86 year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companion, his 8 year-old Grandson Billy in JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA. This October, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on film.
Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens.
Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.
With a screenplay by Johnny Knoxville & Spike Jonze & Jeff Tremaine and directed by Jeff Tremaine, JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA will be in theaters October 25.
Paramount Pictures and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass to the advance screening of JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA onTuesday, October 22nd at 7PM.
Answer the following:
Not including this one, how many JACKASS movies are there?
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“Guess who?! Ha ha ha hah hah! Ha ha ha hah hah! Hahahahah!” Looks like another iconic cartoon character from Hollywood’s Golden Age is finally returning to the silver screen! He joins the ranks of Mickey Mouse in the theatrical short subject “Get a Horse’ that will be paired with Disney’s FROZEN, the Loony Tunes Warner Brothers gang recently seen in the “I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat” short preceeding HAPPY FEET 2, and Popeye the Sailor Man (technically a comic strip star) in his very own CGI feature from director Genndy Tartakovsky (HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA) in production at Sony Pictures. Why it’s that fine feathered frantic fury, Woody Woodpecker! Animation reporter and historian Jerry Beck reported over at the website Indiewire that animator Bill Kopp (TV’s “Eek the Cat” and “Dan Vs.” amongst many credits) has been signed to bring that red-headed rascal back to theatres
So, what’s the story on this bouncing, bombastic bird? Turns out that he’s over 70 years young (he’ll never grow old)! Woody’s the brainchild of animation’s other great Walt, Mr. Walter Lantz. Back then all of the big studios released many short films to accompany their features. There were travelogues, newsreels, comedies (“Our Gang” and the Three Stooges) and cartoons. Disney’s shorts were, at different times, distributed by RKO, Columbia, and United Artists. Warner Brothers was the home of Bugs Bunny and his pals along with their creators Chuck Jones, Friz Freeling and the rest of the “Termite Terrace” crew. The Fleischer Brothers (Max, Dave, and Lou) made the Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons for Paramount. MGM’s cartoon division had Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s Tom and Jerry in addition to Tex Avery’s Droopy (and that Red Hot Riding Hood!). Except for a couple of years at the end of the 1940’s (when he dashed to UA), Lantz and his creations had a home at Universal Studios alongside Deanna Durbin, Abbott & Costello, and the classic monsters. Lantz first gained fame there on the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series (the character was originally developed by Mr. Disney). In the late thirties Andy Panda was one of a staple of new cartoon stars. By 1940 Andy’s Papa Panda (somewhat based on “slow burn” comic actor Edgar Kennedy with a dash of Universal star WC Fields) joined him and the two faced off against an annoying pest of a bird in “Knock Knock”. Said pest, Woody Woodpecker, stole the short from the ursine pair with his bulging wild eyes, manic manner, and cackling laugh (provided by soon-to-be-exclusive-to-Warners, “man of a 1000 voices, Mel Blanc). Thanks to the tasty roof of the Panda house, a star was born!
Walter Lantz immediately built on a short series around the destructive little wiseguy. After the first few entries Woody lost the buck teeth, “bug” eyes, and Mel Blanc! After being voiced by several actors through the rest of the decade, Woody would be voiced by Grace Stafford (Mrs. Walter Lantz) starting in 1950 through the rest of his theatrical career. Many of the shorts concerned Woody’s efforts to find shelter and food (I always found it odd, and a bit cannibalistic, that he’d often chomp down on huge turkey legs when he scored a big buffet). His quests would put the bird in conflicts with much larger opponents. Bugs Bunny had Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam while Woody faced gravely voiced thug Buzz Buzzard and Scandinavian dim-bub Wally Walrus ( “I gon git dot voodtpecker!”). Eventually Woody would acquire a woodpecker girlfriend, Winnie, and twin niece and nephew (like Popeye and Donald Duck’s triplet nephews) Splinter and Knothead (both voiced by recent Emmy Governor Award recipient June Foray). While most of the studios shuttered their animated shorts operations in the early 1960’s, Lantz kept producing them for Universal until 1972 (one of my oddest theatre experiences was seeing the Woody short “Pecking Holes in Poles” proceeding Michael Winner’s brutal R-rated 1977 horror thriller THE SENTINEL at the downtown Chicago movie palace).
Speaking of features, Woody made appearances in a few. Because of the lifelong friendship between Lantz and producer George Pal, Woody enlightened viewers on the principles of rocket propulsion in 1950’s DESTINATION MOON (this would be recreated in the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon ” in 1998). In 1988 Woody joined a huge roster of cartoon icons for a cameo near the conclusion of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (as a gaggle of Toontown citizens pander the true origins of Judge Doom, Woody adds, “He weren’t no woodpecker!” before giving his signature laugh).
Like many other film stars, Woody turned to television in the fifties. “The Woody Woodpecker Show” debuted on ABC in 1957 and ran a season before going into syndication until 1966. That’s where I discovered him. Sure I enjoyed his adventures, and those featuring the other Universal cartoon stars like Andy Panda and that other feathered icon, Chilly Willy, but I was fascinated by the live-action segments with Walter Lantz himself. Sure Walt Disney introduced his TV shows, but Lantz really us gave budding artists a peek behind the magic. In his immaculate spacious office (did any cartoonist ever keep their work area so tidy?) Lantz would switch on his lightbox desk (“Gotta ‘ get one of them!” I thought) and with just a few pencil strokes made Woody come to life (often a tiny animated Woody would pop in and sit on Lantz’s shoulder as they conversed). One piece I vividly remember was Lantz talking about the backgrounds for animation, namely the backdrop shouldn’t be the same color as your character. To illustrate this, Woody stood in front of a bright red barn wall which made his eyes and beak appear to be floating above his body. Fantastic! I wonder how many youngsters were inspired by Mr. Lantz and pursued an animation career. Woody returned to network TV on NBC and was a Saturday morning staple through the 1970’s. In the 80’s he was once again in syndication until he returned with a brand new show for Fox Kids in 1999 called “The New Woody Woodpecker Show” with the title hero now voiced by Ren & Stimpy’s Billy West and running through 2002.
Woody was a big merchandising sensation too. His theme song performed by Kay Kyser’s orchestra was a jukebox smash in 1948. Universal’s Super 8 home movie division, Castle Films, issued several Woody shorts. Mattel offered jack-in-the-boxes and talking hand puppets and dolls.The bird has fluttered through comic books from Dell, Gold Key, and Harvey in addition to Golden Books, Big Little Books, and countless coloring and activity books. For a time he was a cereal “spokesbird”. I recall many a breakfast enjoying my Battle Creek bounty in my official plastic Woody bowl (shaped like a hollowed log) and sipping my juice out of my Woody mug (his red tuft and beak met to form the handle), thanks to sending in a couple of coins and many boxtops! Several editions of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade included the giant Woody balloon. And he became the mascot for the Universal Studios theme parks (and PortAventura Park) across the globe as a costumed greeter with dolls, shirts, and other assorted souvenirs available in all the Studio stores. And of course, Woody’s been the star of many video and computer games including “Woody Woodpecker Racing” in 2000. Seven years later the first of two multi-disc DVD sets of “The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection” were released.
That’s one very busy bird. And his feature looks to be bright back on the big screen. Let’s hope the new film projects will bring joy and laughter to a whole new generation of fans. As Woody used to sing at the start of many of his early flicks, “Knock on wood”!
For more than three decades, filmmaker Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral) has crafted his signature voice in the world of movies and television, giving audiences unforgettable characters who have alternately allowed us to laugh at our ever-so-human foibles and to share a tear at the extraordinary journeys that accompany our ordinary lives.
Now, with ABOUT TIME, Curtis gives us his most personal film to date.
At the age of 21, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel in time…
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim’s father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can’t change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life—so he decides to make his world a better place…by getting a girlfriend. Sadly, that turns out not to be as easy as you might think.
Moving from the Cornwall coast to London to train as a lawyer, Tim finally meets the beautiful but insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams). They fall in love, then an unfortunate time-travel incident means he’s never met her at all. So they meet for the first time again—and again—but finally, after a lot of cunning time traveling, he wins her heart.
Tim then uses his power to create the perfect romantic proposal, to save his wedding from the worst best-man speeches and to save his best friend from professional disaster. But as his unusual life progresses, Tim finds out that his unique gift can’t save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere. There are great limits to what time travel can achieve, and it can be dangerous, too.
ABOUT TIME is a comedy about love and time travel, which discovers that, in the end, making the most of life may not need time travel at all.
From Universal Pictures, ABOUT TIME opens in select theaters November 1.
Universal Pictures and WAMG invite you to enter to win a prizepack for ABOUT TIME
Soundtrack details Available for purchase on October 29
TRACKLISTING
1. The Luckiest (Ben Folds)
2. How Long Will I Love You (Jon Boden, Sam Sweeney, Ben Coleman)
3. Mid Air (Paul Bucchanan)
4. At The River (Groove Armada)
5. Friday I’m In Love (The Cure)
6. Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)
7. Gold In Them Hills (Ron Sexsmith)
8. The About Time Theme (Nick Laird-Clowes)
9. Into My Arms (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
10. Il Mondo (Jimmy Fontana)
11. Golborne Road (Nick Laird-Clowes)
12. Push The Button (Sugababes)
13. All The Things She Said (t.A.T.u)
14. When I Fall In Love (Barbar Gough, Sagat Guirey, Andy Hamill, Tim Herniman)
15. Spiegel im Spiegel (Arvo Part, Sebastien Klinger, Jurgen Kruse)
16. How Long Will I Love You (Ellie Goulding)
Answer the following:
If you could travel in time to any historical event, what would it be?
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A disturbed young man who gives the mannequins in his story some very lifelike touches is the monster at the center of the shocker of the year. Elijah Wood, in a role unlike any he has ever undertaken, stars in MANIAC, the new macabre masterpiece from the creator of the hit thrillers High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes.
The film slashes its way onto Blu-ray and DVD from IFC Films and MPI Media Group on October 15, 2013.
In this 21st century Jack the Ripper story set in present-day Los Angeles, Frank (Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings) leads a deceptively peaceful life. To the outside world, he’s a withdrawn and somewhat eccentric owner of a mannequin store. But his quiet façade masks an inner rage that forces him to brutally kill and scalp the women who get too close to him.
When a young artist named Anna (Nora Arnezeder, Safe House) appears one day at Frank’s shop and asks for his help with her new exhibition, Frank develops an obsession with her that threatens to completely destroy his already fragile psyche. Soon the streets become unsafe for any woman after dark as this newly awakened maniac begins to stalk and kill.
A remake of William Lustig and Joe Spinell’s 1980 cult classic of the same name, MANIAC, was written by Aja Alexandre, the screenwriter of The Hills Have Eyes, High Tension and Mirrors. The film is an intimate, visually daring, psychologically complex and profoundly horrific trip into the downward spiraling nightmare of a killer and his victims.
WAMG has 2 Blu-ray copies to give away of IFC Films’ horror movie MANIAC.
Answer the following:
What 3 actors/actresses starred in the original MANIAC?
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE A US RESIDENT. PRIZE WILL ONLY BE SHIPPED TO US ADDRESSES. NO P.O. BOXES.
2.ENTER YOUR NAME AND ANSWER IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. WE WILL CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER.
3. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM ALL QUALIFYING ENTRIES. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
The giveaway ends 11:59 a.m. est on October 24th.
Special features on the release will include:
– Commentary
– Feature length making-of that covers all aspects of production
– Deleted scenes
– Alt poster gallery
Bloody-Disgusting.com hailed it as “the single best horror film of the year.” “A shocker of a remake, equal parts stylish and scuzzy,” raved Rob Nelson of Variety. “Each killing is suffused with a strangely surreal empathy for both murderer and victim that recalls Jonathan Demme‘s genre-redefining The Silence of the Lambs,” said Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York. “This is down and dirty genre filmmaking,” said The Hollywood Reporter’s Meghan Lehmann. Nicholas Rapold, writing in The New York Times, called the film as “efficiently grisly.”
Oscar bait performances by Meryl Streep, Judy Dench, and Bruce Dern, an evening with Oliver Stone, and a tribute to the late Ray Harryhausen are some of the many highlights of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Cinema St. Louis announced the 2013 line-up earlier this week and it’s the usual hi-quality mix of independent films, foreign films, locally-made films, end-of-year studio awards product, and retro programming.
Now in its 22nd year, the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), put on by Cinema St. Louis, is one of the largest international film festivals in the Midwest. This year’s SLIFF will be held November 14-24, 2013. SLIFF’s main venues are the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, IL. SLIFF showcases the very best in cutting-edge features and shorts from around the globe. The majority of the more than 400+ films screened – many of them critically lauded award-winners – will receive their only St. Louis exposure at the festival.
Highlights of this year’s fest include:
Nebraska – An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize. Bruce Dern and Will Forte star in the newest film from director Alexander Payne (Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m. at the Tivoli)
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan – This is the definitive documentary about Ray Harryhausen. Aside from interviews with the great man himself, shot over five years, there are also interviews and tributes from Vanessa Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, Nick Park, Phil Tippet, Terry Gilliam, Dennis Muren, Rick Baker, John Landis, Guillermo Del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and many more. Harryhausen provided unprecedented access to film all aspects of his collection including models, artwork and miniatures as well as Harryhausen ‘s private study, where he designed most of his creations, and his workshop where he built them. In addition the documentary will use unseen footage of tests and experiments found during the clearance of the LA garage. Never before has so much visual material been used in any previous documentary about Harryhausen. This will be shown on a double-feature with Harryhausen’s showcase masterpiece The 7th Voyage of Sindbad (1958). This program will be introduced by We Are Movie Geek’s own Tom Stockman. (Friday, November 15th, 7 p.m. at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium)
To Catch a Thief (1955) – When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly star in this Alfred Hitchcock-directed thriller. (Sunday, Nov. 17, 1 p.m., at the Plaza Frontenac)
Philomena – A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman’s search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent. Stars Judy Dench. (Sunday, Nov. 17, 3:15 p.m., at the Tivoli)
August: Osage County – A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts star in the film of Tracy Lett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play that has string Oscar Buzz. (Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m., at the Tivoli)
Blackmail (1929) – A woman kills a rapist and faces extortion, forcing her controlling boyfriend, a Scotland Yard detective, into a moral and ethical quandary. This is a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. With live accompaniment by the Rats & Motion Picture Orchestra’s Matt Pace and Brien Seyle. (Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m. at the Tivoli)
JFK and an Evening With Oliver Stone – The 1990 film JFK will be shown on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination with director Oliver Stone in attendance. Mr. Stone will participate in a Q&A after the screening – more details about this event can be found in our article HERE. (Friday, Nov. 22, 7 p.m. at the Tivoli)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – A chronicle of Nelson Mandela’s life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Mandela is played by Idris Elba. (Saturday, Nov. 23, 6 p.m. at the Tivoli)
The Invisible Woman – Tells of author Charles Dickens, who at the height of his career, meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death. Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones star. (Sunday, Nov. 24, 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Frontenac)
Something in the Water – a look at the classic rock scene here in St. Louis in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. (Sunday, Nov. 24, 6:30p.m., Wildey Theater in Edwardsville)
Of course, this is just a small fraction of the films that will be shown over the 10-day fest. There are hundreds more lined up. For more information and a complete list of films being shown, visit the Cinema St. Louis site HERE. http://www.cinemastlouis.org/2013-sliff
Check back here at We Are Movie Geeks for more coverage of the 22nd annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public Oct. 14
To promote their new full length animated feature FROZEN, Disney invited members of the press to Disney Animation Studios to check out how the film was made, and show us selected parts of the film before its November 27th release. Also, they made us this pretty cool animated video of our name!
In “Frozen,” fearless optimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) teams up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf (voice of Josh Gad)in a race to find Anna’s sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.
Our day started at the incredible Disney Animation Studios, in Burbank, Ca.
While there, we met with directors Chris Buck (TARZAN) and Jennifer Lee (co-writer WRECK-IT RALPH), as well as producer Peter Del Vecho (THE PRINCESS & THE FROG, WINNIE THE POOH) in a small roundtable Q&A to learn just how they created this epic animated feature. We also met some the artists to discuss the design if Arendelle, where FROZEN takes place, got a lesson on how the animators rig each character, the importance of getting the snow just right, and just how they brought these characters to life.
First we went to The Rigging Lab, where we spoke with Frank Hanner, Keith Wilson, and Gregory Smith about bringing life to otherwise immobile digital models.
Frank Hanner explained:
So, without rigging we only have sculpted characters. They’re purely a digital model. They do not move. It’s like it may as well be carved in granite. So, as an illustration of the character comes into the rigging department, we build the skeleton; we attach the muscles and make sure the skin moves properly; and we build a set of controls that the animators can use to push and pull the body around.”
After they explained a bit about what they do, it was our turn to play. We actually got to sit down at their computers and move the character of Olaf around via the skeletal system that they built for him. It was a ton of fun!
Next, we went to The Art Of Arendelle, where we met with Mike Giaimo, Lisa Keene, and Britney Lee about designing the land of Arendelle. They showed us slides from their trip to Norway, and told us how they pulled inspiration from the fjords,which are long canals of sea between high cliffs, as well as the stave churches,which are built upright, and many triangular roofs stacked up. The third thing that really stuck with them was the amount of rosemaling they found while on their trip.
Mike Giaimo stated:
Now, rosemaling means rustic painting in Norwegian, which really translates to basically folk art. And it can be found on anything. It, uh, certainly clothing, embroidery, um, architecturally it can be found on ceilings, walls, columns, wood trim, uh, furniture, um, anything you can imagine, they decorate with, uh, rosemaling.
We then met with Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho to discuss bringing this tale to life, as well as casting the film. You can find our roundtable Q&A in Part 2 of our FROZEN quest, which you can find at the end of the month. (We’ve gotta leave something to the imagination!)
Acting Through Animation was our next stop. Lino DiSalvo, Becky Bresee, and Wayne Unten showed us how they brought the characters to life. This was done by dissecting everything that the character does, and figuring out exactly how they are supposed to move.
Breathing patterns of the actors also needed to translate to the characters. Lino DiSalvo explained why it was important to bring Idina Menzel, who plays Elsa, in to witness her singing.
We very, very much approach this film with the sensitivity of what the character’s breath was like. So, having Idina come in to talk about her singing technique, was something that was very important to us, ’cause obviously the Elsa character sings an amazing song. And, her costume that she wore, you could see her breath and her diaphragm and the breathing and all that echoing and that tension stuff.
The last stop of the day was The Character of Snow, where Evan Goldberg, Dale Mayeda, Marlon West, and Andy Selle showed us how they created the spectacular snow effect for the movie.
Disney is known for doing their homework, so it was no surprise when Dale Mayeda told us that they brought in an expert to explain the science of snow to them.
We had a professor that came out from Caltech whose name is Dr. Ken Liebricht. He’s also known as Dr. Snow ’cause he has studied all of this information about how snow — snowflakes actually form from like, a really small ice crystal, and that’s really fascinating. One really interesting tidbit is that basically a snowflake actually forms with, like, an ice crystal that is in the air, and because of humidity and temperature, they start branching and plating. And branching and plating. And that’s basically why snowflakes always looks different. Every snowflake always looks very unique. And so we ended up creating our own snowflake generator to be able to generate snowflakes.
As the day wrapped, we were treated to custom milkshakes next to an Olaf ice sculpture. You can’t top a day better than with a milkshake! Be sure to check out Part 2 of our Frozen experience at the end of the month!
Walt Disney Animation Studios, the studio behind “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” presents “Frozen,” a stunning big-screen comedy adventure. Fearlessoptimist Anna (voice of Kristen Bell) sets off on an epic journey—teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his loyal reindeer Sven—to find her sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf (voice of Josh Gad), Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom.
The film is directed by Chris Buck (“Tarzan,” “Surf’s Up”) and Jennifer Lee (screenwriter, “Wreck-It Ralph”), who also wrote the screenplay.
It is produced by Peter Del Vecho (“Winnie the Pooh,” “The Princess and the Frog”).
Features original songs from Tony® winner Robert Lopez (“The Book of Mormon,” “Avenue Q”) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (“In Transit,” “Winnie the Pooh”), and an original score by Christophe Beck (“The Muppets,” Oscar®-winning short “Paperman”).
In 2010, a website dedicated to protecting whistleblowers released an avalanche of classified U.S. documents that triggered a new age of high-stakes secrecy and explosive news leaks. Now, in a dramatic thriller based on real events, DreamWorks Pictures’ THE FIFTH ESTATE reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned this Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization.
The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create an online platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes.
Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world’s most legendary media organizations. But when Assange and Domscheit-Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they find themselves at odds as they struggle with a defining question of our time: What are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society? And what are the costs of exposing them?
The film will be released in U.S. theaters on October 18, 2013.
WAMG invites you to enter for your chance to receive a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of THE FIFTH ESTATE on October 15th at 7PM in St. Louis.
All you have to do is enter your name and email address in our comments section below.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
This film has been rated R.
THE FIFTH ESTATE is presented by DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment in association with Participant Media and is produced by Steve Golin and Michael Sugar, with Bill Condon (“Kinsey,” “Dreamgirls,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Parts 1 and 2”) directing. The executive producers are Richard Sharkey, Paul Green, Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King. The screenplay is by Josh Singer (“Fringe,” “The West Wing”), based on the book “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website” by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and the Guardian book “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” by David Leigh and Luke Harding.
THE FIFTH ESTATE also stars Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Alicia Vikander, Peter Capaldi, Carice van Houten, Dan Stevens, with Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney.
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and at least enter WAMG’s ROMEO & JULIET giveaway!
In celebration of Relativity’s upcoming movie ROMEO & JULIET – starring Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Paul Giamatti, and Ed Westwick – WAMG is giving away a ROMEO & JULIET prize pack. Check it out!
WINNER WILL RECEIVE:
Branded Lip Gloss
Branded Mints
A $30 Fandango Gift Card
A Venetian Mask (may not be exactly as pictured)
The Films companion book which includes the adapted screenplay and the original play
1. YOU MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT WITH A U.S. SHIPPING ADDRESS. NO P.O. BOXES.
2. PLACE YOUR NAME, A VALID EMAIL, AND ANSWER TO THE QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW.
3. Who is your favorite character from a Shakespeare play? Why?
4. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s epic and searing tale of love, is revitalized on screen by writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) and director Carlos Carlei (The Flight of the Innocent). An ageless story from the world’s most renowned author is reimagined for the 21st Century. This adaptation is told in the lush traditional setting it was written, but gives a new generation the chance to fall in love with the enduring legend. With an all-star cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Paul Giamatti and Stellan Skarsgard, it affords those unfamiliar with the tale the chance to put faces to the two names they’ve undoubtedly heard innumerable times: Romeo and Juliet. Every generation deserves to discover this lasting love.
Machete is back, and ready to kick some a-ahhh contest! Yep. That’s what I was going to say! In honor of the release of MACHETE KILLS, WAMG is giving away a MACHETE KILLS prize pack. Do we know how to party, or what?
The winner will receive:
1 Machete T-Shirt
a copy of the final poster signed by Danny Trejo and Alexa Vega
1. YOU MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT WITH A U.S. SHIPPING ADDRESS. NO P.O. BOXES.
2. PLACE YOUR NAME, A VALID EMAIL, AND ANSWER TO THE QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW.
3. What is your favorite Danny Trejo or Robert Rodriguez movie? Why?
4. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
“Machete Kills” is an action-packed thrill ride about the adventures of legendary secret agent Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo). In his latest mission, Machete is recruited by the U.S. President (Carlos Estevez) to stop a crazed global terrorist (Mel Gibson) from starting a nuclear war. With a bounty on his head, Machete faces death at every turn from an all-star cast of deadly assassins. Breaking all the rules, visionary director Robert Rodriguez leads this star-studded ensemble on one of the wildest adventures to save the world ever captured on film!
You’ve never heard a score quite like this. Director Alfonso Cuaron’s GRAVITY is nothing akin to a sci-fi fantasy world, but rather depicts the stark realities of being marooned in the harshest environment known to mankind. It is a real game changer. Audiences will be given the illusion of being in space in ways that are both totally convincing and utterly visceral.
The film opened at #1, had a record setting $55 million opening weekend in the U.S. and is set for a November debut in the United Kingdom. GRAVITY premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival with screenings also held at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. The film will play this week among the highly anticipated Galas at the BFI London Film Festival.
Before it’s release, I spoke with the film’s composer Steven Price from England. The GRAVITY original motion picture soundtrack is available now on digital download and CD from WaterTower Music.
During our half hour conversation days before GRAVITY opened, Price and I discussed everything from his reaction to seeing it and the instruments he chose to use, to what initially drew him to the project.
MM: The last time we spoke was earlier this summer for your work on Edgar Wright’s THE WORLD’S END. Here we are now for your score on GRAVITY – I saw it a few weeks ago.
Steven Price: Oh, you’ve seen it. Well done! At an advance screening?
MM: We did
SP: What did you think?
MM: It’s such an amazing film and so breathtaking. From the minute it begins, you grab on tight – like a big roller coaster ride.
SP:I went on a Saturday to the friends and family screening and it’s the first time I’ve ever taken my wife to see it. She had not seen a frame of it. It was just hilarious because she grabbed my hand more than once – there were some tense scenes. It was just horrendous.
MM: What was the crowd’s reaction there?
SP: I had not seen it with an audience totally new to it, but there were quite a few there. It was really exciting. There were people there who had worked on it.
I was at the premiere in Venice and there were quite a few people there who were new to it and it was also exciting with a lot of gasps.
It’s been fun hearing feedback from people – getting that sense that they are really in the picture and get carried away with it.
MM: I’m so pleased to hear that you were at the Venice Film Festival.
SP: It was a real treat. I got taken out for the premiere – it was really an exciting day. I was wandering around, doing a little bit of sight-seeing afterwards. The reviews started coming out and you’re never sure, because you can get too close to it.
But the reviews were very nice. Then the whole day and night were very relaxed. It was good fun.
MM: What drew you to this project, initially?
SP: Alfonso Cuaron, basically. It was a strange start for me. At that point I had done my first couple things – feature films wise. But I still had to do other jobs, like music editing, and I got a phone call about coming on board to help for two weeks on this film called GRAVITY.
I didn’t know much about it. I had heard things over the years because it was in development for so long. And I knew various people working on it. But I really didn’t know much about it and then I came in for a meeting – just assuming it was for a music editing job. It was a meeting with Alfonso and it was fantastic! He told me all about it. Within minutes we were talking about the context of how the music could be in a film like this. He was really clear that he didn’t want it to be a conventional kind of thriller.
There’s no sound in space, so there’s no reason why the score should do conventional jobs. You’re not competing with a load of sound design, like traditional explosions. The music could play a different role – an expanded role expressing what would normally be sound in a tonal way.
Plus it could convey in a single way the character of Ryan (Sandra Bullock) who carries the whole film. The music can really be with her all the way. Really focus on her feelings and express her journey. So Alfonso and I got started quickly after one meeting and within a few days I was starting to play with ideas. We would go back and forth with the sounds. I would play these ideas and we would talk about them. The whole thing got massively out of hand really. (laughs)
I ended up working on it for better part of a year. Trying things out.
MM: GRAVITY is set in a soundless world – what sort of instruments did you use?
SP: A lot of different things. There was a lot of experimentation. Some of it was quite instinctive at the start. As soon as I saw the visuals, it seemed to me very pure tones, very glassy tones were appropriate. The intensity of some of the situations made it clear that the characters were dealing with total extremes. It was the most beautiful thing that you’d ever seen, and the shots were so amazingly, strikingly beautiful, but equally it was utterly terrifying. Unimaginably awful things that were going to happen.
So I was trying to convey both extremes and an intensity of feeling. It was a matter of finding ways of expressing the beauty and the tonal side of things… using glass noises and glass harmonicas. Those tones seemed to work greatly with that.
The other side of that was a lot of experimentation. I was finding ways for the score to be aggressive and intense. I wanted it to be overwhelming, without going for those film clichés of lots of drums and percussion.
MM: I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of percussion throughout the score.
SP: It was a rule – right from the start. Alfonso was very keen on no percussion. We talked about it in great detail and he felt it’s sort of a cliché on action films. I agreed with him on this type of film as there was no need to do that. We had conversations on how we weren’t going to use percussion and let’s find a different way of doing it. It was all very exciting.
It would be the next day and I would be sitting in my studio, thinking, right, now what. I had to find ways to do it… to find pulsating sounds. We used computers and various other effects to manipulate regular sounds that I had recorded. It started to fit the way the film looked.
MM: So many non-traditional instruments.
SP: Yes. Even the traditional ones were manipulated. We recorded a big orchestral section at the end and an executive in the room said, “oh that sounds great,” and I’m thinking, I’m going to go away and trash that now.
We always wanted it to feel like a real merging. I didn’t want the organic instruments to feel like they had an electronic edge and I didn’t want the electronic ones to feel like they were organic – so many of the sounds have weird origins. There’s a lot of drone like sounds where we used human voices that were processed and then tuned down or played at half speed. So there’s a lot of human noises that come across as electronic. Hopefully it always feels human.
MM: Did I hear vocals and choirs in the background?
SP: Traditional choir was only at the very, very end of the film. There’s literally only 30-40 seconds of that, but there’s a huge amount of textures that were derived from vocals. Very early on in the process I got a friend of mine called Haley Glennie-Smith. She’s got a beautifully, pure voice. I recorded a lot of very early ideas with her and they would become part of the palette. I would build instruments out of her voice and synthesize her almost. A starting point for the film cues would be a voice manipulated and pulsing slightly. It came from her but it became an ethereal thing.
Later on in the process, a singer called Lisa Hannigan, who I’ve always been a huge, huge fan of, came in and she sang a lot of the solo lines when I was writing, to me, a “Ryan’s theme.” The voice was associated with Ryan and her thinking of her daughter. The voice was hugely important to it.
There are other voices in there as well. There was one session where it was me, the music editor and the orchestra all around the microphone in the studio and sang as low as we possibly could. We slowed it down and that became a ‘doomy’ section. Hopefully no one will recognize the voices.
MM: There are so many gorgeous moments tied to your score – all with a very emotional connection to Bullock’s character and the backstory. I’m glad I had tissues with me.
SP: Oh good. It’s so rare nowadays because so often directors don’t want to go for that. It’s all about the emotions with Alfonso… it’s all about the feeling and the moments. Sandra’s performance is so incredible. It was all there to accompany her and to go with her.
For a film set in a soundless world, sound became one of the filmmakers’ most challenging design elements. Cuarón attests, “There is no sound in space, and we wanted to honor that as much as possible. There are certain sequences when we strip away the sound, but we felt to sustain it for the whole film would alienate the audience.”
Sudden silence was also an integral part of the sound design. Cuarón carefully chose those moments, unexpectedly cutting away that aural link to remind the audience that the characters are in a void where nothing exists to sustain life.
Cuarón also utilized music to, as he says, “take the role of sound or give a tonal suggestion of sound.”
MM: How closely did you work with the sound editor/designer?
SP: I’ve worked with Glenn Freemantle and his team before. It was an easy thing from the word ‘go’. He was incredibly supportive. He’s done some incredible stuff with vibrations and low frequency. In space, you’re not getting the sound through your ears – it’s through vibrations. He was doing all this interesting low frequency work.
I would keep him in the loop with what I was doing and the work I was coming up with – especially with what Alfonso and I were talking about. They would get the cue in very early. Off and on in films you have test music, but because we were on the film for so long, Glenn and I swapped things back and forth, so we could see how things and sounds were shaping up.
Even things like heartbeats are amazing alongside music and the whole thing fits together. The frequency ranges that we were dealing in were complimentary, so we were working together to hopefully make you feel like you’re up there with them in space and in the experience.
MM: You feel as if you’re in the spacesuit.
SP: Some of the amazing shots of how the camera moves within the helmet – that’s another instance of how sound and music come together. We tried to make those moments where the perspective changes so you’re really in the suit and you’re seeing it through Ryan’s point of view. It was fun working with Glenn’s team because they’re very open to trying things in different ways. Alfonso would hear them all and have some great input – really a creative type to building the sound and score.
MM: You’ve done so many different types of films. (THE WORLD’S END, ATTACK THE BLOCK) Are you leaning towards a favorite genre?
SP: The great thing about doing film music is that you can do lots of different things. There are so many films that I enjoy watching and you start imagining what you could do with that. I have young kids, so the idea of scoring a kid film would be an amazing thing.
Maybe a strict drama for the next film… something not in space. The last few things I’ve done have been in space or an alien invasion from space. It would be exciting to try different styles.
MM: Do you plan to see it with an audience when GRAVITY opens in the UK in November?
SP: I’d like to sneak in to see what that feels like opening weekend. It’s kind of odd because there’s such a gap between viewings. I feel like if you see it too often you start picking holes in it – maybe that’s a half decibel too loud or I got that wrong. I’d like to see it with an audience to look around and see what the reactions are. Hopefully people keep connecting with it.
MM: One last question. If you were an astronaut would you want to be a pilot, engineer or commander?
SP: (laughs) Oh dear. That’s a really interesting question. Wow!
I think pilot would be fun, wouldn’t it?
Engineer? If it was engineering with flying and being an astronaut – like my engineering when I’m recording music – I would end up with whatever the equivalent of distortion is and with strange sounds. That might be a bit risky for the other people on the mission.
Commander? I think would probably need someone who’s a little calmer. A little less excitable than me, so I think pilot is quite important as well. I think, yeah.
But let’s face it, pilot is probably not a good idea at all. (laughs).
GRAVITY was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes team includes multiple Oscar®-nominated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”); production designer Andy Nicholson (art director “Alice in Wonderland”); editors Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Children of Men”); and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The visual effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Webber (“The Dark Knight”).
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