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Who was there?
Actor Jason
Lee
Actor Timothy Olyphant
 Wow.
Check out this pedigree. DREAMCATCHER is based on a novel by horror-meister
Stephen King (THE SHINING, MISERY, THE SHAWSHANK
REDEMPTION), is
written in the form of a screenplay by the man with the golden pen,
William Goldman (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S
MEN, THE PRINCESS BRIDE), and is directed by Lawrence Kasdan (BODY
HEAT, THE BIG CHILL, THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST). And if that weren't
enough, check out some of the dudes starring in it: Morgan Freeman,
Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Tom Sizemore, Timothy Olyphant, Donnie Wahlberg...and
more. The teaser trailer that's up on the Net now (click here to check
it out) is also quite creepy, but we were shown an even longer clip from
the movie, featuring Lee and Olyphant specifically, and let me tell
you...this thing looks like it's gonna scare the shit out of you (and
yes, I do kind of mean that literally!). And with all that riding on
this panel, and the film tentatively scheduled to hit theaters
sometime in February of 2003, I was expecting this half hour to be a little
more "serious" and talky than the last one. Boy...was I ever wrong!
Not
much really happened during this entire panel, other than folks getting up,
asking Jason Lee to repeat some line from a Kevin Smith movie, and
everyone laughing. It was cute at first, but when a dude got up at some
point and
asked him to call his friend a "fuck-face" (I swear, I'm not
kidding!), you knew that fit had finally hit the shan. Olyphant, who was
already quite fed up by the lack of questions about the film and of him
by that point, responded with a great come-back, "How come you
guys didn't ask Lucy Lui to call you a fuck face?!?" The crowd ate
it all up, but as funny and entertaining as the panel was to be
(especially Olyphant, who kept tossing some pretty funny one-liners out
there), we didn't really learn much about the film or the production.
"What am I...a monkey???"- Jason Lee
 When
someone asked the duo "how close the movie was to the book",
Olyphant replied with "I didn't read the book", and Lee
followed that up with a "I haven't gotten around to it yet." Whether
or not they were fed up with the audience or really hadn't read the
book, was anybody's guess by that point. When asked how he made the
"transition from comedic to dramatic roles", Lee just looked
like he was confused about what to say and finally ended his silence
with a simple, but nevertheless appreciated by the Lee-loving audience,
"Fuck!". Lee did say that he was ready to shoot FLETCH with
writer/director Kevin Smith though, "if we could convince a certain studio
to do it" and that he had a small part in Smith's upcoming JERSEY
GIRL, but that even he wasn't sure exactly what it was at this point
(only one day of shooting required of him).
And
when someone else asked what the movie was about (and yes, I really
wanted to know as well), Olyphant came back with an aloof "Two
guys who save the world". Lee sorta clarified (I think) by saying that it
was about "two guys who go on a hunting trip to Maine and the shit
hits the fan...literally!". I didn't know whether or not they were
kidding, so I checked it up on the IMDB, and here's one plot summary
that sounded about right: "Four boyhood pals in Derry, Maine,
get together for a pilgrimage to their favorite deep-woods cabin, Hole
in the Wall. They've all got midlife crises: clownish Beav has love
problems; the intellectual shrink, Henry, is slowly succumbing to the
siren song of suicide; Pete is losing a war with beer; Jonesy has had
weird premonitions ever since he got hit by a car. Having arrived at
Hole in the Wall they meet a mysterious stranger and all hell breaks
loose..."
All
of that was followed by Olyphant sorta complaining that nobody was
asking him any questions (jokingly), and even going as far as to ask the audience
if they knew who he was. One of the biggest laughs came when the next
person stood up and said "I have a question for you, Timothy",
who sat up all proud and ready to deliver a response, to which the person said, "How
was it working with Jason Lee?" The crowd went bonkers, and I have
to admit, I too thought it was rather funny. Considering that it was my
good friend Arrow delivering the knee-slapper, made it all that much
funnier (just kidding!). The gags continued as Lee was asked what his
favorite movie of his was and he said, "Would you like some
chocolate covered pretzels?" (an obvious nod to Kevin Smith's MALLRATS). Once more, the crowd went ape-shit and I think I actually saw
some dudes jerking each other off in the back (or was that me again?).
 Then
another dude got up and asked Lee if he could give him a screenplay
which he wrote especially with him in mind. The crowd starting booing
the asshole, but he kept insisting over and over, until Lee finally
waved the dude over to the panel to take the screenplay. What was pretty
funny was that after he handed him the script, the dude turned to the
audience and flipped them the double-bird. NICE! A budding screenwriter
in the making, to be sure. Lee then turned to the first page in front of
everyone and made it seem like he was gonna start reading it. More laughs ensued.
Finally,
when the two were asked what their next project was, Lee said that he
was "out of work right now" and that he had "nothing
lined up" just yet. Olyphant pulled yet another rabbit out of his
hat, reached over to the script that Lee was given moments before and
said, "my next project is a movie entitled..." and read the
title of the screenplay from the dude in the crowd. Once more, laughs
ensued.
Overall,
as you can clearly tell, this was probably one of the least informative
panels of the entire convention, but I have to admit...it was damn
funny. The boys even admitted to this at some point and said, "Now
you're all going to remember this movie, right?" They had a
point. Whether or not you got much info out of the panel itself, the
movie does seem quite intriguing, and with the creepy trailer and
eclectic cast in tow...you bet your ass that I'm gonna be there come February
2003.
Click
here to check out the official DREAMCATCHER website
Check
out the film's teaser trailer here
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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.
Please
provide us FEEDBACK on any of this here
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