WizardWorldCon-Chicago -- Lots of X-MEN 2 (X2) Info! Plus Other Geek Stuff Too!
Hey folks, Harry here... I was invited up to attend WizardWorld Chicago, but due to wanting to spend this 4th of July with my lil nephew and family, I decided not to go, but I hear that this is always a wonderful convention filled with coolness all over the place. Today they had a big media splurge of badass X-MEN 2 stuff... Hopefully some evil type in the audience will have managed to have captured a peek at some of the goodness that appeared there. I'm dying to see those NIGHTCRAWLER designs and the... one with wings makes my brain wobble. But why don't I just hand ya over to Poliman2 with the details...
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Hey Harry. This is my first contribution. Hope you like it!
Today I went to WizardWorld Chicago, which, luckily, lies a mere two miles from where I live. Had a good time, though Stan Lee was supposed to show up but cancelled at the last minute.
During the day they held a screening of trailers of upcoming movies, one of which was X-Men 2. I expected the crappy trailer already on the net, but was pleasantly surprised with a 5-minute behind-the-scenes diddy. It started out with mostly footage from the first film and a voice over talking about how successful it was. Then it went on to show junket style interviews with Lauren Shuler-Donner, Ralph Winter (producers), Brian Singer (Director), and James Marsden (Cyclops). They said the usual things about how they were excited to now be able to go beyond the origin story and all that, and how the whole cast was returning. The same stuff we've been hearing for the past few months. Then they started to go a little deeper. Since all this caught me off guard, I wasn't able to retain all I saw.
First they talked about new characters. Some concept designs for Nightcrawler came on the screen (which got a sizable cheer from the crowd). He was pretty much Nightcrawler from the comics, blue skin and hair, but no yellow eyes. Most of the pictures showed him in battered street clothes or shirtless. Nothing with him in a X-Men uniform. They didn't say much about him, about his character or situation. Then they mentioned the enemy, Stryker, but didn't go into details.
Next they started showing concept sketches and production designs, and this is where the good stuff lies. They showed much about the danger room. It is indeed what we saw in the trailer, though they showed this one model of it that appeared to be elongated rather than circular. They also showed the design for the control room of the danger room, which appeared to look like a normal control room. After that they began talking about redesigns. They are indeed redesigning the costumes, though I couldn't tell from the sketches and models if they were more or less like in the comic. All I can say is that they are sleeker and more form fitting that before, and probably still black leather (I have no problem with that. I loved the uniforms from the first movie). They then said that the X-Jet plays a large part in the film, so they were redesigning that. It appeared to look the same except longer, with more room inside.
After that, they began to fly through all sorts of production designs, few of which I can remember. There were a lot of big open complexes and things like that, with Wolverine walking through many of them. One in particular appeared to be an elaborate mutant containment facility (and not the one Magneto is in). It was a large room with lots of clear cells stacked on top of each other. There was one that seemed to have an Asian girl inside. Pyslocke perhaps? Or the rumored Anne Reynolds? One other thing caught my eye. It appeared to be a design of a mutant with wings. Wings that I could have sworn were metallic. It might be that Angel is in the film after all. What's more, he was wearing some kind of uniform. Whether it was X-Men or not, I couldn't tell.
Anywho, I can tell all your readers that they definitely should be excited. I loved all I saw and all involved seemed genuinely enthusiastic. The crowd I was with loved it too.
Poliman4
P.S. Many trailers were shown at this shindig, some I've seen, others I haven't. Here's what a crowd of the hardest to please geeks thought.
Some Eddie Murphy movie: the crowd didn't like this one too much, though there were some laughs. I forgot the title, but it takes place on the moon.
Feardotcom: the trailer was suitably creepy, and they showed some behind-the-scenes stuff, but the crowd laughed whenever that title came up.
Solaris: what do you see in this trailer, Harry? No one here liked it.
Reign of Fire: this got the audience (and me) excited, but then they showed a too long thingy on how they made the dragons.
Goldmember: lots of laughs from the crowd, and the hosts of the event enjoyed it a lot.
XXX: this was an extended version of the most recent trailer. Not much out of the crowd for this one.
Ecks Vs. Sever: the crowd began telling jokes at its expense, and one of the hosts asked if anyone had a better title
Simone: Al Pacino movie about a virtual actress. I think this looks interesting, but the crowd didn't react to it much.
Eight Legged Freaks: for some reason this had a big presence at the con. The crowd wasn't too excited, but I think it looks fun.
Harry Potter 2: the first one was okay, but I was surprised at how good this short trailer was. The crowd loved it.
Hulk: lots of cheers for this excellent teaser.
Daredevil: this trailer wasn't too well received at AICN, but I liked it, and so did the crowd. Lots of cheering. One of the hosts (who works for DC) liked it a lot.
Star Trek 10: another misunderstood teaser. The crowd was enthusiastic, and that same host loved it though he said he was a Star Wars fan.
The Two Towers and the Matrix sequels: the best were saved for last. Huge amounts of applause for the awesome TTT trailer and for the short, but blood pumping matrix trailer. We were a room of happy geeks.
