said.
Favreau said he wanted to unveil his sci-fi Western at Comic-Con to thank conventioneers for their support of the films he introduced there in previous years, including his two "Iron Man" movies.
Favreau showed early footage from "Cowboys & Aliens" during a Comic-Con panel last year, whetting fans' appetites for the film, and he invited them to be a part of the premiere to "see what that part of the equation is like."
"They generally don't get to experience that part of it," he said. "That's more of a Hollywood thing."
The film opens in theatres on Friday.
