Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is a good one. Check it out:
Dear Harry & Crew,
Sorry bout the few day lag between updates here, most unforgivable, but the Trade Forum up here in Van had a couple of dull moments. Most of it has been the business end of things; much needed info for we filmmakers, sure, but you can only hear so much about financing and co-producing before you start to see double and do the head-nod.
Meeting and speaking yesterday with Basil Poledouris (Composer on ROBOCOP, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, STARSHIP TROOPERS, etc.) was cool. Hearing the philosophy of his approach to the CONAN score was... well he loves his job. Makes you smile, y'know?
Met a guy who said he was key in some of the ALIENS VS. PREDATOR film talks, but he was kinda dull. Whatever. Today was better.
Today I met Bryan Singer.
See, there was this panel around 11am today with him and Ed Lachman (DP on FAR FROM HEAVEN, ERIN BROCKOVICH, THE LIMEY, etc.) discussing the unique relationship between the director and the DP. (Thom Sigel, Bryan's usual DP was tied up or something).
My first thought was, "Oh God, he's here," and my second was, "My God, I could kick the crap out of this man."
Ok, totally kidding. But seriously, the guy needs to eat something.
Clips were shown, techniques were discussed, tricks revealed. I watched one of my heroes come out of his shell. Bryan Singer is kinda shy, so to see him warm up, become animated and then passionate and really really funny was making me smile all goofy-like.
He demonstrated his short-hand, bastard hybrid of sign-language he's developed between him and his DP: "I want this, this, and this," (Gesticulates a series of almost kung-fu motions without speaking), "And Thom knows exactly what I want."
He was asked about the future of digital film and talked about the summit that George Lucas had invited him to at the Ranch where he demonstrated new tech and screened EP 2 before a room of around thirty directors including Spielberg, Scorscese, and Copolla two weeks before it was released. Singer sees digital as the future, but wants to ease into it.
Then he showed some new X2 footage.
HOLY FUCKING GOD.
WE ARE NOT READY.
Ok, what he showed was, essentially, the same teaser shown at the San Diego comicon and for a short time on the net that we all saw about a billion times:
Y'know the one, Chuck ang Mags playing chess while spec-ops teams raid the X-mansion, mess with the kids, and basically tick the living fuck offa Wolverine... only this time, there's more.
I'll describe what else I saw, though it went by pretty fast:
- Mystique, looking hotter than ever, slinking around in the dark.
- Wolverine touching what looks to be a wall of ice (or frosted glass?) with a female silhouette trapped behind.
- What looked like most of the team inside a much larger X-Jet (I always prefered the name, Blackbird). For design, think early nineties Jim Lee stuff.
- Stryker getting right in someone's face.
Oh, and Nightcrawler.
That's right.
MOTHERFUCKING NIGHTCRAWLER!!!!! Motherfucking Nightcrawler kicking motherfucking ass doing motherfucking flips and rolls and kicks on a group of men in a tight hallway, running on all fours; performing brutal, acrobatic wire-fu that in no way apes THE MATRIX... And God... When he does that first somersault in the air away from, yet right in front of the camera... And his tail perfectly bisects the frame... The stuff of multiple geek orgasms.
And even though the screen was kinda dark, you do get a look at his face from a shot that almost looks like it's coming right out of his mouth... His teeth are all sharp, I mean, like, ALL of them. And his skin has been given a sort of texture, ALMOST like the designs on the face of Cabal in NIGHTBREED. But, not exactly, that's just the fast impression I got.
Cool stuff.
Ok, I need to sleep, but I will add a few more bits before I go, info I got from him personally, face-to-face after the panel (By the way, he is the nicest, most approachable guy):
There will be NO Danger Room sequence (fuck!), despite some rumours. John Ottman is working very hard to rescore the first X-MEN and edit and compose for this one, albiet he now has an assistant to alleviate the stress. He wants very much for the X-Men to have a memorable theme this time. This movie is much larger in scope. He doesn't know if he's coming back for X3 yet, although the emotional investment is there. And he has a concept for a sci-fi set in space that he would like to develop (A movie, not something to do with Battlestar Galactica)
I'm out now. Just know that we have nothing to worry about. And if you loved X-MEN, get ready for something else. Bryan Singer may not have known much about them before he came on board, but he is one of us people.
He is a fan.
You be cool. I'll be MooVeeBoy.
Wonderful stuff, man. I’m dying to get a peek at this footage and see Nightcrawler. I got a peek at another upcoming Marvel hero over the weekend, but I can’t talk about it yet. But after what I saw and after reading this, I repeat:
Marvel owns DC and Warner’s weak ass right now. Big time. Party size.
"Moriarty" out.
