COMIC-CON 2013

Comic-Con 2013 Live: Warner Bros' Extended Hall H Presentation

by Alex Billington
July 20, 2013

This is the big one. Saturday at Comic-Con 2013, the beginning of a long but exciting day inside Hall H. Warner Bros is kicking off the day with their 3-hour long panel that is packed with a handful of movies that we're incredibly excited about: Gareth Edwards' Godzilla, Sergey Bodrov's Seventh Son, Noam Murro's 300: Rise of an Empire, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, Phil Lord & Chris Miller's The LEGO Movie, and Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow. There may be big surprises, tons of never-seen-before footage, reveals, interviews, appearances and much more. We'll be live blogging the full panel from start to finish. Read on!

Updates LIVE directly from Warner Bros Comic-Con panel on Saturday, from 10:45AM - 1:15PM PDT:

1:32PM - And that's it. The panel is over as soon as the quote and logo were revealed. But the DC news is official.

1:30PM - It's official. After he speaks the quote, the stage goes dark and a Batman/Superman logo is revealed. It's official - Batman and Superman are teaming up for the next Superman movie. It's happening.

1:28PM - "I want you to remember Clark, in all the years to come, in all the private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you remember the one hand that beat you." Quote from The Dark Knight Rises.

1:26PM - He brings out Harry Lennox, who was in Man of Steel, to read something. They're not adapting this, but he's reading something that will help us understand.

1:25PM - He "poured through the DC universe for a way to tell this thing…" They're still writing it, and there is a thing that I found that could help us understand.

1:24PM - "We're going to make another Superman movie. What is it about?" He doesn't want to tell us that. Maybe there's a single element that will be in the film that we could… help you out with.

1:23PM - Hardwick holds up a note that says "please introduce Zack Snyder to the stage." Last minute surprise.

1:21PM - Wraps up the panel with Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise thanks everyone and says they were really excited to come to Comic-Con and talk with the fans.

1:18PM - Most challenging stunt? "There's stuff in the suit, but you know… I just want to entertain you all…" [applause] "I just keep thinking what I'd like to see or what you'd like to see on film and deliver that." But he did learn about "how to take a spill" in a metal suit.

1:16PM - Did Cruise draw on any of his earlier characters for this? No. "Each character I'm finding out what piece of this story I'm playing. This was just a great character from the beginning." It was just discovering it through the process. There's different kind of comedy, and I'm looking for how things fit within this parameter. I develop the character organically from the pages and the environment.

1:15PM - The challenge and the beauty of the relationship is that she meets him for the first time at the beginning of each day. It was exciting and challenging to work with that relationship and how it would evolve if one of them didn't know the other beforehand.

1:12PM - Cruise: the structure of the piece is so complex, but McQuarrie made it look easy to put together.

1:10PM - Opening up to fan Q&As next. What were they changing from the original story? McQuarrie: The structure and figuring out visually how to find where Cruise was.

1:08PM - Cruise and Paxton just hitting it off up on stage. Paxton just did lines as Hudson from Aliens, and Cruise started quoting Chet from Weird Science. This is hilarious and amazing.

1:07PM - Cruise: all of the stunt guys were impressed by how prepared Emily Blunt came. She plays a very unique character. Blunt: "He's the most fearless man I've ever met. I drew alot from you. If you were going balls out, I had to do the same on this movie. Literally…" [laughs]

1:05PM - Cruise makes a comment about Bill Paxton and says "he's here" in the audience. All of a sudden Hardwick coaxes him to get up on the stage. "Come on down, Bill Paxton!" He jumps up on stage to join the cast, since he plays a commander in the film.

1:04PM - Cruise: The alien invasion film is now a trope. People know the language of those films and now we can get into the fun character journey. It has a tremendous amount of humor and a tremendous amount of action." The soldiers call Emily Blunt the "Full Metal Bitch" in the film.

1:03PM - Blunt on shooting in the mech armor: "The suits were really really heavy to wear." The suits weight around 70ish pounds. She says their personalities did a 180 when they put on the suits. "We were much nicer out of the suit."

1:01PM - "I'm not a soldier." "Of course you're not, you're a weapon." Wow, footage looks great, amazing sci-fi visuals and a big world. Kind of has a Children of Men meets Halo feel with the mech suits and futuristic fighting going on.

12:58PM - Rolling footage from Edge of Tomorrow at the request of Tom Cruise.

12:57PM - "First of all, congratulations on being Tom Cruise. That is awesome."

12:56PM - Bringing out the cast including Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.

12:55PM - Hardwick says that despite all we've seen, this may top us and we better put our "crap pants".

12:54PM - "Live/Die/Repeat" as the tagline for the intro to Edge of Tomorrow. But… they're not here yet, so we're waiting for the celebrities to arrive. Chris Hardwick is just shooting the shit with the audience on the mic in the meantime.

↑ Edge of Tomorrow ↑

12:51PM - And that wraps up LEGO movie.

12:50PM - Some young kid totally rocking the mic. Told them he wants to see them have some CGI, but not a lot. "Because too many shows cheat." They said they can do that. The kid goes "I hope so…" and walks away from the mic. That was amazing.

12:48PM - "We can literally built the whole movie out of bricks." The animation style is that everything is made out of bricks, even the water and clouds. "We wanted no cheating, we wanted to feel like someone with an infinite amount of time and money could make this in their basement." "It would be super expensive to make the LEGO ocean."

12:46PM - Lord & Miller: "I think it's kind of punk that this is a kids film. This is the weirdest kids film that's ever been submitted to celluloid."

12:43PM - LEGO corporate in Denmark is truly like the real world Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. "They embraced the idea that this movie had to look different than everything else they're making and this had to feel special since there is so much other product in the marketplace out there." Spent a lot of time at LEGO in Denmark working on this movie.

12:42PM - The voice cast will include Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern and Colbie Smulders as Wonder Woman. For real. Love that they can include these characters.

12:36PM - The footage even has directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller as mini-figs doing the casting with others. Great voices for some of the characters like Will Ferrell and Morgan Freeman. "The fate of all will rest in his tiny, yellow hands."

12:35PM - Watching footage from The LEGO Movie of actor tryouts featuring various mini-figs.

12:34PM - It's a mix between real LEGO scenes and CGI and they don't want us to know which parts are which.

12:33PM - Where did they start with this story? "There are so many universes and we just crossed our fingers we can tell more stories." They started at the LEGO fan films online and felt those were inspiring. If they made a movie that felt like they gave one of those people a ton of movie it would turn out pretty good.

12:32PM - Directors and producers take the stage to talk about the movie.

12:32PM - Time for THE LEGO MOVIE! Hardwick: "Holy crap this looks awesome!"

↑ The LEGO Movie ↑

12:31PM - And that's it for the Gravity panel to wrap up.

12:28PM - How difficult is it to setup long takes? Alfonso: "It's not difficult for me. It's difficult for everyone around me." [laughs] "When you do this kind of stuff, you just depend on a lot of great people. Because you can do a lot of technical things and camera moves, but it doesn't have a meaning, it doesn't work for anything. That point of departure is the screenplay… All the weight is on the actors in the end. I find that the most demanding thing and the more difficult thing is to sort out… going through every single beat to have a clarity of what exactly we're trying to convey."

12:26PM - Producer David Heyman on Alfonso: "It's one of the exciting things about working with [Alfonso] - he's a mad man. He always pushes the envelope and never settles. Sometimes it's a pain in the ass, but it's the best kind of pain in the ass," he jokes.

12:25PM - Was there ever a point the studio questioned the way they were trying to shoot? Some of the technology was developed by a Warner Bros exec, but they were always looking for easier ways to do things. And they said at one point, why can't you put someone in an office chair running a lamp around them? "That may not be a good idea."

12:24PM - Bullock talking about her performance: "We trained for every single day for six months, and trained every day wihle shooting. I wanted her to look as androgynous as I could. I wanted the body to reflect someone who didn't want to be reminded anymore of what she lost."

12:21PM - Opening up to fan Q&As.

12:19PM - Bullock: "The only way real we're going to be able to shoot zero gravity is the vomit commit," she was told. Which isn't what they did in the end. "I learned how to meditate up there." They created all the sounds up there, so they could feel something outside of the extreme loneliness of the cube. They invent a 9×9 cube with lights all around that she was put in and held in to shoot most of the remainder of her floating scenes.

12:17PM - How do you sell this? Producer David Heyman "We invented this robot for the camera. We never wanted to show Gravity. We didn't want any sense of gravity, the camera would rotate around."

12:15PM - Bullock: the most daunting part was not letting down the team. "The physical aspect of it was so scary you just want to live up to their game."

12:15PM - Sandra Bullock takes the stage to talk about it.

12:13PM - Wow saw a stunning 5 minute uncut long take scene of the initial disaster at the space station. Incredible, extraordinary, everything about this looks amazing. Alfonso also showed that the sounds and explosions in space (heard in the teaser) aren't in his movie. It's silent minus their breathing and the music when they get hit by debris and the catastrophe occurs.

12:07PM - Time to watch a long extended take from Gravity.

12:06PM - "It's a very immersive experience. We wanted people to feel like they were floating in space. Through that, we play different themes and different issues. But never stopping the action, the action is always on-going."

12:05PM - Cuaron on Bullock/Clooney: "If I was going to be stranded in space, I would want to be stranded with them."

12:03PM - "Don't let go!" Introducing Alfonso Cuaron, director of Gravity, to talk about the film.

↑ Gravity ↑

12:02PM - And that about wraps up the presentation on 300: Rise of an Empire.

12:01PM - Noam on the look of 300: "You create a visual language that pushes it forward. There is a DNA in the way it looks, yes this is 300, but it pushes it for many reasons." Since this is on water this time, it provides a whole new set of challenges. All the battles have their own specific look and style, per battle, but it's a challenge you're shooting on water without any water. From a naval view, how do you imagine it and solve it.

11:58AM - How much green screen, how many sets? Noam: "It's all green, and when I came back home, I took everything green out." "It's green alllll around." They built the house and the boat, so they're actually standing on a boat.

11:56AM - Noam on Zack Snyder's involvement: he helps when you need help, but steps away when you need freedom. "it really is the best relationship you can ask for when you're doing something like this."

11:54AM - Rodrigo on is Xerxes evil? "No, I think we have a lot inside. He had his reasons to do what he was doing. He tried to conquer the world, he tried to do what his father was doing. You're going to get to understand where he was coming from."

11:51AM - Eva Green on her character: "I call her a ruthless Joan of Arc." She is commander of the Persian Navy. She's so driven by vengeance because her whole family was killed by Greek soldiers, she will disobey and throw herself headfirst into the battle.

11:50AM - Director Noam Murro: "If you took 300 and zoomed out, that's what this movie is all about. It takes place about the same time as 300, it's bigger and gives you much more scale and scope."

11:49AM - Full 5 minutes of footage looked great. Much much better than the trailer, looks fantastic, huge slow mo fights and a much more epic story. Introduction to Xerxes and how he was created as the evil man he is, and the other side seeking vengeance for the death of those in 300. Not sure if it'll top 300, but looks like a lot of fun.

11:44AM - Time to roll a "good chunk" of footage from this movie.

11:44AM - Time to switch over to 300: Rise of an Empire, which is the next big movie presentation.

↑ 300: Rise of an Empire ↑

11:43AM - They're about to start shooting Warcraft in early 2014, so they're very busy right now. That's about it for Warcraft for now.

11:42AM - Duncan: You hope you get the chane to make films that delve into fantasy. And I actually get to create a world, I know how lucky I am, and I am so excited to do it. "I'm very aware of what the goal there is to achieve."

11:41AM - And now they bring up director Duncan Jones to talk about Warcraft!

11:40AM - They just showed a Warcraft movie teaser. Footage of a human picking up a shield in a desolate world with green skies. Finally you hear an Orc, who comes in with his armor and hammer, and runs out and jumps for a PVP fight.

11:38AM - Call from Thomas Tull. He couldn't make it, but they just have something to roll. Not sure what this is…

11:36AM - Incredible footage. Like Cloverfield on steroids. First half shows intimate moments, lots of action, emotion of people running through a world. Then it starts on an action scene of another 4-legged giant monster terrorizing a city. All of a sudden you see Godzilla walking in. A helicopter gets swatted and blows up half of an airport, all of a sudden the foot of Godzilla sets down. And all of a sudden there's a big roar. Final shot is a big, huge Godzilla standing up above the other monster, dwarfing it and the roar. Sounds perfect. Chills.

11:33AM - Time for footage! Gareth: "It's impossible to put together any footage, you don't want to see anything…" [Booo, then cheers!] "Should we play a little clip?" Time to roll it!

11:31AM - Gareth: You really have to do this as your passion project, as your art film. "What we tried to do is make a modern day blockbuster that has heart and soul and is slightly artistic if possible."

11:30AM - Fan question about taking Godzilla in new directions and the pressure. Gareth: "I put more pressure on myself to be the best filmmaker I can possibly be. All my life I wanted to do this, so… We worked very closely with Toho. This will feel part of the Toho legacy, it will be a true Godzilla movie." "We had our wish list, they didn't agree to do it so I got stuck with these guys [awww, then laughs]."

11:28AM - Gareth: Telling a story about how he went through US customs in Canada and was telling him about what he was doing there. And the immigration officer looked him and came back and said "Are you directing Godzilla?" "Yea yea…" "Don't fuck it up man!" "I'll try, I'll try!" And then he spent 20 minutes with them talking about what he had to include and so on.

11:26AM - Cranston: "Godzilla was always my favorite monster growing up." "I don't know if this was a good project for me to do because it's so huge." Telling a whole story about how he was asked to play the Scarecrow in a stage version of The Wizard of Oz, but had to pass. Then he talked with Gareth and watched his film Monsters, which he said it was fantastic.

11:24AM - Aaron: It happened to be a big budget art film with the way he wanted to shoot it. It has a lot of great emotion on this journey with these characters. We were a big family.

11:24AM - Olsen: It felt small, it felt creative. "We were on set going on the whole time. It felt like an independent, smaller production."

11:23AM - Gareth: Legendary and Warners have been very supportive. Cranston: "So generally, you're no different than any other [studio] suck up."

11:22 - Gareth: Just finished shooting 2 days ago, a night shoot in Hawaii. As soon as they wrapped, they came straight to San Diego. "I've been in a bubble for a year."

11:21 - "Now I am destroyer of worlds." Such great footage. Bringing up director Gareth Edwards and the cast to the stage: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elisabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston.

11:19AM - Replaying the same Godzilla footage from Comic-Con 2012 teasing the monster's return.

11:18AM - While waiting for the switch, the screens start showing old B&W footage of an atomic bomb explosion before the logo comes out to say Godzilla and the crowd goes wild.

↑ Godzilla ↑

11:17AM - And we've wrapped up the Seventh Son presentation. Time for the panel to switch over.

11:15AM - Bridges: "We should use our imagination to realize the dream of peace. We should tell stories to realize peace." Says it's like how we have to learn our lesson over and over, like that hangover lesson from drinking.

11:13AM - Bridges: "Can I answer that question?" Hardwick: "You can do whatever you want." Bridges: "The biggest challenge was telling the story… I ran across a wonderful quote that kept me on track. 'If only it were so simple, if only there were evil people insidiously committing evil deeds and it was necessary to only seperate them from us and destroy them. But the line diving good and evil cuts through the heart of every being…"

11:11AM - Barnes: "The action stuff is what's fun about these movies."

11:08AM - What are the challenges of marrying CGI? "Most important are the actors and CGI is second."

11:07AM - Bridges: "Marrying all the CGI with practical is an amazing thing. We had a wonderful special effects supervisor, John Dykstra." What was the balance of effects? Director: "It was an ambitious approach. There was a lot of physical stuff." Talked about creating big monsters.

11:05AM - Opening up to fan Q&As. Question for Bridges: how tough was the physical side of it. "It was kinda tough… brings you back to being a kid." "A lot of acting get downs to being 'advanced pretend' like when you pretend as a kid - that's basically what acting is all about. You've got all the cool kids, the gear…"

11:00AM - The rest of the cast on stage talking about working on the project: Antje Traue, Ben Barnes and Kit Harington.

11:00AM - The rest of the cast on stage talking about working on the project: Antje Traue, Ben Barnes and Kit Harington.

10:58AM - Whoa, full 5 action-packed minute sizzle reel for The Seventh Son full of huge monsters and creatures and all kinds of action. Looks much better than Snow White and the Huntsman. This is what Clash of the Titans should've been, and I'm intrigued.

10:53AM - Footage from Seventh Son to introduce us to the rest of the cast of the movie.

10:53AM - Bridges on Seventh Son: "It's chock full o' myth and magic."

10:51AM - Chris Hardwick is the host of the panel, yet again, and introduces Jeff Bridges to the stage to talk about Seventh Son.

10:50AM - Warner Bros pulls back the sides of Hall H to reveal the full wide screens again. "When Warner Bros goes big, they really go big."

10:46AM - Waiting for the panel to start sitting inside of Hall H. This is going to be a long 3 hours of live coverage, but exciting.

Note: the updates are now running in reverse, with the latest update at the top of the page instead.

This live blog is being updated by FS.net's Alex and Ethan directly from from Hall H at Comic-Con in San Diego. As always, any/all of our continuing coverage from Comic-Con 2013 can be found in this category.

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