Ahoy, squirts! Quint here from WonderCon... Below you'll find appearances by Steve Carell, Peter Segal, Anne Hathaway, Camilla Belle and Roland Emmerich... info on GET SMART, 10,000 BC, STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS as well as upcoming movies SHAZAM! and Emmerich confronted on 2012! Enjoy!
10,000 BC
Roland Emmerich took the stage and greeted the crowd, then showed a new trailer. It was a lot like the first trailer, but you get more of the story.
“We were hunters of the mightiest of all beasts!” as we watch our lead snag a Mastodon with a handmade net. The beast bucks and jumps and the net breaks free, sending the man flying off with it.
Then we see the dude (Steven Straight) romancing up a hot cavewoman version of Camilla Belle with the voice-over continuing: “We always thought we were alone in this world… ‘Till one night…”
Footage of an invading horde, out of a Conan rip-off movie from the ‘80s. They take Belle, of course, and he watches them leave with her.
Omar Sharif, I believe, pops up and tells us that it is not known where these people came from. “Some say they came from the stars…” and we see shots of these guys building pyramids and giant monuments.
Straight runs down his woman, catching a glimpse of her, hands bound and being led in front of a bunch of pissed off Egyptian-type people.
Then we get some giant bird action, a lot of CG looking sabretooth tiger and wholly mammoth shots as Straight screams out “He is not a God!” while a spear heads toward the Egyptian-type leader dude standing on the steps of a giant pyramid.
Can’t say I’m too impressed. It’ll be stupid, but it might be fun. Nothing wrong with the occasional lame-brain cheesy fun movie and who would say no to watching cavegirl Belle for two hours?
- Someone asked about the possible connection between 10,000 BC and STARGATE. Emmerich said that there is no direct connection, no cross-over, but there is a similar backbone, namely the Lost Civilization theory, that the Egyptians didn’t build the pyramids.
- Emmerich followed that up by saying that he is obsessed with pyramids and has been since he visited Giza as a teenager.
- Is 2012 Roland Emmerich’s next movie? “Yes, it is.” What can he tell us about it? “Nothing?” Yes, the question mark fits. He ended the word up, like a question. Then sat silent for about 20 seconds before they moved on.
- The characters speak English, but accented with Arabic. Camilla Belle added, “More than a little Omar Sharif.”
- Emmerich was asked where the nugget of the story came from… and it started with a Discovery Channel documentary about Man Hunting Mammoths.
- Emmerich claims he is always first interested in story, to which he got a few laughs from the back of the Hall. He grinned and said, “my distractors (sic) say otherwise,” that visual fireworks are great, but he wants story and setting are first and foremest for him.
- What about the actors? How was it acting with a lot of CGI creatures? Belle: “You always feel really stupid, to be honest.” Man, she’s cute.
- Was Emmerich influenced by Robert E. Howard’s CONAN world? I got the the impression that Emmerich didn’t want to admit he hasn’t read the books because he said he was influenced by CONAN THE BARBARIAN in terms of being able to fully imagine a pre-existing world. He said, nobody knows exactly what it was like so it was freeing… like Conan.
- The movie was shot in sequence, for the most part, according to Steven Straight.
- Favorite superhero? Stephen said PUNISHER, Emmerich said Batman and Belle copied him.
STAR WARS: CLONE WARS
This was a surprise, completely unannounced, Steve Sansweet came out and showed us some footage. Here’s the rundown:
The footage was broken up by an interview with Dave Filoni. He opens by saying that when he thinks of The Clone Wars, he goes back to the one sentence mention of it back in A New Hope. He said since that mention fans have been obsessed about thinking about the Clone Wars and what they could be.
I’m sure you’ve seen the already released trailer (>click here if you haven’t seen it yet! ). There was more stuff, but the look and style was exactly that trailer. It looks cool and all, but I have some major problems, most of them under the banner “Should have been in the movies.” Let’s look
Filoni said that we’ve seen the beginning and the end of the Clone Wars, but nothing in the middle, so that’s what we’re going to get. Should have been in the movies.
“It was very important to George (Lucas) that we explore a side of Anakin… you couldn’t call it the good side, but more of who was Anakin? What was he like?” Should have been in the movies.
“In THE CLONE WARS we get to look at Obi-Wan Kenobi in a slightly different way. Mainly exploring his relationship with Anakin Skywalker and seeing that they were like brothers. It will have more impact when you see Anakin’s fall.” Should have been in the movies.
One thing that looked really interesting was the addition of a padawan for Anakin, a feisty alien chick named Ahsoka Tona. I’m not sure if I have my nerd rules right, but didn’t Anakin get denied being upgraded to Jedi Master in Episode 3? Are apprentices allowed to have apprentices?
At any rate, Ahsoka seems to be something fresh in the series. Filoni describes her as having Anakin’s rebel spirit, but also some of Obi-Wan’s discipline. “She stands in between them.”
I’m sure her fate isn’t a good one since this takes place between Episodes 2 and 3 and she ain’t in REVENGE OF THE SITH.
He promised a lot more General Grievous. He promised a lot more clones, including specific characters like Captain Rex.
I’m not gonna poo-poo this. I loved Tartakovsky’s CLONE WARS cartoons, but I can say the exact same thing (Should Have Been In The Movie) with his work. I’m sure this’ll be fun and fill in for some of what was lacking the prequels for me. But at the same time, I’d kill to see an amazing live action version of this story that gets it right.
GET SMART
The crowd was psyched for this one, buzzing beforehand and then going apeshit when Peter Segal came to the stage and introduced the new trailer, which will hit in a few weeks.
A lot of what I saw in the edit bay (Click Here To Give That A Read If Ya’ Missed It!) was in the trailer, including the airplane bathroom debacle, some of the skydiving action sequence, some of the dance-off between 99 and their CHAOS target vs. a jealous Max and a very heavy woman.
I liked the opening, with Mr. Voice saying “there’s always been a balance between control and chaos…” nice…
The opening of the trailer has a great back and forth between Terence Stamp and Steve Carell. Stamp, with BORAT’s Ken Davitian standing by his side, asks Max, “How do I know you’re not an agent of CONTROL?” Max, “If I were an agent of CONTROL you’d already be dead.” Stamp, “If you were an agent of CONTROL I would have killed you first.” Max, “Since neither one of us are dead then you know I’m not an agent.” There an awkward silence, then Ken turns to his boss and says, “That actually kind of makes sense…”
I probably butchered that, but I can say the delivery was really sharp. I’m getting a good vibe from this film. Of course, I’ve seen a lot of sequences out of context and the real test comes with the finished film, but I honestly like what I’ve seen so far.
Segal introduced the cast and out came Hathaway and Carell. Here are the bits gleaned from the panel:
- Carell got a lot of OFFICE questions… I’ll start off with those. They’re back to work in 2 weeks now that the strike is over.
- Carell just got out of a stint doing jury duty and said he’s going to write an episode of The Office where Michael Scott is called to serve.
- How did Steve get into improv: “I didn’t want to learn lines.”
- After a half-dozen questions for Steve, someone said they had a question for Anne Hathaway. The crowd cheered and Hathaway laughed and said, “I feel so much cooler than I did in high school.” Then the guy asked, “What was it like working with Steve Carell?” getting a huge laugh from the audience. Hathaway: “Now I feel exactly like I did in high school.” She followed that with some nice words for Carell, but I thought that first bit was pretty damn funny.
- What roles do the actors feel most similar to? Carell: “Becoming Jane.” Hathaway said she related to her “inner Daily Show correspondent.”
- Segal, Carell and Hathaway would love to come back for further films.
- SHAZAM, the next from Segal, is delayed because of the writer’s strike, but John August is working on it now. He joked about casting Carell as Captain Marvel and then said they had actually approached Dwayne Johnson to play Black Adam, which has been reported, but still cool.
- Carell got serious when asked about working with Hathaway, saying how incredibly talented she is. He said that if you get to know her, you realize she’s a goofball… she jokes around, laughs, is very playful, but the second it’s time to roll, she was in character… demur, sophisticated… completely professional and ready to roll. The crowd “Awwwwed” and Hathaway blushed. It was pretty cute, I gotta admit…
-What films inspired the three to get into filmmaking? Segal: “YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and STAR WARS.” Hathaway: “AUNTIE MAME,” she loved the way Rosalind Russell was about to be sexy and funny… and she loved the outfits. Carell: “DR. STRANGELOVE.”
- One of the final questions was about favorite lines Carell has uttered. Someone shouted out “That’s what she said,” and he agreed that was a good one, then encouraged us all to “go out and work ‘That’s What She Said’ into every conversation. It works! You can say it with anything!”
Alright, another panel down. I started writing that after the first panel and now it’s almost 1am when I finally finish the write-up. I have FOX, DISNEY, NEW LINE and PARAMOUNT to go! Wish me luck!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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