Geeks go Greek as Hellenic deities bring their pretty pictures to San Francisco's big comic-book convention.
The WonderCon audience got a quick treat with the first ever public showing of moving pictures from Tarsem Singh's upcoming film Immortals. It was a classic case of Con footage syndrome - absolutely gorgeous imagery that offers no insight whatsoever to the quality of the actual finished film. But. . . .did I mention gorgeous imagery?
Immortals is a spin on the myth of Theseus, who is played by the very handsome, very muscular Henry "Soon-To-Be-Superman" Cavill. It is also emblazoned with the phrase "From the Producers of 300," and it is very much a next-step in green screen shooting.
Even though most of the shots were in close-up, they blazed by quickly. Here's what we saw.
Close-up of Mickey Rourke, who plays King Hyperion, who is going to wage war against The Gods. He has a radical chrome helmet that kinda looks like an open clamshell around his face and has a sleek claw coming out of the top.
Four hot chicks in red dresses swaying in a square formation.
Luke Evans (as Zeus) using a glowing, flaming whip.
Fighters suspended in air, looking very flat - like what you see at a museum as painted on a giant drinking vessel or something. If I were an art history major, I'd know an impressive, possibly Latin word for this phenomenon.
Men yelling and banging their shields.
A dude with a three-foot mohawk spike golden helmet.
Henry Cavill smashing a rock and removing a white bow that can shoot spontaneously generated arrows.
And a shot of three of these arrows flying across a large body of water to strike down enemies.
Frieda Pinto looking dour and kinda swallowing her lines.
When pressed for some of his influences he again cited Caravaggio, but also Andrei Tarkovsky, porn and the Discovery Channel. It was one of many zing-riffic moments from Mr. Singh, who wore a T-Shirt that said "I've Been Media Trained" and a very colorful jacket. Whenever someone complemented his film The Fall he asked where everyone was at the box office. Mr. Singh has a noticeable Indian accent, so when he misheard someone's question and blamed it on his "white-guy accent" it brought the house down.
