San Diego is a mad house at the moment as bigger crowds than ever flocked to the first official day of the annual San Diego Comic Con. Thursday looked busier than it have ever been in terms of people around, though on the film front was a quiet day with only a few titles getting a look over. Amongst the big news on offer:
Flyboys Producer Dean Devlin and actor David Ellison were on hand to show off some scenes from the WW1 piloting actioneer. The film follows the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots. Some of the presentation has already ended up online, and so click here to check it out.
Skinwalkers Director Jim Isaac and character/creature designer Stan Winston were on hand to present "Skinwalkers", a werewolf horror film starring Rhona Mitra and Jason Behr. The story follows two kinds of the creatures - one camp of werewolves who embraces the beast part or their personality, while the other feels a moral duty to keep it restrained.
A small civil war between these camps centers on a child, half human and half werewolf. The characters start off as human looking but with a cruel edge, before becoming more beastly along the way and finally transforming into full blown creatures - all practical too, not digital.
Crank Jason Statham and several crew were on hand for the fast-paced action vehicle which follows Statham as a man racing against the clock against a poison in his system, the only way to keep it at bay is to keep his adrenaline levels up. In order to do so a lot of big action set pieces are required, all of which was shot in frame and practical.
In a press conference before the presentation, Statham said "We didn't want to shoot anything green screen style, everything was shot in camera. If you see the movie you will see that because of that there is no way you can get away from the dangerous aspects of what we did... This is almost an old school action movie where stunts are real stunts and that is what excites me". He admitted his stuntman Brian and he himself split the stunts his character was required to do.
The 30 day shoot required Statham to pull off a number of wild scenes. "There was a certain scene where one of the options that I chose to keep my heart beat high is to screech into a garage and ransack the Red Bull counters and the popping of pills" says Statham who refused to elaborate on a rumour that one scene has him running around a hospital with an erection.
He did add though that "there is a sex scene that I had no idea how they were going to shoot", and other scenes include him dangling from a helicopter over Los Angeles which he did himself, and his stuntman did a scene where he wears roller blades traveling behind a motorcycle with 60 pounds of HD gear on his back. For those who love the homo-erotic aspect of "The Transporter" films, Statham admits "I do get greased up and my word aren't you going to be surprised when you see it"
Saw III The big panel of the day showed the fill opening scene of the horror sequel in which a man is caught in one of Jigsaw's deadly traps - a ticking bomb is on one side of a room and this man is on the other, hooks piercing him all over (including his jaw and achilles tendon) to a chair so he can't get over and stop the bomb's 90-second countdown without literally tearing half his skin off.
A trailer for the film will premiere in August with "The Descent". The filmmakers were on hand to essentially say that the film will be quite different to the last one, even though 85% of the crew involved in "Saw 2" is working on this. It'll be much gorier and darker, with a bigger emphasis on more elaborate traps and character drama. With far less characters involved this time around, there should be more development.
Pan's Labyrinth A US trailer for the twisted fantasy film was played to strong reception. In regards to "Hellboy 2"? Director Guillermo Del Toro says "From week to week, day to day almost things change. From a go picture to a total no-go. He said as soon as anything goes with it, he'll tell the world. He thinks the script is beautiful, even if it is without Lobster Johnson". He also indicated he he was in Romania recently scouting locations for the Antarctica set of his "In the Mountains of Madness" adaptation. Doug Jones quickly deflected questions about him playing the Silver Surfer, refusing to officially comment but implied that he's in talks but hasn't officially signed as yet.
TMNT A new CG-animated, PG-rated movie which will derive its tone from the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comic-book series and will be slightly grittier than the previous live-action pictures. Writer-director Kevin Munroe was present and revealed five minutes of footage and confirms the film will feature hidden jokes from the comics and animated series. Mako will voice the character of Splinter, whilst villain Shredder will appear though not in a major role with the main villain being an industrial magnate who has been collecting monsters which he plans to unleash on the city.
Generally though the story will revolve around the return of Leonardo to the group after having been away overseas for a year to train to become a warrior, and how it has affected this rather odd little family. There's also a bat charcter, the return of Casey Jones and April O'Neil, and some female ninjas. Four character posters from the film have gone online at Latino Review. Marco Beltrami did the score for the film. Expect full on interviews with the guys behind the CG-animated epic to be posted up here in the next few days.
