Big Screen Day 2: Coming attractions

On Saturday, London's vast O2 dome was again packed with movie fans indulging in their obsession with cinema. There are at least 10 things going on at any given time, so it's no surprise that I was only able to scratch the surface once again. Previews I saw included two British animated features from Aardman: Arthur Christmas, which looks like fun but was perhaps aimed at a different audience than the geeks here, and The Pirates!, which looks seriously unhinged. Aardman's Peter Lord was on hand to present trailers and unseen footage and chat about the films.

Then it was Sony's turn, and we had a taped message from Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, followed by the trailer for Friends With Benefits, followed by three more trailers: Straw Dogs looks grisly and nasty, Moneyball looks smart and a bit smug, and David Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo looks better every time we see the trailer. Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari (edited together from red carpet interview bites) introduced the trailer and a hilariously frantic five-minute bank robbery sequence from 30 Minutes or Less, and then a videotaped Colin Farrell and Len Wiseman introduced an action-packed five-minute clip from their Total Recall remake. And now on stage, Roland Emmerich talked passionately about his new Shakespeare-scandal film Anonymous, showing us 15 minutes of scenes that look much darker and even more interesting than the lively trailer. He's certainly ready for the backlash, and the film looks pretty unmissable. And just before lunch, it was time for The Amazing Spider-man, introduced on tape by Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Marc Webb. In addition to a 3D trailer, we saw extended footage of Rhys Ifans as the Lizard. And finally it's clear that Webb's approach will be distinctly different from Sam Raimi's - darker, more intensely personal.

After the break, Icon was on hand with Drive, namely an exclusive clip that was pretty intensely brutal, followed by the just-as-brutal trailer. And the Cannes-winning director Nocholas Winding Refn showed up on stage to chat about the film, telling the hilarious story behind how he met Ryan Gosling and agreed to make the movie (it involves too-powerful flu medicine, breaking down in tears and REO Speedwagon's Keep on Loving You). Mext up we had Momentum, walking us through a number of their upcoming releases. The Troll Hunter trailer was followed with a slightly awkward on-stage Q&A with director Andre Ovredal and star Glenn Tosterud. British 1990 rave drama Weekender was presented with stills and a trailer; the intense-looking Scandinavian thriller Headhunters has a trailer that eerily evokes a certain dragon tattoo; Steven Soderbergh's Bourne-esque Haywire looks seriously action-packed, with a terrific all-star cast, and it's trailer was followed by an extended, astonishing fight scene. Jason Statham's new film Safe was presented with exclusive stills, while Mark Strong, director Eran Creevy and a couple of producers (pictured above) talked about their now-in-production London crime thriller Welcome to the Punch. We also saw exclusive stills of Tom Hardy in Wettest County and Michael Fassbender in Steve McQueen's Shame. And finally it was time for Daniel Radcliffe's creepy-looking new ghost thriller The Woman in Black, with a trailer and exclusive clip presented by director James Watkins and editor Jon Harris.


A bit later I caught a screening of The Change-up with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. Enjoyable if not amazing. And here are a few more photos - two of me and two that capture the mood of the place, as cowboys and storm troopers chase trolls with the rest of us. Frankly that was enough for the day...