Blogcon Exclusive: The Trial

Star Cinema is starting to do something new in movies. The Trial is the type of movie that needs you to wear your thinking cap. For co-screenwriter Chris Guzman, this movie is a mind play because of the trend of Cinemalaya and most independent movies.

L-R. co-screenwriter Chris Guzman, director Chito Rono and Ms. Jessy Mendiola

Chris adds that they did a consultation with a developmental psychologist and legal experts about the story. There was even a case that a mental deprived individual was accused of rape years ago. The developmental psychologist/consultant was on the set during shooting and coaches Lloydie for the character.

The only part of the cast present was Jessy Mendiola who plays Bessie, teacher of John Lloyd Cruz’s character. She confessed that she was star-struck with her fellow cast like Richard Gomez and Gretchen Barreto and it’s a movie by Chito Rono. Chris shared that you cannot read her emotions. She was poker-faced. For director Chito, “she performs better after every project”.

This is probably the type of movie not only it can entertain but also stimulate your brain. But despite the seriousness of the movie theme, there is still love, acceptance, and forgiveness in the story, says direk Chito.

The movie may also give us understanding about mentally deprived adults. They are still part of society but what is special about them that their emotions are raw and they have no clouded judgments like normal people do.

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CARRIE COON IN "GONE GIRL"

Release material

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike portray the role of their lives in the grittiest thriller of the year in "Gone Girl," based on the bestselling tome of Gillian Flynn brought to life onscreen by renowned filmmaker David Fincher.

                Affleck and Pike play Nick and Amy Dunne respectively who personify the quintessential romantic match and modern married couple.  But on the day of their fifth year wedding anniversary, Amy curiously disappears. Her vanishing becomes a kind of hall of mirrors in which tantalizing and savage secrets lead to even more tantalizing and savage secrets.  The events that unfold are thick with shocks and complications, but the questions that remain are what cut, with razor-sharp precision, to the bone:  Who is Nick?  Who is Amy? Who are any of us in marriages -- and a society -- built on a precarious base of projected images and disguises?

                Taking the alternately guarded and exposed role is Ben Affleck.   Says Fincher of casting him:  “Putting a cast together is like putting a basketball team together and Nick was the point guard.  He has to feed the narrative.  It’s a ‘he said, she said’ in the book; but it’s ‘he experiences, she experiences’ in the movie.  It’s more subjective.  You’re not gifted with all these inner monologues in the movie.  So you need an actor who is very deft to play this role.  It’s 3-D chess, not Chinese checkers."

                The person who lures Nick Dunne back to Missouri as the prodigal son is the one person who believes she knows him as well as anyone can:  his twin sister, “Go.”  Bereft of their former ambitions, now the pair runs a local bar together.   But when Amy goes missing, Go becomes Nick’s singular confidante, the one who still believes in his innocence . . . or does she?

               

                Making her feature film debut in the vivid role is Carrie Coon, known for her work on stage in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and HBO’s “The Leftovers.”  A native Chicagoan, Coon had been aware of Flynn as a rising Midwestern writer.  “My husband actually handed Gone Girl to me because there are references to ‘Virginia Woolf’ in there, and I really connected to the book.”

               

                She continues:  “The passages about what we do to each other in relationships are what make the book far more than a thriller.  I think we all get damaged by our relationships, no matter how subtly.  So you’re having fun with this twisted plot and then suddenly, Gillian hits you in the face with something deeply true about human behavior. And David the perfect person to take audiences on this ride Gillian created.  They are both lovely people who have a deep, dark core.” 

               

                Coon sees Go as a kind of anchor for the audience – one of the few characters devoid of pretense.  Having grown up the only girl among three brothers, Coon related to Go’s way of “being one of the guys.”  “The way my family expresses love is through sarcasm so I get that kind of interaction and it’s a big part of how Go and Nick relate,” she explains.  “I love that she’s someone who cracks jokes with the boys, who is very direct. In a way, she’s the real ‘cool girl.’”

                At the same time, Go is struggling as much as her twin.  “Like Nick, she hasn’t really fulfilled on her promise.  She’s come home and kind of given up, which is very true to our economic times. She and Nick are also survivors of a tough childhood together, so it makes sense that, even now, they feel closer to each other than anyone else.” 

                As for how Go reacts to the accusations against Nick, Coon admits she is unmoored:  “Her faith can only go so far before it starts to get outweighed by facts – but it’s deeply troubling to her that she begins to wonder about Nick.  She can’t even ask him out loud because it’s such a betrayal to even think about it. I tried to imagine if one of my siblings was in that situation and all these damning, rational facts were coming in, and I could see how much it would be fighting against your own nature.”  

                Throughout it all, Coon was thrilled be working with Affleck.  “He doesn’t have sisters so it was a lot of fun to answer his questions about how siblings act and let him punch me in the arm,” she laughs.  “There’s also something about the way David demands so much from the actors, where you feel like you’re all in this together.  It was inspiring.”    

THRILLER “AS ABOVE, SO BELOW” EXCLUSIVE AT AYALA MALLS CINEMAS

Movie release material

Miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.

A journey into madness and terror, Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures' new horror-thriller “As Above, So Below” reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all.

Written by John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle (“Quarantine,” “Devil”) and directed by John Erick Dowdle, “As Above, So Below” will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Oct. 22, 2014.

In the film, Scarlett Marlowe (Perdita Weeks), a rebellious adventurer and brilliant archaeologist, has devoted her entire life to pursuing history's greatest hidden treasure: Flamel's Philosopher's Stone. According to legend, this elusive artifact can turn metal into pure gold and grant eternal life-a power beyond imagination.

Tormented by the unsettling suicide of her father and rumors of his insanity, Scarlett is driven to the point of obsession: She will never be complete until she finishes his work and restores his legacy.

A series of cryptic puzzles leads her to discover that the all-powerful stone lies beneath the streets of Paris, hidden within the world's largest crypt: the Catacombs.

To document her historic mission, Scarlett recruits her old flame and partner in crime, George (Ben Feldman) - a brilliant archaeologist in his own right who is dedicated to restoring historical monuments to their former glory-as well as amateur filmmaker Benji (Eedwin Hodge) - a claustrophobic cameraman unaware of how deep this journey will take him.

Knowing the dangers that lie beneath, the trio scours the City of Light and recruits a team of underground experts known as Cataphiles to guide the way.

With the rest of Scarlett's crew - Papillon (Francois Civil), the leader of the pack; Souxie (Marion Lambert), the punk-rock protector of the group; and Zed (Ali Marhyar), the strong and silent one - assembled, they begin their descent. Although each of them carries a secret, in the Catacombs, no one can outrun their past.

A brief history of the Catacombs:

Fascinatingly, there are more corpses buried underneath the streets of Paris than there are people living above it - forming a vast labyrinth of skeletal remains, claustrophobic tunnels and seemingly endless darkness.

The Catacombs of Paris confront our most primal and deep-seated phobias: fear of the dark, fear of being alone, fear of enclosed spaces and fear of being trapped. This largely unexplored tunnel system has fascinated historians, explorers and storytellers for centuries, with a timeless mystery-what treasures and terrors lie within?

Nearly five stories underground lies the remains of more than six million people-more than double the population of Paris-who have been forever entombed in the Catacombs of Paris. When visitors enter the Catacombs, they are greeted with the written verse "Arrete! C'est ici l'empire de la mort," which means "Stop! This is the empire of death."

Beginning in the 17th century, as the city of Paris was growing rapidly, cemeteries were running out of spaces to bury the dead. In fact, they were so overcrowded that corpses became uncovered, resulting to putrid smells of rotting bodies.

However, it wasn't until 1780 that something was actually done about the public health problem. After an extended period of rainfall, a wall around Les Innocents collapsed, sending decomposing corpses flowing into the neighborhood. That led to Louis XVI championing the crusade to begin moving bodies underground into Paris' old quarries. It took 12 years to move the six million corpses-with some more than 1,200 years old - into the Catacombs. Indeed, the French Revolution signaled the beginning of burying bodies directly into the Catacombs, though this practice ended in 1860.

Although the Catacombs' mazes and tunnels cover more than an astonishing 180 miles under the streets of Paris, only a small portion (approximately one mile) is open to the public; the vast majority is cordoned off for being too dangerous...but for some urban explorers, that is part of the appeal.

Literally a city of death, it is hard to imagine a location closer to hell. This iconic landmark is so forbidding it has remained largely unexplored. Until now...

“THE WEDDING RINGER” USHERS IN NEW TRAILER

Columbia Pictures has just revealed the new trailer for its upcoming comedy “The Wedding Ringer” starring Kevin Hart (“The Grudge Match”) and Josh Gad (voice of Olaf in “Frozen”). 

            The comedy centers on an introverted yet successful tech entrepreneur who hires the owner of Best Man Inc. to be the perfect best man and throw a killer wedding party.

            Directed by Jeremy Garelick (“The Break-Up”), “The Wedding Ringer” also stars Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Ken Howard, Cloris Leachman, Jenifer Lewis, Mimi Rogers and Olivia Thirlby.

            In the film, Doug Harris (Gad) is a loveable but socially awkward groom-to-be with a problem: he has no best man. With less than two weeks to go until he marries the girl of his dreams (Cuoco-Sweeting), Doug is referred to Jimmy Callahan (Hart), owner and CEO of Best Man, Inc., a company that provides flattering best men for socially challenged guys in need. What ensues is a hilarious wedding charade as they try to pull off the big con, and an unexpected budding bromance between Doug and his fake best man Jimmy.

Opening across the Philippines in Febrruary 2015, “The Wedding Ringer” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

MASTER OF THE UNDEAD RETURNS HOME IN “DRACULA UNTOLD”

Movie release material

Since the publication of Bram Stoker’s definitive “Dracula” in 1897, one of the most enduring literary and popular characters of our time has been explored in film, animation, literature and music, and is as relevant today as he was when his creator spawned a cultural phenomenon almost 120 years ago. Although Dracula’s presence remains ubiquitous in culture, it remains surprising that the origins of this undead icon have never been explored on film...until now, in Universal Pictures' dark thriller “Dracula Untold.”

Photo courtesy of UIP

While the man history calls Dracula, for all intents and purposes, was actually a real historical figure, just as terrifying to millions of people are the vampires of ancient myth. Found in almost every culture and language on Earth—from the Babylonians’ Lilitu, a succubus who thrived on babies, to the iron-toothed Asasabonsam of the Ashanti peoples of Ghana—the legend of blood-sucking creatures of the night may be traced back thousands of years. But it was not until the 10th century, in Slavic Europe, that the word “vampire” first appeared in modern language.

Producer Michael De Luca, who has brought to the screen blockbusters from The Social Network and Ghost Rider to Moneyball and Captain Phillips, shares what brought him to the journey of uncovering the monster’s origins: “As a kid, I always wanted to know who turned Dracula into a vampire. I wondered, ‘Was he the first? Were there others?’ It was a delicious, unanswered question that’s not been covered, even in Bram Stoker’s novel.”

When a script by the up-and-coming writing team of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless landed on De Luca’s desk, it ignited the filmmaker’s imagination. “I thought it was ingenious,” he commends, “the untold origin story and an unknown chapter of an archetypal character we all know.”

Naturally, our story delves into the mysterious powers bestowed by centuries of superstitious peoples, but this tale of Dracula begins with and borrows from the real-life story of an actual historical figure: Vlad III of Wallachia, aka Kaziglu Bey (The Impaler Prince). Indeed, the writers took many basic facts about the dark ruler and extrapolated them into a fantastic saga.

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Transylvania. As a child, he and his younger brother were sent by their father, Vlad II, as hostages of Sultan Murad II to Constantinople, where they were held for six years and trained in warfare. As Transylvania was located between two empires—the Ottoman Turks and the Austrian Hapsburgs—the young noblemen lived in a time of constant war, and certain sacrifices had to be made.

Vlad III grew to become a ruthless conqueror whose favored method of meting out torture was to impale people and leave them writhing in agony for days. This terrifying fact is what earned him the posthumous nickname of Vlad the Impaler (aka Vlad Tepes). Because his father belonged to the Order of the Dragon—a secretive organization of Christian knights—that fought the Muslim Ottoman Empire, Vlad II took to the name Dracul, which is roughly translated from Romanian into “dragon/devil.”

After his father’s death, Vlad III ruled Wallachia, south of Transylvania, from 1448 until his own death in 1476. Following in his father’s footsteps, Vlad III was also inducted into the Order of the Dragon. It was then that he instructed his men to call him “Dracula,” which means “son of the dragon/devil” in Romanian. Reportedly killed in 1476 fighting the Turks, Vlad III’s head was cut off and displayed in Constantinople…for the entire city to see and fear.

Having agreed to take on the writers’ revisionist story of Vlad III’s transformation, the next step in the process for De Luca was to find a home for the film and explore financing and production options. Historically, Universal Pictures was the first studio to adapt the character for screen in 1931, and De Luca explains that this Dracula would finally be coming home: “Universal just seemed like a natural fit. The studio has this storied pedigree with monster movies, and Dracula Untold pays homage to all the beloved films that have come before.”

Opening across the Philippines on October 15, “Dracula Untold” is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

MAIN POSTER OF WARNER'S “THE JUDGE” REVEALED

Movie poster release

Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures have just revealed the main poster art of “The Judge,” starring Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga.

Directed by David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”), “The Judge” stars Downey as big city lawyer Hank Palmer, who returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town’s judge (Duvall), is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

Starring alongside Downey, Duvall and Farmiga are Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shephard, and Oscar® winner Billy Bob Thornton. The film also stars Oscar® winner Melissa Leo, Leighton Meester, Ken Howard, Emma Tremblay, Balthazar Getty, David Krumholtz, Sarah Lancaster, Grace Zabriskie and Denis O’Hare.

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 22, 2014, “The Judge” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

NEW LINE'S “VACATION” STARTS FILMING

Movie release material

BURBANK, CA – September 16, 2014 – The next generation of Griswolds is at it again. Shooting has begun in Georgia on New Line Cinema’s “Vacation,” starring Ed Helms (“The Hangover” films) and Christina Applegate (the “Anchorman” films) on the road for another ill-fated adventure. The film marks Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s directorial debut.

Following in his father’s footsteps and hoping for some much-needed family bonding, a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Helms) surprises his wife, Debbie (Applegate), and their two sons with a cross-country trip back to America’s “favorite family fun park,” Walley World.

Rounding out the cast are Chris Hemsworth (the “Thor” films) in the role of Stone Crandall, Rusty’s irritatingly successful brother-in-law; Charlie Day (the “Horrible Bosses” films), who plays a river rafting guide; and Skyler Gisondo (“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” “Hard Sell”) and Steele Stebbins (“A Haunted House 2”), who play Rusty’s sons, James and Kevin. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold from the classic “Vacation” comedies.

Goldstein & Daley (“Horrible Bosses,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2”) wrote the script, based on characters created by John Hughes. David Dobkin (upcoming “The Judge,” “Wedding Crashers”) and Chris Bender (“We’re the Millers,” upcoming “Horrible Bosses 2”) are producing, with Marc S. Fischer serving as executive producer.

The directors’ behind-the-scenes creative team also includes director of photography Barry Peterson (the “Jump Street” films, “We’re the Millers”), production designer Barry Robison (“Wedding Crashers,” “Pitch Perfect”), and costume designer Debra McGuire (“Ted”).

Opening across the Philippines in November 2015, “Vacation” is a New Line Cinema presentation and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.