Movies Plus (M+) Magazine - Green Lantern, X-Men and more

JUNE 2011 • NUMBER 112 • WWW.MOVIES.IE

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June 3th Senna Prom X-Men : First Class

Calendar June 2011 Watch the Trailers Online on Movies.ie

June 10th

June 17th

Kung Fu Panda 2

The Beaver

The Runway

Green Lantern

Mothers Day

Potiche

Honey 2

Swinging With The Finkels

Cutter's Way

Bad Teacher

Kaboom

The Messenger

June 24th

July 1st

Bridesmaids

Larry Crowne

Incendies

The Conspirator

Viva Rita!

Transformers Dark Of The Moon

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Partially based on a true story, ‘The Runway’ tells the story of a South American pilot who crash lands in the wilds of County Cork after locals build an emergency runway at the local racecourse. ‘The Runway’ comes from Fastnet Films, who previously gave us the much loved Irish film ‘Kisses’.

Q: How did you get involved in ‘The Runway’?

A: I’d seen the original news footage on TV. I think first and foremost it was the image of this good-looking, Latin American in the middle of Ireland in 1983. We all know that Ireland in 1983 was kind of a different world. I had grown up in a small town in Wexford in the 80s so I kind of felt it struck a chord with me from that point of view. Then primarily it was the act; this bunch of people who had nothing, doing this fantastic thing, what seems to be an act of altruism. I felt it was the kind of event that would inspire a film if it happened anywhere else, so why shouldn’t it inspire a film here? What they did was a really optimistic thing, and I think it really rings true now, weirdly because of the way things are with the economy now, that you needed almost a foolish optimism in order to succeed.

Q: Why did you focus the story on a young Cork boy as the protagonist?

A: When you are a writer, you are always looking for ideas for a film and I was thinking about it for a long time. It was one of those ones where I didn’t quite know whose film it was - in terms of whose point of view the story would be told from - then I thought about myself in 1983. At that point my parents had moved from Dublin to Wexford and it was a real culture shock! [laughs]I had moved into one school and really wasn’t fitting in at all and within a year I had moved to another school. I had moved from a place where I had a ton of friends in Dublin, down to the middle of the countryside and had one friend about four miles away. Around that time I saw ET and it totally hit home with me because the idea of a man dropping out of the sky felt like a way better idea than having to go around and make friends with a bunch of angry six year olds. That was when I started to think about it from

the point of view of the kid.

Q: How much of the film is real and how much is artistic licence?

A: I suppose it’s all artistic licence in a way [laughs], but at the same time, there is so much in it that is really true. I think when it comes to a film, you always have to be true to the story, and then the truth of the story really isn’t decided by the fabric of it, it is decided by the message that the film is conveying. In other words, for me writing it, I wanted to take everything I felt watching that original piece of news footage - the sense of these people doing this really incredible thing - and that was what I wanted everyone to feel when they watched the film. So I wasn’t too preoccupied with who did what and all of that kind of thing, I was really thinking; ‘How do I convey, in film terms, the sense of this film?’. They were always going to build the runway and he was always going to fly off in a triumphant finish - as he did in real life.

Q: You wrote and directed the film; did you find that you had to sacrifice your vision of one, for your vision of the other?

A: There is a film making cliché that you make three versions of your film: The first is the script, the second is the director’s film and the third is the editor’s film. The weird thing is that cliché remains true even if it is the same person through the three different jobs. They are totally different media, the script is totally different to the film. The thing for me making the film, was that I wanted to make a film for an audience. In a rebellious way, I felt that Ireland has had too many serious films and I wondered ‘Why can’t we make a feel good film?’

Words - Brogen Hayes The Runway is at cinemas from June 10th

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Taking on Patrick Stewart’s old role in X-Men: First Class was more than just blockbuster fun for James McAvoy, as Paul Byrne finds out.

When James McAvoy was a young man, growing up with his maternal grandparents in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, he and his best friend, Mark, would often say to one another, “We’re going to be alright, no matter what happens”.

They were right. Mark now runs a website construction company, and you might just remember James McAvoy from such movies as The Last King Of Scotland, Inside I’m Dancing, Atonement, Shameless, Wanted, Becoming Jane or The Last Station.

“We did say that, yeah,” nods the 32-year old actor. “And it sounds dreadful now, as though we were ready for our close-ups, but it just reflected an optimism that both of us actually still have - I spoke with Mark not long ago.

“I got that from my grandparents - they didn’t believe in all that ‘be all that you can be’ nonsense. They just instilled in me, and my sister, the belief that we simply had the right to give whatever we wanted a shot. It was all a bit more practical than magical…”

There’s plenty of voodoo magic on display in James McAvoy’s latest offering, X-Men: First Class, a back-to-the-roots prequel to the lucrative Marvel superpoweredmutants franchise that derailed ever-soslightly with 2006’s disappointing Last Stand and 2009’s so-so Wolverine.

McAvoy takes on the role of the young Professor Charles Xavier, played in the original trilogy by Sir Patrick Stewart, whilst our own Michael Fassbender takes on Sir Ian McKellan’s old role, Magneto.

Set in 1962, and having a little fun with a secret history behind the Cuban Missile Crisis, Matthew Vaughn (who walked away from Last Stand, and who recently gave us the appropriately-titled Kick-Ass) is behind the camera.

Q: Matthew said of the casting here, ‘I wasn’t trying to cast the young Patrick or Ian - I was trying to cast the young Professor X and Magneto’. I’m guessing that brought you a certain amount of freedom, having a fresh canvas…

A: Yeah, totally. It was really important not to just mimic the performances of those two. Not because they weren’t good performances, and not because they aren’t fantastic actors, but because there’s no point in making this film if we’re just going to do the same performances with different costumes.

As nice as the 1960s costumes were.

It was really important to show that they started in a very different place, so that we’d just have a big story to tell. And that was the joy of it for me. So, I got to look at Sir Patrick’s performance and say, ‘Alright, he’s chaste. I’ll be randy.

He’s sober, I’ll be drunk. He’s wise, I’ll be silly’, you know what I mean? Start at a very, very different personal location.

Q: The origins thing was done incredibly well by Abrams and Star Trek recently, and with Batman Begins. Were there movies that Matthew suggested you guys watch?

A: No, we didn’t really didn’t get any references. We knew that he wanted to do something with the set design that was evocative of Bond. He wanted to give it a much more European feel in terms of its locations, and its cast, as well. And that was it, really. We weren’t really pointed towards ‘Watch this movie, watch that movie’, in regard to what we were thinking of doing.

There was a lot of talk. There was a lot of sitting around talking about what we’d like from scenes.

Q: This is being called a reboot - reboot being Hollywood Latin for ‘We’re really, really sorry about that last movie’. Was there a sense of ripping it up and starting again?

A: [Laughs] Yeah. The truth is, it’s a prequel, but, it’s set so far in the past,

from the original X-Men movie, that it might as well be a reboot. Because it’s so different. But, yeah, maybe it was time, after four movies, to refresh. And it’s not that the other movies weren’t good; it’s just the fact that you can’t keep giving the audience the same thing. If you’re gonna use the X-Men name, you’ve got to spell a different name with it.

Q: Wow, how rubbish was that?

A: But you’ve got to be fresh, and I think this movie definitely refreshes the franchise.

Q: It’s potentially another franchise, with Fox planning a trilogy. For you, that balance of making something like the $18m Tolstoy biopic The Last Station right after the $75m sci-fi actioner Wanted, all part of a career masterplan, or are you just following your nose?

A: There are less movies being made at the moment that take any risks. The industry at the moment, I think, is scared to spend money unless they think it’s going to be an actual massive, big hit.

And these movies, weirdly, you have to spend $200 million making them, but they feel safer to the industry, for some reason.

It feels like a lot of this stuff is being made.

So, partly because it’s harder to find The Last Stations, and partly, because I’d done a few things of that size, and some theatre, over the last few years, and I felt it was time to do something big. I wouldn’t do just any old big thing that came along; it would have to be the right thing. And a lot of factors made this the right thing.

I really knew I’d have a lot of fun playing the character, I knew I would like working with Matthew, I knew when they talking about casting someone like Michael that I was going to have an ally. Both professionally and artistically, and I like Michael as well [laughs].

Also, it was filmed in thirty minutes outside my front door, so, it was all kicking.

Perfect!

Yeah, it was a no-brainer [laughs].

Q: Finally, given how well-respected you are as an actor, I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear that according to film industry website imdb your trademark is - wait for it - ‘blue eyes’.

A: [Starts singing Elton John’s Blue Eyes] When I started out wanting to be an actor, I decided on blue eyes. It’s my whole schtick, nothing else. I want to be the new Paul Newman. Only without all the talent.

Just the eyes.

X-Men: First Class is now showing

Watch our X-Men video interviews this month on Movies.ie

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“Making movies is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Working with friends.

Entertaining people.”

James Whale in Bill Condon’s Oscar winning screenplay of “Gods and Monsters” (1998)

DC Comics’ ‘Green Lantern’, which chronicles the journey of an ordinary man given extraordinary powers by a mysterious ring (and the lantern that powers it like a battery), originally hit comic shops 70 years ago. There have been many attempts to bring the cult hero to the big screen, most recently Jack Black was tipped to star in a comedy version of the movie. Thankfully the comic version never happened and ‘Casino Royale’ director Martin Campbell was brought in to deliver an action packed movie. Ryan Reynolds, who recently made waves as Deadpool in X-Men, breathes life into the mythic Green Lantern for a new generation of fans.

Q: How much training did you have to do when you found our you were going to be playing a super hero?

A: I was training for six or seven months before shooting. I was in gymnastics every day, just kind of trying to get what they called ‘aerial awareness’ for the flying scenes, and just being able to move through the air upside-down and all around and not toss your cookies.

That would be hard to get used to. Yeah, yeah. But you do. And it’s an interesting lesson. So, yeah, a lot of different training, but that stuff’s part of the job. That’s the kind of stuff that actors love to romanticize a little bit too much but it’s just par for the course. On a movie like this, you’ve got to be ready.

Q: Hal Jordan is an interesting superhero in that he’s so flawed and has to find so much inside to become Green Lantern. What can you tell us about him?

A: When you meet him he’s a deeply arrogant, kind of reckless, immature, and kind of self-possessed guy. I mean, that’s from my point of view. And this ring that he’s bestowed by this dying alien unbeknownst to him is a gift, which at first seems kind of like a curse. And what I loved about it was that it, in essence, humbles him and forces him to grow up and acknowledge this higher calling.

Q: In some ways, he’s like the classic reluctant hero?

A: Yeah. It’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, he just doesn’t understand why he was chosen. I mean, given his past experiences, he doesn’t really seem like a likely candidate, at least as far as he’s concerned. So, I think part of the interest for me in the character was this quest to find out why. Why me? Why was I chosen for this thing? And that idea that the ring sees something in him that even he doesn’t, and I think that’s wish-fulfillment to me.

That’s something that I think a lot of audiences love and I love about movie-making as well, is unraveling that mystery.

Q: Did you have a lot of stunt-rigs to work with in doing some of the action for this film?

A: I knew it would be a physical kind of movie. I mean, I’m not 20 anymore, so with some of the stuff, it was a little slower getting up off the ground. But I still go for it every time, and that’s part of the job. You get beat up and bruised and battered.

But you kind of expect that working on a movie like this.

Q: This movie is such a big effects movie, and so much of what you’re doing is going to be in these intergalactic environments. How did you prepare?

Did director Martin Campbell show you illustrations to give you an idea of what to expect?

A: Yeah. You’re looking at everything. I mean, you’re looking at all of [production designer] Grant Major’s work and our storyboard artists. On a typical film, a storyboard can be as rudimentary as a stick figure.

But on a movie like this, it is fully filled out. I mean, these were frameable photos of what we were going to shoot. So, that helps immensely.

But, for the most part, you just have to surrender to that process and know that you’re going to be staring at a blue or green screen for six months, and that very capable artists are going to be spending

24 hours a day, seven days a week making this world real.

Q: We know director Martin Campbell from movies like ‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Casino Royale’, What does he bring to the film?

A: Martin Campbell, he’s the reason I’m here. He’s the reason I wanted to do the project to begin with. I mean, just his experience not only in action, but in all mediums of film. He brings to the table an ability to create drama, humor, action, excitement, adventure, all of those things. So he’s kind of the perfect director for a film like this.

Q: At Comic Con last year, there was this magic moment where you recited the Green Lantern oath for a little kid in the audience, and even just watching on tape just gave me chills. Do you feel that pressure to be this embodiment of all these qualities that so many kids look up to?

A: I think I do to some degree. I mean, you have to have a healthy separation from that as well and live your life as an individual separate from the green guy.

But, yeah, I think I do. I think it’s kind of nice, though. I mean, I’d be more worried about it if there was a great disparity between this guy’s character and my character in my personal life. I’d be a little bit more concerned about that. But I think they’re close enough that I’m okay.

Green Lantern is at cinemas from June 17th.

Q: How would you sum up the experience of making Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

A: Well, the difference here was that we had more direction with our game plan when we took our first steps. We had a really solid script so there was no second guessing, which we had to do a little on the second film where we were sort of making it on the fly. On this one we had a firmer foundation at the outset and as crazy as the Transformer movies get - and we do have injuries here and there and

some really tough ones to deal with - I think in the end the movie is the best movie we have made and also was the greatest journey in terms of my enjoyment of it actually on the set. I had more fun on this movie just in general, just being around. I think Michael has also calmed down. My relationship with him has really changed and we have such a strong friendship now and it’s nice to have that with your director.

Q: When the trailer was released online

it had a record amount of downloads in 24 hours….

A: Yeah, it’s a good trailer and I’m very proud of it. Michael knows how to make a great trailer. A film like this defines what summer fun is - it does what a summer blockbuster is meant to do, which is essentially provide a fun movie experience. The third one is darker and it has the action that you have in the first two films but this time it’s even better.

We basically took the cameras that were used in the Avatar 3D room and put them on the head of a skydiver so the cinematography is outrageous and Michael is pushing the limits in that way.

Q: You’ve had a ringside seat as the technology used in filmmaking has developed rapidly over the last few years. What’s that been like?

A: It’s wild to see new cameras pop up on set and to watch all the technology unfold and hope that it will fly. And the way that Mike works is that he doesn’t have a whole lot of storyboards that he passes out, he just goes ‘alright, see that area?

That seven miles? Rig the whole thing and we’re going to come in with 12 cameras…’ So a lot of times they will come in with a truck that has been modified to get the shot that Mike is asking for. And to watch him do it on the fly is crazy. Like, for example, the pursuit cam. We didn’t start with a pursuit-cam; we basically invented that on Transformers.

That was invented in front of me. I saw the wire rig developed and perfected in front of me, I’ve seen all the flight cams and things like that. Even the 3D stuff from ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), I’ve seen how their face replacement technology has evolved and how now they can even re-animate dead actors. It’s insane. I’ve been over there watching them try to re-make a Bruce Lee movie. And it’s been fascinating to be around as that technology has developed. It’s been like a college education in special effects.

Q: There’s a new leading lady, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, who plays Carly.

What can you tell us about her?

A: Yes, Sam has a new girl in his life who is giving him things that his last girlfriend couldn’t and is supporting him in different ways. She is like a friendlier, lighter energy whereas Mikaela (played by Megan Fox) was a gruffer, biker chic, and had a darker energy. Sam has found a woman who nurtures him and wants to build him up.

And that’s where they are when you meet them. And the whole thing kicks off when the Decepticons start looking for this secret artefact that the Autobots have.

Q: What are you doing next?

A: I’ve just finished a movie called The Wettest County in the World, directed by John Hillcoat. It’s basically Goodfellas in the woods. It’s very bloody, it’s very visceral and very tangible and I think it’s very good. It’s Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, so it’s a great cast.

And I loved it.

Tranformers - Dark Of The Moon is at cinemas from June 29th

HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH ON MOVIES.IE

Want more? Irish cinema website Movies.ie is updated every day with movie news, features & competitions. Here are some highlights to discover on Movies.ie this month

WIN ‘TRUE GRIT’ ON DVD We have copies of the Coen Brother’s latest Oscar nominated movie to give away on DVD. Full details are on Movies.ie this month.

WIN TICKETS TO A PREVIEW OF BRIDESMAIDS TRANSFORMERS - DARK OF THE MOON Watch our video interviews The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers' final battle.

We have tickets to a special Irish preview to give away.

Check out the competition online on Movies.ie this month.

with the cast of the hilarious new comedy ‘Bridesmaids’, including’ IT Crowd’ star Chris O’Dowd online this month on Movies.ie “MOVE OVER BOYS, THE WOMEN ARE HERE AND THEY’RE FUNNY AS HELL.” FIONA COWOOD - COSMOPOLITAN

COSMOPOLITAN

NEWS OF THE WORLD

DAILY MIRROR

MORE

“BEG, STEAL OR BORROW-JUST SEE THIS FILM” DAVID EDWARDS - DAILY MIRROR

THE RUNWAY We have tickets to giveaway to an advance preview screening of the new Irish movie ‘The Runway’ on Movies.ie this month.

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“NON-STOP LAUGHTER” GLAMOUR

SHE MAGAZINE

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“REFRESHINGLY HILARIOUS”

MARIE CLAIRE

EVA WISEMAN - THE OBSERVER

“BETTER THAN THE HANGOVER” RADIO TIMES.COM

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