Comic-Con 2011: Capone checks out footage from writer-director Andrew Niccol's IN TIME, and talks a bit about RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and PROMETHEUS!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in San Diego for Comic-Con 2011.

I believe Mr. Beaks is working on an epic analysis of the first part of the Twentieth Century Fox panel--meaning the PROMETHEUS footage that was presented (in person) by Charlize Theron and co-screenwriter Damon Lindelof (who moderated the entire Fox panel) and discussed via satellite from Iceland by director Ridley Scott and actor Noomi Rapace (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). But I will mention that the footage and behind the scenes clips we were shown were almost too much to take in. There are things about some of the images that seem very familiar, and Scott seemed to admit that while this is not an ALIEN prequel, it does contain "ALIEN DNA." I think I know what he means, but I'm not commenting until I read Beaks' rundown.

The two other films that made up the Fox panel were also science fiction in nature. One was RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, during which they played the latest trailer and the recently released clip in which Caesar comes to the defense of his owner's Alzheimer's stricken father (John Lithgow) as he's getting yelled at by a neighbor. The best part of the APES portion of the panel was a sizzle reel consisting of scenes from the final act of the film, meaning a whole lot of shots from the front lines of the Ape revolution. You know that scene they always show in the trailer of the ape leaping from a bridge toward a helicopter in mid-air? We got to see what happens when said primate lands on/in the helicopter. Simply remarkable footage.

On hand for the panel were director Rupert Wyatt (THE ESCAPIST) and actor Andy Serkis, who did all the motion capture performance work for Caesar, who turned his time on stage into a great education on motion-capture acting in a live-action film, stressing that there is no such thing as a motion-capture film genre, only motion-capture performances in a live-action or animated movie. He emphasized that great acting makes for better mo-cap work, and that directors are still going to cast the best actors they can even for mo-cap performances, a point restated nicely by Steven Spielberg during THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN panel the following day.

Of the three films features at Fox panel, IN TIME is the one I knew the least about, although what I knew, I liked. I'm a big fan of the way a writer-director Andrew Niccol handles science fiction. He has a knack for making all of the "futuristic" concepts of his works seem only a couple years from actually becoming reality. His script for THE TRUMAN SHOW essentially predicted the coming of the reality TV craze, while works like GATTACA, S1M0NE, and IN TIME are infused with healthy levels of paranoia and authenticity. And for the record, I think LORD OF WAR is one of the great unsung movies in the past 10 years.

IN TIME takes place in a world in which money has been replaced by time as currency on earth. When people turn 25, the are given a clock (embedding on their forearm) that ticks down the final year of their life, but since you use increments of time to buy goods (a cup of coffee costs 4 minutes), you actually have less than a year, unless you have something people want and then you can buy time and live as long as your can keep buying (or stealing time). The "rich" of the world are those who have the most time on their body clock, and the live in a different "time zone" than our hero Will (Justin Timberlake), an average guy who is unexpectedly given a whole lot of time by a guy who winds up dead. Will is falsely accused of the crime, and he immediately begins running. The cast includes Amanda Seyfried (she and Timberlake were on stage for the panel), Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Alex Pettyier, and Olivia Wilde.



I have an interview with Niccol coming up that explains the film's concept in more detail, but Timberlake made his first appearance at Comic-Con, and he seemed to be having a great time. The quickly rolled out the trailer, which revealed that Will's plight takes him the highest, most corrupt corners of power in this new world, and he threatens to take down the established system. We also see that during the course of a regular day, it would not be unusual to see dead bodies of folks that simply ran out of time. And apparently if you have too much time, that makes you a target of people that really want to steal your minutes. ("You can't hide 100 years in the ghetto," one character says.)



One interesting point that Niccol made was that he had to find actors who all looked 25 to play characters of all ages, and he had to give each of them clues in their dress, performance, personalities that told us how old they were. In this world, you would look as old/young as your parents and grandparents, so it became a world about demeanor. Somehow Timberlake kidnaps Seyfried (a woman from the richer zone) for protection, but of course she ends up helping him. There is discussion of immortality and putting too much time in the wrong hands. As with most of Niccol's films, discussion after viewing seems unavoidable. I really dug what I saw here. The film opens October 28.

More Comic-Con coverage to come from the entire AICN gang.

-- Capone capone@aintitcool.com
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