Comic-Con Day 1: Oliver Stone says studios’ boards led to ‘Snowden’ rejection

SAN DIEGO — Director Oliver Stone said Thursday at Comic-Con that every major movie studio turned down his narrative film about Edward Snowden because of censorship from their corporate leaders.

Stone, who has chronicled many American conspiracies in his films, said he does not believe an entity like the National Security Agency is putting pressure on the studios, but the corporate boards who control them.

He got financing from France and Germany for the movie, which comes out Sept. 16 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden.

Stone said he believes Snowden is still “a mystery” despite many interviews, articles and the Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour” exploring the former NSA contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents about the government’s surveillance programs.

Snowden now lives in Russia, and Stone met with him a number of times in Moscow, trying to gain his trust and decide whether to take on the project.

Gordon-Levitt also tried to get to know Snowden before portraying him. The actor said he was particularly surprised at Snowden’s optimism about the ability of technology to positively change the future.

The conversation Thursday took a decidedly heady turn, away from the usual fanboy fun and toward big ideas about government transparency and the surveillance state.

“We’re promised privacy in the Constitution, and if the government was going to change those rules, they have to be open about it,” Gordon-Levitt said. “We’re supposed to have that conversation and decide together.”

The film is set to screen for the first time Thursday at the annual fan convention. Although Stone and the cast have their own views on Snowden, the filmmaker stressed that the movie is not one-sided.

“We don’t want to take sides on this in the movie,” Stone said. “You have to see the movie to explore the positions.”

Gordon-Levitt added that it’s a story that does not lend itself to a headline.

“It isn’t even as simple as a two-hour film,” he said.

Celebrities keep one eye on that other convention

As they greeted fans and promoted movies at Comic-Con on Thursday, celebrities were keeping one eye on that other convention, the Republican party gathering in Cleveland.

“It’s hard not to watch. It’s like a car crash,” said Justin Timberlake, who appeared alongside Anna Kendrick promoting the animated musical “Trolls.”

“It’s really incredible to watch and just understand where that fear comes from, where that mentality comes from,” said Dane DeHaan, promoting Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” alongside model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne. “Obviously the whole Melania Trump thing just makes me uncomfortable all over.”

At the “Star Trek Beyond” premiere on Wednesday night, Zoe Saldana said she felt obligated to pay attention to the speakers in Cleveland despite disagreeing with them politically. Hollywood’s film community is known for its strong support of liberal and Democratic causes.

“I feel like as an American, it is my duty to be a little more updated on everything that’s happening, especially because we are nearing towards November. And I think it’s very important that by the time we vote, we know exactly who we are voting for and why,” she said.

Her “Trek” cast mate Zachary Quinto sat alongside Oliver Stone at Comic-Con’s massive Hall H on Thursday to promote “Snowden,” in which he plays journalist Glenn Greenwald. He said he hadn’t been watching the GOP gathering, but he is following press coverage of it.

Given the choice of conventions, Quinto said: “I’d rather be at this one — that’s for sure. . The plagiarism thing on the first night was staggering to me.”

“I think it’s important to follow what’s happening and to keep in touch with the news and to stay involved in the political process as an American citizen. But I don’t feel inspired by that collection of people or their collective way of thinking. I think it’s old-guard, fear-based, nationalistic, xenophobic, detrimental to our evolution, and detrimental to our freedom, ultimately,” he concluded.

‘Strain’ cast teases third season, new credits at Comic-Con

“The Strain” is evolving in its third season.

The cast and crew of the FX horror series debuted new opening credits and the first part of the third-season premiere Thursday afternoon at San Diego Comic-Con International.

“This season is really an all-out battle for the soul of New York,” said “The Strain” executive producer Carlton Cuse.

The clip featured Corey Stoll’s cautious scientist Ephraim Goodweather tinkering with a biological weapon to combat the series’ vampire-like creatures and Kevin Durand’s street-wise exterminator Vasiliy Fet teaming up with a group of soldiers.

“This knowledge that he’s been compiling since a very young age about the underground New York has made him very valuable at this point in time,” Durand said. “He starts working with this new group. We won’t go too far into that.”

Durand was joined at the pop-culture convention by his “Strain” co-stars Ruta Gedmintas, Miguel Gomez, Richard Sammel and co-creator Chuck Hogan. At the beginning of the panel, the group premiered a goofy rap video starring the cast.

Cuse said the show’s freaky creations will be evolving and new flashbacks will shed light on the series’ monstrous mythology. The third season, which is scheduled to debut Aug. 28, will be 10 instead of 13 episodes. That’s by design.

“We wanted to increase the narrative velocity of the show,” Cuse said.

Trolls take over Comic-Con, but not the Internet kind

Trolls turned out in full force to kick off the first day of programming at Comic-Con — the ones with the wacky hair, not the ones that hurl insults on the internet.

Audience members in brightly colored wigs watched Thursday as DreamWorks Animation debuted 16 minutes of footage from “Trolls,” an animated feature coming to theaters Nov. 4. It’s based on the toy with tall, neon hair.

Co-directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn said they were excited by the prospect of creating something with no pre-existing mythology

In this world, trolls are tiny packages of positivity, who hug every hour. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voice a pair of mismatched trolls who have to rescue their friends from troll-eating giants.

Timberlake served as executive producer on the soundtrack, which includes remixes of classics like Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and four originals such as “Can’t Stop the Music.”

Part of the footage shows Kendrick’s character, Poppy, who is bright fuchsia pink from hair to toe, tormenting Timberlake’s killjoy troll Branch with her singing. Branch gets his own musical moment too, eventually.

Producer Gina Shay said the film is informed by 1970s aesthetics — the troll’s are the happy, bright, lava-lamp side of things, and the evil giants, called Bergens, are brutalist and polyester.

“The whole production has a crocheted blanket vibe,” Shay said.

They also made sure to break “every princess rule in the book” by letting the female trolls be stumpy, short, and shoeless, he said.

Hall H audiences also got a sneak peek at “Boss Baby,” an animated film about a devious baby with a grown up demeanor and voice. Alec Baldwin, who voices the baby, surprised the crowd with an appearance.

Director Tom McGrath said part of the process of getting a studio yes was showing an animation test with the baby saying lines from “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Baldwin laughed that he hopes that expletive-ridden test is never made available.

MTV’s ‘Teen Wolf’ to end after 6 seasons

“Teen Wolf” is biting the dust.

The cast and show creator Jeff Davis announced at Comic-Con on Thursday afternoon that the MTV supernatural series is ending after the upcoming sixth season.

“Teen Wolf” star Tyler Posey thanked the fans gathered inside Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Convention Center for their support of the show over the past five years.

The reimagining of the comedy film series starring Michael J. Fox debuted in 2011 with a darker tone about a group of werewolves.

The cast teased that the sixth season will feature time-bending story lines and a new group of villains called “ghost riders.”

Luc Besson wows Comic-Con with early ‘Valerian’ footage

Comic-Con audiences got a sneak peek at seven minutes of heart-racing action Thursday afternoon in footage from the upcoming sci-fi epic “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

Director Luc Besson, best known for frenetic and colorful sci-fi spectacles like “The Fifth Element” and “Lucy,” said that he’s been infatuated with “Valerian,” based on the long-running comic series “Valérian and Laureline” since he was 10 years old.

The film, an expensive extravaganza from EuropaCorp, stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevigne as Laureline as time-traveling agents investigating galactic landscapes.

DeHaan described his character as a “space bro.”

The footage shown was still very raw, as the film is still in the works and doesn’t hit theaters until next summer. But it received rapturous applause from the estimated 6,000-person audience.

‘Mr. Robot,’ ‘Suicide Squad’ debut in VR form at Comic-Con

The anti-heroes of “Mr. Robot” and “Suicide Squad” are breaking into San Diego Comic-Con in 360 degrees.

The creators of the USA Network hacker drama and the Warner Bros. supervillain mash-up respectively premiered virtual reality experiences Thursday in atmospheric venues located outside the San Diego Convention Center.

Unlike most other promotional VR content released alongside films and TV shows, the “Suicide Squad” and “Mr. Robot” short VR films featured their counterparts’ casts and crew.

In the case of “Mr. Robot,” the original, 12-minute VR experience was directed by series creator Sam Esmail and stars Rami Malek as he undergoes an emotional, marijuana-fueled flashback as “Mr. Robot” protagonist Elliot Alderson.

The short VR film initially premiered Thursday during a Petco Park event before doors opened to a venue a few blocks away that featured a recreation of Alderson’s apartment from the series. Inside, fans could try out the experience and grab a free T-shirt.

For people not in attendance at the pop-culture convention, the “Mr. Robot” short VR film simultaneously appeared online Thursday on the Within VR app before it was taken down. It will be available again next week for all major VR platforms.

A few blocks away, the immersive VR experience for “Suicide Squad” was showcased in a venue designed to look like the fictional Belle Reve penitentiary. It depicted a scene from the movie where cast members including Will Smith, Jai Courtney and Margot Robbie battle a gooey horde of soldiers in 360 degrees.

The short VR film, which also showed the scene from the viewpoint of Robbie’s manic Harley Quinn, will be released alongside the film Aug. 5 on the Samsung VR platform.

Afterward, fans could nab fake tattoos, T-shirts and other swag in the style of the forthcoming film’s neon-hued baddies.

Both experiences are being demonstrated through Sunday with Samsung Gear VR for hundreds of fans waiting in lines snaking down the streets of San Diego. The headsets work in tandem with a Samsung smartphone rather than a computer.

Other entertainment properties with VR experiences on display at this week’s Comic-Con include FX’s “American Horror Story: Hotel,” MTV’s “Teen Wolf,” Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle” and TBS’ “Conan,” which requires fans to don giant cartoon heads resembling the talk-show host.

‘Luke Cage,’ ‘Iron Fist’ footage knocks out Comic-Con

Netflix took its inaugural stab at Comic-Con by unveiling the first footage from the Marvel adaptations of “Luke Cage” and “Iron First.”

After finding success with Marvel series “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones,” the streaming service hosted its first-ever panel at San Diego Comic-Con International and showed off several clips from the upcoming series starring Milk Colter as the indestructible superhero and Finn Jones as the kung fu master.

In one of the scenes, Cage pummeled a group of gang members in a boxing gym while absorbing a barrage of bullets.

“Luke Cage” will debut Sept. 30.

The panel concluded with a teaser for the superhero mash-up “Defenders” coming in 2017. The clip featured the logos of the various Marvel shows combining to form the name of the New York crime-fighting team.