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Hamlet 2 is one of the funnier films you probably haven’t heard of unless you track the movie sales at Sundance. Earlier this year it almost broke the Little Miss Sunshine record of 10.5 million when it sold for 10 million to Focus Features. The New York Times says “”It made sure to take shots at Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the American Civil Liberties Union and Elisabeth Shue, one of its lead actresses.” In fact, the trailer says “And reintroducing Elizabeth Shue as… Elizabeth Shue.”

Since we attended their party last night, and drank copiously from their open bar, which was stocked with drinks like “Holy Water” and “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” we thought we’d better man up on the tough “sunday morning wakeup and head to the Con through the remaining fog of Saturday night.” They showed us the trailer for the movie, and several clips, which all served to make me wish I’d seen this movie in Park City. The aforementioned drink name serves as one of the key musical numbers, and you’ll end up having “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” stuck in your head.

Director and co-writer Andrew Fleming, and writer Pam Brady joined star Steve Coogan onstage to discuss the film, which is exactly what you’d expect from Brady, who writes and produces South Park. But Fleming has directed films like Dick, Threesome, The Craft, and Nancy Drew, so he’s all over the map. According to Fleming, the original title for the film was “Mr. Holland’s Anus,” but according to Pam Brady, “That title was already being used by a Belgian porn, so there were copyright issues.”

They didn’t really have much time for a Q&A, being slotted for just 30 minutes, right before the Harold & Kumar panel. Someone asked Steve Coogan, “did you watch a lot of Jesus movies?” Steve replied, “Yes, particularly enlightening was Max Von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told,” which might have actually inspired Coogan’s hair in the film. “The hair was very key,” according to Coogan.

Fleming also explained that, yes, they do make a lot of fun of Elisabeth Shue throughout the film, although most of that was her idea. For instance, when Coogan’s theater teacher character brings her to class, no one knows who she is. That was Shue’s idea. I’m actually wondering if that’s based on some of her real-life experiences. Do people still know who Elisabeth Shue is?

They showed several clips from the film, including an extended “sing along” scene of the main dance number, which you can watch in the video above. As they closed things out, Fleming thanked everyone at Comic-Con for coming to the panel, “Jesus is the original superhero, so… yeah!”

Hamlet 2 comes out in limited release on August 22nd, and goes wide on August 29th.

Under discussion:

Blade  (1998)

Batman Begins  (2005)

25/8  (2009)

Wes Craven will present footage from his upcoming 25/8, and director David Boyer will unveil details on The Unborn.

1:56 - Next up is David Goyer, who co-wrote Batman Begins and The Dark Knight had a huge hand in the Blade trilogy.

1:55 - Last question for Craven: “Will there be any social commentary in this movie?”

Craven: “Well… no. I suppose you could say part of the inspiration for this could be ‘the sins of the father are passed on to the son,’ but that’s not really true. I mean, my own father died when I was four, so most of my life was spent trying to figure out who he was. This was a very personal film for me… not that my father was a mass murderer.”

1:54 - Not being a hardcore Craven fan, it’s really hard to stay nailed to what he’s talking about. However, I just realized that if Craven ever decided to stop making movies, he could have a very lucrative career as a DJ for a “cool jazz” station.

1:53 The Last House remake wrapped about a month ago, and 25/8 wrapped about three weeks ago. So both films are in post right now, and Craven is jumping back an forth on both of them in the editing process.

1:50 - Last House on the Left is being remade, like the Hills remakes, and it was shot out of the country. What? So much for keeping it here.

1:47 - Craven is talking, in his cool, mellifluous voice, about working on some of his earlier films, about shooting in Canada, and preferring to keep his movies “in the country,” meaning the US. People cheer patriotically.

1:46 - Rotten asked “Hey, do you all like PG-13 horror?”

“BOOOOO!” claimed the audience.

But Craven wasn’t playing the same game.

1:45 - Craven, thankfully, doesn’t feel like “torture porn” is very engaging. Although I don’t think that was what host Ryan Rotten wanted to hear.

1:43 - He’s talking about each of the cast members and giving a brief bio for each. The cast includes Max Thieriot, Denzel Whitaker, Shareeka Epps, Emily Meade Nick Lashaway, John Magaro, Paulina Olszynski, and Raul Esparza. “I think you’ll just love ‘em. I made Johnny Depp’s first film and Elisabeth Shue’s first film and Bruce Willis’ first film in Hollywood, so I really hope you enjoy them.”

1:40 - Craven said “the idea was basically to have a killer who didn’t know he was a killer… when the main personality finds out about the killer, that personality demands that he keep it quiet, or he’ll kill his family.”

1:38 - They rolled a clip, and it looks like typical Craven horror fare: fog, teens, crazed killers, over the top action, and gore.

1:37 - The plot of the film is a bit confusing. Apparently there’s a man who has multiple personalities: five are benign, but one is unknown to him, and that personality has been out killing people. When he dies, the “souls” of those seven people (the guy, his five other personalities, and the serial killer persona) enter seven children being born the same day. So, fifteen years later, the “killer” returns to kill those seven kids.

Confused yet? So are we.
1:32 - Rogue Pictures is splitting their panel in half, and first up is Wes Craven’s new film 25/8. According to Craven the title “comes from the saying ‘The devil works 24/7 to make your life hell’, so you have to work 25/8 if you want to get out.”