20th Century Fox and their upcoming film PAPER TOWNS have announced “Night On The Towns”, avery Special Event where fans will be the first to see the film and be included in a live simulcast experience of an exclusive Q&A with PAPER TOWNS stars Cara Delevingne, Nat Wolff, Jaz Sinclair, Halston Sage and Justice Smith, as well as author John Green, director Jake Schreier and producer Wyck Godfrey.
There will also be special acoustical performances by Saint Motel and Nat & Alex Wolff, PLUS a few more surprises will be unveiled throughout the evening! All attendees will receive a beautiful commemorative locket and an exclusive poster from the film.
The special NIGHT ON THE TOWNS event is in theaters only onJuly 23, 2015
Adapted from the bestselling novel by author John Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”), PAPER TOWNS is a coming-of-age story centering on Quentin and his enigmatic neighbor Margo, who loved mysteries so much she became one.
After taking him on an all-night adventure through their hometown, Margo suddenly disappears–leaving behind cryptic clues for Quentin to decipher. The search leads Quentin and his quick-witted friends on an exhilarating adventure that is equal parts hilarious and moving. Ultimately, to track down Margo, Quentin must find a deeper understanding of true friendship–and true love.
Paper Towns was Green’s third novel and debuted in 2008 at number five on The New York Times Best Seller list for children’s books, and the movie rights were optioned by Mandate Pictures and Mr. Mudd. In 2009, Paper Towns was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel and the 2010 Corine Literature Prize.
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote the adapted screenplay.
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Showis up! Hear WAMG’s Jim Batts, Travis Keune and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We also discuss at length the career of actor Mark Wahlberg in advance of this week’s TED 2, and debate the merits of the Brian Wilson bio LOVE & MERCY. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and we will soon be streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
Here’s this week’s show. Have a listen:
Visit our WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show Facebook page HERE
BRAVEHEART, ALIENS, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, APOLLO 13, WOLFEN, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, KRULL, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, TITANIC. The list goes on and on.
The prolific Oscar winning composer James Horner has died in a plane crash at the age of 61. (June 22, 2015). Variety confirmed the news Monday evening.
Brilliant Composer James Horner, friend & collaborator on 7 movies has tragically died in a plane crash. My heart aches for his loved ones.
Listen to samples of his genius. James Horner will be profoundly missed.
From James Horner’s bio (Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency):
Having composed the music for more than 130 film and television productions, including dozens of the most memorable and successful films of the past three decades, James Horner was one of the world’s most celebrated film composers.
He earned two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for his music from James Cameron’s Titanic (one for Best Original Score and one for the Best Original Song “My Heart Will Go On”), eight additional Academy Award nominations, five additional Golden Globe nominations, and has won six Grammy awards, including Song of the Year in both 1987 (for “Somewhere Out There”) and 1998 (for “My Heart Will Go On”).
In April of 1998, Horner’s Titanic soundtrack album on Sony Classical completed an unprecedented run of 16 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, setting a new record for the most consecutive weeks at number 1 for a score album. It remains the largest selling instrumental score album in history, having sold nearly 10 million copies in the US and more than 27 million copies worldwide. Sony Classical’s multi-platinum sequel soundtrack album Back to Titanic featured additional music from the film as well as several new compositions by Horner based upon themes from his original score.
Known for his stylistic diversity, his other film credits include The Amazing Spider-Man, Black Gold, For Greater Glory, Karate Kid, Avatar, Apocalypto, Flight Plan, The New World, The Legend of Zorro, Chumscrubber, The Forgotten, Troy, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, House of Sand and Fog, The Missing, Beyond Borders, The Four Feathers, Radio, Windtalkers, A Beautiful Mind, Iris, Enemy at the Gates, Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Perfect Storm, Freedom Song, Bicentennial Man, Mighty Joe Young, The Mask Of Zorro, Deep Impact, The Devil’s Own, Ransom, Courage Under Fire, To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, The Spitfire Grill, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Casper, Legends of the Fall, Clear and Present Danger, The Pagemaster, Bopha, The Pelican Brief, The Man Without a Face, Patriot Games, Thunderheart, Sneakers, The Rocketeer, Glory, In Country, Field of Dreams, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Land Before Time, Willow, An American Tail, The Name Of The Rose, Cocoon, Gorky Park, Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return, 48 Hours and Another 48 Hours, and Star Treks II and III.
His most recent film projects are director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Wolf Totem, director Patricia Riggen’s The 33, and director Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw.
Born in Los Angeles in 1953, Horner spent his formative years living in London where he attended the prestigious Royal College of Music. His initial interest was to become a composer of serious, avant-garde classical music. Returning to his native California, Horner continued his music education at the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor of Music in Composition. He then transferred to the Masters program at UCLA where he earned his Doctorate in Music Composition and Theory. In 1980, Horner was approached by the American Film Institute and asked to score a short film, after which left the academic world and began working for Roger Corman at New World Pictures, during which time he developed his craft. It was also where he became acquainted with a number of young directors including Ron Howard, for whom he would later score such films as Willow, Cocoon, and Apollo 13.
Also during his time at New World, Horner met a young cameraman named James Cameron, with whom he would later collaborate on the hit sequel Aliens, and the two highest grossing films of all time, Avatar and Titanic. In the ensuing years, Horner has gone on to collaborate with many of Hollywood’s most noted and successful filmmakers, including Ed Zwick, Joe Johnston, Phil Alden Robinson, Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, Mel Gibson, Oliver Stone, Philip Noyce, Michael Apted, Lasse Hallstrom, Norman Jewison, and Francis Ford Coppola.
Equally comfortable with lush orchestral scoring and contemporary electronic techniques, Horner has likened his approach to composing to that of a painter, where the film serves as the canvas and where musical color is used to describe and support the film’s emotional dynamics. He is also noted for his integration of unusual ethnic instruments into the traditional orchestral palette in order to achieve exotic colors and textures. An accomplished conductor, Horner preferred to conduct his orchestral film scores directly to picture and without the use of click tracks or other mechanical timing devices. He has also composed several concert works, including a work entitled Spectral Shimmers which was performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and A Forest Passage, commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational Area in Ohio.
His most recent concert works are Pas de Deux, a double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra commissioned by artists Mari and Håkon Samuelsen, and Collage: A Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra, which was premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in March of 2015.
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE screens midnights this weekend (June 26th and 27th) at The Tivoli Theater as part of their ‘Reel Late at The Tivoli’ Midnight Series.
The popular animé series Cowboy Bebop got its own feature-length film in 2001 aptly named COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE. Set in the late 21st century, it jumps into the series’ story line just prior to its conclusion, with the bounty hunting crew of the interstellar craft Bebop chasing a hacker aboard a tanker into a major city on Mars. As crew member Faye Valentine closes in on the tanker, she witnesses its catastrophic explosion, which soon appears to be a viral terrorist attack as the death toll continues to mount in the days following. Furthermore, Faye caught a glimpse of the person responsible for the blast and is thus the only surviving witness of the crime. After the government puts out a large bounty for the perpetrator’s capture, the Bebop gang — slacker Spike Spiegel, former policeman Jet Black, and hacker girl genius Edward — begin their own hunt for the mass murderer, who is eventually revealed to be one Vincent Volaju. Vincent, it turns out, was the lone survivor of a governmental medical test and now seeks revenge by unleashing the same microscopic robotic virus used in the tanker explosion on the unsuspecting city. The Bebop crew must scramble to prevent Vincent from carrying out his plan, as well as try to locate an anti-virus to counterattack the effects of Vincent’s virus.
I’ve never seen COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE, but critics at the time loved it:
Jamie Russell at at BBC.com said it’s:
“….A brilliant feature-length anime that’s good enough to deserve mention in the same breath as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Spirited Away.”
John Beifuss at Commercial Appeal said:
“…..Cartoon or not, the world of ‘Cowboy Bebop: The Movie’ feels as convincingly ‘lived-in’ as any seen onscreen in ages…”
Kim Morgan atTheOregonian said COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE:
“…..is a stylish work, seeping with brilliant animation and potentially interesting characters that didn’t need so much time to establish themselves.”
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE Screens midnights this weekend (June 26th and 27th) at midnight
Admission is $8. Hope to see everyone this weekend at The Tivoli!
The Facebook invite for this event can be found HERE
Experience the thrill of watching opera from the Royal Opera House in the comfort of the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Boulevard, in The Loop, St. Louis, MO, 63130) thanks to the ‘Royal Opera House at The Tivoli Theater’ series
We Are Movie Geeks has teamed up with the Tivoli Theater for a special giveaway! We have five pairs of tickets (a $30 value) for the first installment of this year’s ‘Royal Opera House at The Tivoli Theater’ which will be LA BOHEME The date is next Sunday June 28th and the show begins at Noon.
All you have to do is leave a comment below and tell us why you want free tickets – it’s so easy! We’ll contact the winners in a few days. Good luck!
These operas are shown on the Tivoli’s big screen in their entirety, giving you the opportunity to enjoy the Royal Opera House and these critically acclaimed performances. The Royal Opera House is a major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London.
Join The Royal Opera for one of the most popular operas of all time as John Copley’s timeless production of La Bohème returns to the Covent Garden stage for the very last time. To be recorded live in mid-2015, the tender and ultimately tragic love story is given moving expression through Puccini’s beautiful and memorable score. Cinema audiences will be treated to a world-class cast including Anna Netrebko as Mimi and Joseph Calleja as Rudolfo. The captivating story unfolds against the colourful spectacle of the Café Momus and brings the noise and vibrancy of bohemian 19th century Paris to life in stunning detail. Dan Ettinger conducts the stunning score in what promises to be a revival that goes down in Royal Opera history. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Celebrate Dad this Sunday with this Father’s Day SINISTER 2 video.
What’s the gift no father wants this Father’s Day? A visit from Bughuul. Night Night Daddy….
Watch the trailer.
The sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit horror movie. In the aftermath of the shocking events in “Sinister,” a protective mother (Shannyn Sossamon of “Wayward Pines”) and her 9-year-old twin sons (real-life brothers Robert and Dartanian Sloan) find themselves in a rural house marked for death as the evil spirit of Bughuul continues to spread with frightening intensity.
Directed by Ciarán Foy (“Citadel”) and written by Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill (“Sinister”), the movie stars James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Lea Coco, Robert and Dartanian Sloan.
SINISTER 2 opens nationwide from Gramercy Pictures on August 21, 2015.
Fifth Harmony, the award-winning girl group whose top 10, platinum hit “Worth It” is currently rocketing up the charts, has recorded the new song “I’m In Love With A Monster” for Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2, it was announced by Lia Vollack, president of Worldwide Music for Sony Pictures. The sequel to the monster hit, which took in over $350 million worldwide, will be released in theaters on September 25.
“I’m In Love With A Monster” will be heard in the film as well as in the new trailer, which launches this week. “I’m In Love With A Monster” is produced by Harmony Samuels and written by Harmony Samuels, Carmen Reece, Sarah Mancuso, Edgar Etienne, andEricka Coulter.
The new song will be released by Syco/Epic Records next month.
Commenting on the announcement, Vollack said, “There are few groups out there that can match the incredibly fun feel and animated vision that Genndy Tartakovsky is bringing to HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2, and Fifth Harmony knocked it out of the park. The song is exactly what we were hoping for.”
Ally, Normani, Dinah, Camila, and Lauren of Fifth Harmony said, “We’re incredibly excited that our song, ‘I’m In Love With A Monster,’ will be part of Hotel Transylvania 2! The movie is hilarious and so much fun!”
Drac’s pack is back for an all-new monster comedy adventure in Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2! Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania… Dracula’s rigid monster-only hotel policy has finally relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is worried that his adorable half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing signs of being a vampire. So while Mavis is busy visiting her human in-laws with Johnny – and in for a major cultural shock of her own – “Vampa” Drac enlists his friends Frank, Murray, Wayne and Griffin to put Dennis through a “monster-in-training” boot camp. But little do they know that Drac’s grumpy and very old, old, old school dad Vlad is about to pay a family visit to the hotel. And when Vlad finds out that his great-grandson is not a pure blood – and humans are now welcome at Hotel Transylvania – things are going to get batty!
The cast includes Adam Sandler (Dracula), Andy Samberg (Johnny), Selena Gomez (Mavis), Kevin James (Frank), Fran Drescher (Eunice), Steve Buscemi (Wayne), Molly Shannon (Wanda), David Spade (Griffin), Keegan-Michael Key (Murray) and Mel Brooks (Vlad).
This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Showis up! Hear WAMG’s Michelle McCue, Jim Batts and Tom Stockman review the weekend box office hit JURASSIC WORLD and next weekend’s Pixar release INSIDE OUT. We also discuss at length our favorite dinosaur movies and the amazing life and career of the recently-departed Christopher Lee. WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is a weekly podcast and we will soon be streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.
Visit our WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show Facebook page HERE
Isn’t Chris Pratt just the coolest? Not only does he play a hero in the all new JURASSIC WORLD, he also jumped up to catch a falling speaker at the Los Angeles press conference for the film, protecting a journalist. Check out some of the fun conversation as Pratt tells us about his close call with a moose, and his approach to the character of Owen. Also, make sure you scroll to the end. I’ve included some photos that I took of all the fun decorations and toys they had set up for us to look at!
Steven Spielberg returns to executive produce the long-awaited next installment of his groundbreaking Jurassic Park series, JurassicWorld. Colin Trevorrow directs the epic action-adventure based on characters created by Michael Crichton. The screenplay is by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Derek Connolly & Trevorrow, and the story is by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley join the team as producers.
You’re known as an outdoorsman. You go hunting and fishing. Can you talk a little about your experience dealing with animals in the wild that you may have been able to bring to this character, that has an affinity for these wild animals?
CHRIS PRATT: Yes. It’s funny. This is cool. This is a cool story. It’s one of those stories that is true, and it’s one of those stories that I’ll tell forever, and I’m glad that I can tell it to you guys, because it I wasn’t at a press conference I would just be telling it to my buddies… and this is way better. I was on an elk hunt about eight years ago… nine years ago. This is all leading up to something, I promise. I had shot an elk the first day, so my tag was filled. I was on a hunt with these other two guys, Mike and Ian, and they were out in the morning. They didn’t have me come with them because it was a dry time of year. The aspen leaves had fallen, and it was crunchy on the ground, so two less feet in the woods was better, because it was so loud. So, long story short I was at camp… [Leaves from the forrest setting in the back fall, bringing a speaker down. Pratt jumps up to catch the speaker before it could hit a journalist sitting under it. Journalists all cheer and applaud.]
Just look around you. If there’s anything that looks like it could fall and kill you, just be wary! [Laughs] Find an exit strategy now!
So, I’m walking around camp, because they have these things called grouse. They’re these dumb little birds. They’re like a cross between corn, and an animal that I feel like God put them to be here like, “Ah… even the dummies got to eat, so I’ll give you grouse.” I was out to shoot these grouse with the single shot .22… just a tiny little gun, basically a bb gun. So I’m out looking for grouse, and I look up on the hill… and I see a giant… something. The sun is coming up behind this hill, so all I could really see was a silhouette of a giant beast. I assumed it was a monster bull elk. I go back quickly to the tent and say to Ian and Mike over the radio, “Hey… there’s something here. I think it is a huge elk. Stand by. I’m gonna get a better look, but you might want to come back this way, because one of you guys should shoot this big elk.” So, I come back, and I look up, and I don’t see it. Now I’m looking through my binoculars like this [makes binoculars with his hands], and I don’t see this animal. I can’t find him. Meanwhile, I am wearing slippers, pajamas, and I have my little single shot baby gun .22… and then I hear this fshooooosh… and I drop my binoculars, and standing not ten feet from me is a big, mature bull moose. Moose are incredibly dangerous. They kill more people in North America than bears and wolves all combined. Very, very dangerous animals. They’re huge, 1,000 pounds, this thing is monstrous, and I’m thinking to myself, “Oh. I’m going to die right now!” And so, it’s looking at me, [makes stomping noise] running its foot into the ground, and I just don’t look at it in the eyes, because… I don’t know why, I think maybe I heard “don’t look at it in the eyes” or something. And I take a step back, and as I take a step back, it takes a step towards me, and it’s a standoff between me and this giant beast. I take another step back, and it takes another step towards me. I can still smell this creature, it’s so vivid in my brain. It had steam coming out from its nose, You could see it because it’s so cold. I have this little tiny gun, I’m thinking to myself, “What am I going to do? If this thing attacks me, I’m gonna have to stick this little gun somewhere in its eye or something… somewhere to try to shoot it, because there is no way this guns gonna kill a moose. It’s just gonna make it mad. Finally, I take one more step, and instead of taking one step, it takes three steps right at me. And I think I nearly fainted, and then it just turns off, and walks not two feet from me. It didn’t even care who I was, and it just walked off into the wild.
So, if anything from the wild informed me on this movie – when I am doing that scene with the raptors… I told this story to Colin, and I said, “There’s something really scary about having something standing in front of you, and if you step back a few inches, it comes at you a few inches. Like, that suspense building that up informed me a little bit, by that experience I had in the wild. And, all of these answers are going to be just as long… [laughs] Don’t worry. We have plenty of time to get to all of you. We’ll be done in about four days.
In GUARDIANS you play this ultimate badass [Peter Quill] and now you’re playing another badass [Owen] How did you make sure that Owen is different?
CHRIS PRATT: I do feel that it is a different character. I approached it, and always saw it, as a character who is different from Peter Quill. A huge part of that was just Colin’s vision… our director Colin Trevorrow’s vision. He;d always mentioned to me that he had this term called the third rail. The third rail for him… I didn’t grow up in a city with a subway, but apparently in a subway there are, like, three rails, and if you touch one it’ll kill you. So, that was the third rail for me. He had this third rail, which essentially, if I start being goofy, or acting like a dipshit, or going to my normal comedic bag of tricks, some of which I used in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, certainly the character of Andy Dwyer in ‘Parks and Recreation’ is a full embodiment of that type of clowning around… that comedic shtick that I am known for. If I did any of that on this, that was my third rail. So, if I wanted to have any fun with this, it was going to be in my repertoire with Claire. I relished an opportunity to be able to spar with her… kind of get her goad a little bit. That’s where I could have fun. But for the most part, I was deadly serious, and there was a bit of darkness. This is a guy who’s been through something, and it goes back to who would this guy be, who would he be if this were really a job opening, and they needed a person to fill this position.
We decided, we kind of came together and decided that his backstory is that he probably at one point trained dolphins for the navy, and saw what treatment these animals received, and it was not great for the animals. We decided the likelihood that in all the years that he has been working for the park, that this isn’t his first set of raptors, and that all of the raptors didn’t make it through some of the training. These animals died under his watch. They killed each other under his watch. Certain techniques that we tried didn’t work. So, we’ve come a long way, and a lot of these animals have paid the sacrifice for the work that I am doing for this company. That’s pretty serious. There’s not a lot of room for goofing around when you are playing that guy, a guy who’s been through combat… who’s a combat veteran. There’s kind of a darkness, and he lives on an island. He’s chosen to move away from the world, and live on the dark side of an island. All that stuff was interesting and fun to see a character work, and made me want to be someone who is different. I love Peter Quill and I love Andy, and I look forward to playing Peter Quill again. It’s super fun, but this was just something a little different for me.
Which dinosaur was the biggest asshole? Could you outrun that dinosaur in heels like Bryce Dallas Howard?
CHRIS PRATT: Which dinosaur was the biggest asshole? [Laughs] I guess Indominus Rex was a big asshole. Just mean, just a mean dinosaur. But like most assholes, he had a tough upbringing. Kinda feel a little bit bad for him.
But could you out run it like Bryce?
CHRIS PRATT: Likely no. But I did run in heels for the first time while on the James Cordon show, and A.) I kinda liked the way it felt walking in them, and B.) I surprised myself in running in them, kinda like tippy toe running. But I would not be able to outrun the Indominus Rex. But with enough practice, I might get a good forty or fifty feet before I was killed.
Did you know that you would have three franchises to your name?
CHRIS PRATT: Always knew it. [Laughs] I was like, “As soon as I have three franchises to my name…” No, I never would have known. I could not have known. No way. It’s a pretty fine space to be in. So, I am feeling very blessed and overcome with joy.
Katherine Waterston (INHERENT VICE) will star opposite Eddie Redmayne in Warner Bros. Pictures’ much-anticipated adventure FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.
Waterston will play the pivotal role of Tina, short for Porpentina, a witch who—unlike the beloved characters from Rowling’s Harry Potter books – works her magic in the U.S. She meets magizoologist Newt Scamander (Redmayne) when he stops in New York City on his travels to find and document magical creatures.
Warner Bros. Pictures has slated FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM for worldwide release in 3D and IMAX on November 18, 2016.
David Yates (director of the last four “Harry Potter” films) will direct from J.K. Rowling’s screenplay, inspired by Newt Scamander’s Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Ms. Rowling is an acknowledged authority on all things magical, having authored the Harry Potter series of books.
The film is being produced by David Heyman, producer of all eight of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” features; J.K. Rowling; Steve Kloves, who scripted all but one of the “Harry Potter” films; and Lionel Wigram, who served as an executive producer on the last four installments of the franchise.
Katherine Waterston recently starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed film INHERENT VICE, for which she shared in an Independent Spirit Award for Best Ensemble. She also stars in the upcoming biopic STEVE JOBS, under the direction of Danny Boyle.
