(Supplied photo)

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Five minutes into Shoot 'Em Up, Clive Owen has lobotomized a thug with a carrot, delivered a baby and laid waste to dozens of heavily-armed assassins.

Then things get bloody.

Depending on who you ask, the gonzo thriller, which opens Sept. 7 but previewed at this year's Comic-Con, is either a vile orgy of wink-nudge sadism or a witty, pure-bred action extravaganza. At the very least Shoot 'Em Up proved a rarity at the entertainment expo which is dominated by existing properties -- thus the innumerable Boba Fetts and Green Lanterns strolling the corridors of the San Diego Convention Center. And one presumes nothing would please director Michael Davis more than if at future Comic-Cons, the hallways were populated by clones of Clive Owen's leather-coated, carrot-crunching Smith.

Not that Davis doesn't already have reason to be ecstatic.

A few years ago, the 46-year-old filmmaker was so desperate to get Shoot 'Em Up made, he painstakingly scribbled 1,700 line drawings detailing, frame-by-frame, the elaborate action sequences he envisioned.

The result, which he assembled on his Mac, and which you can locate easily enough with a Google search, unfolds like a crude but cannily effective animated storyboard.

Even then, his ambitions were apparent. Amid the stick-figure carnage, the storyboards proclaimed the project would be "John Woo's wet dream."

Even Owen admits he wasn't sure what to make of Davis' hubris -- or the film -- when it was first pitched to him.

"John Woo does happen to be a master of the genre," the 42-year-old British actor notes. "I honestly didn't think it sounded like my kind of thing. But the script was the freshest, wildest thing I'd read in years."

Not surprisingly, Davis says Owen was his first choice for the role of a gun-toting loner who protects a newborn from Paul Giamatti's master criminal.

"I didn't want the action guy everyone had seen before; I wanted the action guy everyone wanted to see," Davis says.

After Owen's initial concerns -- "It's one thing writing all that, but pulling it off is another thing," he says -- were assuaged, he signed on.

Later, he would use his clout to throw a perimeter around his fledging director while they were in production in Toronto.

"(Studios) like to push the first-time director around," Davis says. "I didn't find out until later, but Owen went and pulled the studio people and producers aside and said, 'Lay off him. He's doing a great job. Just give him room.' He protected me."

Which means, unlike many inexperienced filmmakers, the movie represents Davis' undiluted vision. Indeed, what's most impressive is how closely the final film mirrors that initial animated pitch -- from a sky-diving showdown to a sex sequence in which Owen, mid-coitus, mows down hitmen while still, ahem, interacting with Monica Bellucci. This prompts one journalist to ask Owen if his wife has seen it. "No," he says, laughing. "I'm not afraid to let her see it. I think she'll like it. The thing about it, I think it's a funny film. It's a comedy."

He feels similarly about the movie's body count.

"It's the best kind of violence. It's movie violence. It's very satisfying. When that carrot comes out of the back of the guy's head, you know this film isn't taking itself too seriously."

Owen, Davis share common Bond

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Clive Owen has been asked about James Bond so many times, even his Shoot 'Em Up director, Michael Davis, knows the actor's response.

"Clive will say, 'Everyone talks about me being Bond, but they never talked to me about being Bond. Besides, what do I care? I got my own thing and it's fresher and more original.' "

It's a sentiment shared by Davis, who now gets offers to direct movies based on comic books. And one day he might -- as long as he gets to illustrate the comic first.

"It's a rush to create your own thing ... Maybe I'm a bit egotistical but it feels great that you started something, rather than just enhancing someone else's idea."

(One senses he might make one exception to that rule. A cartoon junkie, he confesses to having a crush on Kim Possible. "I think she's sexy as hell.")

Nor should anyone expect Davis to scale back the violence in future films.

"I don't want to make a drama. A producer was saying to me this will help me make the transition into action-drama.

"And I was like, 'Dude, I don't want to do an action drama because that just means there's less action.' "

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