20TH CENTURY FOX ANIMATION & REEL FX ANIMATION STUDIOS Cast CHANNING TATUM AND ZOË SALDANA STAR in “THE BOOK OF LIFE”

20th Century Fox Animation and Reel FX Animation Studios announced casting for the companies’ animated comedy “The Book of Life,” which 20th Century Fox releases in theaters worldwide on October 2014.

“The Book of Life” stars Channing Tatum, Zoë Saldana, Diego Luna, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Kate del Castillo and Ron Perlman, produced by acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and directed by Jorge Gutierrez. Gutierrez also wrote the screenplay with Doug Langdale.

Also joining the cast are Cheech Marin, Hector Elizondo and legendary tenor Placido Domingo, plus Ana de la Reguera (“Nacho Libre”, “Eastbound and Down”), Eugenio Derbez (“Instructions Not Included”), comedian Gabriel Iglesias (“Stand-up Revolution”), radio personality Ricardo (“El Mandril”) Sanchez, and Danny Trejo (“Machete”).

An animated comedy with a unique visual style, “The Book of Life” is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, “The Book of Life” encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.

The film’s original score and songs are by two-time Academy Award®-winner Gustavo Santaolalla (“Brokeback Mountain”, “Babel”). Santaolalla is also a Grammy® winner and a noted music producer. He is currently touring with the popular Argentine band Bajofondo, which was just nominated for a Latin Grammy.

“The Book of Life” is being overseen by Oscar®-winner Aron Warner (“Shrek”), who now serves as President of Animation for Reel FX, and producer Brad Booker. Vanessa Morrison, President of 20th Century Animation, and Elizabeth Reddy, Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox Animation, are supervising for the studio. Aaron Berger and Carina Schulze are also producing.

Visit 20th Century Fox (Philippines) Facebook page for more of the latest news from the studio.



About 20th Century Fox Film
One of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, 20th Century Fox Film produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units of 20TH Century Fox Film: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions, Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios.

About Reel FX
Reel FX is a movie studio that develops and produces animated films. The company’s growing slate kicks off with its first feature film Free Birds, which debuts in theaters on November 1, 2013.

Can You Name Every Reference in this Guillermo Del Toro Directed Opening for The Simpsons?

That title was a mouthful so let me repeat that again... Can you name all the horror/ suspense elements that were cleverly placed in the opening for The Simpson's TREEHOUSE OF HORROR 24 directed by Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro?

You try it. I've watched the video like a dozen or so times and I still miss out on a lot of references.



I did love that they snuck in Gipsy Danger and a Kaiju, Hellboy and massively referenced "Pan's Labyrinth". Good times.

Sideshow Collectibles PACIFIC RIM Slattern Preview

For Pacific Rim fans out there, here's another interesting addition to your collection/shrine... the kaiju Slattern (the first category 5 kaiju) gets a statue treatment care of Sideshow Collectibles.

The cool part here is that this Slattern statue was created with the help of Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro. No release date yet but pre-orders will begin August 22. Oh and the price for this bad boy is a whooping $469.99!

Check out the photos below to see if this is going to be worth your hard earned cash...

HiRes Scans of PACIFIC RIM Kaiju's from the Artbook

Here are a few scans from the PACIFIC RIM artbook featuring the Kaijus in all their awesomeness.

If you ever bump into the artbook and you're a big fan of Guillermo Del Toro's visual spectacle then definitely go and pick it up.

Check out the scanned pages. By the way I found this somewhere on the Internet and I did not scan this myself as I do not have a scanner at the moment. Just a quick disclaimer.













Bonus:

A loot at Raleigh and Mako looking out of the Pacific Ocean...

Pacific Rim Pilots as Dogs and Cats

Something cute for the fangirls and fanboys (or what I call THE HORDE) of Guillermo Del Toro's PACIFIC RIM. The Pacific Rim pilots envisioned as dogs and cats. 

Raleigh and Mako

The entire project was done by Mari Moreno (marimoreno.deviantart.com) and I'm totally mystified with this art set.

Check out the other Jaeger pilots below:

Stacker Pentecost, pilot of Cayote Tango

Sasha and Aleksis, pilots for Cherno Alpha as Siberian Huskies

The Crimson Typhoon triplets as cats

Herc and Chuck Hansen, Striker Eureka as Dingoes mate

Follow Mari on her Deviantart and on Tumblr to see more amazing art.

Oh and as a bonus, here's Newt (Charlie Day) with cuddly baby Knifehead kaijus. 

Mysterious Creature Found Dead in Persian Gulf

What could be this strange, reptilian creature. Thanks to Tim for the heads up on this.

It's been a while since we've seen weird shit like this, it's pretty amazing and scary knowing that there are still creatures we haven't even encountered yet.

Tim's post however is looking at this whole thing from a different angle. Could there really be a breach similar to that of Guillermo Del Toro's PACIFIC RIM?

Cryptozoologists should be thrilled with this new specimen.

UPDATE: It's a whale

Source

Pacific Rim Review

Pacific Rim is a movie that no self respecting anime/mecha/sci-fi fan should miss. It's got all the workings of a truly great and entertaining movie.

Guillermo Del Toro once again proves that he is a master of his craft with this heavy metal brawler of a movie. On one corner you've got the invading forces, the Kaiju, wanting to remove humans from the face of the Earth. To counter this, us humans created the Jaegers to combat the kaiju and ensure our future.

On the story: Storywise, this one literally lifts up some key moments from just about any mecha anime/series we've ever seen. The nearest I can think of when it comes to this is the anime series Shinkon Gattai Godannar. Pilot goes on hiatus after tragedy, but is recalled to active service, meets new partner and potential girlfriend. Enemy suddenly gets stronger, show of courage and fortitude, wins the day. People who are looking for more than anything beyond the plot/trope I just mentioned will surely be lacking.

The story has a couple of plotholes but it's something that can be overlooked, after all, this is a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters from beneath the sea.

On the cast: Del Toro did not cast any big name for the film. And after seeing it, I can understand why. He's not out to reel in fans of big Hollywood stars, they only second fiddle to the real stars of the movie which were non other than the Jaegers.

Only gripe (which could be a major issue depending on what type of moviegoer you are) is that it's really hard to actually RELATE to Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Beckett. Yeah he's Mr. All American right but the moment he goes on drama mode, you're mind starts to wonder.



Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost however is another issue. The man is all for brooding and stoicism. Love the accent and the catchy one-liner he delivers towards the end of the movie. The inclusion of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Charlie Day was also an inspired number as he gives some of the funniest lines in the film.

I have to give it to Rinko Kikuchi who really shined in this movie. She's frail looking but kicks ass the moment she needs to do so. Sad though that she and Hunnam never had an existing chemistry; which also ended up looking very confusing onscreen. Are they friends? lovers? Something in between? Or is Beckett simply looking out for Mako Mori (Kikuchi) on a brother-sister kinda thing.

And then there was Ron Perlman who plays blackmarket guy Hannibal Chau; his was Hellboy minus the red makeup and the gun (although he's still in red). He had some great moments in PR as well but what really bugs me is that fact that his role is a somewhat an extended cameo, a 'hey there' to Del Toro fans who stood with the director.

On the visuals: THE VISUALS WERE SPECTACULAR. The Jaegers were dirty and messy and it's just perfect. Much like how Metal Gear director Hideo Kojima stated in his tweet barrage, The kaijus were terrifying and seeing 'Knifehead' in Alaska took me back to the first time I saw the T-Rex in Spielberg's "Jurrasic Park". Everything was designed to look so gritty, heck even the Bone City in Hong Kong looks beautiful.

The whole visuals are beautiful gets magnified fifty times over once the fighting in the ocean floor or in a busy Hong Kong street. There's a lot of stuff going on but you'll be transfixed. I know I did.

Again, I cannot stress how important it is to see this film on an IMAX screen. It's not because of the 3D but because it truly becomes BIG when you see it projected in a huge ass screen.

Finally, I loved the touches of anime in this film. It was very evident that they knew what people loved about those Mecha Romance trios such as giant swords, one-liners before a finishers, breathtaking fisticuffs.

Overall, I think the film was superbly crafted and well paced. It had a couple of blips but if you truly love grand robot movies (which is very rare even in Hollywood standards), then you really should catch the movie. 

Pacific Rim is now showing nationwide and it's distributed locally by Warner Bros. Philippines. If you're still hesitant, here's trailer # 3 for the film to reel you in. 

Giant Robots Vs Monster Aliens in "Pacific Rim" (Opens Jul 11)

Director Guillermo Del Toro (“Pan's Labyrinth,” “Hellboy”) was largely responsible for shaping what are, literally speaking, the biggest stars of Warner Bros. And Legendary Pictures' action adventure “Pacific Rim”: the monster aliens aka the Kaiju.

“I love monsters,” states the director who conceived all the various monsters in the film in conjunction with an elite band of concept artists, illustrators, sculptors, and designers. “We had some of the best creature designers in the world involved in the making of the Kaiju.”

Del Toro began with a group that included artist and illustrator Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Wayne Barlowe, Stephen Schirle, Doug Williams, Hugo Martin, Tyruben Ellingson, Guy Davis, Oscar Chichoni, David Meng, Simon Lee, Raul Monge, Carlos Salgado, Keith Thompson, Simon Webber, Allen Williams and Rob McCallum.

Members of the team brainstormed for weeks, beginning in a windowless room they appropriately dubbed “the submarine.” Together, they examined everything: from sizes, shapes and colors to how the immense beings moved and fought. Del Toro says, “We wanted to evoke the sheer awe and terror that one would feel when coming upon one of these monsters.”

He set down certain parameters: an example being that any animal kingdom inspirations were primarily limited to lizards, crustaceans and insects. For the most part, however, the think tank could let their imaginations run wild, taking a tag team approach as they pooled ideas.

The designers gave the Kaiju different nicknames that were indicative of their most prominent physical attributes, like Knifehead, Axehead, Leatherback, etc. Some are viciously calculated, others are more raw power. “They are living weapons,” del Toro says. “They are blind instinct combined with tactical intelligence, capable of making instant decisions in battle, so there are definitely a few surprises.”

Making them even more fearsome, every appendage on the Kaiju bodies is part of their arsenal. And, as Thomas Tull points out, “They are quickly evolving. With every attack, they learn something and continually progress in both size and tactics.”

Many of the same artists who helped bring about the Kaiju also lent their talents to the formation of mankind’s last line of defense: the giant robots or Jaegers.

Screenwriter Travis Beacham says, “The biggest challenge in the world of ‘Pacific Rim’ is finding a way to beat the Kaiju on their own terms. That was the whole idea behind the invention of the Jaegers.”

Just as every Kaiju is unique, each Jaeger is distinct in both design and function, with its own array of weapons, “so every time you see a Jaeger go up against a Kaiju, it’s a completely different fight,” says del Toro.

The once mighty Jaeger fleet has been reduced to four surviving robots. The director wanted the huge war machines to appear combat-worn, with markings that flaunt the number of enemies downed. Their shape, color and insignias reflect their country of origin, as do their fighting styles.

Del Toro equates the look of the U.S. of A.’s Gipsy Danger to “a classic gunslinger heading into a fight. A mixture of a deco skyscraper and John Wayne. Gipsy has swagger and is made to resemble a WWII fighter jet in paint job and details.” A Mark 3, it is considered an old Jaeger and, although it’s been refurbished, it still carries the scars of war…as do its pilots.

Russia’s Cherno Alpha is a T-series Jaeger with an oversized nuclear reactor. Its exceptional brawn makes up for its more lumbering gait. It is the oldest, heaviest Jaeger in the surviving fleet. “Brute force and blunt trauma are its calling cards,” says producer Thomas Tull.

China’s Crimson Typhoon is a Mark 4, the only Jaeger with three arms, thanks to its three-man pilot team. Its moves are as close as a massive Jaeger can get to martial arts. Jon Jashni observes, “Some of what they’re able to pull off in the course of the movie is a function of them being able to do more with more.”

The Resistance has one Mark 5: Australia’s Striker Eureka. Being the latest model, it boasts faster speed and better maneuverability. “But it’s an Aussie brawler, so it has a lot of bravado and a bit of a strut, like a guy who would pick a fight in a bar,” del Toro teases.

Although the Jaegers would exist only on screen, a great deal of planning went into the mechanics of the robots. “From a technical standpoint, we decided to build them from the inside out in diagrams,” reveals del Toro. “We determined the way the pistons, the relays, the torque, the transmission, the engines, and every other element worked in detail. Then we pulled back and started figuring out the vents, the thermal insulation, the outer skin and so on.”

Opening across the Philippines in July 11 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D, 2D and regular theaters, “Pacific Rim” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.