My day at the Empire BIG SCREEN 13th August 2011

On Saturday 13th August 2011, I was lucky enough to attend the Empire Big Screen at the London O2. I was even more lucky to have got a ticket for the Big Screen event in the morning which included a bunch of exclusive clips that are so exclusive our phones/cameras/iPods got taken off us in case of piracy!

My post is a bit long, but the films, actors, directors and main events are bold for an easier read so you can just read the parts you;re interested in. I have pictures and a few links to the trailers that are already online too.

My cousins with the Delorean from Back To The Future

When I first arrived at he O2, my cousins and I picked up our tickets and queued for the first part of our day. The EOne, Warner Bros, Optimum and Sony Showcases which we got exclusive footage, trailers and special guest stars. We were very lucky and got to see so many things which I've tried to remember but am positive I am missing out on some. Because there was so many, I can't even remember what order I saw them in so I apologise if it doesn't seem to run smoothly.


Chris Hewitt came on stage to welcome us all and he was lovely and very funny too. Then we got an introduction from director Paul W.S Anderson to an exclusive clip of The Three Musketeers which was in 3D. The scene didn't exactly make the film look fantastic but personally I enjoyed the scene because the scene showed Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan using his swashbuckling skills which Anderson  mentioned that the cast did all their own stunts. The 3D was pretty cool too.

Next up included a special guest on stage, the really sweet MyAnna Buring who is in the new Twilight Saga film Breaking Dawn. She introduced us to two clips which unfortunately did not work first time instead we saw the trailer for. But about 20 minutes later after some stuff from other films they were found-hooray! The scenes were of Bella and Edward after their marriage and then in their honeymoon home on Esme Island (I'm hoping my twi-hard phase of 08-9 is correct in the details by the way) which Buring did say was awkward which is similar to the real life stuff but also shot very beautiful which I've got to agree it was. The other clip was of Jacob and his wolf friends, sorting out some stuff. Nothing special but was nice to get an insight and MyAnna Buring was lovely.

Ben Wheatley the director of Kill List came on to answer some questions with Chris Hewitt and introduce the trailer and some incredible clips which were really exciting and the film looks great. After, Wheatley, Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring, from earlier, came on stage to talk about the film which was cool too. Kill List definitely looks like it will be a great film but from the footage we saw I would not be surprised if the film is rated an 18 in the UK.

Guillermo del Toro had a video message introducing some exclusive clips for his newest film Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. He explained how it's a remake of a film that scared him when he was younger. We saw about 3 clips altogether which really were frightening. Like Guillermo explain, the film isn't a gory or bloody horror it's just very frightening.

Lightning McQueen

Onto another horror now..in 3D. Yes it was the first scene to Final Destination 5 which we got the pleasure to watch in 3D. Blood and guts were everywhere which I wasn't the biggest fan of but the best thing was the whole audience was laughing at each death. I don't want to ruin the death's for people but let's just say they were very dramatic and worked well in 3D.

I feel very lucky to have seen a truly fantastic clip to the upcoming Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which mostly included Benedict Cumberbatch and shows that he is going to be great in the film as Peter Guillam.

We saw a few trailers which are already online but in the truly amazing O2 Indigo screen with the volume up were incredible. The Dark Knight Rises teaser which I can't get enough of anyway was beautiful on screen but The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer was fantastic. The score in the trailer went right through me. The trailer for Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill was showed which I've seen before but again on the big screen a delight.

We got a look at the sweet trailer for Happy Feet 2 in 3D which doesn't look great exactly but the little baby penguins in 3D were cute. Sticking with the animation theme we got an exclusive clip for Arthur Christmas for which the writer Peter Baynham came on stage to talk about. The clip was funny and the animation looks lovely. The cast for the film which is all British work perfectly from the clip we saw. Then we got a behind the scenes film, the trailer in 3D and a cool presentation by director Peter Lord who was very enthusiastic and fun, for the 3D stop animation film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists which looks funny and very beautiful as a stop motion 3D film.

With a small video introduction by Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari we got a scene from 30 Minutes or Less (which later I was lucky enough to see). The clip was hilarious and definitely made the audience laugh.

Another video introduction from Mila Kunis and Justin Timblerlake we got an extended trailer for the film Friends With Benefits which pretty much shows the film off and I've got to admit, I want to see the film when it's out in the UK.

Looking like a nerd but hey is that Hugh Jackman?!

Len Wiseman has been extremely generous and let the Big Screen show an exclusive look at his new film Total Recall with Colin Farrell. They both said a quick hi on a video whilst still on set and explained that the scene we were about to watch hasn't been finished in editing and that was obvious even as some scenes were still in animation form! But nonetheless the scene was very exciting indeed and I must say it looks great even if the scene wasn't finished!

We saw an extended trailer for upcoming horror Straw Dogs which is a remake of a film with the same name. The trailer showed some footage which was disturbing for a non-horror fan like me but definitely looks good!

Felt honoured to be in the same room as Roland Emmerich who came on to introduce to us an exclusive look at his new film Anonymous which I saw a trailer for a few weeks back and looks great. We were very lucky to see a few scenes which must have lasted way over 20 minutes at least! Not that it was bad but I feel like I've seen most of the film now! Rhys Ifans as the Earl Of Oxford looks great and I definitely am interested in the film.

We got a 3D trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance starring Nicholas Cage which I must say worked well in 3D. Another exclusive clip I really enjoyed was a clip for Contagion which I'm hoping is just a sneak into how well shot the whole film is going to be! The clip was mostly covered by a track and showed a hint of how the film develops or even begins.

Guy Ritchie came onto the stage to introduce and talk a little bit about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and I feel extremely fortunate to have seen Ritchie, who's films I've started to watch recently and really enjoy. He spoke about the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law and how Sherlock Holmes 2 is going to be different than the first. We then got an extended trailer for the film which was fantastic and meant the score stuck in my head for the rest of the afternoon.

Just this little film The Amazing Spider-man..no big deal..

And now here it is..the one part of the whole day which was my favourite (of course) a very exclusive sneak peak to The Amazing Spider-man!! Right, so after Chris Hewitt announced that the next part of the morning was for Spidey I started to get very, very excited. I knew deep down Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone weren't there but I thought they could have. Sadly, they wasn't but the head of Marvel or Spider-man for the UK (I can't really remember his post but he was lovely) came out and apologised for not being Andrew, Emma or Marc Webb and I accepted his apology because he was very lovely to us. I really cannot believe the amount of Spider-man we got to saw! First we saw the trailer in 3D which was stunning, especially the last part of the trailer. Then Andrew, Emma and Marc appeared on the screen in a video message which must have been recorded from comic con. Andrew introduced Spider-man and what he meant to him then Emma apologised for being here with us but hoped we enjoyed the clips and Marc said similar things. As it started to end Andrew pulled the cutest smile towards the screen like this..XD and you can tell he was excited for us to see the clips. Then we got more of an insight into Peter Parker's life through a long mix of clips. We saw what his life is like before the he's bitten by the spider, how he's bullied, very quiet and artistic. Then after the spider transformation we see how he first uses his skills, becomes the spider-man and creates his web shooters. One of the first scenes of Andrew as Spider-man I can assume anyway, was very funny and great indeed. 'Atchoo!' is all I can say. My favourite part was his little scene with Gwen Stacy which shows the romantic storyline and how dorky and cute Peter is (although that's probably only me who thinks that) I've said it before and I'll say it again, Andrew Garfield IS Peter Parker. Them scenes look fantastic. Then we got more of an exclusive as we got another clip which hasn't even been finished yet! For us in the room we got told we are some of the only people in the world..to see..THE LIZARD. YES Rhys Ifans as The Lizard and let me tell you this much, the effects on it are brilliant and it all looks very nicely made and created. Before he turnt though you could see lots of green glove used on Rhys Ifans because the scene was finalised. That scene was about 8-10 minutes too and all together I think we must have seen about 20 minutes worth of Spider-man!!! I feel so lucky.
Before all of this we got a chance to watch the latest Video Blog from Peter Jackson on the set of The Hobbit which was a lot of fun too. It was a nice atmosphere to watch it in because everyone laughed together at the funny stuff from the video.

Sadly the morning event run over and because we had booked to see 30 Minutes Or Less we didn't stay for extras after lunch but not to worry because 30 Minutes Or Less was fantastic. Jesse Eisenberg, as much as people say plays the same roles, is such a talented actor and I really loved his role in the film as it's probably the most different he has ever played. Aziz Ansari was great too and Danny McBride was the funniest and they were both my favourites of the whole film. It's a little crude but has a very bold and funny story which I enjoyed very much. It's not a very long film either so it's a fun film to watch as nothing is dragged out. After a small insight to the characters lives the films gets underway very quickly and as you can probably see from the trailer it has one of them very silly story lines but the comedy part is extremely funny too. 30 Minutes Or Less is directed by Ruben Fleischer who directed Zombieland and it's easy to see that him and Eisenberg have created a bond that works well enough to use his acting techniques well in this film like his others but also create a little something different in Eisenberg's character Nick. I've got to say the funniest part of the film is probably the scene we had already seen earlier on in the morning and I also like the 'facebook' joke with Jesse. I enjoyed the film very much. 4/5

Leeon Jones, Joe Cornish, Franz Drameh,
me, Gavin, Simon Howard and Jodie Whittaker
from Attack The Block!

After the film we walked down to the shops and stalls bit at the end of the O2 which was nice but sadly we couldn't stay for long. But as we were walking down I noticed from the corner of my eye Joe Cornish, Jodie Whittaker and some of the boys from Attack The Block as they were holding a Q&A session before the film later on in the evening. I hesitated a bit before going up to them as I thought I was being a nuisance but in the end my cousin and I went up and I asked Joe for his autograph and complimented them on how much I enjoyed Attack The Block. My conversation went a little like this..
Me: Hi Joe! Me and my cousin really liked Attack The Block! Can you sign my notepad please?
Joe: Yeah of course! What's your name?
Me: Nadine and Gavin. Thank you so much. We really liked the film.
Joe: No thank you! Oh sorry the pen seems to be running out have you got another?
Me: I'm sorry. The last person to use that pen was Simon Pegg last year- blame him!
Joe: Haha that must be why (My cousin gives me her pen to use)
Me: Can I have a picture with you lot too?
Joe: Yes of course after everyones signed? Jodie it's your turn.
Jodie signs it
Joe: Woah that's a big autograph you've not left space to anyone else!
Jodie: It's not that big! (Gives the book to the others)
Me: Are you having a nice time here today then?
Jodie: Yes it's really lovely here
Joe: Yes it's been rather nice are you having a nice time too?
Me: Yes I am thank you! Sorry if I'm being a pain and holding you guys up
Joe: No not at all we like it.
(Meanwhile inside I am dying because I can't believe our conversation has gone on this long)
Joe: Make sure you're in the middle of the picture.
Had picture taken
Nadine: Thank you very much! Have a nice day.
Joe and the others: Thank you and have a nice day too.
As I was closer I got a better look at who the boys were and sadly John Boyega wasn't with them but the boys who were there were Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones and Simon Howard even though I was very star struck they were lovely too!
We walk separate directions.

Autographs from The Attack The Block clang!

So yeah that was kinda cool! As you can see they were all really lovely.

We couldn't spend that much near near all of the stalls because we had our Secret Screening next which turned out to be a big disappointment. The film was an 18 which I was a bit weary of anyway as I thought it could be a horror but it turned out to be Drive which looks good but I'm not fussed I couldn't see it. The O2 staff had to be safe if not they'd get fined for someone under 18 to be in the film so as my cousin had to leave as he had no ID (I was hiding in the back so they didn't find me) we left and went to do something else while my older cousin enjoyed her dose of Ryan Gosling.
But it's not all doom and gloom! As part of our ticket we could go anywhere there was space so we went to a special talk hosted by Anthony Daniels who plays C3P0 in the Star Wars films and two of the people who created models for the Star Wars films. It was basically showing off all the features that the Star Wars Blu Ray will be able to do and I've got to say it all looks beautiful. My cousin is a bigger Star Wars fan than I am but I still enjoyed it too. People got to ask questions which was a lot of fun and I had a good time.

After that finished we was going to go to the Star Wars Blu Ray lounge but that had all closed but we looked on the timetable and tried to get into the Real Steal talk with director Shaun Levy! We were very lucky to get to see some very exclusive clips, so exclusive that Levy begged us not to record them as he was kind enough to let us take our phones and cameras in for this.
He was a very funny guy and first came on stage and said 'Hello everyone! You're either here because you're massive films fans, interested in my film or...as most of you probably are..are big Hugh Jackman fans!' and to that tons of women in front were screaming. 'Well I'm going to tell you now..Hugh's a dick. He's not very nice' Levy said which everyone laughed at. Again it was hosted by Chris Hewitt who was very funny. Shaun Levy was totally nice to us and gave 3 very special people 2 tickets to the Real Steal premiere by asking us all a trivia question and we had to raise our hand to answer. Of course my cousin and I got prepared thinking we might be able to answer..we were wrong. The questions were very hard. The one I can remember was 'What is Hugh Jackman's full name, where was he born and what was the name of the first show he was in?' Do any of you know it?
The clips we saw were great too! The film doesn't look fantastic but I think it looks good enough and I'll probably see it. We saw a behind the scenes video which showed how Hugh Jackman trained for the film and how some of the scenes were created. The clips were still pretty exciting though and it was very kind of him to trust us by showing us the clips. Later on he told us that Hugh isn't really a dick and he is very lovely indeed.

After this is was time for our last booked event..to see Cowboys and Aliens! It was even more special because I met up with Emma (who's blog is here and you must check it out!) which was really nice and a lovely way to end a perfect day.

I'll probably write a review later on of Cowboys and Aliens as a single post, same with 30 Minutes Or Less which will include what I'm about to write and what I've written above but for now let me just sum up the film for me.
It's a lot of fun to watch and I definitely enjoyed it but it's nothing amazing or fantastic. It's not the acting, the acting was fantastic Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde- what did you expect? But I loved Sam Rockwell's role in the film and he was definitely the stand out for me. Additionally little Noah Ringer as the young boy of the film was very good too and a bit of a stand out. I thought some of the film was a bit silly but I understand that it's meant to be. One of the disappointments was the Aliens which I was not impressed with and I think the narrative was a let down too. Nonetheless it was enjoyable to watch and I liked it. 3.5/5


So there you have it. Afterwards I went back to my cousins and slept off all my hype of the day.
It was brilliant although the day was a bit badly organised but hopefully Empire and the O2 have learnt and so can improve it next year. It would have been great to go for the whole 3 days but I enjoyed myself for one day anyway and feel very lucky and privileged with what I saw.


If you've read this far then thank you very to you!
If you were there, what was your best part of the day?

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