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It’s been a busy first day at Comic-Con 2012, with such cinematic legends as Tim Burton, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger all gracing the Hall H stage.
But the highlight of the day was the Disney presentation, which treated us to brief sneak peeks at two of the studio’s most anticipated upcoming tentpoles.
First up was Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great And Powerful , a prequel of sorts that follows James Franco’s wizard as he goes from wily trickster to noble protector of Emerald City.
The trailer starts out in black-and-white 4:3, but transitions into glorious, technicolour widescreen as Franco’s con artist is sucked into a tornado and winds up in the wonderful world of Oz.
From there, we get a first look at the film’s three witches – as played by Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz – as well as a menagerie of creatures: from razor-toothed pixies and moving china dolls to snappy mutant plants and, of course, flying monkeys.
“It’s different than anything I’ve ever done,” Raimi told us. “I’ve never done a family picture, but I loved the screenplay.” And while the trailer – which you can see below – doesn’t show any hint of a Bruce Campbell cameo, Raimi confirmed that his one-time Ash will indeed play a small part…
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There was also a surprise preview of Gore Verbinski’s Lone Ranger , featuring Armie Hammer as the titular hero and Johnny Depp (here reteaming with the Pirates Of The Caribbean director) as his Native American sidekick, Tonto.
Despite a lack of plot detail and only brief glimpses of stars Hammer, Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, the trailer featured plenty of slow motion, gunslinging action and showed off a spectacular, train-chase set-piece that hinted Verbinski may well have got the budget he wanted after all.
In short? A typical Jerry Bruckheimer production that looks like it could be a lot of fun. Here’s hoping Verbinski and Depp can pull off another surprise summer charmer.
