Comic-Con ’13 was a huge year for book-to-film adaptations – like Divergent and Catching Fire. Here are Hypable’s top 5 moments from the convention.
From blockbuster films like Catching Fire to TV shows like Sherlock, at times it seemed like there was nothing at Comi-Con but adaptations.
Of course, that means there were a lot more great moments than the five we have chosen here. We also saw the pilot for the TV adaptation of The 100, based on the book of the same name by Kass Morgan. And on the Game of Thrones panel, we got some great insight from the cast members – particularly why different actors have chosen to read or not read the books.
All of the moments we have chosen focus on new footage released specifically for the Comic-Con audience. Unfortunately, this means that the majority of the footage will not be released online in its original state – but luckily Hypable was in attendance to summarise what we saw.
5. New ‘Mortal Instruments’ scene
Mortal Instruments fans were excited to see a very cool scene from the film, featuring 3 of the main actors. The scene showed us a completely badass moment from Lena Headey, who plays Clary’s mother, Joceyln Fray.
In a perfect demonstration of the separate storylines running through the book, we see two men breaking into Fray’s house and attempting to kidnap her – while every so often we cut to Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Clary (Lily Collins) in their own little world, talking properly for the first time.
Headey gets a chance to show off her stunt skills as she fights back – and eventually manages to phone Clary and tell her not to come home. This leads, inevitably, to Clary racing home only to find her mother gone and a super creepy demon waiting for her. It looks like it could be over, until Jace arrives to save the day.
4. First glimpse of ‘Sherlock’ season 3
It can be difficult waiting between seasons, and even more so when a show only has 6 episodes in total. The attendees at the Comic-Con Sherlock panel were rewarded for their patience when they were shown the very first clip for season 3 – and it wasn’t even from the first episode.
Deciding the keep the episode 1 reconciliation between John and Sherlock under wraps, creator Steven Moffat and producers Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue instead showed one of the most highly anticipated moments from the new season – John’s wedding.
The scene featured John asking Sherlock to be his best man (aw!), which was of course followed by a typical Sherlock monologue about what that meant. Don’t you just love them. The clip made abundantly clear that neither the production values, nor the writing and acting that we love so much has in any way deteriorated between seasons.
3. New ‘Ender’s Game’ footage unveiled
We have seen Ender’s Game footage before, but for one of the most highly anticipated book-to-film adatations currently in the works, we simply can’t get enough. This new reel was especially exciting for fans because it showed a lot of the Battle School footage that we were yet to see.
It also gave us a good glimpse of all of the major players – Sir Ben Kingsley (Mazer Rackham), Abigail Breslin (Valentine), Hailee Steinfeld (Petra) – and of course, Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield. The new Ender’s Game footage focused on Ford’s character of Colonel Graff, as he motivates and manipulates Ender (Butterfield) into becoming the solider that the Earth requires to win the alien war.
With Ford’s voiceover, we saw a decent amount of the Battle School simulator, which included a lot of explosions and special effects, and looks to be a truly unique interpetation of one of the trickier aspects of Orson Scott Card’s novel.
2. First footage from ‘Divergent’
As with the others, the Divergent footage has not been released to the public, but we imagine some (slightly altered) form of it will be debuted soon. However, this first released footage of Shailene Woodley is a big deal, particularly as up to this point we have only seen photos of her in the coveted role.
Having experienced the footage first hand at the Divergent panel, we can attest to the fact that fans should be very happy with Shailene Woodley in this role. In particular, the knife scene between Woodley (Tris) and co-star Theo James (Four) was especially well done.
We also saw Tris’ entrance to Dauntless when she jumps off the roof, and caught glimpses of most of the main actors. We think the footage shown really manages to capture the essence of Veronic Roth’s book, and (just as importantly), that there have been no major casting mistakes here.
1. ‘Catching Fire’ trailer is released
The release of the second Catching Fire trailer is easily the biggest book adaptation story from Comic-Con. While unlike Divergent, we have seen footage from Catching Fire before, this second trailer really demonstrates the direction they are taking the series.
The trailer surprised fans by including some of the bigger reveals of the book – like Katniss going back into the arena and the reveal of her Mockingjay-inspired dress. We also had our first glimpse of Finnick (which was divisive amongst audiences, as always).
Given the change of director between The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, fans were also eager to see more evidence of the change of visual style – and as we can see from the trailer, the production values have only increased from the first book.
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