Hey folks, Harry here... In addition to Quint (our Joel Silver look-a-like) we also are hearing from Dig Dug, who... while avoiding various dinosaurs came up from under the hall to spend some time listening, watching and taking a shit load of notes. Here's a lot of really cool stuff - kinda stuff that makes you wish - you had been there. Awesome.

Harry,

While I sat through the entire day of panels in the massive Hall H, there wasn't that much coolness. I thought I'd throw in a few thoughts, though.

Superman Returns:

Bryan Singer looked incredibly tired; he said he had just flown in from the set in Australia, and mostly took questions. He confirmed that Brando is indeed in the film as Jor-El, and said that it is mostly a voice-over, but there was some 'CGI reconstruction' of Brando's head and/or face for a very brief scene. It stressed that it was very very minor, and not a big deal (and he loves the original so much that in his mind Brando IS Jor-El, and he can't imagine anyone else playing him). Superman Returns takes place after Superman: The Movie, and possibly Superman II (he said the Superman Returns is definitely connected to the original Superman, and vaguely connected to the first sequel), and is mainly a love story. He stressed that it had amazing action (definitely the biggest he's ever done, and possibly the biggest that the studio has ever produced), but has a lot to do with the Superman/Lois love story.

Supes returns after a two year 'soul searching' or something. Lois, in Clark/Superman's absence, has married and had a kid, and has won huge acclaim (and a prize, possible Pulitzer) for publishing an article about 'Why we don't need Superman.' Singer stressed that the film deals with what happens when someone comes back, and deals with the changes that have occurred in his absence, and maybe even he (Superman) shouldn't have come back in the first place. With typical Singer fashion, the film sounds to be an epic action movie, with tons of depth.

Of course, to cap off the visit, Singer brought a sort of teaser 'trailer' to show us.

It was about 2 1/2 minutes or so, and it is mostly quick cuts set to the classic score (which, by the way, will be both original music AND Williams iconic Superman themes). It showed a lot of stuff from Smallville (what seemed to possibly be flashbacks, along with Clark and his 'ma'), and had voice-overs of Jor-El and Lara talking about earth, it's frailties, and how Ka-El will be the 'light' that humans need to show them to greatness. It then shows Clark returning to Metropolis (AMAZING shot of the Daily Planet building that had a nice "new" quality to it, with the traditional Daily Planet globe), finding Lois, and meeting her husband and kid. This 'trailer' went on to show Perry White 'demanding' that Lois find Superman ("Three things sell papers: death, sex, and Superman"), and then we finally see Superman in costume! A lot of talk has been about the "new" look of the costume (Singer discussed how the costume has changed a ton since it's original debut, and has said that his new 'update' is not extraordinary); I loved the costume looked on screen, and thought it blended beautifully with the look of the film.

Anyway, it showed Superman on the roof of Lois' apartment, presumably for an interview, as you hear questions of "Why did you leave" and "Did you find what you were looking for" followed by her telling White when asked how she found Supes "He found me." It then showed some quite cuts of what appeared to be action with a passenger plain (the interior of the plain being shaken, flight attendants being jerked around the cabin, those masks dropping from the ceiling signaling a sudden change in cabin pressure), and we see a GREAT shot of Superman high above Metropolis (almost as if he's in the stratosphere), flying down into action (he takes off super fast, and it left a nice subtle flash).

There were a few quick shots of Lex (one from behind, which looked like Lex observing a huge construction sight or something), and Spacey looks great in costume! Singer commented that he's only been on set a week or two, and it's been more fun than he imagined.

That's about it. I got the impression that Singer hasn't been shooting too long, and what he showed looked GREAT! It didn't look rough, or rushed, or even too incomplete. It was a very nice presentation, and it made me even more excited!

Aeon Flux:

The director of the movie, producer (who also produced all three Terminators, Aliens, Abyss, and others), the creator of the anime, lead actress Charlize Theron and actor Marton Czokas who plays 'bad guy' Trevor Goodchild. While I was happy to see that the creator of the fairly popular series/shorts from MTV is involved, the stuff we saw didn't do too much for me. While I'm not a huge fan of the original anime, I loved the visual style. In that aspect, it looks like they are doing some things right.

The 'story' of the film is it's the far future (something like 400 years) in a world that is controlled be a questionable 'government,' and common folk disappear without a reason. Theron's character, Aeon Flux, is an assassin from an underground rebellion or something who is commissioned to kill the leader (actor Czokas). That's the basic story as explained today.

They showed a reel of behind the scenes stuff that featured tons of wire effects work, some nice looking sets, but basically a typical Hollywood 'shoot 'em up.' There was one great scene that I thought totally captured the spirit of the series, which gives this movie hope. It featured Aeon Flux and her partner or something (played by Sophie Okenedo) doing all of these great acrobatic jumps, and flips and stuff through a huge garden to get to a building. When Okenedo steps on the grass, she realizes the blades of the grass are actual blades that cut through her feet like needles. Aeon does a mid-air flip, and before landing on grass does a sort of splits between some rocks and holds herself in the kind of lean that has her face centimeters from the grass. As she looks at the grass and realizes she's close to piercing her face, the grace sort of 'stretches' toward her, as if it wants to pierce her. It felt VERY much like the series, and it makes me think this thing might have hope. Theron looks more than capable, has really cool hair like the original Aeon Flux, and the sets look good. But the plot seems more of the same, and I think this could go either way. We also got to see the trailer coming out soon (maybe in the next week or two?).

Ghost Rider:

The director was there, Avi Arad was there, and Eva Mendes graced us with her beauty. First, I thought I'd say that even though someone tried to get the info, Avi was adamant about not giving us the new Spiderman villain. All he said was Hayden Thomas, and we'd have to wait for any more info.

Otherwise, we were treated to a clip that had little to no FX that looked OK: showed Cage 'normal' riding his bike and jumping trucks and such. It briefly explained the origins of Ghost Rider, and had some very short shots of Cage in the jacket with spikes, on the sweet bike, etc. The FX shots aren't close to being done of Cage with the flaming skull, or the bad guys in "true form" (just human form, for you Ghost Rider comics fans who know what that means: I do not). The director seemed to be following a lot of the cool things from the comic (as far as weapons and villains), and this looked kind of cool. I'm not a reader of the comics, so I honestly know little about this story and I'm kind of playing it by ear as far as if I'll see it. They unveiled the teaser poster and it looked totally bad ass (full picture of Ghost Rider with flaming skull on the bike). This could be a fun movie. A fan had the guts to ask the director about the debacle that was Daredevil, and the director took it all in stride. He said that he lost a lot of battles, but he thought the directors cut was pretty good. He said that the studio producing Ghost Rider was giving him a lot of freedom to tell the story he wants.

King Kong:

Yeah, this was the one most of us were waiting for. Here's the first thing about the King Kong panel: more people were excited about seeing the band Tenacious D than they were about King Kong. No freaking kidding. Pete Jackson couldn't be there, and instead sent the video that us long-time attendees of Comic-Con have grown to expect. This was the best he's sent so far as far as how personal he got (I can't tell you how many years I've heard him say via video that he really wishes he can be there, and maybe next year, etc). For those of you who don't watch the documentaries on the Kong is King sight (I generally don't, as I want to be as surprised about the movie as possible), you will no recognize Peter. He must've dropped at least 100 pounds, and he looks great!

Anyway, he talked about his love of Kong, his passion for wanting to make this film for decades, and everything that most of us geeks who read this sight know: King Kong is the reason Peter got into film making. He then showed us the trailer (he almost seemed embarrassed to show it, as he knew we'd all seen it already and he knew he wasn't sharing anything too new). I love this trailer, and I love how Pete referred to it as the "teaser." If this was the teaser, than I sure has hell can't wait for the full blown trailer!!

After that, he talked about animatics, and showed us what we were all waiting for (or at least what we were hoping for):

The last three minutes or so of the T-Rex vs. Kong fight scene.

The scene is far from finished, and none of the shots were done. Some of them were on-there-way-to-being-done FX shots that looked good already, some were Naomi Watts literally acting against a blue screen, some shots had half almost finished CGI and half animatics (think CGI 'blue print' of Kong and the T-Rex family: yes, those of you who didn't know Kong is fighting a family of three T-Rex's), and some shots were just all animatics.

But you could tell what was going on through every frame, and holy crap this is going to be amazing. It seems like all weekend we've heard directors tell us how they are improving on an original movie (like The Fog remake), or expanding on an older TV show (like Serenity). But when Pete Jackson says he is 'improving' on the '33 King Kong, I have 100% faith that he will. This scene was amazing, and even in this far from complete stage there is a lot of emotion in Kong himself. When he gets bit by a T-Rex, you can see the pain in his face, and when he's really mad, you know it from his facial expression. Amazing job with the CGI, and props to the Weta guys and gals!

The scene started on top of a cliff, had Kong rescuing Watts from falling, has Kong fighting T-Rex's while falling from the cliff and clinging to vines, making his way to the bottom of the cliff for the Battle Royale fight between Kong and the last Rex standing, and ending with Kong triumphant: hope that's not a spoiler :)

What I really loved about this sequence is that it had several winks to the original (Kong sometimes does a move exactly like the '33 fight), it has has that Peter Jackson touch (Kong at one point bites the tongue of the T-Rex, and kills the T-Rex by ripping it's jaws apart).

After the clip, some of the cast members came out to talk about the movie and field questions: Adrian Brody, Naomi Watts, and Jack Black.

I'd say a good 80% of the questions were for Jack, and at least 60% of those had to do with Tenacious D.

One questioner addressed Brody as JAMES Brody, and asked him "when the shit is the new D album coming out." Brody was a real good sport, and at this point he jumped up and said he was tired of this bullshit with Jack, and didn't want to hear about 'The D' again. He then said "screw this crap: I'm outta here" and started walking towards the stage to leave. He then, or course, got a huge grin, said he was just joking and that he loves The D.

Most of the questions were more fun than anything, and nothing too revealing came from them (for the love of god, no Kyle Gass, second member of Tenacious D, does not have a cameo in King Kong: that questions was asked twice).

Oh yeah: one person asked if Jack could improv a song about King Kong, and with prodding by Naomi and Adrian he did bust into a great song.

Tenacious D:

For those who don't know this band, it is a heavy metal folk duo. Kyle Gass plays lead guitar and back-up vocals, and Jack Black plays rhythm guitar and lead vocals; both play acoustic guitar. They are, I guess, technically a comedy act as their songs are hilarious. But the punchline of the joke is these guys are great musicians. Kyle is amazing on guitar, and Jack's vocals are pretty refined with a large range. The songs are well written, and the duo is pretty tight. Their first self-titled CD is electric and acoustic with many 'guest' musicians (including Dave Grohl on drums) and non-musical comedic bits.

I LOVE this band. Instead of doing a traditional panel or presentation about their new movie, "Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny," they gave a 45 minute concert. I guess they've been filming for the last eight weeks and have another week and a half or so before they're done. The movie tells the story of how Jack and Kyle (J.B. and K.G, or Jables and Kage, or Ragin' Kage, etc) met and became the greatest rock band of all time. The movie features Ronny James Dio.

One thing that blew me away about The D is that it actually eclipsed King Kong in both popularity and presentation. The 6,500 capacity theater had people crowding in to see The D, and it was easily standing room only. I couldn't believe how many people were there to see this little concert, and most seemed more interested in that than Kong. I was torn, and was equally hyped by both. In the end, though, The D blew me away (although I know Pete Jackson is only 1/2 way through post production, and I have no doubts that Kong will be amazing).

Jack Black, who almost seemed shy during the Kong panel, came alive for this set. The first half of their set was new songs for the new movie. The first song was almost an epic by Tenacious D standards, as it's about 4 1/2 minutes filled with a bunch of tempo and key changes, that chronicles the history of The D. The first section is to be sung by a ten year old version of JB who describes parents who are devout Christians and a perfect brother. I know Jack had originally talked about Meatloaf playing his dad, but I'm not sure if that is the case. The kid (in the movie) is to sing the first part of his childhood, and Meatloaf plays his dad who doesn't want JB into 'the devil's music.' JB seeks out the god of metal, Dio, who tells him to go to Hollywood to find KG. None of this was explained Sat, but this was explained in other concerts they've played the last six months: for reference, check out the New Zealand concert bootleg from Dec. of 2004. JB explains all of this. Also, for fun, at that concert The D performs the song 'Your the One That I Want' from Grease with Gollum Smeagle: freaking classic comedy.

Other new songs include "Dude I Really Missed You" (talking about a period when the D breaks up) and "The Government Really Sucks" which is part satire of the govt, (duh) and part 'USA rules.' Funny as hell.

For the next song, JB talks about how the song is so complex they need to play to a click track, and he hoped we didn't mind. The band then ripped into an obviously choreographed lip synching/strumming song that had most of the audience rolling. I myself had tears streaming down my face from laughter.

After the first verse of faking into the mic, JB stepped away as the song talks about Jack's vocals being so sweet he doesn't need a mic. The guitars had a mix of acoustic and electric (both musicians play acoustic guitars only), and the band was clearing faking it for laughs. It was hilarious, and JB's 'faking' was perfect with the music.

After the new songs they played a 'greatest hits' of their first album: F--- Her Gently, Flash Gordon/Wonderboy, Dio, Lee (complete with dancing from Lee himself: you real D fans will know what I'm saying), Tribute, and probably a few others I can't remember. They came out for an encore and played a medley from The Who's Tommy. It was an amazing concert, and we were all appreciative of the New Line, The D, and everyone who made the concert possible.

Those are the highlights from the stuff I saw today. Fun stuff, and the high lights, were obviously Superman, Kong, and The D.

--

Dig Dug