The beloved character Carl from the Pixar movie Up is set to return to the big screen in the upcoming Pixar short, Carl’s Date.
In the animated movie Up, Pixar delivered some of the most iconic and heartwarming scenes through the characters of Carl and Ellie. The childhood friends who shared the dream of finding Paradise Falls grew up, fell in love with each other, and got married. But when Ellie passed, Carl decided to pursue their forgotten dream once more, leading to the adventures he had shared with the Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell and the talking dog Dug in the 2009 film.
Now, the upcoming short finds Carl as he reluctantly agrees to go on a date with a lady friend—but admittedly with no idea how dating works these days. Having pre-date jitters, Dug steps in to help, offering some tips for making friends. Although Dug’s idea of making friends is how he does it as a dog.
Check out the poster for Carl’s Date below:
Photo: Disney
Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Bob Peterson, this new short film will debut on the big screen together with their upcoming feature film Elemental, which will roll out in US theaters starting June 16.
The trailer for the upcoming movie Asteroid City has been released, giving us a glimpse of Wes Anderson’s sci-fi flick and the director’s unique style in bringing together captivating colors in his movies. Watch the trailer for Asteroid City below:
Taking place in the fictional American desert town circa 1955, the movie revolves around the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention where the organizers, students, and parents across the country who are taking part in the convention are suddenly dragged into the center of world-changing events.
The film has a star-studded cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, and Hong Chau. Completing the lineup are Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Matt Dillon, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Lee, Jeff Goldblum, and Rita Wilson.
Asteroid City is coming to US cinemas this June 16.
Nintendo’s mustached hero Mario, along with the rest of the characters from the Super Mario Bros. that have been captivating gamers and fans for decades jump out of the game for The Super Mario Bros. Movie that will finally open in Philippine cinemas on April 19.
For the first time, iconic global entertainment brands Illumination and Nintendo join forces to create “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, a new cinematic adventure starring pop culture’s most prominent plumber of the past four decades. Based on the world of Nintendo’s Super Mario games, the film invites audiences into a vibrant, thrilling new universe unlike any created before in an action-packed cinematic comedy event.
In “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, while working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt, Jurassic World and The LEGO Movie franchises) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day, Horrible Bosses) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi. With the assistance of a Mushroom Kingdom resident Toad (Keegan-Michael Key, The Lion King) and some training from the strong-willed ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen’s Gambit), Mario taps into his own power.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” features an extraordinary comedic cast, including Jack Black (Jumanji films) as Bowser, Seth Rogen (The Fabelmans) as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson (Family Guy) as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalco (Green Book) as Spike, plus a special voice appearance by Charles Martinet, who has voiced the characters of Mario and Luigi in the Super Mario games for more than 30 years.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Super Mario games and producer of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, explains that the Super Mario world connects with so many people across the globe because it has continued to evolve since its conception. “Since I was a child, I longed to become a manga artist, and until around the time that I entered high school, my dream was to become one,” Miyamoto says. “Around then, I was imagining the characters I drew myself appearing in my own manga. Although the rail shifted to the game instead of manga, I believe that if my first game was not fun enough, the characters which appear in it would not have remained in everyone’s memories. Fortunately, the character which appeared in Donkey Kong, the very first game I developed, was remembered and recognized by many people, and allowed me to produce many series of games after that. For the people who play the game, the character was recognized as an alter ego of themselves which moves around on the TV screen. And Mario evolved along with the evolvement of digital technology. As I continuously produced a game of Mario whenever a new technology came out, Mario became a very unique character which is totally one of a kind.”
From Universal Pictures International, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” starts playing in local cinemas nationwide on April 19.
Exciting news for Disney and Pixar fans – the new original feature film Elemental is coming to theaters this June! Today, the full trailer has been revealed, featuring a lively world filled with living elements. Watch the trailer for Elemental below:
The movie takes us to Element City, a spectacular world where the elements of air, earth, water, and fire live and work together. Ember, a fiery woman who always lived close to her home in Firetown, meets the empathetic water guy Wade and sets out to discover the bigger world outside her comfort zone. Other interesting characters include Clod, a street-smart Earth kid who is always around Ember and Gale, an air element with a big personality.
Photos courtesy of Disney
Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn with a screenplay by John Hoberg & Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh with story by Sohn, Hoberg & Likkel and Hsueh. The film’s voice cast includes Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Mason Wertheimer, and Joe Pera.
On top of the feature film, the much-awaited Pixar short Carl’s Date will also premiere alongside the movie. It will follow the beloved old man from Up as he reluctantly agrees to go on a date. Elemental is set for a US release in US cinemas on June 16.
“It was just something I hadn’t done – a genre I’ve never really touched at all. Scary movies put me off my sleep,” says the Academy Award®-winning actor with a laugh. “I’m incredibly superstitious. Moving in circles like this where you’re examining situations that the characters face… It’s not necessarily a comfortable place for me. Certainly, there were a lot of unusual things happening around us, but you keep your balance and see them as coincidence, otherwise you’re going to drive yourself a little bit insane.”
Lucky for Crowe, there were plenty of things to keep him busy throughout the making of The Pope’s Exorcist.
In order to understand his character and what made him tick, Crowe dove into research, amassing all the material he could about the late Father Gabriele Amorth, the real-life Pope’s exorcist who was able to chronicle his stories in the best-selling memoirs on which the film is based. Crowe travelled to Rome, where he spent a week meeting people from the Vatican who knew the Pope’s exorcist. For all of the rumors of the secretive Church, Crowe says, “I have to say that the Church was very open. We were given some extreme privileges by those in charge at the Vatican.”
Director Julius Avery says that on that trip to Rome, he and Crowe saw firsthand how fondly Father Amorth is remembered, admired, and loved – which Crowe wanted to honor in his portrayal. Of course, the film is not a documentary, and some elements would have poetic license, but within that, “he never went against his real character. It remained grounded and real. That’s why I feel his performance is so wonderful; because he was able to embody the spirit of Father Amorth.”
In his research, Crowe uncovered a man who could make a perfect lead for a mystery thriller – the ultimate insider with the trust of one of the oldest and most powerful organizations on the planet… but also a person of strong convictions and an unflinching thirst for the truth. Crowe says that Amorth’s colleagues and friends from the Vatican told him that the exorcist “never had any disagreements with anybody and always followed the line of the church,” while at the same time, the actor notes, “Father Amorth said some very controversial things in his time. He made some very strong statements, at various points in time, about his beliefs – which weren’t always 100% in line with the Church.”
“He had a certain, particular irreverent take on things that I tried to bring into the film,” Crowe continues. “He’s an individual, not a cookie cutter man of the cloth. He rides a Lambretta motor scooter!”
About The Pope’s Exorcist
Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe), The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.
The film is directed by Julius Avery, screenplay by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, screen story by Michael Petroni and R. Dean McCreary & Chester Hastings, based on the books “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories” by Fr. Gabriele Amorth.
The cast is led by Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero.
In cinemas starting April 19, The Pope’s Exorcist is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Connect with the hashtag #ThePopesExorcist
From award-winning director Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon, “AIR” reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand.
“AIR” also stars Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans, with Chris Tucker and Viola Davis in a moving story that follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
Affleck directed from a screenplay by Alex Convery. “AIR” is produced by Peter Guber, Jason Michael Berman, David Ellison, Jeff Robinov, Madison Ainley, Damon and Affleck.
In Philippine cinemas April 19, “AIR” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Discovery company.
Join the conversation online and use the hashtag #AIRMovie
By this point, I have forgotten most of the plot of the ‘John Wick’ series. Coming into John Wick: Chapter 4, all I knew was that I wanted to see the polished, hard-hitting action choreography we have been given in the first three installments. It’s the brand that has grown from this slick action, neo-noir franchise made popular by Keanu Reeves’ titular character, the assassin John Wick. Within the first ten minutes of the film, all I needed to remember was laid out before me and I knew who John Wick was out to kill and sat back and was ready for the ride.
What I wasn’t ready for were the figurative parallelisms that ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ took to my own life as a man in my mid-forties who is looking to take things easier as I pass middle age. Down to its most basic, John Wick is the story of a master assassin who is literally killing everyone off so he can get out of the system and retire peacefully from that world. But the trouble that began, way back in the first installment of the series, has made him a liability (and has reminded the organization he used to work for how good he is at his job). It’s a man who just wants out but they won’t let him. Now how does a man in his mid-forties relate to this story? The connection there is in how this world is so hard-wired to ensure that you can never get out of the system. Not without ruffling a few feathers, or in the case of John Wick, killing a boatload of men and then some.
The world of John Wick and the organization he’s after, the High Table, has expanded that we get to see the history of John Wick come into play – old friends have come to give him refuge (to their own detriment) while other people from his past are brought in to bring John Wick down – and all of a sudden this world with all its cool martial arts and gun choreography takes human form. Sides are created and the High Table, represented by Bill Skarsgard as the Marquis, becomes an inhumane representation of the system that will not give John Wick what he wants. For the High Table, there is no mercy. The rules are sacred and John Wick must be destroyed at all costs.
And what cost! ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ is not without its extensive body count. Fantastic fight scenes from multiple locations around the world bloat up the film to a running time of close to three hours but it can truly boast some of the most exciting and thrilling action sequences in cinema today. The only thing that dampens the polished groove of the film is that one of the best fight scenes ever, the one in Japan, happens in the first hour of the film – with the exquisite Donnie Yen, the ever-reliable Hiroyuki Sanada, and the refreshing and arresting Rina Sawayama, in her debut film role – and while the other action pieces that follow are still great, it’s pales in comparison from this first battle. It’s what makes the three hour running time feel exhausting. The best has already come early.
Luckily, Donnie Yen, as a blind assassin, creates a lot of nuance and texture for Keanu Reeves’ John Wick to play off of. Yen doesn’t only have the physicality for all the action stunts required from him in a film like this, but he also has the charisma and the gravitas to add a profound depth to the film by being the antithesis of John Wick. While Wick is holding on to a memory of a loved one who had passed, a wish to be free so he can live a life his own, Yen’s Caine is trapped in life with a daughter whose safety hangs in the balance. It’s why the retired Caine is back in the game and going toe-to-toe with an old friend.
So, sure, ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ is maybe 30 minutes or even an hour too long. Too many fight scenes (though do we really care? Because they were all quite amazing displays of filmmaking and stunt work) can feel indulgent as this is presented as the final installment of a very profitable series but they don’t rest on their laurels and still provide such an interesting heart at the center of it: the price of our freedom. The ultimate cost that we must pay for being part of this system that only sees us for our utility and not our humanity.
Once the metaphor was so clear to me, I was cheering for John Wick because, like him, I wanted to be free of this unceasing struggle with the system. I should be able to go when I want to. The hundreds of bodies that he had to punch, kick, stab, and shoot to be free were just metaphors of every fiery hoop we go through before we realise we are just cogs in a machine. Maybe I’m seeing more than what is really there. But I understood John Wick’s tiredness. It was time to go but they would not let him go.
So, he made a big mess just to get out and left us with a great big movie to say farewell with and I’m all the happier for it.
My Rating:
.
— John Wick: Chapter 4is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Book your seats in advance and buy your tickets here.
Famed for her work as Letty in the Fast & Furious films, Rodriguez possessed the charisma and the athleticism to play an unstoppable warrior who is supremely skilled in combat. On the battlefield, Holga’s inner rage takes over, giving her almost superhuman strength and resilience. “Michelle has this inherent toughness that she brings to the table,” Latcham says. “She’s just a badass.”
Although Holga is formidable, lethal, and intimidating, above all, she is deeply loyal to those she loves. When the film opens, Holga and her best friend, the bard Edgin (played by Chris Pine) are locked away in the notorious prison Revel’s End. Although the duo had once been the leaders of a merry band of well-meaning thieves, their circumstances changed dramatically after a heist gone wrong.
“He’s like her brother in a sense,” says Rodriguez of her character’s relationship with Edgin. “She’d never admit it, but when you’re shunned by the world and you find acceptance somewhere, it’s a beautiful thing.”
The two lead a scrappy band of unlikely heroes – including a paladin (Regé-Jean Page), a sorcerer (Justice Smith) and a Druid (Sophia Lillis). Together, they undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
SOPHIA LILLIS (DORIC THE DRUID)
As a Tiefling, Lillis’ character Doric has curved horns that sprout from her skull and as a Druid wields magic derived from nature. “Her go-to forms of combat are her slingshot gauntlet and turning into different animals,” explains Lillis.
She’s also the group’s truth-telling shapeshifter. “With all these people who blow things up and make horrible plans, you really need one person there who’s just completely deadpan, saying, ‘This makes no sense,’” Lillis says. “Doric, the way she was written, she’s a really fun character to work with because I got to be that deadpan person.”
Although Tieflings are typically loners, Doric was taken in as a young child by a group of wood elves, a race now under threat by Edgin and Holga’s nemesis Forge (played by Hugh Grant). And that is the thing that ultimately motivates her to sign up with Edgin, Holga and the rest of the gang. “She would do whatever she can to protect them because they helped her when she was a kid,” says Lillis, herself an experienced D&D player. “Tieflings usually are independent, but she really wants a family. She wants a home. So when these bunch of idiots come to her and say, ‘We want to take down Forge,’ she goes along with them, and it ends up being something more.”
THE HEART OF IT ALL
Pine, who is also one of the film’s executive producers, has nothing but high praise for the characters and cast of the film. At the heart of it all, Pine notes, is the camaraderie and comedy that develops among a memorable group of characters who truly come to care about one another as the eclectic members of a found family. “You have a story about a ragtag group of people that are going up against immense odds and immense nemeses and very much looks like they’re not going to be able to succeed,” he says. “This is a fun film. This is big, emotive great old-fashioned moviemaking.”
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures, opens nationwide March 29. Connect with #DnDMovie and tag @paramountpicsph
Photo & Video Credit: “Paramount Pictures International”
This week, the fantastical world of the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons is coming to the big screen through the new movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves! Watch the trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves below:
Before you see the epic fantasy movie in theaters this week, we’ve rounded up a few facts about it that you might not know about!
1. This is not the first Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Before Honor Among Thieves, there has already been an attempt to turn the beloved tabletop game into a movie franchise. In 2000, the movie Dungeons & Dragons starring Jeremy Irons and Marlon Wayans was released and will expand to become a trilogy in the next twelve years. If you haven’t heard about it or you don’t remember seeing it, then don’t be surprised because the franchise flopped. Despite having such a history, one can expect that the new adaptation has more to offer with today’s CGI and an all-star cast.
2. A star-studded cast for a colorful crew of characters.
Aside from the rich world of D&D as its setting, another selling point for the movie comes in the form of its star-studded cast whose members are not new to the fantasy and action genres. Leading the group is the charming thief Edgin played by Star Trek movie star Chris Pine; with Fast & Furious actress Michelle Rodriguez as the barbarian Holga; Regé-Jean Page of The Gray Man as Xenk the paladin; Detective Pikachu‘s Justice Smith as Simon the sorcerer; and Sophia Lillis of the It movies stars as the druid Doric.
3. The film is written and directed by the writers of Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Flash.
John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein serve as the writers and directors for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie. The two have collaborated on multiple projects before, including Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Homecoming and the upcoming DC flick The Flash. They’ve also directed the comedy movies Game Night and Vacation.
Photo: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves trailer
The film was reportedly bouncing around studios for years before Paramount took it. When asked what made the famous roleplaying game hard to get adapted into a film, the directors answered: “Sometimes people take it too seriously and want to embrace the more dramatic elements of it,” Daley told Varietyin an interview. “To us, that’s ridiculous, because you’ve got literally brains with four legs — you know, creatures that were so obviously written with a wink. On the flip side, if you try to get too goofy with it, you’re also doing it a disservice.”
“What we learned doing ‘Spider Man: Homecoming’ was that while you have to have a certain reverence for and love of the source material, you can’t let the weight of that thing hinder your creativity,” Goldstein added.
4. Familiar beasts will delight D&D fans.
There are numerous creatures from the Dungeons & Dragons lore that will be featured in the movie. Some of the monsters confirmed to appear in the movie include the Mimic, the Gelatinous Cube, Intellect Devourers, an Owlbear, the Displacer Beast, the Black Dragon, and Giant Spiders.
5. The Dungeons & Dragons directors share how they conveyed the spirit of the game in the movie.
In an interview with Variety, Daley and Goldstein shared how they maintained the spirit of the game in the movie, considering that there are no set characters or story in D&D.
“It’s a combination of things,” shared Daley. “Each character represents a different player and how they go about playing the game. Xenk, played by Regé-Jean Page, is very much the nerdy player that doesn’t make jokes and adheres strictly to the rulebook. Whereas Edgin, Chris Pine’s character, is the more casual player. He doesn’t bother to learn about the Bardic spells and would prefer to just hit people over the head with his lute.”
“The movie is almost like the dungeon master,” Goldstein added. “The plot twists that we throw at our characters are what a DM would do at the table, just to screw with you and make it more fun. It was our way of capturing what goes on when you’re playing D&D, without breaking the fourth wall or becoming meta with it.”
Heads up Saint Seiya fans, we have some great news for you! The Knights of the Zodiac movie, based on the popular manga and anime series, is heading to cinemas soon. And if you’re wondering what the live-action adaptation has in store for you, check out the trailer for the film below:
Knights of the Zodiac follows Seiya, a tough street kid who fights for money while he searches for his kidnapped sister. Everything changes when he discovers that he has mystical powers, which soon throws him into a world of warring saints. He must then learn to hone his magical abilities and protect a reincarnated goddess.
Mackenyu, who is also set to play Zoro in Netflix’s live-action One Piece series, plays the character of Seiya. Directed by Tomek Baginski, the film also stars Famke Janssen, Madison Iseman, Diego Tinoco, Mark Dacascos, Nick Stahl, and Sean Bean.
The film is set for release in US theaters on May 12.
