FILM by Shane “Give Me Some Sugar, Baby” Hnetka
The world’s largest comic book convention, San Diego’s Comic-Con International, has come and gone for another year and Hollywood was out in force promoting its upcoming TV shows and movies. As always, new trailers debuted online — some official, some leaked — as well as a cool behind-the-scenes video for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And of course there were plenty of interviews with directors and stars.
After The Big Con
As expected, DC/Warner Bros. screened the new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that went online right after the film’s Comic-Con presentation. This second trailer reveals a really annoying Jesse Eisenberg as a long-haired (possibly wig-wearing?) Lex Luthor manipulating the good guys. Looks all right. I have low expectations after Man of Steel, but maybe by some miracle DC and Zack Snyder can pull it off. It’s still hard to wrap my head around a Superman movie in which Superman doesn’t smile.
Warner also (eventually) released the trailer for its villain team-up movie Suicide Squad after it (naturally) leaked online. Warner whined it was intended for Comic-Con attendees only, but since poor-quality footage gets leaked at every Comic-Con I don’t know why the company was surprised. Besides, the paltry San Diego audience of 6,000 is peanuts compared to the over 23 million views the trailer had on YouTube by the time I wrote this.
My favourite trailer? That would be Starz’ preview for the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell series Ash vs Evil Dead. It has everything you’d expect in a sequel to the classic Evil Dead movies: gratuitous gore, bad jokes, chainsaws, broken bottles, fast-zooming camera shots, more chainsaws and, of course, Bruce Campbell as the titular demon-fighter. It premiers on Halloween and should be awesome.
Did I say awesome? I meant “groovy”.
Mad Max: Beyond Kodachrome
Shortly after Mad Max: Fury Road hit theatres, writer/director George Miller said he preferred the movie in black and white and wanted that option on the eventual home release. Well, details of the U.K. Blu-ray/DVD are out and there’s no mention of a black and white version. Warner releases are usually identical world-wide — keeps the costs down, you know — so there’s a strong chance of no black and white version for North America, either. Of course, they could just be holding it off for a special edition release — double-dipping along the lines of Fox’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past — The Rogue Cut. I’d fall for it. It would be nice to see Fury Road in black and white.
Shane Hnetka is a Regina film and comic book nerd. He also writes Dog Blog’s weekly “Sunday Matinee” column at prairiedogmag.com.
