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Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2014
Saving Mr. Banks Review
Caught "Saving Mr. Banks" courtesy of Ayala Malls and I must say it was worth my time.
This movie follows the events that transpired in the initial development of the live-action Mary Poppins movie produced by Disney (the one starring Julie Andrews) featuring Academy Award winner Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Emma Thompson Plays Author of "Mary Poppins" in Saving Mr. Banks
Two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson (“Howards End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) is the filmmakers' first choice to play “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers in Walt Disney Pictures' inspirational drama, “Saving Mr. Banks.”
Also starring fellow double Oscar® winner Tom Hanks and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell, “Saving Mr. Banks” is inspired by the extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.
“When you’ve got somebody like Emma Thompson, she has a very large toolbox,” director John Lee Hancock proclaims about his leading lady and her abilities to tackle such a challenging role. “Anytime you’re taking on a character that is that complicated and that sad, there’s a weight that goes along with it. Emma confided in me that it was tough to wake up and play P.L. Travers every day. And it would be great when we were done so she would have hopefully done P.L. proud. She is so incredibly talented.”
Thompson says of the curmudgeonly P.L. Travers, “She was a wonderful case study, requiring so many different shades. She’s one of the most complicated people I’ve ever encountered.”
She adds, “I’ve never played anyone more full of contradictions, which makes it fascinating because she oscillates all the time. Her early life interfered so radically and so successfully with her capacity to have relationships and particularly with her relationships with men. Her father had been so emotionally unstable and unreliable that for her, love was always a very tricky thing. There was a brokenness and an emptiness and a sadness in her.”
Describing Travers at the point of her entry into the story for “Saving Mr. Banks” when she gets to Los Angeles, Thompson says, “She hated the script for `Mary Poppins.' Actually, she appeared to hate everything, but whether she actually did or not is another matter. What she was dealing with were her own issues, which were deep and complex. Her relationship with Mary Poppins was the same really in a sense as Walt Disney’s with Mickey Mouse. Mary Poppins had saved her in a way from the wounds of her own childhood, in the same way as Mickey Mouse had saved Walt. So, it wasn’t as if she was giving this character up with any degree of ease. She felt as though a part of her very soul was being taken away and turned into something that it really wasn't and she found that psychologically difficult.”
Thompson also points out another facet of the patchwork quilt that was P. L. Travers. “She was a bit of an intellectual snob,” comments Thompson. “I don't think there’s any question about that and indeed she was an extremely original and clever, talented woman. She was unusual in the sense that she had relationships with highly intellectual men at a time when it was not always easy for women to get access to them.”
Although Travers sought out the company of charming men in her lifetime, Thompson notes, “Walt’s charm was probably easier for her to resist. She would not have thought of him as an intellectual.”
“Pamela’s a tough old stick,” producer Collie adds about the film’s main character. “She is, in a sense, not an easy woman to like because she is so controlling and seems to be so humorless. And Emma, of course, portrays all those qualities. But, Emma also brings a certain warmth and just a hint of vulnerability where you want to give Pamela a big hug. That’s the skill of a great actor, to bring that empathy for what is a tough, unsympathetic old character. Emma was perfect casting.”
Thompson has her own take on her character and the story. “It’s about artists,” comments Thompson. “Why they do it and how interesting the relationship between the artist and their childhood is. A lot of children’s authors have had terrible childhoods. What I loved about it was that it was about how early suffering informs what you write, what you make and what you produce as an artist.”
In preparation to take on the persona of P.L. Travers, Thompson listened to tapes of the sessions in Los Angeles between the songwriting team of Richard and Robert Sherman, Walt Disney and Travers, all of which had been saved in the Disney Archives. “The tapes remind me of the myth of Sisyphus because it’s like listening to people push something very, very heavy up a hill and then get to the top and just watch the whole thing roll back down again. It’s really hard work listening to those tapes because P.L. is so awful and so irritating. Just listening to them makes you want to throw something heavy at her.
“But there are lots of little clues about what was really going on as well,” Thompson continues. “She’s often performing and there’s a stuttering quality to the tapes that makes it very difficult to listen to because she’s dealing with letting something out of herself that she just doesn’t really want to communicate. There’s a lot of straight negation and a lot of bullying. Of course, no one could say anything. Don DaGradi and the Sherman brothers were stuck in a room with her for weeks on end and just couldn’t say anything because she had to be handled with kid gloves. So, it was a nightmare for them and the tapes are a nightmare to listen to. But they were very, very useful.”
Tom Hanks enjoyed the experience of working with Emma Thompson and watching her bring forth the very difficult and complex P.L. Travers. “Every time I’ve seen Emma, I say, how does she do that? How does she make it look so easy? With the work that we did, there was always something going on between us. There was always a secret that Pamela had that Disney himself did not see until literally the end. There’s a scene where Walt Disney is saying, ‘Will you please share with me why this isn’t a good experience for you?’ The emotion that Emma had to bring to a woman who was about to break into tears over something she could not communicate shows the quality of an actress who is forever at the absolute top of her game. She is so far removed from the old English biddy who lives in the townhouse in London, yet her finger is on the absolute pulse of all the Englishness that goes on with that.”
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Also starring fellow double Oscar® winner Tom Hanks and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell, “Saving Mr. Banks” is inspired by the extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.
“When you’ve got somebody like Emma Thompson, she has a very large toolbox,” director John Lee Hancock proclaims about his leading lady and her abilities to tackle such a challenging role. “Anytime you’re taking on a character that is that complicated and that sad, there’s a weight that goes along with it. Emma confided in me that it was tough to wake up and play P.L. Travers every day. And it would be great when we were done so she would have hopefully done P.L. proud. She is so incredibly talented.”
Thompson says of the curmudgeonly P.L. Travers, “She was a wonderful case study, requiring so many different shades. She’s one of the most complicated people I’ve ever encountered.”
She adds, “I’ve never played anyone more full of contradictions, which makes it fascinating because she oscillates all the time. Her early life interfered so radically and so successfully with her capacity to have relationships and particularly with her relationships with men. Her father had been so emotionally unstable and unreliable that for her, love was always a very tricky thing. There was a brokenness and an emptiness and a sadness in her.”
Describing Travers at the point of her entry into the story for “Saving Mr. Banks” when she gets to Los Angeles, Thompson says, “She hated the script for `Mary Poppins.' Actually, she appeared to hate everything, but whether she actually did or not is another matter. What she was dealing with were her own issues, which were deep and complex. Her relationship with Mary Poppins was the same really in a sense as Walt Disney’s with Mickey Mouse. Mary Poppins had saved her in a way from the wounds of her own childhood, in the same way as Mickey Mouse had saved Walt. So, it wasn’t as if she was giving this character up with any degree of ease. She felt as though a part of her very soul was being taken away and turned into something that it really wasn't and she found that psychologically difficult.”
Thompson also points out another facet of the patchwork quilt that was P. L. Travers. “She was a bit of an intellectual snob,” comments Thompson. “I don't think there’s any question about that and indeed she was an extremely original and clever, talented woman. She was unusual in the sense that she had relationships with highly intellectual men at a time when it was not always easy for women to get access to them.”
Although Travers sought out the company of charming men in her lifetime, Thompson notes, “Walt’s charm was probably easier for her to resist. She would not have thought of him as an intellectual.”
“Pamela’s a tough old stick,” producer Collie adds about the film’s main character. “She is, in a sense, not an easy woman to like because she is so controlling and seems to be so humorless. And Emma, of course, portrays all those qualities. But, Emma also brings a certain warmth and just a hint of vulnerability where you want to give Pamela a big hug. That’s the skill of a great actor, to bring that empathy for what is a tough, unsympathetic old character. Emma was perfect casting.”
Thompson has her own take on her character and the story. “It’s about artists,” comments Thompson. “Why they do it and how interesting the relationship between the artist and their childhood is. A lot of children’s authors have had terrible childhoods. What I loved about it was that it was about how early suffering informs what you write, what you make and what you produce as an artist.”
In preparation to take on the persona of P.L. Travers, Thompson listened to tapes of the sessions in Los Angeles between the songwriting team of Richard and Robert Sherman, Walt Disney and Travers, all of which had been saved in the Disney Archives. “The tapes remind me of the myth of Sisyphus because it’s like listening to people push something very, very heavy up a hill and then get to the top and just watch the whole thing roll back down again. It’s really hard work listening to those tapes because P.L. is so awful and so irritating. Just listening to them makes you want to throw something heavy at her.
“But there are lots of little clues about what was really going on as well,” Thompson continues. “She’s often performing and there’s a stuttering quality to the tapes that makes it very difficult to listen to because she’s dealing with letting something out of herself that she just doesn’t really want to communicate. There’s a lot of straight negation and a lot of bullying. Of course, no one could say anything. Don DaGradi and the Sherman brothers were stuck in a room with her for weeks on end and just couldn’t say anything because she had to be handled with kid gloves. So, it was a nightmare for them and the tapes are a nightmare to listen to. But they were very, very useful.”
Tom Hanks enjoyed the experience of working with Emma Thompson and watching her bring forth the very difficult and complex P.L. Travers. “Every time I’ve seen Emma, I say, how does she do that? How does she make it look so easy? With the work that we did, there was always something going on between us. There was always a secret that Pamela had that Disney himself did not see until literally the end. There’s a scene where Walt Disney is saying, ‘Will you please share with me why this isn’t a good experience for you?’ The emotion that Emma had to bring to a woman who was about to break into tears over something she could not communicate shows the quality of an actress who is forever at the absolute top of her game. She is so far removed from the old English biddy who lives in the townhouse in London, yet her finger is on the absolute pulse of all the Englishness that goes on with that.”
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Tom Hanks Channels Real Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks
Sometimes, it really takes a beloved actor to portray a beloved figure. That's why Tom Hanks makes the perfect actor to play pioneering studio chief and eventual Hollywood legend, Walt Disney, in the inspiring drama, “Saving Mr. Banks.”
Also starring fellow double Oscar® winner Emma Thompson and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell, “Saving Mr. Banks” is inspired by the extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.
Tom Hanks says, “‘Saving Mr. Banks’ is about the making of ‘Mary Poppins’, not about the filming of ‘Mary Poppins.’ It’s about the translation of ‘Mary Poppins’ from book to screen. It’s about the creative process, of how P.L. Travers’ character started on paper first before it became the classic movie. I think this is actually a new take on that sort of story idea. What were the secrets behind this great movie that everybody loves? Well, it has a checkered past. It’s not just about somebody who broke their foot while they were shooting the film. It’s about somebody who broke the spirit of the people in the room when they were writing that movie. And, that was Pamela Travers.”
Says director John Lee Hancock, “This film portrays a side of Disney we haven’t seen before. It’s not the Walt we know from ‘The Wonderful World of Disney,’ which was fun to explore. But, someone had to play Walt Disney, become Walt Disney. Who would that be? There was really only one person that all of us could think of—Tom Hanks. I wasn’t trying to put a rubber mask on Tom and make him look exactly like Disney. I wanted Walt Disney to come from inside. Tom is such a fine actor that that’s where he begins his work—from the inside.
“Tom grew his own mustache,” Hancock continues in describing Hanks’ physical “transformation” for the role. “There’s a lot of voice work, the way he walks, the body position, the way he holds his hands, the way he touches his mustache. How he phrases things and lets sentences roll off the end. He simply became Walt Disney to me and I was completely amazed.”
“I don’t look or sound anything like Walt Disney,” Hanks affirms in responding to Hancock’s comments. “In addition to growing a mustache and parting my hair, the job at hand was to somehow capture all that whimsy that is in his eyes as well as all of the acumen that goes along with that. You can’t do an imitation of Walt Disney. There is a cadence to the way he sounds that comes from, I feel, his enthusiasm for what was in his head. He is an institution without a doubt and worthy of the museum that his family built for him up in the Presidio in San Francisco [The Walt Disney Family Museum].
“I went up to the museum and spent an entire day there,” Hanks confirms about part of the research required for his portrayal of the Hollywood legend. “Diane Disney and the staff there were incredibly welcoming and helpful. I heard every single piece of audio and saw every piece of film in the place about Walt’s entire history. He invented an art form that anybody can imitate, but no one can do better. Just helped tremendously.”
Hanks came away from that visit with important insight into Walt Disney’s character. He explains, “Walt was hands-on every step of the way, yet he always used the word 'we.' He never said, 'I had an idea' or 'I did it this way.' I thought that was great. There was an inclusiveness to everything he did. It went from the early cartoons in Kansas City all the way to his theme parks.”
Explaining the essence of Disney that he was trying to capture on screen, Hanks says, “Walt’s head was so full of magnificent ideas that he could not help make everybody else excited about them. And that’s what I was going for. I wanted to convey his pride and joy about the studio and what was coming out of it. There is a tactile connection to every word he says that has to come out of release.”
Emma Thompson looked forward to working with Tom Hanks, as the two of them have always wanted to do a film together. She says, “We have known each other for a long time, so when this was being cast I rang him up and said, ‘This is just so perfect.’
“Tom is fascinated by Disney and knows a lot about him. There’s something faintly similar to the pair of them—their enduring popularity and their sort of everyman quality and a huge kind of a charm,” she concludes.
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Also starring fellow double Oscar® winner Emma Thompson and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell, “Saving Mr. Banks” is inspired by the extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.
Tom Hanks says, “‘Saving Mr. Banks’ is about the making of ‘Mary Poppins’, not about the filming of ‘Mary Poppins.’ It’s about the translation of ‘Mary Poppins’ from book to screen. It’s about the creative process, of how P.L. Travers’ character started on paper first before it became the classic movie. I think this is actually a new take on that sort of story idea. What were the secrets behind this great movie that everybody loves? Well, it has a checkered past. It’s not just about somebody who broke their foot while they were shooting the film. It’s about somebody who broke the spirit of the people in the room when they were writing that movie. And, that was Pamela Travers.”
Says director John Lee Hancock, “This film portrays a side of Disney we haven’t seen before. It’s not the Walt we know from ‘The Wonderful World of Disney,’ which was fun to explore. But, someone had to play Walt Disney, become Walt Disney. Who would that be? There was really only one person that all of us could think of—Tom Hanks. I wasn’t trying to put a rubber mask on Tom and make him look exactly like Disney. I wanted Walt Disney to come from inside. Tom is such a fine actor that that’s where he begins his work—from the inside.
“Tom grew his own mustache,” Hancock continues in describing Hanks’ physical “transformation” for the role. “There’s a lot of voice work, the way he walks, the body position, the way he holds his hands, the way he touches his mustache. How he phrases things and lets sentences roll off the end. He simply became Walt Disney to me and I was completely amazed.”
“I don’t look or sound anything like Walt Disney,” Hanks affirms in responding to Hancock’s comments. “In addition to growing a mustache and parting my hair, the job at hand was to somehow capture all that whimsy that is in his eyes as well as all of the acumen that goes along with that. You can’t do an imitation of Walt Disney. There is a cadence to the way he sounds that comes from, I feel, his enthusiasm for what was in his head. He is an institution without a doubt and worthy of the museum that his family built for him up in the Presidio in San Francisco [The Walt Disney Family Museum].
“I went up to the museum and spent an entire day there,” Hanks confirms about part of the research required for his portrayal of the Hollywood legend. “Diane Disney and the staff there were incredibly welcoming and helpful. I heard every single piece of audio and saw every piece of film in the place about Walt’s entire history. He invented an art form that anybody can imitate, but no one can do better. Just helped tremendously.”
Hanks came away from that visit with important insight into Walt Disney’s character. He explains, “Walt was hands-on every step of the way, yet he always used the word 'we.' He never said, 'I had an idea' or 'I did it this way.' I thought that was great. There was an inclusiveness to everything he did. It went from the early cartoons in Kansas City all the way to his theme parks.”
Explaining the essence of Disney that he was trying to capture on screen, Hanks says, “Walt’s head was so full of magnificent ideas that he could not help make everybody else excited about them. And that’s what I was going for. I wanted to convey his pride and joy about the studio and what was coming out of it. There is a tactile connection to every word he says that has to come out of release.”
Emma Thompson looked forward to working with Tom Hanks, as the two of them have always wanted to do a film together. She says, “We have known each other for a long time, so when this was being cast I rang him up and said, ‘This is just so perfect.’
“Tom is fascinated by Disney and knows a lot about him. There’s something faintly similar to the pair of them—their enduring popularity and their sort of everyman quality and a huge kind of a charm,” she concludes.
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Saving Mr. Banks -- Untold Story of "Marry Poppins'" Journey from Book to Screen
In 1961, Walt Disney invited “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers to his studio in Los Angeles to discuss, in person, his continued interest in obtaining the movie rights to her beloved book and character—a pitch he first made to her in the 1940s. Still hesitant and disinterested after all those years, Travers wanted to tell the Hollywood impresario to go fly a kite but with dwindling sales of her books and a bleak economic future looming, P.L. Travers said yes and embarked on a two-week sojourn in Los Angeles that would ultimately set the wheels of the beloved film in motion.
Now, Walt Disney Pictures presents “Saving Mr. Banks,” a film inspired by this extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen, starring two-time Academy Award® winner Emma Thompson, fellow double Oscar® winner Tom Hanks and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell.
“Mary Poppins’” journey to the screen begins the moment Walt Disney’s daughters beg him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins.” Walt makes them a promise to do so, but it is a promise that he doesn’t realize will take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.
For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.
It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.
Expounding on the premise of the film, director John Lee Hancock says, “It’s really a fantastic story, but it’s not the behind-the-scenes look at the making of ‘Mary Poppins.’ You’re not on a soundstage with a young Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Our story takes you back two to three years before the actual production of the movie began.
“Walt Disney saw the promise of that movie, which made it worth dealing with P.L. Travers to secure the rights. That’s our story, a fantastic story, about a beloved movie, its own story and characters, and the origins of how it became this amazing, groundbreaking film. On a deeper level, it’s also about two storytellers and Disney’s journey trying to discover why P.L. Travers holds on so dearly and protectively to her story and the image of this father she adored,”Hancock concludes.
Colin Farrell co-stars as Travers’ doting dad, Travers Goff, along with British actress Ruth Wilson (Disney’s “The Lone Ranger”) as his wife, Margaret; Oscar® and Emmy® nominee Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under”) appears as Margaret’s sister Aunt Ellie (who inspired the title character of Travers’ novel); and a screen newcomer—11-year-old Aussie native Annie Rose Buckley—is the young, blossoming writer, nicknamed Ginty, in the flashback sequences.
The cast also includes Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”) as Ralph, the kindly limousine driver who escorts Travers during her two-week stay in Hollywood; Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore”) and B.J. Novak (“Inglourious Basterds”) as the songwriting Sherman brothers (Richard and Robert, respectively); Emmy winner Bradley Whitford (“The Cabin in the Woods”) as screenwriter Don DaGradi; and multi-Emmy winner Kathy Baker (“Edward Scissorhands”) as Tommie, one of Disney’s trusted studio confidantes.
“Saving Mr. Banks” is directed by John Lee Hancock (“The Blind Side”) from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith.
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Now, Walt Disney Pictures presents “Saving Mr. Banks,” a film inspired by this extraordinary, untold back story of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen, starring two-time Academy Award® winner Emma Thompson, fellow double Oscar® winner Tom Hanks and acclaimed actor Colin Farrell.
“Mary Poppins’” journey to the screen begins the moment Walt Disney’s daughters beg him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins.” Walt makes them a promise to do so, but it is a promise that he doesn’t realize will take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.
For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.
It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.
Expounding on the premise of the film, director John Lee Hancock says, “It’s really a fantastic story, but it’s not the behind-the-scenes look at the making of ‘Mary Poppins.’ You’re not on a soundstage with a young Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Our story takes you back two to three years before the actual production of the movie began.
“Walt Disney saw the promise of that movie, which made it worth dealing with P.L. Travers to secure the rights. That’s our story, a fantastic story, about a beloved movie, its own story and characters, and the origins of how it became this amazing, groundbreaking film. On a deeper level, it’s also about two storytellers and Disney’s journey trying to discover why P.L. Travers holds on so dearly and protectively to her story and the image of this father she adored,”Hancock concludes.
Colin Farrell co-stars as Travers’ doting dad, Travers Goff, along with British actress Ruth Wilson (Disney’s “The Lone Ranger”) as his wife, Margaret; Oscar® and Emmy® nominee Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under”) appears as Margaret’s sister Aunt Ellie (who inspired the title character of Travers’ novel); and a screen newcomer—11-year-old Aussie native Annie Rose Buckley—is the young, blossoming writer, nicknamed Ginty, in the flashback sequences.
The cast also includes Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”) as Ralph, the kindly limousine driver who escorts Travers during her two-week stay in Hollywood; Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore”) and B.J. Novak (“Inglourious Basterds”) as the songwriting Sherman brothers (Richard and Robert, respectively); Emmy winner Bradley Whitford (“The Cabin in the Woods”) as screenwriter Don DaGradi; and multi-Emmy winner Kathy Baker (“Edward Scissorhands”) as Tommie, one of Disney’s trusted studio confidantes.
“Saving Mr. Banks” is directed by John Lee Hancock (“The Blind Side”) from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith.
Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 26, “Saving Mr. Banks” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Captain Phillips Review
I made the mistake of dismissing Captain Phillips as another bad movie starring Tom Hanks. I was sorely wrong when we caught a special screening of the film.
There's a lot of thing going in Paul Greengrass' Captain Phillips. Quick disclaimer, Hanks here is not a gung ho pirate captain. He's basically an aged captain for a cargo shipping company that's been thrust into a very dangerous situation.
The high stakes drama at the high seas gives us a look at how dangerous piracy really is not just for the captains and first mates but also for the rest of the crew. Yes kids, this is just one of the many things that your dad has to go through in order to send you to school, put food on the table and give you your iPad.
Hanks was brilliant here. It's actually a mish-mash of some other Hanks classic characters. There's a bit of his rational Robert Langdon here, a dash of some Chuck Noland (from Cast Away) and a pinch of Woody. Either way, there's no real reason why you can't like Hanks' Phillips here. The Academy Award winner also shows us why he has been getting some rave comments about his acting chops as he shows us how the human spirit endures through the face of adversity.
Though the plot and the trailer might be a yawner, I can assure you as early as now that you won't be bored with this film. Everything was great. The visuals, the musical scoring, Hanks as the eponymous Captain Phillips and even the Somali pirates that boards the Maersk Alabama.
One of the best things about this movie is that it lulls you with a sense of false safety that everything's OK and then delivers another complication. In other films, the second or third twist will just kill you with boredom but its simply not the case with 'Phillips'.
It's easy to paint a picture of the Somali pirates as the bad guys, the guys who are simply looking for money but in this film, we get a fair amount of screen time for the pirates led by Muse (played by Barkhad Abdi). The skinny guy was a great character because he easily crosses over from good-guy-turned-bad-guy to somebody who's been thrust into a very deadly situation. He's also the perfect example of the adage 'looks can be deceiving'.
I dunno, maybe there's a tinge of bias here for this film especially since I worked with a Maritime company in the past and was covering pirate incidents off the coast of Africa around the time that the movie was depicted in. For me, it's a sense of nostalgia as well.
Verdict: Captain Phillips is one of the best and modern high seas drama I've seen in the past few years. More like this please.
There's a lot of thing going in Paul Greengrass' Captain Phillips. Quick disclaimer, Hanks here is not a gung ho pirate captain. He's basically an aged captain for a cargo shipping company that's been thrust into a very dangerous situation.
The high stakes drama at the high seas gives us a look at how dangerous piracy really is not just for the captains and first mates but also for the rest of the crew. Yes kids, this is just one of the many things that your dad has to go through in order to send you to school, put food on the table and give you your iPad.
Hanks was brilliant here. It's actually a mish-mash of some other Hanks classic characters. There's a bit of his rational Robert Langdon here, a dash of some Chuck Noland (from Cast Away) and a pinch of Woody. Either way, there's no real reason why you can't like Hanks' Phillips here. The Academy Award winner also shows us why he has been getting some rave comments about his acting chops as he shows us how the human spirit endures through the face of adversity.
Though the plot and the trailer might be a yawner, I can assure you as early as now that you won't be bored with this film. Everything was great. The visuals, the musical scoring, Hanks as the eponymous Captain Phillips and even the Somali pirates that boards the Maersk Alabama.
One of the best things about this movie is that it lulls you with a sense of false safety that everything's OK and then delivers another complication. In other films, the second or third twist will just kill you with boredom but its simply not the case with 'Phillips'.
It's easy to paint a picture of the Somali pirates as the bad guys, the guys who are simply looking for money but in this film, we get a fair amount of screen time for the pirates led by Muse (played by Barkhad Abdi). The skinny guy was a great character because he easily crosses over from good-guy-turned-bad-guy to somebody who's been thrust into a very deadly situation. He's also the perfect example of the adage 'looks can be deceiving'.
I dunno, maybe there's a tinge of bias here for this film especially since I worked with a Maritime company in the past and was covering pirate incidents off the coast of Africa around the time that the movie was depicted in. For me, it's a sense of nostalgia as well.
Verdict: Captain Phillips is one of the best and modern high seas drama I've seen in the past few years. More like this please.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Tom Hanks Plays Real-Life "Captain Phillips" in Gripping Hostage Thriller
Tom Hanks plays the titular, true-to-life character in Columbia Pictures' “Captain Phillips,” a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates.
The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage.
The audience will not find conventional heroes in “Captain Phillips” — only human beings in all their societal, cultural, and personal complexities. Director Paul Greengrass saw Richard Phillips not as the engine of the story but rather as a man who, while quietly devoted to his work, gets suddenly swept up into a violent, global event.
“Phillips reminds me of men I knew when I was young, growing up with a father in the merchant marine: the working men who haul the goods we use around the world, who are the lifeblood of the world economy,” Greengrass says. “They are the truckers of the sea. It’s a very physical, blue-collar kind of world. To me, Richard Phillips is that kind of man — a kind of Everyman who finds himself in this unwanted confrontation,” says the director. “He’s really an ordinary person, but the way he responds to what happens to him and what this ordeal he goes through has to say about the world we live in is extraordinary.”
From the very beginning, the filmmakers envisioned Tom Hanks as the veteran merchant mariner Richard Phillips. Hanks has excelled in diverse roles depicting seemingly ordinary men facing extreme crises: from Andrew Beckett, the lawyer suffering from AIDS and fighting a wrongful termination suit in “Philadelphia,” to astronaut Jim Lovell, struggling to return to Earth after a moon mission goes awry in “Apollo 13,” to John Miller, the World War II captain searching for a missing soldier in “Saving Private Ryan,” and to Chuck Noland, the FedEx executive trapped alone on a desert island in “Cast Away.” Hanks builds characters from the inside out, endowing ordinary people with a quiet but extraordinary bravery. His portrayal of Richard Phillips is no exception.
Greengrass says of his first time working with the two-time Oscar®-winner: “Tom and I went on a journey together. In the beginning, he kept saying, ‘For me, it’s really just about a guy in peril on the sea’ — and Tom honed his performance down to something that stark and true. He spent hour after hour in that lifeboat — everyone was moved by how much he put into this. It was not just a matter of his talent, but of his willingness to explore every inch of this man’s humanity — the accuracy of what Tom did and the detail of it was magnificent. I was also incredibly impressed by his physical stamina. We were out on the ocean for hour after hour, and Tom never complained. He was always the first one to turn around and say, ‘I’m ready. Let’s do it again.’”
Hanks prepared for the role by getting to know Richard Phillips, visiting with the captain at his home in Vermont, where he lives with his wife, Andrea, a nurse. Hanks found Phillips to be an affable, self-effacing man who never saw himself as anything more than a seaman simply doing his job.
Incredibly, Phillips returned to his work at Maersk not long after his near fatal ordeal with Somali pirates. “That in particular I found amazing,” said Hanks. “That a man who suffered such a wrenching, terrifying ordeal, could bring himself to go right back to sea. I knew understanding Phillips’ strength — that particular kind of personal fortitude and connection to the sea, despite what happened — would be essential to understanding the sort of man Richard is. The reality is that not everybody has what it takes to be a ship captain — and not everyone could have withstood being taken hostage.”
Greengrass says that Hanks delivered a masterful, truthful performance. “I remember one very difficult scene. We were on the Truxtun and we were getting ready to film the scene, post-rescue. We asked Richard where that interview really happened, and he said it took place in the sick bay. Well, we’d been planning to do it in the Captain’s quarters, but as soon as he said it, the sick bay made much more sense. So Tom and I worked out how we’d do it, and I picked a crewmember from the Truxtun to play the scene with him. As a result, a woman who was not expecting when she woke up that morning to have a speaking role in a movie, or to be acting opposite a two-time Academy Award®-winner, did this climactic scene with Tom that brought the entire crew to tears! It’s just a stunning moment in the film.”
Opening across the Philippines in Oct. 23, “Captain Phillips” 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.
The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage.
The audience will not find conventional heroes in “Captain Phillips” — only human beings in all their societal, cultural, and personal complexities. Director Paul Greengrass saw Richard Phillips not as the engine of the story but rather as a man who, while quietly devoted to his work, gets suddenly swept up into a violent, global event.
“Phillips reminds me of men I knew when I was young, growing up with a father in the merchant marine: the working men who haul the goods we use around the world, who are the lifeblood of the world economy,” Greengrass says. “They are the truckers of the sea. It’s a very physical, blue-collar kind of world. To me, Richard Phillips is that kind of man — a kind of Everyman who finds himself in this unwanted confrontation,” says the director. “He’s really an ordinary person, but the way he responds to what happens to him and what this ordeal he goes through has to say about the world we live in is extraordinary.”
From the very beginning, the filmmakers envisioned Tom Hanks as the veteran merchant mariner Richard Phillips. Hanks has excelled in diverse roles depicting seemingly ordinary men facing extreme crises: from Andrew Beckett, the lawyer suffering from AIDS and fighting a wrongful termination suit in “Philadelphia,” to astronaut Jim Lovell, struggling to return to Earth after a moon mission goes awry in “Apollo 13,” to John Miller, the World War II captain searching for a missing soldier in “Saving Private Ryan,” and to Chuck Noland, the FedEx executive trapped alone on a desert island in “Cast Away.” Hanks builds characters from the inside out, endowing ordinary people with a quiet but extraordinary bravery. His portrayal of Richard Phillips is no exception.
Greengrass says of his first time working with the two-time Oscar®-winner: “Tom and I went on a journey together. In the beginning, he kept saying, ‘For me, it’s really just about a guy in peril on the sea’ — and Tom honed his performance down to something that stark and true. He spent hour after hour in that lifeboat — everyone was moved by how much he put into this. It was not just a matter of his talent, but of his willingness to explore every inch of this man’s humanity — the accuracy of what Tom did and the detail of it was magnificent. I was also incredibly impressed by his physical stamina. We were out on the ocean for hour after hour, and Tom never complained. He was always the first one to turn around and say, ‘I’m ready. Let’s do it again.’”
Hanks prepared for the role by getting to know Richard Phillips, visiting with the captain at his home in Vermont, where he lives with his wife, Andrea, a nurse. Hanks found Phillips to be an affable, self-effacing man who never saw himself as anything more than a seaman simply doing his job.
Incredibly, Phillips returned to his work at Maersk not long after his near fatal ordeal with Somali pirates. “That in particular I found amazing,” said Hanks. “That a man who suffered such a wrenching, terrifying ordeal, could bring himself to go right back to sea. I knew understanding Phillips’ strength — that particular kind of personal fortitude and connection to the sea, despite what happened — would be essential to understanding the sort of man Richard is. The reality is that not everybody has what it takes to be a ship captain — and not everyone could have withstood being taken hostage.”
Greengrass says that Hanks delivered a masterful, truthful performance. “I remember one very difficult scene. We were on the Truxtun and we were getting ready to film the scene, post-rescue. We asked Richard where that interview really happened, and he said it took place in the sick bay. Well, we’d been planning to do it in the Captain’s quarters, but as soon as he said it, the sick bay made much more sense. So Tom and I worked out how we’d do it, and I picked a crewmember from the Truxtun to play the scene with him. As a result, a woman who was not expecting when she woke up that morning to have a speaking role in a movie, or to be acting opposite a two-time Academy Award®-winner, did this climactic scene with Tom that brought the entire crew to tears! It’s just a stunning moment in the film.”
Opening across the Philippines in Oct. 23, “Captain Phillips” 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.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tom Hanks and Ron Howard to Film Dan Brown's INFERNO
Dan Brown's INFERNO was an instant hit among Pinoy bibliophiles (and non-bibliophiles) due to a number of reasons more importantly because it called Manila the "Gateway to Hell" (which I kinda agree, for most parts anyway). And now everybody gear up as it's been reported that Ron Howard (Da Vince Code, Angels and Demons) is teaming up with Tom Hanks again for "INFERNO".
The film will be released December 18,2015 and will have writer Mark Romanek do the screenplay. At the moment though, I'm betting the release date would not push through and this'll come out around 2016, thanks to the Metro Manila Film Festival; something I find ironic. If you could only see my laughter while typing this.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
First Look at Tom Hanks as Walt Disney
Yup you read it right, Tom Hanks is playing Walt Disney.
The X number of times Oscar winning actor plays the famed studio owner opposite Emma Thompson who plays PL Travers for the movie "Saving Mr. Banks"
Sadly, this isn't a biopic about the life and times of Disney but rather focuses on a specific point in time; the production of the film "Mary Poppins" which starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
No release date for this film at the moment.
The X number of times Oscar winning actor plays the famed studio owner opposite Emma Thompson who plays PL Travers for the movie "Saving Mr. Banks"
Sadly, this isn't a biopic about the life and times of Disney but rather focuses on a specific point in time; the production of the film "Mary Poppins" which starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
No release date for this film at the moment.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Tom Hanks' New Thriller Captain Phillips Debuts Trailer
Columbia Pictures' new action-thriller "Captain Phillips" starring two-time Oscar-winner Tom Hanks has just revealed its teaser trailer and can be viewed here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEM5-6JxHJ8.
The film is the true story of Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
The film is the true story of Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
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