The campaign to get Dave and Jon out of prison is going well.

Back in May of last year I wrote my first article for HeyUGuys. It was a report from the MCM Expo. If you’re interested, it’s available to read here and the follow-up article is here, and for your reading pleasure, they’re presented in retro-HUG format.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to attend a lot of events, but the Expo still stands out as something a bit special. The closest thing we have in the UK to the San Diego Comic Con, it’s one of the few weekends of the year where you can make a joke about Hal Jordan’s ring and get laughs rather than confused looks, and it provides an opportunity for comic geeks, Cosplayers, computer gamers, autograph hunters and other assorted fan-boys and girls to meet up and talk geek.

Na'vi, or Smurfette?

It’s also fast becoming THE place to promote sci-fi and fantasy-related films and TV shows.

This time round, the show didn’t have quite as much film related content, although there were some absolutely enormous Scott Pilgrim character posters dangling from the rafters. What it did have in abundance, however, were people.

Twelve months ago I described the MCM Expo as small and intimate. By the second Expo of 2009, in October it had doubled in size, and taken over a far bigger hall. This time round it had doubled again, and what was truly remarkable were the costumes.

At the two previous Expos, Cosplayers were abundant, but still in the minority. Apparently they’re breeding, as just about everyone was wearing some sort of fancy dress.

Of course with cos-players, comes the opportunity to play Cliché Cosplay Bingo, and within minutes of entering the hall I’d spotted several Jokers, a Crow, a Hit Girl, Captain Jack Sparrow and about four hundred Narutos. Alongside the standard Cosplay fayre were some spectacular and stunning efforts, including one chap in a full Iron Man suit. If he didn’t win the best costume competition I’m calling ‘shenanigans’.

There were also the beautiful geek girls, who never seem to exist outside of the MCM Expo. Quite where they hide in the mean time is beyond me, but every six months, without fail, they pop up to taunt horny geeks, before disappearing into the ether.

While the movie-centric content was a little limited, there was a lot relating to TV, and panels were held for Merlin, Fringe, Stargate Universe, Caprica, as well as Paul Cornell’s new series, Pulse.

The security guards at Expo really meant business

There was also an exclusive screening of footage from Codex Pictures forthcoming Ultramarines film. Unfortunately (and utterly gallingly) I missed it. It’s a real shame, because I’ve been following the project since it was announced, and I would have loved to have seen the first footage from the flick. Hopefully it’ll make it online in the next few days.

Whether it does or not, you can look forward to another interesting article cropping up in the next few days as I put my interview with Ronald D Moore (and Esai Morales) online. I won’t give too much away, except to say that it’s now officially my favourite interview, and Moore talks about everything from Star Trek to The Thing, via BSG and Caprica.

Photos courtesy of MissGeeky’s Melinda Seckington and her partner in crime Cristiano Betta

UPDATE

Since our story ran it has come to light that Kevin Spacey and Damon Albarn
have yet to be confirmed in their roles. Film Village released the following
statement to MTV.

‘The film ‘Buskers’ has yet to have it’s cast finalised and both Jeymes
Samuel and the production company Film Village totally disassociate
themselves and their production from any press or article that suggest
either Kevin Spacey or Damon Albarn are cast members. Once casting is
finalised details as to who will star in the production will be released to
the press’

One of the nicest things about the MCM Expo is how willing people are to talk to convention-goers. Outside of the panels and signings are comic creators and film makers who will quite happily have a conversation with anyone who approaches them.

HeyUGuys managed to snag some time with Jeymes Samuel, who has produced albums for The Gorillaz, Ben Hudson and KT Tunstall. His current project is Buskers, a film version of the comic that he wrote with graphic-novelist Sean Michael Wilson.

The film, which begins shooting in December stars Kevin Spacey, Damon Albarn, Ian Brown and Mos Def. It tells the story of Timothy Book, a former banker who falls on hard times, and ends up spending an increasing amount of time involved with London’s busking scene.

The film is being produced by Pilar Savone, associate producer on Inglorious Basterds, and will feature a soundtrack by London-based musical collective The BulliTTs.

Jeymes told us that the cast of the film was still being filled out, and that they were about to cast the female lead. As HeyUGuys had watched An Education only a few days beforehand, we suggested that he’d consider her, so if she’s cast, we’re looking forward to our casting director credit.

Our conversation with Jeymes meandered somewhat, and we eventually got on to the subject of other comic book films. Jeymes mentioned that he was a huge fan of the Blade franchise, but that he didn’t care for the third film in the series. He then gave us his pitch for a new third film, Wesley Snipes ““ Christopher Lee. It would be hard to say that we disagree with him.

He was also happy to discuss the long-rumoured Gorillaz movie. After the success of their opera, Monkey: Journey to the West, it seems inevitable that the worl’d most cinema-friendly band should finally make a film, and Jeymes all but confirmed our suspicions, telling us that “The Gorillaz album is so dope they’ll have to do a movie“.

Our conversation ended with the HeyUGuys and Jeymes geeking off. After discussing films and comics we got on to the subject of the 3D TV that was being demonstrated at the Expo. At the mention of it Jeymes’ interest was piqued, and we were only too happy to show him.

The last time we saw Jeymes, he was engrossed by the presentation. We hope he pulls himself away, because we’re incredibly excited by Buskers and can’t wait to watch it.

For more details about the film check out the production blog, buskersthemovie.com.

This weekend the streets around the Excel Centre in East London were filled with geeks, gamers, movie-buffs and cos-players, as the MCM Expo once more rolled into town.

It’s still a fairly intimate affair, but since its inception in 2002 the Expo has grown from a collectors’ show into a genuinely important, biannual event for the UK anime, comic, computer game and film industries.

One of the highlights of the show this time round was Optimum Releasing’s promotion for their forthcoming film, The Losers.

Based on the comic by writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock, the film tells the story of a team of Special Forces operatives who are turned on by their CIA handlers. The comic itself is a re-jig of a World War II-set comic that ran during the seventies and early eighties.

During the course of the day, Optimum provided Expo attendees with various treats, including the first chance for those from the UK to see the new poster for the film, as well as a public Q&A with the creators of the comic, as well as one of the stars of the film, Idris Elba.

HeyUGuys were able to speak to Elba at a round table interview, during which he answered some questions about the film, and gave us some indications for what he might do next.

Anyone who has read the comic will have noticed the similarity the story bares to the A-Team. When this was pointed out to Elba he pointed out the differences.

“I honestly feel that our film is a little cooler, in a sense that it’s not a big-burger-brand. The Losers is relatively new to everyone. The A-Team has to live up to expectations. Those characters are iconic, so we’re going to watch that movie thinking, “˜you’re not Mr. T’. With the losers, we don’t have that, even though I do have a Mohawk.“

With that elephant carefully ushered out of the room, Elba was asked how much of the script came from the recent, Diggle-written incarnation of The Losers, and how much from the original, WWII version.

“The concept of the original version is still in tact. In fact, if they plan to make more Losers I think they’re going to go back to the essence of more of the original versions of the losers, but this particular film was sort of a hybrid of the concept of the old comic and the fusion of the new stuff, and then the director’s vision.“

Acknowledging the difficulties faced in adapting a comic into a film posed Elba continued,

“It’s a hard line to follow, because comic books are followed because of their, brilliance, and detail in their story line. You can live in this world and not share it with anyone else. Ultimately there is an interpretation from the comic book to you, that you love, so when you try to turn that into a film where it has to satisfy everyone’s perception of the comic it’s tough.

“There is huge pressure to do that, especially with something like this, where you’re not relying on capes or flying around and special powers. These guys are pretty real, and Sylvian wanted them to be as authentic to the characters as possible, but ultimately we’re not going to be able to please everyone.“

Elba was then asked how much freedom he and the rest of the cast had to interpret their characters.

“What was open to interpretation was the way they spoke to each other. There’s great dialogue between each other. Chris Evans, who plays Jensen, he’s a very comical, funny guy and so is his character. Once we got together we worked on the script together on how we’d turn this dialogue and make it sound real.

“It was important to us that we sound real. When you watch an Adam Sandler movie, and then you watch a Seth Rogen movie you realise that Adam Sandler has a very interesting slant on comedy. It’s not as realistic as the Seth Rogen stuff, and it’s starting to make Adam Sandler look a little dated. We wanted to do the same thing for this action film.

“Canned dialogue in the A-Team is probably the order of the day, because that’s how the A-team was. Our dialogue is going to be a little bit more snappy, less punch-line-y, more real. Funny, but dry. I think that represents what the comic does.

“We wanted to make it seem real. Snappy, but real.“

Just before the round table ended Elba was asked if there were any other comics he would like to adapt.

“There’s a thing that vertigo do called 100 Bullets. I like that. I think it could be an interesting little thing. I’ve just started reading it and it could be quite interesting.“

And while he hadn’t made any formal moves on the property, he told us that he was “Keeping an eye on it“.