The Watchers

The Watchers

Tuesday 28 July 2020

News From Comic-Con 2020


This year's Geek Mecca- a.k.a. San Diego Comic-Con- was (unsurprisingly) cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, they decided to move it online for Comic-Con@Home which ran from July 22-26. Over 350 panels, covering TV, film, and comic-books, took place over the five-day convention, with many still available to watch online.

Some highlights of the event included a panel on how the seventh season finale of The Blacklist was partially animated due to filming being shut down; an interesting discussion on why horror is (and always has been) a Queer space; An Evening with Kevin Smith; and a panel celebrating fifteen years since the release of Constantine (starring Keanu Reeves as the titular Hellblazer), which saw Reeves joining director Francis Lawrence and produer Akiva Goldsman to discuss the film and an intended sequel that was, sadly, never made.

With a lot of major film franchises not present at the event, the news coming out of Comic-Con this year might seem a little sparse, but there was still a lot of interesting stuff to whet our appetites for the rest of the year and into 2021.


The New Mutants



Given the utter saga it's taken to get this film finished, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it would just limply drop on a streaming service, especially given the coronavirus situation. Not so. As of time of writing, the film is still set for a cinema release on August 28th and director Josh Boone has pretty much said he doesn't care how the film gets released, just that it does. During the panel, the opening scene of the film was shown and it's...  interesting.

What's even more interesting is that, prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox's film assets (which includes X-Men), this was going to be the first in a trilogy of films. Had the sequels come to fruition, the characters of Warlock and Karma would have been introduced, and the "Inferno" storyline- which sees a demonic invasion of Earth- would have been adapted.


Jurassic World: Dominion


Having recently started filming again at Pinewood Studios, director Colin Trevorrow announced in the "Directors on Directing" panel that Jurassic World: Dominion would go back to using animatronic dinosaurs (used extensively in the original Jurassic Park trilogy) rather than relying on CGI and visual effects.

Trevorrow stated that “We’ve actually gone more practical with every Jurassic movie we’ve made since the first one, and we’ve made more animatronics in this one than we have in the previous two".


Bill & Ted Face The Music


Not only was a new trailer shown for the third Bill & Ted movie, it was announced that- due to the current state of things- the film would open simultaneously in cinemas (where possible) but also on demand on September 1st. 


Killroy Was Here


During the previously-mentioned Evening with Kevin Smith, the filmmaker dropped a trailer and discussed his upcoming low-budget horror anthology Killroy Was Here

Based on the iconic but mysterious graffiti of a cartoon man with a large nose peering over a wall (first originating during the Second World War among GIs), it offers a fictionalised account of its origins whilst showing several shorts featurng the character. Smith previously discussed the project by saying "This is a monster movie in the sense of a classic morality tale. No one wants to see you spill the blood of innocents, but when someone crosses the line and goes bad, you get to make them pay in horrible ways, and the audience cheers. We wanted to make an anthology film in the vein of ‘Creepshow.’ Killroy is like the Golem, the Boogeyman and the Grim Reaper combined."

Students from Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida participated in the project, which stars regular Smith collaborator Jason Mewes. There's no official release date but Smith says it will "probably" be released by early 2021.  


TV trailers and news


- A trailer for the second series of His Dark Materials, the fantasy adventure based on Philip Pullman's books, was shown, with Terence Stamp, Simone Kirby, Jade Anoukam and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (as the voice of Andrew Scott's daemon) announced as joining the cast. 

- Amazon's The Boys has been renewed for Season 3 (before Season 2 has even aired), with an aftershow (hosted by Aisha Tyler) also planned.

- Hulu's new Marvel show Helstrom (based on a character who, initially, was the Son of Satan) got a trailer, and a release date; the 10-episode series will air on October 16th

- Season 11 of FXX spy spoof comedy Archer got a trailer, and a release date: it will premiere on Wednesday 16th September


Release schedule delays


This news wasn't officially announced at Comic-Con but came out at the end of last week. 

- Mulan: perhaps the biggest surprise is the removal of Niki Caro's live-action adaptation of Mulan from the release schedule; originally due on August 21st, it was hoped that this could at least salvage something of the 2020 summer blockbuster season. But with Christopher Nolan's Tenet also removed from the schedule (before yesterday's news that it will open internationally before the US), it seems that studios and distributors have finally accepted that this summer is going to be a bit of a write-off. No new date has been given. 

- The French Dispatch: Wes Anderson's whimsical paean to the press has also disappeared from Disney release schedules as well. 

- Star Wars movies: Disney have announced that the three planned Star Wars movies (presumably one being directed by Taika Waititi) will now be released in December 2023, 2025, and 2027.

- Avatar sequels: the Avatar sequels (2-5) will now be released in December 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028, meaning Disney gets Christmas sewn up for most of the 2020s.

- Death On The Nile - whilst still planned for release this year, this "sequel" to Murder On The Orient Express which will see Kenneth Branagh reprise the role of Hercule Poirot has been pushed back to October 23rd

- A Quiet Place Part 2: John Krasinski's horror sequel will now be released on April 23rd 2021 (instead of September 4th this year)

- Top Gun: Maverick - for those who feel the need, the need for speed, you'll have to wait a little bit longer to see Tom Cruise back in one of his most iconic roles; instead of a Christmas 2020 release, it will not hit screens on July 2nd 2021. 

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