Day two of Comic-Con, and I had to take a cold shower when I awoke. Not because I was randy, no, but because the pilot light went out on the hotel’s water heater. Yay! But you’re here for the Warner Bros. movie panel – so let’s do this thang.
They started us off with some footage of Get Smart with Steve Carell (as Maxwell Smart). The Rock plays a new character named 23, Maxwell Smart’s mentor and Anne Hathaway is Maxwell’s partner 99. Masi Oka (Heroes) plays the “gadget guy,” although they never really work as they’re supposed to (in true Get Smart fashion). The footage looked fairly funny, Carell in a car breaking down, him telling a person with a gun trained right on him to freeze as well, and freeze to infinity. There was also a scene of Carell vomiting in a fighter jet, highly gross. One last casting note, Alan Arkin plays the Chief of the whole operation. Agent 13 is also in the movie, they mentioned it was a great cameo, but of course they couldn’t say who.
The movie looks around a million times better than the monstrosity that was Evan Almighty, but I’m still not fully sold. Get Smart, for those who haven’t watched the original, is the story of Control vs. Chaos, two governmental agencies that control the world. Here’s a question the panel of Carell and The Rock were asked “Do you have any funny stories from the shooting of the film?” This was the worst question ever, right up until someone asked Carell how it felt to play Maxwell Smart (answer: surreal). Carell mentioned the budget for the film was 14 trillion dollars, and that’s a RopeofSilicon.com exclusive.
Next up was a clip from The Invasion. Nicole Kidman intro’d the clip via video from Australia where she’s filming a movie with Baz Lurhmann called (fittingly enough) Australia. The clip was about an alien invasion and also stars Daniel Craig; when you sleep the aliens reprogram your DNA. So basically don’t sleep, run like hell, the aliens are out to get us.
Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon were in attendance for One Missed Call (a remake of the Japanese thriller Chakushin Ari), though Shannyn wasn’t all there mentally; mentioning at one point that she was “screwing up the panel.” The clip didn’t have any dialogue, but it did feature some disturbing images such as a statue of Jesus turning into something zombie-like. There was also a creepy little girl scene, requisite for anything claiming to be a horror/thriller these days. Ed and Shannyn were nice enough to give away Ipods to everyone who asked a question (sample: how was working on One Missed Call different from Entourage? Ugh). Ed Burns also mentioned **spoiler** that his sister dies first (in the movie, not in real life) and then he and Shannyn worked to track the killer down. Exciting! And then we were on to…
10,000 B.C. by Roland Emmerich. The trailer is available online, but was interesting nevertheless. Wooly Mammoths, giant caveman armies, and ancient civilizations marked the film’s visual style. At the very least it looks a hell of a lot better than Apocalypto.
Next up, Whiteout, a panel which lasted around a zillion years as we waited for Kate Beckinsale to arrive. Crazily enough we watched the same footage twice as the panel, including Joel Silver, stalled for time. I might as well tell you about the footage as it is now burned into my memory for all time. It’s a voice over special with the news that in Antarctica it’s 120 degrees below zero with winds up to 200mph (though to be fair they filmed in Manitoba where it’s only 40 below. There’s a murder in Antarctica, the first one ever, and Kate Beckinsale has to throw on a parka to solve the case. The movie could end up to be good but the footage didn’t show off much, even seeing it the second time.
Finally Kate arrived, she’d been trapped in a well, and a little more fun was had. Want some Kate quotes? Here ya go: (on filming the movie) “I got bruised and beat up… and I liked it.” She let us all know she was an eighth Asian (when the producers were questioned about their diversity practices). She mentioned Underworld, on the set went she bent over in costume the people behind her would say “ooooooh.” Kate also mentioned she’d been approached about a Bond film in the past, but she didn’t do it because she didn’t want to embarrass her daughter by prancing around in underwear for the whole film. That’s a loss for us all! If you combined one of the producers mentioning that Kate referenced dildos on set quite often you have the very picture of a saucy minx. Ahh, Beckinsale. I love her.
Finally, Watchmen. Casting news galore; here it is
- Night-Owl = Patrick Wilson
- The Comedian = Jeffrey Dean Morgan
- Dr. Manhattan = Billy Crudup
- Laurie = Malin Ackerman
- Rorschach = Jackie Earl Haley
But let’s get to the meat of the order. Will the Black Freighter Sequence be in the movie? They’re “working on it.” I believe in this case the budget is the thing they are working on. Daniel Gibbons (illustrator) likes the script. They’re doing their best to not “fuck it up that bad” if/when Alan Moore ever sees it. Everyone’s backstory will be in the movie, and yeah, Keanu Reeves was considered for Dr. Manhattan at one point. Finally, the release date is scheduled for March 6th, 2009… so we’ll have plenty of chances to bring ya more on this particular phenomenon. One last thing, I stood in line to get an exclusive Comic Con Watchman poster, which we have right here. That’s all for now, rock on kids. More later today from the Comic that is Con in hot, hot San Diego.
