Following the Warner Bros. panel on Friday afternoon, a select group of press were invited to take part in a series of roundtable discussions with various panelists from the presentation. Director Zack Snyder (of the upcoming “Watchmen” film) was kind enough to give me and seven other writers a few minutes of his time to discuss the film in a much more controlled environment. Unfortunately, Zack likes to talk an awful lot and we didn’t have much time to begin with (five minutes), so I was unable to ask any of the questions I had lined up (like whether Gerard Butler will be cast as Hooded Justice, or if he’s got any ideas on how to shoot the “Black Freighter” sequence). Of course, there’s a lot of people out there who’d like to know everything they possibly can about the production on this movie, and so I’ve posted the following tidbit for the pleasure of anyone who may be interested…
Zack Snyder: (continuing his conversation from the previous roundtable) One of the things that I think is important about “Watchmen” is that it have resonances of cinematic pop culture, as well as superhero culture, because I believe there’s a relationship between Rorschach and Travis Bickle in “”Taxi Driver.” I believe that there’s a relationship between the war room in “Doctor Strangelove” and NORAD. There are cinematic relationships in the graphic novel, and I really think that the movie, this movie, “Watchmen,” is able to comment on both things in a way that other movies can’t, because it really does observe pop culture all the time while it’s telling the story. And I think that part of the influence on the characters themselves is the culture that they’re in. And for that part it’s something hugely fun to explore and, just from a visual standpoint, is hugely fun to say ‘Well, what does that mean?.’ Like, when you’re in the war room, how do you make it “Doctor Strangelove,” without making it “Doctor Strangelove”?
Reporter: It’ll pull you too far out of the story…
ZS: Yeah, I mean, let’s be realistic. Probably 99.999% of the population has not seen “Doctor Strangelove,” so there’ll be minimal impact on them, but, you know, for those of us that have, you want it to have those kind of broad implications that that has about the Cold War, and about like satire, and all those things, so Alex and I have been having a lot of fun, I think, in trying to… because I always say, treat the graphic novel like it was written 2,000 years old and it is like an illuminated text, and that we are disciples of this religion and we have to make sure that it is somehow, you know… we won’t be burned at the stake, for heresy, after the movie comes out. I think that’s the fun we also have, like for instance even just the smallest things like when Rorschach burns the SWAT cops with the hairspray. We’re sitting around and they showed me some hairsprays – you know, cool ratty hairspray cans – and I was like ‘Oh, they’re cool, but the labels are wrong.’ And they’re like, ‘What do you mean?’ And I go ‘That’s Veidt for Men, it should be, hairspray.’ And I was like ‘See?’ (mocks opening a copy of “Watchmen”), and they’re like ‘Oh, fuck, okay, sorry.’ But it’s like that. You could do that with pretty much everything in the movie.
Reporter: Well, like “300,” you already have a visual template to draw from and reference. In that sense, is the movie – because you haven’t really started on it yet – is it kind already made?
ZS: You know, it’s a hugely, hugely difficult thing to take any work of, like a drawing, and say ‘Make that real.’ You know you have… well yeah, to some extent, you know? I think part of making “Watchmen” is deciding what not to have in the movie, not what is in the movie. That’s easy, you know? So we’re just trying to like, what stories don’t you have? That’s part of the problem. It’s awesome because it’s a six-hour movie if you shoot everything. Just about. What happened was we meet a guy – a very awesome guy – who had done an animatic of the first ten minutes of the graphic novel. Like the first three chapters. Well not three chapters, but first six pages of the book. And it timed out at about ten minutes. And it was each frame, alright? With cool little flash animation – awesome – and with art from the book. And he said ‘I’ve extrapolated that if you wanted to do the whole book and it would be six hours and twenty minutes’… And so it’s not as easy as saying ‘Oh, that shot, that shot, that shot.’
Studio Rep: (talking to Snyder) We have to go.
Reporter: Really quick. Do you have a timeframe for the movie?
ZS: I don’t have a timeframe right now. I think it’s running long right now. It’s about 140 page script, not including “The Black Freighter,” and so – and “The Black Freighter” is about 16 pages as a script – and so, I mean, it’s going to be long.
Though many were there to see Smith do his thing for all 90 minutes, the writer/director had a little surprise for those in attendance: the pilot episode of The CW’s “Reaper.” The show, which is a mix between “Ghost Rider” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (and possibly “Ghostbusters,” but I can’t make that assessment based on one episode), is the perfect replacement for those still mourning the cancellation of “Buffy,” “Angel” and other fantasy-based programs. For more on the show, be sure to check out our very own 
I have to admit, I wasn’t that excited about this movie going into the panel, but after watching some early footage and getting the scoop on the cast, this has quickly become one of my most anticipated films of 2008. Of course, “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” are a demanding #1 and #2, but if Steve Carell has yet become the A-list star everyone seems to believe he is, “Get Smart” is definitely the film that will push him to the top. Carell describes the film as a comedic “Bourne Identity,” and while several people in the audience laughed at such premise, I think he hit the nail on the head. The film looks to be grounded very much in reality, and while Agent 86 does depend on a few gadgets throughout the course of the story, they’re all based around very practical concepts.
Not a lot to discuss here. Nicole Kidman was supposed to appear in person (I don’t believe that a single bit), but instead sent in a short video as an intro to an exclusive trailer of “The Invasion.” Considering that the director of the film also failed to make an appearance (and he was supposed to, until about a week ago), I think it”s safe to say that neither party is especially interested in promoting a film that’s already receiving terrible publicity. No one wants to see another remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” – especially one plagued with so many production horror stories.
Here’s another film that took me completely by surprise. A Hollywood remake of Takashi Miike’s “Chakushin ari,” the movie follows a group of people who receive phone calls from their former selves, only to discover the exact date, time and details of their death. Sure, the movie sounds a whole lot like “The Ring” and, well, every other Japanese horror flick imported to the States over the past decade, but there’s something about the adaptation of Miike’s style (which is evident in the exclusive trailer we saw) that shows definite promise in offering something very unique and creepy.
Remember those Lionsgate panels that I complained about so much yesterday? Yeah, well, the WB sneak peek of “Whiteout” ranks right up there as one of the worst movie-related panels at this year’s Comic-Con. Because Kate Beckinsale was MIA for a majority of the panel (she was stuck in traffic behind a freight truck), the audience was forced to listen to producer Joel Silver, director Dominic Sena and creator Greg Rucka field an endless supply of questions (somewhere in the range of 50, actually) about the big screen adaptation of the Eisner-winning graphic novel.
The trailer was shown – twice – and by the time Beckinsale arrived on stage, the audience had already lost interest in discussing the film any further. Beckinsale herself was considerably loopy during the end of the Q&A session, and between fielding countless superhero questions (from “Underworld” to “Wonder Woman” to “Catwoman”), Beckinsale told a few amusing anecdotes from the set.
Who watches the Watchmen? That’s an interesting question, but I think it’s safe to say that the members of the press (myself excluded) have invested more than just a general interest in the production of this movie. Director Zack Snyder was hoping to keep all those casting rumors a secret until Comic-Con when he would reveal his full cast list, but unfortunately, that wasn’t so. Even the last-minute casting of Jeffrey Dean Morgan was leaked online two days before Snyder took the stage, and though the director should be a little more pissed about it then he seemed, I was happy to discover that he still had plenty to talk about. Snyder shared his thoughts on early production of the film (including how he got involved) and then introduced two members of the cast to join him on stage: Jackie Earl Haley, who will be playing one of the film’s main protagonists, Rorschach, and Malin Ackerman, who will be playing the new Silk Spectre.
Along with confirming that Sally Jupiter would be keeping the poodle bob haircut, Snyder also mentioned his plans for Dr. Manhattan. During his early years, the character of Manhattan will be played by Billy Crudup as a normal human being, but when he becomes the blue-skinned superhero, the character will be done completely in CGI. It’s a risky decision on Snyder’s part, but it’s probably also the right one. We’ve seen plenty of actors don the blue paint in the past, and so it probably makes sense that a CGI Manhattan would not only look different, but also incur a certain sense of superiority over the other actors. Later in the panel, Snyder also discussed his plans to include the “Black Freighter” pirate subplot in the film, as well as why he cast slightly older actors for all of the major roles.
Despite my aforementioned gripes, the first panel of the day actually kicked off in style when Dane Cook was introduced to thunderous applause. After cracking a few jokes (and the moderator chimed in with a joke of his own… about virgins… which received many boos), Cook set up the first clip of the day. The sexual subject matter of the minute-long clip led the moderator to asking the comic whether the movie featured any special effects. To which Cook replied:
It’s no secret that Jessica Alba has been declared the Sexiest Woman Alive in just about every magazine and website across the country at some point in time, and while I’ve never been one to argue, drooling over the actress while watching her on the big screen is nothing compared to seeing her in real life. The woman isn’t just beautiful; she’s a goddess – a fact further evidenced when a mob of horny young men rushed the stage for the chance to get a good shot. Here are some more highlights from panel:
A western starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster and Peter Fonda sounds pretty damn cool to me, but this movie has no place at Comic-Con. And just as I expected the panel for the film not only went incredibly long, but it was also pretty damn boring. It’s a shame, since I’m a big fan of Ben Foster and, well, Peter Fonda is a legend, but the former didn’t seem to even want to be there, while Fonda spent most of the time blabbing on about how cold the desert is. Not incredibly mind-blowing stuff, and I was just as happy when the damn thing ended.
By far the strangest panel of the weekend, Clive Barker appeared on stage with the cast of his new film, and I must say, the guy was either stoned, drunk, or both. Based on the graphic novel about a man who kills people on a subway train in order to use their bodies as meat, “Midnight Meat Train” is going to experience some difficulty at the box office. Described as an intense (and graphic) horror flick, I can’t imagine the movie will do very good. And after being forced to sit through Barker’s 10-minute long rant about how he came up with the title (two words: marijuana cookies), and watching the disturbing world premiere trailer, I can’t say I’m too jazzed for it either.
Bradley Cooper can do better than this, as can Vinnie Jones, who provided the only real entertainment of the panel by doing a hilarious impersonation of the horror legend. It was definitely tasteless, and yet Barker was so out of it that he didn’t even seem to mind; or notice, for that matter. So what did I learn about this movie? Well, not much, but Barker did talk an awful lot about said cookies his personal nightmares, and his upcoming projects, while co-star Leslie Bibb acted as the enforcer of the group, helping Barker with his chronic memory loss several times throughout the course of the presentation. To say the least, it was incredibly embarrassing.
If possible, I was looking even less forward to this panel than the one that preceded it. True, I’m not a particularly big horror fan. In fact, I hate most horror movies I see unless it’s got vampires or zombies, but there’s not a single franchise in Hollywood (horror or not) that needs to be ended more than Twisted Pictures’ “Saw” series. Director Darren Lynn Bousman and producer Mark Burg only seemed to further the point during the moderated Q&A, bashing critics for their bias towards the films and calling out the MPAA for giving the latest installment an NC-17.
They then proceeded to show some “rough” footage from the film (not the clip they wanted, because Comic-Con rejected it – boo hoo), and I don’t care how rough the cut may have been, because the clip was freaking stupid. I was glad to hear that Bousman would finally be leaving the franchise after the release of the fourth film, because his future projects are certainly eye raising. First up is the rock opera “Repo,” which he promises to be even more deranged than any of the four “Saw” films, while it was also slipped he would be directing a remake of “Scanners.” And no, this is not a joke. One, two, three… sigh.
Since I had already seen the film at a word of mouth screening earlier this month, I was less interested in the “exclusive” clip (a blatant parody of sports training montages like “Footloose” and “Gymkata”) the Lonely Island Boys brought with them than the Q&A that followed. Aside from Samberg’s expected antics (i.e. giving the microphone a blowjob and making funny faces in the monitor), the Boys also talked about making the jump from internet shorts to feature films, as well the origins of “Dick in a Box.” Here are some highlights from the panel:
Codenamed “Cloverfield,” the Comic-Con audience wasn’t expecting much from the hush-hush Bad Robot monster project, but we were at least expecting Abrams to give us a title. Instead, all we got was yet another poster reveal, as well as the promise of a monster made exclusively for Americans to call their own. Apparently, King Kong isn’t cool enough, and though we’ve tried our best at importing “Godzilla” throughout the years, it’s come at the expense of absolute embarrassment. That doesn’t make me trust Abrams any less, however, and I can’t wait to find out what this freaking thing looks like.
After the “Iron Man” panel was moved to Saturday as part of the Marvel Studios presentation, all people were expecting today was a quick message from director Jon Favreau to whet our appetites for the events to come. He offered a quick greeting and then showed off some “early animation tests,” which ended up being a clip of an old “Iron Man” cartoon from the ’70s. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Favreau appeared on stage with a video camera declaring that he wanted to catch the audience’s reaction and put it up on YouTube. In all seriousness, the visit was a welcome surprise, but when he announced that he’d be showing off early footage of the movie, well, everybody went absolutely nuts. And for good reason too.
This was being as the biggest presentation of the day – with the hope that Abrams would release a full/partial cast list – but instead, all we learned is what many already knew: “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto had been cast in the role of Spock. The perfect choice if you ask me, and as you can see from the photos above (as Leonard Nimoy joined the panel with the announcement that he do would be donning the infamous ears one last time), the similarities are mind-blowing. That was the only major announcement in regards to casting, though, except for a brief mention that, despite recent rumors, Abrams desperately wants to find a role for William Shatner. With the release more than a year away, though, you can expect some awesome footage when the crew of the USS Enterprise roll back through town for Comic-Con ’08.
