Priest Director Scott Stewart, in his own words

Director Scott Stewart, courtesy Sony Pictures

This interview was part of a media roundtable at WonderCon with about eight other print and online reporters. "Q" is a question from one of the others, "UFN" is us. A few minutes of 3D footage, as well as the "sizzle reel" trailer, were shown the night before at the Metreon a block up from the Moscone Center where WonderCon is held.

Scott Stewart: Hello! Did you have a chance to see the footage last night? What did you think? Did you like it?

All: Yes!

Q: I went in thinking "Oh, it's vampires, seen it," but I walked out thinking, "I've never seen that before." It was amazing.

SS: Cool!

Q: Paul Bettany was telling us how easy it was for the two of you to work together. How was it?

SS: He's totally lying. It was horrible. No, it was great. It was really great. We had gotten to be friends on the last movie. We only worked together for a certain amount of time on that picture because it was an ensemble, and this was a chance to kind of put the whole movie on his shoulders. I knew it was something he could do, and everything about the movie is a big leap forward from the last movie we did. It's a more ambitious story, a much more straightforward story, and it was a chance to design a whole land and allow him to really inhabit a character he has to carry. I read the script and thought about who the archetypal heroes are, and I thought about Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen and John Wayne. Paul's somebody, when you look at him, you can put him in any time period. You can put him in the future, put him in the past, whatever, and he fits. Some faces are really contemporary. They just feel really contemporary. So I wanted somebody who looked like he would fit in this world that would be a little heightened. He also does a really great job of making his face look like a mask, and you just get the sense that there's a rage there. You know, he sits down and he's so charming and funny and nice. In movies, he's got a real ability to convey that anger. That, to me, was reminiscent of some of the characters John Wayne had played, so that's what we went for.

UFN: He mentioned that this had three times the budget of Legion.

SS: Which meant we had three dollars! Yeah, Legion was a really low-budget movie by the standards by which we work, generally. So yes, this was definitely more. By the standard of other movies... we don't have the budget of Pirates 4, probably not even a fraction of that, so what we had to do was be really clever as to how to make the movie feel visceral and exciting and textured and detailed, and make the world comprehensive. We just had to plan it really carefully and focus our planning and efforts on just the things we were going to see in the movie and try to be really efficient.

UFN: I think you can really see that on the screen, and I'm wondering if you feel that, compared to Legion, you're at another level now.

SS: Yeah, [Legion] was a little movie, a throwback to 70s horror. Yeah, I hope so! It feels like a nice step forward, because in every way I have more experience. I felt better equipped to do it. The learning curve of a director is... [makes a sharp upward angle with his hand]... and I guess in any great art it never ends, so every time you do it, you get better at it. I would have been very ill-prepared to try and embark on something as complex as this movie, given the schedule and the budget, without having embarked on it once before. So it's really helpful. It felt like it was a trial run for Priest.

Q: You said you did some of the visual effects yourself?

SS: Some stuff I did. I took much more of a hands-off approach on this one. I used my ability to do the visual effects more as a pre-visualization, doing storyboard animatics and those kinds of things, helping to design the vampires, helping the studio see what the world was going to look like and feel like. Because we really did want to try and push it, and that can be challenging. They have to take a leap of faith with you, so my goal is to try and make it not that much of a leap by showing them as much as I can, and hopefully delivering it, and they were all really excited about it. We designed the movie for 3D, we had talked about shooting for 3D. I wanted to shoot on film, and Don Burgess, my cameraman, a legendary guy who's shot Spider-Man and Cast Away and Forrest Gump and a lot of great movies, he's a great cinematographer... It's a landscape movie, it's part of being a movie that has real scope, and we wanted to shoot wide-screen and shoot on film and use old lenses. So we kind of got the best of both worlds, because when the studio started seeing the movie being put together, they went, "Oh, okay then... let's talk about converting this film to 3D." We did initial tests and they just looked so good! And they gave us the time. They pushed the release date to May for that. It was a nice big vote of confidence because it's expensive to move a release date.

Q: How closely did you work with [Priest graphic novel author] Min-Woo Hyung?

SS: He came out while we were in pre-production and spent a few days with us. The TokyoPop people brought him out. And we were nervous, because I had come into the movie with Cory Goodman's script, and there were 16 books and this sprawling thing mostly set in the old west, and some in the crusades, and there's a little bit of stuff in the future, but he never finished it. It's a cliffhanger, and you have no idea where the story's going, and Cory realized it would be really tough to make into a movie, like how to structure it for the time period. Westerns are hard, so he put it in a kind of apocalyptic future and imagined that that storyline had gone into the future. When Min-Woo came and read the script and looked at all the design stuff we had, and we sat down and talked about what our intentions were, it was really pleasing to us, because he said "I was thinking where the story would go if I thought I would ever write more, and I imagined going here, and here, and here, and that really feels like what you guys did." He was inspired enough by that to actually, much to the pleasure of TokyoPop, go back to Korea and write this big long bridge story between where the books left off and the movie began, which TokyoPop released as a new series of Priest comic books, which is really cool.

Q: Has there been talk at all about making a sequel?

SS: Not quite ready to talk about that. There are some things that we're working on that are ways to take the most successful aspects of that story and put it in a new context in a way that's exciting, and lets us really get into the story and the characters, that I think you'll enjoy.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

Paul Bettany on Priest, in his own words

Courtesy Sony Pictures

This interview was part of a media roundtable, where about eight media folks (including myself) were seated and the talent was brought to each table in shifts of about eight to ten minutes each. Unfortunately, I was unable to catch the names of all the media present at our table, so the other questioners will be noted simply as "Q" (how mysterious!), with "UFN" being my question in particular. (The Legion poster referenced was mine, I brought two to get signed from Comic-Con, which he did gladly! //fangirl)

Q: So is the second time a charm? (Referring to Bettany's second major film with Scott Stewart as director)

Paul Bettany: Is the second time a charm? I think it's 'third time's the charm,' but in this case it was the second. It was a really great working experience, and I think you could ask anybody in the cast or crew, and I mean it, if they had a great time, and they'll all say yes. Even the days I got injured, we had great days.

Q: What sort of injuries did you sustain?

PB: I fell on a de-acceleration wire, and I landed on my foot, which is where you should land, but it failed to de-accelerate, and I landed about 20 feet... it was painful. But it was fine, thanks to the pleasures of Vicodin.

Q: Were you doing your own stunts?

PB: Oh, yeah! As many of them as insurance would allow me to do, I did. I really enjoy that stuff, and, I mean, if you're in an action movie, and you're not doing the action, what are you getting paid for? I wanted to do it, I wanted to have that experience. It's such an amazing experience, and I loved it.

Q: What you said at the footage screening last night, was 'I'm British, so I'm starting from a butch deficit.'

PB: Yeah, it's true, so I started training before the movie, and my trainer came out with me from New York. I've known him for years, we worked together on Legion. He did a really amazing job, I think. He kept me safe, put a bunch of weight on me, made sure I didn't eat badly, and woke me up at 4:00 in the morning to go training every day. We start work at 6:00, so Mike would wake me up to go training at 4:00 in the morning. I can be a rude bastard at 4:00 in the morning if you're waking me up.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

Q: The six-pack on the [Legion] poster she had, does that come naturally?

PB: No, it doesn't come "naturally." It comes from a huge amount of deprivation! Yeesh... my body very quickly retreats very quickly back to the body of a reader who eats too much cheese and drinks beer. I can't get fit unless somebody's... I have a very strong work ethic, but I can't stop eating cheese unless somebody's paying me an enormous sum of money not to eat it.

Q: You're walking kind of a fine line in this movie. You're a supernatural priest who's reciting "Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death..." before he throws crosses at vampires. How do you, as an actor, keep the line between that and camp. How do you walk that line when you're reciting those scenes?

PB: I think you understand, as the actor, that this is a sort of really enjoyable moment for the audience. You understand that it looks like he's reading from a Bible, and the familiar says "Your words mean nothing here, Priest," and then the audience get revealed that what's inside the Bible ain't f***ing words. But you have to play it straight. You understand the entertainment value of that as a series of shots. I love that kind of stuff. I really do.

Q: Is that what drew you to the part?

PB: Well yeah. A bunch of things drew me to the part. Scott being a huge part of that. Scott with over three times of the budget that he had the time before -- a really broad canvas and enough money to buy really great paints finally for him. It's really paid off for him, and I'm really proud of the result. I was so shocked last night at the footage that we saw. So proud.

UFN: Is this your favorite genre to do?

PB: I love making movies. I love watching movies, I love making movies. From Legion I went on and played Charles Darwin and put on a bunch of weight for that, then I lost a bunch of weight to make this movie, then made a film in 17 days, unbelievably, with Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci. A small little independent film about the financial crisis, so I will continue to make as many different sorts of movies as I'm allowed to.

Q: How is it going from action to a more serious type of role?

PB: It's like two different jobs. They really are. They're totally separate.

Q: You have a pretty good sense of humor, so what kind of humorous subtitle would you give "Priest 2?" Sequels always seem to have an odd subtitle.

PB: I haven't the smallest idea...

Q: "Priest 2: The Priestening?"

PB: I remember at Comic-Con last time, Karl Urban signed a poster to me and said, "Thanks so much for being in my movie." He signed a poster to me, which I didn't ask for, and he'd hand written in his name, "Priest, starring Karl Urban."

Priest opens in theaters Friday, May 13.

Priest will have you praying for more

This genre-busting film, based on the graphic novel by Min-Woo Hyung, is set in an alternative world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest (Paul Bettany) from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece (Lily Collins) is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on an obsessive quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend (Cam Gigandet), a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.

Before you roll your eyes about "sparkly vampires" (Which Cam himself did plenty of times, both at the preview screening and at the interview tables), these are not that. The vampires of Priest are incredibly creepy monsters that look like slimy alien panthers without eyes, not charming Transylvanians wearing capes or pale dreamy boyfriends. They're fast and nimble animals who, when they bite a human, create servant "familiars" that are much more like the traditional twisted vampires of Nosferatu. The masters and servants are supposedly relegated to "reservations" after the end of the Vampire War, but obviously all is not well when some manage to escape and kidnap Priest's niece Lucy.

The world is both futuristic and retro, with elements of Bladerunner and classic westerns merged seamlessly into something new. There are martial arts battles with bikers, a chase and fight scene on top of a strange behemoth of a train as it races through the endless desert, vampire hunts through a labyrinthine concrete bunker, and scenes of loyalty and betrayal inside the massive Church.

The 3D conversion was seamless, and it does add an extra element without being distracting, but it wasn't entirely necessary for this film. For those familiar with Legion, Priest has approximately three times the budget of director Scott Stewart's earlier effort, and you can definitely see the money and directorial experience on the screen. This is one intense thrill ride with a different take on vampires that we haven't seen before. Add in heart-stopping martial arts fight sequences and the gritty eye-candy of the world all this takes place in, and you've got a movie that will be talked about all summer and beyond. Opens in theaters on (ironically) Friday the 13th of May.

Article roundup and an apology

The Archaia article is done, but the extremely sad internet connection I seem to have at the moment is not letting me upload the video clips of the panel, so I'll post the article tomorrow morning without the video interludes, and add them when they're finally up. I'm sorry for the delay!

Now, on to the articles still to come over the next few days as time allows:

PRIEST: I have a ton of material on this new film, including individual interviews with the director, graphic novel creator, and three of the actors (including Paul Bettany), plus I'll review the footage I saw that is guaranteed to kick your brain's ass.

BREA & ZANE GRANT: This sibling team gave us an exclusive interview about their comic We Will Bury You and other upcoming projects. Brea also gave us some fun insights about her time on Heroes.

EVOLUTION OF COMICS IN THE TRANSMEDIA SPACE: An interesting panel discussing how comics can move deeper into the digital age, how to capture new readers, and the issues with traditional print comics.

TRIGGER MEN: A bromantic comedy about killing the elderly. No, really! This indie comic has a lot of potential.

THE NEXT GENERATION: Kids making comics! I paid a visit to the Prescott Elementary School table and discovered some gems.

LUCID: My review of the fascinating new comic from Archaia, which involves a secret political war between the world's mages.

JEPH LOEB: Just a short anecdotal article about haunting the new head of Marvel Television for an hour during his booth signing.

...AND PROBABLY MORE! I've got a stack of comics and loads of material to dig into for these, so please be patient as we roll these articles and more out over the coming week or two. After that... more interviews are lined up, including artist Dennis Calero! Stay tuned to UFN, and spread the word!

WonderCon day one roundup

So much to say, so little time! It's late, and I have a ton of material to cover, so let's get right to it.

After getting my badge and visiting some booths and tables, the first event was an interview with the energetic Brea Grant, known for her roles as Jean on Friday Night Lights, and speedster Daphne on Heroes, and her brother Zane Grant. The pair have several projects in the works, including We Will Bury You from IDW, and a couple of other interesting urban fantasy tales involving the use of magic. Good stuff, and the complete transcript of the interview with photos will be up ASAP.

Then it was on to the Falling Skies panel. This is a new show produced by Dreamworks and written by Mark Verheiden (of Heroes, also co-executive producer) and Melinda Hsu (of Lost), and co-executive produced and directed by Greg Beeman (also of Heroes) who was scheduled to appear but didn't make it. I was very impressed by it, and can see some of the vibe of season one Heroes amongst the extremely dark and gritty (and, in some ways, horrific) tale that we saw the footage for. In talking to Hsu at the Dark Horse booth after the panel, she assured me that the show does have hope and brighter moments. Falling Skies focuses on the humanity of the situation less than the CG eye candy of the aliens themselves, much as Heroes focused on the people, not the powers. Again, more on that panel and what I saw there as I'm able to post it. Definitely a show to put on your watch list.

Opposite the Green Lantern panel, and poorly attended as a result, was The Evolution of Comics in the Transmedia Space. It's a shame, because it was an excellent panel featuring producers, artists, writers and other top talents in the comics industry discussing how old-fashioned print comics are spiraling down fast, and how to save the genre by exploring how comics can work in the digital age. We were treated to footage of the Fall Out Boy (Double Barrel) and Tron (Disney) motion comics, as well as a spirited, thought-provoking discussion. More on that coming soon!

Capping off the night was an exclusive screening of footage and the "sizzle reel" from Priest, the upcoming film starring Paul Bettany as one of a supernatural "priest" caste of vampire hunters. But these vampires are like none we've ever seen before, and will creep you the eff out when you finally see them on screen. I'm still getting shivers over the sounds they make. They are very alien, and very much do not sparkle in any way, shape or form whatsoever. This is Legion's super badass big brother who will knock you around the block, and you'll want to take pictures of the cool bruises.

Speaking of Priest and Paul Bettany, I'm going to be interviewing director Scott Stewart, Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Lily Collins and Min-Woo Hyung tomorrow, and I couldn't be more excited. The footage I saw went far beyond my expectations, and I think this will do well at the box office when it opens in a few weeks.

I've already hooked up with a lot of people and made some new friends, so beyond the articles outlined above, there are articles and interviews galore coming soon, including information about a new Jim Henson project from Archaia Comics, and some independent comics you've never heard of (but should, and will after I spotlight them in the near future). And this is only day one! Stay tuned, tons more coming tomorrow!