Some highlights from the Joss Whedon/JJ Abrams panel at Comic-Con
Asked what his take on the movie would be, he quipped, “I have to have a take? It is a little early. I’m still writing it. I’m in that stage of reworking and reworking and reworking. I will say this. The thing that I love about it, the thing that made me do it was just how completely counter-intuitive it is. It makes no sense. These people should not even be in the same room together, let alone in the same team. And that to me is the very definition of family.”
Meanwhile JJ Abrams, who was sharing the stage as part of Entertainment Weekly ’s “Visionaries” panel, was being similarly coy about his own upcoming collaboration with Steven Spielberg, Super 8 , pointing out that the film had even begun shooting yet, despite the fact that there is a trailer.
“Someone will go to the theatre and see the trailer and hopefully say, ‘That looks bitching’ and have no idea they’re starring in it.”
He was vehement, though, that the film would not be shot in 3D (well, it would be daft with a title like that), but Whedon wasn’t quite so dismissive of cinema’s latest fad: “Honestly, I’m totally into it,” he reckoned, before adding, “There are definitely movies that shouldn’t be in 3D… like Cabin In The Wood .”
Which sparked question, will we ever get to see this horror film, directed by Drew Goddard and written by Whedon. “I dunno!” shrugged Whedon. “The fate of the studio that has the movie is in flux. I mean, they’ve put James Bond on hold and I don’t think we come before him.
“The 3D thing came about because they looked at the schedules are went, ‘Oh my God every horror movie is going to be in 3D! And so we should convert it.’ And that may still happen. But Drew shot something very specifically in a classical mode. We were studying John Carpenter and how he did suspense, and he crafted something almost a little old fashioned. So what we’re hoping to do is come out as the only horror movie that is not in 3D. The poster will boast, ‘2D. You will see things move across the screen.’”
If it ever gets released, anyway…
Whedon also claims that work has pretty much ground to halt on the Doctor Horrible sequel (mainly because every involved is so busy) and that another web project he was planning has also been sidelined.
“I was just on the cusp of getting something – and I don’t even know if this is something that I have ever mentioned this in public at all – but I was starting to work on an internet piece with Warren Ellis called Wastelanders , which I was going to direct.”
Finally, Whedon paid tribute to Abrams with praise that got the Trek directed all embarrassed.
“I have had actual moments of sheer f**king panic because I love Star Trek so damned much. I honestly watch it and I go this is the absolute gold standard for a team movie, for a summer movie.”
