KAYA SCODELARIO’S UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL IN “THE MAZE RUNNER”

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 In the highly anticipated action-adventure “The Maze Runner,” based on the hugely successful book series of the same title by James Dashner,  Kaya Scodelario stars as Teresa in the movie within the midst of teenage boys confined in a place called The Glade where she is the only girl in the mix and where they have no idea who they are except for their names.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Teresa’s arrival into the mysterious Glade takes her fellow teenage captives by surprise: she’s the first girl in their midst. It’s immediately apparent that she has a connection to Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas; a connection that may well explain the Gladers’ confinement. Teresa came into the Glade just right after the movie’s lead protagonist, Thomas (played by Dylan O’Brien) – among the boys, only both of them have repetitious dreams of a mysterious organization of which only the acronym WCKD flashes within their memories.  

                “The Maze Runner” opens up on a vast space where teenage boys thrived for three years, each having their own group and responsibilities to attend to in order to survive.  Within The Glade is the mysterious, dangerous and massive maze where predators await.  All of the boys have awaken inside an elevator that has ascended from somewhere that led them into The Glade and has since then accustomed and resigned themselves to survive.  Until the last of them was delivered, alas, Teresa, a girl has finally found her way into the Glade. 

                “Teresa is every bit as tough as the guys,” Scodelario affirms.  “She’s independent, feisty and tough and definitely has a ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ vibe.”  Moreover, says Ball, “she’s every bit as mysterious as the Glade and Maze, and when she comes up on that elevator, it all goes really bad.” 

Kaya Scodelario came to mainstream attention via British TV’s with her first role in E4’s SKINS, which started in 2007. Then 14, Scodelario had never acted before, but she overcame nerves at the audition and became one of the show’s most enduring characters, starring alongside Nicholas Hoult and Jack O’Connell in the show’s four seasons.

She appeared in her feature film debut in 2009, in Duncan Jones’s sci-fi indie “Moon,” and followed it up in 2010 with roles in “Shank” and “Clash of the Titans.” She earned critical plaudits for her turn as Cathy in Andrea Arnold’s stripped-back retelling of “Wuthering Heigths” in 2011 and starred alongside Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine in the romantic drama “Now is Good” in 2012.

The Maze Runner Featurette :Meet The Gladers

 “The Maze Runner” is set to turn things in a dizzying blur as the teenage captives in a virtual prison known as The Glade run for a chance to save their lives.   Headed by “Teen Wolf’s” heartthrob Dylan O’Brien along with a group of talented young actors including Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee and Blake Cooper,  “The Maze Runner” is directed by Wes Ball based on James Dashner’s hugely successful (trilogy) tome.

                At this year's Comic Con, the cast attests that the movie will be shocked on how the book’s famous baddies known as the Grievers, were depicted.                Director Ball further stressed that the audience will definitely be in for a pretty terrifying ride.

Published in October 2009, “The Maze Runner” became a New York Times Best Seller and captured the imaginations of readers around the world, who described it as a combination of “Lord of the Flies,” “ The Hunger Games,” and the legendary television series “Lost.” Dashner understands those comparisons, especially to Lord of the Flies, but notes that THE MAZE RUNNER is at its heart a very different story.  “I don’t think characters would react they way they do in Lord of the Flies,” he explains.  “I think they’d be more civilized, orderly, and determined to survive and escape.  THE MAZE RUNNER is an adventure story that’s also about hope and the potential of the human spirit.”

               

The book caught the attention of producers Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman from the management/production company The Gotham Group.  “We see a lot of young adult novels,” Stollman explains. “And you always look for something that has a big world creation with characters that are identifiable and something we haven’t seen before,” which is what they found in Dashner’s book.

                Leading man Dylan agrees, "That’s something that might separate this, I think, being like one of those YA movies that are coming out. I so genuinely don’t think it’s like that. It totally exists in its own right and like he said, it could easily be taken as a kid’s movie just objectively, but there is a real sense- there’s this gravitas to it It’s really, really mature in that aspect of performances and just the story."

                Reflecting on the story’s appeal, Dashner notes that much of it stems from the “constant state of not being able to predict what’s going to happen next.  I wanted my readers, and now the moviegoing audience, to feel like Thomas when they enter the Glade.”

DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND: “THE MAZE RUNNER” NOW IN CINEMAS

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 Can W.C.K.D. be good? Find out in the thrilling and out-of-your-breath action adventure film “The Maze Runner” starring a group of amaze-ing young boys and a girl – headed by Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Aml Ameen, Blake Cooper and Kaya Scodelario. 

                Directed by Wes Ball, the movie opened in Philippine cinemas (last September 17) with fever-pitch anticipation from movie enthusiasts especially from the young adult crowd from whom the book has enjoyed immense success catapulting it to one of YA bestselling series of all time.

                In the movie, Thomas (O’Brien) wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, they call it the Glade, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D.  Within the glade stands a massive series of walls that forms a dangerous maze where their only hope to escape lies at the end of each cluster, but the walls change every single day, as such they assign runners, the fastest of the bunch to track and take mental notes of the maze’s secrets.

                “The Maze Runner” also brims with a cast full of talent within its action-packed and visually stunning production, director Ball and producer Wyck Godfrey assembled an impressive cast to form a highly functional society as they perform their daily jobs, look out for each other and engage in power struggles as they try to solve the mystery of the Maze. Godfrey says, “The casting was one of the most exciting things about the project.  The actors really believed in this world, and we went far afield to find them.”    

Thomas, played by Dylan O’Brien is the boy who takes that step forward when everybody else takes a step back.  He’s curious and comes to learn that he is just one of many who have come up on that elevator once a month over a three year period.

The leader of these Gladers is Alby, who’s the closest thing to a father figure.  “Alby is the main dude,” says Ball.  “He was the first Glader, the first boy sent up the elevator, and he had to survive an entire month by himself not knowing where he was and without any help. Then the next guy showed up.  Alby figured out that order and discipline were necessary to survive in this world.  He’s very protective of it.”

Thomas’s nemesis in the Glade is Gally.  Smart and intimidating, Gally wants to maintain the status quo and clashes with the new arrival.  “But Gally and Thomas are really two sides of the same coin,” notes Ball.  “Thomas fully embraces and charges into the unknown and Gally is all about self-preservation and keeping things safe and normal.” 

Alby’s lieutenant, Newt, is played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (voice of Ferb in “Phineas and Ferb”), who appears in the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” and first gained attention for his performance in “Love, Actually.”  Newt walks with a limp that’s not fully explained because it’s something he’d prefer not to talk about.  Nevertheless, Brodie-Sangster says the character is “the fun one of the group, the one that everyone gets along with.  The Gladers come to Newt with their problems because they like and trust him.”

British actress Kaya Scodelario plays the only young woman among the Gladers, Teresa, who has a mysterious connection with Thomas. Having made her name with the UK TV series Skins, Scodelario impressed the filmmakers by being “one of the guys,” as Godfrey puts it. “She’s badass, which is what you need to be if you’re going to be thrust into the world of the Glade with all these young men.”

The elite among the Gladers are called Runners, whose athleticism propels them through the Maze each day, which helps them compile a map of the foreboding structure and, maybe, figure out a way to escape.  Their captain is Minho, played by Ki Hong Lee.  The young actor grew to understand his position of leadership among the Gladers in a very individual way.  “I looked at the Marines and the Army and, and I consider Minho like a general of the Gladers,” Lee explains, “It’s his job to rally the troops.” 

“The Maze Runner” is now playing in cinemas across the Phils. from 20^th Century Fox distributed by Warner Bros.

CREATING “THE MAZE RUNNER” WORLD

 It will take wit, agility, speed and strength to survive a labyrinth of dangerous walls with predators ready to kill at an instant in the upcoming young adult movie “The Maze Runner.” 

                Based on the bestselling YA series of novel of the same title by James Dashner, “The Maze Runner” brings a group of young boys (and a girl) together in a secluded place known as the Glade where they come and stay but does not have any idea of who they really are and what brought them there. Starring, Dylan O’Brien, Ki Hong Lee,  Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Will Poulter and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, the movie is directed by Wes Ball who envisioned the Maze walls to be modern and ancient.   The towering structure’s creeping vines and seemingly empty corridors mask a threat that terrifies even the most hardened and veteran Gladers.  The hidden creatures, which the kids call Grievers – though none has actually seen one, preys on those who stay too long in the Maze. This means the boys must get out of the Maze before its walls close because nobody survives a night there.

“THE MAZE RUNNER” opens September 17 in cinemas from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

WILL POULTER RIVALS GREENIE IN “THE MAZE RUNNER”

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Will Poulter, best known for his role as Eustace Scrub in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and has recently played comic scene-stealing moments in “We’re The Millers” stars alongside an atypical group of teens trapped in a virtual prison in “The Maze Runner.”

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

                Based on the (first book) young adult series by James Dashner of the same title, “The Maze Runner” director Wes Ball casts Poulter as Gally, one of the captured Glader group who takes an instant dislike to newcomer Thomas played by Dylan O’Brien.  Thomas wakes up in a lift, moving slowly upward. As the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he s finds himself among a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. Thomas’ mind is blank. He has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t remember his parents, his past, or even his own name. 

Thomas’s nemesis in the Glade is Gally.  Smart and intimidating, Gally wants to maintain the status quo and clashes with the new arrival.  “But Gally and Thomas are really two sides of the same coin,” notes Ball.  “Thomas fully embraces and charges into the unknown and Gally is all about self-preservation and keeping things safe and normal.”

Will Poulter, who starred in the cult film “Son of Rambow,” and recently showed his comic skill in “We’re the Millers,” portrays Gally. Godfrey says, “Will’s the perfect Gally because you don’t want to mess with him, and he’s an intelligent adversary.”

Gally’s trust in and insistence on the status quo is not without good reason, says Poulter. “He’s not so much the law-keeper as he is a guy who has a lot of faith in the rules, because without them, the Gladers will die,” he explains.  “So Gally is quick to speak up and challenge Thomas when those rules aren’t respected.  To him, those laws are life itself.”

Novelist Dashner also rejects the idea that Gally is a villain.  “I wanted to set him up as a major rival to Thomas, but I also wanted readers to empathize with him and understand his beliefs and actions,” he says.

On auditioning for the part, Poulter shared that “Well, actually I auditioned a scene for Gally without having read the script or the books and so that was quite tricky. I went away and read the books and the script and I loved them both. What I really loved about the script – and it’s the biggest challenge when adapting into film – is that it captured the spirit of the book without having every single detail in, because that would be impossible. The camaraderie between the Gladers is really, really key in this and the dynamic that exists between characters – how they negotiate around the hierarchy they’ve built – I really liked as an actor. And then to play someone I hadn’t played before – I wouldn’t call him a villain, but he’s this conflicted character that goes between good and bad. It’s difficult to know where Gally stands. I was on board from the moment I read the script, because it was a great challenge and you don’t often associate such challenges with a platform as big as this movie.”

“The Maze Runner” opens September 17 in cinemas from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

“TWILIGHT” AND “FAULT IN OUR STARS” PRODUCER WYCK GODFREY’S LATEST PROJECT: “THE MAZE RUNNER”

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 No “greenie” (newcomer) in making thrilling and exciting blockbuster that appeals and resonates greatly to today’s generation, producer Wyck Godfrey, who enjoyed tremendous success with the “Twilight” series and “the Fault In Our Stars” brings another bestselling young adult tome to the big screen, “The Maze Runner” written by James Dashner and directed by Wes Ball.

 

Godfrey(left most)

Godfrey, along with producing partners Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman and Marty Bowen adapted “The Maze Runner” into a movie and sprints into an endless exciting labyrinth with a pool of talented young cast headed by Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Pouter, Blake Cooper, Dexter Darden, Jacob Latimore and Chris Sheffield.

 

Wyck Godfrey with author James Dashner

“The Maze Runner” brings us to Thomas as he wakes up in a lift, moving slowly upward. As the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he finds himself among a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. Thomas’ mind is blank. He has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t remember his parents, his past, or even his own name. What he knows is what he feels the there is an unsettling familiarity about the Glade and the Maze that he’s trying to unlock ever since he arrived.

To faithfully adapt the novel to the screen, the studio turned to Temple Hill Entertainment producer Wyck Godfrey, who enjoyed tremendous success with the Twilight film series and "The Fault In Our Stars."  Godfrey credits his sons Wyatt and Hudson for making him aware of the Maze Runner book series. “I immediately said yes when 20th Century Fox came to me with the opportunity because my kids will finally be happy I’m making a movie that works for them,” he says.

To capture the big-screen expectations of The Maze Runner’s dedicated fans, the production turned to first-time feature film director Wes Ball.  Ball’s only previous directorial effort was Ruin, a seven-minute CGI animated short that had become an online phenomenon.  Ball says, “I have a small visual effects company and I decided that after a couple years of doing other people’s work, I wanted to do something for myself. I closed up shop and made Ruin.  I put it online and it just kind of exploded through Twitter.”

When the Studio suggested he read The Maze Runner, Ball knew it would be his next project. “I had this really strong image of what it looks like inside the Glade, which I saw as a raw, edgy, blown out, and naturalistic environment with imposing concrete walls surrounding it. I realized that it was a world I wanted to live over the next few years.”   

Ball was also drawn to the character of Thomas, the story’s protagonist. “Thomas is someone who takes that step forward into the unknown when everyone else takes a step back,” the young director says. “It’s this idea that you have to be brave enough to face the unknown if you want to find yourself.  Thomas is curious, and some in the Glade perceive that as a threat, but it may be the thing that gets him out of there. Additionally, I love movies about world creation, and this film is a world creation, top to bottom.  We start in the Glade, which the boys have built, then outside those walls, we enter the grand world of the Maze, and that's a whole different scenario.”

Ball and Godfrey began putting together the project’s myriad elements.  Godfrey remembers, “The one thing that blew me away when I first sat down with Wes Ball was that his concept of the Maze went beyond anything I’d imagined.”    

Dare to enter the Glade when “The Maze Runner” opens on September 17 in cinemas nationwide from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. 

KOREAN TEEN ACTOR KI HONG LEE STARS AS ELITE RUNNER IN "THE MAZE RUNNER"

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Korean actor Ki Hong Lee has obviously set a firm pace to stardom starring opposite Dylan O'Brien in the upcoming book adaptation of "The Maze Runner."  By the looks of it, the recently concluded Greenies Screening in the Phils. had the girls giggling after the movie, charmed by his notable presence and performance in the movie.

                Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up in a lift, moving slowly upward. As the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he finds himself among a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. Thomas’ mind is blank. He has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t remember his parents, his past, or even his own name.

               

                 Thomas and his fellow “Gladers” don’t know how or why they got to the Glade.  Thomas learns that each resident of the Glade has a role to play, from gardening to construction to being one of the elite runners who map the walls of the Maze that keep them captive and change configurations every night. Maze Runners race the clock to cover as much ground as possible before the end of the day when theMaze locks down and the deadly biomechanical Grievers roam the corridors of the concrete structure.

                The elite among the Gladers are called Runners, whose athleticism propels them through the Maze each day, which helps them compile a map of the foreboding structure and, maybe, figure out a way to escape.  Their captain is Minho, played by Ki Hong Lee.  The young actor grew to understand his position of leadership among the Gladers in a very individual way.  “I looked at the Marines and the Army and, and I consider Minho like a general of the Gladers,” Lee explains, “It’s his job to rally the troops.”

                Running through the massive walls which is both industrial and ancient in construction, Minho along with Thomas, runs into the Maze everyday and goes back to the Glade to bring back hope and memorizes each run so he can piece together the intricate and ever changing structure of the Maze.   "Minho doesn't say much - he just runs fast which makes him invaluable for solving the riddle of the maze. He's an Indiana Jones-type adventure dude," says director Wes Ball.  "He's the fastest, most bad-ass guy who goes out into the Maze everyday.  He's kind of a mysterious guy, but will eventually open up too."

                Ki Hong Lee (Minho) began acting in middle school, performing in church skits, and he grew to love the stage and maintains a passion for theater. Lee recently played the much-beloved character Paul in ABC Family’s "The Nine Lives Of Chloe King," and took part in the film adaptation of "Yellowface," from the Tony Award®-winning playwright David Henry Hwang. Additionally on stage he debuted at Los Angeles’ East West Players in a play called "Wrinkles," which was the first time his father was able to see Lee perform, so the play remains very special to him.

                In his personal life, Lee has a passion for people, education and good causes. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he has served in some form of student government from middle school through college. Raised in different cultures, from Seoul to Auckland, Lee considers himself to be a California soul at heart, and could not continue life without good Mexican food in regular doses. He also enjoys sports, particularly basketball, football and tennis. His favorite football team – the Dallas Cowboys.

                "The Maze Runner" sprints in cinemas nationwide this September 17 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.