The Wing Commander Movie site has been updated with pictures of some of the merchandise, and added music to the shockwave trailer. Check out the action figure packaging, the two delayed ships and two new retail posters!
Wow, I JUST saw another Wing Commander commercial! The tagline has been changed to "In 7 days gear, gear up, lock on, strike back, WING COMMANDER".
There are now three confirmed Wing Commander commercials! As follows...
Original: The first commercial shown, similar to the 30 second downloadable trailer.
Tagline: Commercial with more SFX ending with the movie's tagline.
7 Days: Commercial which notes that the movie is 7 days away.
Mention of Matthew Lillard from the March 1999 issue of Details, from the ubercool Matthew Lillard official site...
The METHOD ACTORHe's hung with De Niro and Depp. He knows Scarface and Hamlet line for line. And when he's not acting, he's acting out. The rebel without applause is played by MATTHEW LILLARD, a Scream psycho who pops up in four films this year, including S.L.C. Punk!, Wing Commander, and She's All That.
3 Questions With Chris Roberts Believe it or not, you actually might have a reason to stick around for the feature after you're done watching the new Star Wars trailer this month. That's because 20th Century Fox most likely will tie the Episode One preview to prints of Wing Commander, a sci-fi actioner starring Freddie Prinze Jr. that's based on the best-selling computer game series. The game was the brainchild of British-born designer Chris Roberts, who also was given the opportunity to direct the relatively low-budget $27 million film. CINESCAPE recently caught up with Roberts to ask what moviegoers can expect from the film:Q: How would you describe Wing Commander?
For me, it's sort of like a classic, nautical World War II movie, taking elements of Das Boot, or Tora! Tora! Tora! and sort of updating it and putting it in a science-fiction universe. It's sort of a World War II movie with a sci-fi spin.
Q: Why did you want to give it that World War II-feel?
The original game was sort of based on the war of the Pacific, but it was put in space because putting it in space is more fun. No one can say, 'No that's not the way the plane flies.' In the future you get to create things and take all the good bits and not worry about all the bad bits. That was the original inspiration for the game. But I'm a huge fan of World War II movies anyway and I thought it would be really great to take that concept onto the screen. So in the actual design of the picture, when you're on the ships or you're seeing the fighters flying around they're meant to be very evocative of submarines or World War II battleships or fighters. In the future that's probably not what space ships are going to look like but it was a definite style we wanted to go with to try to set the movie apart from other things like Star Wars. Obviously its a bit difficult to compete with that movie since it's the grandaddy of them all.
Q: You scored a bit of a coup by casting Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard as your leads, because they just had a hit with She's All That. Were they familiar with the game?
Oh, yeah. Freddie is a game player and Matt plays a fair amount of games as well, so that aspect made it a lot of fun.
I've recieved reports of what could be a third Wing Commander commercial, showcasing more of the movie's special effects and aimed at a younger audience. I haven't been able to confirm or deny this, yet, so keep watching...
The Entertainment Asylum will be holding a chat with Wing Commander star Freddie Prinze Jr. at 1:30 ET on March 11th.
Subject: Wing Commander Novel
Date: 4 Mar 1999 23:34:00 GMT
From: ptelep@aol.com (PTelep)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.games.wing-commanderHey, folks:
If you've read the Wing Commander film novel and would care to write a review of it at Amazon.com, I'd really appreciate it. And send me your queries via email. I'm working on two more WC books right now, and it's great to listen to what the fans want. Hell, I'm a fan myself.
Peter Telep
Chris McCubbin, who you may recognize as having helped create the universe, reports that tickets to the Wing Commander are being sold through Star Tickets as a benefit. They cost between $15 and $22.50. The premiere is being held on March 11th at the Paramount in Austin, Texas at 8 pm. If anyone's going, let me know -- Chris Reid, Dan the Movie Guy and I are headed down there for the event, too. It'll be wing-commander-ific.
The ShowBiz interview with Freddie Prinze Jr. was ubercool! Several clips from the movie were shown, and the interview was very funny. If I had the ability I'd make a realmovie, but unfortunately I'm still shopping for a video encoder type thingy. Here's parts of the transcript from CNN's web site...
MORET: Joining us now is one of those young stars in the family business, Freddie Prinze Jr. His next assignment: taking on an alien race in the futuristic film, "Wing Commander." You return from the 26th century to come back here to talk about it. Tell us about this film. First of all, it was a very big CD-ROM, big video game. It did, I'm told, more than $100 million as a CD-ROM, which would be a hit film in any language.FREDDIE PRINZE JR., ACTOR: Yeah, that would be nice.
MORET: And now, you're in the new genesis of this.
PRINZE: Yeah, I'm in the part one, and it's like World War II, like 700 years in the future. It really is. It's very -- The director of the movie also made the game, the guy who directed the film, he create the game and he like knows everything about -- He's this huge World War II buff, so he made it -- It's very, like, symbolic. It's cool.
MORET: Now, obviously, this film will appeal to folks who like "Stars Wars." We're also being told that there's a possibility that the new "Star Wars" trailer may be in front of your film. Have you heard the same thing?
PRINZE: I have heard the same rumor, and...
MORET: Which would be good news for you.
PRINZE: It would be great news. It would be very good. It would be lovely things. Hopefully if Fox believes in the movie, then they'll do that.
MORET: Well, they clearly believe in the movie because of you in some part because you've got a hit now with "She's All That."
PRINZE: Yeah, "She's All That."
{snip}
MORET: Well, you did your own stunts for "Wing Commander," didn't you?
PRINZE: Yeah.
MORET: And you enjoy doing that?
PRINZE: Yeah, it's fun, man. It's like I'm all hooked up to wires like flying in the air. It's cool. It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fun.
MORET: You know why you feel this way? You're 22, you feel you're invincible. It will change. I hope your success doesn't change.
PRINZE: Thank you very, very much.
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