Big Screen – Icon / Momentum Pictures Panel Live Blog

It’s Icon/Momentum time and we’re very much looking forward to The Woman in Black. Let’s see what else is going to be shown.

Drive is up first when a clip about to be shown. We’ve been warned it is extraordinarily violent…

Gosling and Mulligan look great together and this scene has a kiss they share which is almost Lynchian in its tense, beautiful tone. Then all hell breaks loose.

It’s like a scene out of Wild at Heart. It really was extraordinarily violent. An intense experience…

Nicolas Winding Refn is on stage in conversation.

NWD: Hollywood is all about meetings on things that never happen. When I had meetings about Drive I was high as a kite on flu drugs.

NWD: They had questions I couldn’t really answer. It was like a blind date. A bad blind date. In a car with Ryan Gosling discussing the film the song I Can’t Fight this Feeling Anymore came on and I was tears. High as a kite. I looked over, overcome with emotion and I knew how we could make the film.

Universal wanted a basic action film but the story jumps around a lot. So we tore up the book. It’s about making films I want to see.

Best way to describe is that I wanted to make Sixteen Candles. I wanted to make a John Hughes film. I wanted to make a violent film. That’s Drive.

NWD leaves the stage. Here’s the trailer…

Here’s Momentum… Lots of love for them this year – and they’ve got some crackers out this year. Troll Hunter is up.

They just showed the poster for Troll Hunter including our poster quote – Jaw Dropping. Good work Steven Neish…

there’s a great trailer for this film – do check it out if you can. The director and lead actor are answering questions on stage.

Trolls are part of our heritage. We define ourselves by our trolls. We wanted to make something rooted in our mythology. I wanted to make a character based monster film.

In our book of fairytales there were a lot of depictions of the trolls – and I wanted to create our own mythology. We wanted to create our own trolls.

The DoP saw a rough cut and said ‘That’s a schizophrenic movie’. But at its heart it is a comedy. The humour is a base for everything.

It’s a good contrast – the main character is a troll hunter – it’s his night job. So it’s not new to him. To us they are unusual but not to him.

Weekender… A Manchester based 90’s rave movie. Tag line: Epic High. Killer Come Down. The trailer is playing.

New a lot to say about the trailer but it looks pretty good fun. momentum are putting a lot of stock in their new talent and the writers and directors are almost all new to film. One to keep an eye on.

Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire is up next. Gina Carano led MMA auctioneer written by Lem Dobbs. We’ve still the trailer and it looks nuts. Check it out on the site if you can. We’ve been promised something new after the trailer plays…

There’s a scene from the film that we’re being shown. It played at Comic-Con but this is our first look.

GC and Michael Fassbender returning from dinner – then it all goes wrong. He attacks her, she defends herself. Totally different style to Bourne for example. There’ no stunt people involved. No splintering wood, it’s all very real with Soderbergh keeping things simple letting the action turn back and forth. Stunning. Really something to see.

Welcome to the Punch is up next – there were two new images from another Jason Statham film – Safe. It looks exactly the same as the rest of the Statham films we’ve seen.

Mark Strong is on stage along with writer/director Eran Creevy. They are filming just across the water today.

They have been allowed to shut down Canary Wharf and they filmed a scene in this cinema.

James McAvoy and Mark Strong headline the film in a new poster which is showing on screen.

MS plays the mot notorious criminal in London and JMA is chasing him down. MS shoots JMA. Cut to five years ahead and a boy lies bleeding at London city Airport. MS’s son (the injured boy) is taken to a hospital where JMA uses him as bait.

MS: It’s these two broken characters, and it’s an action film. Shot in London and doing things I’ve not seen before.

EC: I love Hong Kong movies but I wanted to make this film something fresh and new – I want this to be a different London on screen.

The producers are on stage and the are describing their path from music videos to Shifty and now to Welcome to the Punch. It’s all about bringing something huge to the screen.

MS: THere’s some great action sequences – in the first week of shooting I realised I was in an action movie. Jumping around, grabbing Uzis – I’ve never really done anything like that. We’re starting this sequence now – the final gun battle around the London docks.

MS: One moment there’s the characters dealing with their emotions and then the next there’s another place to go. Somewhere different.

There’s there weeks left to shoot, there’s a tunnel sequence on motorbikes. Then a showdown on Canary Wharf. It’s exciting times.

Wettest Country is up next. Nick Cave’s screenplay, directed by The Road’s John Hillcoat. Tom Hardy is shooting a gun in a hat – this is an accurate description of this exclusive still.

Steve McQueen’s Shame is on screen now – Fassbender and Mulligan again. Nothing new here, just a reminder to check it out.

Ok. The Woman in Black time…

New teaser poster is up on screen. DR’s face close up with mist behind him and a face, guess who that is…, visible in the must. Looks nice, though not subtle.

They are playing the trailer again – the full one – which looks far less mysterious and far more generic than I suspect the film actually is.

The tagline is – Do You Believe in Ghosts? Is that new?

The director is on stage and we have been promised something special.

The movie is almost finished – last throes of the edit.

Adapting it from the stage play – key principle is What you don’t see is often more scary. It’s a scary film. It’s the suggestion that is truly scary.

The most important thing is the scares – people who have seen it say it’s more scary than the play.

We’re not overexplaning things – what makes things scary is when things don’t add up. There’s a very measured pace – it’s very unsettling.

Working with DR – you’re a little suspicious because everyone says such good things about it – you almost don’t believe it. But then you meet him and it’s true. He’s up for anything – I had him in a huge vat of mud and DR is committed to his craft – he wants to learn. People will be blown away – it’s a grown up performance.

Where does the film fit in the horror genre? Something classy. A proper British haunted house drama. But I hope the emotion comes through. The script is not just a delivery system for scares. Ghost stories are about loss. There’s a lot of emotion here. Real heart and real horror.

There’s a clip…

Setting it up – DR is in the house and things have bee happening.

Nice muted tones – the sets are impeccably dressed. There’s more than a hint of Les Diaboliques here. Candle in one hand, Axe in the other he approaches a door. It’s the rocking chair – you know what that means. An excellent scare right at the end. Subtle, solid, intriguing. More please!