Studio Cut

Clearly, a computer-animated story about Bolt, a television superhero dog engaged in a trek across America with a super fan hamster, Rhino and a super cynical cat, Mittens, could not be construed as even slightly autobiographical for anyone behind the film. But in a way, for the executives, filmmakers and talent at the heart of Walt Disney Animation Studio’s upcoming release, “Bolt,” there is something that the onscreenanimals and off-screen humans share in abundance—ENTHUSIASM.

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Manila, May 18 – Columbia Pictures’ Angels & Demons, a religious thriller set in the Vatican, received the blessings of Filipino audiences as it opened on 172  theatres at No. 1 with a nationwide, three-day opening weekend of P43.4-million for the period May 15-17.  This was announced today by Victor R. Cabrera, managing director of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. which locally distributes the film.

“A family-friendly rating of R-13 and strong reviews helped push the film soar to box-office heaven,” observed Cabrera.

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From Old School director Todd Phillips comes The Hangover, a comedy about a bachelor party gone very, very wrong.

Two days before his wedding, Doug (Justin Bartha) drives to Las Vegas with his best buddies Phil and Stu (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms) and his future brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis), for a blow-out bachelor party they vow they’ll never forget.

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From producer Sean “P Diddy” Combs comes Fox Searchlight’s critically praised musical drama Notorious starring Derek Luke (Lions for Lambs), Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got To Do With It) and introducing Jamal Woolard.  The film will be shown soon exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 & Greenbelt 3).

Notorious charts the remarkable rise of Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace – who, in just a few short years, shot from the tough streets of Brooklyn to the heights of hip-hop legend. Peeling back his mythic image eleven years after his tragic death, Notorious reveals the tumultuous and all-too-brief journey of a blazingly talented, fiercely determined young man whose unforgettable rap stories of inner city street life, with their raw truth and vivid rhymes, became emblematic of a whole generation’s brutal reality and its dreams of escaping it for something bigger.

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To hear director Tony Scott explain it, his updating of the hostage drama The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a total “reinvention” of the 1974 thriller widely considered one of the decade’s classic films.

To wit, the casting: Who better to replace Walter Matthau’s wisecracking Transit Police lieutenant than the baronial Denzel Washington? (Except now, the character’s a disgraced subway dispatcher.) John Travolta chews scenery in the lead terrorist part that an icy Robert Shaw inhabits in the original. And James Gandolfini puts some psychic distance between himself and Tony Soprano portraying the new movie’s beleaguered mayor.

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Something huge is about to go down in the world’s largest museum in the upcoming heartwarming family movie “Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian” starring Ben Stiller.

Ramping up the action and adventure of the previous film, “Night at the Museum 2” brings back Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits.  Academy Award nominee Amy Adams (“Doubt”) and Hank Azaria join the returning cast of Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais and Owen Wilson in this bigger-than-life sequel from director Shawn Levy.

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Automobiles, streetcars and ferryboats are transformed into potential weapons of mass destruction in “12 Rounds” starring wrestling idol John Cena. In the movie, Cena plays everyday cop Danny  Fisher in New Orleans struggling to save his kidnapped girlfriend from a revenge-seeking criminal.  The revenge embroiled Fisher in a cat-and-mouse chase of “12 Rounds” in the city of New Orleans. As each round nears to a conclusion, the tasks keeps Danny guessing at every treacherous turn, hurtling the determined cop through the city at a breakneck pace.

Q: Initial reaction to the title was that it was 12 rounds of boxing, but that’s not the case.

A: Everyone gets that idea and they are pleasantly surprised when they find out it’s 12 challenges and not 12 rounds of boxing. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with the movie as well. I don’t know what people are expecting but I think this movie will exceed their expectations.

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Wrestling star John Cena faces an unlikely match in the upcoming movie “12 Rounds” where it pits him with a deadly international criminal Miles Jackson (played by Aidan Gillen).  Cena plays Danny Fisher in the movie where he must face down a booby-trapped elevator, stop a cable train from crashing, plummet out from a helicopter high above the city and engage in a high-speed chase through the city of New Orleans to save his girl Molly (Ashley Scott) from the revenge-seeking Miles.  As Miles toys with Danny, innocent citizens are threatened.

To play the villainous Miles, the filmmakers cast Aiden Gillen. Trained on the stage, Gillen had recently received acclaim for his work in HBO’s “The Wire,” as the duplicitous Mayor Thomas Carcetti. “Aidan feels smarter than us. When he plays Miles, he feels like someone who simply could sit in a room with you and tell you everything that’s wrong with you in five minutes,” says McLaughlin. “And I think that’s what makes for a good villain, a guy who seems like he’s in control of the situation – even if a gun is pointed at his head.”

The fact that Cena is significantly taller and bigger than Gillen didn’t diminish Gillen’s/Miles’ power and sense of control.  “I didn’t think about the disparity in size,” says Gillen.  “Miles has his own kind of slick and lethal moves that challenge Danny in the film’s climax.”  Adds director Renny Harlin: “Aiden plays Miles with a delicious attention to detail and with colorful nuances. He makes it a very powerful character.  You could put John and Aiden next to each other and think John could kill him with one punch.  But it’s not always about that in real life, and I think that difference [in height and size] between them really plays well in the film.”

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