Movie News: MICHAEL FASSBENDERS’S “ASSASSIN’S CREED” ROLLS IN CINEMAS STARTING JANUARY 4

The action-packed and breathtaking game-to-movie adaptation “Assassin’s Creed” starring Michael Fassbender follows dual characters Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nehra in the modern day and 15th Century Spain respectively. In the 15th Century, Aguilar is joined by Maria, a more experienced Assassin than him, who is his most trusted ally. In the modern day, Cal finds himself at the Abstergo facility with a rag-tag bunch of fellow inmates who are all suffering from the effects of prolonged exposure to the Animus, and have their own ancestral Assassin legacies.

From the onset, director Justin Kurzel was adamant about filming as much of "Assassin's Creed" as possible without relying on green screens and computer-generated imagery.

As one of the video gaming industry’s most popular and beloved franchises, “Assassin’s Creed” is famous for its heart-pounding action sequences. The series was among the first to prominently feature Parkour as a major gameplay element, with Assassins breathlessly vaulting over the rooftops of cities including Jerusalem, Florence, Paris and London.

 "We're shooting a lot with real people, in real locations, on top of real churches with real light," Kurzel said. "We're building a lot of the sets to make something that is real and cinematic."

 "There’s very little green screen in this, which is highly unusual in these films," adds Fassbender. "We have stunt guys jumping across buildings in [Maltese capital] Valletta. We’ve got (stunt man Damian Walters) doing a 120-foot leap of faith, without any rope, into a bag, so it’s pretty incredible to see."

                For his big-screen adaptation, Kurzel sought to amplify that dizzying style with thundering carriage chases, elaborate sword fights, and close hand-to-hand combat. The director also realized the film had to prominently feature the Leap of Faith, a signature Assassin’s Creed move in which Assassins leap from the edge of buildings and plummet gracefully to the ground below, landing on their backs in water or bales of hay. “What happens if you do a real Leap of Faith?” Kurzel asked. “What would happen if you actually saw Assassins jump from building to building? The great thing about cinema is that you can bring that human element into it, where the audience responds and reacts to the idea that they are watching real human beings actually put the effort and danger in doing those things.”

                Kurzel and his team tapped some of the top Parkour talents to determine how to stage the action of Assassin’s Creed without relying on extensive CG trickery. The production then travelled to some of the most visually stunning corners of the globe in the hopes of capturing one-of-a-kind sequences that would offer viewers an immersive—and realistic—experience.

                “I never wanted the film to feel like superheroes,” Kurzel says. “I wanted you to look at it and think, Wow, there are human beings doing that and they are doing it like Olympians, as opposed to filming on a parking lot with green screen. You can feel that artifice. That is probably why we went toward a more old-school approach, to make the whole film feel more human and more intimate.”

 

                “Assassin’s Creed” opens January 4 in cinemas nationwide from 20^thCentury Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. 

Movie News: ELLE FANNING SPARKLES AS A COUNTRY GIRL IN “LIVE BY NIGHT”

Coming a long way from playing Sleeping Beauty in the smash hit Maleficent, Elle Fanning now stars opposite Ben Affleck in Warner Bros. Pictures’ gangster film Live by Night, as Loretta, the sweet and naïve daughter of the Tampa police chief.

It was the many facets of Loretta’s journey that would prove an exciting challenge for the young actress. “At first, Loretta has such sparkle, this girl with a twinkle inside her who is looking for adventure in life, she’s so excited to follow her dreams. Oddly, it’s when she loses that sparkle, loses that twinkle that she had, that she discovers her real purpose in this world,” Fanning reveals.

Live by Night tells the story of Joe Coughlin (Affleck), a WWI vet who’s a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not really bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and in love.

Loretta’s initial meeting with Joe is very brief. The next time they come in contact, the tables have definitely turned. Both the children of policemen, the comparison ends there; their paths have taken them in very different directions. Still, Joe can’t help but have a measure of respect for the slip of a girl who could, with just a few words, bring his world crashing down around him.

The script called for Fanning to master a couple of lengthy monologues, one of which took place in front of a large crowd, Joe included. With Affleck’s blessing, Fanning took the opportunity to speak her lines aloud for the first time when cameras were rolling. “I just wanted to go for it, to feel that energy, and Ben was so helpful and so giving—both as a director and as an actor in the scene.”

“Elle gave Loretta such an angelic presence and, at the same time, a broken innocence,” observes producer Jennifer Davisson. “It’s trickier than it sounds to do that, but it was important for the character and she got it.”

“Elle’s an extremely gifted actress,” Affleck states. “In the book, the character starts out at 13, but in the script I wrote her to be closer to the cusp of womanhood, someone who was straddling that line of being a girl and being grown up. I thought it would make Loretta’s storyline even more heartbreaking.”

Fanning was just 17 during production, yet, Affleck adds, “Despite being so young, she completely relaxes into the part; she doesn’t push, so it’s very natural, very real. She really does break your heart in the film.”

Opening across the Philippines on January 18, 2017, Live By Night is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Movies: Meet the "Bad Moms"

The latest badass comedy “Bad Moms” brings together an ensemble of extremely talented group of filmmakers starting from the writer/director duo, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore who also penned the outrageous worldwide hit “The Hangover,” along with producer Suzanne Todd, a multiple Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominated producer whose movies have grossed more than two and a half billion dollars worldwide such as “Austin Powers” trilogy, “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” “Boiler Room” and “Memento.” 

With a wide array of adjectives to choose from - tiger moms, soccer moms, perfect moms, fed up moms, you name it, they’re all here in “Bad Moms,” the ultimate tribute movie about the awesomeness of mothers starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Christina Applegate and Annie Mumolo with Jay Hernandez, Oona Lawrence and Emjay Anthony.  

 It’s war between the good and the mean in “Bad Moms,” contemporarily set in a world where there’s simply an overload of information – high tech apps, meaningful blogs, ‘expert’ advice, judgy “feedback” – but nothing has ever solved the one big issue all moms face: How to get it all done in the measly 24 hours to keep their family fit, fed and functioning, all with a smile after a long day. Does any app or hashtag address that? Can one blame them if they finally freak out? The answer is clear - #No #NoYouCan’t.

 

Further in “Bad Moms,” other moms know not to cross supermom Gwendolyn James (Applegate), the community’s arbiter of acceptable behavior, and Amy Mitchell (Kunis) certainly never meant to.  Life is hard enough. But upon reaching her tipping point, Amy is set to prove the perfect moms wrong and joins forces with Kiki (Bell), a stay-at-home mom and Carla, a single mom, together they brand themselves as “bad moms” eventually losing all fear of anyone else labelling them.

 Kunis signed on as lead character Amy Mitchell, a working mom whose myriad obligations leave her cut off from friendships, let alone the idea of fun for its own sake. Poor Amy is too busy to realize what she is missing.  “Really early on in motherhood, you forget that you’re a girl and you need girlfriends,” said Kristen Bell, a real life mother of two. “Part of the beauty of this film is that it’s about  these mothers discovering friendships again.”       

"Reading the script, you’d think a woman wrote it, but talking to Jon and Scott, you realize it’s an homage to their wives,” said actress Mila Kunis, a real-life mom herself. In fact, all six of the film’s leading ladies are mothers, as is producer Suzanne Todd.

 Lucas and Moore found expert guides to help them stir the soup, they hosted dinner parties with lots of moms, lots of wine and lots of stories from the trenches.  “What moms talk about is not how it’s usually portrayed in the average Hallmark-y Mom movie,” said Lucas. “It’s way more interesting and fun, and way more R-rated. Sometimes X-rated. And, yes, there’s conflict!”

 Producer Suzanne Todd, a mother of three, agreed. “It just feels like my experience. There were five scenes in the script that I felt like I had lived for sure. I mean exact, like exact detail of dialogue and specific things that happened; because it is kind of a shared collective experience about how hard we try to be good moms, how hard we are on ourselves about not being good enough.”

 

                “Bad Moms” opens August 3 in cinemas nationwide from Pioneer Films

Movies: DENZEL, PRATT INVITE FANS TO WATCH “THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN” NEW TRAILER

Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt went out of their way to engage fans as they introduce the new international trailer of Columbia Pictures' upcoming action-adventure “The Magnificent Seven” which may be viewed at https://youtu.be/tAnK6uEEyDE.

Director Antoine Fuqua brings his modern vision to a classic story in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ and Columbia Pictures’ “The Magnificent Seven.”

With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

Opening across the Philippines on September 21, “The Magnificent Seven” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #Mag7

Movie News: GAVIN HOOD DIRECTS "EYE IN THE SKY"

“Eye in the Sky” brings Helen Mirren in the midst of complicated mission as she plays UK Colonel Katherine Powell who is tracking a British national, Susan Danford (Lex King), suspected of working with the East African terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The operation is a complex and coordinated effort between different countries. On the ground, Kenyan intelligence operatives, like Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi), keep an eye on the suspects. From the air, US Air Force pilots, like Lt. Steve Watts (Paul), remotely fly drones from a Nevada bunker to provide an eye in the sky. In London, Powell coordinates these various forces, as well as communicates to a panel of government officials above her. Her supervisor, Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Rickman), observes the operation remotely with a select group tasked with providing judicial and government oversight. UK Attorney General George Matherson (McCabe) adjudicates the legality of the unfolding operation, while Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Brian Woodale (Northam) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Angela Northam (Monica Dolan) oversee the optics and ethics of the mission.  Together, these figures form the ‘kill chain’, an attack structure that co-ordinates target identification and the specific force dispatched to remove the target.

 Following His 2007 film “Rendition,” director Gavin Hood returns to the realm of contemporary warfare with the tense thriller “Eye in the Sky.” The decision to destroy the targets is further complicated by the problem of collateral damage, which again has to be measured from afar.   “Guy’s script created a very complex scenario,” continues filmmaker Gavin Hood, a South African filmmaker who counts the likes of “Ender’s Game” (2013), “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) and “Tsotsi” (2005) among his directing credits. “The script is informative in the way that it sets up the landscape, the chain of command and the way modern drone warfare is used.

 The collateral damage caused by a drone strike extends beyond potential human casualties. The killing of civilians, even accidentally, has a profound impact on the propaganda war.   “That is a very important conversation,” says Hood. “Are drone strikes, which inevitably do result in civilian casualties, actually generating so much anti-Western sentiment that whatever success they may have in taking out a high-value individual, is offset by a growing animosity for the West? That’s a propaganda question. In war, propaganda is an extremely important tool. Are we creating negative propaganda towards the West through the use of drones?

“I think the film asks whether we really are winning when using this form of warfare. Are we really winning when using these drones? When should we use this technology? What are the consequences of using this technology? Come and see this movie and you can decide for yourself.”

 "Eye in the Sky” opens July 20 in cinemas nationwide from Pioneer Films.

Movie News: EMILIA CLARKE FINDS LOVE IN “ME BEFORE YOU”

I love Emilia Clarke and I can't wait to see her in this role, which is so different from Daenerys in "Game of Thrones", she seems to be such a cheery person in interviews and even her Instagram posts are hilarious. Which is why I think she is well suited for the portray Lou in the upcoming, highly anticipated, bring-in-the-waterworks "Me Before You". Book review here. 

British actress Emilia Clarke takes a 360-degree turn from her famous Mother of Dragons character, Daenerys, in “Game of Thrones” to portray the wide-eyed, endearing Louisa, in New Line Cinema’s heart-tugging romance, “Me Before You.”

“What drew me to this movie were the words of Jojo Moyes, the book first and then the script,” explains Clarke. “I was hooked on page one and so excited to play a character with such charm and sincerity, who is so authentically and brilliantly British, and with such a lovely arc in her story.”

With no clear direction in her life, quirky and creative Lou works hard as a waitress in a small café in order to help her family make ends meet. “Louisa is a happy-go-lucky, very content girl,” observes Clarke of her character. “When we first meet her, she is working at The Buttered Bun Café, serving tea and scones. She’s very good at it, she loves the clientele, and we see she’s a sweet kind of caring girl who just wants to do well.”

But times are tough and Lou is let go. Knowing her income is as crucial as her skill set is minimal, she tells her local job placement agent that she’ll happily try anything. Her naturally cheery outlook is put to the test, however, when she faces her newest career challenge as caregiver and companion to Will Traynor. A once robust young man, he became wholly dependent on others due to an accident two years prior, and his whole world changed dramatically in the blink of an eye.

Director Thea Sharrock says, “Lou lives with her parents, her sister, her grandpa and her nephew in a very small house in a very small town. But her mum doesn’t have a job, Granddad doesn’t have a job, and Dad now doesn’t have a job, so her small income is a very big deal. Yet her outlook remains a sunny one.”

To find an actress who could play positive under pressure, the filmmakers cast a wide net. “We saw hundreds of girls, and I had Skyped with Emilia about the role, but I can honestly say that when she walked in to audition and did her first scene, it was literally like Lou was in the room,” Sharrock recalls. “There was no question. Her energy was exactly right; like Lou, she was just a breath of fresh air.”

Clarke had an easy rapport with the first-time feature director. “Thea is just the greatest, I love her. You’d never, ever, know that this was her first film,” she declares. “It’s a testimony to her intelligence, her integrity and her work ethic that working on this project, with its very tricky subject matter, felt almost effortless. She was so giving and always had a smile and a laugh to put us at ease, and that trickled down to everyone. I never felt like I was working.”

Based on the critically acclaimed, bestselling novel by Jojo Moyes, New Line Cinema’s and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ “Me Before You” stars Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”) and Sam Claflin (“The Hunger Games” movies), under the direction of renowned theatre director Thea Sharrock, making her feature film directorial debut.

Oftentimes you find love where you least expect it. Sometimes it takes you where you never expected to go…

When Louisa Clark—Lou, as she’s known—unexpectedly loses her waitressing job she must scramble to replace the income that her tight-knit family depends upon. Desperation drives her to take a job as a caregiver to Will Traynor, a man who used to be a wealthy banker with an adventurous soul, living life to the very fullest, but for whom those days are in the past. After a tragic accident, Will lost the desire to live and now keeps everyone at a distance with his caustic, overbearing attitude. But unlike his family, Lou refuses to tiptoe around him or cater to his moods. In fact, her sparkling personality and easy nature are hard for even Will to ignore, and soon enough each becomes exactly what the other needs.

Set for release across the Philippines on June 15, “Me Before You” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

The film's Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be available to download/stream via digital stores starting June 3. Get the CD for only Php 459.00 at Astroplus/Astrovision stores starting June 10.

-> Can't wait to get my hands on that OST! Click here for a tracklisting of the soundtrack!