Comic-Con for those who can't be there
Ah, the joys of being unemployed and not able to go to Comic-Con. While I live two hours north of San Diego, it might as well as be in New York when you are poor. So, for the others who could not be there, I offer some bits and pieces gleamed from various sites:
As previously noted, Marvel continues to set the second half of their superhero strategy, confirming titles for the upcoming sequels. While Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013, and showed some footage that confirmed Ben Kingsley is indeed playing the Mandarin complete with beard, rings and cloak) will remain that way, Garth Franklin over at Dark Horizons confirms that they appear to be dropping the number iteration for the upcoming sequels to their other pictures: which now gives us Thor: The Dark World on Novembe
r 8, 2013, followed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014 and officially announced The Guardians of the Galaxy for August 1, 2014. Marvel seemed mum on the Avengers sequel and Ant-Man, but the expectations are both of them will be in 2015. Director Edgar Wright and screenwriter Joe Cornish (according to Franklin) “did screen some unfinished test footage of the character, dressed in red-and-black (a Silver Age and contemporary mix apparently), who can change sizes in combat.” Wright uses the line “he will kick your ass one inch at a time” and says no casting news as yet but “Ant-Man has been here all day.”
The Sony panel showed bits of Neil Blomkamp‘s Elysium, the director’s follow-up from District 9. The plot became a little clearer as well; Matt Damon is hunting a bureaucrat (William Fichtner) on a toxic Earth while the world’s richest 1% lives on a space station high above it all. Franklin was a little underwhelmed with Resident Evil: Retribution, but apparently Michelle Rodriguez wowed the crowd. And while the remake of Total Recall is supposedly following the original source material more closely, footage at the Con does make knowing nods to the original film a woman who looks like Schwarzenegger making it through a customs checkpoint as Colin Farrell’s lead character tried to do the same. Franklin also noted on the cast of Looper, writer/director Rian Johnson’s follow film to his nior classic Brick with Emily Blunt and Joseph Gordon Levitt showing up. Bruce Willis couldn’t attend due to his fifth Die Hard shooting commitments. Garth noted that “the footage {is} strong, even if it seemed to give away a possible spoiler involving Jeff Daniels’ character.”
Given what they got on board, the Warner Bros panel was the place to be. “Guillermo del Toro was up first with Pacific Rim, his giant robots vs. giant monsters movie. Making the best use of the three screens throughout, the film itself got a big launching pad thanks to an extended trailer that wowed.” Then, the surprise, a look at the Godzilla reboot; “The piece showed hundreds of dead bodies, skyscrapers with giant tears, rolling dust clouds, and so forth. What starts off looking like the camera panning past the side of a volcano turns out to be the carcass of a dead creature.” The Man of Steel was next, and Franklin commented on the style that Zac Snyder is
going for, and apparently working with Christopher Nolan, Snyder seems to be matching him: “The tone much more reverential, serious, and aiming to be something profound. Indeed this was very much Snyder trying to emulate Nolan’s filmmaking style – a Hans Zimmer meets Vangelis sweeping score (temp), tasteful handheld photography with an emphasis on the real and practical where possible, plenty of stuff about Clark’s journey to determine who he is, and so on. Character beat moments given as much weight as the few big flashy money shots of Clark in the suit flying, fighting, destruction, etc.” The last bit was the 12.5 minute presentation of The Hobbit: the “footage was a combination of about five full-on scenes intermixed with 20-30 seconds of quick cuts. These include the dinner at Bilbo’s house where he’s recruited 
into the action, Gandalf in some haunted hallways being chased by something and then later conversing with Galadriel. There’s also an extended scene of Bilbo and Gollum meeting and then Bilbo finding the ring (and not telling Gandalf).Quick shots were mostly location stuff but some familiar scenes including the Master’s secret gold stash and brief shots of Saruman, Legolas fighting, cave trolls, and a giant stone being hurtling a giant piece of rock at the company of dwarves. The main things missing from the footage? No dragon, no barrel scene, no Bard, and no 48fps – the presentation was at the standard frame rate in 2D. The footage itself went over as expected – the tone keeping in line with the first trailer and the previous Rings films if a little lighter and more adventure style.”
