Matt Damon on The Monuments Men and How it Felt Like Its an Oceans Movie

In September 2009, American writer and businessman Robert Edsel released “The Monuments Men,” a compelling account of a group of middle aged museum directors, curators and art historians tasked with going into Germany in the closing stages of World War II to try and rescue artworks requisitioned by the Nazis.

“The Monuments Men,” produced, directed and starred in by George Clooney along with a very impressive cast including Matt Damon, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Leonidas Dmitri, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett is set amidst a war that cost the lives of 65 million people when mankind’s cultural and artistic fingerprint is at risk of being destroyed. Their small group of middle aged museum curators and artists and architects, called The Monuments Men, the most unlikely of spies, who volunteer to go into military service and try and save these things and ultimately recover them.

Matt Damon was one of the many to get the direct approach. Damon further discusses in the following q&a of his involvement in the film and working with a great cast.

Q: How did you first get involved with Monuments Men?

A: “I was on my way to pick up my kids from school and I got an email from George [Clooney] that said, “Are you busy in the spring?” So when I got home, I called him and he told me a little bit about what he was up to and then he sent me the script. I read it and instantly just loved it. That was maybe four or five months before we started shooting. But I literally had no notes on the script at all. Grant and George had done all of the heavy lifting already so it was a very easy movie to just kind of slide right into.

Q: Were you aware at all of the original Monuments Men story and their wartime activities?

A: No, I actually didn't know anything about it. I’m surprised that such a great story had eluded me in every history class I had ever taken about World War II. And this idea of these guys who were, you know, a little past their prime soldiering years, kind of dropping everything and going through basic training and going to the front, risking their lives to save artwork was just an incredibly compelling story.

Q: You’re friends with Clooney. Does that make the working process easier or trickier in any way?

A: It makes it much easier because, you know, there's just a shorthand. He doesn't have to spend any time worrying about my feelings. There’s an implicit trust there that goes both ways. If I'm screwing up a scene, he can say that to me!

Q: What kind of a director is Clooney?

A: He's both very in control and very relaxed, which is really the mark of a great director. He never raised his voice. There was never any tension on set. Even though this was a very big film, in terms of cost and production value, it went along like we were doing a tiny little kitchen sink drama. It was right on schedule and I think they even came in under budget.



Q: Would you say Monuments Men was similar to other ensemble films that you've been in, like the Ocean's movies?

A: Yeah, it's similar to the Ocean's movies, I think. Partly, hopefully, in tone. It should feel fun and entertaining, the way those movies did. And I think in terms of process, it was extremely similar as well: thea ctors had a blast. But these movies are always the hardest for the director and the producers. So for George, directing and producing and starring in it and having written it, and then Grant – who wrote it with George and then produced it – those guys were very focused and had a lot on their plate. I mean, we were all focused too; we just had less on our plate.

Q: Clooney is notorious for on-set pranks. Were you the victim of any on this film?

A: Well, he never copped to this to me, but he did give an interview saying that he was taking in my wardrobe by like, a 16th of an inch every few days. Which, I had attributed to my poor eating habits while I was making the movie. But it makes a lot of sense when I heard that! [Laughs] Honestly though, he was so busy on this one. He'd always have a big dinner on Saturday night with the cast and the crew. But that was like a two- or three-hour thing and the only free time that he really allowed himself. He and Grant had their heads down on this one.



The greatest heist story in history is about to be told when “The Monuments Men” opens February 12 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

2014's Best Actress Frontrunner Cate Blanchett in The Monuments Men

Cate Blanchett, this year’s Best Actress winner at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Critics’ Choice Movie Awards (for her role in “Blue Jasmine”) and nominated at the 86th Academy Awards (Oscars) stars in a sweeping true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history where she is the only woman among “The Monuments Men.”

Based on the real history chronicled in the non-fiction book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History” by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, “The Monuments Men” is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. The Monuments Men found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.

The film is directed, co-written, co-produced and starred in by George Clooney with a phenomenal ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.

Cate Blanchett rounds out the cast as Claire Simone, a Frenchwoman in a unique position in Occupied France. “This story opens up the Second World War in a way that gives you a different perspective on it,” says Cate Blanchett, who plays a key role as Claire Simone, a woman who holds the key to the secret location of thousands of priceless pieces of stolen art.

“These men were spurred on by a higher ideal. So many of the works that we take for granted in the great museums of the world were returned by this band of men – it was a near impossible task. Absurd, in a way: non military men going to the front lines and asking generals to stop bombing a certain church or area to save a window, or a sculpture or mural – you wonder how they were able to save anything at all. It’s an extraordinary, selfless thing that they did, done to preserve history.”

“Claire Simone is a curator at the Jeu de Paume – once an art museum but became a kind of depot for art looted by the Nazis,” Blanchett explains. “But her real work goes on at night, when she records the provenance of the works and where they were being taken in an obsessively detailed way. She’s the catalyst for the third act of the movie – the Monuments Men know the works are disappearing but they don’t know where they are going, and they need her information.”

Blanchett says that there was truly something different about the ways the Nazis went about looting art. “In every war, there’s looting. What was shocking to me was the mathematical, calculated and systematic way the Nazis went about their looting, and the fact that their acquisition of works began as early as 1938.”

The other element that made the Nazi looting different was the so-called Nero Decree. “When Hitler realized he was going to lose the war, he ordered that everything the Nazis had amassed was going to be destroyed. He was going to leave nothing in the hands of the victors,” Blanchett explains. “In relation to the art, what the Nero Decree meant was that everything that they had stolen was to be destroyed.”

“Matt’s character, Granger, must win her trust,” Blanchett continues. “There was an understandable fear on the part of the French that, if the works were recovered by the Allies from the Nazis, they’d simply go to collections or collectors in Russia and the United States. From that standpoint, did it really matter whether it was stolen by the Germans, the Russians or the Americans?”

Ultimately, Granger and Simone forge an unusual bond, Blanchett says. “I think the love story that exists between them is a mutual love of art, of culture.” Blanchett says. “They are both gripped – passionately gripped – by the importance of saving this work for all time. They believe that no single person can ever truly own a masterpiece. It’s for everyone. So, I think they’re united in the nobility of the cause.”

Blanchett’s character is inspired by Rose Valland, a French woman who bravely and secretly kept track of the Nazis’ systematic tracking, risking her life in the process. “Rose Valland was, at first, a volunteer and then overseer at the Jeu de Paume, which adjoins the Louvre. During the war, it was a depot for looted Jewish art collections and other objects. Hermann Göring basically used the Jeu de Paume as a shopping mall – the Nazis set it up like an exhibition space for the pilfered art,” Blanchett explains. “Her work singlehandedly saved crate-loads, castle-loads full of works of art that otherwise could have easily been destroyed. The fact that she was working alone was an act of extraordinary bravery. I think she was able to achieve what she did because she didn’t stand out – she was the woman least likely.”

“The Monuments Men” opens February 12 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

Monsters University Review

Reviewing Monsters University courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Philippines. Opens June 29 and featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman as Mike and Sully respectively.

It's a return engagement to the world of Sully and Mike Wozawski this time however, we take a step back to that time before the events of Monsters Inc. to find out the origin of Mike and Sully's friendship as well as how they actually got to where they are.

In the grand scheme of things, Monsters University is the first daring risk that Walt Disney and Pixar has taken. They've always been known for making sequels but never a prequel. Did they pass the mark? Did they actually do good in this type of feature film story telling? The answer is yes.

There's a lot of cute moments here in Monsters U that will appeal to folks of different ages. It's also chock full of meta stuff, which is amusing considering that all that plus more is wrapped in such a movie. Still after all these years, I'm also still impressed with how Disney managed to cast it's traditional magic in this new movie.

The characters are also evenly matched to their voices; Serenity's Nathan Fillion comes into the film as Johnny the Jaw, Sean Hayes [of Will and Grace] as Terri, Charlie Day as Art and Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble all fit the characters to the T.

Being that it's a prequel, nothing earth-shattering or career ending happens here. No villain dies and Randell Boggs [played by Steve Buscemi] is still alive and still the laughing stock in one form or another. 

As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of metas that come into play in this movie. One of the most recurring ones happen to revolve around Mike and how he pines to be a scarer, no, the top scarer for Monsters Inc. Of course that doesn't happen in the first movie as its actually Sully who becomes that. While Toy Story delved around friendship and acceptance of what you are, Monsters University focuses more on friendship and growing up together. It's an evolving friendship as seen in the relationship between the two main characters.

Another great thing about Monsters University is the gags. It starts slow but by the time we get to see the big scare fest, you'll be chuckling not only at the antics of Mike and Sully but also with the other OK (Oozma Kappa) members such as Art and Terri & Terry. 

Major props to the production crew for giving us a couple of easter eggs in the movie. Oh and to answer your question, YES, THERE IS ANOTHER POST-CREDIT SCENE and you do not want to miss that.

Overall, Monsters University is a great movie to catch this weekend. Be sure to bring the kids and make it a family bonding moment. Oh and I also advice you to watch it in 3D as it gives more life to the already lively gang of would-be scary monsters. 

Special thanks once again to Walt Disney Studios Philippines. Catch Monsters University as it is released today (June 26). 

Monsters University Takes the Prequel Challenge

Ever since “Monsters, Inc.” opened in theaters on Nov. 2, 2001, the team at Pixar Animation Studios knew that Mike, Sulley and the monster world had touched audiences worldwide in a significant way. So the idea of bringing them back to the big screen in “Monsters University” was a welcome one. How to do it, exactly, was another story—literally.

Says executive producer John Lasseter, “When we create an original film at Pixar, by the time we’re done with it, we know the characters—they’re like friends; they’re like family; they’re part of us. It’s always bittersweet to say goodbye to characters like that. It’s so much fun to start thinking of new ideas that you can do in a world you already love, but we had to come up with a story that is as good or better than the original.”

To fuel Pixar Animation Studios’ well known collaborative process, the creative leadership team, dubbed “the brain trust,” hosted a brainstorming session, inviting some of Pixar’s best storytellers, including several members of the original “Monsters, Inc.” team. The idea of doing a prequel was certainly appealing to this group. Imagining the backstory for Mike and Sulley—a natural part of the filmmaking process—had been happening since the original film was made.

The Hangover Part III Review

Review for The Hangover Part III starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong and more. Directed by Todd Phillips and locally distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Philippines.

So the Wolfpack is officially back for a third comedic romp but what was supposed to be a laugh-a-minute treat suddenly evolved and focused on character development, particularly for Zach Galifianakis' Alan.

The humor is still neatly packed into the third installment but it's not as blatant or crass as it was before. The movie works on a timeframe and as such, there's a certain sense of maturity that will be required as sequels rise from out of nowhere. And this is what it's doing to the characters of The Hangover. Gone are the days when Doug was just a soon-to-be groom or Stu was a some girl's bitch. Sad to say, they've somehow 'grown up', though not for the better

Win a Pair of Tickets to Solaire Resort's Special Screening of THE HANGOVER PART III

Solaire Resort is giving away a pair of tickets to the special screening for The Hangover Part III starring Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms. 

I'll be giving away a pair of tickets to this screening folks. Just read on below as to how you could get the chance to win.

Pinoy Artist Cited in 'Monsters University' Fun Facts

Filipino artist Nelson Bohol, a veteran of several Pixar films like “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Cars” and “WALL-E,” figures in the fun facts released by Disney/Pixar regarding its upcoming animated comedy “Monsters University.”

 
Read on below and find out what Bohol did to deserve the citation.

Monsters University Issues Global All-Character Poster

Disney/Pixar has issued a new “Monsters University” poster dubbed `Global All-Character' which features the film's entire cast of monsters.

Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, “Monsters University” is directed by Dan Scanlon (“Cars”), produced by Kori Rae (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Monsters, Inc.”) and features music from future Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fame–inductee and award winning composer Randy Newman (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Toy Story 3”).

In the film, ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer—and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.

Opening across the Philippines on June 26 in Disney Digital 3D, 2D and regular theaters, “Monsters University” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

The Hangover Part III Takes the Wolfpack Back to Vegas

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures comes “The Hangover Part III,” the third and final film in director Todd Phillips’ record-shattering comedy trilogy.

“The Hangover Part III” is the epic conclusion to an incomparable odyssey of mayhem and bad decisions, in which the guys must finish what they started by going back to where it all began: Las Vegas.

One way or another…it all ends here.

“The Hangover Part III” reunites stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha as Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug. Also returning to the cast are Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow; Heather Graham as Stu’s first wife, Jade; and Jeffrey Tambor as Alan’s father, Sid. Joining the ensemble for the first time is John Goodman, starring as the guys’ new nightmare, Marshall.

Q & A With 'The Hangover Part III' Director Todd Phillips

Todd Phillips, the writer-director of Warner Bros.' male-oriented comedy “The Hangover Part III” talks about the final chapter of the trilogy in the following interview.

“The Hangover Part III” reunites Phillips with his original cast, led by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha. This time, there's no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.

Question: When did it occur to you to make a third Hangover movie and, conceptually, where did you want to take it?

Todd Phillips: Well, I think it occurred to us on the second movie that we wanted to make a third movie because, honestly, we just love doing them so much. And people can be cynical and say it’s a money thing or it’s a studio thing, but if you talk to these guys, we love hanging out and doing this movie. We wake up every day and the goal is just to make each other laugh. And we just feel very privileged and lucky that we get to do this. That said, it was very much a goal to make a film that was a departure from the other two and, at the same time, was still aggressively funny and unapologetic in its tone.

That was kind of the goal, and the other goal was to make a movie that felt like part of a trilogy, that tied up the other two movies, and justifies why the other two movies exist. In other words, it doesn’t pretend that the other two movies didn’t happen; it’s because the other two movies happened, if that makes sense.

Disney Launches New Monsters University Trailer

Disney/Pixar has just launched a brand new trailer of “Monsters University,” the highly anticipated prequel to the 2011 blockbuster, “Monsters, Inc.”

You may view the trailer here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l79mEDBybqE&feature=youtu.be.

Synopsis: Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer—and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.

It's All About Alan in the New Trailer for The Hangover Part III

Still can't get over the fact that I just saw Alan kiss Mr. Chow and then meet somebody that's just like him here in the new trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures' 'The Hangover Part III'.

Here's the synopsis for the new movie. And also, there's no wedding in this new flick. But Doug once again goes missing.

The Hangover Part III Teaser Trailer Now Released

Warner Bros. has just released the first trailer for “The Hangover Part III” which can be viewed at http://youtu.be/VLDn91XrrcM. This time, there's no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.

Directed by Todd Phillips, the film reunites Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha as Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug. Returning to the ensemble are Ken Jeong, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor and, as the guys’ long-suffering wives, Gillian Vigman, Sasha Barrese and Jamie Chung. John Goodman joins the cast as well.

New Trailer for Pixar's Monsters University

Disney/Pixar has just released the full, new trailer of “Monsters University,” the highly anticipated prequel to the 2011 blockbuster, “Monsters, Inc.”

Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (voice of John Goodman) are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. “Monsters University” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

“MONSTERS UNIVERSITY” POSTERS LAUNCHED

Disney/Pixar has just revealed the domestic and international posters of “Monsters University,” the highly anticipated prequel to the 2011 blockbuster, “Monsters, Inc.”

In the film, Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (voice of John Goodman) are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. “Monsters University” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

ARGO Movie Review

ARGO is a movie so enthralling that you'll cheer when all the good bits get shown. Opens October 17! thanks to Warner Bros.!

The film stars Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez a CIA exfiltration specialist who is tasked to rescue six US Embassy employees/ diplomats who managed to escape the 444 day hostage-taking crisis in Iran in the 1980s. To get these people out, Mendez fakes a movie entitled "Argo" which will be the cover story used to get the employees out of Iran.

The six US diplomats who escaped the US Embassy occupation in "Argo"