CON: The Grudge

THE GRUDGE PANEL:

Participants:
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Jason Behr

The film stars:
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Jason Behr
Clea DuVall
Bill Pullman
William Mapother

Release date:
October 22, 2004

THE GRUDGE: OR HOW I LEARNED NOTHING ABOUT THE FILM AND LOVE THE GELLAR. Yup, as I suspected, most “movie fans” at this panel threw a shitload of ROSWELL and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER at this duo throughout the Q&A and the end result was us learning next to nothing about this Japanese horror remake, originally titled JU-ON.  Simply put, the panel sucked. Why the studio did not have a moderator there instead to question the duo about the film is beyond me. I understand this convention is for fans but this appearance was for THE GRUDGE goddamnit! Buffy is over, it’s in the past, let’s move on!!

Before it began, we saw a new trailer, edited by Sam Raimi that pretty much gave me the same vibes THE RING had given me back in 2002. The cockroach walk and creepy infant boy were, as always, the highlights. Luckily, a few of us got to meet Gellar and Behr beforehand and ask them a few movie-related questions. Gellar seemed genuinely excited about this film and looked cuter than I ever imagined she would. She had just returned from re-shoots 6 days earlier. Behr is a cool guy but didn’t make an impression on me one way or another. As far as I’m concerned, he just exists. He was going all out with that bubblegum in his mouth though – a wise choice to make him come off cool and relaxed in front of thousands of fans. Unfortunately, something tells me he might’ve nailed Katherine Heigl on the set of ROSWELL back in the day and I wouldn’t have minded hearing about that. But it was not to be.

This following is what we learned…

• This is the first American remake of a Japanese film to use the original Japanese director. Although, you’d think producer Sam Raimi directed the film by the number of times they mention his name. We’re not that naïve, guys…
• Sarah Michelle Gellar Scooby Prinze Jr. brought along a top ten list for the folks at the Con seeing as this was her very first appearance there. The list, it seems, was prepared by her husband seeing as it had many obscure comic book references in it. The list was the top ten reasons she’d never attended the San Diego Comic Con before. A few that she mentioned "I never had a ride before." / "I’m still trying to make sense of the whole Spider-man/clone story." / "I’m already married to the world’s biggest comic book geek." / "There is not enough merchandise with my face on it."
• Presently there aren’t any plans to make a THE GRUDGE sequel.
• Both Gellar and Behr related their experience in Japan filming this movie to the overrated film, LOST IN TRANSLATION. They both had a great time visiting the sights but they spoke about a definite sense of isolation and loneliness that comes about sometimes.
• When asked about the rumors that he might be considered for the title role in the new Superman movie and if he would like that, all Behr said was that he thought Christopher Reeve was the ultimate Superman. Yawn! How uninformative. Way to go after a part, guy…
• They recently re-shot the shower scene to make it scarier. They’ve also added some scenes that show more of Tokyo.
• Gellar, when looking for the director one day, shot a little film on set called Where in the World is Shimizu-san. She hopes it’ll be added to the DVD.
• Behr’s character was not in the original JU-ON.

Uh yeah, like I said, not much to learn about the film. Don’t blame me though, blame the studio…

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Source: JoBlo.com