Fantastically Real In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller directs and stars in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY(opening January 22 in Phils.), James Thurber's classic story of a day-dreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.

In 1939, when James Thurber first published “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” he brought a playful, modernist style to the story that lured readers directly into the experience of Walter Mitty’s fantasy life. In Ben Stiller’s latest adaptation, he hoped to do something similar, using modern cinema to open the story up visually in a way that couldn’t have been imagined in Thurber’s day. He knew there were several ways to approach Mitty’s fantasizing. But there was only way he felt that was right for what he wanted audiences to feel: using a deftly crafted hyper-reality that merges Mitty’s inner stream of consciousness into the fabric of what’s going on in his outer world.



Check out the movie’s latest featurette with Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig talking how the movie is about courage and going into the unknown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLT8WwOB3Pc&list=PLcZs6n5iZPx_miw9DVX-BUBQ3Ic62z90Z&feature=c4-overview-vl

“Everybody can connect with the idea of talking to somebody while actually having this crazy, imaginary fantasy going on in your head of where you’d rather be in that moment,” he explains. “That’s what we wanted to capture.”

Stiller thought intensively about how to achieve that. Creating Walter’s fantasies would certainly involve many moving parts, and a sense of spectacle, but Stiller used his effects judiciously, with an eye towards unbroken integration into the flow of the action. “In terms of visual effects, we wanted the overall approach to be very photo-real,” he says. “I’ve always found that the best results come from doing as much as you can practically in real-life situations and then just tickling that with the digital effects.”



Ultimately, Stiller would put together a visual design team including Oscar-nominated director of photography Stuart Dryburgh(“The Piano”), production designer Jeff Mann (“Tropic Thunder,” “Zoolander”), editor Greg Hayden (“Tropic Thunder,” “Zoolander”), costume designer Sarah Edwards (“Salt,” “Michael Clayton”) and visual effects supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (“Life of Pi”).

The constant yin and yang of dreams and reality in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” made for an extremely ambitious production – one which would take on the rigors of shooting in the middle of New York City then jet off to the other-worldly environs of Iceland, where cast and crew moved from volcanoes to helicopters to the middle of the frosty ocean.

Each location would host scenes that could not have been filmed elsewhere in the world. In New York, Stiller had the chance to shoot the epic chase between Walter and Ted in the live-wire dynamics of a typical crowded day in the city.

In Iceland, Stiller would shoot a scene that pushed him to new edges both as director and actor: when Walter jumps into the raging waves of the North Atlantic, which Stiller simulated with his own plunge into the ocean. “It was really important for me that we not do that scene in a tank,” he recalls. “I felt we had to shoot in real high seas, with a real boat there, a real helicopter and real waves,” he explains.

“That’s when Mitty literally dives into life,” muses John Goldwyn. “It’s the big transition moment of the movie, and it looks incredibly real, because most of it is.” The scene turned out, just as it does for Walter Mitty, to bring a bit more reality than even Stiller anticipated.

“We were about a mile out at sea with seven-foot swells -- which, when you’re in the water, are really big,” admits Stiller. “The boat with the camera in it went away to come back and do the shot, but there was this two-minute period where I was just in the North Sea with nobody around. I was in the ocean just by myself with a briefcase, floating there waiting for the camera to come back and was thinking, ‘I hope they can find me when they come back for the shot,’” he laughs. “There was a real sense of danger and it was one of those moments when I thought, ‘oh, this is what real filmmaking is all about.’”

Step out and live your dream. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opens January 22 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Review

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is endearing and fascinating. It's a movie that celebrates life and the joys of living albeit with a touch of Hollywood-ic flair.

I loved everything about the film from a good acting job for the cast to the beautiful locales, the vibe and feel of the story, the music used throughout the various parts and the lessons that come along with the film locally distributed by 20th Century Fox. While I'm raving about it, it does hit a few snags here and there; but it still won't let you down.

Ben Stiller plays the titular character who 'zones out' aka daydreams about other lives and fantasies all the while working at LIFE Magazine as the 'negative assets manager'. Things change when the negative for Life Magazine's final issue gets lost and Walter takes it to himself to find the missing negative by tracking the photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). All this while juggling family and heart problems. 

It's a bit ambitious and obviously is far from the original Thurber story and the 40s film adaptation where Mitty daydreams of being THE HERO. The hero that we all imagine, selfless and willing to lay down precious life for the good of others. Stiller's version plays to a different tune (I cannot help but think of Stiller's silly flute dance when I wrote that). THIS Mitty plays up to a more self-centered version. Yes self centered, self realization and self actualization. Still good.

Though the film doesn't have a "powerhouse cast", the actors and actresses chosen did a fine job. Sean Penn was awesome here. I have no tangible reason why, but his was the best and meatiest (if not shortest) role. Patton Oswald's appearance here was also a surprise. Stiller once again shows us that he can do exceptionally well in both comedic parts to more serious and dramatic turns. 

Visually arresting is how I would describe the film. Name it, they probably have it from gale force winds, dangerous seas, raging volcanoes, breathtaking Himalayan slopes. Had they added a rainforest or some tropical island this could have been mistaken for a Nat Geo movie and not a big Hollywood movie that positively glorifies the concept of YOLO (swag excluded). After seeing this, you'll most probably have this hankering to go on an out of town trip or go abroad. 

The story is excellent and brings forth a cathartic effect. It's one of those films that will make you reassess your life without having to go through the ringer of getting hurt by the things that happen to the lead character i.e. character deaths, plot twists. I like how the they change the Macguffins here; from the negative # 25 to Sean Penn's character to ending up a new person. Honestly though it's hard to imagine you'd go through lengths like that just to find something like a negative. It's also funny to realize that the whole "quintessence of life" can have a double meaning for the film. Applause.

Props to Theodore Shapiro who did the music for the film (which I assume including the picking of songs). It's upbeat as hell and with songs from bands like Of Men and Monsters and Arcade Fire to solo acts like David Bowie and Jose Gonzalez. 

If there's any gripe in this film, it's got to be product placement and endorsement. To date this is a film that can be a match to Vic Sotto's immensely lucrative and somewhat controversial "My Little Bossings" in the number of products shown.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opens January 22 from 20th Century Fox through Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sean Penn in Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller’s reimagining of James Thurber’s original story is highly entertaining and inspiring, revolving around a man who loves to daydream, frequently retreating into an imaginary world in which he is the hero. A photo editor at LIFE Magazine in New York, he enjoys his job but longs for passion and excitement. As he was about to lose his job as the company shifts and downsizes, Mitty finds himself out of his office in no time. The final issue of the prestigious magazine will soon be on newsstands, but a worried Mitty cannot find an important negative that has mysteriously gone missing.

The picture was taken by the iconic and elusive photographer Sean O’Connell played by Sean Penn. Sean is the only one who knows where it is. But where is Sean?

For all his fantasies of becoming a hero, Walter Mitty has his own very real hero: the famed LIFE photographer Sean O’Connell, an elusive adventurer who has become a kind of rock star of the photographic world, renowned for his relentless commitment to chasing a story no matter the cost.

It seemed just the right match to cast Oscar®-winning actor and director Sean Penn in the role of the mysterious icon who beckons Walter Mitty into the big, wide open world. “Sean O’Connell is a guy who represents creative integrity and he had to have this amazing presence that the audience connects with instantly when Walter finally meets him. That’s why Sean Penn was really my first choice because Sean embodies all that in life for me,” says Ben Stiller. Stiller was also keen to cast Penn in the kind of role where one of the leading dramatic actors of a generation wouldn’t normally be seen. “Sean actually has a really great sense of humor,” he notes, “which I think doesn’t get showcased that often in his film work, so it was fun to give him a chance to do something different.”

Adds producer Stuart Cornfeld: “Sean O’Connell has a certain kind of mystique, as does Sean Penn. What was amazing about his performance and the way the character is written is that when Walter finally does meet Sean, he's everything that Walter was looking for, but he's also completely different at the same time. For all of us, Sean was just amazing to watch in action.”

A two-time Academy Award winner, Sean Penn has become an American film icon in a career spanning more than three decades. Penn has been nominated five times for the Academy Award, as Best Actor for “Dead Man Walking,” “Sweet and Lowdown” and “I Am Sam,” and won his first Oscar in 2003 for his searing performance in Clint Eastwood's “Mystic River” and his second Oscar as Best Actor in 2009 for Gus Van Sant's “Milk.” The performance as gay rights icon Harvey Milk also garnered Penn Best Actor awards from The Screen Actors Guild (SAG™), New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

As a journalist, Penn has written for Time, Interview, Rolling Stone and The Nation magazines. In 2004, Penn wrote a two-part feature in The San Francisco Chronicle after a second visit to war-torn Iraq. In 2005, he wrote a five-part feature in the same paper reporting from Iran during the election which led to the Ahmadinejad regime. Penn's landmark interviews with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuba's President Raul Castro were published in The Nation and The Huffington Post. Penn's interview with President Castro was his first-ever interview with an international journalist.

His humanitarian work found him in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. In January 2010, Penn established the J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO). J/P HRO has become a leader in Haiti across multiple sectors, working to improve living conditions in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and surrounding neighborhoods by clearing rubble and providing medical services, education and enricmment programs, housing construction, and neighborhood redevelopment. J/P HRO's main objective remains to help displaced people get back to durable, safer, and permanent homes in revitalized neighborhoods.

Be a part of a man’s transformational journey in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” as it hops from the four corners of one’s office to Greenland, Iceland, Himalayas and ultimately to self-discovery when it opens January 22 in the Philippines from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

More Color for the Extended Trailer for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The extended trailer definitely shows a lot of great things to happen in this adaptation of the graphic novel "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" starring Ben Stiller and Kristin Wiig.

Ben Stiller takes adventure a notch higher in his latest starrer “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” This life-affirming adventure takes Stiller’s character MItty, a negatives manager in Life magazine, from land into the high skies, the deepest of seas and on peaks of mountains to find a negative crucial to the magazine’s last issue.

20th Century Fox presents the extended trailer of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” on their YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDG8XHSE6gg&list=PLcZs6n5iZPx_miw9DVX-BUBQ3Ic62z90Z where Mitty, a long-time daydreamer finally finds himself living out his dreams to save their jobs.



“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” also stars Kristen Wiig, Shirley McClaine, Sean Penn and Kathryn Hahn. It will open January 22 in cinemas nationwide.

Gangster Squad Review

Reviewing "Gangster Squad" from Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. Pictures starring Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

The film follows the life of a clandestine group of cops led by Sgt. John O'Mara tasked with taking down mobster Mickey Cohen. The problem that's presented throughout the film is that Penn's Cohen is practically untouchable. Think of the corruption presented in Batman Begins only that it's personified. 

The movie is all out action with a couple of gory seasons. At first it might not be your cup of tea but give it a few moments and you'll see that you're in for a good cinematic treat. I know I had fun during the screening. 

Three elements make the film such a good watch. First is the non-stop gun battles scattered throughout the film. Hey they even managed to squeeze in an a good car chase somewhere in the middle. The knock-out drag down brawls are great here. The climatic fist fight between O'Mara and Mickey Cohen is something that will keep you at the edge of your seat especially since we've seen how menacing and terrifying Penn's Cohen is.

 The other element that I found really interesting in "Gangster Squad" is Emma Stone. Sure there are bashers here and there but I'm a big fanboy of Emma Stone. She totally looked hot in this movie and while she's playing Mickey Cohen's girlfriend Grace, she has some on-screen chemistry with Ryan Gosling (whom she worked with in the past in the film "Crazy, Stupid Love".)

This dame is definitely beautiful. Hands down there's nothing more I can say. Oh wait, yeah, she should definitely hookup with Ryan Gosling. Ditch Andrew Garfield and make go out with Gosling. Mwahahahaha. I can definitely hear one fanboyseo reader going "f**k you Earl!"

 Gosling's pretty cool and suave here. His slickness and charm is what's obviously missing from the gangsters under Cohen's employ. My only problem here with Gosling's acting is that it's still pretty pathetic when it comes to dramatic moments. There's the scene where he figures in a street drive by and without spoiling the scene, he tries to cry. TRIES. Gosling tries and really fails when it comes to sob scenes. 

 

Third reason why you should catch "Gangster Squad" is because of the engaging drama. You don't need to know how Cohen figures in the actual history of the Los Angeles crime scene to appreciate the story. Nor is it a requisite to actually know details about life in post-WW2 America. All you have to do is sit down and get ready with your popcorn and your all set.

Don't let a rather dry and dull trailer fool you. Gangster Squad is as angas as some of the more contemporary gangster films. MTRCB has given the film an R-13 so pre-teens are allowed just get them ready for the violence. The movie opens January 30 from Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sean Penn is Mob Boss Mickey Cohen in Gangster Squad

Public enemy number one, Mickey Cohen, is brought to life on the big screen by two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn in Warner Bros.' epic, action-thriller, “Gangster Squad.”

“I thought it would be a fun old-school gangster picture with a cast I have great admiration for,” Penn says on what drew him to the film. “And upon meeting director Ruben Fleischer, I was sold.”

Set in Los Angeles, 1949, “Gangster Squad” revolves around ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians he has under his thumb. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Gangster Squad Character Banners

Warner Bros. has just launched new character banners for the crime thriller “Gangster Squad” from director Ruben Fleischer. The banners individually feature the characters played by Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Josh Brolin.



Under the direction of Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”), “Gangster Squad” is a colorful retelling of 1949 events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.