After over three hours of waiting in line to grab a seat in the infamous Hall H of Comic-Con, attendees slumped into their chairs and declared success. And they were right. Lucky for them, it would all be worth the wait.
Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers studios was first to present footage and trailers from Where the Wild Things Are, The Book of Eli, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Box, Jonah Hex and Sherlock Holmes. Despite early skepticism, the filmmaker and author of the original Where the Wild Things Are children’s book, Maurice Sendak, were proud of the film. The studio presented a generous number of clips that proved the film would stay true to the book while providing an extraordinary and expressive vision for the youthful story.
Also coming soon from Warner Brothers is The Book of Eli, with Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis. Kunis told Comic-Con attendees that it was the talented cast that drew her to the film. More importantly, Oldman revealed that the next “Batman” will be in production next year. We’ll just have to see about that, Mr. Oldman.
The Box, a sci-fi horror thriller starring Cameron Diaz, may have had a chance if it wasn’t for her blonde moment. After the trailer revealed just enough of the plot to keep you guessing, Diaz revealed that the filmmaker “had to throw in guys from Mars.” Smooth.
The crowd was also intrigued with the footage of the latest western, Jonah Hex. Hex is a bounty hunter who tracks a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead. Perhaps much of their excitement was geared toward the co-star, Megan Fox, who sat on the panel and spoke about the challenges of playing such a physically aggressive character in a physically demanding role. She said Jonah Hex is the film she is most proud of making so far in her career.
The most impressive piece of footage and panel discussion was, of course, Warner Brother’s Sherlock Holmes. The cast and crew said they would have liked to make the film a long time ago, but they were very particular and concerned about casting. Robert Downey Jr. said Rachel McAdams gives an impressive performance and was an important asset to the film. Judging by what I’ve seen, this seems to hold true. The footage proved the film should turn out to be an action-packed and humorous new adventure from our favorite detective.
Disney
Walt Disney Pictures, Disney Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios presented a director panel with previously unseen footage from its upcoming animated slate, including Toy Story & Toy Story 2 – Double Feature, Beauty And The Beast, Toy Story 3, Prep & Landing, The Princess and the Frog and Ponyo. The Disney animation panel began with the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast in 3-D. The villagers in Belle’s town seemed to extend into the audience as the classic song boomed throughout Hall H. The 3-D version of the classic will premiere on Valentine’s Day 2010. I was personally impressed with the originality of Prep & Landing, which incorporates aliens and Christmas, and will premiere on ABC this holiday season.
Disney is also going back to basics. A hand drawn classic fairy tale, The Princess and The Frog, will be unlike anything we’ve seen from Disney in quite some time. The Americanized story of Princess Tiana is set in New Orleans and takes advantage of the city’s cultural influences. The Disney music magic will be a Broadway style musical influenced by 1920s jazz gospel.
The Disney segment was closed with words from the creative genius and writer/director of Ponyo himself, Hayao Miyazaki. He was presented with the Comic-Con Inkpot Award. The English version of the film is voiced by Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Tina Fey, to name a few. Miyazaki told the audience that the most important part of the creative process was storyboarding, and he always chooses female protagonists because they are “strong and beautiful.” Miyazaki’s genius is particularly apparent in the storm scene, which is an impressive hand drawn animation of water imagery. Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios said they were happy to be associated with such a prestigious director.
Sony Pictures
Next up was a presentation from Sony. The panel of Nine discussed how the film came to be PG-13 in order to retain the strength of the story through the characters and visual storytelling. The creators of the animated film were particularly proud of the score of the adult animated action adventure fantasy film. The clips were terrifying, while the characters were appropriately endearing.
Legion was described as “angels with machine guns,” and that’s exactly what it is. With elements of the exorcist, mixed with religious themes, gore and violence, Legion will be a startling journey through a post-apocalyptic world.
A quick update on The Hobbit. The filmmakers are three to four weeks away from presenting the first script to Warner Brothers, which will be followed by discussions for a budget. This is limiting the casting ability, so roles have yet to be offered to anyone. This process is about two months away. The good news is, in order to properly create the greater context of the story, The Hobbit will be made into two epic films. Now we wait.
District 9. We’ve all seen the ads. So what’s the meaning behind them? Well, you’ll see them again as they are sprinkled throughout the world created by Peter Jackson. In place of Halo, District 9 was created as a science fiction film that’s different from most through somewhat realistic and grounded storytelling. Through newscasts, security cameras and the media world we live in today, District 9 has a documentary feeling. Some of the issues are current day and although they don’t appear to be overly political, they still influence the film. Peter Jackson said he designed the aliens to be bug-like so the film remained consistently familiar in many ways. District 9 covers little back story of the aliens, but Jackson leaked that they were similar to insects as they live in a hive-like environment, but lost their queen and have an aimless existence with no guidance or direction. Jackson also added on a side note that he would like to return to creating lower budget horror films.
After hours of footage and discussions from each of the studio’s panels, my vote is with Warner Brother’s upcoming films. Sherlock Holmes is certainly something else worth waiting in line for.
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