The Tooth Fairy panel
by The Arrow

Who was there?
Actress Emma Caulfield
Director Jonathan Liebesman
Producer John Fasano

I’m always up for a new ballsy horror flick and was looking forward to this panel discussing the upcoming movie: TOOTH FAIRY (aka DON'T PEEK). I didn’t know much about the film and was thirsting for information about it. It all started on the right foot with a screening of the very creepy trailer. You dig your fear flicks somber, washed out and dreadfully inclined towards moody style? This might be the “Twinkie” that you’ve been looking for. The chilling trailer sold me on this bad boy and insured my ass in the seat when the movie came out (tentative release date is January 31, 2003). Unfortunately for me, once the trailer ended, the panel went into a weak Q&A session with the “teeny bop” audience.

The crowd was way more interested in asking actress Emma Caulfield questions about her Buffy the Vampire Slayer role (she plays Anya on the show) than jiving about the movie. I was getting a tad peeved, I wanted to know about the TOOTH FAIRY not Anya’s favorite color (or whatever they wanted to know about). Even the producer and director of the film seemed to be getting a tad antsy with the crowd. Enough with the Buffy shite! It’s a TOOTH FAIRY panel! The good news is that after the panel I felt so unsatisfied that I seeked out the director of the flick and snagged an interesting interview with the man ABOUT THE FILM IN QUESTION. Great man, by the way! Expect the juicy interview to hit the site tomorrow. Till then, here’s what I picked up from this circus:

• I learned that the film is not solely about the Tooth Fairy myth gone bad. It’s also about the ghost of a lady who got burned for crimes which she didn’t commit and who then comes back for revenge (shades of Freddy Krueger). This lady then proceeds to kill kids that look under their pillow at night (that’s against the rules) to see if the Fairy passed by.
• The film is wrapped and edited but the studio put more cash into it after seeing it. They liked what they saw and wanted to make it better. So they are having effect wizard Stan Winston spice up the creature visuals with his creative flair. Is that a good thing? Time will tell on that one. Sometimes less is more but then again...Winston is no hack. He knows what he’s doing.
• Director Jonathan Liebesman stated that the film was slow paced, dark, brooding, old fashioned and without one hint of comedy. This is a horror movie NOT another self-referential horror “Egg McMuffin”. YIPPEE!
• Director Jonathan Liebesman compared the first half of TOOTH FAIRY to an M. Night Shyamalan type of gradual buildup flick. He compared the second half to a non-stop James Cameron-like action packed frenzy of grisly kill scenes. Good shite!
• To get the proper look of terror on lead actress Emma Caulfield’s face for one particular scene, a crewmember scared her with a prosthetic head on a stick before the take. Emma got scared for "real" and actually wound up hiding under a table like a pussycat in fright. That genuine terror-filled Emma facial expression made the cut in the flick.
• Emma Caulfield claims that she’s not bored with her character of Anya on Buffy yet. She feels there’s still so much to explore. Having said that, this 7th season will be her last and for those who care...she might be in another episode where she sings.
• Emma Caulfield claims that James Marsden is a very good kisser. Do what you will with that bit of info and have a blast!

Read the Arrow's interview with director Jonathan Liebesman here

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2002

The Arrow and I went down to San Diego for yet another awesome COMIC CONVENTION this year (check out our 2000 and 2001 reports respectively), and let me tell you...there was a lot of shit going on and lots of cool and surprising cameos. Starting Wednesday, each of the panel coverages will go up, so check out what's to come below. And yes, the always popular PHOTO GALLERY will be up on Friday.

The Hellboy panel:
Writer/director Guillermo Del Toro, actor Ron Perlman and writer/artist Mike Mignola discuss the upcoming comic-to-film project, as Del Toro sneaks a few dozen "fucks" in there before the panel's first 10 minutes is up.

The Bulletproof Monk panel:
Actor Seann William Scott and actress/babe Jamie King sit down and discuss their collaboration on the upcoming THE BULLETPROOF MONK, which also co-stars the very cool Chow Yun-Fat.

The House of the Dead panel:
Writers Mark. A. Altman and Dave Parker discuss the 2003 release of yet another video game making its way to the big screen: THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. And what's this about a VAMPIRELLA movie? Stay tuned.

SONY/COLUMBIA

The XXX panel:
Actress/babe Asia Argento hops on stage and tells us a little something about herself and her upcoming movie with a certain Vin Diesel. Does Vin show up unexpectedly?? (only in my dreams... ;)

The Tooth Fairy panel:
Actress/babe Emma Caulfield discusses her upcoming foray into genre flicks with TOOTH FAIRY, and the Arrow takes a few moments to discuss the film with director Jonathan Liebesman. Tooth-pulling ensues.

NEW LINE

The LOTR: The Two Towers panel:
No footage was shown but we did get a couple of bits tossed our way, as well as some cameos by Frodo, Pippin and Merry themselves (aka Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan).

WARNER BROS

The Ecks vs Sever panel:
Actress/babe Lucy Lui sits next to actor/Darth Maul Ray Park and director Kaos (who explained the origins of his name) to discuss their collaboration with the man with the golden cock, Antonio Banderas, in a little something called BALLISTIC: ECKS VS SEVER (and yes, it's also based on a video game).

The Dreamcatcher panel:
Actor/all-around cool guy Jason Lee and actor Timothy Olyphant get on stage to field some questions about the film which they are presently shooting, based on a Stephen King novel, entitled DREAMCATCHER, but are instead pelted with questions about Kevin Smith movies and requests to repeat cool quotes from said flicks.

The Terminator 3 surprise:
Unbeknownst to most, director Jonathan Mostow was nice enough to drop by the Con, in order to show off a few minutes of the highly anticipated sequel to the sequel of THE TERMINATOR. Another "small" cameo dropped by to pay his props to the fanboys, a gentleman by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

UNIVERSAL

The Hulk panel:
Director Ang Lee and producers Gale Anne Hurd, Larry J. Franco and Avi Arad stop by to show us some stills of the 2003 release of THE HULK (that's right, no actual footage or pics of the green monster...darn!) and answer some questions.

FOX

The Solaris surprise:
Yet another big surprise came in writer/director/king of the world James Cameron showing up for a quick Q&A about the upcoming sci-fi flick SOLARIS (which he produced and Steven Soderbergh wrote and directed), as well as a 4-minute clip from the actual movie, starring George Clooney.

The X-Men 2 panel:
Director Bryan Singer was nice enough to leave his Vancouver set of X2 and come down to Diego for some questions from the audience and to show us the coolest 2-minute clip that I saw all weekend. Wow!! The man apparently has only been shooting from about 3-4 weeks, but from what we all saw of the clip...this movie looks like a fuckin' slam-dunk!

The Daredevil panel:
This was one of the biggest panels with writer/director Mark Steven Johnson leading the pack, alongside DAREDEVIL himself, Ben Affleck, as well as producer Avi Arad, Gary Foster and comic guru Joe Quesada. Yet another exclusive clip was shown from the movie, and it will also be discussed.

The official 2002 JoBlo.com Photo Gallery:
Pictures from our trip to California / Vegas for anyone who gives a shit. Here are the links to last year's photo gallery and the one from 2000.