Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little recap of the Horns panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. This panel marked Daniel Radcliffe's first Comic-Con appearance, so naturally there were quite a few Potter nerds in attendance.
Having read the book and seen the movie during its fest run there was a small, gleeful side of me that anticipated their world being blown open a little bit when they saw the Boy Who Lived in this particular role.
And judging by the stunned reaction to the footage and huge applause afterwards I think that just might have happened.
If you're not familiar with the book, the story is about a grieving young man who is mourning the loss of his girlfriend while at the same time having to deal with the small town rumor machine accusing him of murdering her.
One day he wakes up to find the nubs of horns sticking out of his forehead. As he goes about his day he realizes that the people he interacts with reveal their deepest, darkest selves to him. He's gaining the powers of the devil, essentially. He's incredibly persuasive, snakes really like him and he's a bit tougher than he was before.
The scene they showed to illustrate this involved two local news reporters tracking him down trying to get him to comment on the accusations against him. “Come on, I really need a scoop. A story like this could get me out of this town.” Fed up, Radcliffe tells them that they should beat the shit out of each other and the one that wins gets an exclusive interview with him.
Without even stopping to think about it, the two reporters start beating the shit out of each other. Even the sound guys and producers join in. Pleased with himself, Radcliffe goes into a bar and asks if anyone has any information on who killed his girlfriend.
The bartender gets violent and says the only thing he wants to do is burn this fucking place down. As the scene continues on the bartender is at work in the background making molotov cocktails and splashing the bar with alcohol. Radcliffe gets some info about someone who is claiming to be a witness before the bartender lights the bar on fire with a madman's cackle. Radcliffe leaves the burning bar, returns to his bar and passes the bloody reporters. The lady reporter is strangling the guy with her mic cord and pleads for the interview he promised as Radcliffe gets into the car (a gremlin, naturally) and takes off.
The panel was actually pretty fun. The audience was pretty focused on Daniel, of course. He took it in stride, though, even when a Harry Potter cosplayer came up to the mic to ask a question. He greeted him with a “Hey, guy!”
Anyway, here are the highlights of the panel:
-Why did Daniel this over other projects? Radcliffe said he's always on the look out for original, dark projects.
-Joe Hill said he didn't think the book would be adapted because it was so dark and even if it did get made he would never have imagined they would have landed someone like Daniel Radcliffe for the lead.
-Alexandre Aja read the book while he was finishing Piranha and was immediately grabbed by the rollercoaster aspect. One moment you'd be laughing, another you'd be nervous, scared, sad, etc.
-”It's so amazing to be in Hall H, by the way. Joss Whedon's butt-sweat graced this chair! I can almost feel his essence coming up to me.” -Joe Hill
-First time seeing himself with horns: “It was fantastic! There's something incredibly empowering standing there with horns and generally looking like the devil.”
-Joe Hill was asked if the film was a tragedy or a horror movie. He said it's a “tragi-come-horridy.” He then went on to say that we get a lot of movies these days that are great at doing one thing, but not many that layer different kinds of genres.
-Someone pointed out that Daniel's character wears Gryffindor colors in the movie. They stressed that was totally unintentional.
-”If you've never had a 6 foot python wrapped around you, I recommend the experience.” - Daniel Radcliffe totally not trying to pick you up and unaware the massive double entendre he just dropped on 7,000 people.
-Daniel on his US accent: “I've been giving my action figures American accents since I was 7, so I've been practicing for a while.”
-By the end of the Harry Potter series Radcliffe said he was starting to worry that he was going to be locked into that role forever... it didn't help that journalists were asking him if he thought his best years were behind him. When he did Equus that worry kind of broke. He said it sent a “signal of intent” that he was interested in doing darker, more challenging stuff.
-Daniel on the journalists fighting each other scene: ”I took no small amount of pleasure out of that scene.”
-Prefer theater or film? “I feel at home on a film set. (On Potter) All the things teachers hated about me at school, I was talkative and hyperactive, were expected of me on a film set.” He stressed he loves theater, but he feels like he was brought up by film and gun to his head, he'd choose film.
-”All stars are temporary, only actors last” is a line from a William Goldman book Radcliffe read at age 13 that stuck with him. He said at that moment he decided he wanted to be an actor, not a star.
-As I reported separately, Locke and Key in development at Universal. They want to do it as a trilogy and the first script is either done or close to done.
That was Horns! Got more stuff, including the panels on the Salma Hayek action flick Everly and Fox's mostly disappointing, Fantastic Four-free, panel.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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