SDCC: A Look Back and Forward at DC Universe Animated Original Movies

The fans at San Diego Comic Con waited in eager anticipation for the look back and forward at the critically acclaimed DC Universe animated movies. The panel was moderated by DC Comics senior Vice President of creative affairs Gregory Noveck and included DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz, DCU films executive producer Bruce Timm, director Lauren Montgomery, voice director Andrea Romano and surprise guest and voice actor in the upcoming Wonder Woman animated feature Nathan Fillion.

A year ago was the premiere of Superman/Doomsday, and today they’re officially announcing the Wonder Woman movie coming to DVD in February of 2009. Before showing a clip of the highly anticipated film, Gregory Noveck asked the panel to recap on how the DC Universe Animated Original Movies came to be.

“We got to the point where it was clear we had an opportunity to do animation that was not just there to fill space in between commercials.” said Paul Levitz, “This isn’t about making an advertiser happy, let’s make the best thing that we can and get it into the hands of our fans.”

Levitz continued to recap the short but amazing history of the franchise, detailing work on Superman/Doomsday, New Frontier, and Dark Knight.

“One of the things we’ve tried to do with these movies is bring in some stellar voice talent,” said Gregory Noveck, “Now for Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion is voicing Steve Trevor and reteaming with Keri Russell as Princess Diana, Alfred Molina, it’s a pretty stellar cast.”

Noveck then announced that Superman/Doomsday will be re-released November 25 on a special edition Blu-Ray disc with 128 minutes of extra content including 4 of Bruce Timm’s hand-picked favorite Superman the Animated Series. After cheers from the audience, Gregory Noveck continued to give details about Wonder Woman. The film is going to premiere at A-Kon, and it’s an original Wonder Woman story, but based on a story by Gail Simone, who was in attendance and stood up amongst cheers from the audience, and written by Michael Jelenic. He then announced other cast members Rosario Dawson as Artemis, Virginia Madsen as Hippolyta and Oliver Platt as Hades.

When asked about how she decided on casting, Andrea Romano commented, “I had just seen Waitress, and I had worked with Nathan before and known how great an actor he was.” She continued, “There had to be this innocence of coming into man’s world, and that was beautifully put together.”

Romano then told a story where Oliver Platt was recording and was forced to shed a noisy, rustling shirt.

Nathan Fillion commented on the excellent job that the creative team had done with Wonder Woman.

“One thing that you guys did really well was giving us a female character who is incredibly strong and incredibly heroic and doesn’t try to be a man,” he said, “I think Keri [Russell] does that very well.”

On the creation of Wonder Woman as a character, Lauren Montgomery mentioned, “I wanted to make her an amazon,” she said. “She’s not a weigh-lifting he/she, she has muscle and she has definition without being too manly. I wanted to make her respectable. We were trying to give her a very Greek looking influence so we played around with her profile and her chin line.”

Noveck then came back to mention that Wonder Woman will be available in Two-Disc, Single Disc, Blu-Ray formats with bonus features, and joked, “We’re going to ask Nathan to reenact Oliver’s recording for you.”

The panel then showed a very short clip of the new feature which was short, but amazing. It showed Wonder Woman adorning her boots, bracelets, and tiara, and facing various warriors and monsters in amazing animation. It showed everything from mythical monsters to Greek soldiers getting the pulp beaten out of them by Wonder Woman. The clip finished with the tagline, “Justice Never Looked So Good,” and Keri Russel’s voice saying, “It’s not polite to hit a lady.”

The panel then opened it up for general questions.

When asked about future Batman films, specifically Knightfall, Bruce Timm responded, “I can guarantee you we will. Knightfall is not currently on the schedule.”

The team was asked about many, many possibilities for animation adaptions including Kingdom Come.

“If you guys want to see Kingdom Come, you want to see it look like Kingdom Come. When we can make it look like that for less than $174 billion, we will deliver it,” said Gregory Noveck.

When asked about the level of action, Lauren Montgomery mentioned, “There’s a lot of battles in this due to Michael Jelenic,” she said, “There’s a lot of violence in it, but it’s only the necessary violence.

Wonder Woman will be released in February of next year.

[SDCC:] TERMINATOR: SALVATION PANEL

Hey once again fans! Kevin M. still here in Hall H of the Convention Center after viewing half of the Lost Panel (of which you can read the write up below featuring a Matthew Fox appearance and super-secret video). I stayed behind to catch the “Terminator: Salvation” Panel which starts in a few minutes, so stayed tuned for more!

And then the music began, with that all too familiar clanging. On stage stood a Terminator model which fans ran to take pictures of. Eventually, the eyes lit up into a bright red and the head began to move.

And here we go!

McG took the stage saying that filming is going on and that SOME OF THE CAST WAS HERE AND WILL BE COMING OUT!

McG said he spoke with James Cameron and Arnold, Stan Winston; and got Jonathan Nolan (writer of “The Dark Knight”) to write this film. Also, we wanted to get a well-respected actor of this generation to star: Christian Bale.

McG also confirmed the movie will be R-Rated.
“Having said that, we’re looking forward to showing you guys some of the film that no one has seen before,” said McG. “But first, I’m going to call our collective friend in Japan, Christian Bale.”

McG then called up Bale. After getting voice-mail, the crowd left thunderous applause and cheers for the actor on the voicemail. Then he started the footage from the film:

The video stared with an image of a crashed helicopter with John Connor lying on the ground. He then walks off. Bale and Worthington talking to each other. You see Sam Worthington asking for help and Anton Yelchin coming in and saying “Come with me if you want to live.” Afterwards followed flashes of soldiers running, a parachuter dangling, lots of skull crushing and destruction and explosions. “If you saved us once in another future you can save us in this one,” was heard in voiceover.

After the video, McG called out the cast present: Common, Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Yelchin (”Playing the young Kyle Reese”) and Worthington.

Questions then opened to the audience.

One fan asked about the idea of fate as expressed in the original films and whether that will be touched upon.
McG turned the question over the Howard, who picked up a cup saying that if she dropped the cup, it should hit the table. But when she let it go, she grabbed it with the other hand.
Your destiny is to hit the table, but your free will can advert that destiny,” said Howard. “And that’s what this movie is about.”

A fan asked about controlling information being leaked to the public about the film.
“Well, we release like everybody does misinformation campaigns,” said McG. “We want to protect that was well because that’s one of the joys of going to the movies.”

A fan asked Yelchin how he prepared for the role of Kyle Reese.
“I looked a lot at T1 and broke it down and looked at who this guy was and where he came from and how he becomes who he is,” said Yelchin. He also talked about looking at Reese’s own personal inner journey as a kid raised in a hellish world who just wants to help people in the end.

A fan dressed as Sarah Connor asked why that machine was on stage (indicated the Terminator stage) when so many innocent people were in the audience.
McG said that with Sarah Connor here, she could easily protect everyone should the T-600 become active.

A fan dressed as the T-1000 came up and asked if anyone has seen John Connor and held up the picture of John Connor from “Terminator 2.”

Another fan asked in a flawless Arnold accent how much involvement Cameron and Arnold had.
“That was awesome,” said McG of the impersonation. “And if you’re Asian that f–king unbelievable. In fact, get up here. Come up on the stage.”
He also called up the fans dressed as Sarah and the T-1000.

McG spoke a lot about staying true to Cameron’s original vision, while at the same time expanding on the mythology. Since the movie takes place before the future of the first movie, many of the models don’t look as “advanced” as the model from the first film.

McG asked Common what attracted him to the film.
“I’m just glad to be here,” said Common. “I’m just very grateful to be here and be a part of this team. Every time I see the trailer and clips from the film, I’m like, ‘I’m in the Terminator!’”

The showed with McG saying he was going to play the trailer again only if everyone freaked out!

After thunderous cheering, he played the trailer again the close the panel.

SDCC: Entertainment Weekly’s The Visionaries: Filmmakers

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

SDCC: The Spirit Panel

After rushing into another long line from my last panel, I got an aisle seat for the Lionsgate Spirit Panel featuring director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and film stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and surprise guest Jamie King. Frank Miller and Deborah Del Prete took the stage amidst uproarious applause and began their presentation.

As Miller spoke about his friendship with Will Eisner—how they came to meet each other and a 25 year argument about comics that became a great friendship—the audience could easily see how passionate Miller was about Eisner, The Spirit, and the prospect of adapting the masterwork for the screen.

“It’s been a dream of a project. I’ve had moments of crazy euphoria that I haven’t had before,” said Miller.

Deborah Del Prete agreed, “I considered this my dream project of a lifetime. I’ve been waiting my entire life to make this movie,” she said. “We wanted to have the voice of the artist only on screen.”

Miller and Del Prete then proceeded to show a trailer for the panel.

The trailer opened with a simple red line, and showcased the many women in “The Spirit.” It flashed to a shadowy figure of a woman, with The Spirit falling out of her mouth. Each woman was introduced, including Sand Saref, Lorelai and Silken Floss. It showed The Spirit leaping off buildings, kissing women and showcasing his revolver. The trailer also teased Samuel Jackson as the Octopus dressed as a samurai asking the Spirit, “What’s with you and women?” It then showed the Spirit getting interrogated by Jackson in a Nazi costume. It concluded with the Spirit and the Octopus fighting while falling off the building.

Samuel L. Jackson then walked out amidst roaring applause from the fans. Jackson was asked a question from the moderator about the quest for a bigger gun.

“The quest for a bigger gun continued as we continued. The biggest gun we could find for a while was a desert eagle,” said Jackson, “and then we started wiring guns together. We made up guns.”

On Miller’s direction, Jackson remarked, “Extremely open to suggestion, totally without ego which is very different from most directors.”

Jackson was asked about all his action figures, and a fan yelled out “Nick Fury!” to which Jackson responded, “When I was a kid, Nick Fury was a white man! It’s so amazing that he finally evolved into something that makes sense to me. But don’t worry. See? You too can grow up to be a black man!”

Jackson got back on topic by describing his interpretation of The Octopus.

“I always visualized The Octopus as this guy who wanted to be so much more than he was,” said Jackson. “He was waiting for this opportunity to explode and become a kingpin…in the midst of losing his mind, he found a way to create something that was different every day and gave him a reason to get up and be larger than life. … He’s the center of the universe. He’s the octopus, he’s got his hand in everything.”

Del Prete mentioned the female cast of the film including Scarlett Johanssen, Kimberly Cox, Eva Mendes, Stana Katic, Sarah Paulson and Jamie King. As a special surprise, King took the stage as the fourth panelist of the afternoon. King spoke about her experiences during Sin City and green screen.

Another clip was then shown of the technology showcased in “The Spirit.”

“San Saref is a lover of jewelry and she has a lead on the most unpseakable valuable treasure of all time. And she has to do a lot of swimming,” Miller teased. “We had to film under water and the technical term of it is… a f—ing nightmare.

“All the scenes you see were shot dry,” continued Miler. “There’s not water in them. Eva was given the instruction to act like The Flash.”

Another clip was then shown featuring Eva Mendes as Sand Saref in a wetsuit, getting shot while a man grabbed onto and broke her necklace. As she fell into the water, The Octopus shot at her. Sand Saref grabbed onto the treasure boxes under water from her accomplice while dodging bullets. One of the boxes got cut off as she wam to the shore. Suddenly, The Octopus jumps into the water just as Sand Saref emerges. Her accomplice says, “It’s The Octopus. You know what he can do!” Sand Saref replies, “Shut up and bleed.”

Finally, with a glowing introduction from Miller about his stellar audition for “The Spirit,” Gabriel Macht walked out and joined the panel accompanied by some of the largest applause of the panel so far. “I think ‘The Spirit’s’ got a lot of different colors. He can laugh at himself, he can be very deadly…he loves women, every woman he meets he just falls in love with. I don’t know what happened but he’s a young detective, he gets shot in the line of duty and about ten hours later he awakes and he sees that he can do things that certain cops can’t do…He says I can be the eyes and ears of Central City.”

Another clip rolled with Sarah Paulson and The Spirit flirting and saying that they “want to break the rules” while making out. A lot. “You’re in love with every woman you meet, Mr. Spirit.” says Paulson. “You say lovely things to every one of us and you mean everything you say every time” He’s suddenly interrupetd by Morgestern and with Sarah Paulsen’s deadly aim with a scalpel, throws it right into the door.

However, fans of The Spirit shouldn’t worry about the somewhat light-hearted tone of the clip.

“There’s nothing campy about this movie,” said Del Prete. “[The Spirit] has stuff from ’40s and ’50s, but also cell phones.”
One final clip was shown for “The Spirit”—a clip that Frank Miller introduced as “When titans clash.”

The clip opened with The Spirit and The Octopus in a muddy sinkhole. Suddenly, they start beating the spit out of each other with everything imaginable: a severed head, a cinder block, a crowbar, a giant wrench and then about fifteen full seconds of The Spirit continually punching Octopus in the face. After seeing Octopus’s hand sink into the muddy pit, we suddenly see his head rear behind The Spirit as he lifts up a toilet and smashes it right over The Spirit’s head! Laughing maniacally, the Octopus delivers the final line of the clip: “Come on! Toilets are always funny!”

Look forward to more updates on The Spirit as we get closer to release.

-SS

[SDCC:] WATCHMEN PANEL

Hey there, loyal readers. Kevin M. here at the Watchmen Panel on this bright and sunny Friday morning! The filled to capacity room is brimming with excitement at the start time edges ever closer. Most have been waiting for over an hour, but, hey, it’s Watchmen. Two minutes to go at this point, so stay tuned for live up-to-date coverage!

And here we go!

Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen took the stage giving a little backstory on Watchmen and talked briefly about the book’s following and introduced guests, director Zack Synder, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons!

Snyder recapped the origins of the movie, discussing how the film went through a number of directors before he was offered the film by Warner Bros. while working on “300.”
“It’s been a labor of love to try and get as much of the graphic novel into this movie as I could,” says Snyder.

Gibbons talked about being on the set and seeing his work literally come to life before him.
“I expected at any moment I’d be pinched have to wake up,” remembers Gibbons. “To have the Comedian slap me on the back and proudly show me one of his guns is just amazing.”

Jensen asked Gibbons if he ever thought about calling up Alan Moore and talking to him about the movie and asking him to give it a try.
“I see there is an elephant in the room,” jokes Gibbons. “Really, I wished that Alan could feel the same kind of excitement and joy that I’m feeling. I wished he didn’t have such a bad experience in the past because I’m having such a great experience.”

Snyder then setup the clip:
“It’s some of the shots from the trailer that we kind of extended to show a little bit more of the non-PG aspect of the movie. When Manhattan is marching through Vietnam and blowing guys up, it’s not quite as friendly as in the trailer. I wanted to put a cuple shots together to say, ‘This is how we’re doing it.’”

Starts with image of Rorschach looking at the camera with his mask shifting.
Then Manhattan blowing up people in Vietnam.
Blood on the happy face pin.
Rorschach exploring Comedian’s room, uncovering the dead hero’s gun cache.
Night Owl looking at the blood stained pin.
The meeting of the heroes.
Manhattan and Spectre on Mars with his watch-like structure raising from the ground.
The Transformation of Manhattan.
Spectere uncovering Night Owl’s hovercraft.
Night Owl and Spectre kissing as an atomic bomb goes off behind them.
Quick scenes of Manhattan in a bar, Ozymandius, and a more graphic look at Doctor Manhattan transforming as his disintegrates followed.
Comedian going through the window and falling to his death ended the clip show.

“There’s a lot of things in the graphic novel that comments on mass culture and how the world has evolved now,” explains Snyder of why he kept the movie so close to the novel. “I felt that making a movie about the war on terror and jamming these character into our modern problems felt wrong to me.”

Crudup was asking what it was like playing a character bald, blue and omnipotent, when he is obviously none of the above.
“I know what this question is. And I’ve answered it,” joked Crudup. “There were two major obstacles: Doctor Manhattan is a character I have no frame of reference for. The second is how you pretend to be the six foot four master of matter, when you’re a five foot nine jackass.”

Questions then turned to the audience.

The first fan asked Haley how he prepared to play a character as strange as Rorschach.
“It was a blast, it was challenging, it was mindnumbing,” says Haley. “This character, there’s a lot to him. I studied the script. I studied the book, I had long conversions about the character—who he is, what he’s about. I even spent a lot of time with you guys on the Web site looking at the blogs looking at the threads. I learned a lot from you guys about who Rorschach is.”

Another fan asked Crudup what was it like being a Blue Man and were the Blue Man Group jealous they didn’t get the role?
“I don’t know because we’re not on speaking terms anymore,” jokes Crudup. “But a lot of fitness, I had to get in shape. Changing my molecules and all that, stuff they don’t teach you in drama school.”

A fan dressed as Rorschach asked Snyder if thought the trend of comics being directed toward a more mature audience would continue.
“It’s just cool that you’re saying a more mature audience with that costume on,” jokes Snyder. “I mean, ‘Dark Knight’ is just a good movie. I think that’s the thing pop culture has to deal with new. Superhero movies, comic book mvies, they don’t just exist as summer, popcorn mindless entertainment. It talks about humantity it talks about a bunch of stuff that’s serious. There’s al ot of other graphic novels I’d like to see: one day Frank’s Dark Knight made into a movie. I think there is a new wave of superhero movies coming.”

Another fan asked if it was difficult for the cast to bring the emotion considering they worked with a lot of green screen.
“We actually worked very little with green screen,” says Gugino.
“Except for Mars,” adds Crudup. “It’s expensive to shoot there. They said it’s a big budget picture but they can’t go to Mars.”
“You have to tap into your imagination at that point,” says Akerman. “You definitely have to go back to your childhood days and find your imaginary friends. Most of it was pretty realistic. We were the only ones who had the challenge of Mars. It literally brought tears to my eyes, it looks so fantastic.”

Jensen then asked Morgan what it was like playing the Comedian, who he says isn’t really funny.
“I thought he was hilarious,” laughs Morgan. “There were days Id’ go home from work and I’d be a little bit in a daze. He does a couple of particular things that I wouldn’t naturally do as a person. It was a challenge. Every day was a challenge. I found putting on the costume and putting a [cigar] in my mouth got me in the mood to kill people. Carla and I had a couple days of shooting that will stay with me for a long time.”

A fan asked about character development about how the panelists got into their characters.
“I have to say that when I first read the script I was not familiar with Watchmen and loved the script,” says Akerman. “It was one of the best scripts I ever read because the characters were so full and very real. The thing about [Spectre] and most of the characters except for blue man is that we’re all real people that have our good sides and our bad sides. Laurie is a real woman except for the fact that she can kick ass and go out and fight crime. For me, it was more about this women who was trying to find her identity throughout and I think everyone goes through that in life.”

A fan asked about a rumor about the DVD going to contain a look at the 20-year process of putting the movie together.
“I had not heard that,” says Snyde. “Sounds super cool. I would probably buy it if it existed. I’ll look into that. Why not? It’ll be cool to see. Someone should write a book. I charge someone to find a book. Get on that, right now.”

The panel ended with another viewing of the clip show.