The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Bizarre concept in "Upside Down"
Zac Efron joins cast of JFK drama
'Cirque du Soleil' makes 3D leap to the big screen

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 12:42 AM PST

Wrap your mind around Upside Down – two worlds co-existing in the same space but not the same gravity.

THE idea for the film Upside Down came to writer-director Juan Solanas in a strange mental image one morning. In an interview transcript provided by the film's distributor, Rainfilm, Solanas shared: "I woke up and I saw an image – this man on top of a mountain looking up and seeing a woman on top of another mountain, but upside down. I wanted to, with this image, write a story which became this movie."

In Upside Down, you see another world when you look up – as in the ceiling of one world marks the start of another. So when you are standing at the bottom, the people from the Upper World will look like they are hanging upside down. Is that clear?

Jim Sturgess, who plays one of the the lead roles in the film, was naturally taken aback by this bizarre concept when he was told about it. He said: "I remember being like … wow! I knew that it was an exciting idea, but I really didn't know how it was going to play out."

He met Solanas to discuss the project and immediately agreed to sign up. Sturgess recalled: "I met him in London. He was so excited about the project. I could tell that it was a work of passion for him. He was telling me how this idea came from a dream that he had. He showed me all these visual ideas that he had for the story."

Upside Down marks Sturgess' first entry in the fantasy genre. The 34-year-old's previous films – The Way Back and One Day – are quite gritty in comparison. "So, it's really nice to let your imagination go wild."

Behind the futuristic concept, Solanas' movie is basically a love story. Adam Kirk (Sturgess) is an ordinary guy living in this extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but clings to the memory of a girl, Eden (Kirsten Dunst), he met a long time ago. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love, with everything against them, especially the gravity and some nasty folk. But when he catches a glimpse of a grown-up Eden on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back.

"It's forbidden love. Two people who want to be together when everything is against them. It's a unique take on a classic love story," explained Sturgess. Their tryst brings trouble when they are caught together, resulting in Adam being put away for nine years and Eden having an accident that causes amnesia.

"The story starts with Adam basically trying to get back up to the top to convince this girl who has no idea who he is, that they were once madly in love with each other."

Co-star Dunst said: "I think it's traditional, keeping the lovers apart. What I like is that the man has to fight for the girl. It's usually the girl chasing the guy but in this film, she's been in an accident and she doesn't remember him.

"The accident influences my role," Dunst said. "She lives with this emptiness. She doesn't know how to feel or what happened. She lives in the moment, someone who celebrates and has fun because she doesn't always remember things, and that's all she has. There's a sadness to her because of that."

As with many futuristic dramas, the citizens of the Upper and Lower worlds live in different conditions, with a company called Transworld ruling this bizarre place.

Sturgess explained further: "There's the down below world and there's the up top world. The down below world is poverty-stricken and run-down and falling apart. The up top world is thriving and rich," said Sturgess.

According to Sturgess, the film is filled with metaphors for much bigger issues like slavery, capitalism and inter-racial relationships that are weaved into the story without the need to force them down the audience's throat. Plus, Solanas wants the audience to work out the metaphors for themselves.

The creation of the two worlds on different planes hugely involves gravity, hence the actors are sometimes suspended upside down for filming.

Sturgess recalled: "Gravity is huge. It's one of the biggest characters in the film. I'm constantly trying to figure what would happen if I was in the wrong gravity.

"When you're acting, you have to think about which gravity you're in, what your clothes would be doing, all those things. We were doing a scene and I thought, hang on a minute, I'm wearing down below pants, I should probably tuck in my pants to my socks, things like that. You're always having to think to make sure that it's totally believable. Everything is kind of checked off the list if anybody wants to come and tackle us with 'that wouldn't happen'."

Dunst said: "Whenever I go to his world, my hair is slicked back in buns because otherwise I'd look really silly. Things like that were really funny to play into. I never wore a skirt when I visited him or a dress because it would be flying up. We had to be conscious about this." – By Felix Culas

> Upside Down opens in cinemas nationwide this Thursday.

Zac Efron joins cast of JFK drama

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 10:25 PM PST

Paperboy actor Zac Efron (pic) has been cast to play a doctor in Parkland, a multiple point-of-view movie about the tumult surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, announced Exclusive Media.

Alongside Billy Bob Thornton (Faster), Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) and Paul Giamatti (Rock Forever), Marcia Gay Harden (Into The Wild) also joins the cast of this historical drama coproduced by Tom Hanks (Cloud Atlas) via Playtone.

Inspired by an investigation by Vincent Bugliosi, the movie will focus on witnesses of the murder, choosing Dallas's Parkland Hospital as the main setting.

The medical building successively saw the deaths of JFK, his suspected murderer Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby's.

Parkland will mark Peter Landesman's debut as a director. With the production starting this winter, the movie is set for a November 2013 release, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the President's demise.

(Relaxnews)

'Cirque du Soleil' makes 3D leap to the big screen

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 10:20 PM PST

MIAMI (AFP) -- Oscar-winning director James Cameron, who broke new ground with 3D technology with Avatar, is bringing that knowhow to Cirque du Soleil, producing a 3D film featuring the high-flying acrobatic troupe.

Cameron acted as executive producer and camera operator for Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away -- a movie spectacle which brings the group's breathtaking aerial routines to the big screen for the first time.

"This movie was a dream come true," Cameron said of the 91-minute film directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson, who also was at the helm of the hit Chronicles Of Narnia films.

Worlds Away recounts the story of Mia, played by acrobat Erica Linz, who, while searching for a lost love, traverses through various universes -- each of which is one of the fantastical worlds crafted by Cirque du Soleil.

Among the troupe's shows re-created in the film are Believe, Mystere, O, and Viva Elvis.

The movie was filmed in part at a studio in New Zealand, which the Canadian-born Cameron now calls home, and is due to open Friday in cinemas across North America.

For all of the fantastical celluloid worlds he has created in the past, Cameron says what he really marvels about is the sheer majesty of the human form in action -- particularly the elastic and athletic "Cirque" performers.

"Their death-defying acts require such incredible skill and nerve -- we felt it was so important to show the cabling, everything supporting that human ability," he told reporters in Florida ahead of the film's release.

Another of Cameron's highly-anticipated movie projects, a sequel to Avatar, is expected to open in theaters late next year.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 24 Disember 2012

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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