TNMC

The 20th Century Fox panel included clips and a Q & A for Alien vs. Predator, a preview of Elektra, and a Q & A with the director and cast of the upcoming Fantastic Four.

20^th Century Fox Panel

 

As the final presenters on Saturday, 20^th Century Fox was ready to bring out the big guns to wow the massive crowd.  The films covered by the film studio included Alien vs. Predator, Elektra, and The Fantastic Four.

 

The studio began with Alien vs. Predator, bringing out Lance Henrickson (Bishop), the movie’s heroine Sanaa Lathan (Alexa Woods) and the FX specialists.  They showed a few clips, most of which were just interactions between Henrickson’s and Lathan’s characters.  Not really a lot there to be honest.  Just simple plot set up and character shading.

 

The real meat came in the first showdown between the lead predator and an alien.  The clip began with two predator’s bullying the humans around.  As one predator begins choking the life from our hero, the other slowly stalks our heroine.  Of course, before it can actually harm her, an alien lurking an upper shelf unfurls its tail and spears the predator through the chest.  The helpless predator (whoever thought you’d hear that) is lifted into a face to face meeting with the alien.  The predator is then introduced to the alien’s smaller head.  The rest is one dead predator, and a highly disturbing meatphor for the Alien creatures now that I think about it.

 

Hearing this, the lead predator unsheathes his claws and springs at the alien who returns the battle with equal glee.  What followed is a hell of a CGI and animatronics/stunt fight.  Paul Anderson, the director of the film, stressed that he wanted to keep the action sequences as real as possible, so the majority of the action is performed by stunt men and hydraulic animatronics.  It shows in the slightly more real feeling in the scene.  And why Anderson does seem to suffer from Michael Bay disease (jump cutting your way through a fight without actually showing anything substantial), he keeps his impulses mostly under control for smoother and kick ass fight sequence.  It was definitely enough to raise my appreciation for the film.

 

In the Q & A session that followed, the tech guys revealed that some of the Predator’s weapons have been updated and made more powerful.  In addition, they refitted the Alien Queen who will play a much bigger role in this film.  In other words, momma is going to kick some ass.

 

For Henrickson, the ability to play the character who would one day create the character he first played in the Alien universe (that kind of made sense) was too sweet to pass up.  It gave him a great feeling of completing the circle.

 

For Lathan, this was her first chance to take the lead role in a major studio film.  She’s been in such films as Blade, The Wood, Out of Time, and Love & Basketball, but never in the lead role.  She came across as somewhat stunned by the whole thing, but looks to keep the tradition of a strong Alien heroine alive.

 

The only other tidbit worth mentioning is that the studio rep mentioned that should this film be successful, sequels would most likely result.

 

After wrapping up Alien vs. Predator, out strolled Avi Arad.  Arad is the current film producer for Marvel studios.  He began by showing a small clip of the upcoming Elektra film, introed by Jennifer Garner, which has just wrapped principle shooting.  The film is looking at a January release.  A small teaser was shown then.  For the most part, it looks like any standard wire fu flick that’s out there these days, highlighted perhaps by the fact that it stars an unbelievably smoking hottie in Garner (who is wearing red this time around to appease the fanboys).  The plot involves her training under Stick (Terrence Stamp) and the introduction of the ninja organization known as the Hand.

 

The panel concluded by bringing out the director of The Fantastic Four (Tim Story) and three of the cast members;  Ioan Gruffudd who is playing Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba who is playing The Invisible Woman, and Michael Chiklis who is playing the Thing.  Chris Evans who is playing The Human Torch was unable to make it.  Chiklis immediately won over the crowd by walking out with a Thing action figure and declaring that it was clobbering time.

 

The majority of the panel seemed to revolve around clearing up and correcting internet rumors and misquotes that had been circling around.  Tim Story is basing the script off a combination of the mainstream Marvel universe and the new Ultimate one.  The character of Dr. Doom is close to being cast.  And his name will be Victor Von Doom.  Story conveyed that he realizes just how strong a character Doom is, and promised to do “the greatest villain of all time his proper justice.”

 

Arad then took the time to clear up any misquotes he might have had.  When he said the Fantastic Four was like a sitcom, he only meant that in the jovial tone between the squabbling super family.  There will be plenty of drama and pathos and seriousness brought to the screen.  Chiklis in particular emphasized that he was eager to dip into the Reed/Ben dynamic that comes with turning your best friend into a monster.

 

In regards to the Thing, it will not be a CGI creation.  They are creating a special suit for Chiklis and will use trick photography, but Story was adamant about having an actor play the character.  And Chiklis wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

Shooting will begin shortly for a summer 2005 release.