'Dark Castle' panel: Some choice tidbits

By Borys Kit

The first day of Comic-Con closed out with a "Dark Castle" panel, which saw Gerard Butler reveal that he took it in the ass while making "RocknRolla" and Guy Ritchie admit he needs a hit.

The highlights:

-- Can "RocknRolla" be better than sex? Gerard Bulter thinks so. Well, except maybe for sex with him. Butler's appearance at the "RocknRolla" panel continued "Ladies Day" at Comic-Con (which got started with Hugh Jackman's surprise appearance and then continued with the screaming chickfest that was the "Twilight" panel). Butler's appearance engendered catcalls ("Take it off!" yelled one female admirer) but the actor also gave back. He threw chocolate candies into the crowd and at one point said the movie was better than sex. Then he corrected himself. "Well, not with me. But with every one else. Those of the X-chromosome lapped it up.

-- Guy Ritchie is desperate for a hit and is not afraid to admit it. During the Q&A for "RocknRolla," one person asked the filmmaker if, because his recent films have not been too popular (that's putting it kindly), there was any pressure to go back to the style of movies like his first two, the hits "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch." Ritchie nodded once and shouted emphatically, "Yup!"

-- Butler took it in the ass, literally, for the movie. From Madonna of all people. Butler humorously recounted how he got sick during the shoot and he needed to get a shot of B12, which Ritchie's wife Madonna administered. "(Ritchie) was there, he watched. She jabbed me in the arse! I became more sick, but I appreciated the effort."

-- Producer Joel Silver showed a made-for-Comic-Con trailer of "Ninja Assassin," a ninja revenge movie directed by James McTeigue and produced by the Wachowksis. The stuff is slick and bloody violent. There was a scene which featured two guys fighting in a bathroom intercut into the trailer which they kept on coming back to. "Dark Castle" wanted to show the entire sequence, but the studio deemed it too violent for Comic-Con.

Comments

[vitamins]

You ROCK for getting this. I am soooo psyched for the Con! That schedule isn’t on the Comic-con site now, so that’s quite a coup that you got it. To calculate the coolness factor of the schedule, multiply the length of this page by the number of names you know & love. I’m ditching work.