Rabu, 22 Januari 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

‘N. Korea is top security concern’
Jailed for playing part in murder
British expat’s ‘poor people’ remark sparks outrage

‘N. Korea is top security concern’

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

SINGAPORE: North Korea remains Washington's "number one security concern" in Asia, the US Pacific Fleet commander said, despite simmering territorial disputes elsewhere in the region.

Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr also accused China of "coercion" in its maritime disputes with neighbours.

He said an increased deployment of US military assets in the region as part of an Asian "pivot" announced in 2012 would ensure that "we are where it matters and when it matters".

"Our number one security concern is North Korea," Adm Harris told reporters in Singapore on board the destroyer USS Spruance.

"I am concerned as a commander for the provocations that come from North Korea. I don't understand them, I don't understand their leadership and I don't understand their intent," he said.

Pyongyang last week warned of "calamities and disasters" if the United States and South Korea push ahead with a series of annual joint military drills from next month.

Last year's exercises were held in the wake of North Korea's third and largest nuclear test, and prompted months of escalated military tensions that saw Pyongyang issue similar apocalyptic threats of nuclear war against its southern neighbour and the United States.

Adm Harris also expressed concern at China's declaration of an "air defence identification zone" over the East China Sea, including over islands disputed with Japan.

"We think that the air defence identification zone (ADIZ) was an unfortunate imposition in the region," he said.

"It highlights an issue that I am concerned about, and that is coercion by China in this case and other countries as well," he added.

"It has not affected our military operations at all. We choose to do business as usual in the ADIZ."

The declaration, which caused a furore, requires foreign aircraft to declare their intentions and maintain communications with Chinese authorities or face unspecified "defensive emergency measures".

China is also embroiled in a bitter row with the Philippines, Vietnam and other nations about overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims sovereignty over essentially all that sea.

Adm Harris urged countries involved in the disputes to resolve them "amicably, peacefully, and without resort to undue pressure".

He also welcomed the acceptance by China's People's Liberation Army of an invitation to take part in major US-hosted naval drills for the first time in June off Hawaii.

The biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise is billed as the world's largest international maritime war games and will feature armed forces from 23 nations. — AFP

Jailed for playing part in murder

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

A man was jailed for four years for passing a folding knife to a friend who allegedly used it to murder a former prison mate in a coffeeshop brawl.

Jobless Kung Kwai Cheong, 55, had been part of a group that set upon Gunasekaran Rengasamy, punching and kicking him in a Geylang Road coffeeshop in the early hours of Feb 13, 2012.

The fight was sparked when Kung's pal Jamsari Yusof arrived at a table where Kung sat with Gunasekaran and three other men. Jamsari accused Gunasekaran of being "big-headed" while they were both serving time in prison.

Jamsari, Kung, Terrence Goh Chye Huat and Redzuan Pupon all laid into the unemployed 43-year-old when Kung passed the weapon to Jamsari, who allegedly used it to attack Gunasekaran. Two hours later, he died of stab wounds to his chest and lung.

Kung pleaded guilty to abetting an offence of voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

Goh, 44, was jailed for 17 months last year for punching and kicking Gunasekaran and having another person's identity card.

Redzuan 39, was convicted of causing hurt and jailed 15 months. Jamsari, 51, is facing a murder charge and his case has not been heard yet. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

British expat’s ‘poor people’ remark sparks outrage

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

A Porsche-driving British wealth manager in Singapore who referred to public transport commuters as "poor people" has apologised after his Facebook posts sparked an online furore.

Anton Casey, a 39-year-old senior wealth manager in the financial sector, had also referred to washing "the stench of public transport off me" in one of his posts on the social network.

Furious online readers flooded websites on which his remarks were reposted with comments, many of which subjected him and his family to verbal abuse.

Singapore has one of the world's highest annual GDP per capita incomes with official data showing it stood at S$65,048 (RM169,300) in 2012. The city-state also boasts one of Asia's most modern public transport systems.

"I would like to extend a sincere apology to the people of Singapore," Casey said in a statement issued through a public relations firm on Tuesday.

"I have the highest respect and regard for Singapore and the good people of Singapore; this is my home," said the permanent resident, who is married to a former Singapore beauty queen with whom he has a five-year-old son.

One of Casey's posts showed a picture of a boy, apparently his son, sitting inside a metro train with a caption above the photo saying: "Daddy, where is your car & who are all these poor people?"

Another showed a waving boy sitting inside a silver convertible Porsche, with a caption saying: "Ahhhhhhhh reunited with my baby. Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public transport off me."

Casey said there had been a "security breach" of his Facebook page and that his family had "suffered extreme emotional and verbal abuse online". Police were investigating death threats received by his family, he added.

"This guy is rich materially but poor spiritually," a reader named Tony Tan wrote on TheRealSingapore, one of the online publications that reposted Casey's Facebook comments. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Halt in expansion of Panama Canal could cause major delays - arbitrators
Abe sees World War One echoes in Japan-China tensions
Texas executes Mexican national despite diplomatic protests

Halt in expansion of Panama Canal could cause major delays - arbitrators

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:25 PM PST

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - If work on the expansion of the Panama Canal is suspended, it could take up to five more years to finish, according to arbitrators helping to oversee the project that has been hit by a dispute over costs.

Since the start of 2014, the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) has been embroiled in a public row with the consortium known as Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC) over $1.6 billion in additional costs the GUPC says have arisen during work on the project.

Though the spat only recently went public, discussions over added costs have been going on since 2010, and advisors on the project's Dispute Advisory Board (DAB) said in a letter written in December that any hold-ups would be serious.

"If GUPC was to stop work now, the canal would be finished, but not in 2015 - more likely in 2018, 2019, or 2020," the panel of independent international advisers said in the document, a copy of which was seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

"The enormous losses to (the PCA) - which have not only a severe financial impact but also would seriously damage its credibility and reputation - can only be imagined," the DAB added in the letter that was sent to both sides of the dispute.

The planned completion date for the expansion of the 50-mile (80-km) canal has already been delayed from 2014 to mid-2015.

If the canal authorities do not help pay for cost overruns, the consortium of construction companies - fronted by Spanish firm Sacyr - has threatened to suspend work on the project that aims to double the waterway's shipping capacity and bring in billions of dollars in new revenue for Panama.

The PCA has refused, warning the GUPC it could be dismissed and that other contractors could finish the project to build a third set of locks for the canal, the heart of the expansion.

The PCA, a semi-government entity, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter's contents. However, earlier on Wednesday, Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli vowed the work would be completed.

"Panama has the resources, and will finish work by 2015 regardless of what happens, rain, thunder or lightning," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The DAB letter described the GUPC's shortfall as "genuine" but added the $3.12 billion bid which the consortium made to clinch the deal for the locks in 2009 was likely too low.

That bid was $1 billion below the second-lowest offer tendered by a group fronted by U.S. engineering company Bechtel. Top Panamanian officials and others close to the deal have raised concerns that the bid was too low.

"But horsewhipping or pointing the finger of blame will not save this project," the DAB wrote.

The DAB must help arbitrate the dispute over costs, which has been ongoing since 2010. But the letter stated its views on the potential delays did not have any bearing on the claims.

The PCA held talks with GUPC earlier this week and canal administrator Jorge Quijano said a potential financing deal involving insurer Zurich North America had been proposed that could offer a long-term solution to the project.

Nevertheless, the two sides have yet to agree on how much each party could provide to bridge the funding gap.

The DAB letter said the GUPC appeared to need a cash injection of $250 million to $500 million to keep work going.

As talks began on Tuesday, the consortium, which includes Italy's Salini Impregilo, Belgium's Jan De Nul and Panama's Constructora Urbana, pushed back its possible suspension of the work until the end of January.

(Additional reporting by Alessandra Galloni in Davos; Editing by Dave Graham and Lisa Shumaker)

Abe sees World War One echoes in Japan-China tensions

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:20 PM PST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe compared current tensions between Japan and China to rivalry between Britain and Germany on the eve of World War One, but his top spokesman denied the Japanese leader meant war between Asia's two big powers was possible.

Sino-Japanese ties, long plagued by what Beijing sees as Japan's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China in the 1930s and 1940s, have worsened recently due to a territorial row, Tokyo's mistrust of Beijing's military buildup and Abe's December visit to a shrine that critics say glorifies Japan's wartime past.

Abe, speaking to international journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said on Wednesday that China and Japan were in a "similar situation" to that of Britain and Germany before World War One, the Financial Times and BBC reported.

Although the rivals then had strong trade ties, that did not prevent the outbreak of war in 1914, Abe said, adding that China's steady increase in military spending was a major source of instability in the region, the reports said.

He also repeated Japan's call for a military hotline to avert an accidental conflict.

China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies respectively, have deep business ties and bilateral trade that was worth nearly $334 billion in 2012, according to Japanese figures.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Abe had by no means meant that war between the two Asian giants was possible.

"I don't know the specifics of the prime minister's comment," Suga told a regular news conference in Tokyo on Thursday. But he noted that Abe, in a keynote speech at the forum, said dialogue and the rule of law, not armed forces and threats, were needed for peace and prosperity in Asia.

"He clearly stated that endless military expansion in Asia must be curbed. I believe, in these words, he underscored the importance of peace and stability in Asia," Suga said.

YASUKUNI SHRINE VISIT

In a message on Thursday to local Chinese-language papers ahead of the lunar new year, Abe said Japan had "built a free and democratic country and taken the path of peace" since the end of World War Two.

"Nothing has been changed in the policy of continuing to uphold this position," he said, according to a Japanese version provided by the prime minister's office. "I believe you, who live in Japan, can understand this fundamental stance of ours."

In his keynote address at the Davos forum, Abe called for military restraint in the region and took a veiled swipe at China's military buildup.

"We must...restrain military expansion in Asia, which could otherwise go unchecked," Abe said.

"Military budgets should be made completely transparent and there should be public disclosure in a form that can be verified," Abe said, adding disputes should be resolved through dialogue and the rule of law, and not through force and coercion. He did not single out China by name.

He also defended his visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it honours leaders convicted as war criminals along with those killed in battle.

China's state Xinhua news agency blasted the Yasukuni visit again on Thursday, saying it was "taken by all peace-loving nations as a despicable kowtow to Fascism" and accusing Abe of pushing "regional tensions precariously close to boiling."

Xinhua added: "While frozen ties with neighbouring countries can never make Japan a reliable and constructive player in regional and global issues, sincere repentance over its war past can."

Abe's December 26 pilgrimage prompted a rare statement of disappointment from Tokyo's ally Washington, which is worried about rising regional tensions and fears entanglement in any conflict over tiny, uninhabited isles in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy weighed in on the touchy topic of wartime history in an interview published by the Asahi newspaper on Thursday.

Kennedy, who arrived in Japan last year to a fanfare of attention, said that the people of the world should cheer on leaders who try to overcome history to build a peaceful future, the newspaper said.

She also said Japan had made an extremely constructive contribution to the region and world and by building trust with its neighbours, Japan could carry out that role with more confidence, the newspaper said.

Texas executes Mexican national despite diplomatic protests

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:10 PM PST

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Mexican national convicted for the 1994 slaying of a Houston police officer was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Wednesday, ending a capital murder case that put him at the centre of a diplomatic dispute.

Edgar Tamayo, 46, who was denied an 11th-hour stay of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court, was pronounced dead at 9:32 p.m. local time (0332 GMT) at a state prison in Huntsville, Texas, according to officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The Mexican government had called on Texas to halt the execution, calling it a violation of international law, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had asked Texas Governor Rick Perry to consider a stay.

Tamayo was convicted of shooting Houston police officer Guy Gaddis to death in 1994. Gaddis had arrested him on suspicion of robbery.

While handcuffed in the police car, Tamayo pulled a pistol that had gone unseen and shot Gaddis, 24, three times in the back of the head. Tamayo kicked open a window and ran away from the car but was arrested again a few blocks from the scene.

The Mexican government contends Tamayo was not informed of his right to diplomatic assistance in the case, a guarantee enshrined in an international treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In 2004, the United Nations' International Court of Justice ordered the United States to reconsider the convictions of 51 Mexicans, including Tamayo, who had been sent to death row without being informed of their consular rights.

Two from that group have previously been executed. Tamayo, who was in the United States illegally at the time of his arrest, became the third.

HOPING FOR A MIRACLE

As Tamayo's last chance for a reprieve slipped away, anguished relatives gathered at his parents' home in Miacatlan in central Mexico, huddling next to radios listening for news from the United States and praying for a miracle.

A crowd of nieces and nephews erupted in sobs when they heard about the Supreme Court decision.

"This pains us so much. We kept holding onto hope," said Karen Arias, one of Tamayo's nieces.

In a statement on Sunday, Mexico's foreign ministry said, "If Edgar Tamayo's execution were to go ahead without his trial being reviewed and his sentence reconsidered ... it would be a clear violation of the United States' international obligations."

Last month, Secretary of State Kerry urged Governor Perry, a foe of the Obama administration, to reconsider Tamayo's execution because it could make it more difficult for the United States to help Americans in legal trouble abroad.

On Wednesday, the State Department said it has been in communication with Texas throughout the process. Texas argues it is not bound by the International Court of Justice ruling.

"Mr. Tamayo was convicted of killing a police officer," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a news briefing on Wednesday.

"It's not that we don't take that seriously. It's that we take seriously our obligations to uphold consular access for folks incarcerated here because we go all over the world and ask other countries to do the same thing and apply those same obligations when our folks are incarcerated overseas," she added.

The case has drawn attention from around the world. Tamayo said his family had received letters of support from at least 67 countries.

Back in his native town of Miacatlan, relatives professed their belief in Tamayo's innocence.

"He was like any other guy, a bit crazy yes, feisty, but not to the point of killing someone," said his cousin Kenia, a housewife, declining to give her surname.

A U.S. federal judge in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday rejected a request to delay the execution brought on Tamayo's behalf, saying Texas was operating within its rights.

Tamayo became the fourth person put to death in the United States this year and the first in Texas.

Texas has executed 508 prisoners since the reinstatement of capital punishment by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, the most of any U.S. state.

(Additional reporting by Liz Diaz in Miacatlan, Sandra Maler in Washington, Gabriel Stargardter and Julia Symmes Cobb in Mexico City and Scott Markley; Editing by Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

Abrams says Star Wars script is done
Margot Robbie in talks to play Tarzan's Jane
Right on target

Abrams says Star Wars script is done

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 10:30 PM PST

The filmmaker is now in talks with actor Jesse Plemons about possibly playing a role.

J.J. Abrams says the script for Star Wars Episode VII is complete, and confirms that he's talked with Breaking Bad actor Jesse Plemons about a role.

"We're working really hard and we've got our script and we're in deep prep," Abrams told TheWrap. "Full steam ahead, y'know."

Abrams spoke last weekend at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where he's promoting his new NBC series, Believe. He confirmed that Plemons is among the actors he's speaking with, and expressed surprise about the reports of his talks with the actor.

"He is one of the actors that we've talked to, yeah," Abrams said. "But, you know. It's not often that I read about actors that I'm going to be meeting and that I get to read articles about actors who are going to come in. And so I get to see someone and say, 'Oh, I read that I'm going to see you.' It's usually agents talking to people about what's happening. It's a lot of noise."

(TheWrap reported earlier this month that Plemons was up for an Episode VII role, but the actor later downplayed the possibility as rumour.) Abrams was also asked about whether he'd like to shoot the new films in IMAX, and said he plans to shoot Episode VII on film.

"In the right situation I would," like to shoot in IMAX, he said. "The problem with IMAX is it's a very loud camera. It's a very unreliable camera. Only so much film can be in the camera. You can't really do intimate scenes with it. It's slow. They break down often. Having said that, they're working on digital versions of these and so there may be a version one day. But we're going to be shooting this next movie on film."

TheWrap asked Abrams him about the craziest Episode VII rumours he's heard.

"There've been so many of them," he said. "It's amazing to see how many there are. But it's sweet because it shows that there's an interest in this movie that we all obviously know is there. But it is an incredible thing to see how many crazy things get thrown out that people often then write commentaries about. How happy they are, how disappointed they are about something that is completely false. It's a lot of noise, frankly."

Not to add to the rumours, but Abrams is working on Believe with Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron. We asked if Abrams plans to direct the next Star Wars trilogy entirely on his own, or if he might bring in another director – Cuaron, for example.

He dodged the question as ably as the Millennium Falcon might swerve out of an asteroid's path.

"I'm just focusing on Episode VII right now," he said. — Reuters

Margot Robbie in talks to play Tarzan's Jane

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 10:30 PM PST

The Wolf Of Wall Street actress is also in the running to star in another film.

Hot off a star-making performance as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in The Wolf Of Wall Street, Margot Robbie is in negotiations to play Jane in David Yates' Tarzan, TheWrap has learned. She is also in talks to replace Amanda Seyfried in Craig Zobel's Z For Zachariah. Representatives for both films did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Robbie plans to shoot Zachariah before taking on Warner Bros' big-budget remake of the classic Tarzan, which is slated to star Alexander Skarsgard, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L.Jackson, according to individuals with knowledge of her schedule.

Warner's go-to Harry Potter filmmaker Yates is directing the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' series of novels about the King of the Jungle, with Skarsgard in the title role.

Jerry Weintraub and Alan Riche are producing, while Mike Richardson will executive produce with Yates. Warner Bros executive Jesse Ehrman will oversee the project on behalf of the studio, which plans to start production this summer. The studio is already high on Robbie, who stars opposite Will Smith in Warner's con artist movie Focus. Z For Zachariah is a psychological thriller that Nissar Modi adapted from Robert O'Brien's post-apocalyptic novel.

Michael Benaroya is fully financing the picture, which is expected to star Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Tobey Maguire and Matthew Plouffe will produce through their Material Pictures banner alongside Zik Zak Filmworks' Skuli Malmquist and Thor Sigurjonsson, as well as Palomar Pictures' Joni Sighvatsson.

Robbie is in negotiations to play a young woman who believes she's the only survivor after a devastating nuclear event, though she comes to learn she is not alone when two strangers wander onto her farm from the forest.

Zachariah was initially supposed to start filming in August 2013 before production was delayed until November, when Ejiofor was in the midst of an important Oscar campaign for 12 Years A Slave. That, in addition to several other factors, delayed production until early 2014.

That delay forced Seyfried to drop out of the project to film Fathers And Daughters with Russell Crowe, after which she'll star alongside Rebel Wilson in the Universal comedy, He's F-ing Perfect.

Robbie next co-stars alongside Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts and Kristin Scott Thomas in the Weinstein Company's romantic drama Suite Francaise. The stunning Australian actress got her start on the Aussie series Neighbours before landing the lead in the short-lived ABC series Pan Am. In addition to playing the "Duchess of Bay Ridge" in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated Wolf Of Wall Street, Robbie recently appeared in Richard Curtis' About Time. — Reuters

Right on target

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Josh Brolin wants to show his more vulnerable side.

JOSH Brolin is a little tired of being thought of as a "man's man" type of actor. But he scaled Mt Shasta anyway.

The performer, who has embodied a swaggering masculinity in such movies as No Country For Old Men and True Grit, says that he's growing weary of the macho tag.

"It was fun at first and then it just got to be a little too much of ..." – he pauses as he contemplates the right word, then settles on an "rrrrr" caveman growl.

Still, Brolin, 45, can't seem to escape the archetype. To prepare for the part of an extreme mountain climber in a new adventure film called Everest, he's been scaling daunting peaks, first in Switzerland and then in Northern California.

And this holiday movie season finds Brolin once again exploring the sharp topography of two new masculine characters.

In Oldboy, Spike Lee's remake of the Chan-wook Park blood opera, Brolin stars as Joe Doucett, an unrepentant jerk inexplicably held captive by mysterious forces in a motel room for two decades.

Upon release, he seeks answers and revenge, while also looking for reconciliation with his now-grown daughter.

In Labor Day, Jason Reitman's ethereal adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel, he stars as Frank Chambers, an escaped convict who forcefully takes refuge in the home of single mother Adele (Kate Winslet) and her adolescent son in their quiet suburban home one holiday weekend.

With their "man-cornered" premises, the films offer an actor twofer of sorts. Both suggest Brolin as desperate and tightly coiled, relying on keen animal instincts that, one senses, are as likely to get him into trouble as they are to get him out of it.

But the parts also offer different views into the male psyche. A tenderness rumbles beneath his Labor Day character as Frank develops a relationship with Winslet's depressed romantic.

Oldboy's Joe, on the other hand, is all grit and hard-boiled rage, the character's emotions volcanically bursting through even when he's trying to take the proper family-man course.

The differences were especially felt during the production, Brolin said.

Brolin in No Country For Old Men, the Oscar and box-office smash that drastically changed the actor's fortunes. – Filepic

Calling Oldboy "probably the hardest movie I ever had to shoot," Brolin notes that he lost more than 9kg in three weeks to play the part and also cites the role's intense physicality that, particularly in the captive sections of the film, had him alternating between states of manic anger and focused determination.

Labor Day required Brolin to ratchet down the intensity, at times maintaining a stillness he called "really uncomfortable" and even performing a scene that has him baking intimately with Adele in what serves as a kind of pie-themed equivalent of the sensuous potter's wheel moment in Ghost.

"I had an older woman come up to me at a screening the other day and say, 'Thank you for helping me restore my libido.' I think that may have been a first," he said and chuckled. (Incidentally, Brolin said he's not the baking maestro the movie suggests, though he can get busy with a mixing bowl if pressed.)

Oldboy, on the other hand, is unlikely to prompt a run to Victoria's Secret.

The movie possesses a dark baroque quality that will likely alienate some critics and even seems to have elicited a mixed reaction in Brolin.

"I do have opinions, but it's better to bite my tongue," he said when asked what he thought of the finished film. (The actor says he was more enamoured with Lee's earlier three-hour director's cut that was both quieter and filled with more character-centric moments.)

The roles mark the latest turn for an actor who has seen more peaks and valleys than some of the terrain he's recently been climbing.

After a breakout as a teenager in the treasure-hunting classic The Goonies nearly three decades ago, Brolin went into a career quiet period, bottoming out in the 1990s when he landed roles on short-lived TV shows so obscure that he says he considered giving up acting.

His fortunes changed drastically about six years ago when the Coen brothers cast him as the outlaw Llewelyn Moss in their Western manhunt tale No Country For Old Men. An Oscar and box-office smash, the movie prompted a resurgence that had Brolin landing juicy roles in the likes of W. and True Grit, though, befitting his erratic career, also yielded such no-shows as Jonah Hex and Gangster Squad.

Brolin said he feels on surer footing these days, though still finds himself facing unexpected challenges.

A few months ago, he was approached by a man, an apparent panhandler, who pulled out a knife and stabbed him. (His wound wasn't serious.) Though sounding almost like a larger-than-life tale from one of Brolin's movies, the experience shook him up, causing him to question his ability to read situations accurately.

In the meantime, he is offering his own kind of unpredictability on the screen.

In addition to Everest, from the Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur, and a new Sin City film, he's set to star in a more literary effort, Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, playing the colourful detective Christian "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, as well as the father in the Sean Penn-directed survival tale Crazy For The Storm.

"These new ones are still manly roles. But there's also more vulnerability," Brolin said.

He added with a small laugh: "There's a trajectory here. A little bit of one, anyway." – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

A better man

Posted: 18 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Matthew McConaughey gets serious about the roles he takes on, and is earning accolades for his choices.

MENTION Matthew McConaughey, and images of him shirtless and grimy in romantic comedies such as Failure To Launch, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Fool's Gold and Sahara come to mind. Sure, he's been in some good ones like Frailty and A Time To Kill, but they don't register so much.

Of late, however, this has changed; when he shrunk in size to half a man for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, he showed he is a far better character actor on screen than many gave him credit for.

McConaughey seems to be having a second wind where his career is concerned, thanks to the kind of jobs he has been choosing lately. This is borne out by his win at the Golden Globes last week for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club, beating the likes of Robert Redford and Tom Hanks.

In it, he plays a man dying of AIDS who helps other HIV+ patients to get the medications denied to them because of strict drug laws. He followed that role with what has been described as a "scene-stealing" turn – as chest-thumping mentor to Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street. His current streak should continue with Interstellar, the highly-anticipated Christopher Nolan sci-fi feature set for release in November.

But first, McConaughey has made the leap to television, starring and executive producing HBO's eight-episode miniseries True Detective. Its US debut last Sunday brought in 2.3 million viewers, making it HBO's biggest drama premiere since Boardwalk Empire in 2010.

Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves at the Golden Globes last week. He was named best actor in a drama for Dallas Buyers Club. — AFP

At the recent 2014 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California, McConaughey joined the True Detective panel comprising co-stars Woody Harrelson and Michelle Monaghan, series creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto, and director Cary Joji Fukunaga.

According to him, he was not wary of moving to television to do this project at all, as he said that some of the best storytelling at the moment is happening in this medium.

The 43-year-old, who had a recurring role in the HBO series Eastbound & Down, elaborated: "It's a different time in television. We didn't know, at the time when I got it, where it was going to be. All I knew is I read the first two episodes, and I was in. I was just, at the time, looking for quality."

McConaughey said a lot of work he did in the last year is only coming out now. And the projects he has picked are the ones that felt relevant to him. "They resonate."

True Detective is told in both flashbacks and the present day, covering a period of 17 years. The first season revolves around Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Harrelson), two Louisiana State Police homicide detectives, as they track down a serial killer. They are first partnered up in 1995, in Louisiana's Criminal Investigation Division to look into a grisly murder committed by a killer with occult leanings.

They soon discover that this was not his first kill. As they get deeper and deeper into the mystery, their partnership becomes increasingly volatile, even as their respective personal lives become intertwined with the case. This leads to Rust's decision to leave the department in 2002.

Then in 2012, a similar killing occurs and the investigation has the new detectives interviewing Rust and Martin separately to learn all they can about the old case and its possible connection to the new one.

Hence, the story flits back and forth across these three crucial years – 1995, 2002 and 2012 – coming to an end in Episode Eight. (The next season will deal with a new case and have a new cast.)

When asked how the two actors struck a balance between playing younger and older versions of their characters, Harrelson – who first worked with McConaughey in the 1999 film EdTV – joked: "I just got rid of my wig."

To which McConaughey added: "I just put on my wig."

McConaughey continued: "One of the fun things about this is, who this guy was in 1995 – he needs the case to keep his s**t together. In 2012, everyday he is alive, he is paying penance. So a lot of fun about the show is, you slowly find out what has happened in those 17 years, where he is telling the truth, what really happened. That is the fun in watching the episodes."

It was revealed that McConaughey was originally approached to play the part of Martin Hart instead of Rust Cohle. When he read the script, though, he was drawn to Rust. "I understood objectively why they would be coming to me with the role of Hart. I understood that, (he's) probably closer to some of my past work, but Cohle was the voice that I remember writing down, 'I can't wait to turn the page and hear what's coming out of this guy's mouth.' It's got fire on it every time."

Rust is a former undercover narcotics detective from Texas, described in the series' production notes as someone who embraces isolation, articulating a pessimistic and bleak world view.

To get into that headspace, McConaughey went deep into his character during filming in Louisiana.

Harrelson recalled: "With this project, we didn't use a lot of our normal kind of shorthand, the way we kind of finish each other's sentences and s**t. He was an island. He is one of the most gregarious, awesome guys I know, but in this he was fully in character, and he was very much an island."

Did that take a toll on their close friendship? Harrelson, who calls McConaughey his brother, said with a smile: "I didn't talk to him the whole time. Not at all. (But) I can't imagine anyone playing that part better. It was different than any other part I've seen him play before, and he knocked it out of the park."

The Texas-born McConaughey, who never lost his original accent in person or in most of his films, said this when asked if he is having the best year of his career: "I haven't been looking in the rearview mirror. I'm in the present still, not in a retrospective mode. I am enjoying the ride."

True Detective kicks off its eight-episode first season tonight at 9pm on HBO (Astro Ch411 / HD Ch 431).

A guy's guy

Posted: 19 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Hallyu star Kim Hyun-joong takes the lead in the action-noir TV drama, Inspiring Generation.

HALLYU star Kim Hyun-joong's long-awaited comeback to the small screen in the title role of KBS' Inspiring Generation (working title) is just around the corner.

This represents Kim's first TV drama since MBC's Naughty Kiss failed to bring in high viewer ratings more than three years ago and also represents the singer-actor's third comic book-turned-series project.

Both KBS' Boys Over Flowers, which helped catapult the star to small screen fame, and Naughty Kiss were based on comic book series. Inspiring Generation is no exception.

Based on a comic book series by Bang Hak-gi, Inspiring Generation, however, is a full-fledged, action-driven melodrama, unlike Kim's previous rom-com works.

Shedding his pretty boy persona for the rough-shod skin of his new hero, Shin Jeong-tae, Kim looks set to gain some male fans for his swift-fisted lead in the upcoming action-noir epic.

"Before, the spotlight was on my pretty boy image," Kim, 27, said at the drama's press conference in Seoul recently. "So I jumped on board Inspiring Generation to put the focus on a manly persona, to show my masculine side."

The drama's director, Kim Jung-kyu, revealed that he feels the actor "suits his role to a T".

"Kim Hyun-joong himself is really a guy of guys," director Kim added. "He has a real knack for delivering those macho lines."

Kim Hyun-joong

Inspiring Generation is partially set in 1930s Shanghai, where Shin dukes it out with the best fighters that Korea, China and Japan have to offer.

In short, viewers can expect plenty of hand-to-hand fighting and high-flying stunts in the upcoming series, the kind of gritty, hero-making stuff that boys-turned-men have been weaned on since birth.

Kim, however, confessed that he himself has very little real life fist-fighting experience, admitting that in middle- and high-schools he stood on the sidelines and "only watched others fight".

Nevertheless, he seems up to the task of portraying this latest lead, Shin, whose mother abandoned him as a child and whose father passed away when he was 10. Left to fend for himself and his sister, Shin joins an illegal smuggling outfit, picking up some serious street smarts along the way.

When he finally comes of age, he aspires to exact revenge on those who have wronged him and his friends, using his fighting skills to make his way to the top and become the best fighter in the land.

Along the way, Shin finds himself confronting his love-turned-nemesis Tekuchi Gaya (played by IRIS 2 actress Im Su-hyang) and also reunites with his childhood sweetheart-turned-chanteuse Ok-ryeon (Jin Se-yeon). — The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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