COMIC-CON 2008

Comic-Con 08: Summit Pictures' Exclusive Look at Push

by Andy Adair
July 25, 2008

Upon our arrival here at Comic-Con, we weren't quite sure what to expect from the newly founded Summit Pictures. What I saw during their presentation earlier today, however, made me feel like they have been around for quite a while. Much to Alex's dismay, most of the fans were there for Summit's winter film Twilight. The good stuff was all before Twilight as we found out - Push delivered! Push is directed by Paul McGuigan (of Lucky # Slevin previously, a personal favorite of mine) and stars Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Sunshine), Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, War of the Worlds), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Camilla Belle (10,000 B.C.); all but Fanning were at the panel today. This was the second big panel in the line-up this year at Comic-Con and it surely didn't disappoint with some great footage!

From what we saw (they had a three minute or so video with intro to the film) it looks like it's about a select group of people on the planet that have psychic and telekinetic abilities. The video (voice over was done by Dakota Fanning) explained that the German government began doing experiments on those who claimed to have psychic abilities in WWII. Their end goal was to create some kind of a psychic soldier to use on the battlefield. The video continues on to say that even after the war had ended, testing continued. In fact, it had spread to other governments around the globe. Everyone wanted to get their hands on these psychics. It appears that the premise for the film is that some government entity is after physics in the now. The actors described certain abilities that different psychics have. They seem pretty interesting, so here is the list of all of them straight from the actors:

» Movers - Can simply move objects.
» Pushers - Can push thoughts into the minds of other people making them believe they're real.
» Watchers - Can see into the future.
» Bleeders - Emit a high pitch noise that can disable or even kill people.
» Sniffers - Can see a history of anything they smell.
» Shifters - Can change the shape of objects around them for a short time.
» Wipers - Can wipe the memory of those around them.
» Shadows - Can clock themselves in a shadow, almost as if they're invisible.
» Stichers - Can heal others.

Evans said that his character was a mover; Hounsou said that he was a pusher, and it was mentioned that Fanning's character was a watcher. While this all might sound a little X-Menish, let me assure you that what I saw it looked extremely cool and very unique. The director, Paul McGuigan, said that the "characters are not superheroes." He continued on to talk about this was in no way a superhero movie, but a movie about people with extraordinary abilities. I was extremely impressed with the cast and the director, and the confidence and excitement they all had towards the film made me even more excited than before.

Another clip they showed featured Nick Grant (Evans) and Cassie Holmes (Fanning) meeting for the first time. They were talking about something that didn't have much context, so it was hard to understand exactly what was going on. They were sitting, eating, and chatting for a bit at a downtown market in Hong Kong. After a minute or two of dialogue, they both stood up and began to walk, when Holmes has a flash of an imminent future where her and Grant were being attacked by a few of these "bleeders." Sure enough, they come and begin to attack Holmes and Grant and they attempt to flee through this market that was filled with fish tanks! This was a crazy scene because the bleeders were screaming and causing the tanks to burst open and Holmes was having her quick flashes of the future that kept her and Grant one step ahead. After an intense three or four minutes, the scene was over, but I wanted more!

What was offered here was a great taste of something that looks amazing and I am sure we will hear more in the next few months! I really feel that so far Push is shaping up to be something that many will want to see and I'll be first in line. I, of course, am an optimist! What do you think? I was incredibly impressed and I hopefully have caused you to take an interest in what looks to be a fantastic film as well.

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Filed under Comic-Con 08, Hype, Opinions

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