Piranha 3D at Comic-Con 2010The 2010 San Diego Comic-Con started up in full force on Thursday and one of the main events of the first full day at the Con was a screening of footage from the highly-anticipated horror remake {0}, which will be released in theaters nationwide on August 20. We {1} a few weeks ago that Dimension Films pulled their Comic-Con panel this year, because Comic-Con wouldn't allow them to show the footage they wanted to show. They could have edited down the footage for a mor

The trailer revealed that this film, while certainly capturing the essence of the 1978 original film, is set up a lot differently. Instead of having these genetically-altered fish being accidentally released into a summer resort, an underwater tremor breaks loose a section of Lake Victoria, an annual spring break hot spot with thousands of coeds cutting loose and partying, and these fish who were trapped in this oceanic prison were finally let loose after thousands of years. The footage we were shown starts with the realization of Sheriff Julie Forrester (Elisabeth Shue) and Lt. Bishop Welleger (Ving Rhames) that these fish are all over the lake and they have to evacuate it immediately. Of course, this poses a problem to the party-happy youngsters, and the scene quickly turns into a bloodbath... an amazingly awesome, delightfully campy bloodbath. We're treated to scenes that include glimpses at both Eli Roth and Jerry O'Connell's characters and some of the most blood-soaked action I've ever seen. I previously thought that last year's Ninja Assassin was one of the bloodiest films ever put on celluloid and Piranha 3D makes that film look like an episode of Barney & Friends. Ving Rhames give new meaning to the term "motorboating," and some of the most disgusting death scenes you'll ever see that will have you rolling in the aisles. If the rest of this film keeps the gory, campy and awesome pace of this footage, I simply can't wait to see the finished product that is Piranha 3D.

After the footage, director Alexandre Aja brought out several key cast members including Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Adam Scott and Paul Scheer, who, confirmed the reason why Comic-Con denied the showing of Piranha 3D.

"Comic-Con is biased against fish," Scheer said, which brought upon roaring laughter throughout the theater. "They didn't let in Shark Tale and this is just the epicenter."

Aja also confirmed that Richard Dreyfuss was indeed his same character from Jaws, Matt Hooper... essentially.

"He is," Aja told us. When someone else clarified if he will actually be called Matt Hooper, he replied, "Not legally."

Jerry O'Connell also told us a bit more about his character and the film itself.

"I am loosely based on someone you may or may not know, Joe Francis, who created the Girls Gone Wild," O'Connell explained. "He tries to get underage women to go out on his boats that go out to the lake. It's a really fun movie and it was so much fun to work on. From what I've seen, it's just going to scare the crap out of you. People's bodies come apart at times when you wouldn't expect them to and it's a crazy, funny movie. I think it's going to be a great date movie."

The always-hilarious Adam Scott also told us a bit about his character, and the crazy shenanigans he gets to partake in.

"Aside from working with Alexandre Aja, one of the reasons I wanted to be in this movie was I get to ride on a jet ski with a shotgun," Scott told the crowd. "I get to do the one-hand cock and stand up, while the jet ski is moving, and blow fish out of the water. It was like if Indiana Jones was blowing up fish."

Eli Roth was also in attendance, who talked about how he came out of "acting retirement" for a chance to work with director Alexandre Aja. He also clued us in as to just how bloody this film really is.

"In Hostel, we used over 150 gallons of blood, on Kill Bill, they used over 350 gallons of blood," Roth said. When I showed up for the wet t-shirt contest, they were up to 7,000 gallons of blood. It's the most blood ever."

When it was all said and done, when I left the Regal Horton Plaza, I went from being excited to see Piranha 3D, to be INCREDIBLY EXCITED to see Piranha 3D as soon as I possibly can. Aside from all of the hilarious moments that we saw in just 10 minutes of footage, it's incredibly gory and they used the 3D in fantastic ways that should bring back memories of the old-school 3D, but done in wonderful new ways. That's all from the Piranha 3D screening at the "too hot for Comic-Con" event in San Diego.