Sunday, July 21, 2013

SDCC '13: WB Takes Over Hall H


Warner Bros held a jam packed multi-film Comic-Con panel in Hall H where fans were updated on "Godzilla," "300: Rise of an Empire" "Gravity," "The Lego Movie," "Edge of Tomorrow" and "Warcraft".

World of Warcraft

The biggest surprise of the panel  was a proof of concept style teaser for the Duncan Jones -directed live-action "World of Warcraft" movie which is set begin production early next year.

The clip showed a knight standing on a green skied desert as a storm comes in. The knight pulls out his sword, takes a shield from a skeleton, and prepares to face a giant orc with a battle axe.

Godzilla

Gareth Edwards' updated "Godzilla" set the room a buzz. Both the concept trailer screened for Comic-Con 2012 , and a new trailer was screened.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bryan Cranston also showed up with Cranston taking over the room with his sense of humor.

Filming on the "Godzilla" reboot wrapped a few days ago in Hawaii, and the studio gave Edwards plenty of "creative freedom". Edwards says it is important that the human characters in this film be people who are close to Godzilla, not just random citizens caught up in the devastation.

Olsen compared filming her role as a nurse and mother on the movie to that of an indie film as she "was always shooting… there was no down time".

The footage screened included a flooded city, and soldiers running around battling a giant multi-limbed insect monster. It's then Godzilla's foot comes into frame, he dwarfs the other creature and starts to attack it.

The big guy stomps into the Cineplex on May 16, 2014

Gravity

Sandra Bullock, director Alfonso Cuaron and producer David David Heyman showed up to showcase the ambitious sci-fi survival epic in which Bullock's astronaut character fights to survive.

Cuaron confirms Bullock and George Clooney's characters are the only actors in the entire film. Space is treated scientifically correct - namely there's no sound where there's no oxygen.

The footage they showcased confirms Cuaron's method of employing long continuous takes for this, and showed off the meteor storm that serves as a catalyst for the whole premise. The effects and cinematography were highly praised.

Bullock's intense work days involved her being held in a cube in her suit as the camera moved all around her. At one time it would be moving extremely fast and then stop mere inches from her face.

She also made herself as androgynous as possible, avoiding her femininity in the movie because her character lost a child.

 The film is scheduled for theatrical release on October 4th, 2013.

300: Rise of an Empire

Plenty of sea-based battle footage was shown off from the sequel which director Noam Murro says takes the time of "300" and "zooms it out" to showcase the much larger scale war going on.

Eva Green calls her character a ruthless Joan of Arc who controls the Persian navy. Sullivan Stapleton says his character is a military commander attempting to unite the armies behind his "denim skirt".

The film is presently deep in post-production and, like the first film, was shot entirely on green screen. The film hits theaters March 7, 2014

The LEGO Movie

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, call the film a combination of both CGI and stop-motion, and their original story was four hours long. Footage screened involved fake auditions involving LEGO characters.

The final film will have a ton of cameos and star parts with voice roles including Channing Tatum
Tatum as Superman, Will Arnett is Batman, Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman and Jonah Hill as Green Lantern.

Fan made LEGO shorts are being incorporated into the film, and everything in the movie - including the water - is made out of LEGO. The movie has been produced in Los Angeles, Australia and Denmark over the past three years.

The pic clicks in theaters February 7, 2014

Edge of Tomorrow

Previously titled "All You Need Is Kill," helmer Doug Liman, writer Christopher McQuarrie, and stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt were on hand to talk about the sci-fi war tale.

Footage was shown of Cruise getting into his mech suit, the phrase 'Live/Die/Repeat' shown over and over, soldiers put into a war zone, and Cruise telling Blunt he's not a soldier.

McQuarrie's script reportedly has a unique structure, while the visuals are a mix of both grounded and gritty with the spartan and beautiful. Blunt says it was her hardest film to date, and calls Cruise the most fearless man she's ever met.

Look for the film in theatres June 6th, 2014.

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