The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz
The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz |
- Javier Bardem could be villain in new Peter Pan movie
- Marsha Milan: Moving on up
- Kristen Bell-e of the ball
| Javier Bardem could be villain in new Peter Pan movie Posted: Actor has played praiseworthy villians before. JAVIER Bardem is being courted by the producers of Pan, a Peter Pan origin story to be directed by Joe Wright (Atonement). According to Deadline.com, Warner Bros. Pictures are eyeing the Spanish actor to play the pirate Blackbeard, the main antagonist in the forthcoming adventure movie. Pan will be loosely based on the writings of J.M. Barrie, published during the early 20th century. The feature will depict how the orphan arrived in Neverland and became the hero of the Lost Boys after fighting Blackbeard and his band of pirates. His first meeting with Tinkerbell will also make an appearance in the movie, which is planned for filming in 2014. Bardem, aged 44, can be seen in theatres now in Ridley Scott's The Counselor, a crime thriller featuring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Bardem's wife Penelope Cruz. Currently, alongside Sean Penn, Bardem is on the set of Pierre Morel's The Gunman, an adaptation of French crime novelist Jean-Patrick Manchette's The Prone Gunman. Javier Bardem has often been praised for his portrayal of villains, particularly in No Country For Old Men and Skyfall. – AFP Relaxnews |
| Posted: Marsha Milan has come a long way since Akademi Fantasia. Now, she gets animated in Frozen. HAVING arrived late for our appointment – for which she and her manager apologised profusely – there was little time left to prepare Marsha Milan Londoh for the planned photo session. But, as it turned out, she needed little direction – all that was required was to inform her of the shots we wanted and she started striking different poses immediately, allowing the photographer to wrap up quickly. This very quality of knowing what is wanted of her is one of the things that has gotten Marsha noticed by directors like Osman Ali and Erma Fatima. Osman has cast Marsha in three of his projects so far – a minor role in the film Cun! gave way to the role of an antagonist in a 26-episode drama serial Bicara Hati and a supporting role in last year's feature, Juwanita.  Her latest 'role' is as Princess Elsa in the Bahasa Malaysia version of Frozen. According to Osman, Marsha's talent was especially impressive in Bicara Hati. He said: "I enjoyed working with her as she was very committed to her role. She would run what she intended to do in a scene by me and I would guide her accordingly. She's adept at playing different types of emotions – serious, funny, melancholic and psychotic. She made her character in Bicara Hati someone the audience loved to hate." Osman first spotted the actress, who turns 28 on Dec 6, when she appeared as one of the contestants in Akademi Fantasia (AF) back in 2005. "I liked how she carried herself on that show. And it was apparent that she is talented," said the director. It was this reality show that opened doors for Marsha. However, Marsha recalled the only reason she was even at the audition for Akademi Fantasia was because she was accompanying a friend who wanted to take part. Marsha said with a laugh: "It ended up with me getting in the show, but not him." Marsha came out third runner up – Mawi was crowned champion that season – and her life has changed forever. "My mother wanted me to go to India to further my studies and not participate in Akademi Fantasia. But I was adamant in finding out my chances on AF ... and I am still here." Marsha is still keen to continue her studies but it has to be some time in the future as she is just too busy with her career now. Also, she figured: "I was supposed to study music, but I thought since I am already in the industry, I have an advantage over other students." At the moment, she is polishing up on her composing skills so she can write her own songs for an album which she hopes to complete next year. Born in Michigan, the United States – where her parents were studying (the family moved back to Tamparuli, Sabah, a few months after she was born) – Marsha grew up singing in her town's church. Having developed a love for singing and playing the piano, she was surprised to find out she loved acting too.  Multifaceted: Well-known directors like Osman Ali and Erma Fatima like working with talented Sabahan, Marsha Milan Londoh, because she is dedicated to her craft. Acting was something she discovered when she was signed up with Astro's production company after Akademi Fantasia (AF top winners are contractually committed to the broadcasting company in the first few years of their career). "There were some modelling gigs too, but I realised I am too short to be a fashion model," she said, not sounding too disappointed. It was during this period with Astro that she started on voice acting. Her first voice acting job was for the Bahasa Malaysia version of High School Musical (2006). Fast forward to the present, Marsha is now cast as the voice of Princess Elsa in Frozen. "This one is different because she's a Disney princess," Marsha said, drawing a comparison between her role in High School Musical and Frozen. "I feel honoured as I always wanted to be part of Disney (animated films). And to play a princess, it's great!" she enthused, adding that some of her favourite Disney films include Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast and Cinderella. "Usually I look at the scripts when choosing a project because I do not want to play the same role over and over again. But for this Disney project, I didn't even ask to look at the script. I said yes immediately because Disney is something that everyone loves." Frozen revolves around two sisters, Princess Elsa (Marsha) and Princess Anna (Liyana Jasmay), who truly love each other. Elsa, however, is a little different – she has the powers to create snow and ice with just a touch, something that delights her sister to no end. But on the day she is appointed the queen, Elsa accidentally unleashes her power leaving her kingdom in a perpetual state of winter. Fearing she would do more harm than good to her family and subjects, Elsa runs away to live in isolation. Not about to give up on her sister, Anna decides to look for Elsa and bring her home. Marsha said: "Elsa is the Snow Queen, but she is not evil. She is just stuck in a place where she has no one. The film has more to do with the love of two sisters who would do anything for each than a conventional love story." In the English version, the voice of Elsa is provided by Broadway actress Idina Menzel. So, for the dubbed version, it was crucial the voice came from someone who could sing and act. Elsa has four numbers in the film, including one theme song named Bebaskan (Let It Go). To sing these songs, Marsha had to ensure she conveyed emotions like anger, boldness, happiness and sadness. But there was a slight snag. On the day Marsha entered the recording studio to record the songs, she had just came back from the dentist. "I had just removed my wisdom tooth. So I was singing when my mouth was swollen and I was in pain. It was a struggle, but knowing it's for a Disney film, it was all worth it." As our interview ended, Marsha's fans who were waiting patiently nearby requested for a photo with the actress. Not surprisingly, she struck lovely poses for them. > Frozen, both the English and Bahasa Malaysia versions, opens in cinemas nationwide on Nov 28. |
| Posted: Kristen Bell realises her dream of being a Disney princess in Frozen. THERE are things her most devoted fans know about Kristen Bell that people who didn't help fan-finance her big screen Veronica Mars movie might not. She can sing, for starters. "When you're too small to play sports, you compete in solo and ensemble singing competitions," the diminutive Bell says. "At least, that's what I did. It turned me into a musical theatre junkie. I sang only in Italian, for a while. Then I discovered musical theatre. I studied that in New York in college. Musical theatre is what led me into the ocean that is film and television." She sings, and more than holds her own with Broadway star Idina Menzel, in the animated Disney musical Frozen, which opens today. "Any time music is a part of my performance is a good time, in my book. This was a really 'lucky get'." The 33-year-old Michigan native is an alumnus of New York University in the United States, and a Broadway veteran in her own right. She was in a revival of The Crucible and the musical The Adventures Of Becky Thatcher.  Your highness: Kristen Bell is elated to be a Disney princess in Frozen. She just got married – to longtime love and When In Rome and Hit And Run co-star Dax Shepard. She had a baby this year, and they named her Lincoln. But even hardcore fans might not realise that she let Shepard talk her into naming their child after his "baby" – his 1960s vintage souped-up Lincoln Continental. "Well, FIRST of all, he's BIG. I don't LET him do anything. He just does what he wants," Bell says with a laugh. "I think it was a combination of the president and the car, we just liked the sound of it. 'Lincoln'." And Bell counts herself very lucky that she had her daughter just in time for her most kid-friendly movie ever. Frozen, a Disney cartoon based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, lets Bell become a Disney princess. "This was a dream for me, ever since I was a toddler, really. But I knew if I was ever going to be a Disney heroine she'd have to be someone I wanted to see, I could relate to. "I wanted to make her very adventurous, to not be a 'typical' animated heroine. I wanted her to talk too quickly and too much. I wanted her to put her foot in her mouth, to be clumsy and awkward and have all of these characteristics that I feel I had as a kid. I was always talking too much and too fast, speaking before I thought." So her character Anna, younger sister to the ice-cursed Elsa (Menzel), doesn't so much talk as blurt. She acts before she thinks, and when her sister heads off into self-imposed exile because everything she touches freezes, plucky Anna sets out to find her and bring her home. "Anna's such a goofball – sincere, an eternal optimist but just weird. I really like that, because I have been weird and proud of it forever." Reviews are full of praise for the movie, for Bell's surprising singing and her "vigorous" vocal performance (The Hollywood Reporter), which fills Anna with Bell's own personality. "I hit those lines the way I hear 'em and they sort of fall out," Bell says. "I did study music in college and music is such a big part of my life that I hear dialogue at a certain tempo." The other big project in her crowded life is the Veronica Mars movie that she and series writer Rob Thomas pulled together and turned into the most famous Kickstarter (crowd-financed) movie ever. They raised millions from fans of the teen private investigator TV series, which aired from 2004-2007.They reunited much of the cast and made a feature film that is due out next year. "Veronica is so much a part of who I am that it wasn't hard to get back into character," she says. "It was everything I wanted it to be. We have talked about the movie we'd want to do pretty much since the day the TV series got cancelled. We'd all allowed ourselves to dream of doing it. But I'm not sure any of us ever dreamed it would ever be a reality. "But throwing it out on Kickstarter and asking the fans if they wanted it, and if they wanted it enough to fund it? That was surreal ... We were so lucky to have fans that loyal. One day we were still wishing, the next day we had a green light to go make the movie." She's sensitive to the criticism that suggested this wasn't what Kickstarter projects – typically tiny-budget affairs from aspiring filmmakers, musicians and artists – are supposed to be. But "we didn't force anyone to give money to this idea ...We wanted to give as much back to the fans as we could because they've been very good to us. It's their movie. They wanted it." And if they'd all had to wait on a studio to finance it, Veronica Mars, the movie, never would have happened. It's just another way Bell goes about her life and her business along the road less travelled, from marrying the gawky car-nut co-star to naming their child after his car to becoming a Disney princess over 30. "I'm not a very conventional person. And that bleeds into everything I do." – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
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