THERON IN RARE COMEDIC ROLE IN “A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST”

Movie release material

Oscar-winner Charlize Theron (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) stars in Universal Pictures' new comedy “A Million Ways to Die in the West” which will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Sept 3.

Photo courtesy of UIP

In the movie, after sheep farmer Albert (Seth MacFarlane) backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman named Anna (Theron) rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband (Liam Neeson), a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.

For their leading lady, writer-director-star MacFarlane and his team loved the idea of having Charlize Theron take on the role of Anna. From the director's first meeting with her, he knew she was the perfect fit. He states: "I love it when an actor comes in with a very strong pre-existing point of view about what they want, and it shows on screen. With Charlize, from the first time we discussed the role, she got what this was. It's like she was wired into my brain. She has a great presence, and I knew that she would bring this character to life in a powerful way."

While Theron has been more recognized for her dramatic work, the Academy Award-winning actress had been eyeing a new genre to push herself as a performer. She shares: "I've been interested in comedy for a while, but it's been tricky because audiences know me so well doing something very different. In fact, what also interests me is odd comedy. Those are very rare. The combination of this script and Seth directing was a slam dunk for me. I started begging instantly...I closed the script and started begging."

Theron explains the reason she felt a kinship with Anna: "She is the character that I have fallen in love with the fastest. We have a lot of similar traits, and I felt like I understood her straight from the beginning. Even though she hates the West, she is not jaded or cynical."

Working with MacFarlane felt like a breath of fresh air to Theron. She commends: "Seth makes it odd, because that's just his thing. It feels original, and it doesn't feel regurgitated. Actors say that all the time, but I really feel like this is something unique. There is something about the film that feels like a throwback to the '70s."

In fact, as both Theron and MacFarlane were stepping out of their professional comfort zones, they were initially a little nervous to work together. Producer Jason Clark explains: "Charlize joined us for this read-through. Seth was incredibly nervous because Charlize is an Oscar-winning actress. She came in and was as nervous working with him because comedy is something that she hasn't had a lot of experience with. That instantly brought a terrific chemistry to the relationship."

Producer Scott Stuber knew from the moment he watched them interact that Theron had nailed it. He offers: "Charlize is obviously beautiful and an immensely talented actor who's proven herself in dramatic roles. So when we heard she wanted to try her hand at comedy, we jumped at the chance to cast her. Luckily for us, she does comedy just as well as drama, if not better. People will really be blown away by her."

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

First Image of Charlize Theron in Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s DARK PLACES

The first image has been released from Gilles Paquet-Brenner‘s adaptation of Gillian Flynn‘s best-selling novel Dark Places. 

Photo courtesy of Captive Cinema

Set in a farming town in Kansas, Dark Places follows Libby Day (Charlize Theron), the only surviving witness of a horrific massacre that took her mother and sisters. Believing the slaughter to be the work of a Satanic cult, Libby testifies in court against her own brother. 25 years after the murder, she remains haunted by the gruesome violence of her past when she meets a group of amateur investigators who call themselves ‘The Kill Club’. Looking to satisfy their morbid curiosity, the group begins their own inquiry about the case, believing Libby’s brother innocent. In order to help them, Libby must unearth painful memories of the event, and learn that her past may not be what it seems.

The cast includes Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll, Tye Sheridan, Sean Bridgers, and Drea de Matteo. Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner.

Dark Places is set to September 24, 2014. Released and distributed by CAPTIVE CINEMA.

Charlize Theron Is The Evil Queen

Charlize Theron as the evil queen

The first role cast was also the wickedest: Queen Ravenna in Universal Picture’s Snow White and the Huntsman.  The daughter of a sorceress, Ravenna slowly found her way to the dark side.  Abducted by a vicious master when she was a girl, the only power Ravenna wielded was her astonishing beauty.  Though her mother bestowed upon her an enchantment to protect her from the ravages of time, Ravenna is forced to maintain it by consuming the life force of young maidens.  After she bewitched and killed Snow White’s father, King Magnus, Ravenna stalled her death and threw off the balance of life with an evil that spread like cancer across the kingdom.  But her cruelty did not end there.  To become truly immortal, Ravenna must consume the heart of Snow White…the moment her stepdaughter becomes the fairest in the land.  

Reflects director Rupert Sanders on the power of this creature in our minds, as well as her role in this interpretation of the iconic story: “The Queen symbolizes death, and she is trying to stop her own from arriving.  She is seeking immortality, so everything in the kingdom is thrown off balance.  Oppositely, Snow White is the beating heart of life, and the Huntsman’s job is to take that life.  If the Queen fails, life and death may fall back in sync and the kingdom will return to how it once was.”

Academy Award^® winner Charlize Theron was brought aboard to play the fabled monarch.  Discussing his decision to cast Theron, Sanders commends: “Charlize has given such staggering performances in her career, but she is also such an incredibly beautiful woman.  She encompasses, more than any other actor out there, both power and beauty personified.  She is Margaret Thatcher-meets-Kate Moss.”  

Expounding upon the film’s symbolism and Theron’s decisions in bringing those tropes to life, Sanders adds: “When you are dealing with archetypes, you can play them big.  People want to relish when the Queen says, ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall.’  We want to see them coming from someone of this stature and beauty.”

Producer Joe Roth walks us through the team’s casting process: “Choosing Charlize was the idea right from the start.  I’d worked with her in the past.  We went over to the commercial shoot she was on and waited for her to take a break.  When she came over, in four-inch stiletto heels and dressed in a very commercial way, I thought, ‘Rupert is going to be blown away!’”  

The producer was just as pleased when she arrived on set to begin filming and was game for the most intense of situations to get into character, including an uncomfortable swim in a tub of black oil.  “Charlize gives a performance as ferocious as the one she was asking for,” adds Roth.  “It’s an interesting amalgam: She’s always in control, she’s magnificent to watch and she’s fearsome.”

Theron was attracted to the part because of the complex humanity of a betrayed and wounded creature—one that easily could have been drawn as a screeching stereotype.  She explains a bit of the Queen’s backstory: “Ravenna’s mother instilled into her at a very young age that she can only be her true best self if she remains young and stays beautiful.  She realizes that her magical powers are her survival.  And that’s the road she travels.”  

Though Ravenna has, according to Theron, “brutal instincts” and “an obsession with needing Snow White’s beating heart to give her immortality,” the reigning monarch hasn’t completely lost all traces of her humanity.  Like Sanders, the actress appreciated the difficult lessons inherent in this timeless story.  Theron shares: “Ravenna realizes that she wants something that, if she made different choices in her life, she could have had.  But because of how she decided to live and the bed that she made for herself—one that she’s lying in right now—she can’t.  It’s not even an option for her.”  

When Snow White’s mother died and her father married Ravenna, the young princess found her innocence and compassion to be qualities the new Queen loathed.  Locked away in a tower for seven years, Snow White grew up watching her father’s murderer rule the kingdom with an iron fist.  But the young beauty, who had begun training as an archer, falconer and horsewoman, has escaped and now trains with an uneasy ally.  The time has come for her to defend her people from the one who’s been crippling them.  She makes an oath that she will become their weapon and challenges her fellow outcasts to ride with her against Ravenna.

            Sanders knew that they had to walk a fine line with the character of Snow White.  In adapting the centuries-old fairy tale, originally about a little girl who is more victim than fighter, it was important to the filmmakers that Snow White and her journey remain identifiable for contemporary audiences across the world.  The hurdles and problems that she faces are issues with which girls and women grapple in modern day: loneliness and maturation, plus issues of trust, love and the power (as well as the ultimate fading) of beauty. 

Charlize Theron Talks About Prometheus

Charlize Theron in Prometheus

Oscar winning actress actor Charlize Theron heads into space,  starring opposite Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace in Ridley Scott’s thrilling and thought provoking drama PROMETHEUS.

Shot entirely in 3D, legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott creates a new mythology in the film. He takes us on a momentous journey, posing intriguing questions about the origins of life.  The story follows an intrepid team to the darkest corners of the universe. They are embroiled in a battle of epic proportions.  At stake: the future of the human race.

Born in South Africa, Charlize Theron is one of the most diverse and engaging A-list actresses working today.  Theron was already a well-defined movie star when, in 2003, she won an Oscar for her extraordinary performance as Daytona Beach prostitute-turned-serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s extraordinary film “Monster.”

Prior to “Monster,” Theron had already attracted stellar notices for her performances in movies as diverse as “The Devil’s Advocate,” “The Cider House Rules” and “The Legend Of Bagger Vance.”

“Prometheus” is not Theron’s first experience of science fiction. In 2005 she played the title role in the film “Aeon Flux,” based on the animated television series created by Peter Chung.

Charlize Theron reveals her attraction to “Prometheus” and her passion for the films of director Ridley Scott in the following q&a:

Q:           How did you hear about the project?

A:            I was in Malaysia and my manager called and said, “I’m sending you this script.” I’ve known Ridley for a couple of years, socially, so I knew he was working on this project. It was so secretive...I was in the middle of a rainstorm on a mountain, trying to read this script under a tree because it was the only place I could get reception.

Q:           Damon Lindelof, the screenwriter, says you collaborated with him on fleshing out the character in the screenplay. How was that process?

A:            I thought there was tremendous potential to explore themes that the script was already exploring through the eyes of a character who was so different from everybody else who’s on this mission. You have these scientists going out there – one is a believer, one really isn’t – and you play on all these themes, but to really experience all of that stuff from the point of view of somebody who comes from a much colder, more economic, ‘business suit’ sense of it was interesting.  It’s really flattering and I was very excited to be partners with Damon and Ridley and to forge ahead.

Q:           Who is Meredith Vickers?

A:            She’s very different from anyone I’ve ever played.  She’s a suit, essentially. She’s the machine that runs the machine that takes this mission into space and at first she comes across like a suit, very cold and frigid. She’s not a scientist; she’s not a believer. She runs a tight ship, but you can tell that she’s somehow going to be a problem. She’s somewhat of an enigma.  The real excitement for me in playing this character is that in the third act you really strip her from her skin and you see what her bones are about and what she’s really doing there.

Q:           Are you always looking for strong female roles?

A:            I don’t ever set out to play a character with strength. I try to find the circumstances and try to be as honest as I can in those circumstances. There’s nothing more false than stepping in the wardrobe of a character who doesn’t authentically own those characteristics. Once we all understood the world, where we wanted to go with her and what we wanted to explore with her, that seeped in and all of a sudden I put that suit on and thought, “Yeah, I want to order somebody around!” You just kind-of find it.

                Unravel the enigma that is Theron in “Prometheus” (in 3D). Now showing in cinemas nationwide from 20^th Century Fox and is distributed by Warner Bros.