pete10141748
Postaholic
Hi everyone, hope you've had good weekends! Thought I'd post my account of the ma-hoosive movie event I attended this weekend (Movie-Con 2) for anyone who is into film as much as me 
Movie-Con 2: 2009
Movie-Con 2009 is the second Movie-Con event in 2 years, hosted by Empire magazine. It features exclusive showings of filsm not yet released, previews and trailers from upcoming movies that have not been shown in cinemas yet, guests including ators and directors, and tons of awesome prizes and freebies for the lucky 300ish people who are lucky enough to get a ticket.
I was one of those lucky few
Saturday started off with a bang, with tons of footage of Peter Jackson's upcoming adaptation of the novel "The Lovely Bones" including a video introduction from Mr Jackson himself. A powerful novel has been crafted into a powerful film but a real master of his art, and from what I saw (about 20 minutes of it) it's going to be a thrilling, emotional journey of a film. Mark Whalberg and Racheal Weisz have great screen presence as the greiving couple breaking apart (in every sense of the word), and I can't wait to see the whole thing.
Next came tons of stuff from E1 including Twilight Saga:New Moon, Micmacs, Sorority Row and Astro Boy. New Moon and Astro boy really stood out in that section as they were the two which actuall showed portions of the film; in Astro Boy's case,. some of it wasn't even finished yet (basically wireframe model animation) which shows how in advance this stuff was shown!
Next was the (I'm sure it's going to be) epic "Harry Brown", starring Michael Cain as and old war veteren who decides that the guns, knife and drug toting youth who terrorise his estate need to be dealth with. Dark, brooding, scarily realistically shot amd featuring performances from individuals who are actually into this in real life, it's sure to ber a gritty, tense, encapsulating and harrowing look at the depravity and crime-ridden poor areas of London. Even seeing just 20 minutes of the film, it's stayed with me 2 days later moreso than anything else I saw this weekend (with the possible exception of Avatar, but we'll get to that later!).
Then there was a very exciting event involving Terry Gilliam himself coming onto the stage to introduce his new film (that has been a while in the making), "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus". This film is Heath Ledger's last film, in fact he sadly dies halfway through it's filimg schedule, something which Terry spoke about in quite depth, very interesting stuff indeed, and the film looks very intriguing. Terry then did a whole bunch of Q&A with us, the audience, before bidding us farewell, but not before hinting at a possible Python re-gathering. We shall see......
Afer lunch (which involved running to back to Waterloo station to get a coffee as there were no cafe's to get into anywhere
) we returned to our seats for the next 3 hours of goodness.
First up was "Kick-Ass". I'm sure some on here will be at least familiar with the comic, but for those who arn't, here's a summary. Set in the real world, some kids who are really into comics wonder why no-one tries to be a super hero, and so set about giving it a go themselves. Cue some very funny and ultra-violent crime fighting featuring home-made costumes and an 11-year old girl ("Hit Girl") knocking 10 shades of sh*t out of gangsters and stabbing them all to death, but not before calling them all c*nts. Ultra-violence, ultra-bad language, ultra-fun and ultra-funny, this film will indeed Kick Ass. The director and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (best known for his "Mc'Lovin" in Superbad) too the stage to introduce the clips and take Q&A from us normal folk, and were very cool indeed.
Next up came the "Super Secret Screening", which was not in any of the nfo packs, not on the website, so no-one knew what it would be. Lo and behold, the reel starts to run and as soon as "Peter Jackson presents" came onto the screen, we alkl erupted into applause and cries of "WOOOOO!". Yes, it was "District 9", not due for release for almost a month yet. I was very, very happy
. The film was incredible, and I won't spoil any of it, I just strongly urge you all to go and see it for yourselves.
Next up was a precview of the film "Dorian Gray". It didn't give much away, but it will certainly be another one to keep an eye on as it looked quite cool.
The day was rounded out with a huge presentation from Warner Bros, including lots of screentime for the remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street" (looks very promising), "Jonah Hex" (another comic-book adaptation and a good-looking one at that), "Where the Wild Things Are" (looks good but not 100% convinced it'll make for a good feature-length film, more suited to a short film methinks), "Ninja Assasin" (basically loads of really, really great fighting scenes and bloody action) and finally "Sherlock Holmes" (which looks funny, action-packed, feel-good and just a great film in all respects).
Oh and did I mention that Sherlock Holmes was introduced by Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie in person, and that they stuck around and watched it with us and chatted with us about it? ~OH YES~
That was the end of the Movie-Con stuff but I also got myself into a preview showing of "Inglorious Basterds" introduced by Quentin Tarantino
the film was bloody good fun in both senses of the phrase. The acting and direction was superb, and it just had that Tarnatino-Cool egde to it. The crowning scene is about two-thirds of the way through, and as Tarantino himself put it "it's basically Resivoir Dogs, in German, condensed into a 24-minute scene in one room". Might sound a little strange, but trust me, it rocked!
And that wrapped up Saturday's 13-hours film fest, went and got some sleep in preperation for Sunday's 9-hour film fest too
Sunday's stuff in next post.
Movie-Con 2: 2009
Movie-Con 2009 is the second Movie-Con event in 2 years, hosted by Empire magazine. It features exclusive showings of filsm not yet released, previews and trailers from upcoming movies that have not been shown in cinemas yet, guests including ators and directors, and tons of awesome prizes and freebies for the lucky 300ish people who are lucky enough to get a ticket.
I was one of those lucky few
Saturday started off with a bang, with tons of footage of Peter Jackson's upcoming adaptation of the novel "The Lovely Bones" including a video introduction from Mr Jackson himself. A powerful novel has been crafted into a powerful film but a real master of his art, and from what I saw (about 20 minutes of it) it's going to be a thrilling, emotional journey of a film. Mark Whalberg and Racheal Weisz have great screen presence as the greiving couple breaking apart (in every sense of the word), and I can't wait to see the whole thing.
Next came tons of stuff from E1 including Twilight Saga:New Moon, Micmacs, Sorority Row and Astro Boy. New Moon and Astro boy really stood out in that section as they were the two which actuall showed portions of the film; in Astro Boy's case,. some of it wasn't even finished yet (basically wireframe model animation) which shows how in advance this stuff was shown!
Next was the (I'm sure it's going to be) epic "Harry Brown", starring Michael Cain as and old war veteren who decides that the guns, knife and drug toting youth who terrorise his estate need to be dealth with. Dark, brooding, scarily realistically shot amd featuring performances from individuals who are actually into this in real life, it's sure to ber a gritty, tense, encapsulating and harrowing look at the depravity and crime-ridden poor areas of London. Even seeing just 20 minutes of the film, it's stayed with me 2 days later moreso than anything else I saw this weekend (with the possible exception of Avatar, but we'll get to that later!).
Then there was a very exciting event involving Terry Gilliam himself coming onto the stage to introduce his new film (that has been a while in the making), "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus". This film is Heath Ledger's last film, in fact he sadly dies halfway through it's filimg schedule, something which Terry spoke about in quite depth, very interesting stuff indeed, and the film looks very intriguing. Terry then did a whole bunch of Q&A with us, the audience, before bidding us farewell, but not before hinting at a possible Python re-gathering. We shall see......
Afer lunch (which involved running to back to Waterloo station to get a coffee as there were no cafe's to get into anywhere
First up was "Kick-Ass". I'm sure some on here will be at least familiar with the comic, but for those who arn't, here's a summary. Set in the real world, some kids who are really into comics wonder why no-one tries to be a super hero, and so set about giving it a go themselves. Cue some very funny and ultra-violent crime fighting featuring home-made costumes and an 11-year old girl ("Hit Girl") knocking 10 shades of sh*t out of gangsters and stabbing them all to death, but not before calling them all c*nts. Ultra-violence, ultra-bad language, ultra-fun and ultra-funny, this film will indeed Kick Ass. The director and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (best known for his "Mc'Lovin" in Superbad) too the stage to introduce the clips and take Q&A from us normal folk, and were very cool indeed.
Next up came the "Super Secret Screening", which was not in any of the nfo packs, not on the website, so no-one knew what it would be. Lo and behold, the reel starts to run and as soon as "Peter Jackson presents" came onto the screen, we alkl erupted into applause and cries of "WOOOOO!". Yes, it was "District 9", not due for release for almost a month yet. I was very, very happy
Next up was a precview of the film "Dorian Gray". It didn't give much away, but it will certainly be another one to keep an eye on as it looked quite cool.
The day was rounded out with a huge presentation from Warner Bros, including lots of screentime for the remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street" (looks very promising), "Jonah Hex" (another comic-book adaptation and a good-looking one at that), "Where the Wild Things Are" (looks good but not 100% convinced it'll make for a good feature-length film, more suited to a short film methinks), "Ninja Assasin" (basically loads of really, really great fighting scenes and bloody action) and finally "Sherlock Holmes" (which looks funny, action-packed, feel-good and just a great film in all respects).
Oh and did I mention that Sherlock Holmes was introduced by Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie in person, and that they stuck around and watched it with us and chatted with us about it? ~OH YES~
That was the end of the Movie-Con stuff but I also got myself into a preview showing of "Inglorious Basterds" introduced by Quentin Tarantino
And that wrapped up Saturday's 13-hours film fest, went and got some sleep in preperation for Sunday's 9-hour film fest too
Sunday's stuff in next post.
