The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
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- Ben Kingsley on the art of 'under-acting' in 'Hugo'
- Priyanka Chopra plays tough cop in Don 2
| Posted: 30 Dec 2011 10:50 PM PST 2012 is a year chock-full of remakes, re-releases, familiar stories, superheroes and fairy tales. Isn't recycling great? 21 Jump Street – From Johnny Depp to, erm, Jonah Hill? Okay, it'll probably be Channing Tatum who'll try to step into the "pretty boy" shoes first occupied by Depp in the 1987 TV series. (By the way, Depp will make a cameo appearance.) Good looks come in handy when one has to arrest teens, no? 47 Ronin – Keanu Reeves headlines this film which features a predominantly Japanese cast. The movie is set in the 18th century when 47 samurai warriors plan to avenge their master's death and reclaim their honour. Keanu, can you say Chûshingura with us, please? 29 Februari – KRU's first foray into the 3D realm revolves around the love story between Budi (Remy Ishak) and Lily (Jojo Goh), revisiting along the way such important historical events as the Japanese Occupation, May 13 and the country's independence. The title refers to Budi's birth date. 3x Trouble – A night market is about to be replaced by a mall. Hai, Tian and San who work at the pasar malam decide to do something to stop it. Dai Yang Tian, Rynn Lim and Jack Lim star. The Avengers – What else is there to know here other than that the film is directed by Joss Whedon and is about how Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye and Hulk flex some serious macho muscles to save the world? Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo star. The Amazing Spider-Man – No doubt Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire did a wonderful job with the much-loved web-slinger. Still, we are very curious to see how Marc Webb (500 Days Of Summer) and Andrew Garfield will interpret old Spidey. Abraham Lincoln: The Vampire Hunter – The conceit here is that the 16th president of the United States is really a vampire hunter. And get this, his crazy wife – Mary Todd Lincoln – is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the kick-a** protagonist of The Thing). The movie is not to be mistaken with Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, a serious biography. Brave – Pixar tackles the Scottish accent and gives us a female hero. We like it already. Voices of Kelly McDonald, Emma Thompson and Kevin McKidd. The Bourne Legacy – Matt Damon is out of the picture but we have Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton stepping in as the Bourne adventure continues. Please don't suck; please, please don't suck. Beauty And The Beast 3D – The first of the old films returning to the cinema circuit in 2012, with an extra dimension. This Disney film involves a girl, a cursed prince and more than a few talking and dancing household items. Big Miracle – Drew Barrymore and Kristen Bell are huge animal lovers. The film revolves around a Greenpeace volunteer who must save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle. Buy tissues now. Battleship – A whole movie based on the board game? Before you turn up your noses, know that it's directed by Peter Berg and stars Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgård and Taylor Kitsch. The Cabin In The Woods – The synopsis is real simple: five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods and bad things happen. Winning factor? One of the writers is Whedon, and it features Chris Hemsworth. So this might not be such a typical B-grade film, eh? Cinta Kura-Kura – This film starring Tiz Zaqyah, Aeril Zarel and Fara Fauzana features a talking turtle. It's a rom-com written and directed by Nizam Zakaria, and centres around young Nani, who has a pet turtle. Chinese Zodiac – Jackie Chan's 101 movie along the lines of Armour Of God and Indiana Jones. Chan's character embarks on a treasure hunt to locate 12 lost Chinese national treasures which were scattered across the world after the sacking of the Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860. Shooting locations include Paris, Vienna, Kazakhstan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Dark Knight Rises – Catwoman, Scarecrow and Bane! Gotham City sure gets a lot of visitors. Or maybe they heard that director Christopher Nolan has been doing such a smashing job that they want to have their 15 minutes, too. The Descendants – Alexander Payne writes and directs this George Clooney vehicle about a man who tries to reconnect with his two daughters. There's a lot of Oscar buzz for this already. Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino recruits Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to tell the story of Django, a slave turned bounty hunter. Violence ensues, no? The Expendables 2 – The retirees are at it again, with a little help from Jason Statham and Liam Hemsworth. Chuck Norris, too. Creak. Frankenweenie – Victor brings his beloved dog back from the dead only to face a horrific consequence. An animated horror-fantasy directed by Tim Burton. Finding Nemo 3D – Look who's back and in peril in the great wide ocean. Nemo's dad. The Five-Year Engagement – A comedy that follows a couple between the time "the question" is popped and walking down the aisle. Jason Segel and Emily Blunt play the couple in for the long haul. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – David Fincher enters the world of grunge and serial killers once again. His subject this time is a fascinating punk named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance – Does the title refer to all the bad mojo conjured up after watching the 2007 dud? Nic, do something worthy again, please. The Hunger Games – Jennifer Lawrence plays 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, the heroine in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy. It's the future, and people's pastimes consist of watching teens fight to death on live TV. Yeah. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – After much delay, director Peter Jackson is finally doing a film on the Hobbits – Bilbo Baggins, specifically (played by Martin Freeman and Ian Holm, the young and old Bilbo). Haywire – A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed during a mission. She is Gina Carano. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, this film features Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonia Banderas and Bill Paxton. The Hunter – About a film crew from China shooting the exotic flora and fauna of Borneo. The filmmakers' journey begins happily enough but they soon get more than they bargained for. Features local talents including Carmen Soo and Sharifah Amani. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift – You'd think they'd be extinct by now. John Carter – A tale by Edgar Rice Burroughs (A Princess Of Mar), about a civil war veteran who is transplanted to Mars. Taylor Kitsch plays the titular role. Jack The Giant Killer – Bryan Singer takes on a fairy tale in which a long-standing peace between men and giants comes to an end, no thanks to Jack. Life Of Pi – Ang Lee directs this movie based on the novel by Yann Martel. It focuses on a magical adventure of one Pi Patel. Features the talents of Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Tobey Maguire. The Lorax – Lorax may be grumpy but he is a creature who fights the good fight to protect his world. Will we finally see what Once-ler looks like? Looks like it. Men In Black III – Agent J has to take a leap of faith and time-jumps to save a young man – one Agent K. Director Barry Sonnenfeld recruits Josh Brolin to play the younger Tommy Lee Jones. It's uncanny. Mirror, Mirror – The first of two Snow White films this year. This one directed by Tarsem Singh is a tad comedic, featuring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. Neighborhood Watch – Co-written by Seth Rogen and stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill. Safe to say, there will be some toilet humour. The Odd Life Of Timothy Green – Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton play a childless couple who bury a box, with earnest wishes for a child, in their backyard. Later, Timothy Green (Cameron Adams) appears. Of Men And Mavericks – Gerard Butler and Jonny Weston play the leads in a film based on the true story of surfing wonderboy, Jay Moriarity. Prometheus – Ridley Scott revisits his Alien universe for an origins story. Whether it's a good idea or not, we are just loving the cast – Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce and Patrick Wilson. Rock Of Ages – It's 1987, and Tom Cruise is a rock star. Obviously this is a comedy with some singing. Resident Evil: Retribution – Anyone keeping count on how many times Alice has to fight the zombies? To state the obvious, she's at it again. Snow White And The Huntsman – This version features angry dwarves, a Snow White who can fight, a handsome Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and a scary Evil Queen played by Charlize Theron. Skyfall – This is the title for the 23rd James Bond film. Directed by Sam Mendes, it features Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris and Helen McCrory, besides regulars like Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. French actress and model Bérénice Marlohe is the new Bond girl. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 3D – The biggest question here is, are we keen to see Jar Jar Binks in 3D? Thankfully, Darth Maul is in this film too. Titanic 3D – Looks like Celine Dion's and James Cameron's hearts will go on and on, and on. Total Recall – Colin Farrell had a successful outing in the remake of the 1985 Fright Night, and now he's looking to do it again with the 1990's Total Recall, in Arnold Schwarzenegger's role. There are loads of memorable things in the first version – we can remember it wholesale, but let's just wait and see what director Len Wiseman has planned. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II – Everyone lives happily ever after? The birth of Renesmee has the Cullens super worried about what the Volturi will do. Underworld: Awakening – Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the vampire, leads a fight against humans. Here's how to win the war, people – fight during the day. The Vow – Channing Tatum steps up his game with a romantic film. He plays a man who must woo his wife (Rachel McAdams) all over again after a car accident causes her to lose her memory. Didn't Adam Sandler do this movie already? The Viral Factor – An elite counter-terrorist unit based in Hong Kong heads to the Middle East to find a deadly virus. When one of its members (Nicholas Tse) betrays the team, the leader (Jay Chou) must stop him from unleashing the virus. About 80% of the movie was shot in Kuala Lumpur. What To Expect When You Are Expecting – Parenthood is not intentionally funny, but five couples show the comic side here. The female cast members include Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker and Jennifer Lopez. Wrath Of The Titans – If you thought you had seen the last of Clash Of The Titans, you were wrong. Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes make a return, unfortunately. Young Adult – Charlize Theron plays a fiction writer who returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now married with kids. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Ben Kingsley on the art of 'under-acting' in 'Hugo' Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:59 PM PST LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Sir Ben Kingsley plays silent film pioneer Georges Melies in Martin Scorsese's ''Hugo.'' The film has proven to be a tricky sell commercially, and it's unlikely to be a moneymaker - but the film is a marvelous and magical journey that fully justifies Scorsese's decision to adapt Brian Selznick's book ''The Invention of Hugo Cabret,'' and to shoot it in 3D. And Kingsley is sly, sad and commanding as a man desperate to bury his glorious past. Were you familiar with the book, or with Georges Melies' work? Neither. Neither the book nor Georges' work. My starting point was the script by John Logan, which was a wonderful read. The arc of everyone's character is so extraordinary it jumps off the page. And also, I loved to see that Georges would be filmed by Marty at the height of his powers, in his glass palace where he was a king with so many domains: writer, director, designer, set decorator, editor, leading man, magician, special effects creator...Probably because he didn't know what the limits were, he was breaking boundaries all the time. Because he was the first of the great auteurs, nobody told him, ''Georges, you can't do that,'' as I'm afraid they would today. He just had no boundaries whatsoever. I watch those early films of his, and his joie de vivre was completely contagious. It must have affected his audiences. But when we first meet him, that feeling is long gone. Yes. What I loved was to have that sequence filmed by Marty in which I'm deeply happy, at the peak of my creative powers, and then to film the sequence where I'm standing by an enormous conflagration as Georges burns all his things. That was a very real day for me. The bonfire was extremely hot, and quite painful. I was burning things that our company had made, and they were beautiful. The moon's face, the spheres, the swords, the costumes, the helmets, the drawings of my wife, they were all perfect. And I was able to inhabit Georges' sense of utter defeat, and probably anger. It's a very violent act, a kind of little suicide. He was the king in his palace, then the suicide, then the toy shop. For me, that was an arc that I could fully appreciate and fully inhabit. Did you film it in that sequence? As a matter of fact, I didn't. But I have a way of approaching a script rather like a symphony, in that if I know each movement well in my heart, then I can inhabit it, even if I haven't played that sequence yet. Knowing that I would be in that glass palace gave me an appreciation of Georges' imprisonment in that toy shop. There's actually a drawing that Georges made himself, where he has a dog collar around his neck and is chained to the back of the wall of his shop. As I saw in his early films, Georges had a very straight dancer's back. But in this drawing, he drew his back completely round and collapsed. And so when I talked to Sandy Powell, our costume designer, I asked for a padded back and tummy to wear. It took me about two hours to get completely ready for Georges in terms of makeup and costume, and then I was stuck in defeated Georges all day. And I also realized that Georges did all his own stunts, and I've noticed this on a film set when I am involved in a stunt: In the evening, once the adrenaline has dropped, I'm lying in the hot tub, and there's a bloody great bruise on my thigh, and it hurts. You're not aware of it when you're working, so he was probably living on adrenaline for about seven years. And I know a little bit about that withdrawal. When they say ''It's a wrap,'' those are the worst words in my vocabulary. In many ways, we think of 3D as just another special effect. But ''Hugo'' doesn't treat it like that at all. It uses 3D to say, ''Come into this space where our story is happening.'' Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Marty does bring you into the world, and he uses 3D to surround you with that world: the railway station and the toy shop and the apartment and the little hole in the wall where Asa lives. He pushed 3D round a very important corner, I think. He's done it. Did shooting in 3D change how you did your work? Yes. Every gesture you make has to be linked directly to the narrative. Nothing can be arbitrary. Nothing can be explained. I learnt a long time ago, you must never explain anything to the camera, because it doesn't need it. All it needs is to see the behavior of the character. It doesn't want to see any acting. The camera is allergic to acting, it hates it. But the 3D camera has such X-ray capacity that you almost have to modify your acting to a terrifying degree. Fortunately, my first 3D experience was with Martin Scorsese. And between action and cut, he sees everything. He sees every single gesture, nuance, shift in emphasis that you offer him on every take. So if you take the 3D camera, plus working with Asa, who has no filters and works from the heart, plus Marty, it forces you into a corner out of which there's only one way. And that's your version of the absolute, honest truth. Anything else will interfere, and the 3D camera will see it, and the audience will say ''Oops, bit of acting there!'' You daren't act. You daren't act. I'm sure I'll coin the right phrase for it sooner or later, but it's an exercise in under-acting. That's the only way I can put it, rather crudely right now. It's under-acting. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Priyanka Chopra plays tough cop in Don 2 Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:46 PM PST Acting in extreme conditions was just as tough for Priyanka Chopra as enduring Shah Rukh Khan's teasing in Don 2. BOLLYWOOD actress Priyanka Chopra drove a car at 100kmph down narrow Berlin alleys and wore a backless gown in sub-zero temperatures for her latest movie Don 2: The Chase Continues. Just as hard was surviving co-star Shah Rukh Khan's teasing during shoots, she reveals during an interview to promote the thriller. Speaking on the telephone from India, the 28-year-old says it was not easy to learn fist-fighting and fight choreography for her role as a police officer, and Shah Rukh was of little help. "I'm a girl and I had to learn to fight like a guy so I could look like a cop. When I was rehearsing for fight sequences, he and (director) Farhan (Akhtar) would sit down and just laugh at me – 'Oh you punch like a girl, you punch like a girl' – and I would feel so conscious." And every time she thought she had a handle on her no-nonsense character, Shah Rukh would turn around and say: "So sweet, it's so cute how you're trying to be so tough," causing her to deflate. However, she adds: "It was really funny and we would laugh about it afterwards." Shah Rukh, 46, keeps Priyanka off-balance on screen as well, and their love-hate chemistry is the crux of Don 2. The 145-minute movie shot in Europe is a sequel to the 2006 box-office hit, Don - The Chase Begins Again. Shot in Malaysia, the action-movie about gangsters and the criminal underworld was a remake of a 1978 film starring the iconic Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan. In the first movie, Priyanka played Roma, a woman out to avenge her dead brother, who falls in love with the gangster responsible for destroying her family. Her love interest and antagonist Don is played by Shah Rukh. The sequel begins four years later, after Roma has become a police officer to bring Don to justice. So this is not the typical boy-meets-girl Bollywood romance, even if it plays out with a song or two. "She hates his guts," Priyanka says of her character's relationship with Don. "She hates him because he betrayed her, yet he was the man she fell in love with. It's a love-hate relationship for both of them, a really confused state of being and the chemistry is extremely palpable." Stressing that this is not from personal experience, she adds: "Sensible girls always go for the bad guy. That's the only time sensible girls lose their mind." The actress, who is single, has long moved beyond the backseat role normally offered to Bollywood heroines. In 2008, she gained and lost dozens of pounds for the movie Fashion, about a top model. The role won her India's prestigious National Award. In February this year, she pulled off roles from a teenage beauty to an ageing auntie in Saat Khoon Maaf (Seven Murders Forgiven), an art-house film about a woman whose lovers and spouses die in mysterious circumstances. Critics lauded her acting chops, but she says she is equally happy playing a role in more populist fare. "I don't choose movies depending on whether it is a commercial film or art house flick," she says. "Indian audiences are ready for entertainment more than anything else. Nothing else matters but being entertained for those three hours." – The Singapore Times/Asia News Network Don 2: The Chase Continues is playing in Malaysian cinemas. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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