Comic-Con: Rob Zombie, 'Halloween', 'The Mist', Frank Darabont and the Dimension Films Presentation

As you've no doubt seen over the last two days, my esteemed colleague Kevin Kelly has worked his ass off to bring you as much Comic-Con info as he possibly can. From liveblogging the Paramount and Warner Bros. panels to spilling the news on the casting of Zachary Quinto as Spock in the new Star Trek film to revealing that Karen Allen would indeed appear in the next Indiana Jones movie (which is still in search of a title and still doesn't feature John Rhys-Davies as Indy's sidekick Sallah) and a lot of other great stuff.

In the interest of not looking too bad in comparison and doing my job as well as I can (hey, I'm also writing for CBR while I'm here too so cut me some slack), I'm now going to bring you some news of my own -- direct from the Dimension Films presentation on Friday afternoon here at the Con. This panel and presentation featured two of the production company's upcoming films: the Rob Zombie directed Halloween and Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Steven King novella The Mist. After being repeatedly told not to record the presentations in any way -- audio or video -- the festivities finally got going as somewhat fittingly, a disembodied voice introduced the first film and we went straight into a trailer for Halloween.

Watching it I was stuck by how professional it looked and how much Zombie's confidence and ability as a director seems to have grown since his first film. He's come a long way and it showed on the screen -- at least during the trailer. Later, as you'll discover, I had to re-think my opinion a bit. But in the trailer, the movie looks pretty good so I was pretty happy as we went into the introduction of Rob Zombie and the rest of the panel. Taking the stage and looking quite bad-ass was Rob Zombie himself followed by his lovely wife Sheri Moon Zombie, who plays Deborah, the mother of Mike Myers, actress Scout Taylor-Compton who plays Laurie Strode (the part first made famous by original "scream queen" Jamie Lee Curtis) and the very tall Tyler Mayne, (*corrected spelling) previously seen as Sabertooth in the first X-Men film and playing the part of Michael Myers in the new film.




Once Zombie sat down and the crowd grew quiet, he thanked everyone for coming and then promised the panel would try to "answer questions as best as they can and not to lie." This got a great reaction from the crowd who were most obviously huge fans of the man and there to see what he's done with the Halloween film. At that point and before any questions, Zombie decided to show those in attendance an exclusive sequence from the film which he described as "very rough" but still he wanted everyone to take a look. So, we did.

Now, I've seen quite a few horror films in my time, including the original Halloween, and one thing that has always bothered me about some horror films is the lack of intelligence displayed by the characters in the film. Sadly, this sequence was no exception. On the one hand it was pretty well directed, photographed and basically hit all the technical beats pretty well. That said, it still bothered me and made me re-think my earlier praise for Zombie as a director while watching the trailer.

In the clip, which seems like it might be near the end of the film because Malcom McDowell's character, Dr. Loomis (immortalized by the great Donald Plesence in the original film), is unconscious on the floor with blood around his head and a gun near him, Laurie is hiding from Michael and manages to stay quiet the entire time he searches for her. its only when he walks out of the room that she decides to make noise and whimper while crawling and trying to grab the gun. Of course, Michael comes back (you didn't think he was really gone, did you?) when he hears her and proceeds to use a board to destroy the ceiling where Laurie is hiding.

Her actions during the entire sequence just seemed dumb to me. Obviously, the sequence was designed and directed in a vain attempt to create tension in a scene where their wasn't really any because it pretty much just all went by the numbers in an uninspired, derivative way. I hope this trend doesn't continue in the film and somewhere later Michael will seemingly be killed and than, just at the right moment, spring back to life -- just like he's done in so many other versions of the story. I guess you can't always get away from the cliches', but it would be nice to try sometimes.

After that, the panel was asked a series of questions mostly by rabid Rob Zombie fanboys, which is what you pretty much would expect. Here's a sample of the questions relating to the film and the answers provided by the panel:

How beholden were you to the John Carpenter original? How much was your own vision?

Rob Zombie: My basic plan was to try and retain things that I thought were classic elements and make it different. Our goal was to make it fresh and new and different.

Are you going to answer more questions about Michael Myers in your version of Halloween?

Rob Zombie: Well, no, not really. That would be a mythology created by the other movies. We approached it as if it was real. Once something is impervious to everything it's like then what?

Is there any chance that you'll write some screenplays that could be made while you're touring? So that we'll see more Rob Zombie projects?

Rob Zombie: Uh, probably not. I don't really have a surplus of scripts.

Rob, did you have a lot of input from John Carpenter on this film? Has he seen anything that you've done so far with it?

Rob Zombie: He hasn't seen anything. I can relate to you, word for word, my conversation with John Carpenter. I called him right before the news was going to come out about the movie. I just felt that he should know about it first before it's announced. I was like, "Hey John, it's Rob." "What's up?" "I just wanted to tell you I'm going to be doing a Halloween remake." He just goes, "Oh, so what do you want me to say?" I said, "I don't want you to say anything, I just thought I'd tell you." He just goes, "Okay, cool. Go for it. Anything else?"

It was basically something like that. He was just like "Go for it, make it your own thing."

Next up from Dimension Films was Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Steven King story The Mist. To me, Frank Darabont is one of the most talented and intelligent directors working today so pretty much anything he does will not only get my attention, but my money at the box office as well. So, it was with great interest that I settled in for some information on The Mist.

First off the cast and director were introduced to thunderous applause. Obviously a few Frank Darabont and Steven king fans in the audience. The panel included Darabont, of course, as well as the films stars Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Marcia Gay Harden, and visual/make-up effects artists Greg Nicotero and Everett Burell. Sadly, the super-hot Alexa Davalos, who plays Sally in the film, was not in attendance. Once everyone got settled (and after the somewhat tardy Thomas Jane finally made his entrance) things got started with Darabont asking the audience if they knew the story of the film. "If you do," he said," this will make sense to you."

At that point they attempted to show a clip from the film which, unfortunately, didn't happen right away. Instead, the screen stayed black. Finally, as no fix seemed forthcoming, Darabont asked: "Is anyone working here?" I guess he used his director voice because moments later the clip began to roll. As it unfolded I was impressed with the camera work, the acting and the general feeling of foreboding and danger generated by watching it. In short, it looked pretty damn scary with the tentacles shooting out of the mist to grab onto unsuspecting grocery clerk Norm.

Later in the panel I learned that Darabont had enlisted help from the director of photography and camera crew from TVs The Shield to give his film the urgent, always moving camera that show is known for. I gotta say, watching this clip and the one that followed, Darabont made a good choice there. Ronn Schmitt and his camera team seem to have done a great job on The Mist, just as they did on The Shield. I can see why Darabont chose them and I think it was a good decision for the film.

Next, Darabont and the team took a few questions from the crowd. I'll highlight some of them in a moment but first I want to talk about the second clip shown at the presentation. In this one, Thomas Jane and a few other brave souls decide to venture out of the grocery store in search of medicine and other people trapped inside a nearby pharmacy. This was a pretty long sequence from the film which showcased some very good acting from most of the panel. Jane, Laurie Holden, Marcia Gay Harden and even Jane's son in the film, played by Nathan Gamble, all acquitted themselves very well during the sequence. Plus, the sequence elicited some genuine anxiety from this somewhat jaded film watcher so that alone, at least in my mind, makes the film worth seeing when its released later this year.

Ok, since you've been so patient and read all this way, here now is a sampling of the questions asked during this part of the Dimension Films presentation:

What do you intend to do with this movie to take it further than it was taken with the mini-series? (This was one of my favorite questions because there was no mini-series, as Darabont points out).

Frank Darabont: I think you're confusing this with something else. It's a feature. Its got a hard R rating. It's intense. Yes, it's a horror movie, I hope. It's a harrowing, intense movie. With some fantastic acting and amazing special effects.

Thomas Jane, you kicked shark ass in Deep Blue Sea. You kicked ass in The Punisher. How do you go about battling the beasts in this movie?

Thomas Jane: I feel like this is an episode of this is your life. (Laughs) Nobody got that joke. You're way too young. I don't think there's a difference. You just sort of tackle each character and each role to the best of your ability. Also, you go off of the script that you have laid out before you. It just happens to be a very well defined character. The characters in the piece are really what make the movie. Its got some great special effects and some terrific stuff that Greg Nicotero and them put together. The heart of the movie really lies in the characters.

Frank Darabont: The brilliant thing for me is working with this ensemble, in such a focused an intense manner... the camera operators, were like other actors and you never knew quite where they were going to be.

Here's one I was sure Jane wouldn't answer: Thomas, can you elaborate further on why you passed on The Punisher 2?

Thomas Jane: No.

Frank, this movie is a way different visual style than your other movies...

Frank Darabont: Completely.

So how would describe it? What is the style?

Frank Darabont: We wanted to go for... a grittier look in the movie. Everything is so finely grained nowadays. This digital thing is so beautiful. I got into an argument with people. With this, we wanted to get it a little more old school. One of the biggest rules that I had... when you see the movie projected for real there's all kinds of grain in it. That's exactly what we were hoping to get. When I'm watching it, I'm seeing grain like I'm used to seeing grain when I was a kid.

And that, friends, concluded the Dimension Films presentation and panel. Of the two movies showcased i think I'm more excited now about The Mist and less excited abou Halloween. I don't think my dim view of Halloween is especially caused by my general distaste for remakes and re-imaginings (although that could have something to do with it). Instead, I think it has more to do with the fact that I expected more from Zombie at this point in his directing career.

He's not a novice filmmaker anymore and has a few films under his belt so shouldn't he be a bit further along by now? I don't blame him or dislike him because of this. In truth, I'm a fan of the man and his music. Still, there are a lot of far more talented directors out there that don't get films like this to make. I wish Zombie would do better with this chance and show audiences (and somewhat jaded film watchers) just how talented he really is.

Of course, its somewhat difficult to get a clear picture about a film from just watching a trailer and a sequence or two. However, watching Rob Zombie's work and then Frank Darabont's after it, you can really see which director knows exactly what he's doing and which one might still be finding his way a bit. As always, we'll know for sure about both films after having a chance to see the finished product.