Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with info on the upcoming flick FLYBOYS, the WW1 bi-plane dogfight actioneer starring James Franco.
The panel had producer Dean Devlin, actor (and real life pilot) David Ellison, director Tony Bill (MY BODYGUARD) and VFX supervisor Mark Franko. James Franco couldn't make it, but he sent along a video introduction to the long clip they brought. In the intro he said he just wrapped SPIDER-MAN 3 and is about to start on CAMILLE in Canada. He kept repeating the film's release date (September 29th), but he played with it so it got a laugh. The clip we got was the 2nd of 6 major aerial battles.
The footage starts with a scramble on a tarmac. The air raid sirens are blaring and the pilots are rushing to their planes. Jean Reno says something about knowing where the German's are and if the pilots hurry they can catch 'em.
Next shot was a close up of a hand putting oil in an engine. The camera pulls back and we realize it's a man standing between the two wings of a bi-plane, oiling up the engine as it flies high above the countryside. It's a German plane. Bullets suddenly hit it, the rear-gunner responding with machine gun fire. There's a POV shot of the gunner looking down the machine gun barrel as he's tracking the French/US plane, but he can't get a bead on it as the pilot zigzags back and forth. You can see the shots leaving the machine gun and trailing in the wind.
The German plane gets hit right down the middle, the gunner nailed. The plane goes down.
One of the American pilots gets hit from above, taking a hit in the neck/shoulder area. He looks at a picture of a hot girl attached to the controls and starts humming and singing under his breath a "get ready for war" propaganda type song as he relentlessly attacks another German bi-plane. The bi-plane disintegrates, falling to the country below. His plane gets riddled with bullets and his engine starts to flame. Camera pulls back and we see it explode, falling to the earth in a ball of flame.
We next come to James Franco as he chases a German pilot low over the ground, barely missing the tree tops and buildings (he almost crashes into a church, but pulls up in time). He has the German in his sights and starts firing, but his gun jams up. He pulls out a hammer and bangs on the gun, trying to loosen the bullets. The German pilot realizes this and pulls away, ending up circling back around and having Franco dead to rights.
Franco realizes this and we see the German pilot's POV. The crosshairs are right on Franco, he's that close behind. Franco tenses up, waiting for the hot lead death. There's a smatter of gunfire, but Franco isn't hit. The German pilot backs away and pulls up alongside. He looks Franco in the eyes and gives him a salute. Franco salutes back, a little unsure about what's happening and the German flies away, leaving Franco alone in the skies.
Devlin said that while the ground battles during WW1 were nasty, with the trench warfare and Mustard Gas, etc, the real interesting thing about the aerial battles was that they were still fighting a gentlemen's war. So, the German knew his adversary was weaponless, so he spared his life. I think that's really interesting, personally.
Tidbits from the panel:
-They used mocap technology in a different way. They had a real life stunt plane rigged up and filmed it for reference, but they also recorded the movements of the plane with the mo-cap balls, so they could realistically replicate a biplane in flight.
-Devlin was asked about CG vs. model work and he said that he still believes model work is better for fragmentation, for planes disintegrating before our eyes, etc, but the CG work has improved so much that he and the director can't tell the difference between CG and practical planes for the film.
-Devlin is proudest of the Special Effects in this film than any other he's done... not because it's groundbreaking stuff, but because it looks so real.
Maya was used for all the pre-viz (the animated storyboards). What's unique about that is that Maya is also the software used by CGI artists, so instead of just throwing out the animated pre-viz and starting from scratch with the CG, the animators could just build upon the rough animation instead of starting all over again.
-The Genesis Camera used for SUPERMAN RETURNS was also used to shoot FLYBOYS.
-Finally, someone asked about STARGATE and if we would get the 2 sequels mentioned back when the first film was made. Devlin said that MGM picked up FLYBOYS (made independently) and now that he has built a relationship again with the studio they are finally back in talks about finishing out the STARGATE Trilogy. SG1 and Atlantis will be their own things, according to Devlin. The sequels will only be based on the previous film, but it won't "step on the toes" of the television series.
There's the FLYBOYS panel. We have some animation panels and Guillermo Del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH panel still to go today. Be back soon with more.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
