Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Wow. This has got to be the most Patrick Stewart news I’ve ever read all at once. I’m glad to hear that he does these appearances. I had the opportunity to meet him one afternoon at a bookstore in Studio City where I was working. He was buying books for his grandchildren, and he wanted me to help him find some good BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD books. I swear. Having a conversation with him about the fine points of Mike Judge’s brain-damaged creations was surreal, especially when he confessed how hard Cornholio made him laugh.
... but I digress.
Hi All,
This will be the first of what I hoped to be several reports from ConJose, the 60th annual World Science Fiction Convention taking place at the San Jose Convention Center. Most of the others will relate more to Coaxial news, but Patrick Stewart arranged to make a special last minute appearance at the convention Friday evening and some of what he had to say definitely falls under the category of Cool News. He was mainly there to promote Nemesis, but due his scheduling commitments for X-Men2, Paramount had to negotiate with Fox to rearrange his shooting schedule and since he had buy in for the trip form both studios, he was able to bring juicy tidbits from both movies.
Nemesis
One of the first things that he said in relation to Nemesis is that he and the rest of the cast were surprised at the implication that this would be their final movie included in the teaser trailer released a few weeks ago. He also said that he thought the movie was “very good” and whether it truly is a last hurrah, or a quality movie to build on, he thinks it will be something to be proud of.
He was able to bring in some production stills the teaser trailer, and a new trailer , containing some informaton which I consider spoilers, but probably nothing new for those who have read the script or some of the spoilers which have been floating around the internet.
*****Begin spoilers *****
Pictures
Shots of Riker and Troi’s wedding , apparently in Alaska, one with Picard toasting the happy couple, and second of Data apparently singing (picked up a CD of Spiner performing classic standards called Old Yellow Eyes is Back at a convention years ago and it wasn’t half bad so he may have done his own singing). Shot of Dataq against a desert backdrop (near Edwards Airforce base) holding up what appears to be his head, and another of Spiner looking menacing(Stewart called someone a fool when they shouted out that it was Lore, haven‘t read the spoilers so I can‘t say if he was joking or not). Picture of a pair of Romulans, Several action shots of Picard and other members of the crew, including a scene with the dune buggy from the teaser trailer (pretty cool, but nothing out of the ordinary) Pictures of Stewart in a black leather outfit, in the same outfit restrained , Ron Pearlman in full face makeup (unable to identify a particular race). Picture of Troi sitting in the captain’s chair on the bridge and fairly interesting picture of the Romulan Senate. Just as an aside, he was particularly impressed by Westmore’s makeup for the Remans.
He was able to run the teaser trailer for us that was in theaters a few weeks ago, and I won’t bother recapping, but he did bring in a second unfinished trailer that is scheduled to be aired with the season premiere of Enterprise this fall. It was slightly rough, and it seems that there were probably a few more layers of effects to put the final gloss on the trailer,but it was enjoyable. The theme appeared to be confrontaion of opposites:that everyone has an opposite, every good has a corresponding evil, and it must be confronted. These phrases were in text cut between scenes of conflict between Picard and Reman leader and Data conflict between Data and his double. At one point there is even a shot of Picard apparently morphing into the Reman leader. It included quite a few other action shots (the buggy, the Enterprise ramming something and sustaining heavy damage/ being destroyed) and ended with the Reman leader order a course set for earth and to destroy everything (I guess we’d all better watch out ; ) )
*****End spoilers******
Overall he very happy with the film, and from the second trailer, I’m thinking this might have a better combinaton of depth , action, and adventure than some of the more recent movies.
He then teased us a bit and said that wouldn’t it be silly he came all that way and all he could offer was the pictures and the two trailers which led into his discussion of X-Men2
X-Men2
He bagan his discussion of X-Men by saying that they were still currently in production and would be filimg until late October/early November in Vancouver and was able to bring the footage that had been put together for ComicCon which was footage from the first few weeks of filming (and bits from the chess game from the end of the first movie) with no special effects. Everything flew by pretty quickly, but cut into the bits from the chess game you see folks creeping around the school, cool shot of Wolvierine leaping , glimpses of Magneto’s escape(?), Xavier asking “Eric what have you done?” , helicopters over the school, and Magneto saying something like “War has begin”. Overall, I thought it was a nice way to tease the imagination, and if I missed anything, blame it on trying to take notes in the dark.
One other X-Men note. He and the cast always felt that the first movie was a very expensive trailer, but the second is going to be the real deal. Personally, I can’t wait.
General Patrick Stewart Information
He also stated some plans for the future while he was there. He is currently working on a remake of the classic “A Lion in Winter” using the original script. His wife is producing and filiming begins early next year. After that, he will be taking a break from movies for the rest of the year and doing theater. He already has something scheduled for London in the middle of next year, and hopes to be on Broadway later in the year.
Due to time constraints he was unable to take as many questions as he would have liked, but, overall, he was his normal, very personable self, seemed enthusiastic about his upcoming work (like he was going to be there if he wasn’t :) ) and was fun addition to the convention.
Until then,
Amnell
Thanks so much for the fine report, Amnell. I’m sure you’ve just made a lot of curious fans very happy.
"Moriarty" out.
