Someone should see if Gary Whitta will let them cut in line.
Someone should see if Gary Whitta will let them cut in line.
Even though I can't go this year, I wouldn't have to cut. My friends always get first in line for Hall H to get front row center seats (well, second or third row back, so you can see the screens better).
Someone should see if Gary Whitta will let them cut in line.
Even though I can't go this year, I wouldn't have to cut. My friends always get first in line for Hall H to get front row center seats (well, second or third row back, so you can see the screens better).
Is that because they are super nerds and camp out, or they've got the hook up?
I can't wait for Akira to make Dragonball Evolution look like Citizen Kane
Last night I wrote an editorial titled Will Twilight Ruin Comic-Con, which basically shed light on a potential situation which would cause thousands of convention-goers to miss out on the most anticipated panels of Comic-Con 2009. Last year Twilighters began lining up at 3-4pm the previous day for the next day’s panels in Hall H. This caused thousands of convention attendees to miss out on the 20th Century Fox panel which preceded the Summit presentation. It also resulted in a lot of the people who showed up reasonably early (or some people who have never attended comic-con might consider unreasonably early), a few hours, to be stuck in seats at the back of the hall. Either way, I argued that the potential disaster could be prevented by holding the New Moon panel first, or by clearing the room before the New Moon panel to let in the Twilight line. Both seemed like reasonable solutions.
It appears that Comic-Con has listened to some of the worried conventioneers on Twitter and the blogs and has responded to the situation (kinda). They have moved the James Cameron’s Avatar panel to 3:00pm, and moved the Summit (aka New Moon) panel to 1:45pm. This will definitely allow more people to see the highly anticipated Avatar panel, as it is expected that most Twilighters will leave Hall H at the conclusion of the Summit panel (as occurred last year). Unfortunately, the Disney 3D panel still opens the con at 11am, which means many will likely be shut out of seeing Tron 2 and Alice in Wonderland as the Twilighters will be camped out early to hold their seats for the New Moon presentation.
The good news is that Comic-Con doesn’t seem to be set in stone. Schedule changes are being made, and hopefully things will continue to get better. I will be making another post with a complete listing of schedule changes, look out for that shortly.
Update: Comic-Con has partly responded to fan concerns by moving the Avatar panel until after the Twilight presentation. Unfortunately, the Disney 3D panel (Tron 2, Burton’s Wonderland) remain before the Summit panel.
I’m not a Twilight hater. We wrote about the first film a few times, and received a ton of extra traffic as a result. But I learned quickly that it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Not only that, but it isn’t something most /Film readers are interested in. That’s why we generally don’t cover the Twilight films (aside from some trailers or page 2 items). Unlike others, I don’t feel threatened by the books, films, or insane fandom. Why should I? Twilighters can do their own thing, and it really doesn’t affect me at all… except for when it does. And the one time it might is at a place called Comic-Con.
Probably the most anticipated film at Comic-Con this year is James Cameron’s Avatar. But only second to Tron 2, a film almost 30 years in the making which was the surprise sensation of last years con. For those who don’t know, they have retrofitted the main hall at the San Diego Convention Center, Hall H, for 3D presentations this year — a Comic-Con first. What this means is that the first two panels in Hall H on Thursday are in 3D (Disney 3D and Avatar). I assume they did this so that they could easily pass out 3D glasses to those entering the hall in the morning. If they had held the 3D presentations later in the day, distribution of 3D glasses could have been complicated. Sounds logical, right? But not when you add Twilight into the mix.
Summit Entertainment’s panel takes place 15 minutes after the close of the Avatar presentation. Anyone who attended last year’s Comic-Con can attest to how much of a cluster-fuck was caused by Twilight’s presentation in Hall H. Hundreds of tweens and Twilight Moms/Dads camped overnight to be the first ones into Hall H. By the time the “normal people” began to line up hours before doors were set to open, thousands of Twilighters were already in line.
Hall H fits 6,000-6,500 people , yet many people were shut out of the opening 20th Century Fox panel, and when the Summit panel began you couldn’t even hear yourself think as four or five thousand Twilight fans screamed in unison. It was a bit sad seeing a 50-year-old Twilight Mom asking a 22-year old Robert Pattinson if he wears boxers or briefs, but Im not writing today to talk about that. When the Summit panel ended, Hall H rapidly emptied, as more than 80% of the people exited the building. The rest of the day/weekend became a lot less stressful. But a lot of the people that wanted to attend the early morning panel missed out.
By placing the Summit panel (AKA The Twilight Saga: New Moon panel) as the third panel of the day, they are forcing thousands of movie fanatics out of Hall H. Unless you’re willing to brave the crowds and show up 4-5 hours before HALL-H opens, the seats will be taken by Twilight fans. Twilight fans who probably aren’t interested in Avatar. Many of those people who want to see previews of A Christmas Carol, Alice In Wonderland, Tron 2 and Avatar will be left out. A huge chunk of the audience that Disney and Fox had hoped would attend their 3D presentations will be unable to enter the Hall.
Even Industry trade newspaper The Hollywood Reporter recognizes the potential problem:
Apart from the high-level interest in Avatar and Tron, Hall H might also see a repeat of last year’s female fan frenzy with Summit’s presentation of New Moon. In the program lineup unveiled Thursday by Comic-Con International, the “Twilight” sequel panel takes place after the “Avatar” session.
I’m not complaining for myself (I might be able to get into Hall H through industry connections or what-not). I’m complaining for the 4,000-6,000 people that will likely be shut out of these awesome Hall H presentations in order for Twilighters to save their seats for the Summit panel.
What could be done to avoid this potentially disastrous situation? I would suggest that they move the Twilight panel to the beginning of the day and clear out the hall afterwards. If Comic-Con did this, it would solve everything. But we’re only two weeks away from show-time. The event schedule is live on the official Comic-Con website, and I’m sure the programs have already printed, so I’m not sure any schedule shifts would be possible.
Another potential solution would be to publicly announce that Hall H would be cleared out following the Avatar presentation. This would create a separate Twilight line for the Summit presentation, which would allow the non-Twilighters to see the two 3D panels.
Studios spend tens of thousands of dollars flying out talent for panels and preparing breathtaking clips for these massive presentations, which are specifically designed to get the positive word out on upcoming films. It would be a shame for Disney and Fox if their failure to anticipate Twilight madness cost them a precious opportunity to reach their target audience. Then again, similar oversights have happened before.
12:45-2:00pm: "Avatar"
The first public screening of footage in 3D. James Cameron, Jon Landau, Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana will appear for a Q&A. Hall H. :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg :omg
I'm not sure why people even go to Comic-Con anymore, as it sounds like it is nothing but a massive clusterfuck. Yes you get to see some big stars and big directors, but it's not like they are signing autographs or doing anything other than promoting their most recent project for about 45 minutes. And apparently you have to wait in line for literally hours to get into any of the panels anyway.
# We know you want some of the Cosmos. Ask for Brad, our man at the Namco Bandai booth at Comic-Con for a special Cosmos treat. How pleasant!about 3 hours ago from web
#Hazzah!about 16 hours ago from txt
#The COMIC-CON is arriving though we prefer to call it 'COSMIC-CON'.Then we are in charge of it.Actually we are in charge of both. 10:58 AM Jul 22nd from web
Comic-Con 2009 officially (and I stress officially) starts with Disney’s 3-D panel with the promise of TRON, ALICE IN WONDERLAND and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Upon entering the hall the first thing that happened to me was a trampling as Twilight Moms physically pushed me aside in their dash to the front of the hall. I guess the call of Edward and Jacob was strong. That was all forgiven when I was handed a pair of 3-D glasses a FLYNN’S ARCADE Token. Awesome. On the back is says “Home of Tron.” I love you Comic-Con!
There’s a new movie-theater sized screen above the panel now and all the square screens hanging from the ceiling for the cheap seats are new as well, silver-backed and 3-D.
The presentation started with a “Put on your 3-D glasses now” and gave us a Dolby 3D countdown which got massive cheers from the audience.
I'll flesh this out after the panel ends (still continuing) but I wanted to start with this, straight from Robert Zemeckis' mouth:
He couldn't confirm or deny ROGER RABBIT 2... BUT he said if it DID happen that all the 2D toons would REMAIN 2D. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be 3-D animation (Pixar characters maybe?), but he wanted us to know that he's not upgrading the characters.
Stay tuned for pics and further panel details... Burton's talking now... TRON up next!
TRON: LEGACY the official title of the sequel. From Jeff Bridges: "It's basically a story about a son's search for his father. The first TRON... when we made that in '81 there was no internet. Cell phones were these big things you carried around in a suitcase! So what you saw was so new and fresh... I can guarantee you'll get the same kind of pop with this one!"
Wait for a few years when Harry Potter will be regarded in the same way.
Wait for a few years when Harry Potter will be regarded in the same way.
Wait for a few years when Harry Potter will be regarded in the same way.
If Rowling does another HP book I'll expect it to be shit - nothing more than a money/attention grab.
Hedlund as Flynn's son pulls up to his father's condemned arcade, and the scene milks some genuine - and surprising - tension using, wait for it, a Journey song.
Flynn's son enters an arcade full of old arcade games sporting dust covers. He moves further into the room, as Journey's "Separate Ways" blares from a stiil-functioning jukebox. (You were expecting Guitar Hero?).
The son explores further, past arcade games draped in plastic, to a game in the back that is still on, a game under a neon sign that reads TRON. We glimpse the young Flynn playing the original TRON arcade we pumped quarters into growing up. Flynn's son tries to drop a quarter into the slot and the game refuses it, spitting out his quarter to the floor.
Journey is still blaring from the jukebox, and the tension is really pounding. Flynn's son picks up his quarter and sees that the game conceals a secret passage behind the wall. He pushes aside the game, opens the passage, and enters - as the song continues, as the game closes in over the passage, locking Flynn inside before cutting to titles.
The panel also showed the teaser trailer from last year's SDCC, but now in 3-effin'-D. The trailer features a new Light Cycle chased by an old one of sorts, its rider sporting black and yellow grid attire as the yellow rider's light wake destroys our new rider's bike. The rider is knocked into the air and lands on the ground, stalked by the yellow rider on foot - as an older Flynn (Bridges) watches from a cliff-face lair. "You've one, alright?!" begs the new rider, as the Yellow Rider readies a disc.
"It's just a game," the new rider insists - inches from death. The yellow rider's face shield then flickers to life, revealing a digital visage of a young Flynn - before he answers "Not anymore" - and brings the disc down for a killing stroke as we cut to black.
Rounding out the panel was a sneak peek at the new world of Legacy via concept art, which blends the worlds of Blade Runner and A.I. with that of the original Tron.
Expect scenes off the grid to play a significant role in the new movie, as the panel revealed a new look for Tron City, one surrounded by very black, very rocky terrain a la the wasteland outside Zion in the Matrix movies.
Disc Wars were up next, and they get a huge evolution. We saw a rendering of a new arena for the games, which feature 16 combatants on various platforms that recombine as the matches widdle down to 2 players. The goal now for players is two-fold - strike down your opponent with the disc or score a knock out into de-res for the win.
Footage shot of an athlete engaging in awesome, beyond wire-fu Disc War moves concluded the behind-the-scenes showcase. The coolest thing about this part, aside from the guy spinning 360 in mid-air, was that he did it without the aid of wires. Without the aid of CG or a springboard. This athlete is a human Neo, apparently, which he reminded us by finishing a spin move and tossing the disc in John Woo slow motion.
TRON: Legacy was arguably the best presentation from the Disney panel, right after Johnny Depp's surprise appearance. No one knew quite what to expect, but everyone wants this movie ASAP. We all left with mouths wide in awe at a sequel that promises to make its mark in the competitive 3D landscape.
Following our heroes dodging death at a NASCAR event that goes wrong...ish, a spinning car tire goes airborne and lands on - and then through - the head of the movie's resident bitchy girl, who clearly doesn't complain for long.
The murderousness continues: One kid is impaled by a malfunctioning oxygen tank, which propels him into a fence, which then proceeds to dice his chest in a grid pattern. Bonus points for killing a girl via a stone caught in a lawnmower and another gold star for killing a random dude with a busted bleacher seat, which ends up stabbing the guy through his talk hole.
6:23
Tom Rothman actually nuts up to introduce the AVATAR panel
6:23
Just hours ago people were ripping him a new one at the Masters of the Web panel
6:23
He's comparing AVATAR to LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
6:24
We're being told that absolutely no pics are to be taken or else you'll be taken outside and beaten. Not even pics of concept art. Sorry friends.
6:24
Mr. James Cameron!
6:25
"This is a place where I can speak from the heart because I'm one of you guys..."
6:26
"it's as much as privelege for me to be here for this unveiling"
6:26
STAR TREK TOS, 2001 helped inspire Cameron
6:27
"This movie was made for the 14-year-old I used to be"
6:27
Gonna see about 24 minutes. Crowd goes crazy. Anticipation is high.
6:28
Anything beyond these clips they don't want us to know until release
6:28
How many of you have ever wanted to go to another planet?
6:28
Are you ready to go to Pandora?
6:28
Then let's go......
6:54
We're back!
6:54
Standing ovation from Hall H!
6:54
Sigourney Weaver joins Cameron on stage
6:54
Footage was pretty damn impressive
6:55
It's hard to even describe
6:55
Sigourney: "This is the movie you've been waiting for!"
6:55
We saw one live-action scenes and five others on the world of Pandora
6:56
The 3D is pretty natural, nothing forced about it
6:56
The Na'vi are so impressively rendered and the backgrounds are so beautiful
6:57
The guy who plays the Army General comes out and he's going in character
6:57
Stephen Lang was his name
6:58
Zoe Saldana comes out on stage
6:58
Her Na'vi looks so much like her, it's bizarre
6:58
And I think I saw a little Zoe/Na'vi boobage in the clip
6:59
Her character hates the humans for what they're doing to her world but she's drawn to Jake (Sam Worthington).
6:59
Speaking of, Sam recorded a message cause he's off filming CLASH OF THE TITANS
7:00
7:01
Sigourney says working with Jim is always unlike anything else she's ever done
7:01
She still looks good all these years later
7:02
Cameron asked Zoe what her level of tolerance was before her training began.
7:02
7 days a week on horseback, weight-lifting, dialect study and kept that up all through shooting
7:05
Lang says his character is the villain of the piece. Hmmm...
From Phil LaMarr (via Facebook): “[20th Century Fox] just dis-invited the cast members who were supposed to appear [at the Futurama Comic-Con panel] so it may not be entertaining but it’ll certainly be interesting.”
James Cameron showed over 20 minutes of select scenes from AVATAR in 3-D to a massive crowd in Hall H. I’m going to try to recap as much as I can on the fly.
The footage opened up with a shot of black military boots walking upon a polished surface. A gruff drill sergeant type (Stephen Lang) is barking at new recruits. We see glimpses of the back of this guy’s shaved head and there are scars that run horizontally across the back of his skull (we don’t see his face). He’s speaking to maybe 15-20 young people, some not looking like they belong there… nerdy types, not all soldiers.
The colonel says that this new planet is not a plaything, that every single indigenous creature wants to kill you. "It is my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed."
When the colonel turns around the scars continue from the back of his head to his face, like it was made from the claws of an animal raked across his entire face.
Sam Worthington rolls up in a wheelchair during this speech and there’s something between the two (maybe some history?), but nothing is said.
Let me take a second to talk about the 3-D in the live action spots here as this scene was the only to not have (obvious) CGI characters. I’ve long been on the record as saying 3-D is fun, but I don’t believe for a second it’s the future of cinema. I think it’s possible a form of 3-D could be in the cards in the future norm, but the problem I have with most 3-D is it dims the picture so badly that you only get half the effect.
Cameron lit his scenes very brightly so things really pop and you can tell a master’s eye went into the framing of every shot, giving real perceptible depth to something as mundane as a military type walking between rows of recruits.
There is a trade-off, though. That means we lose a bit of atmosphere (not a ton... it is a lab afterall) in these military base scenes, but I didn’t mind so much as the blocky structures and architecture already screamed James Cameron to me.
But the 3-D is eye-popping, some of the best use I’ve seen recently… maybe since Captain Eo in my youth. Cameron’s not just content to give you a Viewmaster depth, but he also puts layers on our side of the screen… not so much in the SCTV comin’ atcha way, but in that the only depth isn’t perceived through the window of the screen… it’s also in the audience itself, filling the peripherals as things move by.
After Lang gives his speech to the green noobs we move to Joel Moore and Sam Worthington going to see their Avatars.
If you don’t know the basic story there’s a new planet called Pandora discovered in the near future. On this planet is an element that is so rare it is worth incredible amounts of money on earth. The trouble is that the indigenous people and hostel nature of the planet make it nearly impossible to mine. The main threat are 10 foot tall intelligent blue aliens called Na’vi.
Scientists have figured out a way to grow their own Na’vi (mixing Na'vi and Human DNA) which are completely blank slates and then recruit warriors and scientists to come in and project their consciousness into these creatures, thus allowing them to travel Pandora without causing war with the Na’vi. In fact, Weaver's character is the head of the Avatar project, trying to make peaceful contact with the Na'vi.
Worthington is a crippled vet, disillusioned, but a warrior at heart. This is the perfect assignment for him as he is freed from the restraints of his broken body.
This shot scared me a bit… when Moore and Worthington are introduced to their Avatars, floating in blue liquid in tubes we get our first look at the Na’vi and… it looked just okay. Because of the liquid the definition of the alien (big, blue, wide-nosed, long pointy ears, thin tail) was at best plain and the real impressiveness of these creatures and the technology used to bring them to life doesn’t crop up until later scenes.
Apparently, this particular Avatar was produced for Huntington’s character’s brother, but is his now.
Now, these Avatars are Na’vi, but share physical characteristics of their users. So, Joel Moore’s Avatar is recognizably Moore in the face as is Worthington’s.
One of the scientists is none other than Dileep Rao, the psychic from DRAG ME TO HELL and another is fan favorite Sigourney Weaver. God, it was so good seeing her in a James Cameron movie again.
In the scene we get of her she’s very no nonsense, getting Worthington situated in his pod (he insists on hoisting himself out of the chair and into his pod without any help). Weaver plays her character a little mother hen as she straps him in and prepares the consciousness transmission.
Another little detail in these scenes that I loved was just how awesome the transparent computer and information screens looked in 3-D. As Worthington slips under and the transfer begins Dileep is monitoring his brain activity on a floating screen. Dileep has to walk, so with a swipe of his hand he moves the screen onto a smaller portable screen that turns the x-ray brainscan around as he examines it.
Dileep walks into check on the two Avatars (Moore and Worthington). We get Sam’s POV as he wakes up in his new body and then our first real look at a Na’vi realized as he wiggles his toes, realizing he has full use of this body. The Worthington Na’vi is definitely excited and against the protests of Dileep he stands, getting used to his body, pulling cords out, knocking over equipment with a wobbly step or with his tail as he turns.
Don’t worry, it’s not a Jar Jar scene, but what’s really cool is that it’s the only time in the footage show we got a real sense of the scale of the Na’vi. It’s easy to say “they’re ten feet tall,” but seeing them stand next to a person and almost double their height, seeing one try to navigate a structure intended for humans… well, it does make them feel like creatures instead of animated humanoids.
From this point on the footage left our world and focused completely on Pandora as the Worthingon Na'vi is wandering alone.
One of the first things we see on the planet is Worthington’s Avatar playing with these tube-snake-like flora. He touches one and it disappears, sucking back into the ground with a FROOMPF. He’s delighted, playing around in this field of tall plants, making them disappear with a touch until he does that to one and it reveals a really pissed off giant rhino lookin’ thing with a hammerhead nose.
It brays at Worthington’s Avatar and stamps its feet, threatening to charge. The Moore Avatar and Sigourney Weaver Avatar are with-in shouting distance and Weaver stops him from using the giant machine gun he’s carrying, saying the hide is too tough and that shooting it will only piss it off.
The Worthington Avatar is unsure of what to do, even thought Weaver is telling him this rhino thing is just putting on a threat display and won’t charge if Worthington stands his ground. There’s a herd of rhino-aliens behind this one, which keeps braying and using his hammerhead horn nose to knock down trees. It shows its displeasure by a colorful ruff raising (like peacocks feathers but armored).
The creature doesn’t seem to know it’s just a territorial threat display and charges Worthington’s Avatar who just charges it right back, screaming. It stops and looks confused, then scarred, turning back and running away with the heard.
Of course that means a slick-skinned panther-like creature is behind Worthington. It leaps over him and charges the bigger game, which runs off… then it turns and realizes there’s another smaller, but just as tasty morsel right in front of him.
There’s a variation of the “Shoot or run?” type scene that plays here as they do both and scatter. Worthington seems to be on his own as he jumps between trees, under the large, gnarled and tangled roots of one old tree, trying to find a safe spot.
The panther-alien rips at the tree’s roots, tearing them away. Worthington’s Avatar shoots at it, causing it to back off before it darts in, bites down on the gun and rips it from his hands.
From here on out it’s a mad scramble to get away from the beast.
A female Na’vi hugs to a branch, sees the intruder and raises a bow and arrow, taking aim. It’s clear there’s poison on the tip of the arrow (mentioned by our colonel in that earlier scene), but just as she gets the arrow pulled taut a creature flutters into her field of vision.
It’s white and moves like a jellyfish in the air, floating as pumps it tendrils lazily… but it doesn’t look organic, more like a dandelion seed. However it obviously has an intelligence and isn’t floating randomly. This female warrior sees this and even in this crazy alien world this is not normal. You can tell by her reaction.
We find out later this is a Wood Sprite, a seedling from a sacred tree. It alights on the arrows tip momentarily before moving on. This Na’vi, Naytiri (Zoe Saldana), relaxes her grip and lets the clueless Worthington Avatar pass.
This is a good time to talk about Pandora a bit. Imagine the ocean floor if it would exist above the sea line and you’re close. It’s very much dense jungle, but the alien flora is very reminiscent of anemones. Also like the deep sea lifeforms many of the fauna have their own luminescence.
The sequence where Worthington’s Avatar meets Saldana’s Na’vi is a bit of a rescue scene as Worthington is being hunted by a pack of wild dog-like animals.
The dogs are slickly black skinned, like an eel and have sharp canine-like teeth, but when they snarl the lips pull back much further and are more menacing. The dogs are on him and suddenly Saldana’s character comes out of nowhere, arrows flying killing the dogs, swatting them away with her bow. Worthington takes advantage of the intervention and stabs the dog on top of him.
Happily he goes to thank Saldana’s Na’vi, who speaks English… I didn’t catch how she does, but he does comment on it. Anyway, she ignores him at first, looking sadly down at the dog carcasses. The one she shot with the arrow at the beginning of the rescue is still alive and whimpering. She whispers to it in her native tongue as she puts it out of its misery.
She then turns angrily on Worthington’s Avatar, still trying to thank her. She is angry at having been forced into the position of killing these creatures, saying it is his fault. He is like an ignorant child wandering the woods and if he hadn’t been waving fire around and making so much noise he never would have been in danger and the animals could have gone on living in peace.
As she chastises him, she goes around to all the dead animals and whispers some kind of prayer or saying over them.
She also douses his torch and we come to find that she is right. He doesn’t need it. Not only does the forest glow naturally with its own light, but as Worthington makes his way in the dark trying to follow her he sees that his very own interaction with the world creates a light reaction. When he steps on a moss-covered log the moss turns bright green under his foot and tapers out a few feet from the impact point, when he passes by a plant and brushes the fern it glows in reaction.
Turns out Neytiri sees a good heart inside the bumbling fool and she’s not alone. With a giant grin on his face as he discovers the wonder of this jungle world, the self-luminescence, the Wood Sprite returns… with a few dozen of its brothers and sisters.
Worthington’s Avatar bats one away without a thought and Neytiri acts as if he just broke a cross in half or spit on the Buddha. The little jelly-fish like seeds don’t seem to mind and all alight on him, completely ignoring Neytiri. She tells him (and us) just what these things are and that it is an amazing honor to be chosen by them.
All that is from the first act of the film, by the way.
The final sequence shown is a bit of a training scene as Worthington’s Avatar is now a part of Neytiri’s tribe and going through an important rite of passage.
Gone are his human clothes, replaced by native gear and face paint, like a Native American warrior. He must bond with a winged creature, so the other warriors, there mostly to laugh at Worthington’s sure failure, and Neytiri take him to their nesting ground.
These are reptilian, brightly colored and mean little suckers. Worthington’s Avatar is pushed in, asking over his shoulder how he’ll know which one is his match, the one he was meant to bond with. “He will choose you.” Well, how will Worthington know he is chosen? Easy… the one who chooses him “will try to kill you.”
Cameron draws out the suspense as the creatures see him and back away or fly off, hissing and making territorial displays. Finally the one comes forward, a particularly mean looking creature. The other warriors laugh at Worthington’s Avatar, talking in their tongues together (subtitled) sure he’s going to be killed.
In order for a Na’vi to bond with one of these creatures they must bond, which requires Worthington to take his pony-tail, which has little vermicelli-like strands of nerve bundled up in there, and connect it to one of this beasts’ antennae. It takes some doing, Worthington’s Avatar almost getting flung off a cliff for his trouble, but he comes back, wrestles the beak shut and melds the two pieces together, which naturally entwine.
When that happens the creature’s wild eye goes soft, pupil enlarging. Worthington’s Avatar carefully removes the leather tie around its beak and it stands up, collecting him on its back. Neytiri says he must fly or risk breaking the bond. Their bond can only be concreted if they fly, so she sends the creature off the ledge with Worthington’s Avatar en tow.
They fly recklessly, Worthington's Avatar barely holding on. They crash into cliff walls, fly through waterfalls. The creature, quite dragonlike, actually, squacks and Worthington tells it to shut up and fly straight... And it does. The bond is complete as it glides through the air.
That’s the end of the footage.
All the Pandora stuff that was shown was incredibly detailed, layer upon layer of movement, life, detail. But it seemed to be completely mo-cap and computer animated. While I thought it looked fantastic I think people need to reel in their expectation a bit.
What I saw were glimpses at a fantastic bit of storytelling, a rich fantasy tale, by a master of the artform, but the CGI creatures and characters are just that. They’re amazingly executed, no doubt, but it’s not like when you saw your first CG dinosaur and you said, “This is a game changer” to yourself.
What I hope Cameron gives us is the character work to fill out this highly stylized universe and he hasn’t given me any reason to doubt him yet. This presentation was all about showing off the visual eye-molestation brought to you by Weta Digital, Workshop, Cameron and his talented crew.
I can say that Sam Worthington seems to giving his best, most relaxed and natural performance in this one, based on the footage I saw of him and the voicing of his fake Na’vi counterpart. At the very least his accent is consistent.
All in all this was a tech demonstration. The 3-D was a stand-out, but Cameron’s collaboration with Weta Digital and Workshop I think is going to yield a dense, sci-fi fantasy flick with hopefully lots of military on Na’vi battles… I just want to see one that goddamn Power Suit in action!
Honestly, I’ve never had a picture of this movie in my head. The plot has been vague, the details minimal… so I’ve only ever hoped to see a fun, kick-ass James Cameron movie. On that level, I’m positive the eye-candy will be there for me come December. But I will say lower those expectations. The footage was good, layered, incredibly detailed and full of imagination and incredible imagery, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the next quantum leap forward in filmmaking. However there's no doubt Cameron's pushing the limits. Just don't expect to have your head blown out your asshole or eyeballs raped or whatever the newest talkback thing is.
No, what this presentation convinced me of is that AVATAR will be a strong return to narrative filmmaking from one of the best filmmakers of the last 30 years. Once we see the whole picture it might be more than that because I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
This movie is going to bomb. :lol
Yeah, people are going to be lining up around the block for a film called "Tron Legacy". :lol
Someone find Tom Rothman at the Con and drown him in the bay:QuoteFrom Phil LaMarr (via Facebook): “[20th Century Fox] just dis-invited the cast members who were supposed to appear [at the Futurama Comic-Con panel] so it may not be entertaining but it’ll certainly be interesting.”
The Futurama panel was going to be the entire cast grilling a Fox exec over bringing the series back.
Are you seriously going to argue that Tron has more of a mainstream appeal than pirates?
Even though I'm going to see Tron and I'm pumped (I have a geek fetish for Tron) didn't the first fucking movie bomb? How is this going to pull in the cash?
Are you seriously going to argue that Tron has more of a mainstream appeal than pirates?
Warner Bros. was so badly burnt by Superman Returns that I doubt we'll see a Superman theatrical movie anytime soon.
Warner Bros. was so badly burnt by Superman Returns that I doubt we'll see a Superman theatrical movie anytime soon.
Was it really that awful? I imagine it underperformed expectations, but there's clearly a great deal of life left in the franchise.
Aren't they pretty much guaranteed to fast-track something now that the rights to the character will revert in a couple of years?
hopefully Tron 2 will be in IMAX.
Rumbler... you are very, very wrong about Tron vs Pirate movies. Tron will bomb so hard. It has no appeal outside 40 year old, loser nerds.
Making Akira a live action film is an AWFUL idea. It would be like turning Taxi Driver into an anime staring Johnny Yong Bosch or video game.
Rumbler... you are very, very wrong about Tron vs Pirate movies. Tron will bomb so hard. It has no appeal outside 40 year old, loser nerds.
Again, I don't care. At all.
Ok man, but Pirates? Didn't Pirates gross like $1B? Tron won't make 1/10th of that.
This movie is going to bomb. :lol
It'll be better than Transformers.
Gary Oldman was on the panel for THE BOOK OF ELI (which looks really cool, by the way) and was asked about when the next Batman movie is coming out. Surprisingly, Oldman was open. He said he thinks they shoot next year, so look for the next BATMAN flick to come out the year after 2011 (his words).
"But you didn't hear it from me," with a laugh.
QuoteGary Oldman was on the panel for THE BOOK OF ELI (which looks really cool, by the way) and was asked about when the next Batman movie is coming out. Surprisingly, Oldman was open. He said he thinks they shoot next year, so look for the next BATMAN flick to come out the year after 2011 (his words).
"But you didn't hear it from me," with a laugh.
The Hobbit
With The Hobbit, I didn't want to be too involved with looking over the shoulder of the director. Part of the reason I wanted to produce the films and not direct them was not to compete against myself… Guillermo is there because I thought he'd do a terrific job with that movie. It wasn't the job for a novice filmmaker.
We're about three weeks from turning over the script for the first Hobbit movie to the studio. We wrote a treatment for the two films which we pitched to the studio…There was talk about doing The Hobbit as one movie and then doing a bridge movie to Lord of the Rings. We worked through the storyline and thought that we could squeeze The Hobbit into one movie, but even with a three hour movie, you'd be amazed with how much of that story you'd have to lose…We included all the events that we'd like to see, plus the fact that we wanted to embellish a few things and put a couple extra narratives in for Gandalf and the Necromancer. So we decided that the two movies should be The Hobbit, Part One and Part Two.
We'd been talking about releasing the first movie in December 2011 and the second in December 2012 – and that's what we're aiming for – but the studio is obviously not going to sign off on the films until they see a script… We haven't offered a single role to any actor yet. There are some people in mind. Obviously, the thing that we want to do is that any characters that were seen in The Lord of the Rings, we want the actor who originated them to appear. In terms of new characters, in some regards, we are talking about people as ideas, but…we need to know the in's and out's of the particular character and their function in the script before we talk to actors…
The Temeraire Series
The Temeraire are a series of books we've optioned. I think it's going to be six books soon. I love the idea of the Napoleonic times, when there was a Navy and an Army, but there's also an air force, which are these dragon-like creatures. So the British have an air brigade, but the French do, too. You have these great, Napoleonic battles with flying dragons and ships.
I'm thinking about whether it should be some form of miniseries. With six books, I really don't like the idea of making a big-budget movie of the first book and it not doing well at the box office and suddenly that's the end of the series. Six books makes such a compelling story that I like the idea of adapting that as a series.
TRON LEGACY TRAILER!!!
http://www.flynnlives.com/media/video/0xendgame.aspx
Tron was awesome and made me believe in the internet and video games!
Well, it's already better than the crappy original.
Marvel bought the rights to Miracleman!!! :hyper.
No, the original Transformers was at least entertaining. Tron sucked.
Did I mention that Tron taught me how to walk and cured my blindness?
Even though Jimmy Heyward's film was sandwiched between presentations for Where the Wild Things Are, The Book of Eli and Nightmare on Elm Street, among others, Jonah Hex roused the crowd with a terrific (if short) screening of footage and an appearance by cast members Michael Fassbender, Josh Brolin and, perhaps most importantly, Megan Fox.:lol :rofl
The teaser trailer more resembled a spaghetti western than a modern action film. In the footage, Hex is almost mythological, a gunslinger whose story is bandied about among dusty townsfolk; in one shot, a crow climbs out of his mouth and flies away. As co-star John Malkovich announces, "The war begins here," Hex retorts (via editing), "I figured hell would be something like this," as trains explode and mayhem ensues. Hex's appearance is jokingly addressed ("I cut myself shaving") but never specifically explained: the right side of his face boasts a gaping hole that is sort of contained by stretched piece of flesh, and Brolin looks creepily authentic as the disfigured cowboy.
Then, of course, there's Fox, who spends most of the clip in a corset and pantaloons; she looks terrific, but it appears that her character is by no means eye candy, firing pistols with both hands and taking out would-be aggressors while dropping clever catchphrases. She was also the focal point of many of the questions once fans were availed of the Hall H microphone, but she deftly navigated her way around any of the less appropriate questions to talk about her character, whom she marveled about getting to play.
Fassbender is a relative unknown to most American audiences, but his anonymity should be short-lived after playing one of Malkovich's henchmen in the film, a guy who he says he took inspiration for from a combination of "Clockwork Orange and 1970s Riddler, Frank Gorshin." His appearance even in the clips was memorable, not the least of which because of his physicality (his face is covered with tattoos), but because his character has an anarchic quality that is the kind that audiences love to hate. Ironically, he was most emphatic about his work with the absent Malkovich, whom he described as "so softly spoken and yet so menacing" in the film.
As for the film's potential fantasy quotient, Heyward took a moment to clear up a few rumors. "There's no voodoo, no army of the undead," he said. "It's a western action picture." But Brolin called the film "a phantasmagoria of insanity," revealing his hope that other films will be influenced by their film, which he admits was itself was inspired as much by '60s and '70s spaghetti westerns as it was the comic book series.
Fox's appearance again distracted the crowd from the film itself, especially when an attendee made an inappropriate request for her to participate in a sex tape. (Thankfully his microphone was cut off and he was ejected from the room.) But her pantaloons, corset and bustier notwithstanding, Jonah Hex promises (perhaps unfortunately) to be less about the actress showing her ass and more about kicking those of others alongside Brolin, Malkovich and her male counterparts.
QuoteThe Temeraire Series
The Temeraire are a series of books we've optioned. I think it's going to be six books soon. I love the idea of the Napoleonic times, when there was a Navy and an Army, but there's also an air force, which are these dragon-like creatures. So the British have an air brigade, but the French do, too. You have these great, Napoleonic battles with flying dragons and ships.
I'm thinking about whether it should be some form of miniseries. With six books, I really don't like the idea of making a big-budget movie of the first book and it not doing well at the box office and suddenly that's the end of the series. Six books makes such a compelling story that I like the idea of adapting that as a series.
:omg :hyper
"My take is what the puritans would expect, if the puritans knew what they were talking about," Downey said today at a press conference in San Diego. "Several of the most surprising things right off the bat are that oft associated props have never appeared in the short stories or novels. Even the long pipe is just something [William] Gillette used to not obscure his face on stage."
Downey even went back to original texts to add authentic Doyle lines to the script. "'It's tough to make bricks without clay,'" Downey quoted. "There's a million of them; they're the best lines to say. I really do think Doyle was an amazing writer and storyteller. I didn't quite know how great he was until we would keep reaching out to find quotes, things he said, descriptions he said, really more philosophical points of view that Doyle used through Watson and Holmes."
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/19330799.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1248505978&Signature=b6wyrh%2FMIXZSRngIODOiOMD7YvU%3D)
Wil Wheaton spotted him. It's apparently the same guy who got thrown out of Otakon for stalking underage girls.
The panel was last night. G4 is distinguished mentally-challenged.
The panel was last night. G4 is distinguished mentally-challenged.
What the hell?
Well, actually, that's not bad. Who the hell is home on a Friday night? I'm not.
Any Avatar footage floating around the interwebs?
Any Avatar footage floating around the interwebs?
Why would anyone want to see pirated 3D footage? It would look horrible
It could work if the film takes place 25 years in the future with an asshole of a batman played by Michael Ironside and they go all Dark Knight Returns with this shit.
Footage description: Kevin Feige is brought out. Keep the tone. Brought out Favreau. Footage first. Looks like a shitty DVD extra, something a step above what Kenny Powers put together to show off his arm for baseball talent scouts. Just some greenscreen stuff. Downey comes out. “Fuck that! What was that? Unadulterated garbage. You showed me better stuff in the editing room!”
Feige tryies to step in. “No, no this is bullshit!” The crowd is cheering, knowing what’s coming. Turns out that Favreau is a little distracted. It’s his son Max’s 8th birthday… Downey leads audience in Happy Birthday, singing like an Italian waiter, ending with him saying “You better show some real footage.”
And so he did.
It opens with Downey eating a donut in the donut hole of Randy’s donuts, completely in suit except for his helmet, which is off. He’s wearing sunglasses and just chilling. Suddenly “Sir! I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the donut.” is called from the ground and the camera pulls back revealing the back of a bald head with an eye-patch strap. Yep, Sam Jackson as Nick Fury.
The next scene we’re in Randy’s donuts, eating and drinking coffee together, like two normal people… except one is Nick Fury and the other is Iron Man, in full suit (minus helmet). Downey makes a crack about turning his patchy eye away from him.
The next scene is Downey sitting in a Senate hearing being grilled by Gary Shandling’s Senator Stern, who is trying to get the Iron Man tech. “Do you or do you not possess a specialized weapon?”
Downey responds that he doesn’t. It’s a “high tech prosthesis,” and says that he is Iron Man, the suit and him and one and the same and he will not hand his tech over to the government. That would be akin to indentured servitude or prostitution… which, the senators might be familiar with.
Rhodes is brought out and Cheadle is playing him stoic, but still beholden to his country. Stark makes a big speech, playing to the crowd, who eats it up, saying that Iron Man is a nuclear deterrent and peace has been achieved just by his presence. He throws up a peace sign to many cheers and really pisses Gary Shandling off. He screams out “Fuck you, Mr. Stark! Fuck you, buddy!” Of course it looks like a feed from C-SPAN or CNN and the f-bombs are bleeped out. Stark blows him a kiss as he puts his glasses on.
Next we see a series of Tony Stark articles as Mickey Rourke studies him. We can barely tell it’s him, he’s only shown in shadow as he tries to mimic Stark’s technology.
Then it’s Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow fighting in a bright hallway. This got a ton of cheers. She looks great in the role and put the beat-down on a few poor souls.
Rourke’s attack at the racetrack comes up next and it looks fantastic. We see the armature suit and the electric whips tearing up concrete he walks among car debris, approaching a downed Tony Stark (out of costume) who is disoriented and bleeding.
We get a glimpse of Stark opening his shirt and what looked like an infection spreading out from his RT Unit, like black veins before we see a money shot of Iron Man avoiding flack in a night sky, looking sharp as hell as he plummets to Earth.
Then IRON MAN 2 with BLACK SABBATH running on in the background… but that’s not all… The footage faded to black and then fades up again in a warehouse as Rhodes stands in front of a clutter of silver suit parts. Sam Rockwell strolls in, totally cocksure and slick.
Rockwell shows off a series of guns, hand-held machine guns, shotguns and a massive mini-gun like Schwarzenegger used in T2. Rockwell asks what all the guns are for. Rhodey says “It’s classified.” Rockwell asks which of the guns Rhodey wants. “All of them.”
Then the big, big money shot.
WAR MACHINE, black and silver and slightly bulkier than the IRON MAN suit, in action. The mini-gun is mounted on his shoulder, twisting and firing as War Machine’s arms are out. Instead of repulsor rays, bullets come streaming out of his arms, spewing spent casings as hundreds of rounds are shot off at once.
It was beautiful, actually. It’s a night war scene, lit by fire and and the light of his guns firing. The crowd went apeshit.
To give you an accurate picture of the reaction I heard from the thousands of fans who streamed out of Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con just a few hours ago after having seen preview footage from Iron Man 2, I could probably just type the word AWESOME!!! over and over several hundreds of times in all caps with at least three exclamation points and leave it at that.
Because unlike the audience members from this weekend's Avatar and Distict 9 presentations, these fans were as giddy and speechless as if they'd just come off the world's wildest roller coaster, and many could do nothing more than repeat that word again and again.
Even those who were able to turn words into complete sentences still found themselves needing to stretch for superlatives.
"A few words spring to mind," said Neil. "Orgasm is probably there. That's one. If you watched Iron Man and you loved it, it's like having children. The trailer itself looks better than the first film, and the first film was one of the top five comic-book action movies of all time."
"The preview blew my mind," said Ed. "It blows the first one out of the water. It was just that awesome. I'm definitely going to be there. I'll be there a lot of times."
According to Tom, "It looks totally amazing. I think it's going to top the first film. It's going to have even more action, even more special effects, a great, great cast."
Going out on a limb, Tom added, "It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the biggest movie of the year in 2010, I predict."
Fred was happy that the Marvel universe seemed to be coming together in Iron Man 2: "I liked the plots from the comic books that they brought in, and they didn't let the special effects overwhelm the characters parts. But the special effects were pretty nifty. They're tying the the Marvel universe together, which was always one of the hallmarks of Marvel as opposed to DC."
For the audience members who got into specifics, the two words most mentioned were—War Machine, the character portrayed by Don Cheadle.
"War Machine is going to kick ass," said Nikki.
"Iron Man 2 looked tremendous," said Rhett. "I very much enjoyed the first movie. I was very much looking forward to War Machine, and the few glances we got, he looked really, really cool. I'm so very fired up."
"War Machine, the little teaser at the end, he was pretty great," said Ted.
"I'm excited to see War Machine," said Brian. "He was awesome."
There's that word again. I should probably stop with the quotes right now and just repeat "AWESOME!!!" for several screens to give you the full effect of the reaction I was getting, but instead I'll end with one of the reasons Brian's wife Ashley enjoyed the screened preview scenes so much:
"Robert Downey, Jr. is pretty delicious ... next to my husband, of course."
He flies around with his shirt unbuttoned.
I NEED to see that Iron Man 2 trailer. War Machine! :hyper
Nice. Glad they replaced Terrance Howard. Way too much of a pussy to be War Machine
[youtube=560,345]aPIDBEaoov4[/youtube]
I NEED to see that Iron Man 2 trailer. War Machine! :hyper
For serious. :hyper
...just for you guys :shh
[youtube=560,345]GgW5djnKKi4[/youtube]
Looks like Downey Jr. has put on just a little weight, and maybe the studio is investing just a little less money this time around. Maybe they can fix those effects in post.