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TNT and Top Cow comics held a panel on Friday, August 4 at the 2000 Wizard World Con devoted to the upcoming movie Witchblade. Marc Silvestri ran the panel which included Witchblade stars Yancy Butler (Sara Pezzini), Anthony Cistaro (Kenneth Irons), and director Ralph Hemecker. A special screening of the movie was held for convention goers at 10 pm on that same night at the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois. 

The panel discussed some details of the upcoming Witchblade movie and the possibility of it becoming an ongoing television series. 

"In the comic book there are three years worth of stories," said Cistaro. "Two hours only just [barely] touches it. It's really going to be up to all of you out there to get this thing going. TNT needs to hear from you and say this is what we want to see. They have no idea. They have a website. Get on there and email and let them know you want it on the air." 

"The nature of the comic book itself lends itself very well to episodic storytelling," Hemecker told the audience. 

"Once you define a universe, you can play in that universe for as long as you want," agreed Silvestri. "I mean, who would ever thought they could make something interesting about a chick running around stabbing vampires. And Buffy is one of the greatest shows of all time." 

"There are plenty of interesting stories still to tell about Sara," Silvestri told the audience. "The great thing about the Witchblade show is character." 

The panel answered questions for a little over an hour from the crowd. 

According to Yancy Butler, "Anthony Cistaro is the best at actually promoting [the show]. This was evident during the panel when he said, The important thing to remember is that if you look at a pilot. The series really starts to build once you can get into it and know the characters. People start getting ideas about how things develop. When something gets initially sold, usually it sort of goers way out this way with this character and way out one way with a character. It's not up to the series level where you start building the nuances that people appreciate." 

I had the chance to ask the panel, "How important is it to follow the comic in the movie? And will it be as important if it goes to series?"

Marc Silvestri answered, "This gentleman's already seen the movie. How?" 

"I've got my press pass," I answer and the group laughs. 

"That was the right answer", Silvestri says before continuing. "It doesn't have to. You're going to have to change things." 

"You mean like Iron's jumping off in issue 8? Cistaro asks after the fate of his character." 

"I think the spirit of the comic book is carried very well", Silvestri acknowledges. 

When asked what her biggest challenge was in taking on the title role, Yancy Butler said," Showing up every day. [Laughter]. Sara is a little active. It was very physically demanding. I like doing stuff like that. It's like being able to play on a playground. It turned out to be great. A lot of times I did use a stunt person, simply because of the wonderful, innovative ways they did the stunts." 

Ralph Hemecker said that Yancy did do some of her own stunts. 

"Yes I did," she agreed. 

"One of things that concerned me was that you (the fans) have been living with Sara much longer than I have," Yancy said. 

The panel discussed everything from Yancy's former show, Mann & Machine, "You try going up against Murder She Wrote and see if you get a second season," joked Yancy. Also mentioned was the possibility of a Darkness movie based on the Top Cow comic, and whether or not Lara Croft will figure into the film as she does in the comic book Saraís life. 

Silvestri said that the Darkness property was being shopped around as a movie property and probably wouldn't work as a series. With licensing, he doubts that Tomb Raider would be making any kind of appearances on the series, although she will probably meet up with Sara again in the comics. 

Yancy said, "I had heard of Sara Pezzini but I wasn't that familiar with the comic book. I'm lucky if I can read the paper. Once I took a look at it I though she's a tall glass of water, isn't she?" 

After the panel concluded, the stars hung around and signed autographs and spoke with the audience on a one to one basis. Ralph Hemecker, the film is director was very interested in talking about his project and filming in Vancouver, which doubles very well for New York, he added.