SDCC 2018: ‘Halloween’ and ‘Glass’ Panel Recap

Paramount Pictures held its SDCC2018 panel in Hall H and the room was packed and abuzz with excitement to see footage from upcoming movies, Glass and Halloween.

The panel was set to begin at 3:45pmPT and got going just a few minutes late, with a 3:55pmPT start.

Yvette Nicole Brown was tasked with the moderating duties and arrived to a thunderous round of applause in her own right.

The first person she welcomes is a biggie, M. Night Shyamalan.

Can you tell us the inspiration of this trilogy?

MNS: “I live in Philly and we all hear about Hall H, this is the mecca. So, Unbreakable came out it was a weird moment for me. I remember the 30 year old version of me, and there was a mixed reaction because people expected a sequel to Sixth Sense because it was me and Bruce Willis.

“I remember when we were marketing the movie and they kept saying we cant mention the word comic book or superheros… because it was too fringe. They just kept saying we are going to avoid mentioning that in the marketing.

“Then I did a bunch of small movies and self-contained movies, but there was this little crumb from Unbreakable, and I took those pages out and so I did Split, and asked Disney if we could do a little twist at the end – with their character – and they were very gracious and then here we are. This is something that we may never see again, when two studios own the IP on two properties just coming together to make a sequel that they both were on board with sharing.”

MNS, lets people know that James McEvoy is not going to be on the panel, he is super sick and stayed home in Canada.

First is Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulsen, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson.

Hey Sam, When filming wrapped on Glass, why is he special to you?

Sam: “I love the complexity of Elijah. He has a mom that he is loving. He has this strong mind, but fragile body. And he has a belief that is stronger than anything anybody can take from him.

“See… I don’t play the same mother f—ker all the time!”

Q for Bruce: How did Night entice you to join Split at the end?

Bruce: “Sadly I am bound to a lead pipe cinch that I cant share anything. There are a lot of secrets that have not been exposed.”

MNS: “I just called him, and told him about the scene and Bruce came right away in one afternoon. He did it for nothing.”

Bruce: “I hada couple bad nights and he, he, didn’t quite know if I should answer the question or don’t answer the question, but Night asked me… will you do it, and I said… yes”

Q for Sarah: “I heard you have some shooting stories… in a cold hospital.”

SP: “It was the coldest place I have ever been in my life. It was a mile to the bathroom, there was no heat, it was good for my brain. I had to not have panic, so there were times that I had to refocus when doing a scene with these three, but then when I had to pee, it was really terrible.”

Q for Anya: “When we meet Casey whse is wounded that refused to give up, where do you find your inner resolve?”

Anya: “James is so great and so, I don’t know where I find the inner resolve to play Casey. I think she has all the traits that I aspire to be like. Night wrote such a great character.”

— TRAILER —

Sarah Paulsen, speaking to screen (McEvoy on the other side) …

Mental hospital establishing shot… interior of hospital shots… no other people…

All three in the room. Sam, McEvoy, Wilis

Comic book scenes… backstory of David, tain wreck, feeling/visions

Patricia shows up nest, two dozen personalities that live insinde of him, focus on maybe five,

Mr Glass is last, 94 breaks in his life… extraordinary IQ,

“Some of us still don’t die with bullets, some us can still bend steel…. Ive been waiting for the world to see that we still exist”

Willis escapes from the room — LOTS of action shorts.

“First name ‘Mister’ … last name ‘Glass’ “

TITLE SCREEN.

Fan questions —

What super power do you want

Sam: “Teleportation”

Sarah: “Mind reading”

Bruce: “Extreme strength”

Give us a tease:

MNS: “The difference between our movies and the other comic movies are the performances of these people sitting next to me. These three, plus James McEvoy, it sets it apart.

“We are in the editing room right now, but James does 21 personalities in this movie.”

Moving on to Halloween…

Welcoming Jason Blum to the stage… also, Malek Akkad, David Gordon Green, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Jamie Lee Curtis STRUTTTTTTS onto the stage… people are going crazy. Loudest applause from the panel, cumulative.

Q for Jamie: “Why did you choose to return after 40 years?”

JLC: “A random act of violence stayed with her for 40 years… she never had mental health services, they sent her back to school, she carried the trauma and the PTSD to this day.

“What they are honoring today, is that trauma, you say I am not my trauma. The narrative of my life is not that I am a victim. She is taking back the legacy of my life and you don’t own me anymore. And that, weirdly enough, that seems to be a thing that is a theme in the world – I know you are nerds – but if you watched the ESPYS and saw those strong women stand on the stage so that that MF rots in prison. Those women are saying you do not control my narrative.

“That is why I am here, because this character is taking back her narrative.”

Q for David: “How nervous were you to pitch this to John Carpenter?”

David: “My trauma was at a 7th grade sleepover and someone played Halloween and I had to call my mom to go home… in my youth and then in my learning this franchise is the pinnacle of horror. This is a dream come true.

“For me, we sit down, there are Starman posters on the wall, and I am freaking out. We give him our pitch, he asks us a few questions and we ask him back a few to make sure that he was part of the creative conversation. In the middle of his pitch the phone goes off and his ringtone was the iconic score of Halloween. Then he starts nodding and he says he was in. Then we said we wanted him to do the music, a little Halloween, a little Christine, a little bit Big Trouble in Little China.”

Q for Malek: “Why does this story resonate with you?”

Malek: “The last time I was at ComicCon was when I was seven years old and there was like 300 people here, so it is has grown.

“Michael Myers, that face, and you can put anything of your worst fear into that blank nothingness. Maybe that is too smart, but he is just the best horror character.”

Q for Jason: “This movie can reset this entire franchise, is that freeing for you.”

Blum: “I wanted to give a nod to the other movies, but take what happened in the first movie – the best movie – but taking it from there and just jumping forward 40 years.”

Q for JLC: “Wehere do we find your character now 40 years later”

JLC: “I think what is terrifying is random acts of violence and that is what makes him terrifying. He is a creature behind a mask, but it is this randomness. A small town, these young girls, dreaming of what is to come and then the random terrifying element.

“So, now, 40 years later, Lori had no support and PTSD and trauma is real and profound. She did what most people do… drank too much, bang into people, having a child that is taken away from her, she is clearly a woman who was dogmatic about her belief that Michael Myers to come back. She was in complete isolation waiting for him to come back.”

David Gordon Green introduces the preview.

Trick or treat from kid voices… kids walking… bump into Micahel Myes looking person, who then walks briskly under a lighted carport… into a garage, grabbing a hammer…

Myers now walking around a house, into a ktiche of a woman who just made a sandwich, she sees him, screams, small scuffle, he then grabs a knife, walks past her dead body, into a bedroom of a screaming baby… llooks over the crib and goes into the next room, and out the door onto the street.

Halloween music starts to play as he hears a car lock and teenage chatter.

Shes a girl in a sexy nurse outfit get into the car with her doctor boyfriend, another group of trick or treaters drws his eye into another house, steady shot follows him looking into the windows with a reflection, he then goes around the side of the house – the camera stays on the same shot it was before – woman approaches the window and draws the shades and Myers grabes her hair and hits her face off the window and kills her.

JLC scene shooting a shotgun.

Backstory of Myers survigin a bus crash, Karen is interoduced, then it gets a lot faster with its cuts…

JLC shows her ecutiry measures. Drop screens, lights, cache of guns.

A lot more action in the final minute of the trailer. Ends with Myers breaking through a window and grabs Curtis, lifting her off her feet…

Goes to TITLE SCREEN.

First audience question was a man who retold a story about a home intruder that broke in and tried to kill him… he said he was young and thought to himself: “What would Lori and Jamie Lee Curtis do” … the tale went to say that he grabbed knitting needles from the trash, fought his way out and ran to the neightbors house screaming like she did in the first Halloween.

JLC left the panel and went into the crowd to hug and hang out.

Next question: “How hard was it to retransition into the role of Lori”

JLC: “From that gentlemen who spoke, that was real… this is a movie and we love the scare, but it has to be based as actor, in something you can believe in. That amount of emotion that he released is what Lori has carried on. I have raised two children, lost all my adult family, so I have done a lot of things that connects with human feelings. We can all have a good time and it has to be rooted in something and so it was easy for me, but Lori has been through a heck of a lot and if we peel back the onion of everyone in this room they have too. I think we are all carrying a lot of anxiety in the universe and that is not saying anything about politics.”