COLIN FARRELL, EZRA MILLER PLAY DARK ROLES IN “FANTASTIC BEASTS”

Press release

Golden Globe Best Actor winner Colin Farrell (“In Bruges”) and fast-rising star Ezra Miller (upcoming “Justice League”) play pivotal characters in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” which takes us to a new era of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.

Farrell stars as Percival Graves, the enigmatic Director of Magical Security at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), while Millers plays the painfully withdrawn Credence Barebone who is not only a complete outsider to the wizarding community, but is the adopted son of the founder of the New Salem Philanthropic Society (NSPS), a vehemently anti-magic organization that is an enemy to MACUSA.

Defining his role, Farrell says, “Graves is very high up on the chain of command in MACUSA. He is basically the head Auror, whose job is to uphold the safety and security of the magical world and to contain anything that could potentially be detrimental to wizardkind. He is very powerful and incredibly driven and highly skilled with a wand.”

MACUSA is intent on the protection of the North American wizarding world, which they believe is dependent upon the enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy. “Graves has his own ideology about the segregation between wizards and No-Majs,” Farrell shares. “The fact that wizards have been repressed and forced to live in the shadows eats away at him. To him, it’s an injustice. Even those at MACUSA don’t know much about Graves, and I enjoyed the degree of mystery about the character.”

The actor says he was drawn to “Fantastic Beasts” from his first reading of J.K. Rowling’s screenplay. “It was just so imaginative and provocative; there was a kind of poetry and symmetry to everything. And while the story is fantastical and set in the 1920s, it is also grounded in a truth that is very relevant today. So on the one hand, the film is a huge departure from reality, but there are also significant human themes explored in it. First and foremost though, it was total blast for me.”

One of the intrigues surrounding the prominent wizard Percival Graves is why he has taken such a keen interest in Credence Barebone. Farrell observes, “Credence is someone who seems lost and always on the outside looking in and that makes him especially vulnerable to Graves, who obviously believes Credence has some insight or information he needs. He gives Credence a sense of belonging that is lacking in his life, but his motives are questionable at best.”

Colin Farell(left) and Ezra Miller(right)

Cast as Credence, Ezra Miller adds, “Their relationship in the film becomes quite disturbing because it has an element of manipulation that is tangible. It’s an interesting dynamic because there is a certain amount of ambiguity about who is good and who is bad and you won’t really know until all the chips have fallen. That is one of the amazing dimensions of J.K. Rowling’s writing—the understanding that all of the dualities of good and evil don’t necessarily exist apart from one another. There are many sides to every person. I think fans will be extremely tickled to discover some of the familiar threads that run through this film, but it’s its own entity and very much its own story.”

Miller, it turns out, is in an excellent position to comment on his fellow fans. “I have been obsessed with J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World since I was seven years old,” he reveals, “so I am very well-versed. Getting to actually step into this universe was the fulfillment of my dreams more than anyone can imagine.”

“Ezra is a big fan of Jo’s world and was determined to be part of this journey and this film,” director David Yates recalls. “As an actor, he’s fearless, curious and open, and brought a lot to the process as well as to the set in terms of energy and ambition. He captured Credence in a way that was both haunting and moving.”

Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne stars in the central role of Magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates, who helmed the last four “Harry Potter” blockbusters.

The film opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident … were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” opens across the Philippines on Nov. 17 in 2D and 3D in select theatres and IMAX, and is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

© 2016 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts Publishing Rights © JKR.

COLIN FARRELL UNCOVERS HIS REAL MEMORIES IN “TOTAL RECALL”

Colin Farrell stars as a factory worker who'd rather have real memories of a super-spy, in Columbia Pictures' new action-adventure “Total Recall.” He turns to Rekall, a futuristic company that can turn your dreams into real memories. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.

 

             “It was very important that Quaid is just an ordinary guy,” producer Toby Jaffe says. “Colin just brings a real genius to him as an actor. There’s a likeability onscreen that you just feel he’s a real guy who could be a real factory worker.”

             “It’s a common story, a man who feels that he isn’t living the life he should be living – a man experiencing some discontent with his lot in life,” says Farrell. “But he gets a rude awakening, which is that he really isn’t living the life he should be living. Quaid has no idea who he is, beyond a deeply cellular or emotional level. The whole movie is him trying to figure out who is the real Quaid.”

             “I really wanted to get more involved in Quaid’s experience,” Wiseman explains. “I mean, imagine: you wake up, you go about your life and you inherently feel like a good guy… All of a sudden, everybody around you starts telling you that you’re a bad guy. What do you do?”

             With that in mind, Farrell approached the role as a battle between emotional and intellectual and tried to maintain that balance. “It brings up issues of identity, ego, and super-ego – it’s fun to wade into that psychological pond a bit,” he says.

             As part of his development of the character, Farrell did some unusual things – including sleeping overnight in the Quaid Apartment set. “I just wanted to see what it was like to have an evening and then wake up in the morning in that space,” he says. “It was lovely, actually.”

             “Colin really dedicated himself to this character,” says producer Neal H. Moritz. “He’s in just about every scene. There were many days that he was standing in the rain all day long, wet as can be, and still, every day after filming he’d either go to yoga or lift weights.”

Whenever possible, Farrell performed his own stunts. The actor worked closely with stunt coordinator Andy Gill (“Fast Five”) and fight coordinator Jeff Imada (“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1”). “You get schooled when you come to work with them,” he says. “You get practical lessons that you’d never need to learn, if you weren’t doing this job.”

 “Total Recall” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

Q&A WITH COLIN FARRELL FOR “TOTAL RECALL”

             Irish actor Colin Farrell stars in Columbia Pictures' “Total Recall,” an action thriller about reality and memory.

             In the film, Rekall is a futuristic company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Farrell), even though he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.

             Q. What sort of man is your character, Douglas Quaid, in this version of Total Recall?

             Colin Farrell: We were following Philip K. Dick's short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” and in it Quaid is a working class member of the proletariat, a worker, who is living a life that seems to be mundane enough for him to be having fantasies about, in the short story, going to Mars. In our film it is not necessarily dreams about going to Mars, but he’s having a recurring dream and it has a great significance. So really he’s just a normal man; he’s just an everyman. That’s the construct of the character and in his own life he’s feeling a great disconnect to his wife, to his work, to his friends, and he decides to have a memory of an experience implanted. He goes into this place in the film [Rekall] just looking for something.

             Q. Did you feel any pressure stepping into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoes?

             Farrell: No, honestly, I didn’t feel any pressure. And I’m not trying to give a rehearsed answer, but it really felt like a different film. It really did. And I am a huge fan of the original Total Recall. I was a big fan of Arnie’s stuff as a kid, I’m talking Red Heat, Commando, obviously Terminator, and Predator is still to this day one of the best action films I think I have ever seen. I loved his stuff, and love his stuff, so thank God I didn’t feel pressure to fill those shoes or compete with that ability to throw out a one-liner. Maybe I could do Predator next (laughs)!

             Q. Your vision of Total Recall is darker and more serious than Arnie’s, presumably?

             Farrell: I wouldn’t like to say the original is cheesy, but it was a bit camp. You put a bullet in your wife’s head and you say [imitates Schwarzenegger]: ‘Consider that a divorce!’ I mean, that was good, that was very good. It’s camp, and it’s not camp because it’s outdated. It was camp at the time; it’s meant to be. It’s intended that way, it’s not an accident, but this film is tonally very different. I really approached it more as a drama, set against the backdrop of these magnificent cityscapes and these really elaborate action scenes.

             Q. It’s not your first movie based on a story by Philip K. Dick…

             Farrell: No, I did Minority Report. And with Minority Report and Total Recall, they’re not dissimilar visions of the future. They’re both inspired by Philip K. Dick’s work, and while his stories in literary form are open to interpretation and expansion, he inspired a certain world format. Sci-fi generally seems to be a fertile ground for drama. There’s a suspicion among all of us I think that the future is not so bright. Technology is making incredible leaps but what we are doing to ourselves as human beings is quite alarming. So while the vision of the future in Minority Report is not all that dark, it certainly is in Total Recall, Blade Runner, Pitch Black, Alien and the like.

             Q. Total Recall looks a physical role so did you work out specifically for the film?

             Farrell: I worked out consistently for three or four months, for five or six days a week, with weights. And I ran a lot. There’s a background to the character that is touched upon in the film where he might have had some military training, which I’d need to know about. I knew it was going to be a physical shoot so yes I worked out quite a bit.

             Q. You seemed to move away from blockbusters for a while before taking on Total Recall. Was it a conscious decision to stay away from them?

             Farrell: I had a few films that were big but that didn’t do so well, and I wasn’t getting offered that many big blockbusters either. Then this came along and I read the script. I was initially dubious when I heard that they were remaking Total Recall. I thought, ‘Is it worth it and what are they going to say about the original?’ But I read it and it was such an excellent script.

             Q. Did it feel good then, returning to a huge movie like this?

             Farrell: Actually Total Recall genuinely felt more intimate than some of the smaller films I’ve done. It just happens that way and it defies explanation. It was like 100 and whatever million dollars, but I worked really, really closely with [director] Len Wiseman, and with the other actors. The crew was really, really cool and I lived in Toronto for five months. We got to know each other quite well and it felt a lot more intimate than it had any right to feel. There were all these grand action sequences and these beautiful epic worlds, but on the day it was just a bunch of actors on set, trying to figure out what the other person was feeling and doing and thinking, and trying to figure out what you were feeling and doing and thinking. Ideally, I would mix it up, go from one genre to another. I’d love to do big films and small films for the rest of my life.

             Q. Your next two films sound interesting as well…

             Farrell: I’ve just finished a film, Seven Psychopaths, with Martin McDonagh. Martin’s stuff is always kind of absurd and dark and yet hopeful. This one was set in America and I’m the only Irish character in it. And then I’m just starting on Dead Man Down. It’s written by Joe Wyman and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. It’s about an Hungarian immigrant who loses his family and decides to infiltrate a gang that was responsible for the death of his daughter. That script really is dark.

             (Opening across the Philippines on August 22, “Total Recall” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.)