SDCC: Entertainment Weekly’s The Visionaries: Filmmakers

July 25, 2008 on 9:23 pm | In Movies, San Diego Comic Con | No Comments

Entertainment Weekly’s The Visionaries panel today was moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s Marc Bernardin, and included superstar directors Kevin Smith, Frank Miller, Zack Snyder, and Judd Apatow talking about their upcoming projects and geeking out over various topics.

Each panelist was introduced to explosions of applause from the audience as they took their seats, with Smith getting a standing ovation and callouts from many of the fans. Marc Bernardin began the panel by asking the panel some questions.

When asked what made them do this kind of material, Kevin Smith immediately replied, “I just wanted to get my c— sucked, sir, that’s why I got into it.” “I’d still like that to happen at this point,” responded Apatow, “Why did I do this? We don’t have that much time, really. I was 16 years old, 17 years old, I had sex for the first time, and I said, ‘Was it good for you?’ and she said, ‘I guess it’ll get better.’ Then I knew.” Snyder had a more serious answer, “This kind of material? Like his kind of material? [Points to Miller] I don’t know. Look, I’ll just come right out and say it like an idiot. It’s always been this sci-fi movie called Star Wars. … Next thing I know I’m sitting next to these guys”
Snyder and Miller were then asked when they knew that Watchmen and The Spirit would work as movies. Snyder replied,”Look, as soon as we got Nixon back in the movie, I felt pretty good about it.” “He’s kind of a reassuring presence,” quipped Kevin Smith. Miller had an answer of his own, “I really felt that things were going right on the spirit when i got footage of the top of a watertank when the spirit was running up it and sliding down and he kind of stumbled a little bit and I said that’s The Spirit.”

Frank Miller, a veteran of San Diego Comic Con by now, was then asked what the worst moment of his Comic Con history was. “Which was the worst? Well they’re all terrible. I have a miserable life. I wake up every morning saying I’ve got to do this stuff?” joked Miller. “I grew up as a comic book nut. I grew up reading Superboy and my love of telling stories, stories about heroes derives directly from that. Any way I can do that, any way I can explore the hero and bring him to life, very early on I realized I was incompetent doing anything else.” said Miller.

The next question was about how much the directors rely on audience testing, and how much it was based on intuition. “I like to test the movies, if the crowd isn’t laughing its pretty clear they’re not working at all. Sometimes you’re tracking how much penis you can show in a movie without clearing an entire room of people.” said Apatow. “You stole all my c— jokes.” responded Smith. “I tend to go with my gut, but my gut is prodigious so that’s good. But my gut also said Jersey Girl was a good idea.” Judd Apatow decided to take the question in a bit of different direction. “It’s hard to trust online comments. I was reading one about myself where it just said my work was just a fart added to American Culture, and I felt pretty bad, but then I looked at the poster’s name and it was Danny Glover’s Dickblood. I felt a lot better after that” To which Kevin Smith responded, “It took me a long time to come up with that name”

Kevin Smith was very excited about the Watchmen movie. “Watchmen movie is so f—ing important!” He said. “I see that movie, I’m ready to f—ing die! My life has been fulfilled.”

An EW fan asked a question about the importance of The Dark Knight. This brought forth one of the most interesting interactions of the entire convention. Zach Snyder turned to Frank Miller and said, “Dark Knight movie? Was it cool?” To which Frank Miller replied, “You can do it anytime you want to, Zach.” Snyder mentioned that he wanted to write Miller’s comment down, and continued with an answer, “There’s no physical money left all because of this movie,” he said. “The Warner Brother’s people have it. … I think that’s also good for comic book movies, I think it’s the best thing for them”

Perhaps one of the most interesting questions had to do with Google Alerts. Kevin Smith started it off. “I get ‘em sent directly to me. I know so much about a Kevin Smith in the Sioux City Parks Department. That guy gets in the news a lot.” Snyder continued, “The internet world frightens me,” he said. “The truth is that you don’t just make a movie for yourself, you do want people to sort of have the same experience. If you really look the fans do know what’s important to the piece. … There is a Zach Snyder that plays baseball in Wisconsin, though.” “The internet, I’ll read a little bit here and there, and I feel like it’s my job to give you what you don’t ask for,” concluded Miller.

But do these visionaries think that Geek Culture is here to stay? “I think it’s here to stay I think in terms of comic book movies it was only a matter of time until technology caught up with what they could do on the page.” said Kevin Smith. “I think it was really Blade first that stepped up and proved it was a good flick,” he said, “Why not mine some of the most creative material ever written? … I think Geek Culture is here to stay. Thank God for Quentin Tarentino”

When asked what their biggest fanboy moment was, Kevin Smith responded, “Just before the panel started, I hugged Snyder. The dude pushed back a little bit. ‘Ah, it’s not that big of a fraternity, fat boy!’” Smith reiterated his impression of the Watchmen clip that played earlier today. “I was overwhelmed, so that was definitely a f—ing moment.” Judd Apatow related a story from his childhood, “In sixth grade, I saw the star of Baa Baa Black sheep, Robert Conrad, and I chased him down the block.” Zach Snyder continued the vein with an answer from his directing history, “I was shooting a TV commerical with Harrison Ford.” He said, “I told him, ‘I have a Han Solo carbon freeze in my house’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have told me that.’ It was holy. He kind of said ‘That’s okay, kid.’” Though, perhaps the most poignant of all the stories was Frank Miller’s. “I was on the set of Sin City and we were doing the first scene where Bruce Willis finds out that the girl he saved had become an exotic dancer. I had picked the music, it was Emmy Lou Harris’s Wrecking Ball. She was doing this exotic, beautiful dance with a lasso. I found myself bursting into tears because I realized a dream had just come true.”

That’s it from EW’s Visionary’s Filmmakers Panel. Check back for more panel coverage in the next few hours!

-SS