300: Monsters and Critics

300: Monsters and Critics

23/07/2006

Comic Con - day 3 Maura's report - 'Grind House' and 'Spiderman 3'

By Maura Reilly Jul 23, 2006, 9:49 GMT




Saturday had some pretty spectacular panels. To start off with there was Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 brought astonishingly to life by director Zack Synder who was present along with Miller and stars Gerard Butler and David Wenham. There was much gentle ribbing between the two co-stars (Gerry’s buttocks got a cheer) who both had vocal fans in the audience. Snyder remarked when asked about the current trend in Hollywood of making graphic novels into films: “… [the studios] are starting to realize that graphic novels don’t need to be fixed just filmed.”


‘Grind House’: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez brought raw footage of their new school exploitation collaboration and many of the female cast members for their panel including Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan. Tarantino promises that both his part ‘Death Proof’ and Rodriguez’s part ‘Planet Terror’ will do what the exploitation films of the past could not do: deliver on the coolness of their posters. ‘Grind House’ will be two movies, each an hour in length with trailers between. They are currently in production on ‘Planet Terror’ and ‘Death Proof’ is scheduled to begin in four weeks. There is talk that John Carpenter may provide some of the music.

Disney: John Knoll gave a technical presentation about how Davey Jones was brought to life in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.’ A new motion capture technique was developed called iMocap which is portable, allowing performers to be in set and in scenes as opposed to in a motion capture studio. And then he gave us a special treat, a quick look at what they are working on for Pirates 3.

Shiver me timbers and batten down the hatches Matey!

Sony: two of the most anticipated panels had to have been ‘Ghost Rider’ staring Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes and ‘Spiderman 3.’ Longtime comic book reader Cage found working on ‘Ghost Rider’ a childhood dream true. When asked if Eva would be interested in doing other comic book films she replied that she would but that she would require having some kind of superpowers. She also owned up to the fact that she was probably the one responsible for starting the subsequently incorrect rumor that Cage has a Ghost Rider tattoo. It’s not a Ghost Rider tattoo per se, but it is a flaming skull.

Director Sam Raimi showed a very rough trailer for ‘Spiderman 3’ that left many in the packed auditorium speechless. He then proceeded to bring out most of his cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Topher Grace, Thomas Hayden Church, and Bryce Dallas Howard for a Q&A. It was a mutual love-fest between the fans and the filmmaker. Though some came away a little frustrated at the fact that not many questions could be answered for fear of giving away too much….well more than had already accidentally slipped.

http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1183268.php/Comic_Con_-_day_3_Mauras_report_-_Grind_House_and_Spiderman_3