Comic Con 2012: End of Watch and Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

The panel for Open Road Films had the unfortunate situation of being sandwiches between DJANGO UNCHAINED and the epic Warner Bros. panels. But they still bravely brought two films to Hall H…

It seems like writer-director David Ayer keeps making the same cop movie over and over—TRAINING DAY, HARSH TIMES, STREET KINGS and DARK BLUE. With END OF WATCH, he’s trying to present a more optimistic version of the job, based on police officers who do their best to help people and improve their community. The hook of the movie looks to be the way it’s shot, mixing standard documentary filmmaking with dashboard cameras, security footage and cameras attached to the actors themselves. 

Ayer was joined by actor Michael Pena and a recorded message from Jake Gylenhaal to introduce some new footage:

First, there’s a constant POV shot from the hood of a patrol vehicle with Gylenhaal waxing poetic about being a cop. There were some a brief shootout, but overall it sounded pretty cheesy and the sequence looked just like the beginning of a NAKED GUN movie. Next was a quick but humorous clip showing the brother-like relationship between Gylenhaal and Pena as the two blow off some steam talking about the difference between Caucasian and Mexican girls. The last segment was the most interesting and showed the two officers venturing in to a burning house to try and rescue someone. For most of the shtos, the cameras are clearly attached to Gylenhaal and Pena which made the smoky situation appropriately disorienting. It works for this sequence but if that technique is used throughout the movie it could be distracting.

• A lot of the script is based on the experiences of Ayers cop friends. It was a very independent and cheap production which gave the director final cut.
• Gylenhaal and Pena rehearsed for four months before shooting the movie in only 22 days, with a lot of improv. Both actors had rigorous law enforcement training  and went on ridealongs with real officers, which ended up influencing the tone of the movie—some days were chill, some funny, some scary, etc. The movie will present those different layers as well as the strong bond forged between the partners.
• Pena kept making jokes about how fat he was before signing on and the work it took to get in to shape . “I was killing myself like Chris Farley up a steep hill.”
• The idea for the unusual camera work came from real cops who wear clip-on HD cameras.  Ayer didn’t force any of the techniques, just chose whatever style or equipment was most effective for what scene. They did have special camera rigs built for the film, with Pena saying he had to wear some contraptions that made him look like “Mexican Robocop .”
• Ayer promised to deliver on authenticity because audiences expect a certain level of reality based on playing video games, which is ironic because the next panel was…

The panel began with two clips:

#1: A girl frees her friend who’s encased in some kind of web or tape, just as a weird spider-like creature made up of mannequin parts begins to come after them. The mannequin monster was CGI and looked more silly than scary. (Though I haven’t played the Silent Hill games, so this might be something I’m just not familiar with.) The two girls take off running, with one telling the other she got lost in the fog.

#2: Kit Harrington (Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) is strapped to a table in a room filled with those creepy knife-wielding nurses from the first movie. A girl comes in and offers to free him if he helps her find her dad. The nurses are almost motion activated, so every time she moves to cut his straps they moved a bit closer to them. She cuts the final strap just as the nurse gets to them—typical tension stuff.

Director Michael J Basset (SOLOMON KANE), actress Adelaide Clemens and producer Samuel Hadida then came out to address the crowd.

• SILENT HILL: REVELATIONS is a sequel to the first movie, an adaptation of the third game, but also works as a standalone film. There will be easter eggs for fans of the series.
• The mannequin monster is the only adversary in the film that was not done practically on set. It was inspired by the game but they developed it further.
• Basset said the movie is a hard R and the clips we saw were the only PG-13 parts of the movie. “I didn’t want to scare the Hobbit fans out there.”
• He said they’re taking the character of Sharon from the first film and turning her in to Heather in this film. Supposedly that’s explained at some point. 
• The film was shot in 3D, not post converted. Bassett was initially not a fan of the format but said if there ever was a universe to immerse yourself in, it’s this one.
• Members of Konami and Universal Studios came out for a special announcement: the launch of a Silent Hill maze attraction at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando during their Halloween Horror Nights this October.
• Sean Bean returns for the sequel, prompting someone from the audience to ask if he dies in this movie like he does in every other role. Bassett’s answer was “Yes and no. You have to see the movie to understand. You’ll have something to add to the [Sean Bean Death Montage] YouTube video, but not in the way you expect.”