Movie News

Comic-Con Report: Warner Brothers (Live)

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 27, 2007

Are you ready to rumble? We are sitting live in Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center as Warner Brothers prepares to deliver their Comic-Con 2007 presentation. Yesterday we saw great things from Paramount, including an awesome reel from Iron Man presented by director Jon Favreau. For more on that, take a look at my recap from yesterday (found here). But if you have already seen that and you want to know what is going to happen with all things WB (including some Joker-esque shennanigans) then stay tuned to this page, as I will be updating as it happens.

10:15am - Anticipation: There has been plenty of build up for this one. Everyone is looking forward to what surprises that WB will have in store for us. Will we get a look at The Joker from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight? Who knows. We do know that we will see stuff from The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman, Whiteout starring Kate Beckinsale, Zach Snyder’s Watchmen and Get Smart starring Steve Carrell. Speaking of Get Smart, I will be sitting down with Director Peter Segal later this afternoon. More on that later. We should be getting started shortly.

10:24am - YouTube

Just a quick comment as we await the start. I am pretty sure that they have reminded us about 20 times so far that there is no recording and that they do not want this stuff to end up on YouTube — that bodes well for the presentation.

10:40am - Getting Started: Comic-Con Director Eddie Ibrahim is on stage, once again reminding us about not posting stuff on YouTube. The lights are low and the tension is high. This is by far a bigger draw than yesterday’s panels, as it has been reduced to standing room only.

Get Smart

First up is Get Smart, starring Steve Carrell. Lots of extra footage beyond the teaser trailer that we have already seen. Hold on — have to stop laughing for a second. The movie looks very slick, very reverant to the Get Smart of old and ultimately extremely hilarious.

The crowd errupts as the lights come back up. First impression: what a cast! Peter Segal has been introduced on stage. Shortly thereafter he is joined on stage by Nate Torrence, Masi Oka and Ken Davitian. Then, out of no where comes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But wait, there’s more: Steve Carrell is in the house.

The Q&A has begun: In describing the film, director Peter Segal said, “We were not looking to reinvent the wheel. We just wanted to be that shiny new sports car next to the vintage car in the garage.” Next topic: Steve Carrell talking about how Pete Segal wasn’t wearing any pants during the shoot. Carell also described the film as “a comedic Bourne Identity.” Bottom line, this one is going to be hilarious.

Invasion

No Nicole Kidman, but we do get a video message from her from Australia. Of course, we can’t record that for you, but we are going to see a quick clip. Clip looks ok, but nothing more than what you’ve already seen on the web.

One Missed Call

Next up is a very rough clip from One Missed Call. It looks like it still needs a lot of work, leaving the feeling of a bad TNT horror flick. It is based on a Takashi Miike film though, so it will certainly be interesting. Shannyn Sossaman and Ed Burns then enter to answer some questions. As Ed Burns describes the film, it seems like a cheap sort of flick. Shannyn Sossamon also seems a little off. “I’m so screwing up,” she said at one point as she talks about not remembering working on “Mr. Show.”

Ed Burns was very funny though, talking about how all of his movies get killed at the box office. Then to move on from that, he and Shannon give free iPhones to a few audience participants. Wait a minute — where is my iPhone?

10,000 B.C.

A quick clip from Roland Emerich’s 10,000 B.C. It looks very cool, with an Apocolypto complex but on a more grand scale.

Whiteout

Producer Joel Silver, Director Dominic Sena and graphic novelist Greg Rucka are up to talk about Whiteout, the graphic novel adaptation starring Kate Beckinsale. The clip was pretty intense, showing a bit of the plot toward the end. Basically some crazy-wierd murders happen in Antarctica and Kate Beckinsale looks hot. Dominic Sena then told a little kid that there were pranks on the set that involved Kate Beckinsale, his mother and some dildos. This is what I love about these panels — they never fail to entertain.

After some Q&A and some stalling, Kate Beckinsale arrives looking smokin’ hot (images forthcoming). When asked about whether she would ever play Catwoman (this is Comic-Con), Kate said that she would have to take a long time to consider it, nodding to the fact that Michelle Pfeiffer was so good. She also talked about her affliction for getting beat up and knocked around on set. “I liked it,” she said to swoons from the crowd. Of a half hour worth of this panel talking, Kate Beckinsale is by far the star — there is no doubt about that. She looks great, shows off her dynamite personality and is currently causing a flood of drool that is running from the back of the room to the stage.

And as the lower half of my body goes numb, it is on with the show…

Trick r’ Treat

A quick clip from Trick r’ Treat, an upcoming Halloween horro flick. It began looking like a kiddy flick then broke into a disturbing display of horror. Watch out for this one if you are a horror fan.

Watchmen

Next up is Zach Snyder to talk about Watchmen, one of the most anticipated moments of the presentation. He begins by talking about the project and how he wants to make it a period piece, setting it in the 1980’s just like the book. He also talked about the book being an adult story, thus it very well may yield an R rated movie. An R rated superhero movie? Pretty cool.

The film will be shooting in Vancouver, where they have set up a NYC backlot. One thing that may disappoint fans: they will not be shooting in either Antarctica or on Mars. “I’ve heard the chatter on the internet. They are saying ‘he doesn’t care.’ Snyder doesn’t care,” he explained. “But this is an R rated superhero movie. They are not going to pay for us to go to Mars.”

Snyder then confirms the casting rumors: Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan (and yes, there will be CG involved in creating Dr. Manhattan); Patrick Wilson as Night Owl; Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian; Malin Ackerman as Laurie and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, both of which join Zach on stage.

“It is going to be a movie that is not bull shit and has balls,” Snyder said. That is certainly what the fans are looking for out of the guy who brought us 300.

And then he showed us a look at the first Watchmen poster…

Click Here to take a look.

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