Big Screen – Universal Studios Panel Live Blog

We’re at the Universal panel at the Empire Big Screen event and we’re hoping that the liveblogging shouldn’t be an issue… Let’s see if we get tapped on the shoulder by a steer looking security guard.

Of course I meant stern…

We’re still minutes away from the Universal panel and we’ve just been teased with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy…

And we were just shown the trailer again, which looks fantastic.

Now we’re getting a look at the exclusive footage. Peter Strong is introducing the three clips. The first clip is from early on in the film, a flashback.

You can see the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy trailer
here: https://www.heyuguys.com/2011/06/30/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-uk-trailer/

Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth (sounding very much like Bertie…), Toby Jones and Ciarin Hindes around a table .Far more gripping than it sounds. John Hurt rules the table, Oldman’s Smiley is quiet, suspicious and there’s so much going on in the performances. Mesmerising.

Second clip time now – it’s the scene of a theft… first look at Benedict Cumberbatch. Alfredson is keeping his camerawork very simple and the period detail is spot on. The music is sullen and not intrusive. Lovely details in the music, the dialogue. It looks very simple in the best way possible.

Third clip time. I think it’s Tom Hardy time…

I cannot wait for Clothes on Film to see this film… Tom Hardy cutting a fine figure through the seedy clubs – this scene is a story told by Hardy’s character to Smiley. There’s an element of Rear Window on display now as Hardy’s character spies on a target. Hardy and Oldman are on top, top form.

Q&A Time but first a message from Gary Oldman!

Funnily enough, he can’t be here as he’s filming some movie called The Dark Knight Rises!

Oldman is talking about being George Smiley and how he loved playing the role

Question: Why bring back the story?

Answer – It’s a great book and a great story. An iconic book and there has never been a feature film

Q: How do you go from taking this complex story into a 2 hour movie?

A; It was very very hard. A very hard adaptation. We hesitated before taking it but knowing the team behind it, it was something we wanted to have a go at.

The TV series is pretty much the book. With the film we couldn’t do that. We had to try and find a way of compressing and knotting together the strands rather than being completely loyal to the whole thing

How easy is it to make a movie from this time in modern day London?

A: It wasn’t cheap to do but we had a team of location guys who would go out and find locations. We found old abanoned buildings and an abandoned barracks. I’d say 80% of the film was shot in a single location.

We took and transformed them. With a cast like this, it’s a nightmare getting them into a scene together but because we had all these sets standing there, we could shoot the whole film and accomodate these actors

Q: Why Gary Oldman? In this film it’s an entirely different role to anything he’s done before

A: That was easy. We had a list and on that list was Gary Oldman. There was no one else we could have thought of without having him in it. I don’t think that we’d have made the film without him.

When Gary was performing, the crew were gripped.

Q: Is it worrying taking this project on?

A: I was very worried when we first met but by the end John le Carré was telling stories and was very happy with the changes that we’d have to make.

Q: When you write a scipt like this do you have a cast in mind?

A; No! I think you have a rough idea but in this one, i had no idea who could be Smiley.

Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy panel over now. Let’s see if Universal have anything else to share….

Shaun William Scott video message on the way for American Pie 4

Some footage from the movie now!

ahh, apparentoly there is no footage! SWS said there would be… but there isnt!

Showing the trailer for The Raven now. Looks dark and Cusack looks awesome as always!

It looks a little like Sherlock Holmes in style

Showing the tailer for the Change-Up now. Shame as these have all been out for ages (all here: http://bit.ly/q4K08W). I expect the Battleships trailer will be next.

Ahh, I was wrong! World exlcusive look at Contrband starring Mark Wahlberg.

Contraband trailer currently has the Tron: Legacy score over it but i dont think it’s finiahed yet. Odd since Tron is a Disney movie

All we have on Contraband currently her: https://www.heyuguys.com/tag/contraband/

Now we see Johnny English 2 and Battleship trailer.

Contraband looks OK. Storyline seems to be same sort of thing we’ve seen before but I guess time will tell!

Contraband stars Caleb Landry Jones, Kate Beckinsale, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and is out 16th March

Next a trailer for The Debt You can read our review here: http://bit.ly/qmRtjo and the trailer here: http://bit.ly/g43k9c

Now we have Tower Heist. Trailer already up here (such a shame Universal are just showing us stuff that is already out!): http://bit.ly/ouDIg6. At the moment it’s just a trailerthon

Next up, Battleship trailer which we have posted here: http://bit.ly/pYXA13

Oooo, there’s now mention of The Thing! Will it be something new?

New trailer apparently. Here;s the previous one we posted: https://www.heyuguys.com/2011/07/14/first-trailer-for-the-thing-unleashed/

The Thing does look fabulous! Can’t wait to see it completed. This new trailer is much darker the previous. It’s out here i nthe UK 2nd December!

Final trailer today from Universal is Immortals. All our coverage is already up here and again we’ve seen this trailer before. It’s out here 11th November. http://bit.ly/o3120l

Immortals has a great cast: Mickey Rourke, Kellan Lutz, Henry Cavill, John Hurt, Isabel Lucas, Luke Evans, Stephen Dorff

Same producers as 300 and has a very similar feel to it

Clip now from Immortals! Much more brutal than I was expecting it to be

Universal Panel over now. We’ll be here for the rest of the day and back live blogging again tomrrow!