Hey folks, Harry here... Phasmatrope posted this on the tail end of Quint's last update, but I figured that it was a pretty durn good report, so it deserved to be brought to the attention of the rest of y'all. It discusses some stuff that Quint either missed or was less struck by, or was too tired to type about! So without further ado, here's Phasmatrope...
Okay, so Quint beat me to it and covered most of the shit, and as much as I hate to risk spoiling anything, here are a few details that didn't come through in his synopsis: *One cool event, and I don't know if Quint mentioned it, was the "The Two Towers" panel.
TWO TOWERS
Granted, director Jackson wasn't there (he sent a videotaped apology explaining that he was busy with post production), and they only showed the same "Two Towers" trailer that I'm sure we've all seen already, but they did have a cool promo for an impressive PS2 game, a brief behind-the-scenes documentary with an interview with Christopher Lee where it explains what a huge fan he is of the books, 2 time Academy Award-winning costume designer Richard Taylor on hand to answer questions, a videographic resume of the WETA workshop with scenes from some of the many movies they've worked on, out-of-costume appearances by the musclebound Maori-looking (I'm guessing) Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz) and Sala Baker (Sauron), and surprise cameos by Hobbits Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan , and Elijah Wood!! All did a brief Q&A and signed some autographs.
The only glum note was that one of the crew (I believe it was Taylor) mentioned how during production he had casually suggested to Jackson the idea of doing a live action adapation of "The Hobbit," and that Jackson just seemed too overwhelmed by the idea right now, but that since Jackson has other films he wants to do he might not do it (and so, in turn, would the rest of his devoted cast and crew).
HULK
*yes, they did do the same "Hulk" teaser plus a brief still photo slide show (including a grisly Nick Nolte as Bruce Banner's father, and a half naked Bruce--clad in the classic purple pants!!--being comforted by Connelly in the middle of a San Fran seat surrounded by military gunsmen), Gale Anne Hurd, Avi Arad, Ang Lee (a rather poor public speaker if you ask me) talking about the film. Ang denied there being an Absorbing Man or She-Hulk character; he didn't deny a Hulk dog.
T3: RISE OF THE MACHINES
*the "T3" trailer--which looked cool, but a little anticlimactic--included footage of Clare Danes and a few explosions. Mostow was awkwardly embarrassed by a fan who asked if he was going to screw the fans over like someone (obviously Schmacher) ruined the "Batman" films, to which Mostow responded that he was a big fan of the originals, so he hopes not to. Arnold was cool to see, excited about the movie, saying that he's long been wanting to do it and a Conan sequel, but that the latter project is kinda out of his control.
I didn't catch most of the "Dreamcatcher" segment of WB's panel, just Jason Lee and Timothy Olyphant taking stupid questions from the crowd.
X-MEN 2 - X2
*Bryan Singer wasn't much of a conversationalist, but admitted that he usually clams up at such events. Nonetheless he said he was pleased to be at the 'Con, even if he is very busy with the film. He told the disappointed crowd that there will be no Juggernaut or Danger Room in this movie, and that it'll focus a lot more on Storm (Halle Berry demanded it after the first film) and the younger teenage mutants (certainly Bobby Drake, as he was glimpsed in the preview and Singer confessed to there being more of a romance with her and Rogue, and possibly Jubilee). He did alude to a new human character being a factor/threat (obviously Brian Cox's Stryker), and said that he'd eventually like to fit Beast, Phoenix, and maybe the Sentinels into the films.
James Cameron & BATTLE ANGEL AELITA
*the aloof James Cameron did indeed mention his interest in doing Battle Angel Aelita (cool but not surprising, considering his passion for tough women, and having recently done Dark Angel), and admitted that since he's been travelling abroad he hasn't caught Spider-Man yet, but heard it's "pretty good." He expressed his love for the old Fantastic Four comic, but it doesn't sound like he'll be involved with it.
The coolest thing about his panel was when filmmaker Dan Poole FINALLY got to confront him on sending him his independent fan-made "Spider-Man: The Green Goblin's Last Stand." For those of you who don't know, Dan Poole is a Baltimore-based fan of "Spider-Man" and James Cameron, who, upon first hearing of Cameron's development of a "Spider-Man" project 10 years ago, wrote, directed, and starred in an ultralow budget VHS short film that he intended to be a demo reel for Cameron to somehow get involved in the film. Yet Poole's repeated attempts to send the tape to Cameron's offices and promises made by assistants that he'd watch it were only met by the film repeatedly being returned unopened (you can hear more about it here: Click Here ). Despite his protests that he no longer has any involvement in the "Spider-Man" property, Cameron was embarrassed and forced to finally take the tape in front of hundreds of fans.
DAREDEVIL
Then came the "Daredevil" preview, which looked decent: the same shit Quint described, with Matt as a little boy, Jack Murdock winning his would-be "thrown" fight in front of his unhappy mob boss, and the violent consequences that follow. I couldn't figure out what was up with the metal-covered bath in the home scene, either.
The action footage was fast-paced and slick, with a temp soundtrack of Expansion Union's "Playing With Lightning," which we're all familiar seeing Wesley Snipes kick vampire ass to in the first "Blade." All the people involved seemed excited about the film, albeit a bit nervous.
Mark Steven Johnson had good things to say about Michael Clarke Duncan and Jon Favreau's humorous portrayal of Foggy Nelson (still think Sean Astin would've looked better, m'self). Affleck was good natured but a bit quiet, not the usual cocky demeanor a lot of us think of him as having.
BULLETPROOF MONK
*One final pseudo-event I caught was a brief panel and rough preview of the Paul Hunter-directed "Bulletproof Monk" adapation, starring Chow Yun-Fat, Jamie King (formerly James), and Seann William Scott (the latter two who were both there).
It looks more or less like your standard kung fu actioner, and despite some decent mentor/student scenes being Chow and Seann, didn't look like anything we haven't seen before. I guess part of this may be having to get used to the idea of seeing Seann William Scott of "American Pie" fame in an action role where he's supposed to become this badass, but it'd be unfair to pigeonhole the dude, and anyway both he and James King seemed really excited to be involved in it.
Seann himself openly admitted to having few interests in his spare time other than watching movies, and that as an old fan of Chow Yun-Fat's work he was especially honored to be performing alongside him now. We'll see...
Phasmatrope
