The finale of the Warner Brothers panel is a movie called Edge of Tomorrow. I have not heard of this film before, so it was a weird film to finish off Warner Brothers. Violet had also read online that the new Man of Steel would be revealed, and I was a little saddened by this being untrue. But, little did I know, there would be a special announcement at the end of this panel….So much excitement over this panel! Lets begin!
Chris Hardwick begins with introducing the panel. He introduces Doug Liman, the director of Edge of Tomorrow. He then brings out Chris McQuarrie, a writer of the film, and Erwin Stoff, a producer for the film. Then we get a couple surprises. Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise have shown up! I had not heard of this film, and it is surprising such a big name flew under the radar for me with Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise tells Chris Hardwick they have something in common. Chris Hardwick played Stacee Jaxx in a musical, a character that Tom Cruise played in Rock of Ages. They begin serenading each other rather creepily, with Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”, but it was pretty funny to watch. I was able to find it on YouTube, and you can watch it here:
Doug Liman begins to explain the film, and starts with the footage, per Tom Cruise’s request. We learn from the footage that Tom Cruise seems to be stuck in a time loop, like the film Groundhog Day, but in a less than funny way. He seems to be forced into some sort of futuristic robotic suit, and fights a war every looping day. We have Emily Blunt’s character telling Tom Cruise to find her when he wakes up. It seems they share this same problem, of a looping dream. There seems to be something odd in terms of Cruise’s character’s plunge into the war, as he doesn’t seem to be a trained soldier.
After the footage, Chris McQuarrie talks about the film as being set a “few years in the future”, and that Tom Cruise’s character has a “special power” where he can “repeat the day”. The day he repeats is during the climax of a war, he reveals.
Moving on to Emily Blunt, Hardwick asks about the physical part of the movie. She says it is the “hardest” thing she has done, and had to learn gymnastics, weight training, and martial arts. The suits were heavy, so she says she had to work out. Chris Hardwick asks Tom Cruise about why he likes this Sci-Fi movie, and Tom Cruise says he enjoyed the script that was written.
Tom Cruise compliments Emily Blunt’s performance in the film, especially with the heavy armor they had to wear. Tom Cruise calls out Bill Paxton, who apparently is in the film, and is at Comic-Con, but not on the panel. Tom Cruise decides that Bill Paxton should be on the panel, and brings him up, because hey, you do what Tom Cruise says, no matter how crazy he can be! Bill Paxton makes his way to the stage.
Tom Cruise continues complimenting Emily Blunt’s performance, and Emily Blunt reveals she felt inspired by Cruise’s persistence.
Cruise continues talking about his character, Bill Cage, who is a P.R. guy, meant to recruit troops into the fight with the alien invasion, for which he has been very successful. Cruise explains that, “mistakes” his character has made wind up putting him in the middle of the action.
Bill Paxton reveals that he is a drill soldier, who has paperwork showing that Cruise’s character, Bill Cage, is a deserter.
Tom Cruise talks about wanting to see a good movie, and he sums up that this film is meeting his expectation.
The audience asks questions next, with the first question asking if any outside sources were used to handle the time travel “trickery”.
Tom Cruise fields the question. He says it was, “really funny”, and that his character remembers what is happening, but the writing handles it well.
The second question asks if Tom Cruise drew from any previous characters. Tom Cruise says no, that the character was great, and that wasn’t needed.
An audience member begins to ask the final question of the panel, but Tom Cruise interrupts him and asks what character he is dressed as. The guy, who is wearing a mask, just says, “I am not that good looking,” making a bit of an awkward moment. His question though asks about Tom Cruise’s stunts. Tom Cruise says that he just wants to entertain everyone. He reveals the suits they wore were 85 lbs for Emily Blunt and 100 to 150 lbs for Tom Cruise. Doug Liman interjects that Tom Cruise was always pushing the envelope in terms of stunts, doing them himself.
The panel wraps up with the release date, which is June 6, 2014. This ends the Warner Brothers panel it seems, with apparently no announcement for Superman. Tom Cruise seems genuine in his feelings towards his fans though, going out of his way to thank everyone before leaving the stage. They have a photo shoot at the edge of the stage, which Chris Hardwick can’t help but photo bomb:
If this wasn’t funny enough, Tom Cruise switches places with Chris Hardwick, and photo-bombs his own photo shoot. It’s too bad I did not get a picture of that!
No Man of Steel 2 Reveal…Or is There?
It looks like we will be moving on to the next panel with no Superman announcement, when Zack Snyder appears on stage. This must be it! He does indeed announce the sequel for Man of Steel which made me already very excited. Zack Snyder continues on, saying he needed to figure out the right way to introduce a “single element” of the film. He feels he is not the man to do the read though, and he brings out Harry Lennix, who plays General Swanwick in the film. The lights dim, bringing a spotlight around Harry, as he reads the following passage:
“ I want you to remember, Clark… in all the years to come… in your most private moments… I want you to remember my hand… at your throat… I want you to remember…The one man who beat you... ”
Suddenly, a new Man of Steel logo appears on the screens. A logo surrounded by that of a Bat. Batman is coming to the next Man of Steel film!
We aren’t given any further information than that unfortunately, but to say it was an exciting moment is an understatement. Who is going to play Batman now that Christian Bale has “retired”? Is it a reboot for Batman? There are rumors that Joseph Gordon Levitt may be Batman. Would Batman’s continuity continue from the Dark Knight trilogy? Is Batman going to be Superman’s villain? Will they work together? So many questions and no answers! This ends what turned out to be one of my favorite panels of Comic-Con, largely due to this huge announcement. It seems the film will be coming Summer of 2015. That is too far away!
The Warner Brothers panel shaped up to be an excellent panel. But can it be topped since it was the first panel of the day? There are many amazing panels to follow this big Saturday at Comic-Con, so let’s find out! Up next is Lionsgate Films, featuring I, Frankenstein and Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
That sounds like a pretty awesome reveal of Man of Steel 2. That will hopefully be a cool movie. Edge of Tomorrow might be a good one too.