Famed voice actor Peter Cullen still remembers the feeling of surprise he had at his first fan convention when he realized how much characters like Optimus Prime, whom he voiced throughout the Transformers series and films, meant to fans. In an extended chat at Comic-Con, Cullen revealed how a pre-audition chat with his Vietnam veteran brother inspired his take on the Transformers hero and how, years later, he's working with NASA and HASBRO to foster interest in science, math, and space in the latest generation of young fans. (Scroll down for the full 30-minute chat and let your nerd hearts melt, people.)
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With a year to go before Pacific Rim hits theaters, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) hit Comic-Con with stars Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Day to preview the giant robot-monster movie, inspired by the Japanese sci-fi pics he watched as a kid. His vision for the film? Dirty, epic, and realistic — so much so that Del Toro and his crew built functioning, practical robots and entire sets with hydraulics ("a huge engineering feat!"), putting his actors in the thick of the action rather than go the CG route. Del Toro called the experience “the best I’ve had on any film set in all my life.” Day remembered it slightly differently: “You tortured the f*** out of us!”
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Starring in a short film that’s paired with a blockbuster movie seems sort of like being a pinch-hitter who sat on the bench but got invited to take a victory lap with the starting team; the glory is automatic, but it would have been great to be able to play in the big game. But for Marvel movies, short films are more like audition tapes, and Item 47, which accompanies the September 25 Blu-ray release of The Avengers, introduces two characters – played by Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Bradford – who may soon find themselves joining in on the superhero action, if they prove as appealing to audiences as their ingenuity does to S.H.I.E.L.D.
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The Batmobile has had quite the evolution since actual volition appeared in the '60s television version to its altogether super-suped up version heading your way in The Dark Knight Rises. Its latest incarnation includes some nifty gadgetry including a rocket launcher, the vehicle's creator Andy Smith told Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph at Comic-Con where the vehicle, aka The Tumbler, is on display along with previous versions of The Batmobile. Smith has a history in race car work and worked on a car for a James Bond film and for an earlier Batmobile back in '89. The current Tumbler is a hybrid of a Humvee and Lamborghini and it's the only one that has ever been named something other than a 'Batmobile.'
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Although Emily Blunt came close to being cast in two different Marvel superhero movies, it’s not until later this year that she gets her first action-type role in Rian Johnson’s time travel thriller Looper. But her turn as a gun-toting farm girl is just the beginning for Blunt: She’s currently in intense training to play a lethal soldier in Doug Liman’s futuristic sci-fi All You Need Is Kill, opposite Tom Cruise.
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Re-writing the fate of Hitler’s Nazi Germany was just the start for Quentin Tarantino, whose American South-set spaghetti western Django Unchained, his follow-up to the Oscar-winning Inglorious Basterds, tackles another ugly moment in world history: Institutionalized slavery. But are audiences ready to process the tough reminder of America’s regrettable past that lies not-so-deep beneath the surface of Tarantino’s revenge Western?
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After bringing 12 minutes of The Hobbit to Comic-Con — where Peter Jackson purposefully did not present footage in the 48 frames per second/3-D presentation that perplexed audiences at CinemaCon — the Lord of the Rings filmmaker spoke further about his desire to explore even more ground in the fantasy universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien. One possibility may be a third Hobbit film culled from Tolkien’s expansive LOTR notes and appendices, though Jackson admitted that the author’s posthumously published Silmarillion might present more of a challenge.
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Man of Steel enjoyed one of the more bonkers receptions at this weekend's Comic-Con, culminating in — what else? — a teaser poster just for its San Diego coming-out party. They've thought of everything. It doesn't reveal much of Henry Cavill's Superman, however, which led Movieline pal Grace Randolph to hit up costume illustrator Phillip Boutte for more details about the look of Zack Snyder's upcoming blockbuster. Click through for the poster and video.
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Breaking Bad got the Comic-Con treatment ahead of tonight's ultra-anticipated season premiere, with stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn and others joining series creator Vince Gilligan in San Diego to talk over all things Walter White — including how television has usurped movies' standing as the home for serious storytelling for adults. But what of the oft-discussed feature-film treatment that might be in the offing as the two-part final season commences? Movieline pal Grace Randolph was there to talk it over with the Breaking Bad team; click through for her video report.
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Saturday at Comic-Con Robert Downey Jr. and Co. charmed the crowd with glimpses of Iron Man 3, but Marvel Studios had bigger aces up its sleeve, firming up their upcoming slate with announcements and sneak peeks at sequels Captain America: Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. In other news, looks like Ant-Man's actually being made! Probably. Oh, and Ben Kingsley is The Mandarin. Your Marvel news blast after the jump.
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The other day at the weapons check table, where costumed attendees must have their (mostly) fake light sabers and guns and knives inspected and tagged, a Comic-Con security officer summed up cosplay culture during the Con to me: Folks don their costumes at home thinking they'll stand out in the crowd, only to arrive at the Convention Center and see that uniqueness is almost pedestrian here in San Diego — if only for this one wondrous weekend in July. So what's the secret to crafting a truly Tweet-worthy, next-level costume?
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The marketing noise at Comic-Con is always such a cacophony, it can be tough-to-impossible to get tiny movies noticed in the chaos unless they've got attention-grabbing hooks. Like, say, finding a thumb drive inside a condom that just happens to contain the first-look teaser at Ron Perlman as a transsexual named Phyllis greeting his Sons of Anarchy son Charlie Hunnam (both in town for this weekend's Pacific Rim and SoA panels) and Bridemaids' Chris O'Dowd with a big, fat kiss. Movieline's got your first look at the indie comedy Frankie Go Boom!
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Joss Whedonites gathered at Comic-Con Friday to witness the ten-year reunion of Firefly, Whedon's short-lived space Western cult series that spawned a 2005 feature film and an unusually fervent fan following. The show, Whedon announced, will get a new forthcoming Dark Horse comics continuation that will pick up after the events of previous Firefly/Serenity lore. As for fans of his other genre adaptation... well, he's not quite set on leaping back into the Avengers' director's chair. “I have not come to a decision on directing Avengers 2 yet,” he said. “I am having too much fun with this now.” [Deadline]
Jodie Foster returns to the screen – and to sci-fi – in next spring’s Elysium, the latest from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Speaking with Movieline today at her first-ever Comic-Con, Foster described the dystopian future of the film, in which she plays a methodical bureaucrat controlling the “border” of an artificially-created space station (a character now named Delacourt - so take note, internet ). The movie-loving polymath also waxed ecstatic about her one-time Panic Room co-star Kristen Stewart, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and her current obsession: HBO’s True Blood.
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The inveterate, creature-friendly character actor Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) is among the genre luminaries paying a visit this weekend to Comic-Con, where Movieline pal Grace Randolph caught up with him to discuss his role as a treacherous alien nemesis in this month's The Watch and what keeps special-effects make-up relevant in the age of digital.
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