COMIC-CON 2014

Comic-Con 2014 Live: Legendary Pictures in Hall H - For the Horde!

by Alex Billington
July 26, 2014

The next big Hollywood panel on Saturday at Comic-Con 2014 that we're covering live is the presentation from Legendary Pictures. This is the first year Legendary has their own panel in Hall H, which makes us think they may be going all out. While no movies have been named or announced in advance, we expect Duncan Jones to bring something big from Warcraft, and Guillermo del Toro to take the stage to preview his new gothic romance Crimson Peak (which we already highlight from the showfloor). More surprises and reveals are expected during the 45-minute panel, so follow our coverage of the presentation live below.

Updates LIVE directly from Legendary's Comic-Con panel on Saturday, from 12:25PM - 1:10PM PDT:

1:19 - And that's it! Panel has wrapped up rather quickly.

1:18 - The footage showed King Kong returning and a flyover of Skull Island with the title "Skull Island". What is this? No one knows. The audience is oddly hushed, not sure how to react. It sounds like Universal is just making another King Kong movie, but no other information was announced with it, just a quick teaser. Hmm.

1:15 - "We have been tinkering around with one thing, it's early and stuff but…"

1:15 - It's not over yet… While Thomas Tull is up here, he might say there's something else. First, he quips to Guillermo that after he does Pacific Rim 2, "we'll talk" about those other two movies he wants to make.

1:14 - Only a brief amount of Warcraft footage, but it sets up a world where orcs and humans are equal. We hear an orc talk about how his world is destroy, and how he inevitably must come to war with humans. A small bit of action, but they're going for Avatar/Apes level CGI with the orcs. It's a big big world, and it looks a bit better than cinematics.

1:12 - Warcraft footage time! They've got a little something to show us.

1:11 - Talks about how much of a technical challenge it is. They wanted to do the set building like Lord of the Rings, yet use the technology like Avatar.

1:10 - Wanted to make sure they made a film that is accessible to everyone, but tells an origin story about how the world falls to war between orcs and humans. "There's a lot of people who haven't played the game who I think we can bring into the web that Warcraft is."

1:08 - For the horde! Duncan Jones takes the stage to talk about Warcraft next.

1:07 - Asks audience to cheer about different projects: Hellboy 3? Massive cheers. At the Mountains of Madness? Not as loud, but still a big cheer. Looks like Hellboy won this one.

1:07 - Guillermo: "What I wanted to was to tackle a great adult story for a female lead." "We have the thriller aspect, we have the romantic aspect… Very brutal, very brutal moment. And we have scary ghosts. But scarier people than ghosts. It's a beautiful adult confection."

1:05 - Short teaser with a logo that rises out of a thick bloody mess, looks very cool. Brooding, closer to Pan's Labyrinth, with a creepy voiceover from Tom Hiddleston. Looks solid, I'm curious to see more.

1:02 - Time for a quick look at Crimson Peak, which is still a year and half out so there's not much ready but he wanted to show us something anyway.

1:00 - Guillermo says the Oculus Rift experience is "fucking awesome" - it's part of a promo at the Legendary Panel where you can experience what it's like to be a Jaeger driver from Pacific Rim.

12:59 - Now we have Guillermo del Toro out on stage to talk about his new film Crimson Peak, a supernatural gothic romance of sort. He's explaining what got him into it: "Universal had acquired a project that was very personal to me."

12:57 - Hemsworth just said "hacking the system". This IS a trip back to the 90s, my goodness. Thankfully this brief panel was over.

12:55 - Hemsworth had to two take two months of computer lessons to learn how to type properly, and how to code. Ha! I can't believe he just admitted that to a crowd like this. Talking about what's possible through hacking, it sounds like we're in 1995 and they just learned what a modem is "I'm getting rid of my computer, and turning my phone off" he says joking about how afraid he became after he learned all this.

12:54 - "It is the world we live in", kind of an "exoskeleton" of the internet, Mann says. "We landed in Hong Kong one day before Snowden went from China to Moscow."

12:52 - Is working with Mann intimidating? "Absolutely." His character is a hacker who is pulled into a situation. Not much plot description here, I don't think anyone is really enjoying this discussion despite that Hemsworth is on stage.

12:51 - Chris Hemsworth, who stars in the film, is here to talk about it as well.

12:50 - Not much hacking in a movie about black hat hacking… Some action, mostly cool location shots, a destroyed nuclear reactor, kissing, it looks very bland and unexciting. Not that great. "It's not about 0s… or 1s… or code." So what IS it about then? Meh.

12:47 - Watching first footage from the film Black Hat, Mann's new cyber-thriller.

12:44 - Mann discussing how he likes to immerse himself into the kind of people his film is about, and this one is about a thief. Hackers, security, black hat guys who get into the zone of hacking. "It's a kind of escapism, but it's escapism in reverse."

12:43 - They bring out Michael Mann to talk about his new thriller Black Hat, formerly known as Cyber.

12:42 - And that's it for them… Cheers to them as they head off stage.

12:41 - They were the first production ever given access to shoot in the off limits area of the catacombs. As they get further, each of the characters has to front their own personal demon.

12:39 - So what is it why did they decide to film this? "The catacombs of Paris are just awesome."

12:38 - Headed to the stage are the Dowdle Brothers, directors of the film.

12:36 - From here we move to the catacombs of Paris for a preview of As Above, So Below. Currently watching an extended preview for the creepy horror flick which involves weird mysteries that they find and creepy things in the catacombs. "This place knows our past…"

12:34 - We're shown a government "Monarch" secret video that hints at where things are going next with the franchise. "Are we going to be expanding the Godzilla universe?" Yes. The video shows the text there is still one secret that remains hidden. "There are others…" "Additional threats" they hint at and actually name in the video like Rodan, Mothra, Ghidorah. It ends with "Let them fight." Cheers.

12:31 - Video ends with "Thank you!" and Godzilla roaring again. "Get over yourself [Godzilla]!" Apparently they have some footage for us to see what a little bit of the future of this franchise is like.

12:29 - Introducing a video of Gareth Edwards talking about Godzilla after they brought it here last year and helped turn it into the hit that it became. Talks about how he's doing a "small sci-fi movie" and once he finishes that, he'll get back to Godzilla. He's in San Francisco and in the background you hear a jet fly by. It shows the scene from the end of the movie that was cut with the ships.

12:28 - She introduces Thomas Tull to the stage to run the show. Tull is the CEO of Legendary.

12:27 - A woman named Jessica Chobot (who?) is moderating the panel for Legendary.

12:26 - Waiting patiently in Hall H for this next panel to start… Lights go down, here we go!

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 2014 can be found in this category.

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