CON: Film District Panel – Drive & Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

For their very first appearance at Comic Con, Film District decided to switch up the normal format for presenting more than one film and just brought out everybody they had for the two films at once. They laughed, they grilled each other, and they swore. A lot. Present were Guillermo del Toro, DARK director Troy Nixey, Guy Pearce, DRIVE director Nicolas Winding Refn, Carey Mulligan, and the great Ron Perlman. And this is how it all went down.

-Del Toro basically ran the show. The moderator, seated between del Toro and Refn introduced everybody and then just sat there for an hour as the directors took turns complimenting each others work.

-Del Toro really loves DRIVE (and from what I saw, this film looks amazing) and couldn’t say enough about the cast. Especially Albert Brooks and Perlman whom he says “creeped him the fuck out”.

-Refn was equally in love with DARK and proved this by describing it as “poetry meets cinema”. Lots of man-love on this panel.

-Guy Pearce loved to come back to the genre (DARK), a place he hadn’t really been to since RAVENOUS. He described his character as a non-believer, cynical, and a bad father who can’t communicate with his daughter.

-Mulligan loved Refn’s other projects, BRONSON and VALHALLA RISING and asked her agent to get in touch with the director so she could work with him. It worked. Refn’s wife made the director hire her after watching AN EDUCATION, a film Refn has never seen.

-The trailer for DRIVE was fantastic. Shot like a “western in L.A.”, Ryan Gosling plays a driver that gets involved with a deal gone wrong and beats the shit out of a lot of people. Lots of action, sexy time, and thrilling tension throughout the clip.

-Refn doesn’t drive at all. He’s failed at getting his license eight times. Mulligan stayed at his house while filming and had to drive him to and from the set every day.

-The entire film (DRIVE) was filmed with a wide-angle lens to give everything more depth.

-Refn was reluctant to come to L.A. because of all the horror stories he had heard from other European filmmakers.

-Perlman says he was drawn to the role because “being born a Jew was an accident of birth” and that he was always “suppose to be Italian”. When meeting with Refn, the director asked him who his character is and Perlman said “I have no idea but when you yell action, some shit is going to happen.”

-When asked who he would fight, dead or alive, if he had the opportunity, Pearlman answered “Dick Cheney”.

-Another clip from DRIVE gave us a look at an elevator scene with Gosling and Mulligan getting on with a shifty looking individual. After Gosling notices his gun he slowly moves Mulligan away, gives her a long passionate kiss in slow motion, and then proceeds to pound the living hell out of the dude. He gets him on the ground and literally pounds on his face until it explodes under his boot as Mulligan watches in horror. It was fantastic.

-Del Toro was confused by the decision to change DARK from PG-13 to R but realized it was the correct choice after viewing the film again.

-After the “massacre of production” involved with MIMIC, del Toro introduced the word “NO” to his vocabulary and has never looked back. One of proudest moments was when he was told to make BLADE 2 before THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE and he told them to “fuck themselves”.

-Lots of comments about the creatures in DARK being “little assholes”.

-Refn’s LOGANS RUN remake might have some sort of involvement from del Toro.

-Ryan Gosling built his own car for the film. Refn says the film only got made because Gosling wanted it made.

-Funniest story of the day: When Refn first met with Gosling he was sick with the flu so he took some “American medicine” and got really high. There was an awkward feeling of a first date as Refn was so out of it and couldn’t even raise his head to talk. Refn then asked gosling to drive him home. In the car, REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” came on the radio and Refn started to cry. And then he sang along to the words. When he finally snapped out of it, the whole ordeal inspired him as to what Gosling’s character was going to be all about and Ryan signed on the spot.

-Guy Pearce was asked if it was confusing filming MEMENTO and he replied “I don’t remember”. Rim shot.

-The trailer for DARK was pretty creepy. Basically, those little fuckers above run around and torment a little girl as her mom (Katie Holmes) tries to figure out what’s going on in their new house.

-Near the end of the panel, Guy Pearce noticed the warning on the back of their name cards warning that there may be persons under the age of 18 in the audience. Del Toro apologized and then said “Fuck That!”