Alien Trespass, a film that's become a favorite over here, showed up in full force yesterday at Wondercon, this time to the large crowd they deserve. Accompanying New York Comic Con attendees Dan Lauria & R.W. Goodwin were AT leads, Eric McCormack & Jenni Baird.
We got to see this awesome featurette again & then the panel began. Most of the stuff they chatted about we learned at NYCC, but here are some fun new tidbits.
-The only non 50s story element in the film is that a woman saves the day
-When asked why he returns to Sci-fi in some form time and time again (Free Enterprise, The Andromeda Strain), Eric McCormack explained "My wife is a huge sci-fi fan" and because sci-fi brings with it "the most dedicated fans of any genre" and you know because of that, the film will find its audience
-The movie will open in 24 markets and will expand to more if it does well!
-Eric Mccormack would be down to do a Free Enterprise sequel, but suspects he would get killed off in the opening scene
After the delightful panel, we moved into the press room.
Interviews, sound clips & more photos after the jump!
The round table interviews didn’t just go smoothly- We were in fact met by very enthusiastic people well versed in every aspect of the movie they’d just made. Jenni Baird, who plays feisty outsider and diner waitress Tammy, said she hadn’t been a fan of the genre or had any knowledge of 50s scifi flicks until she’d been given them to watch as research. Stylistically, she performed on film as she would have on stage to achieve the heightened sense of human behavior featured in the films of the time. Since working on the 4400 and, now, Alien Trespass, Baird says she’s now a fan.
Dan Lauria, aside from being an absolute bad ass of a man with enough gravitas to pull comets from their orbits, was obviously passionate about the project’s commitment to authenticity, from cheesy special effects right down to long takes that require actors to learn their lines. He made it absolutely clear that “We are not spoofing fifties movies, we are recreating one.” He also spoke briefly about his work in The Spirit, and the importance of Frank Miller’s illustrated-film technique, saying, “The Spirit is going to be one of those movies where even though it didn’t do well… our business is better for it.”
He also described the monster in perhaps the most colorful terms yet, when asked about the build up to a scene in which he, as Chief Dawson, has a major freaking meltdown at a diner full of confused customers.
The dashing dual protagonist Eric McCormack was- aside from being dashing, warm, charming, funny, dashing, handsome and charming, especially when he kissed my cheek at the end of the interview and no, I probably won’t be washing that side of my face ever again, but it’s fine, because the searing heat of his adorable scruffiness will act as a sterilizing agent for all possible germs or bacteria, natch- forthcoming to the point of sweet, sweet obscenity about the key aspects of his characters’ journeys through the film.
He also admitted to being responsible for the “I had a pipe” line, which, for those of you who don’t know slash are not Jewish, is a derivative of the following joke:
A grandmother brings her grandson to the beach. While he’s playing, he gets swept out to sea by a great wave. The grandmother prays, “Oh, God, please bring my grandson back! I’ll do anything, anything! Just please give him back to me alive and in one piece, please!” Suddenly, the tide turns and a great wave brings the grandson back onto the sand, alive and well. The grandmother looks back up to the sky and says, “He had a hat.”
I love Eric McCormack.
He touched on how he was not a sci fi fan, how the summer of Star Wars was, for him, the summer of Annie Hall, and that his own son knows this well enough to display skepticism at the slightest geek reference.
R.W. Goodwin was as ever a gentleman and an all around cool guy. His feelings on the film are largely covered by our previous stuff- he felt they hadn’t made enough of these charming, earnest films that were equal parts unintentional hilarity and actual scares, and set out to do one himself. If there is one person who understands the importance of a fan base and the power of the internet, it’s R.W.
“We’re a little movie,” he said. “The only way we’re going to make it is if people tell people, that’s the key.”
Well, we’re telling you. Go see the movie. Take in a matinee. Bring your own Sanka. Or a Tang. But go see Alien Trespass, and bring your dad, because he’ll probably effing love it. I know mine will.
P.S. Click here to head to the AT website & become an official fan! And for more photos from the panel click here.
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