HIGH FRAME RATE 3D VERSION OF “THE HOBBIT” IN SELECT CINEMAS

Want to be fully immersed in Middle-earth?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

             Then watch “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in its glorious High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D version in the following theaters: Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3, Greenhills, Robinsons Ermita, Robinsons Galleria, SM Cebu, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, SM North Edsa and SM Southmall. 

             For the first time, director Peter Jackson utilized state-of-the-art digital cameras to record the action in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in 3D at an unprecedented 48 frames per second (fps) for release in High Frame Rate 3D (HFR 3D), as well as all the standard formats. 

             “We want ‘The Hobbit’ films to be a visual experience that goes several steps beyond ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” Jackson says. “3D didn’t really exist in mainstream cinema ten years ago at the level it does now, and we’ve shot the movie at 48 fps, which makes it the first feature film to be shot using today’s High Frame Rate technology.” 

             Jackson once again drew together members of the cast of “The Lord of the Rings,” including Ian McKellen as the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Elf Queen Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elf Lord Elrond, and Andy Serkis once again playing Gollum. Framing the story are Elijah Wood reprising the role of Frodo Baggins, and Ian Holm as Old Bilbo Baggins, who recalls his great adventure prior to leaving Bag End. Leading the international ensemble cast are Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit at the center of the tale, and Richard Armitage as the Dwarf warrior Thorin Oakenshield. 

             Together, this team of filmmakers and artists embarked on a new adventure—once again shooting three movies back-to-back to create a new motion picture trilogy, one that begins with a Hobbit living in a hole in the ground, on the brink of an incredible, and quite unexpected, journey. 

             A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will be released in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures on Dec. 13, 2012.

             The second film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” will be released on Dec. 13, 2013, to be followed by “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” on July 18, 2014.

“LIFE OF PI’S” NEWBIE THESPIAN SURAJ SHARMA NOMINATED IN 18TH CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS

From Oscar winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes “Life of Pi,” a breathtakingly beautiful story of a boy named Pi played by newcomer Suraj Sharma who is lost at sea with a Bengal tiger, following the loss of his family in a shipwreck . 

Photo courtesy of FOX 2000

Suraj Sharma who hails from India never expected a “Life of Pi” when he accompanied his brother to the movie’s casting call.  Born and raised in Delhi, India and raised by mathematician parents, it seemed that from more than 3,000 hopefuls who auditioned for the role, Suraj was destined to play the role of Pi, a mathematical constant transcendental number.  

He has recently been nominated in the upcoming Critics’ Choice Movie Awards for Best Young Actor for his role in “Life of Pi” along with other actors/actresses such as Elle Fanning (“Ginger & Rosa”) and Logan Lerman (“Perks of Being a Wallflower”).

The story revolves around Pi, a delightfully enthusiastic teenager who lives with his zoo-keeping family in Pondicherry, India. Inquisitive and intelligent, he explores different cultures and spiritual traditions. Pi has open-minded parents who allow him to become a free thinker, finding his own path. Due to a worsening economic climate, Pi’s parents decide to emigrate to start a new life in Canada. But the ship sinks.  Eventually only Pi and the tiger are left alive on the lifeboat and the unlikely pair embarks on an Odyssey that is fraught with danger.  On the precarious lifeboat he shares with the tiger, Pi finds inner strength and becomes aware that some kind of higher power is in charge of his destiny.

The heightened emotional connections presented in the movie required exceptional performances from its cast, none more so than the neophyte thespian who would take on the titular hero.   “We searched for a young man who had the innocence to capture our attention, the depth of character to break our hearts, and the physicality needed to embody Pi on his journey,” says director Ang Lee. "During his audition, Suraj filled the room with emotion, much of which he conveyed simply through his eyes. His natural ability to believe and stay in the world of the story is a rare treasure.

                “Suraj’s investment in the story made us really believe that whatever challenges we faced, the film was really going to happen,” adds the director.  “When we saw Suraj, we saw the movie.  Mr. Lee marvels at Suraj’s innocence and efforts, noting, “We are all experienced and perhaps a little jaded.  Suraj reminded us why we want to make movies.  Every day was a miracle.”

For Suraj Sharma, the experience of landing the starring role was surreal. “It was all so new for me,” says Suraj. “I had never been out of India. I didn’t know how to act or swim. I learned how to swim and now it’s my favorite thing to do.  Shooting the film in Taiwan and meeting people from all over the world in the crew was fantastic. You get an idea of how diverse the world is. I was really inspired by everything I saw and everyone I got to know.  I wanted to give it everything I had.”

Sharma also went through rigorous workouts to increase his stamina, which gave him an inner discipline and strength that enabled him to empathize with the character. “What defines Pi is his never-ending will to survive, he has a belief in the world and I think that’s what sets him apart from everyone else. He survives by instinct. But he also possessed a strong sprit from the beginning, right from being a child. But Pi kept that innocence inside him and with innocence comes belief.”

“Life of Pi” opens January 9 in 3D and 2D theaters nationwide from 20^th Century Fox thru Warner Bros.

“A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD” POSTER REVEAL

You’ve seen the trailer, Bruce Willis as John McClane is being warned not to make a mess in Moscow where he sets foot the first time.  But Willis is back like hell in the 5^th installment of the   blockbuster franchise “Die Hard” films -  “A Good Day To Die Hard” co-starring Jai Courtney as his son,  John McClane Jr. 

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

                20^th Century Fox reveals the badass poster of “A Good Day To Die Hard” with father and son ready to shoot in the midst of a burning Masjid structure in the heart of Moscow.  

                “Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, for the first time, finds himself on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack ­– unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.

                February 13, 2013  is “A Good Day To Die Hard” in Philippine cinemas (nationwide) from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

Like us on Facebook 20^th Century Fox (Philippines) and check our latest trailers at Youtube – 20^thCenturyFoxPh.

ADVENTURE BECKONS IN “THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY”

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Embark on an epic adventure as Peter Jackson, Academy Award®-winning director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy unveils The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of a series of three films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Set 60 years before The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows the titular Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), as he is recruited by the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and thirteen Dwarves, led by the legendary Dwarf warrior Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage). With little more than a map they can’t completely read and Thorin’s consuming drive to reclaim his homeland and legacy, Bilbo is swept up in an epic journey through the treacherous and wondrous Wild on a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf city of Erebor, which was long ago raided and conquered by the dragon Smaug. 

             Since setting off on his odyssey to make The Lord of the Rings films, The Hobbit has never been far from Jackson’s mind. When the skies cleared for Jackson and his collaborators to begin the adaptation process, they initially decided to divide the story up into two films. Only in the thick of production, when an early cut of the first film had been assembled, did the true scope of the project reveal itself, and “two became three.” 

             Jackson says he drew on both Tolkien’s intricate and layered 1937 novel and an additional treasure trove of material the revered English writer, professor and philologist developed in the decades after The Hobbit was first published. “At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien included 125 pages of appendices which provide more backstory to the history of Middle-earth. This included describing some of the politics and events that occur during the years pertaining to The Hobbit,” he explains. “This new material was more serious, darker in tone, and more in line with The Lord of the Rings.”

             So, Jackson and his collaborators on the screenplay—Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, his fellow Oscar-winning co-writers on The Lord of the Rings films, along with Guillermo del Toro—set about piecing the material together. “With these films, we wanted to take the charm and humor of The Hobbit and blend it with some of the back story and tone of the appendices,” Jackson notes. “I didn’t want these to feel like children’s films any more than The Lord of the Rings. We wanted to make the very best films we could, films we’d like to see.”

             Working alongside Jackson throughout production were Boyens and Walsh, who adds that they found touchstones to Tolkien’s later imaginings within The Hobbit itself. “The Hobbit is much more playful than The Lord of the Rings,” Walsh notes. “We always saw it as a slightly more golden-lighted fairy tale, and it was written as that. But, by the time we get to the end, I think Tolkien pulls himself into the place where he would begin that epic journey of writing The Lord of the Rings. The nature of honor and leadership and power—those big themes that are quite prevalent in The Lord of the Rings—were sleeping and being awakened towards the end of The Hobbit.”

             And then the long and ever-evolving journey to adapt the piece began. “It was quite easy, surprisingly easy, to fall back into this world,” comments Boyens, whom Jackson describes as “the world’s biggest Tolkien geek.” “It felt right, because we do dearly love these characters. I think it was fate that we made The Lord of the Rings first. I think The Hobbit films are better for it. This would be a different type of film without having gone through the experiences we did with the incredible cast we had on The Lord of the Rings.”

             For Jackson, the process of dreaming and doing never ends. Once he and his team have wrapped this film, they will begin on the central film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and then on to the finale, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. But, the filmmaker says, even then, it’s never over, “because the day that we finish the movie, usually within a day or two of it premiering, suddenly the movie exists in a whole different form. People still write us who have seen The Lord of the Rings, kids who have just seen it for the first time. And that’s part of the joy of making films. You’re realizing that you’ve created something that is entertaining people and will hopefully entertain people for years to come after we’re all gone. It doesn’t end with the completion of the film, not really. The real satisfaction comes when the movie begins screening in cinemas - it leaves your hands and passes into the hands of those it was made for – the audience.”

             A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will be released in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 13, 2012.

The second film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” will be released on December 13, 2013, to be followed by “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” on July 18, 2014.