At the tail of the success of the first movie, Toothless and Hiccup are back for bigger adventures, laughs and battles as additional voice cast were revealed in this year’s Comic-Con event. From the phenomenal series “Game of Thrones,” Kit Harrington voices an amusing dragon-trapper named Eret whom he describes as very cocky and brazen; Cate Blanchett who’s known for her role in “The Lord of the Rings” franchise also joins the cast as Valka, a savior of dragons while Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond”) is cast as the voice of Drago Bludvist who chases dragons for personal vendetta.
Directed by Dean Deblois, “How To Train Your Dragon 2” soars five years after best friends Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and Toothless united dragons and Vikings on the island of Berk.
Landing June 11, 2014 in theaters nationwide, “How To Train Your Dragon 2” is a DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox presentation to be distributed by Warner Bros. (Phils.).
Columbia Pictures' “RoboCop” stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley and Jay Baruchel. The screenplay is by Joshua Zetumer, based on the 1987 motion picture written by Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner. Director Jose Padilha talks about re-inventing “RoboCop” in the following interview. Q: How was the idea of remaking “RoboCop” born? Jose Padilha: Around 3 years ago I went to a meeting at MGM, because they wanted to talk to me about some projects they had. They mentioned several movies they were interested in doing but that didn’t really appeal to me, until I saw they had a poster of the original “RoboCop” on the wall in the background and I said to them: ‘That’s the one I want to do!’ Q. Why did you want to do it? Padilha: Because I wanted to shoot a movie that talked about the relation between fascism and the automation of law enforcement, like the first film already did; but make it more current, as we are on the verge of having to face this reality. Q: What was the main premise of the story? Padilha: We are in the future (2028) and all the superpowers are using robots for war, but in America they don’t allow them to be deployed domestically for law enforcement because there is a law that forbids the machine to pull the trigger. That was my take from day 1, in that room, and that is the movie we have shot. Q: How was the process of finding the right actor to play the lead role of Alex Murphy/RoboCop? Padilha: I spent a lot of time trying to find the right actor for this role, and Joel Kinnaman - after delivering a great first audition - was the one that kept coming back and doing it better and better. And even though we didn’t have a finished script then, but only a couple of scenes for him to read, every time he returned he just nailed it. And that kept on happening until the moment I said: ‘Guys, lets stop looking. We have him!’” Q: What do you believe Joel Kinnaman brought to that complex character? Padilha: He was very patient, because every day he had to arrive to set early in order to put the suit on. And, actually, he did a lot of action scenes himself in that suit! But, to me, the most important thing he did was to deliver the extraordinary performance of a man who has a wife and a son he really loves and then one day wakes up to realize that he almost died and that to save his life his wife consented to a procedure that turned him into a robot. Now, to face that reality and understand the limitations of being a robot (you can’t touch your wife or your son, or even sleep at home) are amazing dramatic circumstances that in this case had to be delivered only with his face and one hand, and Joel did it brilliantly. Q: How does his wife Clara react to what happens? Padilha: The character of Clara Murphy is very dramatic because she has a loving husband and son, who really needs his father, and then suddenly she is forced to see Alex in a life and death situation and make a decision under a gigantic amount of pressure: am I going to allow this procedure to be done to him with the chance of seeing him later or should I let him go? Q. Australian actress Abbie Cornish plays Clara Murphy. What was required of her for that role? Padilha: What was required of her was a pretty big range, because we see her with her husband as a happy couple but later also under a lot of stress. That’s not a role that can be played by any actress, but Abbie is just fantastic. The moment I saw her audition I knew she was Clara Murphy. Q. And what can you say about Gary Oldman, who plays the scientist that makes the RoboCop project come to life? Padilha: Gary is one of the most talented actors alive, who has complete control of the set and of the craft of his job. And, on top of that, he has this amazing talent to turn it on and off in a split second. He is so good that he can even make bad lines in a script work, which is something you have to be careful with because then you might not realize they weren’t bad lines in the first place… But Gary, of course, will tell you so. Q. Michael Keaton portrays the head of OmniCorp, Raymond Sellars, the main villain of the story. Padilha: Yes, but it is important to say that our villain is kind of grounded, manages a gigantic corporation and is also a genius. Michael created a character that was on the border between right and wrong, which was very smart. His performance in RoboCop is one of my favorites. Q. Then you have Samuel L. Jackson as the media mogul Pat Novak, a huge supporter of the RoboCop program and OmniCorp’s plans to introduce law enforcement robots in America. Padilha: He is just a force of nature as this media guy. When he steps onto the set every single camera looks at him.”
Q. How relevant are the themes of this film today? Padilha: Paul Verhoeven created an iconic character that embodied the philosophical concept that automated law enforcement could lead to fascism. Funnily enough he did this in 1987, but now we are very close to this actually happening. Q. Can you explain how close we are to this being a reality that we will have to deal with? Padilha: If you open the newspaper every day you are going to end up reading about drones at least 50 times a year, if not more... Now they are piloted, but we are soon going to move on to drones that pilot themselves and robots that go to war and make their own decisions according to very sophisticated hardware and software without people being involved. This is going to happen. It was already in Verhoeven’s movie and it is also the reason I wanted to make this one, because what is being discussed in RoboCop is happening now and is going to be very prominent in the future Q. So, what was your main goal with RoboCop? Padilha: The challenge was to make a movie that touches key ideas about politics and about what it means to be human while still reaching a broad audience. You have to strike a balance between the drama and the fun, which you do by finding the right tone. Opening across the Philippines in Feb. 05, 2014, “RoboCop” 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.
Was only a matter of days before we get our first poster for Columbia Pictures' ROBOCOP remake film starring Joel Kinnaman.
Check out the entire poster below. The cast: Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Take five of the some of the most famous Hollywood comedians and place them in an apocalyptic situation and you've got yourself the makings of a great comedy such as "THIS IS THE END" which will be exclusively playing in Ayala Cinemas.
So if you live in a bunker and you're not familiar with who the cast members are, here goes: Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), James Franco (Spider-Man 1,2 and 3, 127 Hours, Oz the Great and Powerful), Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder, How to Train your Dragon 2), Craig Robinson (Hot Tub Time Machine 1 & 2), Danny McBride (Your Highness, Tropic Thunder) and Jonah Hill (Moneyball, 21 Jump Street, Django Unchained).
There's a number of reasons why I'm putting the film in such a high regard. First, it managed to topple the already high standing of Adam Sandler's LITTLE NICKY. Secondly it's a no-brainer, stoner-friendly comedy starring the same guys from such films as TROPIC THUNDER, YOUR HIGHNESS, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, 21 JUMP STREET and so much more. That alone is worth the ticket price. If you still need a bit of convincing then hold on...
The movie is obnoxious and downright irreverent which makes it much more appealing to watch (well because it's silly and we all get to laugh at silliness right?) From Danny McBride's A-grade performance as a certified asshole to stuff like the two dozen cameos splattered across the film, THIS IS THE END is certainly worth watching.
THE GOOD:
- The main cast is star power enough but check out the cameos and guest appearance. They've got Jason Segel, Kevin Hart, that Indian chick from that drama series, that Indian guy from I think "The Office", a very different looking Paul Rudd and more importantly - RIHANNA.
- The BACKSTREET BOYS.
- A potential teaser to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS 2 all taken using the camera that Franco used in "127 Hours".
- There's also a ton of movie references thrown around the film. One that stood out was the comment hurled about Seth Rogen making a "Green Hornet" movie that did not suck. Oh and they want us to believe that James Franco loves himself so much that he'd keep standees from his New/ Green Goblin days.
- I hated Danny McBride ever since. And "This is the End" definitely proved why I hate him so much. But with so much hate, maybe he shows that he's an effective actor/ comedian. Still I hate that guy.
- The music that they chose to use in the film was also great. They've got M.I.A.'s Paper Planes, Dr. Dre and Snoop's Next Episode and my favorite, PSY's Gangnam Style. Used to the best of their abilities.
- The jizzing jokes were funny and cringeworthy at the same time.
THE BAD
- Rape jokes. I hate rape jokes. It's improper and just plain bad. Thank goodness they got limited that bit.
- Forced bromosexual tensions. Not cool. We get that you guys are buds and all but some things are just depicted too much.
- Demon Dicks. No thank you.
- There's really something disturbing about seeing Channing Tatum in this film.
VERDICT: Me and the missues had a grand time watching THIS IS THE END. It's crass and a bit boorish and asinine but there's a lot of redemption going on in this movie (both literally and figuratively). Catch it when it starts rolling exclusively in AYALA CINEMAS starting September 11.
Hip actor James Franco satirizes himself as he plays a Hollywood version of, well, himself, in Columbia Pictures' wacky comedy “This Is The End.”
Says writer-director and co-star Seth Rogen, “The things we mock in James Franco in the movie are real, but Franco in real life is nothing like the way he acts in the movie. He genuinely does like art and weird stuff, but it’s not pretentious and he’s not in-your-face about it. He doesn’t care what others think about his art. He just likes art.” In “This Is The End,” six friends – who just happen to be James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson – are trapped in Franco’s house as the end of the world begins outside. And we’re not talking about any old California-slides-into-the-ocean earthquake… we’re talking the fire-and-brimstone Apocalypse – the real Biblical deal. Franco says that he didn’t hesitate to sign on for the project – even though he wouldn’t have even considered the project if it had been with anyone other than the writing-directing team of Rogen and Evan Goldberg. “We’re playing extreme versions of ourselves, and I would really only trust Seth and Evan to depict me in an outrageous way,” he says. “Their take on me is funny – of course, I don’t think I’m really like that, but yes, it’s a version of me, it’s their version, and it’s funny. But going back to `Superbad,' through all their movies, they put in a level of heart, or emotion, that grounds the characters, and that’s in this movie, too. I was game for it because the way they make movies, their sensibility is just so solid.” “The way my character is on the surface, he’s a pretty shallow person,” says Franco. “He’s a guy who thinks that Seth can’t be his friend and anybody else’s – like sixth grade behavior. So that’s where we took the character deeper. In real life, Seth has been there at important points in my career – ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ ‘Pineapple Express’ – so we took that and decided that the character of James Franco would have this affection for Seth and need to connect with him. Really, he’s obsessed with Seth.” In the film, Franco’s house is filled with art. Not surprising, in a way, because the real Franco cares deeply about art. However, the filmmakers and the real Franco make it clear that there’s a blurry line between the art he cares about and the art that the pretentious character he plays prefers. “My first conversation with James Franco was about the fact that the character is a ‘version’ of James Franco,” says production designer Chris Spellman. “People know I’m interested in art,” says Franco. “I just went to school for it and for a while I was collecting art – I sold most of it a while ago so I could go to school and not work so much. So it was kind of a funny idea that the Franco character would be collecting art, and Seth asked me if there was any particular artist that I wanted to have in the character’s house. And I thought, there’s a way to take this to a different level. There’s a painter that I really like named Josh Smith – his work is hard to place because a lot of it has a very humorous feel, even though it’s abstract work. Josh was interested. Not only interested, but wanted to create new work, and it would be special because it would be work that was only intended for this movie. And as Josh and I were talking, we came on the idea that we could do the paintings together. Josh and I spent two days together and we painted a lot, through the night, ten huge paintings and a bunch of little ones.” Together, Franco and Smith created art that directly references the movie. “The idea is that my character is somewhat obsessed with Seth,” says Franco. “So the subjects of the paintings are shows I did with Seth – there’s a Freaks painting and a Geeks painting, there’s a Pineapple Express painting.” Distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International, “This Is The End” will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Sept. 11.
For a film about the group dynamics among a group of friends facing the apocalypse, it’s no surprise that the characters in Columbia Pictures' critically acclaimed comedy “This Is The End” were tailor-made for the actors playing the roles. They would all play horrible “versions” of themselves, says co-director/writer Evan Goldberg.
In “This Is The End,” six friends – who just happen to be James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson – are trapped in Franco’s house as the end of the world begins outside. And we’re not talking about any old California-slides-into-the-ocean earthquake… we’re talking the fire-and-brimstone Apocalypse – the real Biblical deal. “Seth isn’t a duplicitous coward, but he plays one in this film,” Goldbrg says. “Danny is a delightful sweetheart, but his character is a maniac. Franco – the things we mock in Franco in the movie are real, but Franco in real life is nothing like the way he acts in the movie. He genuinely does like art and weird stuff, but it’s not pretentious and he’s not in-your-face about it. He doesn’t care what others think about his art. He just likes art. The only exceptions are Jay, who is more like his character than anyone else in the movie, and Craig, who isn’t a jerk like his character, but is a guy who carries a towel around to wipe sweat off his face.”
“People think they know everything about you based on the characters you play,” says co-director/writer and star Seth Rogen. “So we thought it would be funny to play into that – to have these characters that behave in the way that everybody thinks is what we’re like off-screen. There are elements of our real selves, but we all twisted them or exaggerated them to make it funny.” Playing yourself can be a challenge – even for an Academy Award® nominee, as Jonah Hill says, “I’ve never slipped out of character more than when I was playing myself.”
But it’s more than just a joke, says Rogen. It’s a way of acknowledging the elephant in the room. “Everybody knows that we’re friends and we’re always in movies together. It was almost weirder that the movie wouldn’t acknowledge that in some way,” says Rogen. “So we thought, OK, let’s acknowledge it, and then let’s move beyond it. We wanted the relationships to feel real. We thought that would be the element that grounded the movie if the dynamics between the characters were real and relatable. So even though the movie gets super-crazy – it’s the Apocalypse – there’s a simple idea at the center that I hope is very believable. We never could have written this movie if we didn’t know these guys – and we definitely couldn’t have directed it.” Distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International, “This Is The End” will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Sept. 11.
The recent release of DreamWorks Animation’s “How To Train Your Dragon 2” trailer thrilled fans worldwide as the faithful dragon Toothless and his best friend Hiccup soared on air once again. View latest trailer here.
At the tail of the success of the first movie, Toothless and Hiccup are back for bigger adventures, laughs and battles as additional voice cast were revealed in this year’s Comic-Con event. From the phenomenal series “Game of Thrones,” Kit Harrington voices an amusing dragon-trapper named Eret whom he describes as very cocky and brazen; Cate Blanchett who’s known for her role in “The Lord of the Rings” franchise also joins the cast as Valka, a savior of dragons while Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond”) is cast as the voice of Drago Bludvist who chases dragons for personal vendetta. Directed by Dean Deblois, “How To Train Your Dragon” soars five years after best friends Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and Toothless united dragons and Vikings on the island of Berk. DeBlois shared that the film starts where the first one left off – the Vikings are now on the backs of the dragons with the entire world in front of them. When one of their adventures leads to the discovery of a secret ice cave that is home to hundreds of new wild dragons and the mysterious Dragon Rider, the two friends find themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace. Now, Hiccup and Toothless must unite to stand up for what they believe while recognizing that only together do they have the power to change the future of both men and dragons.
Landing June 2014 in theaters, “How To Train Your Dragon 2” is a DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox presentation to be distributed by Warner Bros. (Phils.).
James Franco and Seth Rogen headlines a new movie entitled "This is the End" which is basically an 'end of the world' flick featuring other funny men like Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel and Craig Robinson.
Who the heck is Craig Robinson?
Anyway, check out the film's trailer and the synopsis after the cut.
