One of my favorite parts of Kevin Smith’s Saturday Comic-Con appearance was his take on the “Twilight” series, video of which Dennis over at Think Hero has dug up and passed along. Great stuff (originally at ScreenCrave.com):
Tag: Comic-Con
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One more parting shot…
Snapped by Jon Favreau on the Hall H stage during the “Iron Man 2” panel discussion:
And a taste of Kevin Smith at the Con, where he talks about the fact that the title “A Couple of Dicks” may not hold (My camera lost battery power half-way through. Apologies):
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COMIC-CON: Wrapping it up
I wish I could tell you how awesome the “Iron Man 2” footage form yesterday’s Paramount panel was, but Hall H was packed to the gills and even us schmoes int he VIP line couldn’t get in because it was at capacity. Without a doubt, the event was the most popular attraction at this year’s Comic-Con.It sounded good muffled through the walls. That’s all I got. Hoping for another screening in LA soon.
By far the highlight for me was the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel with James Cameron and Peter Jackson. It’s a pretty big leap from last year’s set of Zack Snyder, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow. Let’s hope next year isn’t a step backwards at the crew responsible for this momentous occasion gets creative and puts a few equally brilliant minds together on that stage once again.
Speaking of Jackson, “District 9” made a major splash here. The screening was very well-received on Thursday and the Saturday panel got the crowd chomping at the bit. In this community anyway, the film is sure to be a runaway hit.
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Random geek crashes the Visionaries party at the Con
Oh, there was a hilarious moment early on during that EW Visionaries panel yesterday, when a fan leaped onto the stage somehow, in a faux-geek guise, to crash the party. Here’s a clip of the disturbance, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly:
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COMIC-CON: Visionaries Jackson and Cameron address the masses
The crowning jewel of the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, by far, has been the Entertainment Weekly-sponsored “Visionaries” panel yesterday evening, featuring filmmakers Peter Jackson and James Cameron. So many real-world, in-the-trenches, eye-on-the-future topics were discussed that it became tedious to sit and transcribe the proceedings, so after a while I just committed myself to as many video clips as I could grab. Though I was tweeting as much as possible. Ditto Jeff Wells, who passed along some nice quotes throughout.The two talked about everything from motion-capture technology to balancing the duties of screenwriter with that of producer and director, and really, anything in between. It was the most enlightening panel Comic-Con could have hoped for, and even the attendee questions were brighter than usual.
Line of the evening: “It’s not a good idea to ask a woman if she wants to have another baby when she’s crowning,” which was Cameron’s response to a query about his next project.
Much of the discussion was dedicated to the idea that these two guys constantly push the envelope, not only of what is possible in cinema, but of what a studio is willing to fund. Cameron in particular displayed his usual maverick side when questions like this came about, at one point saying that Warner Bros. needed to “grow a pair of balls” regarding an eventual 3D release of the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.
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COMIC-CON: Peter Jackson receives standing ovation at first ever Con appearance
Peter Jackson made his long-awaited first trip to Comic-Con yesterday in support of Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” which screened to a select audience Thursday. He received the expected standing ovation by the many Ringers and Bad-Tasters in attendance.“This is a moment to remember for the rest of my life,” he said after snapping a few photos of the audience like a geek in heaven.
Jackson was joined by Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley on stage for a discussion of the thoughtful sci-fi film. An extended trailer (that, to my mind, gave away too much of the plot’s particulars) cranked the crowd’s anticipation for the film up to 11, but I personally wish the moderator had drawn out some more insightful commentary from Copley, whom I praised to the ends of the earth after seeing his riveting performance Thursday.
Jackson talked about the project’s genesis, being born from the ashes of his failed “Halo” project. The seeds of “District 9” can be found in Blomkamp’s short film “Alive in Joburg,” which crossed Jackson’s path when he was seeking out a helmer for “Halo.”
“The idea was that we would produce ‘Halo,’ but from the very beginning we wanted to find a new director, someone who was fresh, original, who would bring a new spin to the film,” Jackson said. “Neill had done a couple of short movies and we were really impressed. And then ‘Halo’ died due to studio politics. We got kind of disillusioned with what happened and we thought, ‘Why don’t we try to take control of the situation,’ so we suggested the idea of working on an original idea. Keep the budget low and put this energy into a different project. So it worked out for the best.”
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COMIC-CON: A very important date with the designs of ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Yesterday I moseyed on over to Seventh Ave., between J and K Streets for a glimpse of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” production design set-up, and the display was predictably jaw-dropping.An empty bulding has been converted into various elements of Wonderland, from the hall of doors to the tea party set-up to the Red Queen’s throne room, it was all the eye-popping Burton splendor you could hope for. The other side included a stop on the massive “Tron: Legacy” viral event, which was thoroughly covered by Devindra Hardawar at /Film.
Given our tendency to champion below-the-line talent here at In Contention, I thought I owed it to costume designer Collen Atwood (whose threads were also on display) and production designer Robert Stromberg to tour the event and offer up some snaps of their work. Models and concept sketches were strewn throughout as well. Both designers, I think it’s safe to say, are heading for Oscar nominations next year.
Here’s a taste of what I saw today:
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WEEKLY WRAP: Comic-Con, a taste of ‘Avatar’ and ‘Alice’
• Comic-Con was the week’s big story, with 25 minutes of footage from “Avatar” its major talking-point so far.• Meanwhile, the rather less glitzy sci-fi of “District 9” wowed the crowds.
• And Gary Oldman slipped some unexpected news about the next Batman installment.
• Good week for trailers, as both “Alice in Wonderland” and “Bright Star” offered a crazyglimpse of their goods.
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Gary Oldman at Comic-Con: The next Batman film starts shooting next year
“But you didn’t hear it from me,” he told the crowd during the Warner Bros. “Book of Eli” panel. It’ll be for a 2011 release.
The convention center’s roof will land somewhere in La Jolla later this afternoon. Christopher Nolan is fuming somewhere.
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‘Jonah Hex’ poster
I Tweeted a far-away shot of the new “Jonah Hex” poster from the exhibition hall yesterday, but luckily there’s a better image floating around the net now. I kind of dig it:
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COMIC-CON: Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp unveil ‘District 9’ to eager first audience
Last night Peter Jackson showed up at the Horton Plaza United Artists theater a few blocks north of the convention center with protege Neill Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley in tow. The occasion: the first ever screening of Blomkamp’s “District 9,” a sci-fi installment that finds itself in the midst of a heavy “what the heck is it?” campaign right now that hopes to drum up anticipation for the August 14 release (and will no doubt see a spike in that once the web press finds time to sit at their laptops and hammer out reactions).I didn’t really know what to expect. I haven’t follwed the viral on this to the letter like so many and I really just thought it would be a nifty diversion during the Con if nothing else. But it was so much more. The film, which I won’t even discuss plot-wise, isn’t a watershed moment for sci-fi cinema by any means, so don’t let me over state.
What it is, however, is a dedicated, small piece of character-driven genre, much like Duncan Jones’s “Moon” in that way, that was smartly nurtured by Jackson. It also has plenty of seat-leaping action moments to go around, but at it’s heart, it is a near one-man show from actor Sharlto Copley, a fresh young talent who, quite frankly, stunned the hell out of me with his control of a character that is quite complicated in some ways.
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EW’s Wonder Women panel at the Con
I was bummed I had to miss yesterday’s Entertainment Weekly-sponsored women’s showcase here at Comic-Con, but luckily the mag has video snippets available for viewing now. No embed feature, though, which is unfortuate, but go give them a look anyway. Panelists included Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Elizabeth Mitchell and Eliza Dushku.
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COMIC-CON: James Cameron unveils impressive ‘Avatar’ footage
James Cameron made his long-awaited trip to San Diego this afternoon for the world premiere of 25 minutes of footage from his upcoming film “Avatar,” and the reaction was as enthused as it could have been. A scene-by-scene description is probably the best way to go about this, so first that, then quotes from the post-screening discussion.If you’d prefer to stay pure on this film and would rather skip the scene descriptions, go ahead and scroll down to the quotes section, indicated in bold below. Also, for those hungry for any and all info, before I dig into the specifics of the presentation, you should really read through Cameron’s E3 address to get an idea of the film’s plot, or else you’ll be quite lost.
Seven sequences were unveiled, beginning with a “Full Metal Jacket”-like military briefing with actor Stephan Lang front-and-center. The scene also introduces us to the central character in the film, Jake Sully, a crippled former military officer himself with an eye toward the cosmos and the planet Pandora.
The next scene reveals the avatars, genetic bio-suits constructed from the DNA of the Na’vi, tall, blue-skinned warrior natives of Pandora. Floating in a tank of fluid, being prepped for integration with human consciousnesses, the imagery is quite beautiful in this scene, the avatars in a docile, tranquil state, Sully peering at them, recognizing in them the chance to walk, however virtually, once again.
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James Cameron says circle your calendars, August 21 is “‘Avatar’ Day”
I’ll get to my reaction to the 25 minutes of absolutely mind-blowing “Avatar” Comic-Con footage in a few minutes, but for now, it’s worth announcing that James Cameron dropped a bit of news at today’s big Fox panel for the film. If you weren’t able to be in Comic-Con for the big unveiling, you won’t have to wait until December to get a glimpse of the film:
We’re going to do something unprecedented. It’s a social marketing experiment. We’re going to take over as many IMAX 3D theaters and other select 3D theaters worldwide on August 21 and we’re going to let an international global audience come see 15 minutes of “Avatar” for free. It’s going to be “Avatar” day.
There you have it. Circle your calendars.