Comic-Con: The bizarre story of how Sandra Bullock spent ‘Gravity’ shoot locked away in an isolated cube

Sandra Bullock speaks to crowd at Comic-Con (AP)When director Alfonso Cuarón set out to make his next film, “Gravity,” he knew capturing the scenes of astronauts floating through space would require the use of innovative, new technology.

And for unlucky star Sandra Bullock, that meant spending 10 hours a day locked in a 9-by-9-foot cube that kept her isolated from her fellow cast members, and the world. Furthermore, inside the cube, she was strapped in a harness that kept her largely immobile. For comparison, the average prison cell measures 8 feet by 6 feet.

“There was no improvising. The physical part was so scary,” Bullock said of her experience during an appearance in support of the upcoming film at Comic-Con on Saturday.

Not only was Bullock locked inside the cube during filming, but Cuarón used a special camera that would rush toward Bullock’s face at 25 mph, stopping only about an inch from her face, according to producer David Heyman. And because she was strapped in place inside the cube, there was no way for her to move out of the camera’s way should something go wrong.

“What was even scarier than that was the technology was being created on the spot,” Bullock said. Cuarón "was like the evil puppeteer. If that robot did decide to continue through my face, I couldn't have gotten out of the way.”

The film crew created the cube to capture footage that would accurately simulate the look of an astronaut floating through the darkness of space. "The cube was designed to continually capture her point of view while floating alone in space," Cuarón said.

Bullock spent so much time hidden away inside the cube that she and the crew had to come up with creative ways to help keep her from going stir-crazy.

“They had me strung up for 8-10 hours day,” she said. “I learned to meditate up there. Alfonso gave me boxes of CDs with sounds that would set the tone for a scene and help me stay in the right head space.”

Still, Bullock said the isolation and cramped space were preferable to the original plan: Sending her and co-star George Clooney into a “vomit comet,” a reduced-gravity airplane that flies up into the Earth’s stratosphere and then enters periods of free fall, dropping several thousand feet per second, briefly creating a zero-gravity environment.

“It was a very intense experience for Sandra,” Cuarón said. “Sandra was completely insulated inside that cube. In between takes, she would stay inside there, with her music, inside her zone.”

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Puppy survives after being locked in car for nearly a month

 Kia, the miracle puppy. (Kansas City Pet Project/Kansas City Star)A 12-week-old puppy has miraculously overcome a harrowing ordeal and survived being locked inside an impounded car for nearly a month.

The Kansas City, Mo., animal shelter now caring for the terrier and schnauzer mix they’ve named Kia said she survived by eating trash left in the car from a McDonald’s restaurant. However, she apparently did not have access to water, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A car lot worker spotted Kia on Monday. Danny Rotert, spokesman for the Kansas City municipal government, said the employee was tagging cars for auction when Kia jumped on top of the dashboard of the Chevy Suburban in which she was trapped. The lot attendant then called the police, who broke into the impounded vehicle to rescue her. The vehicle had been sitting in the lot since April 8.

The Kansas City Star reports that on May 1, the owner of the vehicle, who has not been publicly named, showed up to inspect the car. However, he reportedly made no mention of owning a dog. Authorities say they are not sure if the man was actually in possession of the vehicle when it was impounded and noted that he did not have keys to access the vehicle when he visited the lot.

An Arizona Republic article reports that dogs usually cannot go more than two or three days without water and, as a general rule, require twice as much water as food on any given day.

“Without an appreciable amount of water, it’s pretty miraculous for a puppy to survive three weeks in a car,” veterinarian Billie Deam told the Star. “Physiologically it’s possible, depending on what she was eating to survive on,” she added. “But it’s really stretching the outer limits of what’s possible.”

Animal shelter spokeswoman Toni Fugate says Kia is expected to survive, but is currently recovering from severe dehydration and malnutrition.

While Kia won’t be fully healed for some time, the Kansas Pet Project says it is working on finding a foster home for her once she is ready to leave the shelter.

“Four weeks of her life she was trapped in the car, so she has no formal training,” Fugate said.

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