We might not be at Comic-Con, but we got some people on the ground floor, thank you very much (we ain’t fucking flying out there). A report from Reiko Takara:
For not being a fan of Kevin Smith’s movies, he was actually pretty funny. He and Judd Apatow totally carried the panel with Zach Synder only adding in here and there and Frank Miller practically asleep in his chair. All the questions were dumb and no one got news, but at least they were amusing.
Question: How do you guys feel about audience testing?
“I like to see how much penis you can show before you walk out of the room” – Judd Apatow
“I go with my gut but sometimes my gut has proved me wrong. My gut said, ‘Do Jersey Girl, they’re come with you.” My gut was wrong.” – Kevin Smith (in response to if listens to audience testing or goes with his instincts)
“Geek culture is here to stay- thank god for Quentin Tarantino.” – Kevin Smith
“I try to give you want you ask for and what you don’t know you want.”- Frank Miller (about caring what the online world is saying)
Question: Do all the studio bigwigs still have you guys by the balls?
“By the balls”- Zack Synder
“I might have them by the balls”- Judd Apatow
“One ball”- Kevin Smith
“Seth Rogen is the most brilliant ad libber. Really really great at it. I got lucky with that guy. You (points to Judd) got really, really lucky with that guy.” – Kevin Smith
“I don’t know how to move the camera. I remember when Adam McKay and I were working on ‘Anchorman’ and we went to go see ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ I remember saying we just stumbled into the coolest fucking movie. There is nothing in that movie I can do.”- Judd Apatow (on if he would try his hand at the sci-fi genre)
Question: Who are your filmmaking influences?
Kevin Smith: “Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley.”
Judd Apatow: “Kevin Smith, I saw ‘Clerks’ and said you can actually do *that*…but then there are others like Hal Ashby, Cameron Crowe…”
Kevin Smith: “Dude, say that shit in print.”
The most random question/answer in the world: Kevin Smith, what did you think about “Superman Returns”?
“I like Bryan Singer a lot. I was just hoping the Superman movie would be a lot more gayer then it was. I am all for the Reboot. It’s the year one movie. I heard Bryan mention that the sequel would be more ‘Wrath of Khan’ and that’s the way to go. I say, I’m all for it. ‘X-Men 2’ is one of the best comic book movies I have ever seen [pause]… so is it that my work doesn’t interest me but your opinion on others work does?” – Kevin Smith
RE: ” Watchmen”; everyone is going apeshit for it here, it’s the talk of Comic-Con so far
– Kevin Smith kept mentioning it.
– Zach said the will be putting together an ultimate Watchmen DVD that would include transitions in and out of “Tales of the Black Freighter” (the story within the story) that he would weave in and out of a giant movie.
– Said Gerald Butler would be the voice of ‘Freighter’s Sea Captain for the DVD which confirms this story.
– Snyder said when he was sent the script of the ‘Watchmen’ video game it was “the dorkiest script I have ever seen.” He tried to re write it to make it, more true to the graphic novel.
Some ‘Spirit’ thoughts soon, but people were pretty much bored and disinterested in anything Frank Miller had to show or offer.
Some of the Watchmen panel at Comic-Con is up now.