Long shoots, long shots, distribution platforms and the pros and cons of 3D were among the subjects under the microscope during Thursday’s [18] Visionaries Panel in Hall H.
“The whole film was a miscalculation,” Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron said of Gravity, which Warner Bros will release on Oct 4 and stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
“I told my cinematographer we would shoot it in one year. It lasted four and a half year,” Cuaron deadpanned.
The director returned to the subject of production towards the end of the panel during a conversation on 3D. “3D is a fantastic tool but it doesn’t have to be universalised, he said “… [W]hen we started [Gravity], 3D was still cool.”
“The reason most people are lukewarm on the subject is they have seen too many bad ones that have been done after the fact,” said Edgar Wright, here to promote The World’s End [pictured] ahead of Friday’s panel.
Asked about the recent jeremiad by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas about the dovetailing of the film-going experience into prestige cinema and a far costlier tentpole experience, the panelists agreed a paradigm shift was underway.
“It’s very difficult to make a $15m drama,” said The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb, whose previous film had been the 2009 Sundance and arthouse hit (500) Days Of Summer. “At the same time it’s a great time to be a young filmmaker.”
“If we don’t keep on making original movies there will be nothing to remake in 30 years time,” said Wright. “If you’re starting out as a young filmmaker you have more ways to get your film seen then we did when we started out.”
Earlier in the session Cuaron explained how to simulate zero gravity on his sci-fi thriller Gravity the crew devised a 9 x 9 cube and inserted Bullock into it for her scenes. “The character was static and everything was moving around her.”
Webb, in between admiring comments about Cuaron’s use of long lensing on Children Of Men, talked about the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and explained how the character of Electro played by Jamie Foxx would reveal more of Spider-Man’s personality. “To solve a problem that Electro presents to Spider-Man he [Spider-Man] has to empathise with him.” Sony has earmarked a May 2 2014 release.
Webb told the packed Hall H that one day he would like to direct a musical and a comedy. Wright is moving ahead with Ant Man for Marvel/Disney and referred to the 2015 release date.
He did not rule out another instalment in the so-called Cornetto Trilogy comprising Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and now The World’s End – which Focus Features will release on Aug 23 – but said it was too soon to consider.
For his part, Cuaron said he would love to make a horror film.
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