Empire Big Screen Roundup: What We Saw Pt.1

It’s finally arrived Empire Magazine‘s Big Screen, this is what we learned at the event…

The Three Musketeers (3D) – Paul W.S Anderson

They showed a fight sequence where Dotangion faces about 20 of the cardinals guards.
The sword fighting was very well choreographed and felt quite realistic.
Paul W.S. Anderson did stress that they used real metal swords in a video introduction.
I wasn’t quite sold on the 3d though.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt.1 – Bill Condon

Shown two scenes.
The Honeymoon of Edward & Bella. Montage of Bella frustratedly getting ready for the night whilst Edward goes swimming.

The second sequence was Jacob speaking to the Cullens about Bella then going over to his former clan in the woods territory to barter a truce.

MyAnna Buring was on hand for a mini interview here’s a summary of what she said:
– She’s on the fence re: team Edward /Jacob Leaning more towards Jacob.
– The different vampire families actually bonded and did activities together as real family units.
– The lure of the Twilight series was the idea of finding that one true love in the world.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (3D)– Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

Actually some really impressive 3D, the directors seem to understand the notion that for maximum impact things need to be very close to the camera to add depth.

They’ve taken a more gritty darker edge towards the character, who is now borderline anti-hero, which is in keep with their directing style.

We seem Ghost Rider spewing fire from his mouth as someone shoots him in the face with an Uzi.
On the close up we see his leather jacket actually bubbling away melting.
He uses his chains to greater effect tossing someone in the air then yanking them back in.

Iris Elba also makes an appearance shooting some shotguns and riding another motorcycle.

Sherlock Holmes 2 – Guy Ritchie

Shown a sizzle reel:
More action and a lot more of the slow motion Holmes vision. Moriarty is clear and apparent, no longer a shadow figure as portrayed in previous incarnations.
Guy Ritchie stepped out for a mini interview and said:

The cast had a great repertorie from the first film and really wanted to work together on another.
When asked whether he wanted to do a third, felt it was dependent on box office but pretty much (yeah)

Contagion – Stephen Soderbergh

Shown footage of the first signs of an outbreak.
Shot hand held style adding to a more realistic feel.
Looks like an outbreak from a company whose logo appears numerous times.
Dying involved froffing of the mouth and pale dark blue veined legs.

Final Destination 5 (3D) – Steven Quale

Shown the intro scene of bridge collapse:
Aagain what is the most horrific way you can image someone dying, multiple gruesome deaths, people getting impaled on things, someone melting away after being tarred alive..etc
Actually quite enjoyable, though this kind of 3D is very kitsch and the film is still stuck in its 90s incarnation.

Kill List – Ben Wheatley

From what we saw incredibly atmospheric film, possibly the new Dead Man’s Shoes
Based upon reoccuring dreams Ben Wheatley had.
Sound makes very good use of cinema dynamic range, 5.1.
From the interviews with cast & director:

Ben:
Influence horror – wicker man , race with the devil.
Remembering how scared he was as a kid watching them.
Use of humor as coping mechanism.

MyAnna:
described the film as starting as a kitchen sink drama that evolves over time. (looks like it descends in to madness)
Favourite horrors: The Shining, Evil Dead 2.

Kevin:
Favourite horrors: Witch Finder General, Wicker Man, The Shining

Aardman Animation

Presented two new films:

Arthur Christmas & The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientist

The latter is more classic Aardman with a quirky touch and did look interesting.
Arthur Christmas on the other hand looks like a run of the mill Christmas film.

Spiderman – Marc Webb

Shown a character reel cut by Marc Webb, the finished trailer & the first reveal of The Lizard.

In the character reel we can see that Garfield will be absolutely superb as Parker/Spiderman, he brings loads of emotional depth to the character, even in the costume you could see his character come through. There is a scene in which Spiderman appears in a thief’s car and the theif pulls a knife at him, so he starts to Spiderman starts to cower in fear. Spiderman then starts slinging all different types of web a him. It shows there is that humour in his character as well.

You can really see why Marc Webb was chosen as the character development seems very strong.

The action at the same time is incredibly well done and the movement of spiderman swinging underneath the rail bridge is incredibly fluid and there is a lot of acrobatic movements.

Parker as intelligent, creates the tech for the web slinger, we see him tinkering and a close up shot of it on his wrist.

The first glimpse of the lizard. Dinosaur like. Pretty darn tall about 12ft and fully CGI.

Parker’s dad involved in OsCorp.

Fighting on the train Parker getting hit and not feeling anything. He picks up the centre pole from the carriage and accidentally beats the thieves up.
Location wise, it actually feels like a grimy grimy downtown New York compared to Sam Rami’s rather filmic New York.

Finally in the finish trailer we are shown his web slingers and it also seems that the 3D has been improved in the “Spidervision” sequence. They’ve made the drop extended so there’s more feeling of freefall and depth. The 3D will be impressive.

Drive – Nicholas Winding Refn

We were shown as scene where Ryan Gosling get in an elevator with an man and Carey Mulligan.
He notices a gun tucked away in the guy’s jacket, then oddly goes to kiss Carey which turns in to some kind of erotic lighting removed of reality sequence.
He then comes back to reality proceeds to disarm the guy and kick his head in to the point of his skull caving in.

The director was on hand for an interview with the following:

He was working on Harrison Ford movie which didn’t work out as Harrison Ford didn’t want his character to die.
Ryan Gosling calls him for a meeting (at the time he was on medication and was out of it.)
The meeting didn’t go well, but he was so out of it that he had to ask Ryan to drive him home.
There was an awkward silence in the car so Ryan turned the radio on, REO speedwagon ‘can’t fight this feeling’ came.
At this point Nicholas started to cry then sing along with the song,
He then screamed at Ryan, he has the idea for the movie.

“It’s about a drive around a car not listening to pop music.”

It is an 80s influenced movie, he thought it would be interesting to do a film about automobiles with electronic score as being converse to each other.
Something sexual about cars, eroticsed.
Would describe film as neo-noir e.g liquid sci-fi
Approach to violence in the movie: “Like sex, it’s about the build up not the climax”
Over the making of the film he developed a good working relationship with Ryan and is currently shooting (Only God Forgives) with Ryan
And will do remake of Logans Run with Ryan
Says filmmaking is for an audience, commercial, but can be smart aswell. This is drive.

Welcome to the Punch – Eran Creevy

Interview with director , producers & Mark Strong:

homage to infernal affairs, john woo, heat – full on action film in London.
21st century london that’s not seen on film.
Try to avoid standard cops, “don’t want people to see The Bill.”
Trying to be slick in style. Referenced Collateral (Tom Cruise) quite a bit.

The Woman in Black

We were shown some creepy footage of Radcliffe trying to break in to a locked room in which he hears a chair rocking widly back and forth.
It looks empty when from the angle Daniel sees it but when the camera cuts the front facing side we see a creepy old lady.

Interview with the director:

“Classical” ghost story. With good story if you took scares away and mystery.
Scares of what you can’t see perceived in the corner of ones eye.
Glimpse of what shouldn’t be there, can’t quite process wrong footing to draw people in.
Deep dread not so much jumps and jolts.
Based on book not stage play.
Different Daniel Radcliffe will brush aside perceptions of him as an action.
Under hammer label, but wasn’t lead by the association. Hoping to reinvent for modern era.
Doesn’t like the idea of 3D, would not film with 3D.