“JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND” takes on IMAX 3D cinemas on Feb. 2!!!

Believe the impossible, discover the incredible as New Line Cinema's “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” embarks on an adventure of a lifetime in IMAX 3D! The film will be shown in local IMAX 3D cinemas, as well as digital 3D and regular theatres starting Thursday, Feb. 2.

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Vanessa Hudgens, Josh Hutcherson and Michael Caine, “Journey 2” takes moviegoers on a fun and fantastic new adventure to parts unknown, a place so remote it has lain hidden for centuries … and, when found, is almost impossible to escape.

Upon seeing the script for “Journey 2,” director Brad Peyton says, “I never imagined doing it small. Right away, I knew it had to involve land, sea and air, with creatures, caves, storms, underwater battles and aerial chases, and all of it set against the most incredible, breathtaking terrain. That meant utilizing the latest and best technology, to deliver something special in the 3D realm that the prequel ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ helped to establish.”

In 2008 that film broke ground as the first narrative feature to employ the Fusion System, a sophisticated digital 3D camera rig developed by James Cameron and cinematographer Vince Pace, and subsequently used on “Avatar.” Not surprisingly, the “Journey 2” filmmakers returned to the Cameron Pace Group for state-of-the-art strategies and equipment to capture the depth and scope Peyton wanted to achieve in a range of real-world environments. 

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

“JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND” siezes overseas gold

Burbank, CA January 23, 2012 – New Line Cinema’s 3D family adventure, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” is off to a strong start at the global box office. Launching ahead of the US in seven territories— Australia , Korea , Hong Kong , Taiwan , Singapore , Malaysia and New Zealand —the film grossed an excellent $7.9 million, which is 44% ahead of its predecessor in the same countries. The announcement was made today by Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. 

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is the sequel to the 2008 global box office hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” both inspired by the novels of legendary fantasist Jules Verne. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” directed by Brad Peyton, stars Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Luis Guzmán, Vanessa Hudgens and Kristin Davis.

“The first ‘Journey’ went on to gross $141 million internationally, and to exceed it by such a great margin in these early markets is truly gratifying,” Kwan-Rubinek said. “This success is a testament to the vision of the filmmakers and the dedication of the cast, led by Dwayne Johnson, for delivering the perfect film for this corridor—an action-packed and fun-filled 3D adventure for families and audiences of all ages.”

The release was targeted to coincide with the Chinese New Year holiday in Asia and summer school holidays in Australia and New Zealand , predating the US release, which required a different marketing approach. “We’ve embarked on a multi-tiered marketing program to support our early release dates, encompassing talent tours across Taiwan , Australia and Mexico , with further tour stops forthcoming,” commented Sue Kroll, the Studio’s President, Worldwide Marketing. “A strong media presence, combined with our broad advertising and event outdoor campaign, set the stage for these early launches around the world. The tremendous success overseas also helps to build momentum leading up to our U.S. and broader international launches in the weeks to come.”

Shot in 3D, the new family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is directed by Brad Peyton from a screenplay by Brian Gunn & Mark Gunn, story by Richard Outten and Brian Gunn & Mark Gunn

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film will open across the Philippines on Thursday, Feb. 2.

VANESSA HUDGENS tempts fate in “JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND”

The young star of the “High School Musical” films, Vanessa Hudgens doesn’t sing while on camera in New Line Cinema's action-adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” but makes up for it behind the scenes. “She’s always dancing,” co-star Josh Hutcherson points out.

“And singing,” Hudgens pipes in. The young actress describes her character, Kailani, as “very fun. She’s an island girl. She kind of gets sucked into this adventure against her will, but through Sean (Hutcherson) she opens up her heart because she’s really ruled by her head.”

The follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” takes moviegoers on a fun and fantastic new adventure to parts unknown, a place so remote it has lain hidden for centuries … and, when found, is almost impossible to escape. The film also stars Dwayne Johnson and Michael Caine.

Kailani is also the only young woman on the adventure, “So, it’s my job to look out for the boys. It’s awesome. I mean everybody’s so amazing. I really get along with the guys.”

Kailani is part of the father/daughter helicopter team who flew Sean and Hank (Johnson) to the island from nearby Palau, New Guinea, in a blinding hurricane that has destroyed the copter and left them all stranded together.

But Kailani's father, Gabato (Luis Guzman) is really just a doting father, striving to give her what she wants most: the means to go to college. Kailani, in turn, loves him dearly and appreciates his efforts but doesn’t actually expect their marginal enterprise to bring in the funds to finance that dream. Truth is, Dad isn’t much of a businessman, and Gabato’s Luxury Tours would likely not survive without her help.

Watching them interact is both touching and funny. “Vanessa flawlessly plays straight man to his craziness,” says producer Charlotte Huggins. “She never reacts to him, which is exactly what you would expect from someone who has lived her whole life with a man like this. She’s beyond reacting. He says something outrageous and then moves on to the next thought, and so does she. They were perfectly in tune.”

“Kailani is tough because she has to be,” says Hudgens. “She looks after her father. She’s also very outspoken, and, from the start, the one thing she’s been most outspoken about is how this job was a bad idea.”

And, mere minutes into their charter flight, it appears that she was right.

Not only did the helicopter accident destroy the group’s only means of transportation, it also seems to have destroyed any chance the instantly-smitten Sean hoped he had to catch Kailani’s eye. Instead, he catches only the Polynesian beauty’s ire as she vows to hold him personally responsible for this and all other calamities that lay ahead.

“Sean is a dreamer and Kailani is far more practical. He wants her to get into the spirit of this great quest but she’s just focused on the risks,” Hutcherson explains.

Having sized up the American teen before he stepped foot in the copter, Kailani is convinced he as wouldn’t have the slightest idea what her life is like and what her problems are. But as events unfold, she begins to wonder if she might have been mistaken, especially as they quite literally can’t avoid falling into each other’s arms with each surprise the island tosses up. “Embracing this experience and everything it offers means she’ll have to open her heart and Kailani has always been ruled by her head,” says Hudgens. “But she gets pulled into this incredible world and ends up finding more than she expected.”

Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, Feb. 2 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular theatres, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

JOSH HUTCHERSON explores “THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND” in “JOURNEY” sequel

Actor-on-the-rise Josh Hutcherson (upcoming “The Hunger Games”) returns as young explorer Sean in New Line Cinema's “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” the follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

When the story opens, young Sean is definitely not where he wants to be. It’s been years since his father’s death, and his mother, Liz (Kristin Davis), has recently married Hank (Dwayne Johnson) and relocated the family to suburban Ohio. With no friends around, and a stepfather with whom he’s convinced he has nothing in common, Sean spends many solitary hours poring over his maps and Jules Verne novels and dreaming about undiscovered corners of the world that await him. 

“He feels trapped,” says Hutcherson, who reprises a role that has matured in sync with his own life in the four years since “Journey to the Center of the Earth” first screened. “He’s ready to move on to bigger things, and he’s filled with curiosity about the world, which I completely understand. I think a lot of people do, even if they’re not necessarily interested in discovering lost islands. There’s just a driving need to be out there on your own, figuring things out and finding your own way.”

More specifically, Hutcherson emphasizes, “Sean doesn’t want any part of his step-dad. He thinks the guy has nothing to offer; he’s unhip, uncool and has no imagination.”

“Hank and Sean are at odds from the beginning, as one wants to connect and the other wants to distance himself,” explains Johnson. “Family is one of the most important thing to Hank, and his intention throughout the story is to make his family whole again.”

But as noble as Hank’s intentions are, Sean feels he’s to blame for everything wrong with his life right now. More importantly, he’s sure to be the immovable object standing between Sean and the exploration the young man considers his birthright. 

That assumption will be tested sooner than Sean thinks when he receives a strange radio call one night. It’s an encrypted S.O.S. that he suspects may be from his grandfather, Alexander, who hasn’t been heard from since he set out to prove that the Mysterious Island in Jules Verne’s novel was fact and not fiction. 

“Alexander is Sean’s idol. He’s pretty much always done whatever he wanted, and he’s always off on some crazy expedition,” says Hutcherson. “If Alexander is in trouble, Sean will do anything to reach him.”

Sean couldn’t be more thrilled and vindicated. But his euphoria at finding his grandfather is short-lived when he learns that getting off the island will be much harder than falling onto it, and that they have very little time in which to accomplish it. The ground beneath them is sinking. Fast. The entire land mass will be underwater in days, if not hours, and their slim chance of survival is entirely in their own hands.

Hutcherson was most recently seen in Lisa Cholodenko’s Academy Award®-nominated feature, “The Kids are All Right.” His additional film credits include “The Vampire’s Assistant,” opposite John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek; “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D,” “Bridge To Terabithia”; “Firehouse Dog”; “RV”; “Little Manhattan”; “Zathura” and “The Polar Express.” Hutcherson won Young Artist Awards for Leading Young Actor for his roles in “Zathura” and “Bridge to Terabithia.”

Opening across the Philippines on Feb. 02 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular theatres, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

DWAYNE "The Rock" JOHNSON journeys to “THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND”

He has solidified himself as a global box office success with gross film revenues in excess of 2.1 billion dollars worldwide with such blockbusters as “Fast Five,” “The Rundown,” “The Scorpion King” and “The Mummy Returns.” Now, Dwayne Johnson stars in another potential megahit, New Line Cinema's 3D family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.”

The film begins when seventeen-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. Unable to stop him from tracking the signal to its source, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Johnson), joins the quest that will take them first to the South Pacific, and then to a place few people have ever seen. Or lived to tell about. It’s a place of stunning beauty, strange and threatening life forms, volcanoes, mountains of gold and more than one astonishing secret, in this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

Johnson plays Hank, a Navy vet who runs his own construction company and is accustomed to tackling things head-on and fixing problems. But can’t quite figure out a way to fix the situation with his stepson, Sean. “Like a lot of teenagers—and I was no exception—Sean thinks he has all the answers,” Johnson says. “He’s experienced a lot of abandonment between the loss of his father and his grandfather’s travels, so he is naturally wary when this new father figure comes into his life. Hank and Sean are at odds from the beginning, as one wants to connect and the other wants to distance himself.”

Johnson continues, “Family is one of the most important thing to Hank, and his intention throughout the story is to make his family whole again.”

“Dwayne brings so much to every role,” notes director Brad Peyton. “With his million dollar fists and billion dollar smile, he could carry a movie just on his action chops alone but he also has impeccable comic timing and he’s endlessly charismatic. I wanted everything—the whole Dwayne Johnson experience—for this movie, and he brought it all. He even sings…who knew? And plays the ukulele.”

But as noble as Hank’s intentions are, Sean feels he’s to blame for everything wrong with his life right now. More importantly, he’s sure to be the immovable object standing between Sean and the exploration the young man considers his birthright.

That assumption will be tested sooner than Sean thinks when he receives a strange radio call one night. It’s an encrypted S.O.S. that he suspects may be from his grandfather, Alexander, who hasn’t been heard from since he set out to prove that the Mysterious Island in Verne’s novel was fact and not fiction.

Its first four words are electrifying. THE ISLAND IS REAL.

“Alexander is Sean’s idol. He’s pretty much always done whatever he wanted, and he’s always off on some crazy expedition,” says Hutcherson. “If Alexander is in trouble, Sean will do anything to reach him.”

Likewise, Hank will do anything to reach Sean, even if it means accompanying him to the South Sea on what he believes can only be a wild goose chase, feigning interest in the unlikely yarn about an island that history forgot, just to keep an eye on him. But days later, after a harrowing crash-landing in the most unbelievable place he’s ever seen, no one is more surprised than Hank.

While the island unites them in a single goal, it underscores the fact that their individual reasons for being there are widely different. “But it’s the developing relationship between Sean and Hank that anchors everything else and serves as our way into the story,” cites Peyton, who opted for a light touch in showing how these two ultimately find their way toward an understanding.

“Sometimes in the development of a script there’s the temptation to oversell the character beats and arcs,” producer Tripp Vinson offers. “But in the hands of talented actors like Dwayne and Josh you can allow those revelations to emerge through their performances.”

Opening in theatres beginning February 2012, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND this 2012!

The follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” New Line Cinema's “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” takes moviegoers on a fun and fantastic new adventure to parts unknown, a place so remote it has lain hidden for centuries … and, when found, is almost impossible to escape. The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Vanessa Hudgens, Josh Hutcherson and Michael Caine.

A fan of the first film which introduced intrepid young explorer Sean Anderson (Hutcherson) to audiences worldwide, director Brad Peyton says, “I wanted to embrace Sean’s story and advance it, with amazing new landscapes and a fresh set of challenges that will take him further than he’s ever been because he’s not a kid anymore. He’s seventeen now and ready to blaze his own trail in the world. This is his chance to prove he’s not just along for the ride; he’s an explorer in his own right.”

Peyton is no stranger to combining action and comedy with a sweep of scale and a dash of the unexpected. Upon seeing the script for “Journey 2,” he says, “I never imagined doing it small. Right away, I knew it had to involve land, sea and air, with creatures, caves, storms, underwater battles and aerial chases, and all of it set against the most incredible, breathtaking terrain. That meant utilizing the latest and best technology, to deliver something special in the 3D realm that ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ helped to establish.”

In 2008 that film broke ground as the first narrative feature to employ the Fusion System, a sophisticated digital 3D camera rig developed by James Cameron and cinematographer Vince Pace, and subsequently used on “Avatar.” Not surprisingly, the “Journey 2” filmmakers returned to the Cameron Pace Group for state-of-the-art strategies and equipment to capture the depth and scope Peyton wanted to achieve in a range of real-world environments.

Dedicated to a full location shoot from the start, the director states, “I felt the actors should have dirt under their feet. I wanted a real jungle, not a green-screen jungle. As the setting for so many spectacular images, it needed that literal grounding.”

The filmmakers also liked the fact that the characters thrown into this tropical paradise-turned-deathtrap must use their wits as well as their reflexes to survive, especially when they discover that plant and animal life there grows by its own rules.

It’s the Island Rule, in fact, also known as Foster’s Rule. Producer Charlotte Huggins explains, “It’s a genuine biogeographic theory, that, over the course of evolution in an isolated environment, large things can become small and small things become large. So a herd of elephants there might look and act exactly like elephants except that they’re miniatures, while butterflies could look and act exactly as butterflies would, except that they’re enormous.”

The downside of such visual wonders would be great carnivorous birds and lizards, some the length of a football field, who see the explorers as their next meal.

Michael Caine, starring as Anderson patriarch Alexander, who made wanderlust the family business and is the catalyst for this latest excursion, acknowledges, “This is no children’s fairy tale. It’s very fast, and the kids are going to have to be smart to keep up.”

Opening in theatres beginning February 2012, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

“JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND” character banners revealed!!

Warner Bros. has just released the character banners for its upcoming action-adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.” The banners individually feature the characters played by Dwayne Johnson, Vanessa Hudgens, Josh Hutcherson and Michael Caine.

In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the new 3D family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” begins when young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It’s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret.

Unable to stop him from going, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

 

 

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” also stars Michael Caine as Sean’s grandfather, Alexander Anderson, and Kristin Davis as Sean’s mom, Liz Anderson.

Opening in theatres beginning February 2012, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

 

First-look: Poster and trailer of Dwayne Johnson's “JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND”

Warner Bros. jumpstarts the buzz for “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” as it launches the film’s poster and trailer online.

In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the new 3D family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” begins when young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It’s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. 

Unable to stop him from going, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” also stars Michael Caine as Sean’s grandfather, Alexander Anderson, and Kristin Davis as Sean’s mom, Liz Anderson.

Opening in theatres beginning January 2012, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a New Line Cinema presentation, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.