Hey folks, Harry here... Quint is stuck in a shitty Best Western Motel somewhere in the L.A. area... allegedly he thought they'd have Internet Access, but apparently their internet is down - so he's going to be late getting the rest of his updates up - as... the mutherfucker is visiting the set of TENACIOUS D: THE PICK OF DESTINY - and can rot in that fucking motel till the two headed mutt of hades comes to drag his wormy hide to the here after. Ok... Maybe that's a bit much. But - ARGH! You know that's a way cool set to visit. It is also odd that right now - he's the L.A. editor - since Moriarty is on the set of his John Carpenter project somewhere in Canada. Strange things are afoot and the AICN, I dare say. Anyway - here's an update from Comic Con...
Hiya Harry,
I'm just back from San Diego, California, coming off a four-day binge
of booze, flicks and comic book goodness at this year's Comic Con
International. I know you've written about Comic Con and how it was,
but let me tell you - it's changed a lot.
I have to say that overall I'm starting to think the convention is
getting too big. It was just impossible to see everything in the four
days (I didn't get there in time for preview night). The floor was
huge and there were so many things to see that I didn't make a bunch
of signings I wanted to hit, missed a couple of panels I really had to
see because of overlap or the line to Hall H being too long, and
didn't end up buying as much as I usually do because there was too
much too much TOO MUCH!!!
I think the Con should break out of Hall H and at the very least put
big screens in other auditoriums so that you can have the benefit of
seeing the panels without either getting locked out or having to camp
out in the room all day.
Onto the panels… In short, V For Vendetta, Aeon Flux, Kong, and Narnia
had the best footage (though I missed the much-talked-about Superman
panel) and Hall H was way too crowded and hard to get into. In long
form, here are some of my impressions:
THURSDAY: A SCANNER DARKLY
This was a good panel- about Richard Linklater's adaptation of the
Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly, starring Winona Ryder, Keanu
Reeves, Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. The long trailer they
showed of the film had some noirish scenes with hints of Philip K.
Dickian weirdness, which I liked. The animation style was a lot like
Linklater's Waking Life, but not as whimsical and darker, obviously.
They said it would be very faithful to Dick, which sounds good to me.
The panel was the producer Tommy Pilotta, and animators from the film.
They also brought a Philip K. Dick android- yes, an android- that
sat in a wheel chair looking out at the crowd with weirdly life like
eyes (and wires coming out of the back of his head). He didn't say
much but at one point someone asked "Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep" and he went on a long stream-of-consciousness talk about Blade
Runner vs. the Dick story. I thought it was cool that there was a
Philip K. Dick android on this panel – Dick would have liked it.
BRUCE CAMPBELL PANEL
What can I say, Bruce is the man. He fielded questions about his
movies The Man With the Screaming Brain and Sky High. And his comic
book and video game doings, and his book, Making Love the Bruce
Campbell Way. Bruce was sarcastic throughout and people asked him
questions at their own peril, which is what made his panel one of my
favorites of the convention. He said he has no reason to go to the
movies for most of the year since all the big movies are remakes and
essentially B movies with big budgets. He's too good for mainstream
Hollywood- they don't deserve him anyway. I saw him walking around
San Diego later and told him that Bubba Ho Tep was in my top 10 films
of all time (which is true). The Chin also stated for the record that
he did talk to New Line about Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and that the
conversation will haunt him for the rest of his life. So don't expect
to see Ash joining the other two franchises. Best. Panel. Ever.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
I only saw part of this panel with David Cronenberg. It started off
with a trailer and footage. Let me just say, the footage was violent
and gory, but incredibly promising. I must see this movie. But: the
moderator seemed to ask the dumbest questions and squander the
opportunity to really get Cronenberg to talk. I had to leave half-way
through because I wanted to get something to eat before the
Constantine DVD panel.
FRIDAY: V FOR VENDETTA, CORPSE BRIDE, THE FOUNTAIN
After going out to the Gaslamp with my friends on Thursday night, I
didn't wake up as early as I wanted to and spent the day either in
line for Hall H, or (finally) inside Hall H. The line was so insanely
long and slow-moving that once you're in there it's really really hard
to get up and leave. The three warner brothers panels were for V For
Vendetta (Natalie Portman, in addition to being beautiful and
absolutely tiny, seemed like a very nice person and was actually
articulate). The trailer for Vendetta was great, with shots of Evey
being pursued and questioned by authorities and V kicking ass, and
closing with the line "remember remember the fifth of November."
Corpse Bride clip was good and the Harry Potter trailer was brilliant.
Next up was The Fountain. Darren Aronofsky was there with Rachel
Weisz, who is just stunning in person. He seemed to be loving the
project and said it was worth the six years it took him to make this
film. I have to say, while I'm looking forward to this, I wasn't
completely sold on the footage. It looks promising and I love
Aronofsky's visual style, but it was a little confusing.
ZATHURA/STAR WARS SPECTACULAR
Jon Favreau was there to show a clip from this kid's film, by the same
writer as Jumanji. I liked the footage OK and Favreau is just so cool
in person. They also debuted the new trailer for The Legend of Zorro,
which again looks promising. I left Hall H and missed Disney's panel
but I did make it back for the Star Wars Spectacular. This was a
strange one because there aren't going to be any more Star Wars films
and Steve Sansweet, who comes every year, got a lot of ideas for new
movies thrown at him, he let nothing go about possible next films.
Mostly it was a lot of game footage and featurettes. There was a cool
short film shown during this that I liked quite a lot.
SATURDAY: not seeing SUPERMAN
I got in line too late to get into Hall H to see the Superman footage,
but I'm sure you'll get lots of reports about this one. I heard
mostly that it blew people away and that Bryan Singer got a standing
ovation. I only blame myself for missing this but I'm hoping Bryan
Singer puts it online so those of us who didn't get into the hall will
get to see it.
WAR OF THE WORLDS, AEON FLUX
Next up was Paramount's panel, starting with War of the Words. The
visual effects supervisor Pablo Hellman came out and showed a clip
from the film. WOTW and Batman Begins were my two favorite films in
recent years, so I really enjoyed hearing what Pablo had to say. He
got hit with some crazy questions but seemed very relaxed and had
intelligent answers for them all. He and Dennis Muren's work is the
best out there, imho.
Charlize Theron next came out for Aeon Flux, with some of her co-stars
and film makers and Peter Chung, who made the original series on MTV.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, statuesque, gorgeous, and actually
had very intelligent answers to all the questions from Aeon Flux
purists and worshipful fans. They started the panel with a blurb
about the making of the film that showed Charlize training. The
footage was truly stunning – almost Matrix-y but with its own fresh
sensibility. They showed Aeon taking out some guards on what looked
like the top of a spherical building; walking through a crowd in a
veil and getting a capsule passed to her through a tongue kiss, which
then goes into her system and races up to her brain; also a leap
through a nightscape onto some form of hanging ropes. A nice touch
was the shot of Charlize catching a fly in her eyelashes. There was
also a scene where Charlize and a companion do flips and dives to get
across a lethal garden where the blades of grass are literally blades.
They next showed a trailer, and this, along with the Narnia footage
(I'll get to this later) are the only things at this year's convention
that really blew me away.
KEVIN SMITH/RICHARD KELLY
What can I say? Kevin Smith seems to have the most fun at Comic Con.
He's so fun watch and his panel was very snarky and funny- the fans
got a dose of his sarcastic humor. I almost asked a question but
didn't- my self esteem is low enough, thank you. Toward the end, he
introduced Richard Kelly, who has a lifetime pass for me from Donnie
Darko. He didn't talk much about Southland Tales, his next movie,
simply because he didn't seem to have the time. I was disappointed
that we didn't get more out of him.
SERENITY/SLITHER
Joss Whedon came on with the entire cast of the film. I have not seen
the show, so this panel didn't do much for me but it was enjoyable
since they all seemed to like each other and love the film. They
showed an expanded trailer of the barfight scene that looks promising.
The Slither panel came out, with Michael Rooker, who is one of my
favorites for his Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer performance
alone. Rooker plays an alien in this film. The footage was pretty
over the top, and looks promising in a horror/comedy way.
GHOST RIDER/UNDERWORLD 2/THE FOG
Underworld Evolution looks like more of the same. Kate Beckinsale is
hot though and will evidently have some smoking hot sex scenes in this
film. The Fog was next – now I am a fan of the original so I am
probably more critical of this than most. I did however think the
trailer was reasonably spooky and director Rupert Wainright said that
he respects Carpenter and they got on well during the production.
This film will apparently delve into the town's past. We'll see.
Ghost Rider panel- no footage of Ghost Rider, but they did show an
unfinished trailer and you have to respect that. I'm not a purist
about the comic so I'll probably give this film a go.
STEALTH
Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas came out for Stealth. Even
though I heard on Friday that he would be coming, it was still cool to
see him there mixing with the fans. The footage looks like a video
game.
KING KONG
The panel began with a long taped introduction from Peter Jackson,
talking about making the film and setting up the trailer and footage.
The footage was fantastic. It was the fight between Kong and the
T-Rex while swinging through vines, with Naomi Watts caught up in the
fight, hanging on for her life. I liked that he just said fuck it and
showed the audience animatics and unfinished effects just to get a
handle on the scope of the scene. This was a beautiful piece of
action and I'm looking forward to the movie. Most of the questions
from the audience were directed at Jack Black and about Tenacious D as
people were probably camped out all day in Hall H just to see that. I
had to get out of Hall H, so I missed this performance, but I hear it
was a lot of fun and went long.
SUNDAY: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
Even though I wanted to see the Doom panel, I had to get out on the
floor to see what I could see before it closed, but this was a hectic
experience at best. I did get an Aeon Flux t-shirt (I had been seeing
the symbol for Aeon Flux spray painted on the sidewalk all over town)
and waited in line to also get a Warriors t-shirt. The DC booth was
packed for the last day of signings but I didn't feel I had the time
to wait in line. I had to get back to the dreaded Hall H to see the
Chronicles of Narnia panel, which didn't disappoint. The film's
producer, as well as Weta's Richard Taylor and KNB's Howard Berger
were there with amazingly detailed props from the film and a huge
statue of a minotaur that was incredibly lifelike. The panel itself
was very charming, and included the director Andrew Adamson, producer
and young stars live via Satellite. They all seemed totally inspired
by Adamson's vision for the film and dedicated to doing this one
right. They showed the trailer, some sketches and production designs,
a short documentary, and finally, at the end of the panel, they
debuted some new footage that (though unfinished) showed the
incredible Narnia they had created, with the White Queen and Aslan
facing off with real drama and spectacle. This was a fantastic way to
end my odyssey in Hall H. I have great hope for this movie and can't
wait to see it on the screen.
So that concludes my mega report about Comic Con. Hope you can use it-
if you do, you can call me Dehydrated D.
