As the final major movie panel of the weekend, Sony really disappointed, which was a bit of a letdown, since it would have been nice to end Comic-Con with a bang. Instead, the studio limped its way through a presentation of the “Cloverfield”-inspired horror film, “Quarantine,” by just showing the trailer, while panels for “Underworld 3” and “Pineapple Express” seemed to come and go without anyone really taking notice.
“Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans” (guests: director Patrick Tatopoulos and stars Rhona Mitra and Bill Nighy)
The idea of making the “Underworld” series into a trilogy has been around since before the first film was even released, but after the disastrous sequel that was “Underworld: Evolution,” it’s hard to believe that they’re actually going through with another movie. To be fair, director Patrick Tatopoulos is mixing it up a bit by telling the tale from the werewolves point of view (not to mention setting the story in ancient times), but this prequel sounds about as interesting as another “Scooby Doo” movie. The fact that Bill Nighy is returning is encouraging, and he definitely sounded excited about coming back for another round. During the film’s panel, he proudly proclaimed “I’m a vampire, I’m a zombie, and I’m a squid” in reference to his roles in “Shaun of the Dead” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Underworld” films. Rhona Mitra, on the other hand, was just a little too snooty for my liking (can’t movie stars do a better job of pretending that they enjoy promoting their films?), but she did promise that while her character won’t be wearing the popular PVC leather from the first two films, her outfit is still very “saucy.”
“Pineapple Express” (guests: director David Gordon Green, co-writer Evan Goldberg and stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride and Amber Heard)
After two lackluster lead-ins, I really hoped that the guys behind “Pineapple Express” would be able to lighten the mood, but the panel was quickly ruined by a series of awful questions from the crowd that led to Seth Rogen ripping on most of them – namely Bob Stencil, a Comic-Con favorite who Rogen called out for acting like a dumbass. A few minor details were also spilled along the way (like how everyone did their own stunts because of the film’s restrictive budget, or that the two stars weren’t really smoking weed during production), but there wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking. Apatow did disclose that he has no plans for a new TV series in the immediate future (mostly out of fear of being cancelled again), but anyone that’s been paying attention to his career over the last few years could have told you that.
The one shining moment during the Q&A session was the random appearance of Human Giant. Paul Scheer asked who would win in a fight between Frank Miller’s Elektra and James Franco; Rob Huebel inquired whether the film was based on a Frank Miller graphic novel; and Aziz Ansari tried to give Judd Apatow the script he co-wrote with McG called “Superbad 2: Full Throttle.” It was a nice distraction for the crowd, but it didn’t really help with promoting “Pineapple Express.” Not that it mattered, because even though the four clips that were shown were all funny, this isn’t the kind of movie that people need convincing to see. Either you want to see it or you don’t, and you probably already made up your mind shortly after seeing the first trailer.
