For our entertainment, Paul Bettany will be waging his own personal battle between heaven and earth.

The handsome Brit’s image as the assault-rifle-toting archangel Michael in the doomsday fantasy “Legion” has been inescapable of late. In the intelligent, emotional “Creation,” meanwhile, he plays Charles Darwin over a span of crucial years. As Bettany raids a hotel suite’s mini-bar for a vodka tonic, he delights in the irony of simultaneously manifesting as an angel and as the man who, as one “Creation” character says, “killed God.”

“I was making ‘Legion’ and the script for ‘Creation’ came up — it was written by [director] Jon Amiel and John Collee, who’s a great writer, he wrote ‘Master and Commander.’ I had been reading Darwin’s diaries from the Beagle when I was making ‘Master and Commander’ as research [for his Darwinesque character, Dr. Stephen Maturin], and I had been interested in playing him,” he says. “I loved the script, and I thought it would be really fun, going from a big action movie to this small, heartfelt movie about something I care deeply about.”

Bettany’s immense respect for Darwin made him reluctant to judge his own performance.

“I don’t know if I was successful; that will be for other people to decide. I’m a glass-is-half-empty kind of human being — I’m already thinking about the next vodka tonic,” he says, punctuating the riff with a tap of the literally half-empty glass.

“I kept thinking, how am I going to produce a human being who has arguably the greatest single idea that any human being has ever had? And I slowly realized I couldn’t. Because he was the grandfather of evolution and I’m an actor. But I do know about loss and madness. Those are the things I share in common with Charles Darwin. I know what it feels like to lose people.”

The film is less about the revolutionary theory itself than the naturalist’s decision, after 20 years, to share his findings with the world.

“There are a lot of reasons for that procrastination we can guess at, and one is the death of their child,” Bettany says. “His wife was a fervent Christian and got an incredible amount of solace from the idea of heaven and God being there, and that they would all meet again. And he’s about to potentially rob her of that solace.”

To play a celestial creature in “Legion,” which is now showing, Bettany could seek only earthly references.

“It’s a similar problem in that I can’t be an angel. Ask my wife,” archly adds the husband of actress Jennifer Connelly, who plays Darwin’s wife in “Creation.”

“I can’t interview an angel and say, ‘What’s it like?’ So I went to museums. What I noticed about angels, often they have swords and spears, and they’re ripped,” he says, laughing. “I mean, actually, all we’re doing is changing the weapon — he’s got an M-16. What I need to do is go to the gymnasium. In postproduction they’re going to put 8-foot wings on me, and I can get on with the sort of human bit, which is fun.”

His archangel Michael joins forces with mankind after God, having lost all hope for humanity, sends in his angels to bring on the apocalypse.

“He has the courage of his convictions. Now to defy your boss in any walk of life is a traumatic, frightening and courageous thing to do. But when your boss is God…”

The multiple-award-winning actor gets no vertigo when fluttering from the lofty goals of art films to what some might sniff at as the lower aims of genre movies.

“I love all sorts of movies. I love ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ I love ‘Battleship Potemkin,’ I love ‘Brief Encounter.’ But I also love ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ and I’d be lying if I tried to cover that up and pretend I had more sort of educated tastes.

“I don’t want people to go to ‘Creation’ and eat popcorn throughout, but I absolutely want to go to ‘Legion’ and see people’s popcorn go up in the air when they get scared.”

(Now playing across the Philippines, “Legion” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.  Visit www.sonypictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.)

Archangel Michael, the defender of mankind, goes up against Archangel Gabriel, God’s messenger, in the ultimate battle for salvation in Columbia Pictures’ supernatural action-thriller “Legion.”

When God loses faith in mankind, He sends a legion of angels led by Gabriel (“Wolverine’s” Kevin Durand) to bring on the apocalypse.  Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the Archangel Michael (“The Da Vinci Code’s” Paul Bettany)

In “Legion,” the climactic confrontation between the two archangels could be called sibling rivalry taken to a cosmic extreme. “Paul and I played it like we were brothers who were always vying for the attention and love of their father,” says Kevin Durand. “Michael was the one who got most of the love, without having to abide by the rules. Gabriel always went by the book and never got the attention he thought he deserved. This battle comes down to eons of competition.”

The filmmakers saw the apocalyptic setting of “Legion” as an opportunity to explore larger themes within a highly entertaining action-horror film. While the film is not religious in nature, it does use elements of familiar narratives to tell its tale. “Whether you grew up in a religious home or not, we live in a society that has religion at its core,” writer-director Scott Stewart points out. “The movie isn’t attempting to say anything about particular beliefs. It is about the idea of faith, using things that are familiar to us from Judeo-Christian ideology as a way to tell the story. No matter what your bent is philosophically, you can bring that to this movie.”

If it seems provocative, that’s what Stewart intends. “The film pushes buttons and it’s meant to push buttons,” he says. “I hope it’s somewhat controversial. In the end, it’s meant to be entertaining, but I hope it’s thought provoking as well. That’s what takes it out of the realm of the standard thriller.”

The catalyst for the action of the film is Michael, a larger-than-life figure who seems to appear out of nowhere. “Michael has such conviction that the other characters follow him without question,” says Stewart. “I didn’t want him to be an enigma. He is the Archangel Michael, but you can’t play that abstraction.”

Michael’s nemesis in the film is also his brother, Gabriel, an archangel traditionally portrayed as God’s messenger and as the most faithful of His creations. A one-time ballet dancer who stands six feet, six inches tall, actor Kevin Durand brings both brawn and grace to the character. “Kevin is so compelling,” says producer David Lancaster. “He moves beautifully but also has this incredibly menacing feeling about him.”

The filmmakers were impressed by Durand’s recent performances in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and as the cold-blooded mercenary Martin Keamy on the hit television series “Lost.” “We wanted somebody who could hold his own with Paul Bettany, who’s an imposing actor,” says Stewart. “Kevin has this awesome physical presence, and he backs it up with serious acting chops. He’s really a character actor inside the body of a major action star.”

“Legion” appealed to Durand on a primal level, he says. “Gabriel is being sent to do God’s work, but in a way I don’t think we’ve ever seen before—by any means necessary.”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, Jan. 22, “Legion” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.  Visit www.sonypictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.

Paul Bettany, perhaps best known for his powerful performance as the assassin Silas in “The Da Vinci Code,” is back in the big screen, this time as the Archangel Michael in Columbia Pictures’ supernatural action-thriller “Legion.”

In the film, as mankind destroys itself in a savage fury, a small group of people (led by Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black and Tyrese Gibson) trapped on the edge of nowhere prepare to make a last stand—with the help of a mysterious and powerful stranger – the Archangel Michael.

Convincing Bettany to play Michael seemed an audacious goal for the filmmakers. “Paul has the authority we needed, but given his pedigree, we weren’t sure he would be interested,” says writer-director Scott Stewart.

The catalyst for the action of the film is Michael, a larger-than-life figure who seems to appear out of nowhere. “Michael has such conviction that the other characters follow him without question,” says Stewart. “I didn’t want him to be an enigma. He is the Archangel Michael, but you can’t play that abstraction.”

Stewart had planned his presentation meticulously in an all-out effort to capture Bettany’s imagination. The actor was as intrigued by Stewart’s vision as he was by the film’s premise. “Scott pitched his movie better than anybody has ever pitched a movie to me before,” the actor says. “He had all kinds of visual aids. He’s a very impressive human being.”

The unusual thematic elements were icing on the cake for the actor. “It’s a really slick, fast-paced movie that is in no way stupid,” he says. “Traditionally Michael is the defender of mankind. He is known as the first in all heaven to bow down before mankind and he still has faith in humanity despite all the war and horror he sees. So he’s having a massive crisis of allegiance.”

Bettany’s unique qualities as an actor made him an ideal choice to play the conflicted archangel, says the director. “Paul has an incredible stillness that only the greatest actors possess. His work is almost surgical in its exactness and specificity. That helped make Michael a commanding, mysterious figure you immediately trust, even if you don’t fully understand why. He turned out to be the most tremendous partner a filmmaker could have, because he cared a lot about the film and about his character—but he also wanted to shoot a machine gun and have a good time.”

Though a veteran of numerous films, “Legion” provided Bettany his first essentially action hero role.  And he calls the stunts he did in the movie “an embarrassing amount of fun.” “The first time on the wire was a rush unlike anything legal that I know of,” Bettany says. “The fights were like being 10 years old with friends who don’t mind you hit them. If you’re making an action movie and you’re not doing the action, then you’re not making an action movie.”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, Jan. 22, “Legion” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.  Visit www.sonypictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.

A dusty diner in the Mojave Desert becomes ground zero for earth’s final showdown in Columbia Pictures’ new supernatural thriller “Legion,” a startlingly original and terrifying vision of the Apocalypse from director and writer Scott Stewart. As mankind destroys itself in a savage fury, a small group of people trapped on the edge of nowhere prepare to make a last stand—with the help of a mysterious and powerful stranger.

Unaware of the chaos unfolding around the globe, Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid), the owner of a remote roadside café, and his partner Percy (Charles S. Dutton) go about business as usual. The restaurant’s beautiful and very pregnant waitress, Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), serves breakfast to Sandra and Howard, a well-heeled suburban couple (Kate Walsh and Jon Tenney) and their teenage daughter Audrey (Willa Holland), as they wait for their car to be repaired by Bob’s son, Jeep (Lucas Black).

When the television goes on the fritz and the phones go out, the group realizes they have lost all communication with the outside world. As they attempt to make sense of what’s happening—An earthquake? A terrorist attack?— an elderly woman (Jeannette Miller) arrives and sweetly orders a steak from Charlie. When her meal arrives, she begins spewing shocking obscenities. In a heartbeat, the fragile old lady develops superhuman strength, launching a grisly attack that leaves Howard critically injured.

A desperate attempt to get medical help ends when an impenetrable cloud of flying insects turns the diner into the only safe haven for miles. As the horrifying truth of their situation sinks in, a stranger (Paul Bettany) joins them with an arsenal of stolen weapons. He informs Charlie that her unborn baby is now humanity’s only hope, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to save it.

The world is about to become a waking nightmare for the last remnants of mankind as rolling caravans of crazed killers arrive in search of fresh victims and an army of warrior angels bent on total destruction follows close behind them in a unique and terrifying glimpse of the End of Days.

“Legion” stars Paul Bettany (“The Da Vinci Code”), Lucas Black (“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”), Tyrese Gibson (“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), Kate Walsh (TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”) and Dennis Quaid (“G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra”).

“I hope audiences will come to see `Legion’ with a certain expectation that this is going to be a different kind of experience,” says producer David Lancaster. “It’s a unique story with great actors and some really wild special effects.  When they see all those elements together, I’m hoping they’ll say, ‘wow, I can’t wait to see the next one.’”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, Jan. 22, “Legion” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.  Visit www.sonypictures.com.ph to see the latest trailers, get free downloads and play free movie games.

When God loses faith in Mankind, He sends a legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse, in Columbia Pictures’ new supernatural action-thriller “Legion.”  Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the Archangel Michael.

Directed by special effects whiz kid Scott Stewart, “Legion” stars Paul Bettany (“The Da Vinci Code”), Dennis Quaid (“The Day After Tomorrow”) and Tyrese Gibson (“2 Fast 2 Furious”).

Scott Stewart talks about his feature directorial debut after bringing to life the special effects of such sensational films as “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, “Superman Returns” and “ Iron Man. ”

Question: What elements of the story attracted you so much that you decided to make “Legion” your feature debut?

Scott Stewart: I liked the idea of these characters stuck in a diner in the middle of nowhere. Why they’re necessarily the ones you’re following and they’re not just disposable people waiting for the next one to die. I wanted it to be a morality tale. I was raised Jewish so I was an Old Testament guy with no experience reading Revelations so I read a fundamentalist view, a teaching guide of Revelations. It was nuts. Crazy stuff. Let’s make a movie about that stuff. The big line in the movie, that the Archangel Michael says, is “The last time God lost faith in man, he sent a flood. This time he sent what you see outside.” You sort of ground that question in, “What would we do if the Noah’s Ark scenario happened again?” What if it manifested itself in the contemporary world? It’s sort of about the madness of suburban life becoming monstrous and attacking us. These characters are all dealing with family issues and on top of that angels with machine guns. Highway to Heaven with machine guns!

Q: Did it ever occur to you, during shooting, that a lot of directors cut their teeth on siege films like this? George Romero and so on?

Stewart: Oh yeah, it felt like a great place to start. What was also fun was creating a new mythology, taking stuff that was familiar to people, things that people find scary… There’s something about these religious ideas, whether we believe in them or not, that instantly gets you in different ways than other things in the horror genre. Also, I love comic books. I love “Close Encounters,” I love “The Terminator” and it mashes everything together. It’s a heavy action movie, but at the same time it’s a horror movie and there are some fun moments.

Q: The “Terminator” elements are pretty apparent…

Stewart: That was the story as it was unfolding, absolutely. Unabashedly so. We’re doing our own thing with the story, but it has those elements but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a major influence. Steal from the best.

Q: How did having the effects background influence knowing what you could and couldn’t pull off?

Stewart: That’s the other thing, even though I’ve worked on some of the “money is no object” visual effects movies as a visual effects artist, invariably a lot of times they’re amazing and a lot of times you see them and you’re like, “It was just about the effects.” The movie was an excuse for those things. “Terminator” was amazing in that it was a $6 million movie, totally staggering that’s all it cost. The effects were amazing for that time, they’re still great. “Terminator 2” pushed the boundaries. I don’t think you watch those movies and say they’re effects films. I guess the short answer is I just wrote in effects what I wanted to see for the story.

(Opening soon across the Philippines , “Legion” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.)