It's a salacious headline, but it's all true. During the Friday-headlining Warner Bros. panel - the most star-studded one yet this year - Hall H was packed with fan girls and boys wild about the first trailer for the new Nightmare on Elm Street, the Jonah Hex red band trailer (featuring not one, but two Megan Fox nude shots), and its star Josh Brolin, who embraced the sheer nerdiness of Comic-Con and its denizens, winning over thousands with deadpan amusement. Meanwhile, during Richard Kelly's presentation of The Box, we wondered aloud: Did Cameron Diaz just give away HUGE plot spoilers? Read on for more.
Richard Kelly
Hours before previewing his latest film, The Box, in front of thousands in Hall H, director Richard Kelly spoke exclusively with Rotten Tomatoes in an early morning interview. He shared with us his Five Favorite Films and spoke further about The Box, adapted from a Richard Matheson short story. In it, Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as a married couple circa 1976 given an opportunity by a mysterious stranger (Frank Langella, missing half his face thanks to CG): Push a button, and receive $1 million. The catch: in pushing the button, you'd cause the death of a stranger.
In a beachfront hotel adjacent to the convention hall, Kelly told us that The Box was the most personal film he's made to date - a significant note when you consider his first film was Donnie Darko. Discussing his notorious sophomore feature, Southland Tales, Kelly had no regrets; he even plans to make a longer Director's Cut, and further expand the film's universe. (Read more in our full Five Favorite Films with Richard Kelly piece.)
At the public panel for The Box, Kelly shared a new trailer. Where the first teaser trailer left me feeling iffy at best, the new clip was much tighter and revealed more of a sense of 1950's-era suspense, which is seemingly exactly what Kelly was going for. The new footage shows more of a division between Diaz and Marsden's characters; she pushes the button almost without hesitation, and subsequently they appear to suffer the consequences together.
While this new, arguably truer trailer was a vast improvement over the first teaser, it still retained an air of mystery. (A common trait in Kelly films that pose questions but seldom reveal answers.) That welcome kind of ambiguity fell by the wayside as star Diaz took the mike. [SPOILER ALERT]
"Richard had to throw in guys from Mars," Diaz enthused, revealing that the underlying theme of The Box is otherworldly. The titular box is, it would seem, an alien object used to "test humanity" with a moral, existential challenge. So, the mysterious Arlington Steward (Langella) is working for aliens to see if humans are inherently greedy? Thanks, Cameron.
[END SPOILERS]
Zoe Bell
Between chatting with Kelly and watching The Box footage, we nabbed time with stuntwoman-turned-actress Zoe Bell, who got her start stunt doubling for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess before joining the chummy fold of Quentin Tarantino. The New Zealand native was a delight; look for her Five Favorite Films this week, along with details on her first feature vehicle, Angel of Death. (Zoe Bell as an assassin? Sign us up.)
Where the Wild Things Are
If you (like us) missed the extensive footage from Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are presentation, fear not; it's online for your viewing pleasure. Buzz from the panel was that it was magical; some grown men even admitted to crying. See for yourself!
Next: The new Freddy Krueger revealed, Jonah Hex's sexy, supernatural trailer, and Sherlock Holmes
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Thefear77 writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:19 PM my balls itch (Reply to this) |
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IBelieveInHarveyDent writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:21 PM You taunt us with a Megan Fox sex scene and make it impossible to get to page 2. I believe this is what is refered to as "hell". (Reply to this) |
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Cuban Raft Rider writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:35 PM No page 2???!?!?! WHYYYYYYYYYY! (Reply to this) |
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Big Freeze writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:41 PM what a cruel joke. i despise you Jen Yamato. (Reply to this) |
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Floor Man writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:52 PM WTF. (Reply to this) |
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Tyrant writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:57 PM haha, what a mean joke :P (Reply to this) |
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Tyrant writes: on Jul 24 2009 09:59 PM Hmm, now that i tried it, it actually works fine for me. I pity the foo who can't go to page 2. (Not exactly missing much, by the way) (Reply to this) |
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Floor Man writes: on Jul 24 2009 10:04 PM Ah, there we go. (Reply to this) |
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ledawg1138 writes: on Jul 24 2009 10:12 PM I got to page two! hahahahah. Man, she looks like a bloodsucker...ledawg likey. (Reply to this) |
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martinscorsese25 writes: on Jul 24 2009 11:14 PM this will be the most viewed article in Rotten Tomatoes, for sure! (Reply to this) |
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SuckitBaby writes: on Jul 24 2009 11:17 PM While I agree with Thefear77, Jen... Yesterday you promised to report on the disappointments at Comic-Con in your headline yet failed to say anything negative about what you saw. Now you promise Megan Fox nudity and proceed to talk Enou (Reply to this) |
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Nicole L. writes: on Jul 25 2009 12:10 AM In reply to this comment (#2530535) We are on page 2, that is why you can't click on it, but you can click on page 1.... meaning we are on page 2. (Reply to this) |
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alex w. writes: on Jul 25 2009 01:27 AM a fan at comic con asks megan fox a very sexual question, and gets dragged away by htt (Reply to this) |
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tfortier writes: on Jul 25 2009 03:04 AM Watson punching Holmes in the face, yeah yeah yeah bull****. At least the Arsene Lupin novel had the decency to change Holmes name to Herlock Sholmes. This is a parody, nothing more. (Reply to this) |
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R writes: on Jul 25 2009 03:35 AM "Director Sam Bayer went as far as to compare his Nightmare to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins reboot." ... Sure the 5th & 6th movies may have been horrible (haven't seen them), Wes Craven was able to redeem them with the concluding 7th movie. Unlike Batman where Joel Schumacher changed everything so that in order to redeem it the only way was to start over. (Reply to this) |
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martinscorsese25 writes: on Jul 25 2009 05:51 AM on another topic other than Megan Fox... i wish Spike Jonze directed "Synecdoche, New York" first. i think there's a better film hidden there somewhere that would have been "clear" in the hands of a director that knows how to translate kaufmann's amazing ideas on screen. too bad Kaufman try to do too much. yeah i know some people "got it", but it took them repeated viewings to get it. and that's not what a film should really be. kaufman's take on films is that they are recordings, that should reveal something after repeated viewings. though i agree that that should be the case, i also think atleast you should show something "clear" in the first viewing. it is unfair for us viewers to watch a film for like 10 times just to get it. plus, the fun in watching Kaufman's written films are gone in "Synecdoche, New York". his films, though weird, are very very entertaining(Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine). i just wish Spike Jonze had waited to make his pet project. and as for Kaufman, if he directs again, please, let us enjoy ur next film. don't make another (Reply to this) |
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Azrael 725 writes: on Jul 25 2009 09:11 AM Page 2 worked perfectly fine for me. Oh, and IBelieveInHarveyDent, the 'taunt' WAS on page 2. (Reply to this) |
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Jen Yamato writes: on Jul 25 2009 10:14 AM Fellas, fellas. Back nudity is nudity, yes? And while I didn't go too far in description, because this is a family site and all, it wasn't just some Angelina Jolie-in-Wanted naked back (though their tattoed backs do look similar). She was...astride, if you will. If they keep in the full scene (this was only a glimpse in the trailer) I imagine many boys will leave the theater happy. Disappointments so far: it seems almost more subdued than last year. Can't quite put my finger on it. Even seems to be fewer cos-players than normal, but we'll see today - it's Masquerade Ball night! (Reply to this) |
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Anthony M. writes: on Jul 25 2009 10:15 AM um, did cameron really say all that, or was it supposed to be a joke? im confused, cause no one is that stupid. (Reply to this) |
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planetawesome writes: on Jul 25 2009 01:20 PM In reply to this comment (#2530625) Yeah, was Richard Kelly's reaction a facepalm? (Reply to this) |
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