Following a grand launch party in Tokyo in which stars Scarlett Johansson, “Beat” Takeshi Kitano, and director Rupert Sanders joined fans and influencers from across the globe, the first trailer of Paramount Pictures' Ghost in the Shell is now online.
Based on the internationally-acclaimed manga by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell follows Major, a special ops, one-of-a-kind cyborg, who leads the elite task force Section 9 devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists. Directed by Rupert Sanders. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, “Beat” Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, and Kaori Momoi.
Opening across the Philippines on March 29, 2017, Ghost in the Shell is distributed by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures. For more trailer reactions follow this blog and like https://www.facebook.com/LENSblogs/
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of Magical Security at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), while Millers plays the painfully withdrawn Credence Barebone who is not only a complete outsider to the wizarding community, but is the adopted son of the founder of the New Salem Philanthropic Society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.
Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne stars in the central role of Magizoologist Newt Scamander, in Warner Bros.' “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” which takes us to a new era of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, decades before Harry Potter and half a world away in America.
The casting of “Fantastic Beasts” began with the character of Newt Scamander, whose visit to New York becomes far more eventful than he ever imagined. Producer David Heyman says that Eddie Redmayne was the filmmakers’ first and only choice for the part. “He is quintessentially British, and an actor for all times who can play a character from any time. Eddie is brilliant at getting under a character’s skin and exploring every detail of a role, yet all that effort is invisible. All you see here is Newt—an outsider who is somewhat knotty but winning and engaging, someone you immediately invest in.”
Describing his role, Redmayne says, “Newt is most comfortable around beasts and is seemingly content to be on his own in the company of his animals, which are the be all and end all of his life. What I love about Newt is his passion; his only agenda is to teach the value of these creatures to the rest of the magical world, which considers them dangerous because they could give away the existence of wizards.”
Challenging the status quo, “Newt believes that with proper education, wizards could come to appreciate how magnificent these animals are and learn to coexist with them,” says Redmayne. “At the beginning of the film, he’s spent a year in the field, traveling around the world doing research for his book. Along the way he’s rescued some of these endangered species, which he keeps in his case, containing a wondrous plethora of terrains. He has amazing empathy with his creatures, although he’s not particularly good with humans. But through the people he meets on this journey, he starts to realize there has been a hole in his life.”
Not long after arriving in New York City, Newt meets three people who will change everything: a witch named Tina Goldstein; her younger sister, Queenie; and, most surprising of all, a No-Maj (a non-magical person) named Jacob Kowalski. It isn’t long before these strangers find a common bond and form an uncommon friendship. Redmayne offers, “Newt essentially stumbles onto them, and throughout the film, their growing camaraderie becomes an essential element of the story.”
“The friendship that develops between the four of them is the most important thing in the movie,” screenwriter J.K. Rowling declares. “It’s always the relationships between the characters in my stories that carry you through.”
Katherine Waterston, who plays Tina, observes that the way these four strangers come together is almost instinctual. “It can be lonely being an oddball until you find other oddballs. Their friendship is not a mere byproduct of the extreme set of circumstances they go through together; it is their common experience as outsiders that draws them to one another.”
“They aren’t caricatures,” insists Alison Sudol, cast in the role of Queenie. “There is a genuine humanity to each of these characters. The things they face are not unlike the things we face in our own lives, but it’s seen through a wizarding angle in a very interesting way.”
Yates adds, “Jo has always been interested in outsiders—people who are misunderstood or who are slightly out of kilter with the rest of society.”
Perhaps the ultimate outsider is Jacob, who is the only one in the foursome without magical powers. Dan Fogler, who plays the role, shares, “Even though ‘Fantastic Beasts’ is an adventure that runs the gamut of action and humor, and with gigantic sets and effects, they did an amazing job honing in on the relationships and the chemistry between these characters. I think audiences will really see themselves in these people…these quirky misfits who form this little team.”
Yates reveals that finding the chemistry began in the audition process. “We started with Eddie as Newt and then built the world around him. It was a bit like putting a band together,” the director laughs. “Eddie flew to New York with us and we auditioned lots of Tinas and Jacobs and Queenies with him in a room. Over a 48-hour period, he did the same scenes over and over again with different people, and out of that process we found our core cast—four actors who all bring something different to the movie in interesting ways that complement one another.”
Redmayne says the results were worth it. “The film revolves around this quartet of people who start out moving in completely opposite directions and end up cohered as friends. It was wonderful getting to work with three such brilliant actors as Katherine, Alison and Dan. We were all bound by this sense of responsibility: we all love the ‘Potter’ films and the world that Jo created for this film and just wanted to do the characters proud.”
“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.
Three teaser one-sheets and the new trailer from Warner Bros. Pictures' “Wonder Woman” have just arrived!
“Wonder Woman” hits movie theaters in the Philippines next June when Gal Gadot (“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”) returns as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins (“Monster,” AMC’s “The Killing”).
Joining Gadot in the international cast are Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, and Saïd Taghmaoui.
Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.
Patty Jenkins directs the film from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns & Patty Jenkins, story by Zack Snyder & Allan Heinberg, based on characters from DC Entertainment. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston.
The film is produced by Charles Roven, Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Richard Suckle, with Rebecca Roven, Stephen Jones, Wesley Coller and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with RatPac-Dune Entertainment, an Atlas Entertainment/Cruel and Unusual production, “Wonder Woman.” The film will be distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Check out the other poster in my geek blog: http://marktemplar.blogspot.com/2016/11/wonder-woman-reveals-new-trailer-3.html
Ben Affleck stars in Warner Bros.' action-thriller The Accountant as Christian Wolff, a specially trained assassin who happens to be a math savant suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. Director Gavin O’Connor knew that Christian should have an idiosyncratic fighting style, forged by his childhood training and his personal penchant for order.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
O'Connor maintains, “I wanted to approach the action through character, with the thought being when Chris got into a situation that required violence, he would eliminate the threat as quickly and economically as possible. It’s math. It’s ‘How do I make my move and get them off the chessboard?’”
Conferring with stunt coordinators Sam Hargrave and Fernando Chien, the director explored various types of martial arts. Nothing quite fit the bill until they showed him an Indonesian method that is less widely known, called pentjak silat. “I immediately said, ‘I want that,” he recalls. “I’d never even heard of silat before, but it’s incredibly efficient, so it served our purpose in a very cinematic way. We honed in on that form and built the action around it.”
Hargrave and Chien, together with their stunt team, started training Affleck, keeping in mind O’Connor’s desire to mirror Chris’s persona in the action. Chien confirms, “His style needed to be almost surgical—very linear and direct. He wouldn’t bounce around like a boxer. We mainly focused on silat, but because of how dynamic Ben needed to be in his fights, we also taught him judo, jiu-jitsu…everything from the ground up, but extremely stylized.”
“This martial arts technique hasn’t been seen in too many movies before so it felt fresh and new,” Affleck says. “I loved the style, so I dove into training as hard as I could. I spent months ahead of filming learning elaborate fight choreography, which involved a lot of flips and throws. Performing almost all of the action myself was difficult and demanding, but, luckily, I had the benefit of some really strong coaches and stunt performers who came up with some cool and unique stuff for me to do. It was very intense, but when it all came together and was done right, it could be beautiful and elegant, even though it was brutal.”
Chien acknowledges that Affleck, who came into the film right after portraying Batman, was already in fighting shape—just not in the same way that Christian had to be. “For that film, he became really buff and muscular, but this character needed to be slick and more quick—very direct and explosive—so we did more martial arts conditioning with a lot of dynamic movements.”
Hargrove adds, “We had a small gym where we would go for about two hours a day. Fernando and I put him through his paces, making drills out of the choreography and having Ben practice them over and over again until every move became like second nature to him. We sometimes drove him to the point of exhaustion, but Ben never gave up. He put in the work and came back stronger every day.”
O’Connor observes, “Ben had to travel different paths in making sure we got both the physical and emotional aspects of the character right, which was vital. He was working out every day and getting all the choreography down because he was doing most of it himself. In just a short amount of time, he had to look like he’d been studying his entire life, so it was a crash course for him and I think he did an amazing job.”
Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 02, “The Accountant” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.
The Accountant movie shows a different kind of a
protagonist. You will not expect an accountant with an expertise in warfare
tactics and ammunition and drives with a trailer of armoury. Casting Ben
Affleck for the movie will remove the stereotype that he is the new Batman.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.
We know how versatile Affleck is because he already did
different types of roles. He was a celebrity actor in Shakespeare’s theatre in
Shakespeare In Love. He did action blockbusters like Pearl Harbor. He also did
another comic book superhero Daredevil and was an antagonist in Joe Quesada’s
Mallrats. Not only his character is an accountant but also a gifted individual
which was shown in childhood scenes.
Anna Kendrick also stars in this movie but she won’t sing
this time. The last time that she was in a movie without singing was probably
the Twilight Saga movie adaptation. Affleck’s character seems like a
stand-alone one since he might have another story that may be continued in
another movie or a series.
Since Argo, it is a good thing that Ben Affleck has another
movie that is not associated with comic books. For more movie reviews and features, follow this blog and
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20th Century Fox and New Regency give us a peek into the intriguing premise of the upcoming psychological thriller “A Cure for Wellness” with its recent trailer reveal.
Dane Dehann. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox
“A Cure for Wellness” is directed by Oscar winner Gore Verbinski (“Rango”) and stars an impressive cast that includes Jason Isaacs “(Harry Potter,” “Fury”), Dane DeHaan (“Amigo,” “Chronicle,” “The Amazing Spiderman 2”), Mia Goth (“Nymphomaniac Vol. 2”) and Adrian Schiller (“The Danish Girl”). The movie takes the audience to a “wellness spa” in a picturesque remote location in the Swiss Alps. The facility promises a cure for what ails modern society, but all is not as it seems, as an ambitious young executive (played by DeHaan) uncovers its terrifying secrets and fights to save his life – and sanity.
An intense, edge-of-your-seat thriller, “A Cure for Wellness” opens in Philippine cinemas February 15, 2017 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
