Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is exactly the reason to go to Comic-Con. I’m really, really sorry I missed this footage, but thank God we had Quint on the scene, eh?
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here from Comic-Con... I just ran out of the tail-end of the VAN HELSING panel to get this out to you guys. Today at Sony's panel Avi Arad and Laura Zisken appeared and told the disappointed Comic-Con crowd that Sam Raimi is stuck in bed on doctor's orders with a fever of over 100 degrees... To make up for it they brought along a finished scene from Spider-Man 2 and this huge banner, giving us our first look at Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius...
Ain't it beautiful? Avi then introduced the 2 minute scene from Spider-Man 2... Good God... the way I felt last year when Bryan Singer showed that X2 clip, that giddy excitement, that great feeling of knowing that the next film is going to blow away the first... I got that here. The footage they showed was of a group of doctors going over Dr. Octavius' "accident", looking at computer readings showing the tentacles have been fused with the spine... The decision is made to cut off the tentacles, then figure out how to save his spine.
Doc Ock is laid out, face down, on a table, his eyes covered in white gauze. His 4 tentacles are wrapped in white sheets and hanging by ties to the ceiling around the room... Think the Alien Queen from ALIENS. There's tension as the main surgeon takes a buzz saw and turns it on. One of the tentacles twitches. The surgeon stops the saw, looks at the tentacle... nothing. He turns it back on again and gets very close to the metal skin of the first tentacle. BAM! The tentacles break free and beat the holy hell out of all the doctors and nurses.
This scene is classic Raimi... Following flying tentacles through the air, quick zooms into the open, screaming mouths of the nurses... The whole time Molina is laying on the surgical table completely motionless. One of the doctors gets trapped by a tentacle... looks around and sees a little sterile-silver chainsaw on the table next to him... tries to inch towards it. Then it cuts to Tentacle-cam. All 4 of the tentacles have the ability to take video it seems... it actually looked really sweet.
The tentacle thwarts the doctor's attempt to grab the chainsaw... cut away to many doctors and nurses getting smacked in the chest, face, legs by the other tentacles... the chainsaw doctor gets knocked down... all of a sudden the sound of a chainsaw roars to life and you see a gloved hand hold it high in the air triumphantly only to get totaled by the tentacle.
Everyone is down... Molina begins to wake up. He raises his head and a tentacle gently takes off the surgical gauze blindfold for him. This move was incredible. It was either some of the best CG I've ever seen or it was animatronic. If it was animatronic work, then count me doubly impressed. It was smooth and casual as if it really was just another hand at Doc Ock's disposal.
Doc Ock apparently isn't too happy with the situation. He gets up on his knees and in a wide shot we see him lamenting the situation, crying out "No!" as his tentacles flail and flex.
Fucking super-badass. The footage ended, and Molina himself was brought on as a surprise guest along with movie effects legend John Dykstra. Check 'em out!
Enjoy the above stuff. I got lots more of today's movie panels to report on, but I'll get to that later tonight. 'Til then, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
