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Martin’s Comic Con Day 3 Sum Up (Part 2)

Martin Bright — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 07:15:35 +0000

Day three of Comic Con was so big I couldn’t fit it all in one post. The final part of the day and one of the most anticipated panels of the weekend, was the Marvel Studios presentation on Iron Man 3 and other franchises. Kevin Fiege did not disappoint the fans and brought the properly dubbed Phase 2 of Marvel Films to Hall H. There were updates on sequels to Captain America, Thor and Iron Man as well as two new titles confirmed in development, Guardians of the Galaxy and Antman.

The panel started with a video montage of all of the Marvel film panels going back to 2006 announcing Antman, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and of course the Avengers and closing with a thank you to con attendees for there support. The video concludes with the message “Phase 2 Begins Now!” Marvel head honcho, Kevin Feige shared the title logos and release dates for the next four Marvel films:

Iron Man 3 – 5/3/2013
Thor 2 – The Dark World – 11/8/2013
Captain America 2 – The Winter Soldier – 4/4/2014
Guardians of the Galaxy – 8/1/2014

Fiege then gave updates that the title for Captain America obviously leads to speculation that the movie will involve the Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier story line from the comics. So did Bucky really perish in the first Captain America? We have a little less than two years to find out.

Thor 2 will take place shortly after the ending of the first film and perhaps give some insight as to how Thor was able to return t

o Earth during the Avengers film. The original cast are all returning with the exception of Joshua Dallas who will be replaced as Fendral by Zachary Levi (who was originally cast to play the part but had to back out due to schedule conflicts).

Guardians of the Galaxy will feature several of the most popular characters in that comic book especially including Fiege’s favorite, Rocket Racoon. Disney is very excited about this film. With the time of the film’s release I am sure we will hear more about this film at next year’s D23 Expo (one year prior to the film’s release).

Then Fiege wanted to discuss a little project the studio is working on and recently shot some test footage for, the Antman. Edgar Wright the man dedicated to bringing this character to the big screen brought out a short clip of the test footage that had been shot a couple weeks prior. The clip shows a shrunk down Antman scoping out a corridor with two guards at the end, blocking the entrance to an elevator. He then makes his move, leaping from the air vent to the floor, running toward the guards, popping up into normal human size to surprise the men, jumps and shrinks to land on the barrel of one of the drawn guns, leaps and punches the tooth out of one guards mouth before jumping over to the other’s shoulder and flipping the last guard using the man’s tie, then grows to human size again and enters the elevator. All of this happened quick and with such great precision that it was hard to believe it was only test footage. The suit is a cross between the original Antman red and grey costume and the modern day version that has a mask hiding the hero’s identity. On this footage alone, Wright should be able to build up enough support to make an Antman film (or at least get the character in the next Avengers film. Wright closed with a nice tagline, “Antman will kick your ass one inch at a time.”

Fiege than began to introduce some details about Iron Man 3 before a Luther Vandross song interrupted his presentation and in true Tony Stark form, Robert Downey Jr. appeared from the back of the room lip-syncing and being followed to the stage by a cameraman. Once on stage, Downey took in all the applause and asked why we weren’t watching any footage yet. The footage showed Tony Stark in his lab testing out a new version of the Iron Man suit. This time around the suit will come to Tony in various pieces building upon itself to completely shroud Stark in his alter ego. The scene is hilarious and bit over the top but we would expect nothing less in an Iron Man film. Next up we see Happy Hogan in his new job giving Tony a hard time about the “giant snakelike creature that terrorized New York” (see the end battle in The Avengers film) and about Tony’s “Super Friends” (clearly a dig at the DC Comics’ Justice League). Then we see a group of helicopters blow the Stark Mansion off the cliffs of Malibu and are introduced to the Mandarin played by Sir Ben Kingsley (and he looks superb as a modern day image of the famous comic villain). Fiege and Downey were then joined on stage by director Shane Black, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau. Favreau and Black continuously stated how important each other were to the success of the film’s production. Black thanking Favreau for his guidance and Favreau was excited to not be the guy behind the camera this time around (he is reprising his role as Happy Hogan). Downey would not confirm that this is his last movie, only that this is the last one under his current contract. This film is going to be very Tony Stark centric, the relationship between Rhodie and Stark expands, and Bruce Banner will not make an appearance in the film (as Fiege put it, “we saw Tony and Bruce drive off at the end of the Avengers and Stark then dropped Banner off at the Port Authority, not to be seen again for a while). Fans definitely left the room excited for this film and talking about how exactly that new suit attaches to Stark and what effects a Guardians of the Galaxy film will have on Marvel’s other team-up, the Avengers.

All in all, Hall H did not disappoint on Day 3 of Comic Con. After 14 hours in line and sitting in Hall H, I was ready for some nourishment and some sleep so I could get up early and do it all over again on Day 4 for Fringe, Supernatural, and Dr. Who. Check out our coverage from Comic Con on ForbiddenPanel.com and the Panel Cast episodes 99 and 100.

Martin’s San Diego Comic Con Day 1 Sum Up

Martin Bright — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:30:09 +0000

The annual pop-culture-palooza has begun! And Day One already packed in HUGE moments. Panel room were filled beyond capacity, the exhibit hall had lines wrapped around booths, and offsite fans were doing their part to alleviate the convention crowding. I spent the day in Hall H to see Disney and the Expendables 2 panels. It was a long day but well worth it.

The day started with a very long line wrapped behind the convention center and out to the Marina. Comic Con International were on their game with organization of the crowd and made the process of getting into Hall H very smooth. Once inside it was not very long before panels would begin. The day’s panel roster was Trailer Park, Twilight, Disney movies, Jackie Chan, and the Expendables 2.

The trailer park is basically a time/space feeler. For those that do not know, the Trailer Park is a series of various film trailers. This year, Real-D 3D was a co-sponsor and the crowd was given trailers for Ice Age, Find Nemo, Resident Evil and more in the third dimension. Nothing too exciting to report about what was shown; most of the trailers had already been online for a while but the the 3D was nice.

Next up was Twilight. Now I know many people groan at the sound of that title but this year, the twihards and fanboys were both cheering. This year marked the final Twilight movie panel to ever grace Hall H of Comic Con. (finish doing the happy dance, I can wait … ok, you good? Let’s continue). Since I do not know much about the movies or books, I cannot say much about it. The director sent a video message thanking the fans and sent the first 7 minutes of the film. Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson were on stage along with the stars that played the Cullen Family. Toward the end of the panel another dozen or so actors from the various vampire clans also came out on stage (it was a BIG group) I have to admit it was an impressive showing for a franchise’s final con appearance.

Following Twlight, the “House of Mouse” brought Frankenweenie, Oz the Great and Powerful and Wreck-It-Ralph to the stage. Tim Burton joined moderator Chris Hardwick to discus the expansion of his original short film Frankenweenie and the fun of making the film. There was an extended trailer shown (in 3D) and Burton talked about the fun of working with the medium of puppets and stop motion to make the film. Sam Raimi, Mila Kunis, and Michelle Williams came to stage next to debut the teaser for Oz the Great and Powerful. Raimi explained the title character (played by James Franco) as a performer and adulterer whose was struggling in life that tries to escape a perdicament via weather balloon which we all know gets swept away to a magical land. There he meets three sister witches (played by Kunis, Williams, and Rachel Weiss). The footage looked VERY similar to Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland from a couple years ago. There will be some recognizable references to the original Wizard of Oz movie, but this film will be more related to the books – no ruby red slippers but there are flying monkeys! The footage has already been posted on line by Disney if you want to google it. No Disney Comic Con panel is complete without a “surprise.” Disney usually has one more thing to show fans and this year was no exception with the debut of a teaser for the upcoming Lone Ranger film. Starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp the audience was treated to flashes of the old west and train robberies and then finally the reveal of the Lone Ranger and Tonto (Hammer and Depp respectively). The teaser had lots of actions, killer music and was very fast paced which excited fans. Only time will tell if this movie will do better than Disney’s last flop (but still an awesome movie) John Carter.

The third panel of the day was for Jackie Chan’s next film Chinese 12 Zodiac which he has been working on for five years. Chan immediately clarified that this is not his last film, he is only retiring from the exhausting stunt work films that made him famous. The movie is about a thief (Chan) who steals something very valuable and ends up embroiled in an international conflict. The film has lots of action and will feature the classic Jackie Chan outtakes during the credits that Chan is also well known for. Other than that, there was not much to say about the session.

The final panel of the day I sat in for was for Expendables 2. Geoff Boucher of the LA Times Hero Complex hosted. Before bringing the cast in they showed a montage of Stallone’s career in films then Sly came out to a standing ovation. He then introduced Terry Crewes, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren. Before the final member for the panel, another montage was played chronicling Arnold Schwarzenneger’s career. The former governor of California then took the stage with his famous, “I’m back!” The entire group talked about all the fun of making the sequel and working with each other. Stallone talked about how this film is an expansion of the many things learned while making the first film, as well as, the addition of many things they wanted to get into the first film but could not. He also added that alot of people griped about the lack of a backstory but that this is not that type of film, this is an old school, macho, action film, “even Rocky didn’t have a back story either.”

Overall, it was a great day of panels worth the long lines. For more details, check out the Forbidden Panel PanelCast, Episode 100!

Viral campaign for new remake of Robocop has begun

Martin Bright — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 01:47:52 +0000

The first viral video for the 2013 Robocop film started making the rounds on the interwebs today. Featuring teases of some of the first images of the tech that will be featured in the film. Shown is the XT-908 flying drone, ED-209 giant robots, and the RC-2000 (a.k.a. RoboCop). There is not much shown of the title character but still very cool to ramp up excitement for the film. Check out the video for yourself at the OmniCorp website: www.omnicorp.com.

So far, the movie is slated to star Joel Kinnaman as Robocop along with Abby Cornish, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Hugh Laurie.

The OmniCorp ED-209