Reader Tom Finnegan was able to attend the Teacup panel at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, and he sent in his self-described “fanboy review,” along with photos he took.
Here’s Tom:
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the panel for the new Peacock Series Teacup at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Based on Robert McCammon’s fantastic book Stinger. Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Convention Center is the second biggest room there. A pretty big place, I believe it seats around 5,000 people. I was happily surprised to see the place about three-quarters full! I hope everyone has read through all the different summaries of today’s panel on the different entertainment sites. I am just going to chime in with some additional things that stayed with me.
The panel was comprised of moderator Damian Holbrook, Creator Ian McCulloch, stars Scott Speedman, Yvonne Strahovski, and Chaske Spencer, as well as the awesome director James Wan.
The first subject they addressed was that the series, comprised of eight thirty-minute episodes, does not stick to the book. McCulloch said he wanted to focus more on what he felt was the primary characters to make the story shorter and more intense. I can assure you after seeing the trailers, this one will be intense! The trailer they showed was edited to reduce the gore (with respect to the under 18 crowd in attendance), and it was still quite gory!
First two episodes drop October 10th, with the remainder apparently coming two at a time every couple weeks after that.
Taking place over 48 hours, the compacted story did have McCammon as a producer, so we can be assured this will get his blessing. While the story covers 48 hours, of course it took many months to create. Shot on the outskirts of Atlanta, GA, the production took place on a one hundred and twenty-acre farm that used existing and newly-constructed buildings for filming. I found it interesting that they had to have a crew that was dedicated to getting leaves on the trees (one way or another, not sure how), as they fell during the seasons! They also had to deal with the different seasons and accompanying temperatures during filming.
They tried to stay tight-lipped about the story, so as not to give any spoilers. They did show a teacup being placed over a wasp that was on a window, trapping it in. Those who have read the story may understand this. That is all I have to say about that!
This was the first production done at the then-brand-new Assembly Studios and done by the fantastic Atomic Studios. Coming out on Peacock Streaming, you will definitely want to check this one out!
Fanboy Tom Finnegan
Tom also sent these photos in:
