TAYLOR LAUTNER FACES HEART-STOPPING CHALLENGES IN “TRACERS” – OPENS FEB. 4

              “Twilight Series’” heartthrob hero Taylor Lautner stars in the upcoming action thriller “Tracers” in the midst of parkour’s dangerous backdrop. 

              Lautner plays Cam, broke and depleted of luck trying to scrape off his debts, one day crashes into Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos), a complicated stranger caught up in a gang of broken street criminals who seduces him into her dangerous world. The parkour takes him to places he has never been before and lands him a lucrative job under the gang’s leader, Miller (Rayner).  Ultimately extricating himself from a world unimagined and unanticipated becomes a whole different heart-stopping challenge.

Tracers is on its surface very simple.  It’s about a guy – ‘Cam’ – who finds a girl – ‘Nikki’. The girl allows him to reclaim a part of his life and a spirit in his life.  At the exact same moment that happens, outside forces are pressing in on him.  And that’s where Tracers takes off.

And for Tracers it was critical that the cast be as believable as possible.  “So for this film,” says producer Marty Bowen, “the real challenge was finding actors that we could believe could do this work.  The honest truth was, there was no other actor that could pull off the leading role of Cam better than Taylor Lautner.  And frankly, there are things that even his stuntman – his stunt double who taught him to do parkour, cannot do as well as Taylor can.  He’s just a truly gifted athlete.”  So Tracers is that perfect marriage of a great action drama that utilizes these highly tuned physical skills as a means through which things get done quickly, efficiently, and definitely differently than we’ve ever seen before in a film.  But the other extremely critical thing to note here is that Lautner is not only physically up to the challenges of the film, but concurrently he’s grown as an actor, and this role demanded real acting chops.”

              “Tracers is a real Dickensian story in the vein of Oliver Twist about a young man who essentially has been orphaned; his father and mother are gone, and he’s been forced, at a very early age, to fend for himself.  So Cam dreams of getting his father’s old sport car up and running and moving far, far away,” says Bowen.  

“Our story begins with Cam, a young bicycle messenger who, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, owes the wrong people money.  He is trying desperately to figure out how to get them the money quickly so that he can get his father’s car that he’s working on fixed and just leave town and start a new life.  But along the way he meets a girl and becomes besotted with Nikki and that changes his plans completely when she introduces him to a world that he didn’t know existed – the world of free-running, and in which he finds she and her street criminal friends and they become his new surrogate family of orphans.  But along with that, there’s the underside of things going on behind the scene that are very complicated; and what these new family members are doing, under Miller’s stranglehold on them, is clearly illegal.  And before he realizes it, he’s in far deeper than he expected.  He realizes that in order to get out of this world, he’s got to do some drastic things,” says Bowen.

For Taylor Lautner, Tracers provided an opportunity for him to show the world that he’s an actor to be taken very seriously.  He’s emerged into a talented force on screen that not only can pull of the amazing demands of a fast-paced action thriller, and is equally facile at the more character-driven connective threads that keep Tracers as a whole a fast-paced, heart-stopping drama too.

Get ready for fast-paced action from Lautner when “Tracers” opens in theaters nationwide February 4 from Pioneer Films.

 

– C O M E T

 

“Fantastic Four” teaser trailer revealed!

Opens August 6 in cinemas nationwide

                Be ready for what’s coming this 2015 – from 20^th Century Fox comes “Fantastic Four” teaser trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h4I2GdFrH0 that will open August 6 in the Philippines.

“Fantastic Four” stars Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm aka the Torch, Kate Mara as Sue Storm and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm aka The Thing along with Toby Kebbel as the legendary villain Dr. Doom in the contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team that centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

– C O M E T –

Samuel Jackson: Ideal Villain to the best of spies in “KINGSMAN: The Secret Service”

Every great action hero needs an ideal villain to make the good vs. evil dynamics work well. In the upcoming highly stylized non-stop action film “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” Samuel Jackson plays the villain role to the hilt as Richmond Valentine, a tech billionaire and disillusioned eco-campaigner whose desire to save the earth at any cost has led him to devise a scheme that will have devastating consequences for everyone.

After Valentine is the Kingsman – an elite group of operatives working outside of the government. Martial in style, they are an altruistic unit that gets things done. “They’re the good guys,” says Colin Firth, who plays Harry, whose Kingsman name is Galahad, named after the Arthurian legend. “We’re living in an age in which we’re very suspicious of our institutions and our governments. Whatever trust we’ve once had has been undermined, so I think it’s interesting to explore the idea that there is an organization with pure motives. One not compromised by the politics and bureaucracy of these institutions. The Kingsmen are the modern-day Knights of the Round Table.”  With Harry is newly-recruited spy Eggsy, played by newcomer Taron Egerton. Harry feels responsible for the death of Eggsy’s father, and that he owes the man a debt. When a Kingsman agent is killed, the organization looks for a new recruit. Explains Firth: “When Harry sees that his fallen comrade’s son, Eggsy, is on a fast track to disaster in the way he’s growing up, Harry rises to the challenge of seeing if he can save the boy. That’s partly guilt, but he wants to see if he can mold Eggsy into Kingsman material. He says quite explicitly that being a gentleman has nothing to do with accents or upbringing; it’s something one learns and proves in one’s behavior.”

A voracious comic-book fan, Samuel L. Jackson had already read the books by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons where the film was based when he heard Vaughn was interested in him for the part of Valentine. “The Kingsmen were different kinds of gentleman spies,” he reflects. “I thought the concept was great and I always thought it would make a wonderful film.”

Jackson loved Vaughn and Goldman’s script, and says he immediately understood Valentine’s motivations. “The really crazy thing was that it totally made sense,” he laughs. “The film is full of great visual images, and I felt a thrill taking the ride.”

Valentine’s logic posits that the global population has swelled to uncontrollable levels, so it requires culling. His deadly plan is to produce SIM cards that he will distribute freely around the world, and which will both stimulate aggression and reduce inhibition. They’ll literally cause people to tear each other apart, save for a select few chosen for their intelligence, power and beauty. With protective chips implanted into the heads of these elite, Valentine has rounded them up and transported them to his secret base.

Jackson describes Valentine as a moral, pragmatic man. “He understands that you have to make certain choices in order for things to work, and in order for the world to succeed, sacrifices must be made, and somebody has to be willing to make them.”

Argues Firth: “Valentine is genocidal! He’s a mass murderer and a psychopath. He may have the greater good in his mind but if that involves the death of millions of people, that ideology is unlikely to be shared by the rest of humanity.” Still, he understands why Jackson found a reason for Valentine’s actions. “I think it’s perfectly appropriate that Sam doesn’t see his character as a villain. As actors our job is to inhabit our characters, and you have to see them the way they see themselves – but with my own character’s subjectivity, Valentine is a villain in the classic Bond tradition.”

Agrees Jackson: “We’re playing this cat-and-mouse game, where Harry pretends not to know who Valentine is and Valentine pretends not to know who Harry is, until they actually sit down and say it. Game on; let’s see who comes out victorious.”

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” opens February 18 in theatres nationwide from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

– C O M E T –

Pop Icon Rihanna lends vocal talent in Dreamworks Animation’s ” Home”

In her first animated film, seven-time Grammy Award winning singer and actress Rihanna stars as the voice of Gratuity Tucci, known as Tip, a feisty, independent and very relatable girl who is having to fend for herself when her mother is captured by an alien species, the Boov, along with all the other humans on Earth.

Directed by Tim Johnson, Tip is separated from her mother (Jennifer Lopez) when an alien race called the Boov take over the Earth. Humans are rounded up and relocated – and Tip appears to be the last girl on the planet. She meets one of the Boov, Oh, (Jim Parsons) who is also alone. An outsider, unpopular with his species, he has become a fugitive after making a big mistake and is in trouble with his leader, Captain Smek (Steve Martin). Oh and Tip are both on the run and set off together in an amazing flying car, on a thrilling and funny adventure.

Coming very soon this March 26 in cinemas nationwide, “Home” is a Dreamworks Animation feature distributed by 20^th Century Fox thru Warner Bros.

 

– COMET

Filipino Boy Band 1:43 to pursue acting career with Viva

AFTER three successful albums and a string of hit songs, the members of Filipino boy band 1:43 believe they ripe to pursue their acting careers, either as a group or individually.

Last week, the group composed of four stylish and talented young men Anjo Resureccion, Gold Aquino, Yuki Sakamoto, and Yheen Valero together with their founder and manager Chris Cahiligsigned a co-management contract with Viva Artists Agency (VAA) owned by Vic Del Rosario. The strategic move aims to fulfill 1:43’s long-term plan to become television and movie stars aside from being pop idols.

“While we will remain intact as a boy band, we feel that it’s the right time to take our showbiz careers to a higher level. We are thankful that Boss Vic (Del Rosario) readily and warmly welcomed us as Viva’s newest talents,” explains 1:43 spokesman Anjo.

“We hope to start doing commercial movies and television appearances as well as viral videos and short films anytime soon. We are confident that Viva will take care of us,” he adds.

1:43 popularized “Sa Isang Sulyap Mo,” the monster hit song that won the 2013 PMPC Star Award for Music “Song of the Year” and the “Most Promising Performing and Recording Group” in the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation’s 45^th Box-Office Entertainment Awards. They are also behind hit songs “Ang Saya-Saya” which became the official theme song of GMA 7’s sitcom “Ismol Family” and the Youtube hit “Hayop Sa Ganda.”

 1:43 Newest Member

The resignation of Argee Golding in early January paved the way to the entry of top ramp and commercial model and rapper Yheen to the pop group. Argee, an international taekwondo medalist from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), left the group with heavy heart to enroll in a school for pilots in Subic.

“Yheen is perhaps the most qualified person to take over Argee’s place in 1:43. He is exceptionally handsome and charismatic and has been trained to perform on stage by no other than the iconic choreographer Tita Geleen Eugenio in his former boy band,” relates Yuki.

“In fact, when we are being formed in 2010, our manager Uncle Chris offered him a slot in 1:43 which he declined due to his prior commitments. I think he is really meant to be with us,” jests Gold.

In such a short time, Yheen has already assimilated with the rest of 1:43 and has recorded two tracks for their upcoming album— the feel-good “Tara Na” which is expected to be released on radio this week, and a surprise electronic dance music (EDM) track where he showcased his rap skills.

1:43 is supported by McJim Classic Leather, BellaVita Land Corp., and Level Up! Interested parties may book 1:43 by sending an inquiry at chriscahilig@gmail.com or by visiting the 1:43 Fan Page on Facebook.

-COMET

Fifth Dynamics releases funny music video for single “Pogi Kame”

MCJIM Classic Leather’s Dreams Get Real talent search champion Fifth Dynamics will release the much-awaited official music video of their chartbreaking single “Pogi Kame” featuring Mich Liggayu of the popular Youtube duo Jamich.

Composed of The Voice of the Philippines contestant Mark Cordovales on vocals, Jhay Santos on bass, Eljon Nono on lead guitars, Peter Leyva on rythmn guitars, and Drin Condat on drums, Fifth Dynamics has gained a strong radio and music channel presence in 2014 after the release of their single “Anyare.”

“We are expecting ‘Pogi Kame’ to sustain our momentum in the music industry, particularly among Original Pilipino Music (OPM) lovers in time for the release of our debut album this year,” says Cordovales.

The band’s upbeat song “Pogi Kame,” composed by the Nirro De Leon and Aldrin Pampolina and arranged by Jonathan Ong, celebrates men’s self-confidence and belief in one’s self. The official music video, directed by Miguel Tanchanco and produced by McJim Classic Leather, is set to be launched online and in music channels on January 15.

The music video’s hilarious story depicts a “feeling pogi” character played by the band drummer Condat who publicly embarrassed a smitten young girl. The girl, who turned out to be a witch, put the young man on spell that would only make him see the inner beauty of the women around him. He then met a lovely lady (Liggayu) who surprisingly causes his friends to doubt his taste in women.

“The twist in the ending will leave you laughing hard,” relates Cordovales. “You’ll definitely want to watch it again and again.”

The band’s co-champions in the McJim Classic Leather Dreams Get Real: The Search for the Next OPM Star, vocal trio JBK and solo artist Neo Domingo made a cameo in the music video.

“Pogi Kame” is currently leading charts in mass-based radio stations nationwide and was named the “Most Wanted Song of the Week” in 97.1 Barangay LS FM in December 2014. The public may now legally download the song in online music stores such as iTunes and Spotify.

Fifth Dynamics is managed by public relations expert Chris Cahilig. For inquiries, you may email at chriscahilig2011@gmail.com.

 

Bruce Willis creates Humanoids in Explosive Sci-Fi Action “Vice”

Bruce Willis gears for action against both humans and robots in the sci-fi “Vice” where he plays Julian Michaels who has designed the ultimate resort – a place where anything goes and the customers can play out their wildest fantasies with artificial inhabitants who look, think and feel like humans.

When an artificial (Ambyr Childers) becomes self-aware and escapes, she finds herself caught in the crossfire between Julian’s mercenaries and a cop (Thomas Jane) who is hell-bent on shutting down Vice, and stopping the violence once and for all.

“Vice” was the perfect script to move Emmett Furla Oasis into the high concept science-fiction action space,” says producer Randall Emmett. “Director Brian Miller has the talent to creatively construct a world so different from the one in which we live, and elicited beautifully nuanced performances from our talented cast including Ambyr, Thomas, and Bruce.

“The concept for “Vice” came to me because I was thinking about robots, and if we did create artificial intelligence, sexbots would likely be one of the first uses,” suggests writer Jeremy Passmore, recalling when the idea first came to him. “Every time there is advancement in technology the boundaries are immediately pushed. If the robot we create has actually consciousness and could feel every bit of its emotions and its thoughts were every bit as real as ours are, then where do you draw the line? You can’t just create these things and use them as slaves.”

“On the surface, it’s a revenge story about an artificially intelligent being who becomes self-aware for the first time,” begins writer Andre Fabrizio, who shares a love of science-fiction with writing partner Passmore. “On a deeper level I think what appealed to Jeremy and I was more the inevitability of artificial intelligence and how it should be treated as well as the fact that there is an assumption that artificial intelligence shouldn’t be viewed with the same rights.”

“The idea of a computer, or artificially created machine becoming self-aware is a very real prospect,” adds Passmore. “Nobody really knows where that is going to lead so that is a very deep vein to be mined in terms of science fiction because there are many possibilities and I think we chose one where it wasn’t really placing a judgment, but it was more about the morality of what makes something alive and what kind of rights does a being that is self-aware have intrinsically.”

Returning to shoot a second feature film in Alabama, director Brian Miller raised eyebrows when he told people it was a science-fiction movie. “Mobile, Alabama had that eclectic feel and I was certain we could shoot both parts of “Vice’s” worlds there,” affirms Miller, of the story that takes place in a pristine fantasy world within a dystopian future.

Experience rabid action like never before when “Vice” opens January 28 in cinemas nationwide.

xoxo

 

Hiking America’s Roughest trail for 94 days in “Wild”

Pacific Crest Trail, America’s wildest through-rail, with its infamous harsh passages, has recently rose to further prominence in the latest Reese Witherspoon starrer – “Wild,” based upon the personal accounts of Cheryl Strayed’s journey to bring her life back together after losing everything that deeply meant to her.

Wilderness epics have been around since the beginning of cinema. But from the 1912 silent film “The Conquest of the Pole” to “Jeremiah Johnson” to “Into The Wild” to “127 HouRs,” nearly all have traced the paths of men far from civilization. But the fact that WILD takes a different, less expected direction drew a devoted group of filmmakers.

Says Witherspoon, who produced the film with her partner Bruna Papandrea: “Wild” is about so many things that touch people. It’s about life, love, loss and family. It’s about how a woman who thought she was completely broken, but found a way to reconstitute herself.”

Recalls Strayed: “It was a huge physical undertaking for me to hike the PCT for 94 days, but it was also very much a spiritual journey. I turned to the trail as many people turn to the wilderness — at a time when I felt lost and desperate, when I was in a place where I didn’t know how to move forward. In many ways the trail taught me to literally just put one foot in front of the other again.”

“If I would have been a person who didn’t love the outdoors, this role would have been impossible,” laughs Reese. “As it was, it was extremely challenging on every level, and far more physically challenging than I ever anticipated. There was climbing up the side of a mountain and balancing in river crossings and marching through chest-deep snow and falling into a freezing river. I had no idea it was going to be as hard as it truly was. But it was also very, very rewarding.”

The heart-stirring vistas rife throughout the shoot were a constant inspiration for Witherspoon, and a reminder of why the untouched spaces of wilderness called so strongly to Cheryl, even at rock bottom. “It fills you up,” the actress says. “To see the incredible beauty of our world makes you believe everything might really be OK. I think that’s how Cheryl came to feel.”

The PCT became a character in and of itself –embodying the rough-hewn allure of the American West. Winding through some 25 National Forests and 7 National Parks, it rises to 13,000 feet in the Sierra and dips to sea level at the Columbia River, passing through such diverse and inimitable territory as the Mojave Desert, Sequoia National Park, Tuolumne Meadows, the volcanic terrain of Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier, the forests of Crater Lake – all the way to the Bridge of the Gods, the cantilever bridge that crosses the Columbia River from Oregon into Washington state.

Ultimately, as she entwined deeper and deeper with the character, Witherspoon found that Cheryl’s infamously weighty backpack and ramshackle boots became a part of her own soul. While the backpack is often a source a comedy in the film, it also became a metaphor for Cheryl learning to shoulder the weight of the past and keep walking on.

“There is something about being in the wilderness,” sums up Jean-Marc Vallée, “becoming part of nature, learning to see it not as an enemy but as a friend, experiencing the beauty and the quality of the air that can be life-changing. Cheryl went into that and kind of lost herself for nearly 100 days. She was alone with her demons, her dreams and her past and it led her to ask: ‘What do I really want to do with my life?’”

Hike along with friends and family when “Wild” opens February 4 in cinemas nationwide from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

AXN Announces “Asia’s Got Talent” Judges: David Foster, Melanie C, Anggun and Van Ness Wu

SINGAPORE (13 January 2015) – It’s a YES! Grammy-award winner David Foster, UK pop sensation and former Spice Girl Melanie C, Indonesian rock icon Anggun and Taiwanese-American pop idol Van Ness Wu have been named as the celebrity judging panel for the season premiere of hit talent search show, “Asia’s Got Talent” on AXN.

Billed as the biggest talent competition in the world, “Asia’s Got Talent” will light up screens across Asia in March on AXN and will feature some of the region’s most incredible performing artists as they compete to take home the coveted winning title.

Hui Keng Ang, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia said, “We have put together a superb panel of judges for ‘Asia’s Got Talent’. This is definitely our most ambitious original series to date and is very much in line with the type of smart, high-quality local programming that audiences have come to expect from AXN.”

Paul O’Hanlon, Managing Director of FremantleMedia Asia said, “We’re proud to say that ‘Asia’s Got Talent’ will be the largest version ever of the Got Talent franchise, and our judges bring a depth and breadth of experience and talent worthy of this show.”

From thousands of applicants, the four judges must select Asia’s most jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, and breathtaking performances. Those who move on to the semi- finals will face an even more intimidating judge, the AXN audience at home who will ultimately determine who wins the first season of Asia’s Got Talent. Adding to the excitement, the semi-finals and finale will be held at the iconic Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, with the winner awarded a contract to return and perform live at Asia’s leading entertainment destination.

xoxo

Emma Stone Nominated at the Oscars for her role in “Birdman”

This year’s frontrunner at the Oscars, “Birdman” will open exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas on January 28 and has thus far dominated the Academy Award with nine nominations in major categories including Best Picture. Other notable nominations for “Birdman” includes Best Director (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best Actor (Michael Keaton), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

          In “Birdman,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s black comedy, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) hopes that by spearheading an ambitious new Broadway play he will, among other things, revive his moribund career. In many ways, it is a deeply foolhardy move – but the former cinema superhero has high hopes that this creative gambit will legitimize him as an artist and prove to everyone – and himself – that he is not just a Hollywood has-been.

                  With the play’s opening night looming, Riggan’s lead actor is injured by a freak accident during rehearsals and needs to be replaced quickly. At the suggestion of lead actress Lesley (Naomi Watts) and the urging of his best friend and producer Jake (Zach Galifianakis), Riggan reluctantly hires Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) – a loose cannon who is guaranteed to sell tickets and get the play a rave review. As he preps for the stage debut, he must deal with his girlfriend and co-star Laura (Andrea Riseborough), his fresh-from-rehab daughter and personal assistant Sam (Emma Stone), as well as his ex-wife Sylvia (Amy Ryan), who appears every so often to check-in with the intent to stabilize things.

                  “Riggan is profoundly human,” Iñárritu says. “I saw him as a kind of Don Quixote, where the humor comes from the disparity and permanent dislocation of his solemn ambitions and the ignoble reality that surrounds him. Basically, it’s the story of all of us.”

                  While the movie centers on the trials and tribulations of actors, Iñárritu sees their quest for gratification as a universal longing. “The modern definition of accomplishment – people want to be famous immediately, not from a body of work developed over years. In one second, people have 800,000 likes or followers and for some that is achievement in itself – but it’s delusional. The immediacy of social media can easily distort the reality of one person, especially Riggan, who has to fulfill expectations of what it is to be famous. And all this is new to him, that crossover is difficult. This is the story of a man trying to prove that he is more than that, more than the popular ‘liked’ guy. But in today’s world, where irony is king, anybody who wants to be earnest or honest is crucified. It is an absurd, surreal world,” Iñárritu explains. “In the end, I just tried to recount in a funny way the disasters of our human nature to reconcile, if not with the defects or faults of the world and our nature, with the way we approach and live them.”

                  Of this generation’s most admired women, Emma Stone plays Sam, Riggan’s daughter, newly sprung from rehab and working as her father’s assistant. Their relationship is strained – his onetime fame as the super hero Birdman meant that he was absent for much of her youth. Hiring her as his aide doesn’t do much to improve their situation. Sam has a keen eye and observes her father and the histrionics that come with his play with wry dispassion that is spot on but also a bit of a defense mechanism.

                  She says: “Because she is fresh out of rehab, I assume he needs to be watched by a family member. So she makes a huge mistake by working for him. It doesn’t help that he can’t connect with her at first and has her doing really menial errands. So it doesn’t begin well but by the end, she starts to see that they are very similar. Sam is one of the few characters in the movie who isn’t an actor, who isn’t in the play. That was kind of nice to play, she’s on the outside and witnesses all that is happening without being in the tornado on stage with all these crazy people,” Stone says.

                  And while this play has become Riggan’s single focus and his bid for artistic relevance, his daughter has a completely different and modern definition/measurement of what it is to matter.

                  “We find Riggan at a point of no return, in the midst of mounting a career comeback mostly driven by his desire to be relevant. My character Sam teaches him a lot about social media and the new nature of fame, which is something he is willfully ignorant of. The way actors are accessed now is very different than when Riggan was coming up as Birdman, 20 or 30 years prior. He wants to mean something but he also wants to be well-liked and respected as an artist but there is this sort of a modern day keeping up with the Joneses, this desire for mass appeal – and I think everyone can understand and relate to that,” Stone says.

                  Fortunately, she had a supportive guide in Iñárritu. “I learned so much. It was so exciting to live and breathe the character for the entire length of the scene. And Alejandro is so tuned in to actors, he knows what is going on your head line by line, sometimes better than you do. There was a day when I knew it just wasn’t working for me and suddenly I could feel it kick in and as I did, he clapped and said, ‘That’s IT!’ It’s amazing. I’ve never met a director who could do that, he feels what you do,” Stone says.

                  “Birdman” opens this January 28 exclusive at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide.