First Look at "Johnny Thunder 3"!

By: Andrew Bermudez

(LEGO Studios; April 6, 2014)

     As Spring Break comes to a close, we would like to give you a first look at what you might expect to see in Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients, coming July 18! Now, as the crew begins to conclude filming in Peru, we will now give a first look at the film that has been four years in the making.

Lord Sinister and Patrick at the home of John "Six Shots" Parker and William "Billy the Kid" Parker.

      To say that film was in hot water since its conception would be an understatement; the film as it will appear this summer is actually the product of six complete re-writes of the original script. However, unlike the five re-writes for Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo, where only details and characters were changed, this film is an original adventure, meaning that anything in it was fair game, except for the main characters, of course. Entire locations, minor characters, action sequences, and even the entire ending were completely changed from the original draft that was written back in late 2010. In the earliest known version of the film, a seemingly minor security guard at the museum was going to get murdered (similar to the first film), but as the story evolved, the murder was moved to a different location, changed to a different character, and ended up not even being shown on-screen. However, the new beginning does feature a murder to a lesser extent, as it tells the story of the death of Dr. Daniel Thunder, Johnny's father, and his ties to the treasure.

Johnny and his friends participate in the Running of the Bulls.

      Filming finally started Fall 2011 with the aforementioned prologue, even though that part of the film was re-written late 2012, forcing a partial re-shoot. In the film's almost three-year shoot, several different locations from around the world have been depicted, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef (below), Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, the Spanish city of Pamplona (above), Venice, Great Zimbabwe, and others. Some of the locations that were considered for the movie but were cut out were the Grand Canyon, Mexico City, Tokyo, and others.

Setting up for filming in the Great Barrier Reef.

      The idea for an original adventure was conceived as far back as Spring 2010, when Johnny Thunder and the Gift of the Nile was just finishing up production. It was clear that, by the success of the first film, a third installment would be anticipated. But, since some of the cast and crew were unhappy with parts of the second Johnny Thunder film, they knew that this film would have to be the ultimate Johnny Thunder film. So, rather than do another sub-theme adaptation (even though a Dino Island film may possibly be made), a world tour was conceived around the newly-released Portal of Atlantis LEGO set, which would send the adventurers in search of the five portal keys. This story element is probably the only surviving element from the original script.

Young Dr. Kilroy and Dr. Daniel Thunder in the film's prologue.

      Another thing that will be introduced to the Johnny Thunder franchise in this film is mouth animation! Both Sam 'n Bob Brawl and the updated contest video for The Nexus Force Character Creation Sweepstakes show the new standard for mouth animation, which will be carried over to this film. This technical aspect, along with cleaning up light flicker and highly-detailed sets, will give this installment in the saga a very polished feel and make the locations look very believable.

Concept art for Koala Express by Andrew Bermudez, a fictitious restaurant chain created for the movie.

      However, these locations and other components couldn't have even been created without some pre-planning. Above and below this paragraph are two concept drawings for the film. The restaurant pictured above appears very similar to the way it appears in the finished movie. The only differences are some aging on the otherwise bright yellow paint job and the lack of an actual roof to allow light in (what you see in the film is only the facade of a roof). Below is a monster concept that ended up being cut out of the film during one of its many re-writes. While it will never be realized in the final film, the concept art will live forever here. However, I am not allowed to specify its role in the film right now as it will spoil the ending, even in its final version.

Unused graphite concept art for a monster by Andrew Bermudez.

      One thing that did make it into the movie was the vision of casting a member of the Mustache Maniacs Film Co. fan community into the movie. One of the promotions to fill in the downtime during the movie's filming was The Film School Challenge, which gave the winner a part in Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients, along with a replica of the character they played and a DVD copy of the finished film. Congratulations to Marcus Hutchinson, who won this contest and has now finished his arrangements to get his dialogue in the film. We would once again also like to say well done to all those that entered. To review The Film School Challenge, check out the playlist on our YouTube Channel, which also contains the round videos, trailers, and third-party educational videos.

Harry Cane talks to the Sunglasses Tourist, the part Marcus Hutchinson will play.

     Another first for Mustache Maniacs Film Co. that will make its debut in Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients is the combined use of CGI and stop-motion animation, which will literally take flight in the Mount Tampa cable car and airplane fight scene, inspired by a scene cut from Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo. The still you see below is just the raw footage; the final version will replace the green screen with a computer-generated rendering of the Romanian mountain, which will be animated with camera motions to make the scene even more dynamic. While it may give us headaches and flashbacks to editing the Aero Nomad battle from Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo, the advances in technology since then should make up for it.

Raw footage from the airplane and cable car battle.

      Since this is a trip around the world, special precautions were made to make sure each location had its own identity. While architecture was important, color also played a prominent role in this. Zimbabwe is depicted with warm yellows and light grays. England, on the other hand, was made with cooler colors, with the exceptions being the iconic phone booths and double-decker buses. Romania was mostly neutralized, with splashes of color thrown in to add interest. Newfoundland was given natural greens and browns, while...never mind. I now know I've run out of things to say to the general public when I start rambling on about color theory and its application in the film.

Filming at Harare airport.

     With that said, let me now leave you with a special advertisement, which was actually given as a prize in our 2012 Vacation: Unlimited Scrapbook Contest. Congratulations to TLFScarheart for winning that contest! As for all of you who read through my ramblings about the use of color and so forth, thank you for reading and check out the movie when it is released on July 18!

Postcard-style ad for the movie.