Haywire at Comic Con 2011

http://www.iamrogue.com/news/comic-con/item/4331-sdcc-2011-steven-soderberghs-haywire-packs-a-punch.html

SDCC 2011: Steven Soderbergh's 'Haywire' Packs a Punch
Friday, 22 July 2011 12:02 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

SDCC 2011: Steven Soderbergh's 'Haywire' Packs a Punch

Not many directors, even those who make their way as "action directors", can shoot and edit an action sequence that is effectively compelling and coherent. Steven Soderbergh is not particularly known as a director of action, having helmed Traffic, Erin Brockovich, The Limey, Ocean's Eleven, The Informant!, and Out of Sight. With Haywire, though the auteur has crafted an espionage thriller showcasing the formidable skills of MMA fighter Gina Carano, making her feature film debut.

Soderbergh was in attendance at Relativity Media's Hall H panel during the San Diego Comic-Con today, along with the radiant Carano and the excessively charming Channing Tatum. The three described their experiences with Haywire, participated in a Q & A, debuted the film's first trailer, and introduced a clip that, to put it bluntly, kicked all manner of ass.

To write the screenplay, Soderbergh recruited writer Lem Dobbs, with whom he collaborated on the excellent The Limey. Dobbs created the story of Mallory Kane, a private contractor in the competitive field of international espionage. An ex-special ops soldier, Kane finds herself betrayed in the midst of a mission. Naturally, she does not simply allow this to pass without incident. Instead, she goes on a mission of revenge that finds Carano navigating allegiances in an ensemble that includes Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, Michael Angarano, and Ewan Macgregor.

While Dobbs wrote the script, Soderbergh explained that the concept for Haywire began when he first saw Carano fighting. "I saw Gina fighting on television," he explained. "I tuned in one night, just out of curiosity." Impressed with her physicality and charismatic presence, he said, "I literally thought, 'Why doesn't someone build a movie around her?'" From there, he recruited screenwriter Lem Dobbs, with whom he collaborated on the excellent The Limey.

His impression of Carano became the guiding principle for the approach to the film's action scenes, he said. "I thought it would be interesting and unusual if you could make a female character who could perform physically for real. If there were no cutaways or stunt doubles." This extended to the world of privatized military organizations, and he explained, "We had a couple of consultants that worked with to make sure everything was factually accurate."

To put it simply, Soderbergh said, "My rule was, 'it has to be real.'"

Tatum was thrilled to a part of project, which allowed him to engage in fisticuffs with Carano. "I've been a fan of Gina's for a long time," he stated. "I follow MMA pretty avidly." For her part, Carano was impressed with Soderbergh as her first director. "It actually ruined movies for a couple of months for me," she said, continuing, "because I noticed everything."

Of acting for the first time, she said, "It's definitely a skill and I don't think everybody's capable of it, just like fighting."

Then there's the clip that was shown. The clip begins with Carano and Fassbender in a swanky hotel, both wearing fancy dress and looking sophisticated. There's no score, and everything feels much more like a staid relationship drama as two smart characters subtly gauge one another. Once the pair has arrived in their hotel room, though, a bare-fisted fight ensues with startling abruptness. The action scene is relentless and brutal, as two highly trained individuals make every strike count in a real attempt to kill one another. Unlike other fight scenes of its ilk, however, there is no shakeycam superficially increasing the intensity; every single move and counter-move is on full display, allowing the audience to fully appreciate the impeccable choreography and execution. To say it's impressive would be to do it a profound disservice.

Wrapping things up, Soderbergh addressed the widespread reports of his imminent retirement. He dismissed these reports, explaining that he and Matt Damon had a casual, drunken conversation while filming the thriller Contagion. Subsequently, Damon mentioned it in an interview and it, "Got blown of proportion." He jokingly blamed Damon completely.

The trailer that premiered at Comic-Con today is now online and can be viewed by clicking right here, along with the first official poster.

Haywire hits theaters on January 20, 2012. You're going to need the next few months to prepare yourself.

Full disclosure: Haywire was produced by Relativity Media, iamROGUE's parent company

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/07/22/comic-con-2011-soderbergh-haywire-for-mma/

Comic-Con 2011: Soderbergh goes ‘Haywire’ for MMA
July 22, 2011 | 2:34 p.m.

Channing Tatum, Gina Carano, Steven Soderbergh promote "Haywire" (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

The female-driven action movie is about to get a makeover. “Haywire,” the new film from Steven Soderbergh, casts mixed martial arts star Gina Carano as a take-charge woman who’s not afraid of a fight — just as Carano wasn’t afraid to perform her own stunts.

Carano, whom Soderbergh discovered on a random Saturday when watching an MMA fight on CBS, makes her theatrical debut as a privately employed special ops agent who’s been double-crossed by her employers. She, co-star Channing Tatum and Soderbergh were on hand Friday at Comic-Con International in San Diego, where Relativity Media debuted the trailer for the January release.

“I’ve never seen someone perform like that, in a cage,” Soderbergh quipped about Carano. So he and Lem Dobbs quickly pulled together a screenplay and an impressive cast that also includes Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas. Striving for authenticity, Carano and company did all their own stunts: no body doubles, no cut-aways and a lot of injuries.

“They wore padding, but when Gina was punching Michael [Fassbender] in the ribs, she was really punching him in the ribs.” And how was it for a man, who’s been taught to never hit a woman, to fight with Carano? Said Tatum: “I had to hit her with a ketchup bottle, and I couldn’t do it. She called me the p-word, so then I did it for my ‘manity.’ But then she hit me back twice as hard, and I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Soderbergh, who is set to release the thriller “Contagion” later this year, quashed the rumors during the panel that he was retiring. Which is probably a good thing, because he’s certainly sure to win some fans with his authentic portrayal of women truly beating up men. Said one thrilled audience member: “I’ve always had trouble believing Angelina Jolie was really beating up those guys. So thanks to Steven Soderbegh for casting a girl who can really beat up the guys.”

– Nicole Sperling

http://www.ugo.com/movies/comic-con-2011-haywire-coverage-and-panel

Comic-Con 2011: Haywire Coverage and Panel
God of cinema purists Steven Soderbergh makes a trip to San Diego to promote his action pic with MMA hottie Gina Carano.
By Jordan Hoffman July 22, 2011

A strange blend of the arthouse and The Octagon came to Hall H as Steven Soderbergh presented his Gina Carano vehicle Haywire.

As we thought, it's like someone took The Bourne Identity, cast a woman in the lead and gave it "the Soderbergh edge" with his video look.

Soderbergh discovered Gina Carano by watching MMA fights on CBS, tuning in out of curiosity and thought, "why doesn't someone build a movie about her? I've never seen anyone perform like this...in a cage."

Soderbergh wanted to make a movie with no stand-ins or doubles and thought it would be "cool to watch." We then watched an amazing fight sequence between Carano and Michael Fassbender. Comparing the rumble to one in the esoteric 1970 picture Darker Than Amber, it is set in a high end hotel.

In the clip, Carano and Fassbender are wearing sharp evening wear, and then commence to beat the absolute hell out of each other.

With no music and looking really fricken real, the two land harsh punches and smash the furniture on one another. In addition to kicks and elbow blasts, Carano uses headlocks and (reaowr!) thighlocks to bring Fassbender to submission. The scene took weeks to choreograph.

The audience lost their minds seeing a very attractive woman pummel and destroy an adult man.

Soderbergh, whose films have ranged across all genres, has never done anything action-oriented before, but this scene proves once again that the man knows what he's doing.

He's created vehicles for unlikely women before - first Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience, now this. Carano said she got a crash-course in acting and filmmking from Soderbergh, an undertaking which "ruined movies" for her for months.
Storywise, Haywire doesn't look even the least bit original - a secret agent gone rogue - but Soderbergh's cool style and the realism Carano brings ought to make this one a must-see.

Very importantly, Soderbergh took time during the panel to deny that he plans to retire. That was just drunk talk and Matt Damon can keep a secret "like a 14 year old girl." Having already seen Contagion and now this clip of Haywire, we should all breathe a sigh of relief on that one.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/22/another-steven-visits-con/?comic-con

Steven Soderbergh goes 'Haywire' at the Con

By Nina Garin, Entertainment

Originally published July 22, 2011 at 1:29 p.m., updated July 22, 2011 at 2:21 p.m.
Haywire trailer

Steven Soderbergh, who has a track record for making surprising casting choices, selected mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano to star in "Haywire."

Steven Soderbergh, the Academy Award-winning director of “Traffic” previewed his upcoming action film, “Haywire” at Comic-Con on Friday afternoon.

It’s a heady, female revenge movie starring mixed martial arts fighter, Gina Carano. Sounds like an odd casting choice, but remember Soderbergh is the guy who put Jennifer Lopez in the sexy suspense thriller, “Out of Sight.”

“I saw Gina for the first time fighting on television,” he said. “I’d never seen anyone perform like that. . . .and in a cage. I thought, why hasn’t anyone built a movie around her?”

Unlike typical action movies, Soderbergh said he wanted to keep the action as realistic as possible and that’s why the fight scenes are shorter than usual.

He achieves that, at least in the preview in which one fight is so realistic that it was almost too difficult to watch.

“Haywire,” which also stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Michael Fassbender is scheduled to be released in January 2012.

http://collider.com/haywire-the-raven-comic-con/104349/

Comic-Con 2011: HAYWIRE and THE RAVEN Panel Recap; Watch the First HAYWIRE Trailer
by Matt Goldberg Posted:July 22nd, 2011 at 1:37 pm

How do you follow a panel with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson? You don’t do it with another blockbuster. Instead, you take some lesser known movies and attempt to boost their profile. And for film nerds, having Steven Sodebergh on hand certainly doesn’t hurt. Soderbergh has cast MMA fighter Gina Carano as the lead in his spy thriller Haywire and surrounded her with an outstanding cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, and Michael Douglas.

Relativity has also brought James McTeigue’s The Raven starring John Cusack, Alice Eve, and Luke Evans. It’s an intriguing premise where Edgar Allan Poe (Cusack) and a detective (Evans) attempts to discover who is using his writing as the inspiration for a series of murders. Hit the jump to read about Relativity’s presentation for Haywire and The Raven.

We start off with the premiere of the trailer for Haywire. The movie should really be called “Gina Carano Beats the s$#! out of Everyone”. The movie looks a standard spy/revenge thriller so I’m still curious to see how Soderbergh is going to leave his stamp on the picture. Judging solely by the trailer it looks like a spy thriller anyone could have made and I know that’s just not what Soderbergh does. You can check it out below:

Soderbergh, Carano, and Channing Tatum then come on stage. Soderbergh says Carano first came to his attention when he turned on the TV and saw Carano fighting in an MMA match. He wondered why someone didn’t build a movie around here. “You’ve never seen anyone perform like this…in a cage,” he remarks. He then says he called up Lem Dobbs (The Limey) and asked if he had any interest in writing a female-centric revenge film. Soderbergh thought it would be fun to watch a female action star who did all of her own fighting and there were no stunt doubles for Carano. Tatum says she actually knocked someone out in rehearsal. Carano replies that Tatum asked her to kick him harder so he only has himself to blame.

Carano says that starring in an action movie was a “crazy, adrenaline rush” and she preferred the physical scenes, but she did learn acting 101 by working on a Soderbergh film and she now has a greater appreciation of the craft. She then describes her character Mallory Kane as a special ops agent “who just gets the job done.” She’s former military who now works as a freelance contractor. She’s partially an idealist because she comes from a military family, but she’s also a cold professional.

The film kicks off with Carano beating up Tatum (always good) and then hijacking a car and kidnapping its passenger (Michael Angarano). Soderbergh says he loves spy movies but he was aiming for realism and the world of companies like Blackwater and how they operate. He also wanted all the fights to be real and that means they’re shorter because at a certain point, someone is going to get the drop on the other and then it’s over. He mentions that the pads Fassbender had to wear in his fight scene “weren’t a lot of help.” Tatum jokes that Carano killed Fassbender for real.

Now we’re about to see a clip. The scene has Carano and Fassbender pretending to be a couple to spy on a millionaire, but Fassbender doesn’t know that Carano knows he’s about to betray her. They enter a hotel room (Soderbergh said the scene rips off the Rod Taylor film Darker Than Amber) and the fight ain’t short. It goes on for three to four minutes, you feel every hit, the fight is well choreographed, and it’s a little unnerving to see a guy beat a woman and yet it’s a serious fight when she returns every hit and you can tell she isn’t a victim. The opponent is her victim and the audience cheered at the end of the fight.

During the Q&A, Carano says that each fight is different depending on her opponent. For example, her fight with McGregor is on the beach and it’s hard to get footing on sand. She then says she loved getting banged into a wall by Fassbender and then she realized what that sounded like to the audience and everyone cracked up including Carano.

The moderator asks about Soderbergh’s retirement. Soderbergh says Matt Damon is discreet as a 14-year-old girl and he explains that it was a drunken offhand comment and that it got blown out of proportion and “that’s Matt’s fault.”

A great wrap-up story is that during the hotel fight scene, Soderbergh told Fassbender to not look at the vase that Carano smashes in his face and of course on the day of the shoot he looked directly in the vase, got a face full of porcelain, and that’s the shot they ended up using. “He laughed about it a little,” says Soderbergh.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/livefrom/post/2011/07/haywire-star-gina-carano-punches-and-kicks-her-way-into-fans-hearts/1

Jul 22, 2011
'Haywire' star Gina Carano punches, kicks her way into fans' hearts

By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY
Updated 07/22/2011 06:00 PM

By Claudette Barius
Mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano made her case as the female Jason Statham today during the Comic-Con panel for Haywire, Director Steven Soderbergh was inspired to base an action film around Carano after watching one of her MMA fights on television, and it marks Carano's feature debut.

"I've never seen someone like her fight – in a cage," said Soderbergh, whose Haywire casts Carano as a former Marine and current special operative for a private firm who is framed for a murder.

Lots of running, jumping, shooting, kicking, punching, choking, kicking in doors and kicking people through doors all ensue.

"It was the time of my life," Carano said. "I woke up everybody with a fresh perspective. I really liked the physical days because I'm a physical person."

Carano met with Soderbergh for the first time soon after her MMA loss to Christiane "Cyborg" Santos in 2009. She still had a black eye she covered up with makeup, and they talked about her life and experiences.

Carano soon went straight into what she calls "Acting 101." "It ruined movies for a couple months for me because I noticed everything," she said, laughing, "But I appreciate actors and what they go through."

She had to go up against a lot of A-list actors in fight scenes for the movie. Soderbergh showed footage of one epic hotel-room throwdown with Carano in an evening dress and Michael Fassbender in a suit.

And in the beginning of the movie, there is a scene in a diner where Channing Tatum had to hit her with a ketchup bottle even though he didn't want to. "Then she called me the female P word and then I had to, for my manity," Tatum said. "Then I hit her and and she hit me back twice as hard. Then I didn't want to hit her anymore."

Haywire comes out in January, and she aims to be back in an MMA match before then. "My first love is fighting," she said, "and I don't think I've got out of my system what I need to yet."

http://www.hollywood.com/news/SDCC_2011_The_Raven_Haywire_Panel/7819266

Two big movies debuted their first footage at SDCC 2011 and we were right there to witness the action first-hand. The first is John Cusack's new movie The Raven. Cusack plays Edgar Allen Poe who teams with a Baltimore detective to hunt down a serial killer who uses Poe's writing as inspiration. The flick also stars Luke Evans and Alice Eve (hubba hubba). The other big movie Relativity Media showed off was Steven Soderbergh's big action film Haywire that follows a spurned spy on a revenge mission. This movie marks the feature debut of MMA fighter Gina Carano (a hubba hubba would be appropriate here too but she would probably break us in half) and features Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, and Ewan McGregor.

Here's what we saw at the panel:

Haywire was developed after Soderbergh saw Gina on TV and wanted to create a vehicle around her and create a female character who performs for real on camera with no stunt doubles.

Gina now appreciates what actors "go through.” Her character is a special ops person and she gets things done. She’s double crossed by her team and has to fight to get her life back. Her character's father was in the military.

The film opens with her character meeting Tatum's character for the first time in a diner. From there, the story backtracks to everything that led up to the diner. Then,the second half the story starts back up in real time.

Soderbergh insisted on realism in the fight sequences. He shows off a fight sequence with Gina and Michael Fassbender. Absolutely brutal fight scene with Gina and Michael destroying a hotel room during the course of the one on one brawl. Breathtaking.

Gina says the fight scenes were like a dance, and the fight with Fassbender she liked getting banged around and then blushed and laughed.

Soderbergh says directing "is a good job,” and that sMatt Damon is as discreet as a 14-year-old girl in regard to Damon saying Soderbergh said he is going to retire. Soderbergh says that story was overblown.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/22/live-from-the-haywire-panel-the-best-action-film-of-2012-looks-like-it/

Live From The Haywire Panel – The Best Action Film Of 2012? Looks Like It
Submitted by Brendon Connelly on July 22, 2011 – 2:32 pm

We’ve just seen the first trailer for Haywire, Stephen Soderbergh’s spy thriller. It stars Gina Carano, sometime MMA fighter, as an agent being set up. Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Ewan McGregor also have key roles.

It looks fresh. It looks sharp. The action is hard and fast and looks very, very painful. This will be the next big thing to hit action films and prove seminal in a Bourne fashion.

The film starts with a “cold opening” in a diner, with Carrano and Tatum meeting for the first time. This is how the trailer starts too. The first half of the film then features flashbacks to bring the audience up to speed before it moves on.

Soderbergh knew that he wanted to work with Carrano before he knew what story he’d put her in. He met her, got her commitment then called screenwriter Lem Dobbs and asked for a “female revenge thriller.”

The fights in the film were not people with stuntmen, and Gina landed and took every punch, kick and headbutt herself. Soderbergh says that the reality of the film means that the fight sequences are shorter than audiences are used to.

One fight is based on the famous hotel room scrap in Darker than Amber. This is the scene being previewed. I’ve just seen it and it’s truly astonishing. The cutting is precise and fluid, the shot selection utterly perfect – driving and focused.

The poster for the film actually features a brilliant allusion to the most powerful moment in this scene.

I honestly think it’s one of the best action scenes I have ever seen. Ever.

Carano describes her character Malory Kane as someone “who gets the job done.” She’s a private contractor, ex-military, and this is “in her blood.” She’s also the most amazing new action performer I’ve seen on screen in a long, long time – probably since I first saw Stephen Chow in God of Cookery.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Comic-Con-2011-Live-Blogging-The-Raven-And-Haywire-Panels-25837.html

Comic Con 2011: Live Blogging The Raven And Haywire Panels
published: 2011-07-22 13:21:33 Author: Eric Eisenberg
Comic Con 2011: Live Blogging The Raven And Haywire Panels image
Hall H has been home to some strange films over the last few years; films that most wouldn’t think would have a place during an event called Comic Con. Then again, the entire expo has shifted gears so much in recent years that we shouldn’t really be super surprised by anything anymore. I guess that’s why a movie with John Cusack playing Edgar Allan Poe and an action film by Steven Soderbergh are playing here this year.

The Relativity Media panel is set to begin shortly and I’ll be live blogging straight from Hall H! Keep refreshing this page for comments and footage descriptions!

12:22: Moderator is on stage to introduce the panels. Bringing together scary stories and ass-kicking women.

12:25: Haywire will be up first. Here's the trailer!

12:28: Pretty asskicking trailer, though the movie looks a tad bit generic. Basically Gina Carano being set up and left for dead and she goes on a revenge spree.

12:29: Steven Soderbergh, Gina Carano, Channing Tatum on the stage!

12:30: Soderbergh built the movie around Carano after seeing her fight in an MMA match on CBS. He was amazed nobody thought of making a movie around her before.

12:31: Soderbergh didn't have the story immediately in mind, but contacted Lem Dobbs, who he worked on The Limey with, to work on the script and it all came together. Gina says that Steven told her it was going to happen fast or not at all.

12:32: Apparently Tatum actually asked Carano to kick him harder at one point. Probably not the greatest idea in the world. Tatum says that he has been a huge fan of MMA for a while.

12:34: Carano describes Mallory Caine as a former military special ops woman who gets the job done and gets double-crossed. Caine is a professional who believes in what she does, follows in the footsteps of her father (Bill Paxton) who was also in the military.

12:35: The movie opens with the Carano and Tatum in a diner where things go horribly wrong. Then she steals a car from Michael Angarano, they go back to where the story actually began, and then it plays normally.

12:36: Soderbergh says fights are shorter than you normally see because he's going for reality. Actors were padded a little bit, but you can tell that there is some serious amount of pain going on. Poor Michael Fassbender. Everything was very choreographed. About to show a clip featuring Fassbender and Carano in a hotel room.

UPDATE: Here is the clip description:

They enter the hotel. Quiet, peaceful. Fassbender in a suit, Carano in a dress. They open the hotel door, she takes off her shoes. She thanks him when she lets him in. He slams her in the back of the head and slams her into a wall. Amazing fight breaks out. They tear the hotel apart. Serious punches. Slamming vases. No hyper sounnd effects, just sounds real. Skilled, trained fighting. She puts him in a chokehold, Fassbender slams her into a wall. She kicks him through a glass door. He throws her into a TV. They then land on the bed where Carano takes Fassbender’s head between her legs and starts squeezing until he just about passes out. She throws him to the floor, gets a gun from under the mattress, puts a pillow over Fassbender’s head and fires. Guess his role in this movie is fairly short.

12:37: Ewan McGregor is the boss, sends Carano to Dublin to team up with Fassbender and spy on someone. During a dinner she discovers that she is being framed for a murder. Fassbender doesn't know she knows when the seen happens.

12:42: Clip was incredibly awesome. No hyper-stylized fighting, just really real and brutal. Will have full description coming later

12:43: At the start of shooting Tatum hesitated hitting Carano with a ketchup bottle, but then she called him a pussy. Then he did it, she hit him, and he didn't want to be hit again.

12:45: Tatum says he can't talk about G.I. Joe 2 but is looking forward to working with The Rock (who threatened to pop his head off if he said anything)

12:46: Carano says she enjoyed being banged into all the stuff and it was incredible. Then she realized what she just said. Insert plenty of laughter.

12:48: Soderbergh said he got into the industry just because he loves loves movies.

12:49: Question about Soderbergh's retirement: "Matt Damon is about as discrete as a 14 year old girl" Drunken conversation while shooting Contagion and it was in the paper. Soderbergh was going off. Nobody wants to hear about quitting a good job, and it got blown out of proportion.

12:49: Soderbergh tells a story about Fassbender getting hit in the face with a vase. Soderbergh told him not to look at the vase. He looked at the vase and got it full in the face. That take is used in the movie, but he was hurt.

12:49: Haywire is over, time for The Raven!

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/22/live-from-the-haywire-panel-the-best-action-film-of-2012-looks-like-it/

Live From The Haywire Panel – The Best Action Film Of 2012? Looks Like It
Submitted by Brendon Connelly on July 22, 2011 – 2:32 pm

We’ve just seen the first trailer for Haywire, Stephen Soderbergh’s spy thriller. It stars Gina Carano, sometime MMA fighter, as an agent being set up. Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Ewan McGregor also have key roles.

It looks fresh. It looks sharp. The action is hard and fast and looks very, very painful. This will be the next big thing to hit action films and prove seminal in a Bourne fashion.

The film starts with a “cold opening” in a diner, with Carrano and Tatum meeting for the first time. This is how the trailer starts too. The first half of the film then features flashbacks to bring the audience up to speed before it moves on.

Soderbergh knew that he wanted to work with Carrano before he knew what story he’d put her in. He met her, got her commitment then called screenwriter Lem Dobbs and asked for a “female revenge thriller.”

The fights in the film were not people with stuntmen, and Gina landed and took every punch, kick and headbutt herself. Soderbergh says that the reality of the film means that the fight sequences are shorter than audiences are used to.

One fight is based on the famous hotel room scrap in Darker than Amber. This is the scene being previewed. I’ve just seen it and it’s truly astonishing. The cutting is precise and fluid, the shot selection utterly perfect – driving and focused.

The poster for the film actually features a brilliant allusion to the most powerful moment in this scene.

I honestly think it’s one of the best action scenes I have ever seen. Ever.

Carano describes her character Malory Kane as someone “who gets the job done.” She’s a private contractor, ex-military, and this is “in her blood.” She’s also the most amazing new action performer I’ve seen on screen in a long, long time – probably since I first saw Stephen Chow in God of Cookery.

http://www.critiques4geeks.com/2011/07/26/comic-con-11-haywire-panel/

’11: ‘Haywire’ Panel
Posted on July 26, 2011

Director Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion comes out later this year, but the director had Haywire (formerly known as Knockout), in his mindset. Lucky for the attendees at Comic-Con, Soderbergh tried to excite everyone with the film’s trailer followed by a Q&A chat with MMA fighter Gina Carano.

After seeing the trailer shown at the panel, it seems like the main focus of the movie is the hard-hitting fights from MMA fighter Gina Carano. Haywire appears to be something along the lines of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo infused with some Bourne in it. In other words, you've seen this before and you're pretty much just in it for the action. But who knows?

After some awkward Q&A from the fans that asked failed to ask anything about the movie--rather they wanted to talk to Channing Tatum. Another clip was shown shortly after the trailer. This time, we got to see Carano and Michael Fassbender have an intense action scene in the hotel room, which clearly showed off her MMA skills.

So, either the trailer looked like crap, or nobody cared for this film because I barely felt any energy from the crowd. Shoot, I was falling asleep during this boring panel.

Anyways, here's the trailer:

Haywire is directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Lem Dobbs, and stars Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Angarano, Ewan McGregor. The film releases into theaters in January 2012.

http://dvd.wordwd.com/2011/07/24/comic-con-2011-michael-fassbender-gets-violent-in-haywire/

2011
07.24
Comic-Con 2011: Michael Fassbender gets violent in Haywire

Footage from Steven Soderbergh’s new action thriller Haywire aired at Comic-Con today, and it packed one hell of a punch.

Literally, because it showed off Gina Carano busting Michael Fassbender’s chops as super soldier Mallory Kane.

She’s betrayed by her team, and singled out for assassination. Fassbender’s the hired killer enlisted by Ewan McGregor to terminate Kane.

In the scene shown at the Con, the two go to a hotel room together for what we assume is a romantic rendevous. Once they’re inside, Fassbender makes his move.

That is to say, he attempts to beat Carano into a bloody pulp. Except she’s no wimpy Charlie’s Angels chick, holding her own in the ensuing, brutal action scene; neither party goes easy on the other.

Fass punches Carano, Carano returns the love. The two smash into walls, shatter glass shelves and finally end up in a violent pseudo-sexual clinch on a bed. It’s effortlessly stylish and borderline iconic.

“Each fight was separately special in all the right ways,” says Carano of her many scuffles, which she did without the help of a stunt double.

“Ewan McGregor’s scene, we were on a beach and we were struggling through sand, so that was probably really fun to cut.

“The Fassbender scene was just wreckless, I loved being banged into all that stuff. It was a blast. It was incredible.”


Sound good to you? Do we need more movie heroines? Chuck us your thoughts…

http://www.hollywoodplanet.info/2011/07/23/comic-con-day-2-gia-carano-and-john-cusack-bring-on-the-questions/

Day 2: Gia Carano and John Cusack Bring on the Questions

Lots of audience questions at Friday's Relativity panel for John Cusack's The Raven and Gia Carano's Haywire.

Haywire kicked it off with director Steven Soderbergh, and stars Gia Carano and Channing Tatum. The film also stars Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Ewan McGregor, and Michael Fassbender.

The audience was treated to the first-ever look at the new trailer, which highlights a multi-faceted story, including espionage, character study, father-daughter relationships, and criminal mischief.

The end of the trailer signaled a huge swell of applause from the audience and a ton of questions for the star, MMA star Gia Carano.

Soderbergh told the huge Hall H audience that he was excited to make this film with Carano after seeing her fight on TV. He wanted to built a story around a real fighter - the stunts are real and the fighting is actually happening (choreographed of course) - no stunt people anywhere near them.

For Carano's part, she was eager to take on the role because it was an "adrenaline rush every day."

Director Steven Soderbergh and the Cast of Haywire

She also admits transitioning to acting, especially in a starring role, was much harder than she ever expected.

"It's definitely a skill and I don't think everyone's capable of doing it."

The story features a kind of cold-opening. As an audience, we are catapulted right into the middle of the story with a scene featuring Carano and co-star Tatum. The choreography of the fights were extremely detailed to ensure no one got hurt, but Tatum admits, "she kicked my ass."

Soderbergh also brought a special exclusive clip for the audience, featuring a fight scene between Carano and co-star Michael Fassbender. The intense action sequence brought gasps and cheers from the audience throughout as Carano and Fassbender fought in a hotel room - bashing up against cabinets and struggling on the bed.

"Gina kicked all the guys asses," Tatum exclaimed after the clip ended to eager applause from Hall H.

And don't worry MMA fans, Carano is expected to fight again later this year.

Haywire is expected to hit theaters on August 5, 2011.

http://www.halamovie.com/comic-con-2011-michael-fassbender-gets-violent-in-haywire/

2011/07/23 11:26
Comic-Con 2011: Michael Fassbender gets violent in Haywire

Literally, because it showed off Gina Carano busting Michael Fassbender’s chops as super soldier Mallory Kane.

She’s betrayed by her team, and singled out for assassination. Fassbender’s the hired killer enlisted by Ewan McGregor to terminate Kane.

In the scene shown at the Con, the two go to a hotel room together for what we assume is a romantic rendevous. Once they’re inside, Fassbender makes his move.

That is to say, he attempts to beat Carano into a bloody pulp. Except she’s no wimpy Charlie’s Angels chick, holding her own in the ensuing, brutal action scene; neither party goes easy on the other.

Fass punches Carano, Carano returns the love. The two smash into walls, shatter glass shelves and finally end up in a violent pseudo-sexual clinch on a bed. It’s effortlessly stylish and borderline iconic.

“Each fight was separately special in all the right ways,” says Carano of her many scuffles, which she did without the help of a stunt double.

“Ewan McGregor’s scene, we were on a beach and we were struggling through sand, so that was probably really fun to cut.

“The Fassbender scene was just wreckless, I loved being banged into all that stuff. It was a blast. It was incredible.”

http://www.ramascreen.com/haywire-trailer-and-photos-of-channing-tatum-and-gina-carano-from-comic-con-11-panel

HAYWIRE Trailer And Photos Of Channing Tatum And Gina Carano From Comic-Con ’11 Panel

July 22, 2011RamaNo CommentsChanning Tatum, Comic-Con 2011, Gina Carano, Haywire

I attended the panel for Relativity’s actioner, HAYWIRE earlier today at Comic-Con 2011 attended by director Steven Soderbergh, the star of the film, MMA fighter Gina Carano and co-star Channing Tatum..
By the way, they showed a footage of Gina’s character fighting Michael Fassbender‘s character in a hotel room, that whole fight scene was unbelievably badass, you’re gonna love this action flick..

HAYWIRE
January 20, 2012

DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
WRITER: Lem Dobbs
CAST: Gina Carano
Channing Tatum
Michael Fassbender
Ewan McGregor
Michael Angarano
Antonio Banderas
Michael Douglas
Bill Paxton
PRODUCERS: Gregory Jacobs
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Polaire, Tucker Tooley

This dynamic action-thriller directed by Oscar® winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) boasts a talented cast that includes Channing Tatum (GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra), Ewan McGregor (The Ghost Writer), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Antonio Banderas (The Legend of Zoro), Bill Paxton (“Big Love”), Michael Douglas (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Michael Angarano (Almost Famous); and introduces mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar Gina Carano as Mallory Kane, in a demanding lead role that has her performing her own high-adrenaline stunts.

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

http://www.unwinnable.com/2011/08/01/a-san-diego-comic-con-memoir-part-two-pummeled-with-gray-foam-bricks/

A San Diego Comic-Con Memoir, Part Two: Pummeled with Gray Foam Bricks
August 1st, 2011 | By: Ethan Sacks

The good thing about a sequel is that you don’t have to bother with an origin story. Though my editors, Stu and Ian, will point out I’m so late with this installment I may as well just start writing one for next year’s Comic Con at this point.

In any case, skipping to my second day at Comic Con, my fears of a massive hangover after Friday night’s ill-conceived night out were well founded as I headed out to the Se Hotel, a 40-minute brisk walk from the America’s Best Value Inn through gang country – but the gangbangers are asleep at 8:30 A.M. apparently.

———

FRIDAY NOON

My next stop is the W Hotel across town to pick up my special press pass from Relativity to attend the Hall H panels for Haywire and The Raven. Steven Soderbergh, who directed Haywire, is outside the hotel on a cell phone, but there’s no reason to approach him.

I entered Hall H curious about John Cusack’s Edgar Allen Poe thriller, The Raven, but I left blown away by the footage from Haywire.

Basically, Soderbergh stumbled on Mixed Martial Arts superstar Gina Carano fighting in a steel cage match and wondered why no one had tried to make a revenge action movie around this woman. So he did it.

The two-minute fight sequence screened for the Hall H crowd leaves the audience, including me, blown away.

There are no cuts, just two people – Carano and Michael Fassbender slamming into walls, and kneeing and punching each other with such ferocity, that it reminded me of Jet Li’s Fist of Legend. This is isn’t some Hollywood starlet like Drew Barrymore being hoisted around on wires or Angelina Jolie throwing a punch and then cutting away to a stuntwoman. Carano is the real deal and I’m in love.

“I had to hit her with a ketchup bottle, and I couldn’t do it,” her co-star Channing Tatum says during the panel. “She called me the p-word, so then I did it for my manity. But then she hit me back twice as hard, and I didn’t want to hit her anymore.”

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2011/08/01/cci-relativitys-panel-for-haywire-and-the-raven/

CCI | Relativity’s Panel For Haywire And The Raven
Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 2:30pm

by Erik Amaya

CBR/Spinoff Online’s coverage of Comic-Con 2011 is brought to you by
ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM

Relativity Media showcased two of its upcoming features at Comic-Con International in San Diego with presentations by director Steven Soderbergh, MMA fighter Gina Carano and actor Channing Tatum for the action-thriller Haywire, and director James McTeigue and stars John Cusack, Alice Eve and Luke Evans for the mystery The Raven.

After introducing the Haywire director and stars, moderator Anthony Breznican asked Soderbergh how he found Carano. “I saw her fighting on television a few years back when CBS was playing MMA fights on Saturdays,” he said. “I tuned in and saw her and thought, ‘Why doesn’t someone build a movie around her?’ It was almost two years ago exactly that I took the train here and met with her to make a movie.”

“I had a black eye that I was covering up with makeup,” Carano recalled of that initial meeting. “I picked him up from the train station and we talked about everything and he told me this [movie] would happen really fast or it wouldn’t at all.”

In the beginning, Soderbergh had no story, but once he had Carano onboard he called his Limey collaborator Lem Dobbs to whip up a tale of double crosses and low blows. “[I] asked him if he wanted to write a female revenge story,” Soderbergh said. “I thought it would be unusual and interesting if you could make a female action hero who did it for real. There are no stunt people.”

“I think I have a few bruises still,” Tatum added. “It was a challenge and I lost. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, and it was an honor to work with her.”

Having no previous acting experience, Carano described working with Soderbergh as “Acting 101.” She said her character Mallory Kane is someone who “gets the job done and people want to work with her. Then she gets double-crossed and doesn’t know who to trust.”

While that might seem like a familiar storyline, Soderbergh brings his own quirks to it — including starting the film in the middle of the action. “It’s kind of a cold opening,” he explained. “She meets Channing, and that goes horribly wrong. She hijacks his car and then starts telling him what happened, and we catch up to it with [that part of the] movie happening in real time.

“I love spy movies,” he continued. “We tried to be accurate about this world where governments hire these consultants to get stuff done.” Soderbergh, who isn’t known for action movies, approached the fights scenes in an unusual manner. “I made a rule that no one could do fight stuff that couldn’t really happen between two people in the room,” he said. “As a result, the fights are shorter because, eventually, someone gets the drop on the other.”

Gina Carano and Channing Tatum in "Haywire"

The director then set up the clip: a fight between Carano and Michael Fassbender’s character. “The fight with Gina and Fassbender was born from a film called Darker Than Amber,” he explained. “She’s been sent to Dublin to spy on a billionaire. While she’s at this party, she discovers that she is going to be framed for a murder. She knows Fassbender is part of the plot, but she doesn’t know the details.”

Tatum admitted he had trouble punching Carano at first. “I couldn’t do it until she called me the female P-word. So I hit her,” he confessed. “Then she hit me back a couple of times and I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

When the Q&A began, Tatum was asked if being in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra helped him prepare for Haywire. The actor joked, “I didn’t have the suit, so she kicked my ass.”

Soderbergh told a fan that he recently approved a re-mastered version of his 1993 historical drama King of the Hill. Unfortunately, he couldn’t give. a concrete release date, but hopes all studios adopt a system similar to Warner Bros.’ Warner Archives, which allows consumers to order lesser-known films on a DVD-R disc.

A G.I. Joe fan asked Tatum about the sequel. The actor declined to say much more than, “I love Rock. He’s a gargantuan man and a great actor.”

When Breznican alluded to Soderbergh’s reported retirement, the director sighed and said, “Matt Damon is about as discreet as a 14 year-old girl.” He explained that the two had a discussion about retirement on the set of Contagion. “Four days later it was in the paper,” he said. “That’s how it started. So it got a little blown out of proportion.”