It's finally here!!! LES MISERABLES Official Trailer | ANNE HATHAWAY singing I Dreamed A Dream

After so many recordings, versions, celebrations and adaptations, I have to say that this is the one I most excited about. I've been waiting for this for so long and now it's here! The very first trailer of Les Miserables!!! Whoohoo!!!

Les Miserables boasts of a stellar cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Aaron Tveit, and Samantha Barks. 

What did you think of the trailer? Argh! I can't help but wish it's already Christmas! Did I say it'll be shown Christmas? Hahaha!

Anyways, here's a brief description of Les Miserables for those who have no clue what I'm gushing about tee hee... :o)

Les Miserables is a story of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict whose life is transformed and turned toward goodness by an act of Christian charity. It is also a history of Hugo's time. With wealth of social and philosophical commentary, the work is an eloquent plea for social reform.

Jean Valjean was released after nineteen years in prison. He had been sentenced to a term of five years because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and family. Jean's sentenced was increased because of his attempts to escape. During his imprisonment, he astonished others by his exhibitions of unusual physical strength.

Freed at last, he started out on foot for a distant part of the country. Innkeepers refused him food and lodging because his yellow passport revealed that he was an ex-convict. Finally, he came to the house of Bishop of Digne, a saintly man, who treated him graciously, fed him, and gave him a bed. During the night Jean stole the Bishop's silverware and fled. The incident was reported , and the policemen immediately captured him with the stolen goods. Without any censure, the priest did not only give him what he had stolen, but also added his silver candlesticks to the gift. The Bishop told the gendermes that those silverware were given to Jean as present. So, the astonished gendermes let the prisoner go. Alone with the Bishop, Jean was confounded by the churchman's attitude; though, the Bishop asked only that he should use the silver as means of living an honest life.

About Victor Hugo [1802-1855]

Hugo was a single writer in the Romantic Movement in the nineteenth-century France.He was a lyric poet, novelist, dramatist, and occasion -polemical writer.

Before he was twenty, he had written two tragedies, a melodrama, and many lyric poems. His novels are still popular nowadays. "Notre Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1962) are considered his best.

HUGH JACKMAN, AMANDA SEYFRIED & RUSSELL CROWE lead starry LES MISERABLES cast! Movie photos!

Whoohoo! Finally, photos of the new Les Miserables movie are available. I cannot express my excitement enough most especially that this film brings together two of my most favorite actors. 

Just last October, I shared news that Anne Hathaway was to join the cast.

Cameron Mackintosh confirms ANNE HATHAWAY to join Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe in star-studded LES MISERABLES film!!!

The photos show the cast all in character and I have to say that this will be a great film. Judging from how each character was cast, I cannot complain and know that the roles will be well played compared to the earlier adaptations.

Les Miserables boasts of a stellar cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Aaron Tveit, and Samantha Barks.

Amanda expresses: “I pinch myself every time I am on set doing this movie. Once it is on celluloid, it will be a highlight of my career,”while talking to USA Today about filming the role of Cosette.

This is going to be a great Christmas! The movie will be released December 14! Let's go!

Toink! :o)

  

 

 

Photos: Courtesy of Just Jared

Dark Shadows (Tim Burton, 2012)

On paper, Dark Shadows should be a stirring return to form for Tim Burton. Like Beetlejuice, its focus on one main set limits Burton's arty leanings even as it allows him to pour all of his expressionistic flair into his chosen location, maximizing his moody design instead of diluting it across too big an area. And like Edward Scissorhands, it then drags that isolated, anachronistic, black-and-white setting into a candy-colored "normal" world, having fun with the juxtaposition. After the fine but flat Sweeney Todd and the out-of-control Alice in Wonderland, this could have been just what Burton needed to get back on track.

Instead, it marks a low point for a career that already includes the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes and the aforementioned take on Lewis Carroll. Based on the late-'60s soap opera of the same name, Dark Shadows concerns one Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, obviously), the heir to a fortune and family legacy until a witch whose love he spurned (Eva Green) took everything from him, turned him into a vampire and buried him alive for eternal torment. Accidentally unearthed in 1972, Barnabas must restore his cursed descendants to the rightful Collins legacy while acclimating to a changed world.

And by "acclimate," I mean be the butt of a series of unfunny jokes that attempt to play on the cultural disconnect between a man from the end of the 18th century and a society in the wake of the Love Generation. But Depp overplays Barnabas, bypassing soap opera melodrama for the outright lunacy of his recent collaborations with the director. This breaks an already isolated character from reality completely, so that his wonder at a woman doctor (Helena Bonham Carter, again, obviously) or a lava lamp become less the outbursts of a confused man out of time than the eccentricities of a weirdo.

Furthermore, for a film that seeks to wring humor out of a man from the past entering the present, Dark Shadows makes a major misstep in retaining the time period of the original soap. What was contemporary in the series is now itself outdated and unfamiliar to the young adult audience being targeted. I myself was thrown almost instantly by Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote, who also plays Barnabas' wife back in the 1790s) answering a classified ad A) in a newspaper, period and B) that called for a governess, a word I don't believe I've ever heard outside of a Brontë novel. Even the music cues hold practically nothing for a modern crowd. Alice Cooper guests as himself and plays two songs, only one of which nearly anyone under 30 has a decent chance of having heard, while the Moody Blues and T.Rex also feature to satisfy Burton's own nostalgia at the expense of any relatability.

The entire cast is hobbled by this awkward campiness and self-absorption. Michelle Pfeiffer, who aded such seductive flair to Catwoman in Burton's Batman Returns, has apparently been deemed too old to do anything but be a starched matriarch, so removed that she registers only momentary surprise at the seismic shocks of learning that a vampire is in the family and that the witch who made him is now her business rival. Chloë Moretz is disturbingly sexualized, while Heathcote is left as limp as a boned fish to be virginal enticement for Barnabas. It's not right to say that Carter and Depp are on autopilot, as autopilot connotes stability and mechanized competence. They continue to get worse and worse under Burton's direction: Carter grows ever more haughty and unapproachable, while Depp...Jesus, where to to start. For one thing, he ports over his Michael Jackson-esque appearance from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, his use of umbrellas and large sunglasses during daylight hours making him look more like the King of Pop than the Count of Transylvania. He cannot speak without drawing out each syllable and flexing his fingers in Lugosi fashion. The joke wears thin at once, and this rates with the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie as his worst work. As for Green, who seemed poised for stardom only a few years ago before she backed away from Hollywood in discomfort, this is what brought her back? As Angelique, her responsibilities include looking pretty and throwing tantrums. The first she does with considerable aplomb, the latter she does with the same loopy yet bored energy of everyone else who must sit captive to Depp's lack of restraint.

If Dark Shadows plays like a mashup of Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, the Burton film it most routinely recalls is Sleepy Hollow. There is of course nothing wrong with this; Sleepy Hollow was perhaps the last great auterist piece Burton made (he would make the more emotionally poignant but visually subdued Big Fish four years later). Collinwood, the stately manor built by Barnabas' parents is atmospheric even when it's meant to convey joy and the prosperity and opportunity of the New World. And when Barnabas reawakens and finds his home in cobwebbed decay, its gargantuan size and dilapidated, faded glory serves as its own mausoleum. And then Burton has to go and ruin it with CGI. Burton was never as good with the aid of computers as he was without it. Take Sleepy Hollow: the biggest explosion of Burton's quirks falls visually flat only when dodgy CGI enters the picture. Its classical, even old-fashioned, effects elsewhere have a beauty to them I haven't seen in any of the director's subsequent large-scale works. Collinwood is the only thing with gravity in the film, and the climax dully throws that out in the window for an over-the-top magic fight that saps what little edge remained within the home's immaculately crafted but poorly tended walls.

The greatest weakness of Burton's "re-imaginings" of pre-existing works is how little imagination he can muster in his approach. Narratively, he takes properties and makes them nominally darker in a search for some emotional truth, ironically making, without fail, less engaging and affecting movies than those he adapts. Visually, Burton has bypassed merely repeating his style—an auterist trademark, not a crime—into crafting a one-gloom-fits-all mise-en-scène that makes all his films these days interchangeable. I still love too many of the director's movies to quit him entirely, and I'd hoped that Alice in Wonderland represented rock bottom. But then, the only way to know if someone has truly hit their lowest point is if they subsequently improve. After Alice I contented myself saying Burton couldn't get any worse. I will not tempt fate a second time.

JOHNNY DEPP | Outstanding and extremely memorable as a hilarious vampire in “DARK SHADOWS”

Adding to his gallery of memorable film characters such as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd and the Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp now plays the reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins in Warner Bros.' new black comedy “Dark Shadows.”

Frequent collaborator Tim Burton adapted the film from the 1970s cult TV classic of the same title. Johnny Depp recalls, “There was nothing like it, certainly not in the daytime, with its vampires and ghosts and witches. I’ve always been attracted to that genre, even as a very young kid, so when I got a hold of ‘Dark Shadows,’ I didn’t let go.”

“Johnny always puts 100 percent into everything he does, and I could tell right away he had a passion for this,” says Burton. “I was excited to see where we could go with the story, and I knew it would be a lot of fun.”

One of the joys of working with Depp is the actor’s ability to push himself. “Johnny is willing to try anything,” shares Burton. “He’s always coming up with new things, which we both enjoy. So every time we work together is different, and that’s what keeps it fun and fresh.”

Producer Richard Zanuck observes, “Each collaboration between the two of them is quite amazing—Tim comes up with these incredible ideas and Johnny translates them on the screen. They know each other so well, Johnny can tell by Tim’s expression whether he likes something, or Tim will say one or two things and Johnny will immediately get what Tim wants.”

Makeup artist Joel Harlow was responsible for transforming Depp into Barnabas, working closely with the actor and Burton to form the character’s distinct visage. They went through a number of makeup tests before finding the perfect pallor for the undead but still strangely handsome personage. It required coat after coat of customized grease paint to give Barnabas his chalky complexion. isays Harlow. “But there was a vast number of colors in that makeup blend.” To contrast with the pale skin, Harlow ringed Depp’s eyes with darker circles and hollowed out his cheeks to make Barnabas look more cadaverous.

A vampire’s most distinctive trait is his fangs, and Depp had several choices with which to work. Harlow details, “We had some that were curved and others that were straight, one short set and one longer one. We even had a set that were more like rattlesnake fangs, which came down from behind the teeth. We also had a set that were activated by the way Depp opened his mouth; the fangs would drop down into place.”

Another of Barnabas’ sharpest features were his pointed fingernails tipping elongated fingers. Burton comments, “There was something about the fingers that was important to me, just the way a vampire touches things. I think it also helped with the emotional quality of the character’s expression.”

“Tim wanted Barnabas to be ‘tactile,’” Harlow elaborates. “His hands sort of lead the way, like they’re feeling things out. That may seem like a very easy thing to do, but it’s actually quite complicated because it had to look slim and seamless, but when you add anything to a finger, you’re adding bulk. It also had to be rigid enough so they didn’t bend when he touches things, because that would blow the illusion instantly.”

“The hands really helped make the character,” notes Depp, “although I had to learn how to touch things or pick things up about three inches from where my fingers actually were. It took a little while but I got used to it, and it completed the look.”

Graham King says, “Johnny just dove into this role; you could see his commitment in the hours and hours of hair and makeup he had to go through every day, as well as in his performance. Barnabas says and does some pretty outlandish things, but Johnny’s delivery is totally straight-faced as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. No one does these kinds of characters better than he.”

Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, May 10, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

CHLOË GRACE MORETZ | Plays an eccentric teen in “DARK SHADOWS”

Chloë Grace Moretz has emerged as one of the film industry’s most sought-after young actresses. Last year, she starred in the award-winning fantasy adventure “Hugo,” directed by Martin Scorsese, winning a People’s Choice Award in the category of Favorite Movie Actress Under 25. In addition, the National Association of Theatre Owners just named her the Female Star of Tomorrow Award, presented at the 2012 CinemaCon.

Now, Moretz stars opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's big-screen adaptation of the TV vampire classic “Dark Shadows” from Warner Bros. Pictures.

In the film, Barnabas Collins (Depp), an 18th-century lothario, breaks the heart of a heartless witch by the name of Angelique (Eva Green) whodooms him to a fate worse than death—turning him into a vampire, and then burying him…alive.

Nearly two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972, a stranger in an even stranger time. Returning home, he finds that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin, and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.

One person in the Collins household who wants nothing to do with her long-lost relative is 15-year-old Carolyn, played by Moretz. Carolyn’s first impression of Barnabas is that he is, in a word, “weird.” And when he seeks out her advice on how to woo a woman of the modern age, namely Victoria (Bella Heathcote), their conversation only serves to reinforce that assessment.

Moretz offers, “My character is a very eccentric teenager of the `70s. She wants to be so different from the rest of the family. As soon as she turns 16 she plans to live in New York and be who she wants to be.”

“Chloë latched right onto that troubled teenager thing, which I don’t think she is, but she did it really, really well,” Burton declares. “She tapped into that internal anger and the feeling like you’re alone and isolated—that strange transitory time when you’re changing from a kid into something else.”

Moretz previously starred in three very different films, including Matthew Vaughn’s hit actioner “Kick-Ass,” based on the comic book by Mark Millar, and also starring Nicolas Cage. For her performance as the ferocious Hit-Girl, whose toughness belies her young age, Moretz won two MTV Movie Awards, for Best Breakout Star and Biggest Badass Star. She was also nominated for dual Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Young Actor, for her role in “Kick-Ass,” as well as for her performance as a young vampire in the thriller “Let Me In,” written and directed by Matt Reeves. In addition, Moretz won an Empire Award for Best Newcomer, recognizing her work in both films. She was also seen that year in the family comedy “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” adapted from Jeff Kinney’s popular children’s book series.

She won her first major film role in Michael Bay’s remake of “The Amityville Horror,” in which she played the youngest member of the terrorized Lutz family, with Ryan Reynolds. Moretz’s additional film credits include the horror thriller “The Eye,” and the acclaimed independent film “(500) Days of Summer,” playing the little sister of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character.

Moretz has a number of films upcoming, including the indie film “Hick,” in which she stars with Blake Lively, Juliette Lewis and Alec Baldwin; the anthology film “Movie 43,” as part of an all-star cast; and the remake of the classic Stephen King thriller “Carrie,” in which she will play the title role.

Opening across the Philippines on May 10, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

EVA GREEN | A vengeful dark witch in “DARK SHADOWS”

Eva Green (“Kingdom of Heaven,” “Casino Royale”) stars as Angelique Bouchard, a witch who knows how to hold a grudge, in Warner Bros.' new black comedy “Dark Shadows.”

In the film, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), an 18th-century lothario, breaks the heart of a heartless witch by the name of Angelique. When Barnabas declares his love for another, the ethereal Josette (Bella Heathcote), Angelique exacts her revenge on both of them: taking Josette’s life while giving Barnabas an eternal one as a vampire. It’s not much of a life, however, as she proceeds to bury him in a coffin forever…or at least the foreseeable future.

“Director Tim Burton kept asking, ‘What if there was this tremendous fight brewing between this man and woman, who each have supernatural abilities, for 200 years?’” screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith remembers. “And that’s basically what we see towards the end of the film, the tension that has been brewing for the entire movie—sexual tension, financial tension, physical pure hatred of each other. I mean, after all she did lock Barnabas in a box for two centuries!”

“Angelique’s our villain,” producer Graham King says. “She just wants Barnabas at any cost and has the power to do that, so it’s a fantastic role for Eva Green to get her teeth into and she’s amazing.”

“Everything is magnified with her—her pain, her desire, her vengeance,” Green remarks. “It’s such an outrageous character, but I don’t see her as necessarily evil. Her heart was broken, and when Barnabas re-emerges, it’s overwhelming for Angelique. She’s at the height of her power and yet she’s very vulnerable because Barnabas is her weak point. She’s convinced he loves her as much as she loves him, but he won’t admit it. She wants to own him, to possess every bit of him.”

“Eva was the first person that came to my mind for Angelique,” Burton offers. “I was so happy to have her in the role because she ended up bringing much more to it than even I imagined. She had great ideas, was real fun to work with and surprised me every day.”

“I’ve always been a fan of Tim’s,” Green says. “He’s so creative, but also open to suggestions, which is wonderful for an actor. We had the same understanding of Angelique’s character. He never treated her like a one-dimensional villain; he got her pain.”

Angelique is a woman who has changed with the times. During the 18th century, Angelique was a dark-haired servant girl. As Angie, the CEO of Angel Bay, she’s a successful blonde businesswoman. “Tim wanted her to look like the American dream,” says Green. “Everything about her is perfect. Too perfect. Perfect makeup, red lips, platinum hair. She’s very glamorous yet sophisticated. But, little by little, from the moment Barnabas escapes from his tomb, her facade starts to crack.”

Opening across the Philippines on May 10, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

For other Dark Shadows related posts, just click HERE.

TV vampire classic “DARK SHADOWS” now a hilarious movie, boasts of an impressive cast led by JOHNNY DEPP

From visionary director Tim Burton comes the big-screen adaptation of the TV vampire classic “Dark Shadows” featuring an all-star cast, led by perennial collaborator Johnny Depp.

The film also stars Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Jonny Lee Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Victoria Winters and Gully McGrath.

“Dark Shadows” begins in the year 1752, when Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.

The film marks Depp’s eighth collaboration with visionary filmmaker Tim Burton, who most recently reimagined Lewis Caroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” also starring the actor. Burton remembers the original “Dark Shadows” TV series as a childhood obsession and constant distraction from his homework. “I just loved the tone of it,” the director recalls. “It was about the music and languid pace and how seriously the actors took it. It was basically a soap opera, but with a supernatural undercurrent to it, which made it very different. It was like a weird kind of nightmare in the mid-afternoon. There was nothing quite like it.”

Their goal from the beginning was to honor the Dan Curtis-created series while making an original film with a contemporary sensibility. Legendary producer Richard D.Zanuck, who marks his sixth collaboration with Burton, was thrilled with the filmmaker’s take on the world of “Dark Shadows.” “The tone encapsulates a lot of humor, a lot of compassion, and although there’s blood, it’s hardly a typical vampire movie,” Zanuck says. “There are eccentric characters, and it’s a little off-center, a little over the top, and very much Tim Burton. You probably hear this a lot, and it always sounds disingenuous to say, but this movie has something for everyone. It’s got very passionate, operatic moments, heartbreaking tragedy, romance, terror and this unexpected humor.”

“When the script came in, you could see what an incredibly fun ride it was going to be,” adds Oscar-winning producer Graham King. “But then you add the layer of Tim Burton’s magical directing and this incredible cast. Tim is also being very respectful of the series because we’re all cognizant that there are a lot of `Dark Shadows’ fans out there. He’s making a film that is as unique as the series was, but it’s obviously made for today’s audiences. It’s big in scope, and really, really funny.”

David Kennedy, who produces along with Zanuck, King, Depp and Christi Dembrowski, was the producing partner of television icon Dan Curtis, who created “Dark Shadows” and introduced television audiences for the first time to a sexy, sympathetic vampire protagonist. “There was never a vampire on television until Barnabas Collins,” Kennedy relates. “And one of the things that makes Barnabas so different is that he doesn’t like being a vampire, but he knows he’s condemned to be one forever, so he’s an enormously sympathetic character. And what’s thrilling about the movie is that it’s absolutely loyal to the key characters, but it’s an original take on the series.”

Opening across the Philippines on May 10, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Full-body character posters of JOHNNY DEPP and cast from “DARK SHADOWS” | Great artworks!!!

The creative materials from “Dark Shadows” keep on coming, as Warner Bros. shares nine full-body character posters for the new Johnny Depp-starrer.

Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series “Dark Shadows” to the big screen featuring an all-star cast.

The new posters feature the nine major characters Barnabas Collins (Depp), Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller), Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Grace Moretz), Bella Heathcote (Victoria Winters) and David Collins (Gully McGrath).

  

Synopsis: In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Green).  A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

  

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.

  

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote. 

Opening across the Philippines in May 2012, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Big reveal!!! DARK SHADOWS character posters!!!

Fresh from revealing the teaser poster of the new Johnny Depp-starrer “Dark Shadows” last week, Warner Bros. has just rolled-out nine character posters for the gothic comedy!

Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series “Dark Shadows” to the big screen featuring an all-star cast.

The individual posters feature the nine major characters Barnabas Collins (Depp), Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller), Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Grace Moretz), Bella Heathcote (Victoria Winters) and David Collins (Gully McGrath).

   

 

Synopsis: In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote. 

Opening across the Philippines in May 2012, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

   

 

First-Look: DARK SHADOWS poster featuring JOHNNY DEPP!!!

Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series “Dark Shadows” to the big screen in a gothic comedy featuring an all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. 

Synopsis: In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.

Opening across the Philippines in May 2012, “Dark Shadows” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

First Look! DARK SHADOWS official trailer! Cast led by JOHNNY DEPP!

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet--or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine.

The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. 

The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles. 

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth's ne'er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger's precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David's new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.

JOHNNY DEPP and ARMIE HAMMER leads cast for the return of “THE LONE RANGER”

Disney has just released the first-look image of its upcoming blockbuster “The Lone Ranger” starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer.

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, comes Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ “The Lone Ranger,” a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes.

Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

“The Lone Ranger” also stars Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson and Helena Bonham Carter.

A Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films presentation, “The Lone Ranger” is directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski, with a screenplay by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Eric Aronson and Justin Haythe.

Opening across the Philippines in May 2013, “The Lone Ranger” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (David Yates, 2011)

[I guess I should issue a spoiler warning for this review, but honestly, if you've neither read the book nor seen the movie yet are still reading reviews hoping not to be spoiled, what the hell is wrong with you?]

Viewed as a referendum on the Harry Potter film franchise (to say nothing of my childhood), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is bound to fail. With precious few exceptions, this series has favored exposition over organic growth, deflated climaxes and spotty special effects, and at times this franchise has been so lifeless that Britain's talent pool has been drained to give these films any weight at all. Numerous critics and admirers have remarked upon the franchise's consistency given the number of editors and directors that have taken on the material, but I think that is something of a detriment. Regardless of who's made these films, the studio has made sure that nothing, not even Alfonso Cuaron's "none more black" mise-en-scène, has rocked the boat. Hiring David Yates, a workman whose primary skill has been putting exposed film into cans, seemed the final push to make these movies as crowd-pleasingly safe as possible.

And yet, Deathly Hallows Part 2, like its predecessor, shows Yates not overcoming his flaws but offsetting them with narrow but powerful strengths. The final installment in this film franchise suffers the same overarching, aforementioned issues that plague all these films, and it also suffers from the convolution, calculated audience appeasement and rush-job pacing of Rowling's written conclusion. Yet for once, I can confidently say that few, if any, of the film's major flaws can truly be traced back to Yates, while a great deal of its moments of pure atmosphere and character are specifically the result of his hand.

As he revealed in the last film, Yates works best when he captures communication between characters without using words. His sense of epic action is stodgy and he has no gift for eking anything engaging out of the exposition-heavy dialogue of these movies (and the exposition only compounded in the installments he helmed), but when Yates lets minimal language and tone carry a scene over plodding speeches or finds the intimacy in the bombast of these massive setpieces, he shines brighter than anyone before him. Compare the lifeless exchange between Harry, Ron and Hermione in Bill's cottage to pretty much everything around it in the first 40 minutes to see where Yates' talent truly lies: a haunting opening of dementors hovering over Hogwarts as Snape silently overlooks the youth prison the school has become sent a genuine chill down my spine, and the terse exchange between Harry and the goblin Griphook, conveying menace and urgency instead of spelling out the details, evokes mood from as few words as possible.

These opening 40 minutes may be my favorite run of quality of the film series. The raid on the wizard bank Gringott's is both Yates' finest huge setpiece and a clever way of compartmenatlizing the action to feel big even as it's being more tightly managed, from the mine cart ride through the multiplying objects within Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, making for what feels like a demented Indiana Jones setpiece. Also, letting Helena Bonham Carter act like Emma Watson, including her breathy deliveries and incessant hesitation, was a scream. Yates subsequently gets the characters back to Hogwarts as quickly as possible and even blisters through a protracted moment in the book involving Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth (Ciaran Hinds). I was particularly grateful for the omission of Dumbledore's past, which arbitrarily drags the character through the muck and, worse, kills all momentum to do so. (It doesn't help that Rowling basically makes him into a closeted homosexual Nazi.) There are plenty of moments in this film calculated to raise a cheer, but I never had a bigger urge to clap than when Harry cuts off the coming monologue and says "I'm not interested in what happened between you and your brother."

Notably, the preparations for the final battle, which feature Professor McGonagall finally getting to unleash her pent-up aggression (her giddiness at summoning statues to fight is infectious) and the Order of the Phoenix rallying around Harry, are more interesting than the actual conflict. The ephemeral shield the professors summon to protect the school, a globule of energy that rolls like melting ice cream over the castle, is beautiful, but the actual exchanges of magic when that shield falls feel and look too much like whiz-bang fireworks.

And yet, Yates changes tack after a while, moving from his grandiose, slightly clumsy setpieces to remain with Harry, who moves around the battle to finish his mission to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. Yates makes this work a great deal better than Rowling's writing did, with its haphazard oscillation between the full picture and Harry's quest at the expense of connection to either. True, there are some setups here, such as Fred and George confidently awaiting the coming horde, that would telephone incoming tragedy even for those who haven't read the book. Nevertheless, when Yates abandons his futile efforts to be an epic filmmaker, he fantastically mounts the sense of doom and loss hanging over the fight. In the book, the deaths feel somewhat cheap, brought up just to tug at the heartstrings in callously flat terms. Visually, these become elegiac moments of sorrow, the sight of Lupin and Tonks together in death or the Weasleys bewildered in grief over Fred more fundamentally troubling than the book ever let on.

By framing the battle in this manner, Yates magnifies the haunting moments where Harry learns just what he will have to do to defeat Voldemort. With his more broadly foreboding tone, Yates better incorporates the awkwardly placed yet utterly wrenching reveal of Snape's entire motivations as a character, a fractured memoryscape so well handled by Alan Rickman that he makes the sequence, truncated into its most plot-necessary elements, feel as devastating as Rowling's full text. What's more, Radcliffe does some fantastic silent acting as he comes to terms not only with the revelations of Snape's importance to Harry but the final, horrible reveal of the boy's responsibility. That long walk out into the Forbidden Forest to let Voldemort kill him made me shake with hurt and fear, though I knew damn well what would happen. The use of the Resurrection Stone only brought me further to the breaking point.

Moments like these made me wholly forgive the film's flaws. These quiet grace notes offset the obligatory thread resolutions and lopsided pacing to give me all I've ever wanted from these movies, a moment to simply appreciate these characters. Radcliffe, Watson and Grint say everything best when they say nothing at all, and I was infinitely happy to see Matthew Lewis finally get his moment to shine as Neville. Without the St. Mungo's scene from Order of the Phoenix to capture Neville's fears and furies, Lewis got unfairly shafted a few years back, but it is staggering to look at this handsome, convicted man when one thinks of the British-toothed, pudgy weakling we met shamelessly crawling around a train looking for a toad. Now we see a man purged of fear, so defiant he can confront Voldemort without flinching. While Harry is quietly resolving to die for his cause, it is Neville who emerges the action hero.

In the past (and present, and likely future) I've criticized the Harry Potter films for a sense of deflated tension, of perennial anticlimax, yet Yates deliberately films the end with a far more downbeat, human note than the book's epic sweep. Rather than pit Harry against Voldemort with an onlooking crowd waiting to cheer, Yates separates them as the others fight. I'm sure this is indicative of seeing the film on Sunday rather than a midnight Friday showing, but I found it worth noting that my crowd justifiably went nuts over Molly Weasley's big moment and Neville's blow to Nagini, but no one made a sound at the conclusion of Harry's and Voldemort's duel. It's not a moment of victory but a whispered release, a relieving knowledge that it's all over. It's a tone Yates carries into the aftermath, one not of revelry but reflection. Yates even manages to make that god-awful epilogue bearable, cheese, bad makeup and all.

Most importantly, Yates' presentation of the climax shows a clear understanding of the overriding hope and dream of the main characters locked in this epic, fated struggle: normalcy. Rowling quickly subverted the wonder of her own series to refashion the wizarding world into one with the same basic conflicts and human developments as our own, with admittedly mixed results. But if waywardly metaphorical takes on puberty or inevitable romances delayed for plot convenience didn't work, Rowling always had a steady hand on the humility of the Boy Who Lived and how badly he just wanted to get on with his life. I've often wondered why international wizards feature so rarely in this series, with only a cursory mention of continental wizards and no Americans whatsoever; but the thoroughly British sensibility of this series has never been more plainly evident.

Rowling's world is one where a power-regulating bureaucracy is the best form of government, where magic is strengthened by love and empathy, and a quiet, content family life beats saving the world any day, even though one must sacrifice to save that world when it is threatened. Harry Potter has lost numerous loved ones throughout his life, faced death and vanquished evil, but that is all the price for happiness, not heroic triumph. I cannot say this is the best installment of the series—my spare comments for the whole middle act reflect my general lack of enthusiasm for its pacing issues and awkward staging, and Yates bungles Ron and Hermione's kiss—but this is the only film to truly remind me why I fell in love with this world and these characters in the first place. I wanted to see them win not for the thrill of it, but because I felt they deserved happy lives. I didn't feel the same wave of feeling that I did when I first read the book and knew the journey was over, but Deathly Hallows Part 2 made me truly, deeply care about these people for the first time in years, and perhaps it's fitting that my muted, relieved satisfaction matches their own.