If someone asks me, "Hey, Paul Bettany is going to be at this panel at WonderCon, you wanna go check it out?", what other response would there be than HECK YEAH! Paul is my lemon flavored love cake for life, but we will get to that in a moment. ;) All the Sheep peeps made sure to park our butts front row to check out all the yummy goodness that is Priest.
Priest directed by Scott Charles Stewart, stars Paul Bettany (I love you for life), Karl Urban (good lord you are too fine for words), Cam Gigandet, Lilly Collins, Maggie Q, Christopher Plummer and Stephen Moyer (yes, that's Bill from TB).
Storyline:
PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest 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 is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece's boyfriend, a trigger-happy young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.
From Wikipedia:
Priest (Hangul: 프리스트) was a manhwa (Korean comic) series created by Hyung Min-woo. It fuses the Western genre with supernatural horror, Gun fu, and dark fantasy themes and is notable for its unusual, angular art style. An interview with Hyung in Priest: Volume 3 states that the comic was inspired by the computer game Blood, which featured a similar horror-Western aesthetic and an undead protagonist.
During the panel we got to learn quiet a bit about how Director Stewart was able to translate the comic to the big screen. He shared with us his views on where he wanted to take the film and how he was able to put all the pieces together and hopefully create something that fans will love. As action plays a large role in the film, Stewart shared that he wanted to blend many different styles of action and Sci Fi to make it a whole new recipe. We shall have to wait and see, but from what I could gather it's going to be one fun ride. ;)
We viewed some unseen footage of the different action sequences in the film, the whole cast had to undergo months of vigorous training to be able to do all these stunts. Of course stunt men were used, but the actors all wanted to do as much as they could. Here is a little bit of Cam and Paul talking about that training program.
Cam: "I don't think I had quiet the rigorous schedule as Paul. I think one of my hardest things was holding up that 70 lb gun. So my muscles right here [points to trap muscle] are quiet large. Aside from that as you guys saw I don't have the skill so I get my butt kicked in that scene. So yeah, Paul can probably answer that better. But he was born with that talent..."
Paul: "Yeah, that was like my Sunday. I don't know what you lot do on the weekend but this is just what I do. No, I am British and therefore I am starting from a butch deficit. I uh, yeah you don't have to clap so loudly. Play nice. I had 8 months of training to make me look like a normal human being. And then a bunch of combat training and a bunch of wire work, which I really loved doing. Then you got a bunch of people who's job it is to make you look REALLY cool. So you're getting a lot of help. And by the end of the movie Cam does get the skills. Not quiet as skillful as me but ya know maybe by Priest 2."
"I think I can speak for the whole cast and crew so I will, cause I am that confident. If you found any of the cast and crew on the street, they will say it was one of the greatest experiences of my professional career. We just, every day was a blast even the days that I got injured. Thanks to Vicodin actually...yeah, yeah so see both things were fairly great. But it was a fantastic shoot."
Lilly Collins talked a bit about her character in Priest, being the exact opposite from her previous role in The Blind Side. Her character Lucy starts outas kinda the damsel in distress, she says. But Lucy has Priest blood in her family, so though she never had to use those skills before she manages to become a fighter fairly quickly. Lilly loved the wire work and doing stunts and action she would like to continue playing these types of roles. She also announced at the panel that just the day before had accepted to play a role in Snow White alongside Julia Roberts.
With all these fine males in one film it's enough to make this girl swoon. No joke. Throw in a slamming good story, action, Sci Fi AND Vamps? This is a movie to die and reanimate for! May 13th you know where I will be. :)
KD
