Movie Buffs, Comic Book Nerds, and Dorks in general can find plenty to love every July in San Diego during its annual Comic-Con. I haven’t yet paid much attention to the news that stems from this event, as most of it didn’t concern my particular tastes. That is, until this year, when major announcements were made by Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, and the folks behind the new Spider-Man movie. All in all, quite exciting.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Hotly anticipated, at least by yours truly, the upcoming reboot of the Spider-Man franchise looks to be headed down the dark road of emotion, further exemplifying how The Dark Knight has changed the genre. Columbia/Sony revealed the trailer, and save the last shot (which will be an interesting contrast from Sam Raimi’s depiction of Spidey-motion), it looks ready to plumb the depths of Peter Parker’s soul in a way heretofore unseen.
Guillermo del Toro and Pacific Rim
I doubt there is a single person in the industry more enthusiastic, more inventive and with a fouler mouth than Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. You know him from Pan’s Labyrinth or the Hellboy movies, and he was until recently attached to The Hobbit. When that began to take too long, he jumped ship to another project called Pacific Rim, a film about giant robots and monsters who attack humans, and the tech advances we must make in order to save ourselves. The quote of the week, the one that triples how excited I am about his newest film? “It is my duty to film the finest fucking monsters ever committed to the screen. And the greatest fucking robots ever committed to screen. That’s a pledge.”
Coppola – A Man of Infinite Twixt
Very recently, I wrote an article singing Coppola’s praises to the rooftops. He has truly found a new voice: young, independent, and filled with seemingly endless inspiration. His announcement at Comic-Con is perhaps the boldest move in his entire career, and must certainly be the boldest move for cinema in quite a while.
Coppola has been working with a program designed for dancers and choreography, and applying some of its principles to the ease of editing a film on an iPad. Through this experimentation, he has discovered that he can edit a film as it is being watched. This led him to announce that for the month before his latest horror film Twixt has its “theatrical debut,” he will personally take it to 30 cities around the country and perform the film, with both the editing and the music being performed live. He compared it to opera, or older music, whereby the piece would be composed and virtually set in stone, but then upon the actual touring and performance, the piece would change based on a plethora of variables: the audience, the whims of the players, the inspirations of the composer. He plans to do the same with this film, making it a unique viewing experience for each city. Whether this film is good (which I expect it to be) or not, it’s a groundbreaking idea.
Much more happens at the San Diego Comic-Con in a single day than could be written about in one article, but these events have me salivating for their directors to finish up their various projects.
-Ben Creech
The Filmsmith 
