COMIC-CON 2010

Comic-Con 2010: Full Live Blog of Warner Brothers' Big Panel

by Alex Billington
July 24, 2010

Are you ready? We are about to begin this highly anticipated presentation at Comic-Con 2010 for three of Warner Bros' upcoming movies - Green Lantern, Sucker Punch and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is one we've been waiting for, as it means we'll probably get our first look at some actual real footage from Green Lantern (which will be interesting to see considering the reaction from the first reveal of the costume). We're also looking forward to seeing more Harry Potter footage (I can't wait!) and whatever Zack Snyder decides to show from Sucker Punch, which we recently unveiled sexy posters for a few days ago.

11:44AM - Sitting in Hall H anxiously awaiting the start of this panel. Bring it on!

11:50AM - Audience begins a "slow clap" in hopes of starting up the panel as soon as possible.

11:52AM - Time to begin, as the Director of Programming for Comic-Con takes the stage to welcome us to "Day 3!"

Green Lantern:

11;54AM - Hero Complex's Geoff Boucher takes the stage stating "In brightest day, in blackest night…" then introduces Geoff Johns to the stage from DC Comics.

11:58AM - Saw about 60 seconds of footage from Green Lantern, introduced by a voiceover from Sinestro saying "focus your willpower on the green orb in front of you, it will begin to glow." Got to see a few shots of the other aliens and Hal Jordan punching someone with a construct fist for the first time and a shot of the Guardians' planet at the end.

11:59AM - Full cast and crew introduced on stage: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, director Martin Campbell, producer Donald DeLine and DC's Geoff Johns.

12:00PM - Reynolds: Admittedly didn't know as much about it going into this at first, then met Martin Campbell who has "such a high standard" for those around him and learned more about the character and thought it was an amalgamation between Chuck Jaeger and Han Solo. "Who wouldn't want to play that" for a movie, "let alone two or three."

12:02PM - Sarsgaard talking about how many "large heads" there are in the movie. "It's a whole other kind of acting" being in this. "It's a total blast." I had more fun doing this than I've had in a very, very long time. Hector Hammond's head gets bigger in the movie as time goes on.

12:03PM - Strong: Sinestro's job is to be Hal's mentor, like in the Secret Origin comics. "Whatever happens later, that's later."

12:04PM - Campbell: Keep the action very real, keep the relationship very real. Tonally there's a lot of humor, certainly with Blake and Ryan. "It's just terrific entertainment I think." It's great fun, but it's also a terrific adventure as well, he says. As for the costume - lost the white gloves because it looks far more "cooler" and far more "interesting." More of a skin than a costume. All the lines are from the muscles of a body. It is a work in progress, but he thinks it's "really cool." It will eventually look "incredibly cool," Campbell says.

12:06PM - Producer Donald DeLine - We'll take the audience into the center of the universe to the planet of Oa and we'll see all of the Green Lanterns - "it's part space opera as well." They had to create the entire world on the planet, production design from LOTR. Will feature many of the famous and well known characters, including Kilowog, Salak, Budika, Bzzt, Green Man and other characters (have no clue how to spell those - any GL fans help?).

12:09PM - Johns: One of the execs 10 years ago said "can we do the movie without the ring" and right then he thought "there's never going to be a Green Lantern movie." To see it involve and tackle it with "the rest and power" is a dream come true.

12:10PM - It's tough to shoot some of the action scenes outside in Louisiana because it's so hot. They've been so welcoming for them there. They still have about three weeks of shooting left to go.

12:11PM - Lively: Ferris is exciting to play because she gets to save Hal some of the time. They have some love, but they're also competitors. Excited about shooting scenes in fighter planes.

12:12PM - Sarsgaard: Excited to see Hector get his own origin story in this, too. Told the director earlier that his was thinking about his character as "the kid that licked the battery" or something like that, just to "see what stuff felt like and looked like."

12:14PM - First audience Q&A question: What got Sarsgaard hooked? Came in and talked to Martin, told him the story through the eyes of Hector… and that's about all he says.

12:15PM - How did they pick the characters? Characters that "make sense" in the history of Hal Jordan. Beyond that, it was picking characters they thought were all cool.

12:16PM - Could this be the beginning of a shared DC Universe on film? Johns: There's a lot of DC properties coming up, but I can't talk about them here.

12:16PM - Will Mark Strong's character in this movie "Kick-Ass?" As Hal's mentor he has an interesting time together, as he feels it's his duty to train him up, because he believes a human can't be a member of the Green Lantern Corps.

12:17PM - How did Ryan Reynolds get first approach? His "emotional kung fu" was that he showed him the art department and the worlds and the suit and the "tables had turned" and he was begging him for the job. He screen tested a couple of times and he's glad he did because he wants to be as right for this character as they do. What pushed it over the edge is that he saw this cocky guy who is given an extraordinary gift which is in turn incredibly humbling, and thought it was an incredible arc for a character especially in a superhero film.

12:18PM - Any emphasis on Hal Jordan and his father? At the beginning of the movie it's well know that Martin Jordan dies - guy in audience yells "what?!" and Campbell goes "come on, come on!" - and it effects Hal very much through the rest of the life and it plays into his fear, which he has to overcome finally at the end of the movie when he becomes a fully-fledged Green Lantern.

12:20PM - Who would they dress up as at Comic-Con? Reynold says a wookie because he likes to be "cute and dangerous." Sarsgaard says Captain America. Mark Strong says he'd LOVE to show us Sinestro. Martin says the fly Bzzt.

12:21PM - Little kid asks what Ryan does it feel like to say the Green Lantern oath? "It sounds a little like this." He recites the oath. "…beware my power, Green Lanterns light!" Then he puts up his fist and he's wearing the ring on it. Then signs a Green Lantern book and gives it to the kid, "awwww!"

12:22PM - Room for Alan Scott in the Green Lantern trilogy? "There's always room," is Johns answer, plain and simple.

12:23PM - Ryan confirms that Paralax is in it. "I better be allowed to say that," he says, everyone laughs. Thumbs up from Geoff Johns, so that's good.

12:24PM - If Mogo will be in the movie? Johns: "There's a lot of Green Lanterns in the movie."

12:25PM - Ryan: Each Green Lantern has a distinct fingerprint of how they fly. It's very easy to make all the flight CGI, but he loves that they figured out elaborate rigs where they can actually send time up in the air flying. They're doing things they just couldn't do a few years ago. "I think everyone in this movie gets up in the rigs at one point." Strong: Wires that allow them to bank and flying, says it "feels like being a kid again."

12:28PM - Campbell talks about how both Hal and Carol are test pilots, but it was pretty boring.

12:30PM - Ryan gives away the ring he has because he talks about how it's about being passed from one person to the next, so he wants to give it away to someone in the audience. Person who found a "ticket" under their seat got to get the ring Ryan had on his hand. Lucky fan! And that's the end of the Green Lantern panel.

Harry Potter:

12:31PM - Time to move on to the Harry Potter presentation. Tom Felton is the guest, girls scream, cameras flash, so on and so forth. Felton: "The last 10 years have been an incredible journey."

12:37PM - Just saw about a five minute clip package from Harry Potter. Looks absolutely amazing, this is definitely going to be an incredible movie experience this November (and next July!). Wish everyone could've seen that, but I'm sure they'll be showing more soon.

12:38PM - Felton says that "Dan cried like a girl" at the end, joking about how he "didn't want to name names" about how sad wrapping it up was. Did another giveaway, not even sure what it was, but we didn't win it anyway. End of the Harry Potter panel.

Sucker Punch:

12:41PM - Boucher introduces Zack Snyder to the stage to talk about Sucker Punch. "Amazing journey I wanted to torture these girls with" and found a cool story he wanted to tell. It's just cool to be able to make something completely original and not based on a breakfast cereal or superglue. But that's what motivated them to go out and make this.

12:44PM - Brings out the leading ladies: Carla Gugino, Jamie Chung, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone and Emily Browning.

12:50PM - Screened an early trailer and some early footage, was pretty long and all kinds of crazy stuff going in, it's hard to describe. Gigantic samurais and fire-breathing dragons, exploding dirigibles, a gigantic mech in dog fights with WWI planes, all kinds of badass stuff going on, looks fantastic. You guys need to see this stuff, woohoo! Song was Led Zeppelin's "When the Levy Breaks."

12:51 - Hudgens: "I get to shoot the biggest guns." All of the girls are so excited, loved the footage as it was the first time they saw it, too. Each one is explaining who they play (just check out the posters for examples).

12:53PM - Gugino: "It was such an extraordinary experience" and is like nothing you've ever seen, only from the mind of Zack Snyder.

12:54PM - Snyder: Story originated in his transition… he had a process of condensing and "effing around" with time, so the transition from the insane asylum to the mind… grew from there. Was also interested in creating an ending that was satisfying and interesting. "What these girls did… I feel like I could take out all of the action" and it would still be good cause these girls did such a great job.

12:56PM - Uses dance sequences to represent each of the girls in the reality in the insane asylum. I wish you guys knew what I was talking about, but without having seen a trailer or footage, this probably doesn't make sense. But basically, whenever they do a burlesque dance sequence, that's when they get transported into the other worlds.

1:01PM - Watching Q&A questions now, kind of boring, just guys hitting on the ladies. "What's it like to now have a place amongst the sexy ass kicking women of cinema?" Malone: What's so exciting about women on the end is that we get to kick ass and playing with amazing things. Not only do they get to wield amazing weapons and play in other worlds, but be intricate human begins (or characters) as well.

1:03PM - Same action choreographer from Watchmen? Yes, same as 300 and Watchmen for Sucker Punch. "We try and shake it up… I think you're going to see stuff in this movie" that you've never seen before, they're trying to push it. Damon (the fight guy) is a "genius of mayhem."

1:04PM - Snyder: It's a lot more exhausting having to make a movie with a bunch of layers that all has to come together at the end.

1:08PM - Makes a comparison to LOTR regarding rating (they killed a lot of orcs in that). Says this will be PG-13 because they kill a lot of orcs in this. If you're WWI German soldiers are zombies, "maybe it's cool to kill them a lot," Snyder says.

1:10PM - Boucher asks Snyder about Xerxes. "So yea, we're going to try and knock that out." Nothing revealing beyond our last update on it.

1:11PM - Asks Hudgens why she did this? "This sounds like the coolest movie ever, but there is no way in hell Zack will give me the part." She auditioned several times and luckily got the part. One of the best experiences of her life - "I got to grow, I got to unleash something I haven't before." Definitely one of the most memorable experiences.

1:12PM - Snyder talking about Watchmen, says no one says about regular (non-graphic) novels that they "filmed too much of that book." For me it was like, once we had written it, it became anything else he was adapting or visualizing, and wanted to treat it with as much respect as he could and really love the material, and that's what he thinks they did.

1:15PM - Showing the footage from Sucker Punch one more time. None of the girls had seen any of this, so they went down into the audience to watch it as well.

1:18PM - Panel is over. That wraps up our live coverage from the Warner Bros panel here at Comic-Con 2010!

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