Dark Phoenix has touched down in New York City. 20th Century Fox brought the latest film in the X-Men franchise as well as Alita: Battle Angel to New York Comic Con for a special showcase, where select fans got a sneak peek at never-before-seen footage from the upcoming films.
"The climate for these kinds of movies allows for... what the Dark Phoenix story needs to be. We felt like, after the last X-Men movie we made... we wanted to a story that could also do that and be intimate at the same time," producer Hutch Parker explained. "It is about someone who loses control and the people who love her... some of them want to save her, some of them want to save the world from her. Telling that story after Logan, telling that story after we went huge on [X-Men:] Apocalypse, it just felt like the right time to do it."
"I don't know that it's like any other movie, not that I can think of, and I guess that it would be a weird mix between a family drama and, to some degree, I guess, a science fiction story," director Simon Kinberg added. "It's very clear to us the underlying material for the X-Men universe... the thematics are so rich and so powerful and important. With that, you feel an obligation to reach deeper into the material... There's a lot of great work in this arena and the table felt long set to do what we wanted to do... It came up organically."
"It is an combination of something like Logan, which is a drama, and it's something that is larger and more cosmic. It is a larger canvas than something like Logan, but... it has intensity," Parker explained.
During the panel, they confirmed Jessica Chastain will indeed play an alien character, with some scenes taking place in outer space.
Sophie Turner, who plays the Dark Phoenix herself Jean Grey, revealed how she learned about the film's iconic storyline. "I was told about six months before we started shooting the movie. Simon kind of took me to lunch and sat me down and told me what the movie was going to be," she recalled. "Luckily, he gave me enough time to prepare. It was a big undertaking... I know the fans are so in love with this storyline. I really think we did this justice."
"I think I was just excited that we were taking a crack at something that's a bit more grounded and a bit more human, if you will," Tye Sheridan, who plays Scott "Cyclops" Summers, pitched in. "That's the instance where things start to change... I think when things start to unravel through the film, suddenly my character has lost the love of his life and she's lost control of herself and that's a hard thing to swallow... There's a lot of conflict in this movie between the X-Men." He revealed we'll see more "fragility" from Scott in the film.
"They deal so directly with alienation and prejudice and issues that certainly seem inescapable in the news these days and it's no accident, I think, Simon wanted to tell this story and has empowered the female characters in this story," Parker explained. "It's just a natural, cultural instinct and that's part of what you look for in your filmmakers."
Dark Phoenix is Kinberg's directorial debut. About that experience, he said, "It was great fun. I've been writing and producing for many, many years now... I've got to sort of practice direct on some big feature movies... and then I've also got to sit back and watch people like Ridley Scott and Kenneth Branagh... so I learned a lot. I learned a lot from watching Ridley direct."
He went on to praise Scott's openness to collaborate with other creators during the filming process. "You have an opportunity to take all of that talent, harness that and create something that's better than something you could have made on your own," Kinberg explained. "For me, what was exciting about direction in addition to being able to create the tone of the set and the tone of the movie... was to play with these actors in a different way." In fact, he "tailored lines to them," so that the characters had a more natural feel to them.
"That's the thing about Simon: he's so, so collaborative," Turner agreed. "For all of us, by the time we started shooting this movie, we knew that everything in that script felt right and justified."
Asked how she prepared for her role as the Dark Phoenix, Turner cracked a joke about her inspriation. "Yeah, I prepared with a lot of cosmic rays. I used to stand by the microwave and let them flow into me... and then I'd go scream at my mum and say, 'Sorry, Mum! Dark Phoenix!'" she said with a laugh.
On a more serious note, she discussed the real-world influences behind the Dark Phoenix persona. "We mainly studied schizophrenia and multiple personalities for the movie," she revealed. "We went back-and-forth with material like that." For inspiration, she listened to a video of "what it sounds like and what it feels like to be schizophrenic"as she ran errands: "I got nothing done," she admitted.
"I mean, mental illness means a lot to me personally," she continued. "I felt like this movie -- so often you can see superhero movies, they can be a bit gimmicky, but this, I felt, because it does kind of relate so much to the mental illness that I felt like everything had to be a respectful version of what it is... Not once does it kind of make fun of it or make it lighter than it is. It's very real. It's heartbreaking, but it's beautiful."
"On these big movies you get the least rehearsal time... you can't fall behind in schedule, but we had the luxury, especially Sophie and I... we had the most rehearsal time together," Kinberg recalled, adding that they "investigated the scenes" together.
Turner isn't the only actor Kinberg worked with extensively. "I would say the person who I might have collaborated with in a similar way is Jessica Chastain," he shared. She "came into this completely cold," unlike veteran X-Men actors like James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. "Jessica had lots of question on the science-fiction level and then got deeper into the emotional level... We crafted the look together."
"She's many things in this movie," he continued. "She's ultimately the villain of the film. We talked about trying to find a voice for the villain that's unique... She came up with this sort of metaphor. It's not a fun metaphor," he admitted, comparing her to "the veterinarian who has to give the news that your dog has to be put down."
"That kind of weird, calm, eerie, terrifying voicing was just really different and way scarier than her being shrill or demonstrative," he explained. "Once she found her way in, she locked into that."
"Simon never really thought of anybody else for that role and wrote it for her, had no idea whether she'd really be open to it," Parker revealed. "But he did a really great job on the script and knew the movie and the ambition of the movie so well, was able to communicate all that to Jessica... I think the threshold she maintains in what she's interested in... is extraordinarily high... She's just an extraordinary actress. The bar was high."
"Simon had to show the goods," he concluded. The Dark Phoenix segment then ended with 13 minutes of never-before-seen footage from the film.
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For the Alita: Battle Angel segment, director Robert Rodriguez and producer Jon Landau took the stage.
"So back in 1999, Jim [Cameron] and I were introduced to Alita by our friend Guillermo Del Toro," Landau recalled. "Jim identified it as a movie he wanted to direct it... He didn't come up with a script he was happy with until 2005."
However, that's around the time Avatar came out -- which prevented Cameron from fully dedicating his time to Alita. "He felt Avatar would help Alita movie," Landau said, explaining why Cameron chose to do Avatar before Alita. "The Avatar sequels will benefit from what we've learned from Alita."
"We had to find a director who would co-parent this child with us," he said, then recalled how Rodriguez landed the job. Rodriquez had gone on a social lunch with Cameron; at the last minute, Cameron decided to give Rodriquez the Alita script for a look-over, only for Rodriguez came back four months later with the voice they were looking for.
"He had shown me of an early reel of Avatar... and it's like watching the movie in 15 minutes... so now I knew what that meant, to see an art reel," Rodriguez recalled. "I was stunned. I was like, 'Oh, shit. He's going to do that -- in 2005?' The technology has to catch up [to Cameron]."
When Cameron handed Rodriguez the script, Rodreguiez received 600 out of 1000 pages. From there, he "crafted the script to get it down to length."
"Four months didn't seem at all long," Landau shared. "[Cameron] made a trip to Tokyo and sat down with [Alita creator] Yukito Kishiro.
"It's not set in Asia. It's set in a melting point world," he revealed. "We kept Kishiro involved and shared with him and he was kind enough to do something he never does." That is to say, Kishiro recorded a message for the panel, in which he endorsed the film.
At that point, the panelists introduced 22 minutes of footage from the film, which was shot using 3D cameras.
Following the footage, Alita herself Rosa Salazar and Hugo actor Keenan Johnson joined Landau and Rodriguez on stage.
"Well, I was cast in the role and then the very next morning I went into training," Salazar revealed. "Jim and Robert and Jon were talking about... you don't want to cast someone, and you get two takes out of her and she's exhausted... you've got to get your endurance level up for something like this."
For the role, Salazar trained for five months. "I did some Muay Thai... staff work, kickboxing... It also mentally prepared me. The thing about martial arts is it's mind, body and soul," she shared. "Other than that, the performance capture suit... it informed also, because I'm a walking contraption... I have a battery pack and a fan and a gray suit... I was a piece of technology walking around!"
"She's not a human who slouches in her seat. She does have some posture differences," she added. "She's human in the way that she gestures and her mannerisms... She stands very upright all the time. That was a challenge for me."
"This is my first film," Johnson revealed. "When your first day on set is with Christoph Waltz, I don't know if it gets better than that!" Originally a Broadway star, he had to adapt to the world of feature filmmaking. "The difference between Broadway is you have to project... On film, you have to be subtle."
"It's the opportunity to see the world through someone else's eyes," Rodriguez said of Alita. "She sees everything in a very beautiful way... She changes everyone that she meets... Everything is amazing and everything is beautiful. She gets a second chance at life."
Despite all the CGI that went into the film, a lot of the behind-the-scenes elements were practical. "It was about building real sets around her to interact with," he revealed. "Here, you know if it doesn't look real."
"Even Alita herself, she's made of metal, so when she goes down into the water and lands, you see the dust rise," Salazar agreed. "You want to feel the weight of her. That's what makes it real."
"It's all real! I mean, I was given the gift of... existing in a practical environment with practical props and practical people," she continued. "All the other days were in the real, true environment of that set. If your filmmakers are giving you that kind of environment in which to play, half the battle is won."
"It really felt like a living, breathing city. We had 200 extras in wardrobe... practical looking robotic arms. The gyro-bike that I ride, it doesn't work, but they made the actual bike," Johnson added.
"When we were prepping the movie, we found a company that actually made, today, single-wheel motorcycles," Landau recalled. "In scenes, you'll see it going around in the background."
"It feels like you woke up in a Kishiro world. It's like being in a dream," Rodriguez shared.
"Our goal with each of these movies is to make people feel like they're going to the movies for the first time," Landau explained. He also revealed that the film will show the fictional sport Motorball, despite the fact that it doesn't turn up until the fourth volume of the manga. "Jim felt that it was so unique and so visceral to weave [motorball] in."
"He found a really cool Jim way to incorporate it," Rodriguez agreed. "There's a real story reason for it that's really compelling." In fact, it's the scene that made him want to do the movie the most. "My email to Jim was, 'This script is amazing... I identify with her and the world... How many heads do I have to collect to work on this thing?'" To which "he wrote back the next day, very short and sweet: 'You've collected enough heads. Call me in the morning.'"
Written and directed by franchise veteran Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain,. The film opens June 7, 2019.
Arriving February 14, Alita: Battle Angel stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Lana Condor, and Eiza González.