Rob at the Movies!
Adventures in Movies at the O2 Arena courtesy of Empire and the villainous See Tickets!
Welcome to the latest blog and its way delayed, it should have been hitting your computer screens back at the end of August, or the first week of September, but the computer crashed and had to be fixed, so now finally we are with you almost 3 or 4 weeks later. Back when I started writing this blog, I lamented that Summer was almost gone it seems, it seemed absolutely ridiculously impossible but it’s true and it happened, all those long summer nights that Travolta and Newton John sang about back in good old 1975 are now no more, not I can recall having any long summer nights, the nearest to that was back in May on the beach, and whilst May is nearly Summer it’s not quite the heartland of the festival of warmth we call Summer...
Not that I’m complaining, that and the Lucy Dixon bank holiday beach party were both great indicators of that great tradition of fun summer nights that Grease sang about, and I’ve had different varieties of good summer fun over the Summer... but strangely the one thing my Summer seemed to lack a bit is an abundance of my friends, not in a really bad way, it just seems they had all been off places like France, Australia and so on when I’d been here, and then when they’d been home, I’d been swanning off to London and other various activities with family, it was a bit of a shame really because some of the nights we had last August in 2010, including Risk Monopoly and the nights on Joe’s field were probably some of the most fun nights I had had in a long time, and we’d had some pretty good times this year too doing a mixture of those...
It just seems when it comes to Summer those times hadn’t cropped up again like I thought they might... though there has been a few cooler things on that variation since the end of August (more than a few actually, a return to form that included a day and night at Joes, some great times with the revamped Cell Cluster, a cracking party at the Dixons and The Unit: Radical Weekend, more on that in a bit) but never fear, I’ve done some pretty cracking things regardless....
You’ll find out pretty soon about my huge weekend in London at the O2 Arena and the Big Screen event, as that’s what this latest blog is dedicated too... but what else have I been up to since I last graced you invisible readers with tales of my life? I’ve been to Screenfields, which is an outdoor cinema screening in Manchester, where in the Summer they show classic movies on a Thursday night every week (I say classic, but what about 21 Grams is that classic or makes you want to sit outside and depress yourself till you decide to bury yourself in the grass?) and the one that I went to was The Breakfast Club, that ridiculously excellent 80’s classic about being a teen and spending your time at school wondering about your future, it’s a true classic of the teen movie variety, and if you haven’t seen it... what have you been doing with your life? It’s brilliant, check it out now!
Pretty recently, (well in late August) I went to the Trafford Centre for the day... mainly to go to the wonderful Legoland: Discovery Centre... that’s right folks, it’s not proper Legoland but it’s still pretty awesome! You go on the factory tour where you learn some stuff about how Lego is made, you venture through the woods and save the day for the Knights of Legoland by shooting all the Lego ghosts on that particular ride (bit like Duel at Alton Towers) and then you can explore the main sections of the Discovery Centre, like all the displays of parts of the UK made of Lego: you have Blackpool, the North of England, Manchester, Peak and Lake District amongst others, all very very cool! You have the Bob the Builder 4D movie, fun if a bit lacking in the 4D for my liking (the water splash was particularly weak!).
There was the new Merlin’s Apprentice ride (basically pedal some carriages up and down, pretty average) but there were cool Lego building workshops and all together it was a pretty good morning there... great fun! Then we had dinner, did some shopping, and I took my nephew Ben to see The Smurfs (in not-bad 3D) which was an insanely silly movie but to be honest, great fun... what do you expect from small blue people who always sing a happy song? It was good goofy fun and I recommend it for fun family thrills, plus it has the legend that is Neil Patrick Harris in it, not to mention the gorgeous Jayma Mays (from Glee!) and it had trailers for some fantastic films, not least Aardman’s Pirates: In an Adventure with Scientists (more on this later in the Big Screen bit)... so that was a fun day!
We’ve had some good cell times, dotted around and about, we had a lovely barbecue and cell social recently at the Barton’s which was good fun, coming as it did after a period of quiet on the cell front due to the holiday period (basically everyone was more or less away!) and was great fun, even if I am concerned for the sanity of Mark Wade, more so than usual! Now though, the cell groups are back in full force, with the new amalgamation of cells and young people that is called Cell Cluster, which is essentially everyone under 40 and over 18 joining in one mega huge group (seriously, it’s like Ocean’s Eleven when all your favourite people come together for some fun!) for the usual cell stuff.
Our first meeting back was tons of fun and games which was great and broke the ice brilliantly (my top tip for breaking the ice with someone is fantastic, but it’s an acquired taste to put it mildly, but I only adopted it because it worked so well!), plus we had a fantastic second week that included a top meal at Lymewood to send Benjamin Wilfred Houghton on his way, plus some good fun back at the centre for the main cell times and the usual great cell conversations, wisdom and word... and I’m pretty sure that the future weeks should be fantastic and even more ice-breaking to come!
Sadly we’re losing some of our numbers, the ever cool and smooth Ben Houghton (aka the care bear), the best-person-in-existence, the amazingly talented and lovely Becky Owens (aka Bowens, OwenSSSS), the delightful Emma Eaton, and the tied-with-Sarah Smith-for-funniest-girl-ever Lucy Dixon, plus the lovely Lucy Houghton is going to uni but will still be around. Add to that, the people who already are at university and are going back, the comical Jonny Coffey (aka T-Bag), the comic genius and acquired taste that is Cameron Don Duncan, the hysterically funny and lovely Sarah Indique Smith, and the lovely Abi Cockayne.
Not only all this, but back at the end of July we had a good cell social at the Singh’s house, but I think I may have talked about that in the last blog; ah my memory of time is going! Speaking of which, tangent alert! How fast is time going, all this talk of results, A-Levels and GCSE’s makes me realise just how long ago I was finishing high school, 9 years ago, woah... where has that time gone? Five years since finishing college, two years almost three since I last worked full time! Blimey where is this time going, do we get it gift wrapped when we enter heaven, here’s your time back... wow, it messes with your head if you think about it too much!
One of my favourite days out over the summer was a most beautiful trip to Bourneville, not before you say it the birthplace of Jason Bourne, but rather the birthplace of chocolate, aka Cadbury World... a wonderful mix of chocolately fun and nostalgic education on the history of most people’s favourite pastime: chocolate! From the early days of the Aztecs and the invaders who took to the land and discovered Cocoa for themselves via the olden days of England where chocolate was first brought here and sold right up to modern day advertising campaigns such as the Phil Collins monkey, the eyebrow dance, the Caramel bunny, the Mini Egg parrot, the Crunchie crazies, and the Coronation Street chocolate characters... all the history of Cadbury and chocolate is there to explore.
There’s attractions like Essence, which tells you some history and then let’s you make your own chocolate concoction, there’s the standard tour of the factory where you see all the varieties in which they make the chocolate and get a proper behind the scenes insight into the workings of the factory, plus you get plenty of opportunities to taste some yummy choc choc! There’s the great little ride Cadabra, which is essentially it’s a Small World with Cocoa beans but is good fun and there’s all sorts of nostalgic museum type stuff on the history and the adverts and there’s a nifty Purple Planet too... all in all, a great day was had by all!
I’ve seen some pretty good films recently over the summer and into the autumn (and a few more later at Big Screen) there was Captain America which was top superhero fun, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Super 8 were both utterly fantastic and true top blockbusters of 2011, especially Rise just because I wasn’t expecting it to be so good at all! Plus Mr. Popper’s Penguins, a superbly fun family movie which does all the predictable stuff but is fantastic fun nonetheless and you can’t help but love it!
The terrific follow up to Easy A that is Friends with Benefits, with a starry cast and plenty of entertainment... plus the absolutely sublime Crazy Stupid Love which has the best cast of the year most likely, and is both very sweet and very funny, the amusing if only decent What’s Your Number? and the terrific Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with a thrilling bleakness and the best cast of the year, including a terrific Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Mark Strong amongst others. Not only that but Jurassic Park is back on the big screen and better than ever, simply one of the best experiences I have ever had in a cinema, it’s a true testament to this amazing film and a reminder that blockbusters are never quite as good as they used to be, unless they’re Nolan....
All in all, a pretty great month for film and there’s some crackers on the way too as well as ones still out I want to see, like the romantic drama One Day (looks like it’s a wait for DVD for that one though now, it seems to have disappeared), and films like Troll Hunter, Warrior, Killer Elite, Real Steel, Three Musketeers, Contagion, Johnny English Reborn, and Drive. As always there’s a bevy of goodies on TV, including the fantastic Torchwood: Miracle Day which has now wound down and finished, the now-finished Castle, Nikita, Hellcats and Camelot; there’s plenty of fun, laughter and embarrassment in the ever brilliant Curb your Enthusiasm (finished Series 5 for a while now, now waiting on the start of Series 6), the newly started Flight of the Conchords which I’m seeing for the first time, Shooting Stars, Futurama which has stopped again for a while, plus Doctor Who is on fine form again!
And there’s everything from Carnivale through to the excellent Awkward, Wilfred, Warehouse 13, QI, and Treme... plus the brand new series of Glee, new and early on Sky1, wahey for not having to wait for E4 in January, it’s great so far, plus Idiot Abroad is back and it’s fantastically funny as ever. Loads of excitement plus The Sopranos rolls on, I think it will be on every week till 2013 at this rate! And to add more fun to the mix, very soon (or now depending on blog going-out date) we will have new series of Walking Dead, Fringe, House, Merlin, Boardwalk Empire, and more!!
Troll Hunter
Karl gets ready to do a dive in Idiot Abroad Series 2
And in any other business there’s been meals at the wonderful Frankie and Benny’s (the only place I know where you learn Italian whilst you have a wee wee) for the birthdays of Nathan Talbot and Jonny T-Bag Coffey, there was a massive shindig at the Pete McCaffrey mansion which was great fun, though I bet it could have been even more brilliant if all the rules he jokingly set out were followed to the letter, would have been a night to truly remember! But was still pretty awesome, and he’s a top guy, so if you see him, show some respect to a true legend! There was a fantastic Wishpig gig at the Tudor pub in Wigan, Wishpig being the fantastically crazy band of Mr Jonty and Mr Keith, and it was a fantastic night, including catching up with a true legend of the Deanery, Mr Matt Cornah! Plus plenty of great times at church and then the usual Job stuff and trips to the hairdresser (not bad) and the dentist (hell on earth!)...
And last but not least, gotta do this, not just because I want to but because it just has to be done (sure the Rach DD will appreciate it anyway) I’m going to plug the living satellite dishes out of The Unit: Radical Weekend! It may have been and gone, and the intent was to plug it before it happened but I can still plug how awesome it was! It was held on September 9th and September 10th at Billinge Family Church (if you don’t know where it is, who am I? Multimap? But here’s the postcode, pop it into Google and it’ll show you the way: WN5 7DT) it was a fantastic weekend full of worship, seminars, workshops, drama, fun and chill times, games, and all sorts of great stuff plus some great food too, which is always good!
There were terrific talks from Cameron, Mark Wade, Kirsty, Craig, and Steve Kerry... terrific hosting from Ben Jah Ryan and Chesky, amongst others... a terrific question and answer session, a terrific trio of workshops including a fantastic creative arts one with Mark and Kirsty. A film zone (how cool, and surprise I was in charge of that one!) where we had a late night viewing of Tangled, complete with commentary from super Disney fan Sarah Smith... and plenty more fun and food, a fantastic weekend was had, and I fully recommend if you’ve never been before, come to a future Unit, it will change your life I can guarantee it!
In other news, I only went and got a job! Yes, after ages of striving and searching, someone finally deemed me worthy of employment! Depending on when this goes out, I’ll either be working hard or awaiting the start of the job! It’s at Countrywide Surveyors in Warrington and I’ll be doing admin (what is it about Warrington and jobs, my three main jobs have all been there, strange!). But yeah, that’s some great news... and everything else is pretty simple, cell cluster is in full flow as mentioned, Sparks Unleashed will be launching in October most likely now called Illuminate! Unit is going strong as mentioned, and everything else is as always...
That’s about it for my life recently; pretty awesome as always but the best thing I did recently is a wonderful trip to London:
Empire presents BIG SCREEEN!
Over the weekend that began Thursday August 11th and ran through to Sunday night, August the 14th... the O2 Arena in London (yes, the one that used to be the Millennium Dome, and even now all it does is remind you of it!) played host to one of the coolest and most awesome movie-based events that London or the UK may have ever seen, featuring a cavalcade of stars and special guests, a whole heap of exclusive movie footage and trailers, movie props and automobiles, and a whole heap of other movie and TV-related goodies, it was a must for any self respecting movie fan.
So naturally at the first hint of it (back in March when Empire readers could save a space for them to book tickets when tickets were available to book) I saved myself a space along with my good friend Dale Brooks, who I just knew who love every second of it as much as I would, so after some persuading and chatting, he agreed to come and I got us the tickets, then in May (as well as booking the hotel and the train tickets down to London and back) the time came to book the tickets, and book and purchase them I did, two lovely £130 tickets for the weekend that were entitled Diamond Tickets, and covered the three days of the event, Friday to Sunday (Thursday was a separate event in all honesty, more on that shortly) and entitled us to roam around and see what we wanted to.
Then in July, the opportunity arose for us to personalise our schedules, so as well as the three bunches of sessions that were held on Friday to Sunday mornings from 10am to 2pm/ 3pm, that were full of the footage and general movie-ness, there was a whole schedule of movie goodness we could book in to see with our tickets, ranging from free movie screenings to Q+A’s and other cool movie related events like Quizzes and Empire related things through to Pixar screenings and sessions with directors and producers talking about their movies... there was a lot of awesome stuff we missed out on getting into, mainly because there’s only so much time to see everything, and you’re limited to anything after 3pm to begin with, and then obviously you can only have a few things a day, and out of so much, there’s clearly going to be a lot you don’t get to see... but we booked some cool stuff (though on reflection, some things could easily have been interchanged, but it’s always like that) but I’ll tell you all about what we saw as we go through it....
But yep, we had sorted the schedules for what we wanted to see, we had the hotel booked, the trains sorted (though I do book an extra night and a new cheap train ticket so I could catch something extra on the Sunday night because getting home would have been a nightmare to manage otherwise if we went straight from the Sunday night event), what could go wrong? Well, they’re called See Tickets and they’re pretty infamous now, almost everyone who booked their tickets did so through these great (?) people and all tickets seemed to only be sent out about 2 days before the event, so via an act of god probably, we managed to get the tickets in the post Thursday morning before we were due to go, suffice to say Empire have said they won’t be using them again, nightmare! And loads of visitors on the Friday had to queue for ages to get to the box office and pick up their tickets, I’m so thankful that wasn’t me!! Anyway let’s start the odyssey with the Thursday and how the journey began....
Thursday 11th/ Friday August 12th
Well it was the day of travel to the event and just needed to pack everything, once that was done and I was ready to go, I got a lift to Newton Train Station where I caught the train down to Manchester Piccadilly to meet Dale, I got there and met him and after getting a small bit of tea from Burger King (and fumbled about in those silly train station toilets, bad enough you have to pay 20p to use them, but it’s a nightmare to get your cases in and out of those turnstiles!!) we got on the train and headed down to London Euston. Nothing exciting happened on the train I don’t think, just listened to my iPod a bit, read my Glee book, and had a drink and some sweets. We arrived at Euston and the symphony of changing trains began, as I recall we got off at Euston and headed to the Underground where we caught the tube to London Bridge and once we were there we jumped on a normal train through to Charlton. We got off there and then headed over to our hotel, surprisingly literally 10 seconds away, we came out the station and thought ‘Right where is it?’, looking at the map, looked up and there it was! We settled in, unpacked, watched a bit of TV and then got to bed... it was a busy day (three days!) ahead!
(below: Our hotel, The Antigallican)
On a side note, probably the biggest individual event of the whole weekend took place on Thursday night, but due to being unsure about when Dale could have the time off to come, we simply opted for late Thursday to Sunday night, before I decided to stay the extra night (more about that in the Sunday section) plus needing to book individual pricey tickets for this event meant we decided to give it a miss. The event itself was the UK Premiere of Jon Favreau’s summer blockbuster Cowboys and Aliens, which was attended not only by Mr Favreau but by his main cast of Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and my future wife (one of them) Olivia Wilde! (Bit more gutting cause I missed my chance to propose!) From what I hear and the pictures I’ve seen it was a fantastic evening and the stars were out in force, and the red carpet was busy busy, so would have been bedlam anyway! But all’s ok, because we got to see the movie on Friday night anyway, more later....
Friday
As with most things, the first morning set the template for how the other days would go... really average breakfast (Yum, a Frosties cereal bar and some little satchels of milk) and out by around 8:30am... our first thoughts were should we get the bus down (we had the timetables and knew where to get them from) or grab a taxi (had some numbers) but after a quick glance out of the hotel window revealed a decent view of the 02, we decided why not just walk, we had time and would be nice. So off we set to the 02 and the route whilst long (took around half an hour, so good back and forth but not if you’re in a hurry) was utterly beautiful and is now one of my favourite routes I’ve walked due to the absolutely beautiful view of the river Thames as you walk up to the 02 arena...
You can go a number of routes to get there, but on the first day our route took us (if I can recall correctly):
Down from the hotel, down the road, round a roundabout, up a long road past Maplin, McDonalds, and ASDA, under a big bridge, and then down a bit further to a roundabout (this bit was long enough!) where you can see a big Odeon in the distance, here you turn right up a road which is signposted Yacht Club... you walk down this decently lengthed road and then cut through on the left, down a windy pathway until you can see the Thames on your right, then carry on walking down a very, very long pathway until you can see the O2 ahead and then keep going till you reach the O2....
And we had arrived! First up, just the majesty of the O2, that brilliant shiny dome that once signalled the millennium before a load of silly people decided it wasn’t good enough, and that ended... for the record, I loved the Millenium Dome when I visited it, it was one of the coolest places I’d been in the UK and I enjoyed every second of my visit! My second visit to this place then surpassed even that encounter.... but yep, we’d arrived and after taking loads more pictures of the Dome and its coolness...
We entered into its presence, after lamenting the fate of the attendees who had to queue for yonks for their tickets outside because See Tickets hadn’t posted them in time, for shame! We went in and already were pretty agape at how cool it was, there was immediately signs that this was going to be awesome, something that would be immediately confirmed by the news that a Delorean was in the premises (cue Dale getting giddy! Giddier even more later on when got the chance to ride in it and get some photos) amongst other news... we got our Friday tickets ripped and made our way into the queue for the morning session in the Indigo theatre, a very cool looking place before you even got in there...
We made our way in and found our seats, which remained the same for the three days and man were they good seats! Pretty near the stage with a great view of everyone and everything on stage, a far cry from those concerts where the best you can see the stars is on the big screens hoisted about, I could see all the famous peeps on stage very clearly! Cue plenty of excitement, even if the fact that everything was delayed a considerable fifteen minutes due to all the people queuing for tickets and other technical hitches, but soon enough we were underway...
Taking our seats in the Indigo theatre, the lights went down and while the Big Screen logo appeared on screen, onto the stage came the host for the weekend and a man who should surely host the Oscars one day, the big Empire cheese that is Mr Chris Hewitt, to introduce the whole weekend and compere all the events that occurred from thereon in, he did a great job and between slots he gave out some (in his opinion rubbish but not bad) prizes that he dubbed ‘spot prizes’, sadly I didn’t get one but it was a cool little bonus anyway.
Anyway he did a great lengthy monologue before introducing the first of the many showcases of the weekend, which came from the lovely people at 20th Century Fox, they showed a bunch of stuff which was decent but I guess didn’t really show off the best stuff they have coming out, mainly because most of that isn’t ready to show (like Prometheus, the Alien prequel by Ridley Scott), we had the extended trailer for In Time, the new sci-fi thriller starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, which is a bit like Logan’s Run, in a nutshell it’s set in the future where to carry on living when you get older, you work to collect time and when you run out you die, a bit strange but one of those intriguing concepts that hopefully will pay off, the trailer was pretty cool and hopefully the film will be a good one. We then had a trailer for Chris Gorak’s (2006’s Right at your Door) sci-fi thriller The Darkest Hour (trailer being in very cool 3D!) which looked suitably tense and scary, it’s set in Moscow where the planet is taken over by aliens who absorb energy and are invisible, sounds daft but check out the trailer online and you’ll see how creepy it’s going to be!
Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUznviXV-U8
This was followed by a small trailer for new indie movie Martha Marcy May Marlene, which I don’t know much about but it stars Elizabeth Olsen, a relative newcomer who you’ll probably guess is the relative of Mary Kate and Ashley, and the film looks a pretty grim and dark drama, not really looking like anything I’d race to see but should be a pretty good bet regardless, except plenty of kudos and awards perhaps when it is released early next year. Last but not least on Fox’s small selection of forthcoming treats, was a bunch of scenes from the forthcoming re-release of a particularly classic movie but this time in 3D, no not the Lion King, but Titanic, the previous biggest movie ever until James Cameron went one better with Avatar.
The scenes themselves were pretty impressive, funny how out of all Fox has to offer, the most interesting wound up being classic scenes from a film which I regularly shrug my shoulders at, but I’ll be quick to admit, damn it is rather epic isn’t it! The one time watching it in full at home back in 1998 or 1999 on a small TV doesn’t do it justice, it may be corny somewhat throughout, but man that finale and the scale of the movie is general is so epic, that maybe just maybe I’ll be heading to see this when it is re-released just to re-assess my opinion, because from the footage we saw, man this is one movie that looks worthy of a 3D re-release (even better would be IMAX but who knows?). And that was Fox’s lot, I forget to mention that their showcase opens with a montage of talking heads and famous directors talking about why 20th Century Fox is so awesome, it could have easily been a bit backslapping but it was a clear highlight, if not simply for the fact that it hinted at a lot of the best movies that weren’t ready to be previewed via the directors talking whilst on set (Ridley Scott on the set of Prometheus, Ang Lee- The Life of Pi, Cameron Crowe- We Bought a Zoo and so on and so forth!), it was a decent little showcase but probably and easily one of the least in the end.
After a bit more spot-prizing and hosting from Chris, we went onto the TV showcase which started with a brief Q+A with Mark Gatiss on stage, yep the guy from League of Gentlemen and much more was here to talk Sherlock, sadly they didn’t have any Series 2 footage but we watched some old clips from Series 1 and Chris and Mark just had a quick discussion about all things to do with Sherlock before our next little treat: Merlin!
Yep, the Arthurian legend is back for a fourth series and we started with a teaser clip of the start of Series 4... dark, scary and exciting, followed by a teaser for the whole series, which looks fantastic and starts on BBC1 on October 4th, conveniently after Doctor Who finishes (a subject brought up at the Q+A funnily enough), we then had a onstage Q+A with the creators and Bradley James (who plays Arthur in the show, and was a good sport throughout the panel, including leaping offstage to pass someone the microphone and struggling to get back on stage) in which they basically discussed all things Merlin, we had another look at the teaser and then onto our final bit of TV show exclusiveness courtesy of Sky 1 and Chris Ryan’s Strikeback.... a show I can confess I’ve never watched and not particularly fussed about, but there was a panel and Q+A with the creators and stars, who seemed nice blokes, and plenty of exciting footage.
Then we had the dinner break, where I ate my pre-prepared chicken butties, and during which we finally got the chance to wander around a bit, and then, low and behold, we discovered *drum roll* Studio City and Hollywood Boulevard, which in a nutshell was out of this world! From stalls selling American candy and drink (got myself some Grape Soda, Vanilla Coke and Dr Pepper Cherry as well as a daily bunch of coloured twizzlers, delightful!), funky movie t-shirts, and all sorts of memorabilia, there were these little house-slash stall sort of deals, all of which were dedicated to a particular movie coming out (so you had Dark Knight Rises, Contagion, Happy Feet 2, Sherlock Holmes 2 and so on), there was the Paramount Saloon where there was all sorts of western entertainment happening all to promote Cowboys and Aliens (this was the best bit, very professionally done and very impressive) as well as bits and pieces for other Paramount movies around (like M:I-4 and Tintin amongst others).
There was the opportunity to pose with cars and robots (Real Steel, Cars 2 and Troll Hunter) as well as a huge selection of props, costumes and Bond Cars to gander at.... there was a section for Empire’s offices and you could pick up a goodie bag for subscribing or strangely pay £2 for one otherwise, strange really as I assumed goodie bags were a prize not something you buy but ho-hum! Plus there was a really cool Sony section with trailers showing on screen for everything from Arthur Christmas to (yikes!) Adam Sandler’s upcoming Jack and Jill! They had cool props from 2012’s Men in Black III plus the ever popular option to sign up to the Sony website and receive a t-shirt (Spiderman, Green Hornet or Men in Black III), how many fake names must be in that system I’ll never know! All this and probably even more stuff that I can’t recall, it was so cool, see below for a huge selection of images from the Studio City section....
Then after dinner time and the jaunt around Studio City, it was straight back into the Indigo theatre for the next of the sessions which was dedicated to the upcoming slate of Universal Studios, that glorious studio which has given us everything from Back to the Future to the underrated Beethoven series. After a straightforward introduction, we whizzed through trailers for Johnny English Reborn (looks pretty funny, could be good fun, pretty decent cast too), Tower Heist (love the idea of Eddie Murphy being funny again, and the cast is pretty cool, but not 100% sure with this one), The Change Up (more on that in Saturdays section, as it is a movie I got to see in full, but a decent enough trailer), Battleship (Liam Neeson is always ace, and you have super cool Alexander Saarsgard in there too, but this looks very stupid, clichéd marine story meets random what the? Aliens, no idea what to make of this one, but not loving it thus far).
(below: Battleship)
We also had trailers for John Cusack in The Raven (superbly chilling thriller from the looks of it, good cast and looks like a absolute cracker), a very exclusive and unfinished trailer for Mark Wahlberg’s next work Contraband (looks amiable but a bit average to be frank), The Debt (decent enough thriller with a great cast, but nothing to wow me to be fair), and The Thing prequel (looks suitably scary and cool, could be a good un!).
We also had a video message from Sean William Scott (aka Steven Stifler) promising a first look at American Reunion (aka the next American Pie) which would have every single original cast member back for more fun, alas the video message was all we got, but maybe that was the gag (wasn’t that funny a gag but there you go!), and we then finished with a extended look at footage from director Tarsem Singh’s (The Cell, The Fall) upcoming epic movie Immortals, the footage (in cool 3D!) was superb and this looks to be a suitably brilliant and beautiful epic, matching a great cast with stunning visuals and a cool story, that out is out November and looks well worth a look. That was the Universal lot, and thus ended the first day’s worth of footage sessions, it was not time to explore and attend the singular events I’d booked for the remainder of the day.
(below: Future Superman Henry Cavill in Immortals)
After all of the morning sessions were done then, it was on to the first event I’d booked in to attend... there were plenty of events I would like to have attended but all the events I picked (bar one which I’ll get to in a second) were the top priorities out of the selection given and my first stop was Animal Stars of the Movies back in the Indigo theatre, so after a little more time in Studio City looking at all the wonderful stuff, it was back to the Indigo for some utterly cute stuff... basically a bunch of different animals from different movies were brought out and did some tricks, so we had the squirrels from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unravelling nuts, parrots from 101 Dalmatians (the live action one) riding bikes, a dog from Martin Scorcese’s Hugo (out in December), and some owls from Harry Potter (who were also out and about in Studio City for fans to meet) and a few others who I forget at the moment, it was great fun and the animals were super cute...
(below: The animal trainer with Hedwig from the Harry Potter movies)
Then it was onto one of the Cineworld’s for the next event after another little stint in Studio City... there’s a story behind this one though, when I booked my tickets this slot was down as Q+A with Mark Kermode who you may know is an idol of mine and my favourite film critic, so I leapt at the chance to attend the interview with him, it was probably the first thing I selected... so imagine my annoyance when it shows up on my booking later as TBA, and later is changed to something else...
Thankfully it’s replacement wasn’t so bad, it was a Q+A with the writers of the comedy smash The Inbetweeners (picture below), of which the movie has recently smashed all box office records and was surprisingly good (surprisingly because I’d never seen the show, not because I thought it would be crap I might add). It was pretty informative and pretty funny too, so an enjoyable use of my time, though amongst the things I missed that afternoon included the terrific Friends with Benefits which had a free screening at the same time, as well as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, also fantastic but that was at the same time as the animals as well. But it was good fun and I learnt a few things about the series too....
After this has ended, it was about near to tea time, so after some more Studio City goodness, we headed to Garfunkels, a fantastic restaurant where I had a absolutely lovely cold Appletizer with a Cheese omelette, much yumness! It was a great little restaurant and the service and food was fantastic... after all of this, it was time for the last big event of the day, a screening of Cowboys and Aliens, the big Jon Favreau blockbuster which had its UK premiere on the Thursday night and had preview screenings scattered over the weekend, this was the Friday night one, held as most of the events were, in one of the Cineworld screens, this one being the Superscreen.... the 02/ Cineworld equivalent of IMAX, and boy was it impressive!
Huge picture, fantastic sound, a superb cinema experience... and it helped that I loved every minute of the film too, seemingly all the critics and even audiences have been very sniffy about this (my friend Dale didn’t think much too) but I’m baffled by this, because not only did I enjoy every single thrilling minute, I thought it had a fantastic cast all playing great characters, and even if the plot was shaky and muddled at points, it still did the job brilliantly. Straight off the bat, I felt I knew and cared about the characters, which is a rare thing unless you’re Harry Potter or the cast of Super 8, so I found it exciting, scary, thrilling, dramatic or occasionally witty as most summer movies are... it was also very dark which is always a welcome change from light blockbusters, but sometimes maybe things can be too dark, I mean how many films at the moment get away with a 12A rating despite being clearly unsuitable (Hanna being a recent example), but that’s a discussion for another day.
But yeah I really loved Cowboys and Aliens, and had a cracking time at that particular screening, and that was it for Friday’s entertainment. It was time to head home via that lovely riverside route and then to bed ready for what Saturday’s shenanigans could bring....
Saturday August 13th
And so the second day began as the first began... pretty average breakfast, out the hotel door for 8:30am and the lovely walk up to the 02 by the Thames river walk, with half a ton of photo taking along the way. This was the morning of mega exclusive footage, so when we arrived we had to hand our phones over, and collect them later (via the raffle ticket number system, you get a number for your phone so they can find it and give it back later). We arrived and queued up outside the Indigo theatre as always, then went through, handed our phones in and took our usual seats... after a little while as always, the show began... usual pithy and hilarious introductions by Chris Hewitt and some prize giving before it was time for the first showcase....
First up was the turn of E-One Entertainment, the purveyors of all things Twilight and such, could this be the exclusive footage they were talking about? Well, maybe maybe not because after a on stage introduction from the gorgeous Myanna Buring (who will be playing Tara in Breaking Dawn Part I for all the Twiglet fans) it seems the clips weren’t working, the trailer worked but it would have to be back to the clips again a bit later.
I can’t remember the exact order for some of these so I’ll just go through what we did see, whether in order or not: we had the first exclusive trailer/ footage for Ghost Rider II: Spirit of Vengeance which looked very cool and is from the directors of the insanely fantastic Crank films and the criminally overlooked Gamer, and should be a dark change from the flawed but fun first film, and features a insane gag right at the end of the trailer. We had a mini panel for the upcoming brit horror movie Demons Never Die, with the director as well as the producer, one Idris Elba (Luther, The Wire, The Losers), so though the film didn’t look that great, it was a good Q+A with Mr Elba, was as cool as ever... even when being pressed for information about Prometheus, the Alien prequel he is starring in.
(below from right: Chris Hewitt, Idris Elba and the director of Demons never Die)
We finally had those Twilight clips, which looked fairly ok if nothing special... and we also had a bunch of footage from the upcoming Three Musketeers reboot by Paul W.S Anderson, a name greeted by jeers but I for one am really looking forward to this one, it’s got a fantastic cast and looked a whole heap of fun, a swashbuckler in explosive 3D, who’d have thought it? But it’s a genius idea, and it looks a cracking romp from the footage shown. This was followed by the Optimum panel, which was more or less split into two different movies, though if there were any extra trailers I forgot then I apologise. First we had a panel and footage from the excellent looking Kill List, with stars Myanna Buring (back again after the Twilight section) and Neil Maskell as well as the director. Another decent and good panel that had some cracking footage, but is sadly one of those great films that come out and then disappear on limited cinemas, but maybe one for DVD.
(below: The crew and cast of Kill List)
The other half of the Optimum section was devoted to the rather fantastic movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (not seen at time of Big Screen, but recently seen and boy is it good!). We had a smattering of terrific clips as well as discussion with the producers, another decent panel for a fantastic movie, and the clips went down brilliantly including one scene that could be a classic! After a quick break, we were straight on into one of the biggies, the Sony panel!
We started with a whole smattering of cool trailers, which included: Friends with Benefits (looked good, film was even better when I finally saw it, really funny and quirky romantic comedy), David Fincher’s US adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (fantastic, instantly iconic trailer that even endless repeats of during the weekend couldn’t dampen, search the teaser online and enjoy the awesomeness! So good even the Muppets have homaged it!), the rather spooky and very scary Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark from producer extraordinaire Guillermo Del Toro (though that may actually be another studio, not sure!), Moneyball (a clever little sports drama with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill), 30 Minutes or Less (more of which later, but we the trailer and a very funny clip), and the remake of Straw Dogs, very exciting and raw and dark, not for the faint of heart that’s for sure, but a good cast with plenty of tension.
We had a quick panel with director Roland Emmerich (he of destroying the world via Godzilla, 2012, Day after Tomorrow and Independence Day) on his new period drama Anonymous, in which it’s suggested an Earl wrote the plays under the alias of Shakespeare... it looks an intriguing and decent drama, but the barrage of clips went on far too long. Better though was the very very exclusive footage of the Total Recall remake, not due out till late 2012.
Showing the scene in which Colin Farrell’s character Dennis Quaid (the role made famous by Arnie) goes to have his holiday memories implanted into his mind, before something goes wrong and all sorts of action ensure, Total Recall is a film hard to explain so I won’t explain what happens except it looks pretty cool and will be interesting to see how they update an already futuristic movie. We also had a huge dose of footage from the Spiderman reboot due next Summer, I had previously been dubious about rebooting something so recent but the footage has silenced me, it looks fantastic... from the POV footage of Spidey doing his thang through to our first look at the ghastly villain, this time The Lizard (aka Curt Connors, finally getting his chance to shine after being hinted at throughout the original Sam Raimi trilogy, played this time by Rhys Ifans) who may look a bit like a Goomba from the guilty pleasure Mario movie, but still terrifies and his intro scene puts the shivers into the spine. Fantastic footage, and I do believe director Marc Webb (favourite of mine 500 Days of Summer) and star Andrew Garfield (Social Network, Never Let Me Go) will deliver the goods!
The last two films talked about during Sony’s bonanza section were two future Aardman classics, firstly Peter Baynham, great comedy writer behind shows like Alan Partridge, Brass Eye and Borat, was on hand to talk through festive comedy Arthur Christmas, he showed a whole heap of footage and talked us through it, explaining the characters and the cast and the plot, it looks a very funny and very entertaining movie, more or less what Fred Claus could have been (though I did like that movie anyway) or what the Santa Clause sequels could have been like.
Secondly, Peter Lord, great Aardman legend came on to do more or less the same thing with 2012’s comedy adventure Pirates: In an Adventure with Scientists, which is the real one to be excited about... they showed the classic trailer, which is very funny and I suggest you seek it out immediately, but also talked through the plot, and the cast and the characters. It looks suitably fantastic as all Aardman movies do, the difference being this is more the Claymation route of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run rather than the CGI route that Arthur Christmas and Flushed Away took. It looks suitably hilarious and clever and ingenious, and I genuinely can’t wait!
After a very small break, it was onto the last session of footage for the day (well for us anyway, more on that in a second), this time courtesy of the beautiful people at Warner Brothers. We started as is the norm, with a bunch of trailers, which included: Happy Feet II (looks cute and funny, but the songs from the trailer will get repetitive quick), Dark Knight Rises (pretty awesome teaser, even if it doesn’t give much away), and Dolphin Tale (looks a good family adventure in the Free Willy vein, but the 3D is unnecessary, but there’s Morgan Freeman which is always good!). This was followed by a quick chat with director Guy Ritchie on stage about his upcoming sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (which probably had some of the coolest stuff in Studio City!). This was followed by a quick sizzle reel from the movie, basically a whole heap of clips of the movie and clips of chat with the stars. From the looks of it, this plays fully to the rules of a sequel, bigger better and cooler! Looks terrific and I can’t wait, but a naked Stephen Fry? Hmm, not so sure!
Next up was a whole batch of clips from Steven Soderbergh’s epidemic thriller Contagion, due out October 21st. They showed how a virus spreads from country to country, before a global pandemic emerges, it features a huge cast with the likes of Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Matt Damon, and Laurence Fishburne amongst others and from the clips looks a solid and chilling thriller with style and scale as well as a good mix of thriller and solid drama. Last but not least was a blog from the set of The Hobbit, which features all manner of craziness from an opening in which Peter Jackson gets lost, through to all manner of introductions to the many actors playing the many dwarfs, all in costume most of the time. It was a very funny and very enjoyable clip that provokes anticipation for the movie without ever revealing much, it was a lengthy clip though and to say much about it would spoil how much fun it is!
And that was it for the sessions, well for us anyway, after the dinner break was scheduled the panels for Icon and Momentum, but thinking in our heads over what films they had out and thinking our afternoon movie started at 3pm, we decided just to head straight over there and get a good seat, we wouldn’t be missing much (we did miss Mark Strong and the director of Drive, but to be fair I didn’t know much about any movie Mark Strong was in, and the other movies like Drive, Troll Hunter and Woman in Black were films I wanted to see but had already seen plenty of stuff from so knew I wouldn’t be missing much) so went straight over to the cinema, and I had a quick snack for lunch of sweets and crisps. Turns out the start of the screening was delayed anyway to make time for the people from the panels anyway, which made me realise we didn’t need to miss out, but onwards and upwards....
(below: the director of Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn)
Our 3pm movie was 30 Minutes or Less, from which we had earlier seen clips and the trailer for... it concerns Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network, Zombieland, Rio)’s character Nick, who is a pizza boy who can deliver in, you guessed it, 30 Mins or Less or your money back... elsewhere two lowlife slackers (Nick Swardson and Danny McBride) are slumming around, and hit upon the idea to claim the inheritance they’d get if the dad (Fred Ward) of one of them (McBride) carked it, so to hire a hitman (Michael Pena) they need the money, so they order a pizza, kidnap Nick and force him to rob a bank by strapping a bomb to his chest. Needless to say, Nick is panicked so goes to his best friend (Aziz Ansari) for help to carry out the robbery, hilarity and action and all that ensues.... I really enjoyed this one, it’s not going to change the world but it’s a really solid comedy and a great follow up to Zombieland (same lead and director) without ever being anywhere near as fantastic I guess. The cast are all pretty solid and funny and there’s great dialogue and action, it’s done pretty average on release over here in the UK which is a shame, but you should seek it out if you can, because it’s terrific fun (and only 83 minutes, nice and solid pace!)...
After this was done, it was near enough straight on into the last event of the day and the second preview movie (I had booked into a Star Wars Jedi Training class, but the time fitted in perfectly between the two on booking, but didn’t at all on ticket arrival for some reason, but it was no big deal!) which was The Change Up... you’ve probably seen endless adverts for this, I certainly have (both beforehand and now even more that it’s out, funny seeing endless adverts for a film you’ve seen really)... and even more so than 30 Mins or Less, it really isn’t going to change the world... but it’s harmless fun, it really ticks the clichés but does them with enough charm, despite endless vulgarity and crude humour.
The two leads Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds are terrific though, Bateman getting the chance to do what he does best twice, he’s great at playing an average Joe but he’s even better at being a total douchebag and obnoxious guy, whilst Reynolds does both pretty well too, think Cage and Travolta in Face Off and you’ve got near how well they can both do each role. The support cast does a decent job too, always good to see Greg Itzin (aka 24’s Charles Logan) in movies, and Alan Arkin is always welcome, and the movie’s worst crime is totally wasting his character! The basic plot is Bateman is a dad and working man and Reynolds is a jobless slacker, whilst drunk one night they lament jealously for each other’s lives and the next morning they’ve swapped bodies, that old chestnut! It doesn’t get simpler than that, it’s an interesting mix of vulgar and heartwarming resolution, which won’t be for everyone, but I found it perfectly harmless and enjoyable... and my friend Dale cited it the best of the movies we saw...
And that was it for Saturday... we headed from the 02 back down the usual route, but stopped off at McDonalds (for food for evening snacks, I got some nuggets and fries) and at ASDA for plenty of supplies (including stuff for Breakfast, Lunch and snacks and drinks)... then heading back to the hotel where I enjoyed my Maccies with a lovely Fanta Beach flavour (the greatest tasting drink in the world) while we watched John Bishop’s Britain on the telly... perfect evening of chill out before the final day of movie madness!
Sunday August 14th
Well this was it, the last day of the big weekend, and looking at it in a schedule way, then this was the day of some of the best stuff of the whole weekend, but you’ll find out as you read exactly what was in store. It started more or less as the other days, except I had some chocolate crepes for my breakfast which was nicer, but the setting out time and the nice walk was the same, though unfortunately it would be one of the last times to truly appreciate the magnificent scenery, so as always, loads and loads more photos were taken... it’s amazing really how you can take photos every day of the same things, but they either look better or different every time, it’s fantastic and I truly miss the scenery even now, but there’s always next year....
So we arrived and as always it was the usual drill, get in the Indigo queue and then straight into the theatre for the first studio session of the day, of course after some good banter courtesy of Mr Hewitt and some more spot prizing (kudos to the guys giving out some DVDs and other stuff before everything kicked off, I assume they were forumites from the good old Empire forum (where I have been a stalwart member for a good 7 or 8 years) kudos to them for that, even if I didn’t get anything) before the first session began, and this was courtesy of the good people at Paramount, and I would be lying if I didn’t say this was my favourite of all the sessions, tied perhaps with Sony.
As always we started with some trailers, including Like Crazy (indie romantic drama that looks not bad, mainly thanks to a great young cast with Anton Yelchin (Fright Night, Charlie Bartlett, Terminator Salvation and Star Trek) and Felicity Jones (Boat that Rocked, Chalet Girl) both starring as a young couple), The Devil Inside (One of those fake documentaries, this time about an exorcism... pretty disturbing teaser, won’t be one I’ll be seeing), the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 (usual scary as heck stuff, won’t be seeing this either) and Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol (cracking next instalment in the spy franchise, this time directed by the terrific Brad Bird, who directed the great trilogy of animated classics that are The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille... I may have seen this trailer numerous times but it’s fantastic fun and has a great cast, as well as Tom Cruise and the returning Simon Pegg as the techie guy, you have Jeremy Renner, Tom Wilkinson, Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost), amongst more international names... it looks explosive fun and should tick all the usual boxes: disguises, glamour, action and big locations and stunts).
(below: Tom Cruise goes for a leisurely climb in Mission Impossible 4)
Next up we had a good few minutes of footage from the upcoming Footloose remake, it looks pretty straightforward fare, the scene in question had a bunch of teens meeting up in a car park and having a boogie down to some R and B music, it should please it’s intended crowd and from the actual trailer, should be a pretty decent remake of the classic original, with Dennis Quaid taking the John Lithgow role as the preacher in a town where dancing has been outlawed after a dark incident in the town’s past. It’s hard to live up to such classic films (as a film later on in the day proves) but this could be a solid entry, whether I make the time to see it or not though is another question, will probably catch it on DVD and make my mind up... only because there are so many great films coming out. Speaking of which, the final two films on the agenda were an absolute treat, especially our first of the two!
We all loved Shrek, and a lot of us loved Shrek 2 even more, and a big part of the recipe to what made Shrek 2 so fantastic was the voice of Antonio Banderas portraying Puss in Boots, the loveable kitten swashbuckler... so it was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave him his own mission as is the thing with great standout characters (see Joey, spun off from Friends; Get Him to the Greek with Russell Brand’s Aldous Snow; Frasier from Cheers; granted a lot of these are on TV) so along comes the movie, nicely titled Puss in Boots, out December. The biggest treat of the movie therefore was getting to see the first ten minutes of the new movie, and I can gladly report that if the rest of the movie is as good, this could be one of the best animated movies ever! Dealing with the origin story of Mr. Puss, I won’t reveal much of what occurs, except there’s a big swordfight with a mysterious cat figure as well as encounter with Jack and Jill, two ruthless outlaws who are the focus of the main mission Puss must undertake, suffice to say there’s tons of great swashbuckling action, some fantastic cat related humour, brilliant animation and a hilarious cat who goes ‘Ohhhh’ in the funniest way imaginable.... what I will say is, wait till December and discover for yourself, I think it’s going to be huge!
The last bit of footage and all that we got from Paramount was an exclusive look at the big Spielberg movie for 2011, which he co-directed with Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) all the while directing his other movies and producing everything else that exists this year it seems (he had a hand in Cowboys and Aliens, Super 8, Transformers, and TV’s Terra Nova and Falling Skies, and directing War Horse for next year), it is of course (unless you didn’t know) The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, due out at the end of October. The footage we saw was pretty awesome, and I think it was 3D too, which is usually pretty cool. It was setting up the basic plot for the first bit and then a bit of the action, it all looks very exciting, and the performances of Andy Serkis (as Captain Haddock) and Jamie Bell as Tintin are pretty impressive too... the animation and style is utterly fantastic and I’m certainly pretty psyched to see what the film is like when it’s finally released later on....
That was it for Paramount’s epic showcase, it ended with a little clip rounding things up and hinting at future treats (Star Trek 2 got a huge whoop!) and then after a small break as always, it was onto the Lionsgate showcase. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, but a lot of the more interesting movies where part of this particular showcase, we started with a selection of clips from the upcoming war drama Coriolanus, the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes, which is also a war-based adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale of the same name. It stars Ralph Fiennes himself as the titular general, in a tale of war and drama. The clips were pretty impressive, utilising stunning sets, a great cast (also stars Gerard Butler, Brian Cox and Vanessa Redgrave) and the idea (stemming from Romeo and Juliet perhaps) of using Shakespeare’s original dialogue, it certainly looks a most impressive movie.
(below: Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler in Coriolanus)
After this we had a bunch of trailers, which included: Abduction (the new Taylor Lautner action movie, which despite a good cast including Alfred Molina and Jason Isaacs, looks pretty bobbins), 50/50 (a dark comedy drama about a young man and his battle with cancer, starring the superb Joseph Gordon Levitt alongside Seth Rogen and the beautiful Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Scott Pilgrim) which looks pretty terrific).
Warrior (A Rocky-style fighting flick with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as two brothers who wind up in the ring, great reviews and great word of mouth make this a must-see if I can get round to seeing it), and David Cronenberg’s newest film A Dangerous Method which deals with the relationship between Sigmund Freud (the fantastic Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (the also brilliant Michael Fassbender) and a very troubled young woman who comes between them, played by Keira Knightley, who could be turning in her best performance yet! I’ve loved Cronenberg and Mortensen’s last two works, History of Violence and Eastern Promises so am very very eager to see what they come up with next, and this looks utterly brilliant! Again there could be things from this showcase I forgot about but I think I covered everything....
(below: Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method)
It seems they saved the best for last, as, after a lovely little dinner break and one of the final jaunts around Studio City for some more goodies, it was time for the final session, courtesy of the good people of, drum roll, Disney! Yay! You all know how much I love Disney, and this didn’t disappoint, you could tell upon entering the Indigo theatre for the final time that it was special, as they had redecorated the place with posters for Disney’s upcoming slate, and they had a bit more security and special people around.
It was a great mix of proper panels, great footage and some straightforward trailers, amongst the trailers we had were The Help (A period drama set during the 1960’s that deals with the time when racial attitudes where changing, and one young lady (Emma Stone) wrote a book from the perspective of the maids who assisted in the houses, it’s already made huge money at the US box office and looks pretty good, so should be a hit here too!), the teaser trailer for Pixar’s next Brave (A fairytale set in Scotland with a largely Scottish cast about a young warrior princess and her adventures, more isn’t known about the basic plot as of yet, but it looks amazing as always with Pixar).
The Muppets (even more on it shortly, but a great funny trailer for possibly my most anticipated film due out at any point soon!), the 3D re-release of The Lion King (if you’ve read any previous blogs, you’ll know how much this movie means to me, as my favourite Disney movie and one of my all time favourite movies, so this is very special indeed and looks amazing!), plus the teaser sneak peek for The Avengers that was at the end of Captain America, as you probably know, The Avengers sees all the Marvel heroes team up to save the world as is due next Summer, get excited!!
The last trailer was for War Horse, and was not only introduced via video message by Spielberg himself, but we also had up and coming star Jeremy Irvine on stage for a brief Q+A before we viewed the extended trailer for it. Jeremy seemed a lovely young chap, and the trailer itself looks fantastic, great period detail, a decent cast and its Spielberg so you can expect quality in almost every aspect, this could be something very special indeed!
(below: Jeremy Irvine meets Chris Hewitt)
We had two more big panels for big movies before we finished, first up was director Shawn Levy to talk through a handful of superb scenes from his upcoming robot movie Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman. It’s set in the near future (as always) where boxing has become far from a human sport, it’s fought by robots. An ex-boxer (Jackman) is doing well as the controller of robots who win fights, but when he becomes down on his luck, he needs a miracle to get back on his game, which is when he finds an old robot in a junkyard and sets about getting it to work and to get back in the game, with the child of young Max. The clips we saw were pretty impressive, melding drama and spectacle to excellent effect and Levy himself was a superb character and a great presence during the panel, if his enthusiasm is matched by the movie’s action and drama, this should be not only a huge hit but one of the Autumn’s finest blockbusters.
(below: Director Shawn Levy with the robot star of Real Steel, not the lady)
Last but not least was the turn of director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and the favourite-of-mine that is Wall-E) to introduce a ton of magnificent footage from his next feature John Carter, he wasn’t on stage just a video message, due out next Easter. Footage was in excellent 3D and looks absolutely terrific... it concerns John Carter (Taylor Kitsch who previously played Gambit in the misguided Wolverine spin off) a young man in Victorian London who via plot machinations that are unknown to me, winds up on Mars where he encounters aliens, barbarians and all sorts of strange creatures and species.
After being taken captive, he escapes to save a princess (Lynn Collins, also from Wolverine) who needs saving (as you do) and befriends an alien warrior named Tars Tarkas (voice of Willem Dafoe). The effects here are out of this world (literally) and the landscapes and creatures look immense, no surprise given Stanton’s track record with two of Pixar’s best, whilst the support cast are suitably fantastic with everyone’s favourite Mark Strong, as well as Dominic West (The Wire, 300), Bryan Cranston (in every film out soon), James Purefoy (Solomon Kane, Ironclad), Ciaran Hinds (Aberforth in Deathly Hallows Part II, Tinker Tailor), Thomas Haden Church (Sideways, Easy A), and Jonathan Hyde (not seen in much since The Mummy sadly), if all goes right and with Stanton at the helm it should, this could be a huge treat and amongst 2012’s most impressive treats....
(below: The fantastic landscape of John Carter)
After this session cleared out, it was straight back into the Indigo queue for the most anticipated event of the whole weekend (bar two certain movie premieres)... it was time to play the music, time to dim the lights, it was most certainly time to meet the Muppets on the, well not the Muppet show, but a very cool live link up with New York!
Yes, live from the States via a pretty well working satellite link up was director James Bobin, and the one and only Kermit the Frog, ready to talk about all things, not least the impending Muppet comeback with The Muppets, due out in February and easily my most anticipated movie yet, eat that Bruce Wayne! As well as some fleeting crowd-pleasing appearances by everyone from Miss Piggy (usual high demands plus Chris Hewitt gave her a damehood, if that’s what it’s called) to Fozzie (teller of the world’s worst yet strangely funny joke) and of course, Animals (loud noises!), there was a very great clip from the movie featuring one of Kermit’s big musical numbers, which was not only terrific but also made me shed a few tears, so great! As much as I loved this event, I can’t remember that many of the questions now, except for the one guy who shocked the auditorium by suggesting that Kermit was old and ‘past it’... how dare you!! But it was a very fun, very joyous wish fulfilment... even if they weren’t there in person, it was terrific and possibly my favourite part of the whole weekend (though Puss in Boots footage was a strong contest!)....
(below: James Bobin, Miss Piggy and Kermit)
After that joyous rainbow of fun, it was time for decent sized break before the next event, so a bit more Studio City and Hollywood Boulevard and what not, and then to try and get into the next event which seemed really difficult despite having tickets, true when we started to queue (if that’s the word for it) it hadn’t started but with the tremendous queues for screenings of The Guard, the premiere of Conan (with star Jason Mamoa visible slightly as he entered the 02 flanked by guards and sauntered up the stairs to the Cineworld screen of choice, surely Conan needs no protection!) and The Help were huge so to present tickets for the pretty quaint in comparison Kim Newman’s Horror Quiz would be easy surely, just a quick ‘Go that way’ sort of job? No! Firstly, they had no idea what ‘Kim’s Quiz’ was at first, despite the tickets saying it, and the fact it was their job to know what was going on... and they just made us wait to the side, once we finally got in, it had already started and we’d missed a round, thanks 02 staff... hint for next time: now where you are and what’s going on please!
(below: Kim Newman hosts his big horror quiz!)
It was a pretty good quiz too, and in fairness we only missed a round where you had to fill in the missing letters for film titles, like Horror Hangman without any hanging strangely for a horror quiz... the remaining rounds were on things like Fourquels (fourth film in the series), Before they were Famous (horror movies with stars before they were big) and general Horror questions in general... I did much much better than I thought I would but of course I didn’t win, but I really enjoyed the quiz, much more than I expected given that when I booked it was the only film at the time that fit in with everything else.... now though it was back to the hotel, so Dale could pack his stuff away and get ready to cross the road to the station later, he decided not to stay for the big Sunday night attraction, saving his pennies and heading back on the train we had originally booked, which wouldn’t be feasible if we stayed for the big event, but he could get back to in plenty of time now, while I booked a cheap train ticket the Monday morning with a straightforward extra night at the hotel sorted too. So he packed up and waiting to head off and I got changed and sauntered back to the 02 for the big finale...
So off I headed back to the 02 for one last time, only rather than taking my time, I decided to do the old rush and get yourself in a tired heap approach, mainly because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t at the back of the inevitable huge queue... thankfully when I did get there, even though I was further back I was still ahead of a lot of people so wasn’t too bad... finally getting up the stairs at the last minute as they seemed to do with these things, I wound up diverting from my direction to queue for a Hot Dog, well I wanted my tea whilst I watched this final event so why not?
Only to find out after 10 minutes of queuing and being close to late for entering the screen, they didn’t have them, so I grabbed a coke and made my way to the screen, drinks and sweets would have to do... so that was a very annoying delay, only to find I’d now need to head downstairs, so further delays, I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad, I just get easily agitated once the time of something starting has passed.... but thankfully after rushing myself in a tizz downstairs, and actually getting a not bad seat towards the front of Sky’s Superscreen (woo, great screen of course!), I finally settled down to enjoy the evening (and possibly the weekend’s) big attraction, the UK 3D premiere of a new and very cool horror movie, which was hosted by none other than Mr. David Tennant, a star of this very movie... thankfully everything was running a little late too, as was often the case over the weekend, and after a great introduction from Chris Hewitt as always, David ran to the stage, delivered a very cool and funny intro to the movie and then ran off again (presumably to the next screen for the other premieres of the film taking place!), it was indeed, time for Fright Night!
(below: David Tennant introduces the premiere of Fright Night)
Yes indeedy, tonight’s movie premiere was the UK premiere of the new 80’s remake Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Toni Collete, Christopher Mintz Plasse (McLovin!) and Imogen Poots aswell as Mr Tennant himself. For those not in the know who are just plain missing out, the 1985 comedy horror classic Fright Night concerns a young man named Charlie Brewster, he lives a fairly normal life, has a nice girlfriend Amy who he has an up and down relationship with, as well as his strange best friend ‘Evil’ Ed. One day, new neighbours move in, but something isn’t right, people are going missing, and Charlie suspects that new neighbour Jerry Dandridge (played originally by the wonderful Chris Sarandon, who has a brief (I even missed it) cameo in the new version) is a vampire, but of course, no one believes him... so a bit foolishly he sets out to gain the help of TV vampire ‘expert’ Peter Vincent, who hosts the midnight TV show Fright Night, where he introduces cheesy horror films and talks of his ‘exploits’... of course Mr Vincent isn’t a real vampire expert, and at first throws away such talk, but eventually after a shocking discovery, Charlie and Peter must team up to stop Jerry and save their friends and the neighbourhood, and so on....
(below: Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night 1985)
It’s a 80’s classic, and manages to be both pretty darn creepy and pretty funny at the same time, it’s nothing perfect but its terrific fun and has two great characters in Jerry and Peter, plus a decent lead in Charlie and a memorable sidekick in Ed. The effects are great fun, and it’s all very 80’s and very enjoyable... a remake has got a lot of work to match it, though it’ll need to update it. Thankfully, while never getting near to surpassing the original, the new Fright Night is a whole ton of fun too, and while neither outstrips their predecessor, all the characters are great again... Tennant is terrifically funny as Peter Vincent, this time a Vegas stage magician with a back story in the occult, and this time whilst still a bit of a fraud at first, he has a darker back story and steps up to the plate a lot quicker than McDowell’s Vincent... though part of the fun with the original was how scaredy Peter was, and then the surprise of him stepping up to the plate at the end, but the new angle is pretty good and is one of the strongest things in this in my opinion...
(below: David Tennant as Peter Vincent in Fright Night 2011)
Colin Farrell is great fun as Jerry too, much more scary and vicious than the original, he’s really smooth and charming even if he goes into attack mode far too quickly. But he’ll never beat the perfect blend of charm and menace that Sarandon exuded... Farrell just goes far too quickly into menace, and whilst he’s charming doing it, it’s not subtle enough... whilst Yelchin is great as Charlie, Plasse is strong as Ed though his character is a bit different here too, he follows down the same plotlines but isn’t as out there as in the original, whilst the other support is strong too. The effects are again great fun, if never quite as fun as the 80’s ones, and the 3D is put to pretty decent use even if the 3D in the end is disposable because the film is far too dark to wear those darn glasses in, you can’t see nothing! So that’s Fright Night, the new version, an excellent remake if never quite as strong as the original... I’d say go and see it, but it’s been and gone, clearly audiences don’t like scary vampires anymore, they just want to flock and see boring vampires who mope around and can’t act anything other than stoned.... ah well, catch Fright Night on DVD when it’s out, and for now, catch up with the fantastic original, it’s truly a scream, haha!
(below: Colin Farrell as Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night 2011)
So after the movie had finished, that was it... I wanted something to eat first and foremost since not being able to grab that Hot Dog I truly desired, so whilst simultaneously wandering around the 02 and taking a good last look at everything, I had a quick look if there was anywhere good to pick up a snack, didn’t want to stop in a restaurant cause it was late and had to be up in the morning plus still needed to pack, so didn’t want to stop around that long. So after saying my mental goodbye’s to the surroundings of the 02 arena, I headed back on a very meaningful walk to the hotel... walking slowly past all the favourite places on the riverside walk, taking it in because seriously when will you do this again before next year... I stopped at McDonalds on the way back for some food and finally got back to the hotel, packed what needed to be packed, had my late night tea, watched some TV, read some books and magazines briefly, did loads of pondering and thinking as you do when by yourself (which was strange, I was used to being in the room with Dale and now even though I had the whole bed to myself and could chill even more, it felt weird and I pondered for ages for some reason) and then it was off to a nice long sleep....
Monday August 15th
Well this was it, time to head home... had a mini lie in but still had to get up and go, because my train from Euston was not long after 10am... so up and out at 9am after all packing done, had a mini breakfast of some mini crepes and milk, and off out across the road to Charlton train station, said my mental farewell’s to my surroundings (especially the gorgeous 02 which I could see in the distance, you can probably see it from anywhere!!) and then hoped on the train to London Bridge, where I then bounced down to the Underground to catch the tube to Euston.
Got to Euston, lumbering my bags around as you do (I now also had an Empire gift bag in addition to my suitcase and backpack, fun times!) and since I had a little bit of time, I grabbed a few things from WHSmith and then waited for my train home, and then leapt onboard (well not literally, loads of bags remember!) and headed back to Manchester Piccadilly. It was a nice and pleasant journey home, plenty of music, reading my glee book, watching some trailers on my iPod, this and that. I got back to Manchester, and made a dash to the train to Newton which was pretty swiftly timed after my arrival in Manchester (I checked and planned this online the night before via my phone, ah technology!) and then made my way back to Newton swiftly, where my mum picked me up and I headed home.... chilled a lot, watched plenty of catch up TV (How I Met Your Mother series finale, awesome and intriguing!) and had some soup, and just chilled more whilst unpacking and telling my tales and showing my photos... and that’s the end of the saga of Empire presents BIG SCREEN! (as Chris Hewitt so eloquently put it, you need to shout BIG SCREEN when you say it).
It was a fantastic weekend as you read, full of fantastic footage, great events, excellent stars and directors and producers, fantastic fun, some groovy stuff and just a tiring yet fun time all over... I’m going to stop talking now as this is the longest blog in existence, I’ll even be surprised if they let me fit all this.... WORD LIMIT EXCEEDED!
You stay classy.... Planet Earth! X
