PANIC ROOM Special

For no apparent reason at all: Let's do a little PANIC ROOM special with stuff floating on youtube and all over the web! -- Shall we?

First off: If you haven't done so yet, do yourself a favor, head over to amazon.com right now and buy the 3-disc special edition of this film.

I believe, this has to be one of the best special edition DVDs ever produced, featuring a full ton of commentary tracks and making ofs, all the way down to a featurette with David Fincher's trusted sound designer Ren Klyce! It offers some incredible insight into the making of the film, and of course: DVD (or really HD) is the only quality that is worthy of this visual stunner.

Second off: If you are a fan of the movie, check out this post I did a while back, about the visual effects work by french FX-house BUF:

http://fincherfanatic.blogspot.com/...visual-effects.html

Now, here's the new stuff:

PANIC ROOM - OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE

Here's the properly mouth-watering opening sequence of the movie, with it's perfect 3D floating typography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqIclb4qsJI

I love this opening sequence and always thought it reminded me of the opening titles of Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

Now, there is also a compilation of "The 25 Best Title Sequences", which unsurprisingly includes the titles for DELICATESSEN, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, PSYCHO -- and of course: SE7EN and PANIC ROOM. And in this compilation, the PANIC ROOM credits show up right before the ones to NORTH BY NORTHWEST. So I am thinking, hey -- somebody else must have thought the exact same thing!

You obviously wanna look at both parts, but SE7EN, PANIC ROOM and NORTH BY NORTHWEST are to be found in Part II.

25 Best Title Sequences, Part I
25 Best Titles Sequences, Part II

MAKING OF THE PANIC ROOM SIGNATURE-SHOT

The quality of the video, as usual for youtube, is mediocre at best. But it serves it's purpose: to get everyone salivating for the PANIC ROOM DVD. This two-part feature explains in detail how the signature shot of PANIC ROOM was created, and what genius and obsession went into the making of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg2UGGGZDU (Part I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArSP-R8_O8E (Part II)

PANIC ROOM - THEATRICAL TRAILER

I remember seeing this on apple (in a much better quality) for the first time. And I was simply blown away. The trailer for the film is very powerful and has some really awesome lines. I really like the mood at the end, when the screen goes black and you hear Jodie whisper: "They're locking us in." -- Love it!

(Thanks to mikez for the HQ-link!)

movie-list.net/.../panic-room-trailer-640x292.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=him0NfgFOH0

VIRGIN MEDIA - PANIC ROOM SPECIAL

Virgin Media keeps a good handful of PANIC ROOM stuff on their website, including the theatrical trailer, a featurette and a total of six film clips. And just in case you run into the same bug as I do: For no reason at all my media player always fast-forwards the clips on this site. They will work just fine (on my computer), if you hit PAUSE, and then press PLAY again.

http://movies.virginmedia.com/synopsis/default.asp?filmid=682&sec=syn

MTV Movie Awards - PANIC ROOM PARODY

In 2003s MTV Movie Awards they did a really good job at mocking PANIC ROOM. They have copied the look of the Fincher piece so well, and I really like Jack Black, so -- this is fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R70dRt4uD8g

SPECIAL ON: "PANIC ROOM" SCRIBE DAVID KOEPP

Okay, careful: This has nothing specifically to do with PANIC ROOM, but I had been wanting to do a special piece on screenwriter David Koepp for a long time, and I feel like this is the place to put it.

David Koepp is an incredibly successful writer, having conjured up the big-screen adaptations of such multi-million dollar franchises as MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, JURASSIC PARK, SPIDER-MAN, and having written further hit-films like Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS and the brand-new fourth installment of INDIANA JONES.

It is rumored that Koepp received a $ 4 million pay-check for PANIC ROOM, which he had written as a spec-script. And if you read the script and look at the brilliant concept (and execution) of the movie
-- it was definitely worth it!

Here's his IMDB-profile:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0462895/

Here's some interviews with the guy:
http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a9571.asp
http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=interviews&id=3522
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24259
http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15538
http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15358
http://movies.ign.com/articles/394/394808p1.html

... and here is his "Panic Room" screenplay:
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Panic-Room.html

And to finish things off:

THE PANIC ROOM 3-DISC DVD REVIEW
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=9847

Just in case you were still not convinced ... :-)