After all these years, it’s surprising Colin Farrell has yet to lend his voice to an animated character, but turns out, waiting served him well because his character, Ronan, is featured in the “achingly beautiful” world that drew Farrell to Epic to begin with. Ronan is the leader of the Leaf Men and when Mandrake (voiced by Christoph Waltz) and the Boggans threaten to destroy the forest, he joins forces with the formerly human-sized Mary Katherine (voice by Amanda Seyfried), a renegade young Leaf Man, Nod (voiced by Josh Hutcherson), and a slug and a snail, Mub and Grub (voiced by Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd), to ensure a very special little pod stays safe, giving them a chance to keep the terrain lush with greenery and life.
While in New York City celebrating Epic’s May 24th release, Farrell sat down to talk about how directorChris Wedge and his team of animators first reeled him in, the challenge of working in a sound booth for the first time, Ronan’s backstory, and about how he felt seeing his voice coming out of a completely different body. And before wrapping up, Farrell also spoke a bit about Saving Mr. Banks and Winter’s Tale. Catch it all in the video interview after the jump.
Click here to watch the interview.
Warning: Excessive use of lens flares may cause confusion, frustration, facial distortion, distraction from story, and tarnishing of what could have been impressive visual effects.
As we’re drowning in a flood of big screen remakes, we ask ourselves time and time again; is it worth it? In Fright Night’s case, yes. As we’re drowning in a flood of 3D features, we ask ourselves time and time again; is it worth it? In Fright Night’s case, no, but, luckily for director Craig Gillespie, he’s working with some solid source material and an absolutely stellar case, both with the power to stake that extra dimension right in the heart. If only it’d burn up and evaporate for good.
I can’t believe it, but this is officially it; my coverage of San Diego Comic Con 2011 has come to a close. For five incredibly long days, the experience went by in a flash. The action was non-stop from the moment I touched down in San Diego and while it was extremely exhausting and probably one of the most trying working experiences I’ve ever gone through, it was beyond worth it.
That’s that for Friday at San Diego Comic Con and I’m back at home base, well, the hotel. Today was a particularly busy one as I got a taste of exactly how long those lines for Hall H and Ballroom 20 can get. I thought I was jumping the gun by showing up three hours early for the 11:15am panel for The Walking Dead, but apparently about 10,000 people had the exact same idea, as the line stretched from the convention hall all the way down to the bay. Lucky for me, I was able to work some press related magic and get a seat, but for those other 10,000 people, they supposedly didn’t have a shot of getting in for another three panels.
Now that the Twilight madness is long gone, there’s room for more vampires at San Diego Comic Con, Jerry Dandridge to be exact. Colin Farrell stars as the new vampire next door with his eye on sucking the blood out of all of poor Charley Brewster’s (Anton Yelchin) loved ones. To gear up for the film’s August 19th release, Farrell and Yelchin as well as Imogen Poots who plays Charley’s girlfriend, Amy, Christopher Mintz-Plasse who plays his best pal, “Evil” Ed, director Craig Gillespie, writer Marti Noxon and Chris Sarandon, Jerry Dandridge from Tom Holland’s 1985 original, hit the Hilton Bayfront to discuss their revamped version of Fright Night.
Sure, all comedies should be funny, but, let’s face it, what comedy is really that funny that it can keep you laughing for a full 90 minutes? This tends to be a bit of a pitfall with the genre; writers have joke tunnel vision and then, when that tunnel collapses, we’re left with a neglected story that leaves us checking our watches until the next funny gag arrives. In the case of Horrible Bosses, however, the story and consistent tone of the film, take the form of a robust safety net, catching up when a joke falls through and bouncing us right back into the action.
The MTV Movie Awards isn’t only about awarding the best of the best in film (clearly); it’s also about stirring some hype via the release of trailers and clips for some highly anticipated upcoming films and, considering it aired on Sunday night, that means this edition of the feature is packed with material from the show. Of the lot, we got a taste of new material from Super 8, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and so much more. The question is, which of these films rose above the screaming fans in audience and earned a place in our top three? Heating up the competition further, there were quite a few non-MTV clips and trailers in the running this week like new clips from Green Lantern, one of which shows the Green Lantern taking on Parallax. While the Green Lantern clips look good, I much prefer the new TV spots for Captain America, albeit not enough for them to sneak into the promotions section.
Ever get sick of sorting through the endless amount of promotional material we get each week? Lucky for you I don’t and would love to be the one to help pinpoint the notably good and the laughably bad. Despite the Friday debut, as of next week, every Thursday I’ll narrow down the three best and three worst in new promotional material. This includes everything from fresh trailers to stills and more as, nowadays, thanks to viral marketing, the possibilities in terms of reaching out to the public are seemingly endless.
No, it’s not right to knock a film for a lengthy runtime, but if a movie is pushing two hours, it better be able to justify it. In The Way Back’s case it does – kind of. While the first portion of the film drags considerably despite impressively effective imagery, it isn’t until over an hour into it that things really become compelling. There’s nothing wrong with a film that saves the best for last, but it still needs to be entertaining while you’re waiting for the good stuff and The Way Back comes a little too close to missing that mark.