Day 2 at SDCC: Marvel-ous TV & Fox-y Filmmakers

Anne Marie cowering before GodzillaHello again! Anne Marie here, beaming to your computer screens direct from San Diego Comic Con. Though I thought it wasn't possible, it seems as though the convention got bigger and more crowded. So I learned my lesson and stayed far from the exhibition hall today. Instead, I wandered the Gaslamp District, saw some panels, and did some interviews. (More on those later.) But most of all, I waited in line. In a fun way!

Here are 6 new things I that learned today.

1) Marvel TV won't tell us anything about its Netflix shows. This despite the fact that Daredevil is already filming. Either they're saving that for the Marvel panel tomorrow afternoon (which seems unlikely), or Netflix hasn't yet gotten SDCC-friendly. Netflix has been absent from Comic Con this year, which was suddenly more conspicuous when fully five of Marvel's new shows were absent from the discussion: Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and The Defenders.

2) Marvel TV is throwing all of its weight behind Agent Carter. After Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s rocky first season (do any non-geeks still watch that show?), Marvel is determined to see its new ABC fledgling soar, so the first episode will be directed by Marvel president Louis d'Esposito, while the fourth will be helmed by Captain America director Joe Johnson. Agent Carter will start right where Captain America: The First Avenger left off, with Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) navigating super spydom (and eventually creating S.H.I.E.L.D.) in 1940s America. I have to say, it's pretty cool watching a major studio put so much faith in a female-led show with two lady showrunners, Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters. (Butters and Fazekas share the title with Steve McFeely & Christopher Marcus.) Speaking of female-led shows, Lucy Lawless is joining Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., although even Xena won't be enough to coax me back to it.

3) Comic Con lines are really, really long. People have been lining up for Hall H's Saturday panels since noon on Friday! It's insane. To wit, here's an exchange I overheard (while waiting in line):

Lady dressed like Wonder Woman: Comic Con is just like Disneyland! Big lines, lots of colorful costumes, crappy food!
Gent with a Top Hat: Then where are the rides?
Lady: I guess the line is the ride!

4) 20th Century Fox couldn't quite top last year. In 2013, Fox assembled the entire star-studded cast of Xmen: Days of Future Past to talk about Xmen past and present. This year, the films on the whole could not deliver the same mania. Let's Be Cops gave folks a quick chuckle but little more. Zachary Quinto admitted that he did not play videogames while attempting to promote Hitman: Agent 47, which is based on a videogame. The Kingsmen got more applause on the wait out than the way in, mostly because con favorite Samuel L. Jackson joined new-to-SDCC Colin Firth in an Odd Couple-like pairing. Even Book of Life, despite a beautiful trailer, generated the most applause when Channing Tatum walked in doing the robot. (As they left, executive producer Guillermo del Toro was once again greeted by a chant of "Hellboy 3! Hellboy 3!)"

5) The most buzz came for The Maze Runner. It's based on the YA novel by James Dashner. When star Dylan O'Brien (Teen Wolf) was asked who would win in a fight, Thomas (his character) or Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, O'Brien caused a gasp and a laugh when he admitted that Katniss would win. "He'd run away, but she'd shoot him with an arrow." Comic Con pro-tip: Always reference The Hunger Games or Harry Potter for immediate buzz.

5) Evangelists look a little different at SDCC.

 

Tomorrow I'll be in Hall H all day covering Legendary, Warner Bros, Marvel, and more! Follow me on Twitter for instant updates, and check back here for in-depth news as each panel ends!

Truth Tell: Barbara Harris is Underappreciated

A Happy 79th birthday to Barbara Harris. She hasn't acted in such a long time but she was often just wonderful on the screen with unique rhythm, energy and comic ability.

I'm not sure that anything about Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (Hitch's last feature in 1976) totally works but if you could argue that any of it does it's either the cemetery scene or anything involving Barbara Harris's performance as a con-artist psychic. The movie is frustrating since it feels half formed and its inarguably flabby:  every time you need the editing too tighten it up which would have made everything, including the memorable actors (Karen Black and Bruce Dern are also on hand), pop. It just keeps the scene going.

Barbara Harris's largest claim to fame these days is her Golden Globe nominated work in the original Freaky Friday (1976) wherein she switched bodies with her tomboy daughter Jodie Foster but my favorite Harris performance ever is her role as "Albuquerque" in Robert Altman's masterpiece Nashville (1975)

It don't worry me.
It don't worry me.
You may say that I'm not free. It don't worry me ♫ 

 I'd be okay with the entire 1975 Supporting Actress Oscar lineup just being ladies from Nashville, all told. 

Exit Music. Here's Barbara Harris doing bits from "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," a role she originated on Broadway in 1965 to the tune of a Tony nomination before Barbra Streisand took over in the film version five years later.

Yes No Maybe So, Eros: "Miss Julie" & "50 Shades of Grey"

It's a steamy class-conscious double-feature edition of Yes No Maybe So today with the recent debuts of two adult-oriented "nasty thoughts" dramas. They're both directed by women which is an unexpected plus from the complete rarity of it and oh my god I never want to type that sentence again because it's so infinitely gross that it's being typed in 2014. First we have iconic actress turned director Liv Ullman's adaptation of Strindbergh's classic Miss Julie about a cross-class dalliance between a lady (Jessica Chastain) and a servant (Colin Farrell) and then we have rising director Sam Taylor-Wood turned Sam Taylor-Johnson*'s adaptation of the not-classic best-seller 50 Shades of Grey which is also a cross-class dalliance between a fledgling reporter (Dakota Johnson, spawn of Melanie & Don) and a billionaire  (Jamie Dornan, who has already spawned thank god because those genes must not go to waste!). 

Which of these movies do you most want to have sex with right now?

Don't be shy.

Let's get to the YNMS breakdown starting with Miss Julie. There is so much more after the jump... I'm longwinded today.

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True Story: Boredom, Bananas, Bond

On Wednesday I drew a picture of James Bond on a Banana and posted it online.

Nathaniel R. "Bond on Banana" 2014. Mixed Media on Fruit, 9"x1½"

I have no explanation for this other than the perfect storm / terrible timing of innate online playfulness fused with genuine insanity and egged on by dread over Jury Duty to commence the following morning. Jury Duty is so boring (you just sit in a very official dull room in monotony waiting for your name to be called for 16 hours! I'm still there right now as you read this.) that on Wednesday I felt something akin to complete preemptive desperation to amuse myself. So when The Incredible Suit (whose blog I've always loved) promised he'd review it if someone drew Bond on a Banana, I did.

He kept his promise and I am left frightened at how deeply burrowed Daniel Craig in a blue speedo must be in my psyche. The worst part of the story is that I didn't have any bananas in the house when the promise was made. So... yeah.

I will be voluntarily committing myself to Bellevue Psychiatric shortly. It was nice knowing all of you!

P.S. I am mildly allergic to bananas but not to Bond's banana.

1973 Look Back: Terrence Malick's Debut "Badlands"

To give the impending Smackdown some context, we're looking at films from 1973. Here's Abstew on a spectacular debut...

With only a half dozen films released over the past 40 years, director Terrence Malick has already earned his place among the greatest American filmmakers. Despite his relatively small filmography, he has carved out a distinct brand of filmmaking that inspires (sometimes as much as it confuses or bores). But before he was an admired and respected filmmaker, he was just a former Rhodes scholar that graduated from Harvard working as a philosophy professor at MIT. His first film, Badlands, began to take take shape as he studied film at the American Film Institute. It was immediately hailed by critics on its initial release in 1973, where it was the closing night film at the New York Film Festival. That year's festival also saw the debut of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streetsm proving that 1973 was not only a very good year for film, but a landmark year for new voices. Both films were sold to Warner Brothers on the same day.

Set in South Dakota in the 1950s and loosely based on the real-life incident of Charles Starkweather who went on a killing spree with his teenage girlfriend in 1958, Badlands follows former garbage man Kit Carruthers (played by Martin Sheen in the role that established his own career in film, having working almost exclusively in television up until then) as he and his 15-year-old girlfriend Holly (Sissy Spacek in only her second film) take off cross-country after Kit kills Holly's disapproving father. Although seen as rebels (Kit is often compared to the original rebel without a cause, James Dean), the two are more simple-minded than that. They seem to be going along for a ride not quite knowing what they're doing or why exactly they're doing it. 

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