"Thena is like a soldier who is affected by the memories of battle and has PTSD or moral injury to live with. Thena just assumes that a fight’s coming at her rather than care and kindness. So she’s quite wired, and a lot of her struggle is just holding on to her mind and her center and her peace. I understand her, and how she feels.”
“Thena is not comfortable in peace time. She doesn’t know how to exist as a civilian or as a lover or as a friend, but she does know war. She knows who she is in combat. But she doesn’t know how to go to a party or socialize. She just doesn’t have those skills.”
Of the other celestial heroes in the film, Jolie's character feels closest to Don Lee's Gilgamesh
"They are like comrades in arms, who have known each other and fought alongside each other. They are partners, and they fight together. There are a lot of strong female characters in film now. But to have a strong woman with a strong man who she can lean on, like in this film, is the kind of partnership and relationship that I’d like to see more of.”
"When we first talked to her, I think she thought, well, I know she thought we wanted her for a very, very small cameo," Eternals producer Nate Moore said during a press set visit last January. "So she was sort of surprised at the size of the role, and really threw herself into Thena and creating a movement style for Thena and a fighting style for Thena that was unique."
"She's been through it with Salt and with Tomb Raider and Gone in 60 Seconds, all these movies. So and we sort of collaborated with her and our stunt coordinator to create a movement style that did feel different because she has done so much," the producer added. "She could say, 'Well, I've done this before. What if we tried this other thing?' And part of that was developing a weapon system that she could train and become sort of fluent in, because she hadn't done a lot of swordplay and she hadn't done a lot of staff fighting and things like that."
Long Range Box Office Forecast: Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS
Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Angelina Jolie is on the cusp of what is likely the most important year of her career. With her darker, big-budget take on Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, hitting theaters Friday, we sit down with the fairest of them all to tackle our burning questions. 1. When is the big day already?
It's official: She and Brad Pitt
have been engaged for over two years, and together for 10. "We don't
have any plans to get married at the moment. Nothing is organized.
Nothing is ready. I don't have a dress," says Jolie. But she understands
the interest. "It matters to us in a very private way. But we also
understand that we're public people."
2. Which of her children had the strongest reaction to Maleficent?
Knox!
"Every time he sees a bird outside the house, he wants me to go outside
and change it into something. Instead I just say, 'No, I'm not changing
anything but I will go speak to him.' So we bring the bird food and I
have to talk to every black bird — in an English accent. (The children)
often make me do the voice, regularly. Knox has perfected his, 'Well, well.'
It's really good. And he tests other people in the house to see if they
can do it. And he thinks Daddy doesn't do it well. But he's working on
Daddy."
3. Will she and Brad really star in a movie together again?
It
could happen! But it will be a small movie, she says. "I wrote
something we've talked about maybe doing together. Something little and
experimental. (John) Cassavetes-style." Maleficent screenwriter Linda Woolverton
calls Jolie's writing style modern and "very funny." As for financing?
"We have everything we need if we choose to do it. We're really
considering it."
4. How are she and Pitt handling their brood growing up?
Maddox is 12, which makes him officially a tween (he even walked the blue carpet solo at Maleficent's
L.A. premiere Wednesday). "It's very hard because the parental controls
are so extreme," says the mom of six. "You wish there was some magic
parental control that could just give them enough of the stuff they're
excited about and interested in. You know, some crazy skateboarding
stunt accidents, and still not be getting access to certain kinds of
other things, drugs or nudity. But (those videos) kind of end up in the
same category."
5. What's all this talk about retirement?
"I
became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress," says
Jolie. "It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn't. I
actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and
humanitarian issues. I'll do a few more films and enjoy it and if I'm
blessed to have a good career, but I've never loved it like I love other
things."
6. How is Jolie's health?
After last year's
reveal that Jolie chose to undergo a preventative double mastectomy,
"I'm healthy and happy," she says, sharing that directing the World War II epic Unbroken
has helped get her back on track. "That's really been the center of my
focus, even through the choice to take care of my health, and Louis
(Zamperini, the POW Laura Hillenbrand's novel is based on) was inspirational for that."
LOS ANGELES — An aide runs down the hall. The air changes. The
discreetly dressed bodyguard stiffens. Like the prick of a finger on a
spindle, that's how you know Angelina Jolie is approaching.
Inside
a hotel room, Jolie sips on a diet soda and takes a seat on the couch,
her slim legs tucked into a pair of Christian Louboutins she's been
wearing lately; they were designed for her, in honor of Maleficent.
The actress sits like a spring; hours of Unbroken
footage await her laser-like director's eye. "As soon as I leave today,
I go to the editing room," she says wryly, her blue-green eyes
momentarily distant.
But first, her dark fairy calls.
What makes a villain?
Maleficent,
the big-budget Disney live-action tale (in theaters Friday), was
conceived over four years ago with Jolie in mind. The villain was just
to her suiting: tough, misunderstood and in total command of every room
she enters.
Linda Woolverton, the scribe behind Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and 2010's Alice in Wonderland, has recast Maleficent, who first appeared in Sleeping Beauty,
as a dark fairy whose life began innocently, but turned villainous
after a childhood friend (we know him as King Stefan) betrays her and
steals her powerful wings.
"She is still a villain," says Jolie.
"She does, in fact, curse a child. But that people can be villainous and
still there is much more to them, and to understand what causes people
to be villainous, is important."
Jolie chuckles at the amount of
time it's taken to bring the Disney fairy tale to life. "I've never
really been a part of a film with all the effects and the 3-D
conversion," says the actress.
On the U.K. set, Jolie donned
towering horns, gold contacts, sharp prosthetic cheekbones and menacing
molars to become Maleficent. She also used her Oscar-winning chops to
flesh out her fairy. "There were tears on the set" the day Maleficent
lost her wings, says director Robert Stromberg. "You could feel the emotion while we were shooting that."
An extra dose of sweetness comes courtesy of Vivienne Jolie-Pitt,
who appears as Toddler Aurora, briefly. The then-3-year-old twin sister
of Knox (now 5) was the only child they could cast who wouldn't have a
meltdown at the sight of those horns. Instead, she climbed her mother's
cloaked legs, demanding, "Up, up."
A full house
How did Maleficent go down in the Jolie-Pitt household?
"Knox,
of course, believes everything and he loves Diaval, he wants to dye his
hair black," Jolie says with a laugh, referring to Maleficent's
sidekick (played by Sam Riley), who can change into a variety of animals. Shiloh "cried when I get hurt. And then she got angry."
Maddox and Pax "liked the battle scenes best, of course, " she says. "And the dragons and the flying."
Knowing what awaits as their brood enters teenage years makes scenes of Teenage Aurora (played by Elle Fanning)
and Maleficent clashing all the more amusing. Maddox, her eldest, is 12
now. The term "tween" gets a laugh out of Jolie. Does their
relationship now require a different toolbox as a parent?
"Yes!" she says ruefully (Jolie adopted Maddox in Cambodia
in 2002 when he was 7 months old). "It's like we have a new
relationship. He comes over to me, he works in my office a few days a
week in the editing bay and works on some script breakdowns and does
some stuff for me in the edits and helps get me a coffee."
She
laughs. "He can also make a mess of my office — he's kind of taken over.
But it's just trying to find a new way to communicate with him, not
just treating him like a little boy."
Balancing act
Two years ago, when this reporter visited Maleficent's U.K.-based set,
Jolie and Pitt were newly engaged. The topic was largely taboo in her
presence. Today, she has an easy answer for the curious: The couple have
no plans for a wedding. She has no dress. She's not wearing her
engagement ring today, having subbed it out for a simple double diamond
band.
What she has, though she refrains from connecting these dots verbally, is an approaching due date to deliver Unbroken to Universal. The epic is based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling World War II tale of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic track star-turned-U.S. soldier who becomes a brutalized prisoner of war.
Last year, she and Pitt even broke a long-held vow that they would never overlap their work schedules. But while she shot Unbroken in Australia, Pitt spent time in London, shooting Fury.
"It
wasn't easy," she admits today, "mainly because just taking care of the
kids. The kids went back and forth, but I had them for most of the
time. And just directing and having six kids and not having that backup
was a little hard. But he was happy doing his work and it was important
he was happy doing something he really wanted to do."
Directing her future
Unbroken
is being positioned to drop at Christmas, in the heart of awards
season. That makes Jolie's 2014 tentatively historic for women in film.
While women directors of tougher fare, such as Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty), have proven they can win the box office and the awards circuit, it's a small club, to put it kindly.
Would
a home run for Jolie reverberate through Hollywood? It may empower
studio heads to put more women at the helm of hard-hitting, big-budget
movies, says IMDB.com managing editor Keith Simanton. "I think anytime
you have established precedent, such as, 'Look at Kathryn Bigelow. Look
at Angelina Jolie in Unbroken,' you take that one argument away," he says.
"I
look at her and I just think she's kind of fearless," says Fanning.
"Which is so inspiring to me. All of her goals she wants to do, she's
doing them. And she's succeeding at them, hugely. That's really big for
me to see her put her mind to it and actually get it done. And be so
elegant along the way."
Jolie may have a tougher time with praise
than she shows. "I don't know if I'm a perfectionist as much as I'm
really hard on myself," she says, always questioning if she did enough.
"I can accomplish many things and feel like I've accomplished nothing."
But bringing Maleficent
to life and setting her free to fly in 3-D? "If I was going to ever do a
Disney one, this is the one I wanted to do," says Jolie. "And I think
we've done it well."
"I'll take that as huge compliment," Angelina Jolie smiles to a reporter who has just likened her turn in this week's Maleficent to Gloria Swanson's iconic Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.
"I think that was part of the thing with this role. You realize that
there's no halfway. That if you're going to do it, you can't kind of do
it."
Last week, ComingSoon.net joined a small roundtable of journalists for
an extended conversation with Jolie who, in the year and a half since
production, has gone on to direct her second feature film, this
December's Unbroken.
We were there, though, too, at Pinewood Studios in August of 2012,
standing with another small group of press when, quite surprisingly, the
film's star appeared before us in full costume.
"I think I look better as her," the dark fairy told us with a smile that
day. "I do! When my stuff’s off, I feel very flat. She’s so much bigger
than life that I feel quite dull in comparison to her."
The scene being filmed on a massive outdoor stage involved Maleficent
standing on the outskirts of Stefan's castle, walking alongside a great
black horse covered in feathers. In the story, that horse is actually a
transformed version of Maleficent's crow, Diaval (played in human form
by Sam Riley).
"Sam is many, many things," the horned woman laughed, still half in
character. "We never know which day on set is Sam or an animal. We often
confuse them! He actually can't begin a scene until I've turned him
back into a man. When we're waiting for him to begin a scene, we're
really waiting for me to turn him into a person."
"[T]he artist in me felt it's good to do something bold every once in a
while," Jolie, sans horns, recalls a year and a half later. "…[It was]
such a crazy idea and I was so challenged by it. My kids are now all
watching all these movies and wanting to play with mommy. It was perfect
timing to have them all on set, playing, being a part of the adventure
with me and for me as an actress to not do something where I’m taking
myself so seriously… Just remember what it is to play and entertain and
try something bold."
Also an accomplished screenwriter, producer and director, Jolie is well
aware of the inherent silliness in bringing a familiar animated
character to life.
"You know, I was a bit nervous to take her on?" she recalls. "I just
thought -- I don't have a big theater voice. I don't do things that are
kind of comedic. …This is such a crazy idea! I'm a fairy, you know? I'd
come home and [it's], 'how was your day honey?' 'I was a fairy!"
Jolie's own daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, makes a brief-but-memorable
appearance in the film as a pre-school age Princess Aurora (played by
Elle Fanning later in the story). It's not nepotism that won the young
star the part, however. The Maleficent makeup (designed by the legendary
Rick Baker) was so frighteningly realistic that the production had
trouble finding another young girl that wasn't terrified to be in the
presence of Jolie's fairy tale alter ego.
"I actually had one child completely freeze and then cry," Jolie
recalls. "It was like terror. I felt so bad. We realized that there was
no way that we were going to find a four or five-year old that I could
be as strong with that would not see me as a monster. Suddenly, there
was Vivie running around looking like little Aurora."
Beyond the sheer spectacle of it all, there's also a deep emotional core to Maleficent.The film's most powerful metaphor comes when Maleficent is betrayed by a loved one, who cuts off the fairy's wings.
"What happened to her was more like a rape," Jolie tells us at the
roundtable, "Something that she had no choice in and something that was
done with ill intent. I think people will see it and I think they will
see. For children, it's abuse. It’s being bullied. It's being hurt. For
anybody -- everybody at this table -- we’ve all had that moment where
somebody really hurt us and it changed us."
Essentially reminding children that, in the wake of understanding, hatred dissipates, Maleficent's story is, out of necessity, as emotionally dark at times as the villain it seeks to redeem.
"I think the depth of what children can handle and what they’re really
interested in is much deeper than people assume," she explains. "I think
it’s why sometimes we make things too simple for them… People say, 'Is
it too dark for children?' It’s not. They want to understand things that
frighten them. They want to see dark things that happen and they want
to see how to rise above them. They don’t want to be hidden from all
things and have everything sweetened."
Despite the sweetened appearance of the film itself, Jolie hopes that Maleficent's ultimate message will find resonance with even the youngest of moviegoers.
"It'll upset them," she admits. "but then they’ll also get angry with
her, hopefully. Then they’ll also want her to grow past it. They'll kind
of go on that journey of understanding how you could ever evolve past
that and what that is… When we can make stories for children that they
can walk away with having thoughts about things they didn't normally
think about or learned a little something or felt heart warmed by
something, then we've done something better."
Maleficent opens in theaters in 2D and 3D tonight!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Angelina Jolie takes us behind-the-scenes of Maleficent as we visited the set of this live-action Sleeping Beauty: http://t.co/JiOxgU4QOM
— IGN UK (@IGNUK) May 27, 2014
By Nadia Attia
Nestled within the continuing trend of re-imagining fairy stories (Snow White and The Huntsman, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Kenneth Brannagh’s forthcoming Cinderella), Maleficent puts a new spin on the Sleeping Beauty tale known by most from Disney’s 1959 animated version.
Robert Stromberg (in his feature debut) directs a cast including Sam Riley (On The Road) and Elle Fanning (Super 8), headed up by 21st century screen icon Angelina Jolie. We joined it on shoot day 57 of 84, way back in August 2012, on a production that took up six stages of Pinewood Studios.
On the day we were granted access to impressive sets including a whimsical forest (modelled on the original Disney scene where Aurora meets Prince Philip), a thatched woodland cabin complete with shabby chic interior, child-like drawings and dolls made from twigs, and a dust-covered great hall with gothic flourishes and 23ft high walls. IGN spoke with some of the creative team behind the movie as well as the star herself – fully made up and in between takes. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…
“I love her! I do! It’s a really, really great script and a great character,” Jolie’s surreal, contact-lensed eyes light up as she tells us why she chose this project. “She’s very fun and it’s a great part with a lot of depth so it’s very fulfilling,” she purrs as she towers over us in horns and spike-heeled boots. “But it’s also nice doing something you’re very uncomfortable doing as you can’t just do it halfway – you have to take that big step and just go to town. I was very shy and it took me a few weeks rehearsing with all the make-up and the voice and the costume to finally just embrace that side of me.” And fully embrace it she has as we observe her on set alongside Sam Riley - who plays her ‘familiar’ Diaval - and a feathery horse, whilst flaming torches flutter around a mist-filled castle exterior.
The look of Maleficent is clearly key to this re-telling and the attention to detail in sets, prosthetics and costume really make this a potential visual treat. Justin Smith is the man in charge of Jolie’s costumes and tells us that she had quite a lot of input into the look: “Angelina wanted head wraps over her horns, horn jewelry etc to show that Maleficent is proud of them, she also wanted real wings and not CGI ones.” He goes on to explain her seven different looks (mostly seasonal) which embody a certain ‘forest couture’. The horns themselves were designed by the legendary make-up effects artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London), who also created those cheekbones. Other prosthetics included 14ft-wide black wings made from 1,200 individual feathers, individually dyed, and a feathery tank top for a horse.
“We kind of decided that she’s dressed from things she could find the forest like animal skins, snake skins, skulls and bones,” says Jolie. When we asked how she likes her horns she continues, “Well, animals don’t like the horns I found out! And I forget that I’m wearing them sometimes and I’m forever bumping into things. I actually prefer myself as her, I think I look better; when my stuff’s off I feel very flat. She’s so much larger than life I feel quite dull in comparison!”
From what we witnessed, Stromberg, who has an impressive background in production design (“I went from matte painting to VFX and production designing, along the way working with some great directors such as Peter Weir, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg…”) has managed to balance blue screen and VFX with plenty of real sets. “This one has all the elements of fantasy and some big imaginary images, but I’m trying to keep the photo-real quality a bit more than I did on Alice in Wonderland. It also won’t be as dark as Alice – I’m trying to do something that has a bit more sense of dark and light.” The movie will also be presented in 3D (transferred to 3D from digital), so we’ll have fingers crossed that under Stromberg’s expert hand 3D will be a bonus and not expose any cracks in the magical veneer.
It’s also important for the team to weave a story that stays true to the much-loved Disney original but at the same time takes it further, as Stromberg tells us: “The really interesting thing about this film is that we find out where she began and what affected her to get to the point where we all know Maleficent to be. It’s not a one-note song – we see the whole song and go beyond that to see what happened to the character afterwards too.”
“We did look at the cartoon it was something we all loved and was very important to us,” explains Jolie with a flash of what looks like serrated teeth. “She was my favourite when I was a little girl, so I was so excited the day I got to go the Christening and actually dress up in the outfit and say the lines. And the first time I saw the spinning wheel… it was fun!”
Before she strides back to her feathery steed and lank-haired companion, Jolie confirms Stromberg’s intentions for the movie: “We wanted to pay respect [to the original Disney movie] but we also wanted to move it forward into a direction where you’re not disappointed - it’s colourful enough and vibrant enough but it’s a hard balance to get right.”
Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY
3:45 a.m. EDT March 18, 2014
Jolie talks moody Maleficent, scaring young children
and cheering on her daughter, Vivienne, with Brad Pitt: 'We were like
THOSE set parents'
Diaval (Sam Riley) & Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) in a scene from "Maleficent"(Photo: Disney)
Buckinghamshire, England
— In the long shadows of a rocky drawbridge and an impatient, braying
horse, a horned creature stands taller than the rest. Draped in black
robes, the slim figure turns in the sifting gray smoke, casting glowing
green-gold eyes upon a visitor. It's possible, momentarily, to feel like
prey.
Until Maleficent's ruby lips stretch into a grin.
"The horns have taken getting used to," says Angelina Jolie,
gesturing upward at the massive horns attached to a turban-like
headpiece, which tightly conceals her chestnut hair. "At first I was
banging into everything."
It's chilly and damp today on this dark fall night in 2012. Pinewood Studios is where Jolie-Pitt Clan has decamped some 20 miles outside of London.
Nearby, an on-set play area is dedicated to the children; stunt doubles
practice dramatic falls from castle towers into piles of cardboard
boxes; and Skyfall has just moved out to make room for Maleficent. It's here Brad Pitt would return a year later to shoot the upcoming war tale, Fury.
She's no 'beautiful queen'
Currently, Disney's animated 1959 Sleeping Beauty is being reborn, darker this time under Jolie's watch. Maleficent, voted Disney's scariest villain, was Jolie's "favorite character" as a child, she says.
But rebooting the classic Charles Perrault/Brothers Grimm tale for a modern audience required screenwriter Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland)
to come up with a story "that could rationalize cursing an innocent
baby," she says, a plot point that similarly stumped Jolie, a committed
mother of six.
The answer, both say, lay in a deep wound that
occurs in Maleficent's past. "She isn't the pretty princess," says
Jolie, whose character's wings are stolen at a point in the film. "She
isn't a beautiful queen. She's a very awkward, pointy, slightly
scary-looking horned creature who goes through a lot in her life, as we
discover."
Says Woolverton: "Bringing Maleficent to screen as a
main character, I felt really great about being able to depict a strong
woman that isn't always perfect. She has her moods, just like we all do.
And I'm happy to be able to put that kind of female character in the
world."
In the new film (in theaters May 30), we meet Maleficent, a
dark fairy from the Moors, at age 10. Betrayal follows, as does
Maleficent's infamous spell set to activate on Aurora's 16th birthday.
The fairies who watch over Aurora (Elle Fanning),
have been updated, too. In the original 1959 film "those fairies were
typical sweet, good fairies with little wands," says Woolverton. "These
three are complete idiots."
On set, the scene begins on the
medieval drawbridge, currently draped dramatically in CGI-friendly
saturated blue curtains. Jolie, staff in hand, walks menacingly forward,
her gaze locked on (what will be) an iron-shielded castle, where
teenage Aurora – "an extremely woodsy, very outdoorsy and very free"
girl, says Fanning – lies under her spell.
Enter Maleficent's
sidekick Diaval (Sam Riley), Jolie's grumpy right hand capable of
morphing into variety of creatures as Maleficent's mood swings. "If we
go inside those walls, we'll never come out alive," he warns her.
"Then don't come," Jolie says coldly, in Maleficent's British accent. "It's not your fight."
"Charming," he retorts. "I need you," he mocks his dark mistress under his breath. "I can't do this without you, Diaval. Please come."
Five takes later, a light mist begins to fall and Robert Stromberg (the Oscar-winning production designer of Avatar, Alice in Wonderland
turned director) calls for a break. Jolie peers at Copley, who has been
raising his arm aloft in the scene. "Were you holding your arm like
that the whole time?" she teases.
One brave little Jolie-Pitt
For
young visitors, Jolie has learned to temper her scary garb. Her son Pax
cried when he first saw her in costume - and he's not the only one.
"Children
get really scared of me, they cry and run away," she says. "One said,
'Mommy please tell the evil witch to leave me alone!' So I know now, if
anybody brings a kid I have to very slowly approach them and not
assume."
Jolie raises an eyebrow. "Because I think I'm a Disney character."
It's why her daughter Vivienne, now 5, was cast as young Aurora, after a succession of young actors fled from Jolie.
"The
only child in the world where I could actually scream at her, make evil
faces, but she'd still smile at me, was my daughter," she grins.
It
was a two-parent decision to put Vivienne in the spotlight. "I talked
to Brad about it and we thought, 'Hmm, we hadn't planned on her being in
the film but she loves Aurora and she loves this film," says Jolie. "
It's a very small scene but it was really sweet."
The day they shot it, Mom and Dad became the unlikeliest pair: stage parents.
"We
were both there and all her brothers and sisters came," says Jolie. "So
it was this kind of nice family event. And there was one scene where
I'm not in it and so Brad and I had to be on either side, kind of
corralling her and cheering her on along. It's some of the funniest
(footage)."
Popular footage, at that. "Disney called because
obviously the (footage has) us in it, kind of jumping up and down trying
to be really goofy," she says. "They have to blue screen us out because
we look ridiculous. We were like those set parents."
The
rest of her time was spent making the most of fleshing out her winged,
spell-spouting dark fairy. Jolie maps her face in a zigzag, pointing to
all that's required to become Maleficent: planed cheeks, a silicone bump
on her nose, colored contacts, fake jagged molars, a carefully crafted
red lip.
"During the weekends I take them off and I'm like, God,
my face is so flat," Jolie says, gesturing to Maleficent's sharp, Lady
Gaga-like cheekbones. But ask Jolie, and Maleficent is the fairest of
them all: "She's much more interesting looking."
The courtyard is bustling with activity. All around me, I see
Munchkins, Tinkers (Oz’s industrious builders and inventors), and many
other inhabitants carrying sticks, baskets, and other props as everyone
is preparing for war. They’re all dressed in the most amazing clothes
and every hair is perfectly adjusted with some of the men having
mustaches and beards that could win awards. In the center of the
courtyard is James Franco. He’s wearing an old black
suit with his hair slicked to one side. He looks like he just arrived
from a circus. As I stare at where he’s standing, I see that he’s
talking to a small 18 inch maquette and having a very serious
conversation. While he’s talking to a white doll that’s being moved
around by a man in an all blue suit, eventually this maquette is going
to be an all CGI character named China Girl, and she’ll be voiced by Joey King who is standing off to one side. As they finish their conversation, I hear director Sam Raimi call cut. The busy activity comes to a halt and I look around with a smile on my face. After spending so many years watching The Wizard of Oz
on TV, I can’t believe I’m visiting the magical land of Oz. I also
can’t believe that as I watched the action unfold, I was literally
standing on the yellow brick road.
But let me back up a second.
As I type these words I’m on a plane back to Los Angeles. It’s
Saturday, October 22, 2011 and I’ve spent the last two days visiting Sam
Raimi’s Oz The Great and Powerful while the production was filming at the brand new Raleigh Studios in Pontiac, Michigan. Oz
is the first production at the massive new studio and while there I got
to participate in group interviews the cast and filmmakers, visit all
of the practical sets, and see the props, weapons, and the amazing art
department. While I’ve been able to do many set visits, what is being
done to bring Oz to life was truly a sight to behold.
Oz: The Great and Powerful PROS:
- Disney is closely following the template the studio used to achieve great box office success with Alice in Wonderland back in March 2010.
-
With a PG rating and so little for family audiences in January and
February, it should attract family audiences in big numbers.
- With
Sam Raimi as director and James Franco and Mila Kunis as leads, the film
will also have a good chance of appealing beyond family audiences.
- In recent years March has become a stronger time of year to release event films. CONS:
- While Alice in Wonderland generated blockbuster business
at the box office, it hasn't been remembered all that fondly afterwards.
That could brush off on Oz.
- By aiming for a younger and hipper feel, the film could turn off older fans of the Oz novels and 1939 film.
Jack the Giant Slayer PROS:
- Fantasy films have had some decent success in March over the past few years.
- A somewhat familiar cast including Ewan McGregor could entice audiences.
- The familiar name/tale will also give the film some extra attention. CONS:
- Not all fantasy films are hits and the film's delays could mean some trouble.
- Opening three months after The Hobbit and one week before Oz: The Great and Powerful, will the film have enough demand to drive it?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with Zahara, 6, and Shiloh, 5
The Jolie-Pitt women came to see the zombies on the set where World War Z is filming, with Daddy – Brad Pitt – as the star.
Angelina Jolie brought her eldest daughters, Zahara, 6, and Shiloh, 5, to a downtown location in Malta's capital city of Valletta on Tuesday afternoon, sources tell PEOPLE.
The 90-minute visit to the location in the narrow historic district occurred during Pitt's lunch break. He was seen holding Zahara's hand while showing her around St. Anne's Street while Angelina kept rein on Shiloh.
The two girls were later spotted walking around the post-apocalyptic set on St. Dominic Street with Dad
Brad Pitt andAngelina Jolie's ultra-romantic date on Monday night at de Mondion restaurant at the Xara Palace hotel in Malta's walled, medieval city of Mdina.
After walking in hand-in-hand just past 7 p.m., Pitt, 47, and Jolie, 36, chose an outdoor table featuring stunning views of Malta. They feasted on a seafood-based tasting menu put together by Executive Chef Kevin Bonello: crab salad, poached rockfish, risotto with seafood and fine cheese. An eyewitness at the posh eatery tells Us the happy couple "ate everything on their plate" -- and washed it down with five glasses of wine each!
"They were very, very romantic...Like a couple in love," the observer says, adding that they seemed "a little tipsy" as they exited around 10 p.m.
Warfare in Jerusalem? No, World War Z in Valletta. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi
Over €30 million are being pumped into the economy over the next three weeks through the filming of the Brad Pitt movie World War Z.
The figure is considered to be substantial, particularly in relation to shooting days, which amount to around 20, Malta Film Commissioner Peter Busuttil said.
Filming of the zombie movie started on Saturday at Zammit Clapp Hospital, which acted as a military compound. Yesterday, the lower part of Valletta, which has been transformed into streets in Israel, was teeming with activity as crew and cast went about their business and cameras rolled in St Charles Street.
Around 200 vehicles, trucks and trailers, are parked along the ring road, and the production is advising the public to avoid the area near the Land Department, Auberge de Baviere and Fort St Elmo over the next few days because of congestion and the impossibility of finding a space to park.
A catering set-up to feed 800 is located along the seafront below and military vehicles, including Hummers, lined the streets yesterday for road-block scenes. Signs in Hebrew were hanging about what easily slipped into the role of a Jerusalem marketplace.
Filming of World War Z in St Dominic Street and its surroundings is carrying on from tomorrow to Thursday, using the underground houses of Valletta residents, as well as their services for various jobs.
Many locals are being paid for having their doorways in shot and are being compensated for any inconvenience, but they seem to be enjoying the scene. The crew amounts to around 800 – much more than other major movies shot in Malta have seen, according to sources.
About 20 make-up artists are engaged in enhancing the zombies in the prosthetics department, while extras days over the three weeks of shooting amount to 5,500.
Filming involves two helicopters and a cable-suspended camera is running from a Floriana church right down to the Valletta waterfront area.
