It was the last day of Comic-Con, and I think the place was getting to me. Truly. The day's a little nippy and there's a hint of sadness permeating the place with the geeks thinning out, the halls feeling colder and emptier and even (gasp!) the die-hard freaks appearing to grow weary (come on! Where's my Joker-faced girls at? Joker-faced girls!). And yet, I'm still feeling a bit obsessed. After last night's column in which I pondered the difference between Lycans and Werewolves (a smart guy in the production office told me there's no difference; it's some fancy Latin root ... whatever), I actually had a dream about explaining the distinction to, of all people, Benicio Del Toro (which makes sense since I saw him speak on "The Wolfman" panel Friday.) So, yes, indeed, I dreamt that I was arguing with Mr. Del Toro that his Wolfman was in fact, a Lycan (he kept rambling on all Fenster-like about how Lycans can be feline and that I was crazy ... and then we made out. OK, that didn't happen.) Anyway, not a bad reverie with Mr. Del Toro, even if we were arguing, but it only proves that this place is so all-consuming that it's actually seeping into my dream state. Ah yes, the power of movies. Or insanity. Not sure. Regardless, it's been quite a trip, this Comic-Con adventure, and I've grown more charmed every day. The morning of Sunday being no exception, especially when you drink your coffee with the likes of Paul W.S. Anderson, Jason Statham, Natalie Martinez, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen and (swoon) Ian McShane (the greatest mother**king actor who's ever appeared on TV -- that's for all you Deadwood fans). That's right; I'm talking about Death Race interviews .
Now, I absolutely venerate the Paul Bartel-directed, Roger Corman-produced, David Carradine-starring cult classic Death Race 2000, so I was curious to know why director Paul W.S. Anderson decided to change the picture so radically. Instead of a future blood sport in which drivers rack up points for killing innocent bystanders (way more subversive), the Resident Evil director set the movie in a futuristic maximum-security prison in which the world watches prisoners (on TV) commit all kinds of creative vehicular manslaughter. It's like Mad Max meets The Truman Show meets The Running Man (without Richard Dawson, regretfully). But Anderson assured me that he loved the original and that this movie serves as a kind of prequel to the Bartel/Corman picture. "It is part of reimagining a property like this. If we're lucky enough to make a sequel, we'll get to the evolution of the points, what was leading up to what Roger Corman's movie represented." Hmmm ... sequel in the works? Nevertheless, the director continued to impress the gear-head in me by discussing his reason for not using CG effects, and then rattled off some of his favorite, great, car movies: "I grew up watching Vanishing Point, Two-Lane Blacktop, The Driver, Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway, Bullitt. When you see movies like The Getaway, those movies gave you a visceral thrill because they were real ... you see those cars crunching into one another, there's no CG sh*t flying off the cars, it's real, and the physics are real, and that's the kind of movie I wanted to make."
He went on to discuss some deeper issues, something that the genius named Ian McShane (he went from this movie and did a play by Harold Pinter!) would strongly disagree with. He called Death Race a "boy's wet dream movie": "[Death Race] is a film to make a lot of money. They want a lot of people to watch it and have a good time. These films are written fairly delineated in ways that are black and white and you are meant to be distracted by the sheen ... I'm not dissing the movie at all ... that's what Hollywood films are about -- let's face it, they're not about nuanced problems." Well said, Al Swearengen ... er Mr. McShane. Oh yes, and which actor would he like to most work with in the future? Nick Nolte, he told me. Ian McShane officially rules. But then, to make the morning go to 11, my heart went all auto-erotic when Jason Statham (who drives a white 208 GT2 Porsche) rhapsodized over American muscle cars. When I told him I drove a 1971 Torino with a 351 Cleveland, he leaned closer to me and asked with that distinctive Statham voice: "Where's your keys? You don't want to lend that to me on the weekend." (Uh ... go ahead and take the keys, Mr. Statham, as long as I'm in the passenger seat.) So yeah, this was a pretty damn good morning. Sadly it had to lead to Camp Crystal Lake ...
Freaky "Friday"
A morning that magnificent cannot last -- of course -- especially when you're next listening to a panel discuss the remake of Friday the 13th. OK, so it's not as bad as butchering the brilliant horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but producers Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, star Jared Padalecki and the new Jason Voorhees and Derek Mears were all there, explaining why this version would be better than the original. Right. Michael Bay produced it. After showing us a teaser trailer in which the creepy Jason music played (that's always nice to hear), I was still unconvinced. And then actor Padalecki bragged about how this movie is much more realistic and grittier by saying, "There's a whole new level of scare. It's not just the slow-moving-walking-guy whose out to get us. It's like the difference between fighting a hippo and fighting a lion." Um, did you just compare the original Jason Voorhees to a hippo? Shame on you! And shame on the producers for working with a guy who's remaking not only this movie, but The Birds and Rosemary's Baby as well. Seriously, I was tempted to walk up to the question microphone and just tell them to STOP with this nonsense already. But then I was encouraged by a legend, God bless him ...
Read on as Wes Craven might help save horror films, David Goyer, not so much. And of course, extra doses of Werewolves and Lycans...right here.
Read more Kim Morgan at Sunset Gun.