The Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever panel
by JoBlo

Who was there?
Actress Lucy Lui
Actor Ray Park
Director Kaos

With the last panel on LOTR finishing on a complete "fanboy/fangirl" note (pretty much every person who got up either asked for an autograph or picture with the guests-- does anybody care about these upcoming movies?), this one was sadly getting ready to pounce right back into that zone as the first person's question to Lucy Lui was "I'm a big fan of yours...can I have a picture with you?" Of course, Lucy wasn't about to diss this chick in front of thousands of people, so the rest of us just waited until this self-centered individual got up to the stage and took her precious photo with Ms. Lui. Ugh. As for the movie, you ask? Well, the production is now in the can (it was originally just titled ECKS VS SEVER, but it now has the dinky BALLISTIC tag before it-- don't ask, it was shot up in Vancouver, Canada and it is currently set to be released on September 27th, 2002. It stars Lucy Lui and Antonio Banderas as a couple of agents (one FBI, the other, Rogue) set out to destroy one another, until they discover an even greater enemy in their midst? Ray Park also co-stars, as well as Gregg Henry, that really great "bad guy" from PAYBACK.

This is also Kaos' first American movie, a director from Thailand who was actually chosen to helm this puppy after the studio saw his only Thai flick and were obviously...pretty impressed. Alright, so once the greetings and salutations were out of the way, we were shown the film's trailer (which you can check out for yourself here-- although it's a crappy bootleg version), and I have to admit, I was pretty surprised to find myself enjoying it. It seemed to have a real gritty street quality to it...somewhat reminiscent of Michael Mann's HEAT. It also featured one of the coolest "money shots" of the year of some dude falling off a building and the camera following him all the way down. Very slick. The trailer basically gave you the gist of the story, which is about these two agents pitted up against one another, but most of it was explosions, Banderas walking around with a gun and a five-day old unshaven beard and Lucy Lui manhandling different types of artillery and blowing shit up. All in all, it looked like a fun popcorn time at the movies. The panel then took off with various questions from the crowd, and here's some of the stuff that stuck with me.

• Ray Park confirmed that his next role will be as the lead in THE IRON FIST, yet another comic book adaptation. He said, "I get to be a good guy for once."

• Lucy Lui was asked about her choice of roles and whether or not she'd been asked to play superheroes before and she admitted to having read for parts like Elektra in DAREDEVIL (which ultimately went to Jennifer Garner) and Catwoman in CATWOMAN (which ultimately went to Ashley Judd), but believed that her Asian heritage might've prevented her from landing those roles.

• Director Kaos said that this was his second movie ever, and that he had shot one in his homeland of Thailand, from which he was then chosen to helm this puppy. He said that it was "luck" and that the name Kaos came from his own last name, whose first four letters are K-A-O-S (his full name is actually Wych Kaosayananda). I personally think that Kaos is almost as cheesy as McG, but hey...maybe that's just me!

• Ray Park, who played the character of Toad in the original X-MEN also confirmed that he will not be in the sequel, X2.

• When asked about her role in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming "revenge" flick, KILL BILL, Lucy Lui seemed very excited and said that they had started shooting in Beijing already, and that it was all pretty "intense" thus far. She said that they had been shooting "mostly interiors" up till now, and that Uma was doing an "unbelievable job" (the film also co-stars David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Jai White and Tarantino himself). She said that she trained to use a samurai sword for about a month and a half (sounds like fun) and that the film was kind of like an "homage" to all samurai movies. She said that it would be amazing (natch!) and that it would have that typical "Tarantino style" (if you're interested in reading the script to KILL BILL, click here).

• The script to this movie was written by the same dude who wrote the SPAWN movie and it was a spec script. Originally, the screenplay featured two males pitted up against one another (kinda like ASSASSINS, which also co-starred Banderas), but ultimately it was changed to a woman versus a man.

• Lui said that her character of Sever "doesn't talk a whole lot", in fact, she said that she probably doesn't have more than "15 lines" in the entire movie. She basically feels betrayed and wants revenge...in blood.

• Park said that his character is a "right-hand man" type who is essentially the "kicker of ass" (nice!).

• Someone from the audience asked all three panel members what superhero they'd most like to be (we're at a comic convention, after all) and the responses were pretty interesting. Kaos said that he would like to be "Batman", Park said "Superman" was his man, and Lui said that she had several including "Superman, the Hulk and the Wonder Twins!" Powers, activate!

• When asked to give some advice to other Asian actors, Lui basically said "Persevere and try your best at whatever you do."

• Kaos was asked about the trailer's "money shot" (which I've been babbling about ever since) and told us that the film actually had VERY LITTLE cgi (only to remove some of the wires from the wire-work stuff). The shot itself was taken for real with a dude harnassed and falling off a building and into a foam car. The man basically had a camera rigged to him and needless to say, it took about 4 weeks of rehearsals to get it right. Check it out...it rocks!

• Lui re-iterated the fact that this film was super "gritty" and that everything, and she meant, everything...was done for real. She even got scared a couple of times because a lot of the stuff was done right then and there. They all hoped that this non-cgi/effects movie would show on screen, and that folks would feel it more raw, more "old school". Sounds good to me.

• And last, but certainly not least, Lui was asked whether or not she was happy that Bill Murray was NOT returning as the character of Bosley in the sequel to CHARLIE'S ANGELS, which is currently shooting. Word on the street had been that she and Murray had a major scrap on the set last year and that the set even had to be closed down for the day. She thought about her response a little and basically said, "Just to clarify once and for all, the press really blew that thing out of proportion. I think Bill is very talented and very funny, but we had some creative differences over the script. Production was not shut down, and if I had punched Bill Murray...I would have remembered." That last line got a nice laugh out of the audience. So did she answer the original question about whether or not she was happy that Murray wasn't coming back?? Who knows...all I know is that she looks like a woman who doesn't take shit from many people and that's always good in my book. Rock on, girl!

Click here to check out the official ECKS VS SEVER website
  

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.