Comic-Con 2010: Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens Kicked Ass
One big panel that totally blew everyone away, us included, this year at Comic-Con 2010 was Universal’s panel for Cowboys & Aliens, the new Jon Favreau movie that’s being shot as we speak. Although they’ve only been shooting for about four weeks, Favreau made an appearance and brought the entire cast in, and I mean the entire cast: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Adam Beach. And yes, even Harrison Ford made his first ever Comic-Con appearance (we talk more about it in the video below) and as you can tell by my tweets, even I was excited to see him. But of course, we got to see some footage, so how was it?
That photo above of Daniel Craig as Zeke Johnson is also our very first look at anything from the movie, but those lucky enough to also be at Comic-Con in Hall H yesterday we treated to roughly six or so minutes of fresh footage of an early scene from Cowboys & Aliens. If you don’t know much about it, based on Fred Van Lente’s comics, it’s a western about Indians and Western settlers who “must lay their differences aside when an alien spaceship crash lands in their city.” Obviously Zeke has a little something more to do with it, considering he’s wearing that high tech bracelet that he uses to shoot down one of the UFO’s in the footage.
Ethan and I recorded a video blog talking about our reactions to the footage which you can watch below:
If you didn’t hear, during the panel Jon Favreau said they tested shooting with 3D cameras, but because this is a western he wanted to shoot on film so in the end he said f**k it to conversion and decided to only release this in 2D, not converted 3D. Universal already has Cowboys & Aliens scheduled for release on July 29th, 2011 next summer. I’m not sure when we’ll see any real footage released, but I’m guessing it won’t be until the end of the year because Favreau and his cast have returned to New Mexico to continue shooting and will be working hard for the next few months. However, as you saw in our video, I am definitely very excited to see more and I’ve got high hopes that Favreau will deliver another kick ass comic book movie next summer.
First Full Trailer for Tokyopop Movie ‘Priest’ with Paul Bettany
Okay, here’s a trailer you just have to watch. A few days ago I caught the beginning of ScreenGem’s panel for Priest, the new Tokyopop adaptation starring Paul Bettany. Unfortunately this futuristic vampire action-thriller is from the exact same team that brought us Legion, which looked (and was) so terrible that I didn’t even care to see it. However, this trailer kicks ass, I’m seriously impressed, I actually really want to see this. I love the futuristic look of it, and the action just looks epic and entertaining. Maybe Legion was a chance for them to gain experience and this is the real movie they wanted to deliver. Who knows? Just check this out!
Watch the first full trailer for Scott Stewart’s Priest:
Priest is an adaptation of the TokyoPop manga created by Hyung Min-woo. It fuses the western genre with supernatural horror, gun fu, and dark fantasy themes and is notable for its unusual, angular art style. Here’s the short logline: “In a world wrecked by centuries of violent warfare between man and vampire, a warrior priest turns against the church in order to save his kidnapped niece from a homicidal gang of vampires.” So smething about vampires and… you lost me. Although, it may be good because this Priest guy actually kills vampires. ScreenGems is making a big bet and has scheduled Priest for release on May 13th, 2011 (in 3D).
Super 8 Rocket Poppeteers Ice Cream Truck Lands in San Diego
Now this is great surprise. A few days back I started hearing rumblings that an ice cream truck for Rocket Poppeteers was roaming through the streets of San Diego. Wait a minute – who or what or why is Rocket Poppeteers? Well, if you’re a hardcore J.J. Abrams fan and love virals, you may remember after the initial debut of the trailer for Super 8, Abrams’ new sci-fi movie, a website was discovered that contained a server with media on it. When unlocked, fans discovered a newspaper article that not-so-coincidentally had an ad on it for Rocket Poppeteers. Some predicted this would be the new Slusho, and it definitely looks like it will.
Thanks to a post on MovieViral.com, I learned that there is twitter account at @RocketPoppeteer that was posting locations in San Diego where the truck would be. As I was busy, I did my best to catch the ice cream truck yesterday afternoon, but as I headed out to find it I ran into one that was driving around the streets blaring some loud Rocket Poppeteers theme music. In addition, a cute girl was roller skating alongside of it handing out t-shirts to people. Unfortunately the freebie hungry crowds of Comic-Con yanked them out of her hands before I could get one, but they were just shirts with the Rocket Poppeteers logo (as seen here).
I’ve included some photos of the truck and everything else below. During the “Visionaries” panel earlier in the week with Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams said that it was too early to do anything for Super 8 because they hadn’t even shot it yet (won’t start until September). I didn’t expect them to bring anything, but it definitely looks like they want to start building some buzz and general interest in the idea of Rocket Poppeteers in the same way as with Slusho. Sadly, I don’t think anyone grabbing the free stuff they were handing out has ANY clue what they’re getting, but it was quite a great surprise to see this ice cream truck show up in San Diego.
We’re not sure if this leads to anything or starts up the next phase of the viral, but you can check out articles on Super 8 News and MovieViral for details on the truck. They’ve even been keeping track of things like the license plate number and background of the twitter page to look for clues, which seems a bit excessive, but I think that’s where Abrams likes to hide viral stuff. Stay tuned for updates and check out these photos!
Must Watch: Latest Official Trailer for Matt Reeves’ Let Me In
Yesterday, Tim and I raved about the footage we saw at Hammer Films’ presentation for Matt Reeves’ Let Me In, the Let the Right One In remake starring Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road). Although the two clips we saw won’t be online, the new trailer that they showed at the beginning has officially hit the web courtesy of MTV. Considering this is the very first official US trailer for this movie (that isn’t international), I’m sure the MPAA has made sure it isn’t too intense (unfortunately). However, this is a great trailer and it does show you the dark, intense nature of this new take on Let the Right One In. Enjoy!
Watch the first official US trailer for Matt Reeves’ Let Me In:
A bullied young boy (Smit-McPhee) befriends a young vampire girl (Moretz) who lives with her guardian.
Let Me In is both written and directed by American filmmaker Matt Reeves, who’s feature directorial debut was J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield but prior to that he directed episodes of “Felicity” and various other TV shows. This is a remake of Tomas Alfredson’s 2008 film Let the Right One In, or more specifically a re-adaptation of the Swedish novel Låt den rätte komma in written by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Overture Films is bringing Let Me In to theaters everywhere starting October 1st this fall. Does it look as good as you were hoping?
Review: Salt is Full of Stupid Action, Emphasis on the Stupidity
There’s a flimsiness to Sony’s new political action-thriller, Salt, a feeling that, if any of the actors stomped down hard enough on the floor, they would break the screenplay into a million, stupid, little pieces. Well – it’s anything but bland. That side effect of Salt seems to have carried over from the mineral. Director Phillip Noyce, when he isn’t shooting hand-to-hand combat (we’ll get to that in a bit), has a keen eye for action scenery. The quick-paced editing the three editors (yes, three) bring to the table sets the perfect cadence for the brisk film, and you can’t ever accuse it of boring you. That and the solidity Angeline Jolie brings to her “is she a hero or is she a villain?” character should be enough to for a recommendation. But… it’s not.
And, so, we go back to the flimsiness. With an opening set in North Korea two years prior that shows CIA officer Evelyn Salt (Jolie) being held captive, you just know the foreshadowing starts with frame one. We jump ahead to the present where Salt, along with her partner played by Liev Schreiber, are working their common, boring, CIA lives. In walks a Russian defector who claims to have information about a forthcoming assassination attempt. He says a Russian spy will attempt to kill the Russian president and that that Russian spy is none other than Evelyn Salt. She runs. The CIA gives chase. Lots of property damage and quick left turns, both in terms of plot and vehicular direction, ensue.
Salt has a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer, who previously tackled the CIA agent thriller with The Recruit, wholly forgettable yet oddly familiar. That film dealt with a mole in the agency, as well, and you begin to wonder just how much time the real CIA, the one not seen in cinemas or on the USA Network, spends tracking down double agents. It seems a realistic film about the real CIA would involve watching a lot of numbers being punched into a computer and a lot of staring at a hi-def monitor. That’s just me, though. I really don’t have any basis to back that up.
What I’ve never seen, though, is a group of long coated men flashing guns running after someone, male or female, down a street. I’ve never seen news footage of a woman leaping from an overpass onto the back of a moving semi-truck. There’s never been a report that I’ve come across of a prison transfer motorcade slamming around the freeway and ending with an SUV ramping off the side. But, again, that’s just me, and the CIA may have a nice way of covering such news reports up.
But it’s not just that Salt involves itself with completely fabricated set pieces that have little to no basis in the real world. Even with movie logic firmly instilled, the fragility of the characters in the film is staggering. No one seems to act as anyone in such a situation would act. There are instances of clear negligence even on the part of Noyce. At one point, Salt – going for that Jennifer Bourne title – is climbing from window sill to window sill far off the ground. She stops at a little girl’s window and asks the girl to let her in, but there’s a clear shot of a fire escape right behind her. Even if that fire escape weren’t exactly right behind her (perspective may have made it seem closer than it really was), I have a good feeling this woman has a fairly good horizontal leap in her. That’s something that is made clear a few moments later when said overpass-to-truck jump occurs.
It’s just little things like this that are strewn throughout Salt that easily take you out of any moment the film might have had. A more engaging plot may not have allowed the audience to wander so easily, but that’s not about to happen. The shadowy way Wimmer writes his characters has something to do with that.
Through the first half of Salt, we wonder whether the main character is or isn’t a double agent. There are hints throughout that make us wonder about all the characters, in fact, to the point that no one seems likable. We’re following Salt much of the time, and Jolie gives the performance her all, but it almost seems like she doesn’t even know if she is the hero or villain of the film through much of it. By the time any revolution occurs, we’re just waiting for the inevitable cop out that comes with cheaply written films where the protagonist of the story may actually be the bad guy. The cop out occurs. It’s lame. There’s a digital countdown and a scene wherein Jolie poses as a man that result in much unintentional laughter. We all go home dissatisfied.
Which brings us to the end of the film. Spoilers aside, it has to be mentioned the way Salt ends with this notion that there will be continuing adventures. In fact, the film cuts to black and the end credits mid-scene, leaving it completely open. In the ending itself and in the buildup to that ending, you felt it headed this way, and you begin thinking about next week’s episode of this Salt TV series your subconscious knows you’re not watching. A sequel doesn’t even seem likely, but Wimmer, going back to that Bourne well that he didn’t even dig, finds it necessary to end the film as if it’s a foregone conclusion there will be.
Salt has some decent action. The extended chase sequence brings a nice level of excitement to an otherwise sterile and conventional thriller. Jolie shines, Schreiber growls, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as another CIA operative hits hard then disappears for an hour. It’s not a film that is completely without merit, but when looked at from a distance you see just how made of glass Wimmer’s screenplay is. It’s both see-through and looks as if a well-placed rock would send it into oblivion. Stupid action fun seems to be a description reserved for Summer blockbusters, but something like Salt should have known better than to aim for it. Congratulations, Kurt Wimmer. Your movie is stupid. It’s full of action. But it’s not that much fun. Sometimes, two out of three is pretty bad.
Jeremy’s Rating: 4.5 out of 10
Excl: Studio Casting Grid Names Riddler as Batman 3 Villain
We’re not officially kicking off Comic-Con until tomorrow, but today we have a huge bit of news regarding a comic book flick that likely doesn’t even have a presence at this year’s convention. We’ve gotten word from a reliable inside source with a studio casting grid that The Riddler is listed as a character for Chris Nolan’s highly anticipated to the sequel to The Dark Knight, which is still called Batman 3 at Warner Bros. Even more interesting, the actor currently listed in the same grid to play the assumed villain is none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose status is just listed as “interested.” Let’s all say it together now: Hell. Yes!
We’d like to point out that this news should be considered confirmation that The Riddler is the villain in Batman 3 and less confirmation of the recent suggestions/rumors regarding Gordon-Levitt’s casting as the enigmatic villain. A casting grid is used in the industry to keep production companies, agencies, etc. in the loop on a project’s progress and the roles available for actors to potentially take. These documents are used for business planning in the industry and by no means would use internet speculation to list a character that may not even appear in the film. But when it comes to listing actors, this is info that can change at anytime, and just because an actor or studio is interested in one or the other, does not mean it will actually happen.
We’re also cautious because the age range listed for the character is 35 to 45, and with Gordon-Levitt being 29 years old falls a little short of the mark. Of course, this wouldn’t really be a reason for him to be excluded as characters can be modified in the script to accommodate a favored actor. On the lighter side though, the actor is fresh off working with Nolan on the brilliant Inception, so they’ve surely developed quite a working relationship as Gordon-Levitt called him “the genuine article… a real artist” and “a unique voice.” For now we’ll consider Gordon-Levitt’s involvement a rumor, but seeing The Riddler in a studio casting grid is solid confirmation of Nolan’s villain for Batman 3. Hopefully we’ll get an official confirmation sooner than later.
Watch: New Official Trailer for The Debt Starring Helen Mirren
Miramax has debuted a new official trailer for The Debt on Yahoo, the upcoming dramatic action-thriller starring Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington, plus Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain. We just featured a first look photo for this yesterday, and it’s great to actually see a trailer so quickly after. The film tells two stories, one a flashback about a secret mission to kill a Nazi war criminal, and a modern story about an attempt to uncover the truth about the criminal’s potential resurfacing. This looks good, I just hope it’s not boring to watch. At least it has a damn good cast. Watch this below and let us know what you think?
Watch the first official trailer for John Madden’s The Debt:
You can also watch the official trailer for The Debt in High Definition on Yahoo
In 1965, three Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission kill a notorious Nazi war criminal. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced and a former agent must go undercover to get the truth.
The Debt is directed by British filmmaker John Madden, of Ethan Frome, Shakespeare in Love, Proof and Killshot previously. This is a remake of an Israeli film called HaHov. It was rewritten by Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman (of Kick-Ass and Stardust) as well as the original writers Ido Rosenblum & Assaf Bernstein. Miramax Films is bringing The Debt to limited theaters on December 29th this year. Who wants to see it?
Thor Writer Prepping Freakshow Adaptation as Directing Gig
Though the adaptation of Marvel’s Norse god comic hero Thor hasn’t even made it’s Comic-Con debut (stay tuned for our coverage), let alone unveiled any trailer, screenwriter Mark Protosevich is already moving towards his next project. Variety says the writer has chosen Freakshow as his next comic book adaptation and he’s even looking to potentially direct this as well. The story in the comic follows five young people who are turned into mutants by a cataclysmic chemical explosion and must decide whether to use their newfound powers to save the city or exact revenge on those responsible after the world’s only superhero is killed. Wow.
In addition, Protosevich will be producing with Sheldon Turner (writer of Up in the Air) and Jennifer Klein (producer of Pearl Harbor). The three-issue miniseries won’t be published until next January, but will be promoted by Ape Entertainment at this week’s Comic-Con with advance copies being sold at the convention as well. Count me intrigued by the plot, though it feels like it has a certain touch of The Runaways in it (an adaptation I’m very much excited about as well) so I might pick up an advanced copy to check it out. Surely there will be plenty of comic book adaptation announcements coming out of the woodwork this week, so stay tuned for all our Comic-Con 2010 coverage and plenty more news from San Diego. Anyone else curious?
You can find a few extra photos of the comic book covers (like the one above) they’ve created for Freakshow on the official “making of” blog found at: freakshowcomic.blogspot.com. It looks like Shane Acker’s 9 meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, but I’m still looking forward to it. Check out their site for more.
Kenneth Branagh in Talks for Olivier in ‘My Week With Marilyn’
You may remember reading a story late last year about actress Michelle Williams being cast as Marilyn Monroe (this isn’t the other Monroe film with Naomi Watts) in a project called My Week With Marilyn, based on Colin Clark’s book about Monroe’s time in London shooting the Laurence Olivier film The Prince and the Showgirl. We haven’t heard much about it since then, but Production Weekly (via The Playlist) is reporting that things are coming together and Kenneth Branagh, director of Thor and a talented actor, is “in talks” to play iconic British actor Sir Laurence Olivier. It looks like a great cast is coming together.
My Week With Marilyn will be directed by British TV veteran Simon Curtis, but we don’t know if they have a start date yet or not. Author Colin Clark was hired as the “third assistant director” on Olivier’s Prince and the Showgirl, who put him in charge of keeping an eye on Marilyn while she was shooting in 1957. I like the cast they’re pursuing, Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh are both fantastic actors; it should certainly be interesting to see them playing such iconic real-life people like Monroe and Olivier. Branagh isn’t signed yet, and I’m sure it depends heavily on if he finishes Thor on time, but I hope it happens, as I think he’d be a great choice. We’ll keep you updated on this, so stay tuned. Anyone interested in seeing this already?
Awesome Promo Artwork for Marvel’s Thor & Captain America
Oh hell yes! These two banners, originally referred to as “posters” although they’re clearly not official movie posters, have just debuted on Yahoo in anticipation of Marvel’s big panel at Comic-Con on Saturday. Marvel has created a poster for Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and also Captain America, directed by Joe Johnston. These are definitely not photos from either of the movies, but Drew Struzan-like pieces of artwork created to promote both movies at Comic-Con. We’re not sure if these will be given out or sold to the fans in San Diego, but I definitely love the look of both of them. I truly hope Thor fights Loki like that in the movie!
We already debuted a few first look photos from Thor last week (including this one on SlashFilm), to quite a bit of negative criticism, and I have a feeling it’ll remain negative until they debut some footage or a trailer. If that happens, I hope it looks incredible, or else Marvel will be in quite a rough situation. I love these two pieces of artwork, they look awesome and I think they’re pretty much perfect teasers for Comic-Con, since the Marvel panel is already one of my most anticipated panels to watch this year. We’ll let you know if any other cool artwork shows up and/or when the first photos from Captain America hit the web. Stay tuned!
