STACK NZ Jan-Feb #59

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ISSUE 59

JAN/FEB'15

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The Maze Runner • Game Of Thrones • EVOLVE

OWN THE LEGEND ON BLU-RAY ™ AND DVD FEBRUARY 4

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YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT ‘TIL IT’S…

NOT FINAL ARTWORK

OWN IT ON BLU-RAY ™ AND DVD FEBRUARY 11

2015

2015

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Founder Nic Short Editor John Ferguson Contributors

Issue 59 2015

www.stack.net.nz

Games Editor Paul Jones Creative Director Karl Lock DVD Consultant Jason Hewitt

Extras pg 6-12

DVD&BD pg 14-34 Pg 14-15 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Cowbunga - the return of the heroes in a half shell! Pg 16-17 GAME OF THRONES What Maisie Williams knows. Pg 18 DRACULA UNTOLD A new origin story for the infamous vampire. Pg 20-21 FURY David Ayer swaps the urban mean streets for a different battlefield. Pg 22 THE MAZE RUNNER Director Wes Hall was determined to stay true to the source material. Pg 24 THE BOXTROLLS Here be monsters! Pg 26-34 REviews What’s hot in-store this Summer on DVD and Blu-ray.

GAMES pg 36-40

MUSIC From back pg 1-12

Games Consultant Sachi Fernando Production Manager Craig Patterson Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Contributors Graham Reid, Ricardo Kerr, Robin Martin, Judy Ewens, GarethThompson, Duncan Holland, Scott Hocking, Jonathan Alley, Zoë Radas, Doug Wallen, Ryan Huff, Emily Kelly, Simon Winkler, Chris Murray, Dan Rule, Denise Hylands, Bec Rowlands Correspondence 31B Bertram Street Warkworth Auckland 0910

Pg 4-8 News North Korea on screen; JB

Pg 36-37 EVOLVE It’s finally here!

Pg 2 JB LISTENER So what were your favourite albums of 2014? Pg 6-7 LANEWAYS PREVIEW Graham Reid offers some background listening tips. Pg 8-10 POND The Aussie psych rockers blast off into the stratosphere. Pg 12 REVIEWS Justin Townes Earle, Public Service Broadcasting, Enter Shikare, plus biopics of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix.

Hi-Fi exclusives; new Bob Dylan album; CES 2015; Bob Marley 70th birthday celebrations; busy year for Miles Tiller.

Pg 38-40 2015 IN GAMES Take a look at the games you will be playing this year.

All information believed correct at time of printing. All images used for promotional purposes only. Copyright of respective owners is acknowledged. © 2014 Scribal Custom Pty Ltd. No part of this magazine may be reprinted without the written permission of the publisher. Further details read fine print

Pg 10 COMPETITIONS/ QUIZ Win Game of Thrones season four! And a whole lot more sweet booty! Pg 12 HOMEGROWN Jakob’s Jeff Boyle on the band’s return after a long absence.

RATINGS GUIDE

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In the wake of The Interview controversy, a newAustralian documentary offers a funny and fascinating insight into the North Korean film business. north korea on screen

T he James Franco/Seth Rogen

far more welcoming for her new project Aim High In Creation , which is released in February on DVD. Determined to stop a new fracking mine near her Sydney home, she travels to North Korea to learn from the masters of propaganda cinema. The government gave her access to the country’s top directors, composers and movie stars, who teach her

comedy The Interview , which was originally pulled from its US theatrical

release after Sony came under sustained cyber-attack, will open in New Zealand cinemas on February 19, with a DVD release to follow towards the middle of the year. The film tells the story of two inept TV journalists who gain an exclusive interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

Aim High In Creation

Spielberg, upgrading the dour propaganda films he hated by adapting western film genres and techniques.” On returning to Sydney, she sets out to produce a didactic socialist melodrama , full of song and kick-ass fights, in which “heroic workers” rise up to defeat the “evil, gas-fracking miners.” The result is a intriguing doco-comedy about a side of North Korean society rarely seen before.

the techniques outlined by the late Kim Jong-Il in his manifesto The Cinema and Directing . “Kim Jong Il was passionate about movies – in particular Hollywood ones,”

and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. While The Interview clearly did not go down

well with the North Korean authorities, Australian documentary filmmaker Anna

Broinowski says. “As ‘Creative Commander’ of North Korea’s film industry, he restyled himself as an Eastern Bloc

Broinowski found them

Aim High In Creation is out on DVD this month.

The Interview

Bob Dylan as Ol’ Blue Eyes? Believe it or not, that’s the theme of Shadows in the Night the new album from the legendary singer-songwriter out on February 6. The 10-track LP consists mainly of American standard popularised by Sinatra, although Dylan looks to have gone for a much more stripped down approach. “It was all done live, maybe one or two takes,” he says. “No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. “I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.” DYLAN TACKLES THE STANDARDS

It’s shaping up to be a big year for MilesTeller, whose latest movie Whiplash arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on February 25. As well as reuniting with ShaileneWoodley for the Divergent sequel Insurgent – due to open in cinemas in March –Teller will also star as Mr Fantastic in the reboot of the Marvel super-heroes The Fantastic Four . Directed by JoshTrank ( Chronicle ) and co-starring Kate Mara, Jamie Bell; and Michael B Jordan, is due in cinemas in August. As well as Whiplash – in whichTeller plays a promising young jazz drummer who joins a cut- throat music conservatory – this monthTeller can also be seen opposite AnaleighTipton ( Warm Bodies ) in the quirky rom-com Two Night Stand, which is out on DVD and Blu-ray on February 18.

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EXCLUSIVE COLLECTOR’S EDITION

UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF THE MAZE ON BLU-RAY ™ AND DVD JANUARY 21

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It’s been a long wait but Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s follow-up to the 2005 classic Sin City has finally arrived – and JB Hi-Fi has secured some cool, exclusive editions for the various configurations for Sin City: A DameTo Kill For . The 2D/3D Blu-ray collectors edition comes in a nifty slipcase featuring the character Dwight (played by Josh Brolin, taking over the role from Clive Owen from the original), while the standard BD edition features the titular femme fatale herself, Ava, played by Eva Green. And for JB’s exclusive DVD edition, Marv – AKA Mickey Rourke – is the featured cover character; all three editions are out now. If action is your thing, you should also check out The Equalizer:The Vengeance Edition , a sinful pleasures from JB hi-fi

tbc

The news for PS4 sales just keeps getting better. ps4 numbers soar

R emember when Sony Computer Entertainment won E3 2013 in a 90 minute press conference? The gaming giant hasn’t looked back since, with sales of the PlayStation 4 keeping the company well ahead of the competition. According to SCE, sales of its new-gen console have now surpassed 18.5 million units worldwide, and this includes an impressive 4.1 million units sold through the recent holiday season. The PS4 is now approaching a quarter of all PS3 sales to date – in its first year! “We are absolutely delighted that so many customers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as their console of choice throughout this holiday season,” President and Group CEO of Sony Computer

Entertainment Inc. Andrew House said. “We will continue to reinforce and deliver additional value on PS4 as the best place to play, by bringing even more exciting content and by enriching our wide array of service offerings.” Despite the problems that have plagued the PlaySation Network recently, over 11 million users are now taking advantage of PlayStation Plus. At this stage, 2015 is shaping up to deliver three first-party titles for PS4: The Order 1886 will be the first to arrive in February, followed by Bloodborne in April and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. For consumers holding out for a price drop before picking up a PS4, you might be waiting a while.

special collector’s version of Denzel

Washington’s reboot of the

TV series, which is available only at JB Hi-Fi from January 28.

GADGETS GALORE AT CES Prototype 4K Blu-ray player among the new products showcased at the annual tech extravaganza.

Technology companies from all around the world have once again descended on Las Vegas for the world’s biggest consumer electronics show, the International CES (Consumer Electronics Show). As always the range of gadgets showcased ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous – do we really need a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush that can be used as a game controller? – but it was interesting to note that 4K TV was one of the key trends of this year’s event. As well as a host of new (and more affordable) models, the leading Hollywood

studios and hardware companies announced the formation of the UHD Alliance, which will establish standards for the new 4K technologies and push for a seamless and integrated Ultra-HD eco-system. One of founding members, Samsung, also used CES to showcase a prototype 4K disc player (pictured above) for a new format, Ultra-HD Blu-Ray; no word yet on when it will be launched but some commentators expect the first discs to be available in the US by end of the year. And it will be backwards compatible with existing Blu-rays, which is good news.

Ron Sanders, Warner’s global home entertainment chief, says: “These technologies allow us to utilise a much broader palette to tell our stories while providing viewers with true-to-life colors, superior contrast and premium picture quality.”As well as 4K,other highlights of this year’s CES included self-driving cars, a host of new wearable devices and smartphones, a revitalised range of PCs and laptops, and the ‘internet of things’, in which everyday household items likes fridges and washing machines will be internet-enabled.

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EXTANT

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A MOOR L AND HOL I DAY DOWNTON ABBEY

SEASON ONE

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VIKINGS SEASON TWO

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HAWAII FIVE-O SEASON THREE

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SCORCHerofaSEQUEL

The second installment in the Maze Runner saga, The Scorch Trials , due in cinemas in September. S uch was the confidence Twentieth Century Fox had in The Maze Runner that they greenlit a sequel before the original had even opened. The Maze Runner:The ScorchTrials is currently in production and is due to open in cinemas in September. Wes Ball is back on board as director, as well as stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie- Sangster, Ki Hong Lee and Patricia Clarkson. Newcomers to the cast include Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) , Barry Pepper (The Lone Ranger) and Lili Taylor (The Conjuring) , plus two familiar faces from Game OfThrones , Nathalie Emmanuel and Aiden Gillen. Based on the second book in by James Dashner’s trilogy, this finds the Gladers facing another hostile landscape, The Scorch, a futuristic wasteland ravaged by solar flares. “We’ve got some awesome locations out in New Mexico that we’ve found,” enthuses Ball.

“The cast won’t have to use quite as much of their imaginations, so it’s going to be cool.” Fox has yet to announce a third film but most expect Death Cure will slot into 2016. Ball has been quoted as saying that if he is back on board he will not follow the recent trend of splitting concluding franchise movies into two parts. Fortunately, for the studio Dashner has already penned a prequel The Kill Orde r, with a fifth book The Fever Code due in 2016. “From the very beginning, I’ve always wanted to write a prequel about Thomas, Teresa, Newt and all the Gladers that leads up to the very moment Thomas enters The Box,” Dashner says. “There are so many things hinted at that will be fun to reveal in depth. For years, fans have made it abundantly clear that they want the same thing, so now seems like the perfect time to give readers the story of how The Maze began.” Meanwhile, JB Hi-Fi has lined up a fab collector’s edition of The Maze Runner , which includes a 24-page prequel comic book. Available only at JB Hi-Fi from January 21. For more on The Maze Runner, see page 22

REALITY BITES FOR WAHLBERG

as well as making the odd cameo appearance. However, he will next be seen in The Gambler , a remake of 1974 drama starring James Caan about a literary professor whose life spirals out of control because of his gambling addiction. It is expected here in March and will be followed in June by Ted 2 , the sequel to Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 comedy smash. Further down the line, Wahlberg will reportedly play Steve Austin in the big screen version of the ‘70s TV favourite The Six Million Dollar Man and is also attached to a movie set against the backdrop of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in 2010.

Bob Marley would have been 70 this year and to mark the occasion, a bumper reissue programme is planned. The Marley family has given Universal Music unprecedented access to material from their private collections and their vaults, resulting in a wealth of previous unreleased material and deluxe reissues throughout the year. Kicking things off on February 3 will be Bob Marley & The Wailers: Easy Skanking In Boston ’78, which will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and CD, and features classics such as No Woman, No Cry, I Shot The Sheriff and Get Up Stand Up. The video was shot with a hand-held camera by a fan that Marley allowed to sit right in front of the stage; unfortunately he was shooting with film and needed to change rolls during the performance, so the gaps in the live footage have been augmented with specially created animation.

Wahlburgers

Expect to see plenty of Mark Wahlberg in 2015, both as himself and in eclectic line-up of new films. This February sees the DVD release of the first season of his family reality show Wahlburgers , which follows the personal and professional life of his brother Paul as he seeks to expand his hamburger restaurant business. Wahlberg will also play himself in the big screen version of Entourage , which is expected in cinemas in June. The HBO hit, which ran for eight seasons, was loosely based on the star’s own experiences and he served as executive producer,

Wahlburgers: The Complete First Season is out on February 4

The Gambler

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Californication

For details on how to enter competitions, head online to www.stack.net.nz

Brilliant Roadshow Blu-ray prize- pack up for grabs! One lucky STACK reader will take home an awesome

Winter is coming! Based on George R.R.

Martin’s best-selling book series A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones:The Complete Fourth Season is landing at JB and we have three copies to give away. Head to STACK Magazine NZ

Roadshow Blu-ray prize- pack this month; with a copy of DoctorWho: Last Christmas , Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and The Equalizer all on Blu-ray! Thanks to Icon , BBC and Roadshow

on Facebook to enter. Thanks to Warner Bros.

Take home your own lunchbox ! Mumbai’s lunchbox delivery system transports thousands of meals everyday from kitchens to offices. Just one in a million lunchboxes is ever delivered to the wrong address. This is the story of that one lunchbox. Head to www.stack.net.nz for your chance to win! Thanks to Madman Entertainment

Three Copies of Life of Crime up for grabs! Life of Crime is a twisty, action-filled comedic gem starring Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins and Isla Fisher! You can win yourself a copy when you visit www.stack.net.nz. Thanks to Madman Entertainment

Got something to say?

The best will win $ 25 JB Hi-Fi Vouchers! hit man hired to bump off a cash- strapped drug dealer’s mother. What’s the film called? Q6 Who was originally cast in a Winona Ryder role, and then dropped, because the star of the movie didn’t think the blonde haired actress looked like her daughter? Q7 Which former NewYork Post female journalist went on to write movie screenplays, three of which were nominated for Academy Awards?

What are you waiting for? Enter at stack.net.nz

If you fancy yourself as a writer, or want to share your thoughts on a DVD/Blu-ray, game or CD, then post your own reviews online for any title on the STACK website!

Q1 Which actor holds the record for appearing in more movies that have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture than any other actor? Q2 In 1968, who prowled Civil War England in search of witches? Q3 Which young Oscar nominee went on to invent the Hip Hugger baby carrier? Q4 Which 1996 thriller was a remake of a 40-year-old Glenn Ford movie? Q5 The title of this film refers to a

Q8 This ‘Sensurround’ thriller concerns a psychopath who undertakes a campaign of terror at amusement parks across the US. It’s called? Q9 What was the first film to receive two Academy Award nominations for the portrayal of the same character? Q10 What night in 1957 might it be if you willingly accepted a slip of paper marked with runes?

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(1988) A10. Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in

(1940) A9. Nicolas Cage in Vampire’s Kiss

A8. Waterloo Bridge

The Band Wagon

A7. State of Play

(1972) A6. Andy Garcia- The Untouchables, Hoodlum

A5. The Virgin Spring

A4. The part of its head that holds the brain is sliced off

and Rob the Mob

(1960) was remade as The Last House on the Left

A3. 2 Guns (2013) and Charlie Varrick

A1. Shirley Temple A2. Joel and Ethan Cohen (although Ethan was uncredited) directed

(1973)

The Man Who Wasn’t There

Quiz Answers December 2014 (Issue 58) -

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JB Hi-Fi has more than just blockbusters!

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Jan 14 Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller return to the monochrome mean streets of neon-lit noir.

The Crimson Field Jan 14 Moving BBC drama about the unsung bravery and sacrifice of the nurses and doctors of World War 1.

The Equalizer Jan 28 A reboot of the old ‘80s TV favourite with Denzel Washington as the world’s most lethal good samaritan.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas Jan28 The first Xmas special from the latest incarnation of the indestructible Time Lord, played by Peter Capaldi.

Justice League – Throne of Atlantis Jan 28 In this new origin story, Aquaman has to choose between the Justice League and his Atlantis home.

Kung Fu Jungle Feb 4 Donnie Yen ( Ip Man ) hunts for a serial killer who is murdering Hong Kong’s best martial arts exponents.

Annabelle Feb 11 The creepy titular doll from The Conjuring terrifies a new family in this prequel spin-off.

Tammy Feb 25 Poor white trash Melissa McCarthy embarks on a road trip with her hard-drinking gran Susan Sarandon.

The Lunchbox Feb 12 A heartwarming romance set in Mumbai about an unlikely friendship sparked by a misplaced food order.

Get into JB and grab a copy today!

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Jeff Boyle

mountain only to keep on falling back down.

much time we can commit to the band. But we’re still just as passionate about the band and our music as we ever were, it’s just our approach that’s changed. On top of that we all have full time jobs so it’s definitely a juggling act. Considering that it’s been eight years between albums, was is it gratifying to see how well Sines was received? Extremely. It was a long and arduous process, much harder than any of the others had been by a long way. After you’ve been working on something for so long, you can lose perspective on whether it’s any good or not. All you can do is release it to the world and see what happens. It’s always a scary thing to do but the reviews have been amazing. Has the long gap between albums yielded any unexpected benefits or has it all been negative? It was a bit of both really. It was very, very frustrating a lot of the time but there were some positives that came out of it. These seven songs were written over a span of eight years so they ended up coming out very eclectic, which is a big positive for me. But it was a struggle to hang in there with all the injuries we’ve had. I was off for a year and a half which was really hard to deal with since I’ve been playing guitar since I was six. And then the other guys both had hand-related injuries, which kept putting us back further and further. But the positive results that came out of it were definitely worth it. Was there ever a time when you didn’t think that Sines was going to see the light of day? If I was to be brutally honest, there was. It does get to a point when you have one cataclysmic injury after another you start thinking really, is this how it’s going to be from now on? It just seems like you’ve climbed this

Jeff Boyle is guitarist with sonic titans Jakob, who released their fourth album Sines last October. Formed in Napier in 1998 with Jason Johnston and Maurice Beckett, the instrumental three piece released their debut album Subsets Of Sets in 2002, and followed that with Cale: Drew (2005) and Solace (2006), which received international acclaim. Unfortunately, a freakish run of debilitating hand injuries suffered by all three members of the band meant a frustrating eight year wait for their latest LP. However, now they are back firing on all cylinders and looking forward to playing this year’s Laneway Festival in Auckland.

On this album you had contributions from former Isis drummer Aaron Harris and Wellington-based composer Rhian Sheehan. How did these collaborations come about? Aaron’s been a very good friend and a big fan of ours for a long time. He’s been producing and engineering ever since Isis broke up and we found his input essential. Because of all the hiccups we had along the way we ran out of money and I ended up having to mix most of the album myself but [Harris] was a huge help. And I’ve been working with Rhian for quite a few years now on a few of his albums. Musically, him and I think in a very similar way. After working with him on his stuff I really wanted to introduce the way he thinks about string arrangements into Jakob just like how he wanted to introduce my way of doing guitar into his music. Do you think that being an instrumental group is freeing or limiting creatively, as opposed to having a vocalist? I feel as though we have exponentially more freedom not being confined to a standard way of doing things. We have so much more freedom it isn’t even funny and that was the whole plan behind Jakob in the first place. How does it feel to be a part of this year’s Laneway Festival? It’s really good, a great opportunity and the line-up is amazing! I’ve been blown

It’s been eight years since the release of your last album, Solace .What has changed for the band in that time?

It’s all changed so dramatically. To start with I’ve had two children and your life changes after you have kids, particularly with the career side of things. Your children and your family have to become your top priority and music takes a bit of a back seat but it’s still a close second. Jason [Johnston, drummer] has four kids as well so we’ve all had to make some changes in how

away by many of the acts over recent years like Little Dragon and Jon Hopkins, and so many more. We were surprised to be asked to join in, to be honest. But we’re stoked.  

Jakob’s Sines is available now; for more on Laneways see pages 6-7 of STACK Music

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THEMAZERUNNER

Fury • Sin City: A DameTo Kill For

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The TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES get a photorealistic makeover in their new 3D adventure. Visual Effects Supervisor Pablo Helman talks about the groundbreaking performance capture technology developed to bring the heroes in a half shell to life. COWABUNGA!

Pablo Helman

“T his was a pretty special project for me,” says ILM Visual Effects Supervisor and Second Unit Director on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Pablo Helman, “because it’s all about performance and how we get it out of the actors and into the movie. I’m always looking for an original idea in visual effects, and to have teenage turtles that are mutants and ninjas is just really cool! It is very original, and at the same time represented the perfect opportunity for us to develop a system that allows you to see those performances.” The ILM Muse, an advanced facial capture system comprised of both hardware and software,

later manipulated by the animators.

all kinds of commitments on set, because then we had 14 people just dedicated to this, and it also meant that we needed to be on location. So, it was complicated: we had to be on set, capture all that data and then recover it, translate it into a digital asset and finally re-interpret it to make these turtles into real characters. It took about a year and a half for the

“We called it Muse because it inspired the performances,” explains Helman. “It’s a system that was developed specifically for this project precisely because we knew we would have to edit performances, and that was not possible at the time with the technology that was around. So we put two cameras on each

face of the actors to interpret their expressions, knowing that we might or might not use it all later. And most importantly, we had to think about what to do

system to actually work, but we are really happy with the results. It’s awesome! “We tried all kinds of things,” he continues. “And after consulting with [director] Jonathan Liebesman and [producer] Michael Bay, we decided to come back to a more realistic approach to these characters. Part of it has to do with understanding where

allows the actor’s performance to be captured on-set or in a special stage, to be

with the data from the beginning. That created

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the fans are coming from and what we want to do with the movie. So the decision to go photorealistic took us back to figuring out what we were going to do – for instance, about their eyes, mouths and noses, as that’s where an important part of their performance comes from, and we had to tell a story with that. But we also realised that half of those performances were going to be gone because of the fact that they wear masks, which meant we had to get their talking gestures right, and for that we were going to need the science and bring the artistry into the process to actually make it all look real.” Helman’s closest ally on this uncharted technological challenge to set the highest benchmark for photorealistic CGI to date was director Jonathan Liebesman. “The great thing about Jonathan is that he was completely open to all that kind of stuff,” Helman states. “He knew from the beginning that he was committed to technology and that if he couldn’t get the performance that we needed, he would have to stop in the middle of the shoot. And he did! That’s kind

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out on Jan 14

of unheard of… I’ve never gone up to a director before and told him that he needed to cut a scene; but I did with Jonathan, and it was fine. So he was very collaborative and easy to work with because he just gets it! He understood that if we didn’t get the turtles right, we quite simply didn’t have a movie.”

already thinking about designing things in 3D,” Helman says. “And I believe that in some

cases it can really bring you into the action if it is designed the right way. Trust me, I’m not into using 3D unless it makes sense, but in this movie it does. There is a scene

3D added an even greater scope, realism and depth to it all, bringing the audience even more into the action and the story. “While we were shooting we were

where Splinter brings a slice of pizza to Mikey, and I can tell you that it’s right there in front of you!”

If we didn’t get the Turtles right, we simply didn’t have a movie.

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WHAT MAISIE KNOWS MAISIE WILLIAMS , who plays the wildest and youngest Stark child Arya in GAME OF THRONES , talks swordplay, being a bad ass and growing up on the set of one of the world’s most popular TV shows.

What does your family think of the show and your character Arya? MAISIEWILLIAMS: I guess we’ve got a weird perspective of the show because we were there from day one and a majority of the world hadn’t heard about it. It’s hard to say if they would like Arya if I didn’t play her.They have a very biased perspective because I live and breathe her, and talk about her constantly. I think they think she’s pretty cool.The cool thing is that I get to pretend to be that badass! She has all these amazing lines to say and I can pretend to be that cool. It’s amazing and I’d never ask for anything else. Which do you think was the most epic Arya moment so far? Killing Polliver was pretty cool and I liked that. I think Episode three of this [current season], when she’s talking to the farmer and The Hound [played by Rory McGann] and

Do you take fencing lessons for handling your Needle? If I have up-and-coming fight scenes, I work with the stunt guys who mainly teach me a routine. In the past, I’ve done fencing of my own accord, because I want to get used to looking natural with a sword. It seems like Arya did a lot more training than you see on screen, and obviously Maisie hasn’t! I’m always trying to get better, but who’s complaining about getting a free gym membership.The perks of being on Game ofThrones ! What is the most significant experience you’ve taken away from working on the set of Game of Thrones so far? I think I just matured.That’s the biggest thing I could have taken away from the whole thing. I’ve had a fast track to who I want to be. I know all of my friends are struggling to what to pick

she’s lying aboutThe Hound being her father and all that. It’s a big deal because Arya can pretend and for her that was a pretty cool moment where she can actually lie to everyone and still come out on top. How well do you guys get along off-screen? It’s great to work with Rory, he’s a really nice person and it’s great to work with someone I get along so well with. We both see more to life than living up to other people’s expectations. I don’t have to be making a lot of money or living in a fancy house. If I’m happy then I’ll do whatever, so that’s similar to Arya.We both have family as our main goal in life. My family are the epicentre of all my decisions. What qualities do you think you and Arya have in common?

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in college and I’ve been given a fast pass to kick start my future.To have an ambition and a goal at this stage is amazing. I can’t ask for anything else, I’m so grateful.What I can take away is that I’ve been given the chance to do what I love. I’ve got my foot in the door and I’m not going to back down on doing what I love. If Arya was living in today’s what would she be like? I’m going to put it in ‘mean girl’ terms. So, you know there’s always that girl who looks perfect and has perfect hair, and make-up stays on all day and wears a perfect handbag and has her nails done and they would never chip? Arya would not be that girl. She’d be the polar opposite and love it. She would be the ruler of the underdogs. She wouldn’t be popular and people would hate her but she wouldn’t care. That’s what I like about her, she wouldn’t care. Do you think Arya will ultimately get her revenge? Hell yeah! She’s realising very quickly that just because you’re a good person doesn’t mean you’re going to survive. She’s proud of the actions that she takes.

Games Of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season is out on February 18

A KIWI IN WESTEROS New Zealand star joins Game Of Thrones .

“I am soooo excited to be on the show, I can hardly contain myself,” says Kiwi star Keisha Castle-Hughes about the joining the cast of Game Of Thrones, the fifth season of which is expected to be aired here around April time. She plays Obara Sand, who is the oldest of the bastard daughters of Oberyn Martell, one of the major new characters introduced in Season 4. In George V Martin’s books, Obara is the fiercest and most warrior-like of the siblings known as the Sand Snakes, a number of whom will be introduced in the fifth season. As usual, HBO is keeping tight-lipped as to which storylines will emerge in the new season, although the land of Dorne and its ruling family, House Martell, are expected to feature prominently this year. However, from now it’s going to be harder than ever to predict what tack the show will take, as the new series will draw on the last

two books to be published, A Feast For Crows and A DanceWith Dragons . Unlike previous volumes, the action in these two book occur concurrently in the same time frame, but focus mainly on two different sets of characters. Further complicating matters is that a number of storylines are fast coming to their end; for example, HBO has already confirmed that Bran Stark will not be appearing in the fifth season as his current published story arc from the books has largely come to an end. As yet, a publication date is still to be announced for the sixth volume in the series TheWinds Of Winter ; there is an outside chance it will be delivered this year, but some believe it may not even turn up until 2017. And with the Fire & Ice saga not due to be wrapped up until the seventh volume (provisionally titled A Dream Of Spring ), sooner or later the TV series may have to go it alone.

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With DRACULA UNTOLD , the opportunity to create a new origin story for the infamous vampire was the main to first-time director GARY SHORE .

G ary Shore, who until now had worked almost exclusively in advertising, admits he was a little skeptical when he was first approached to make a new movie about the infamous Count Dracula. “You look at it and you go ‘OK, Dracula, do we really need to see another Dracula film?’” However, he soon realised that Dracula Untold would offer an opportunity to take a fresh book at one of literature’s most filmed creations. Although the medieval figure VladThe Impaler – the real-life inspiration for Bram Stoker’s blood sucking count – has been explored before on film, this new project takes a more left-field approach. “I thought the way it was able to take the real character of Vlad in history and make that bridge across into mythology; was a really exciting approach,” explains Shore. “It’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s really an exploration of the idea of legacy. Vampire mythology is about legacy, about handing something down to the next person, whether it is DNA, memories or responsibility. I felt people would be able to relate and respond to the father/son idea. It continues to be the most inspiring part of the story.” In this new take on the legend, the battle-weary Vlad III (played here by rising British star Luke Evans)

thatTransylvanian prince provide him with 1,000 boys – including his own son – to serve as child soldiers in his army. Vlad reluctantly enters into a Faustian pact with an evil demon (Charles Dance) which leaves with superhuman abilities but an insatiable thirst for human blood. Although Dracula Untold takes a very different approach to the story of Dracula, the Irish-born filmmaker remains a fan

of both the original novel and film adaptations, such as Francis Ford Coppola 1992 version, which also explored the origins of VladThe Impaler. “I found Bram Stoker’s novel when I was eight years old, at the library at school,” recalls Shore. “I have no idea why it was in school but it was something I read and I was very fascinated about it. Obviously growing up in Dublin, my Dad used to always bring us down to Bram Stoker’s house, which was actually just down the road, and very close to my house, so I was aware from a very early age. And then obviously the Count in Sesame Street !” So why does Dracula remain such an iconic creation? Shore replies: “I think what really captured people’s imagination at a time when the book was written – and it is all written as a diary and prose – is that it was almost like a literary version of realityTV. People felt that they were reading this as a first person experience, and I think it was a success because of that, because there was an immersiveness. “And I think with Dracula, it has been a case of Chinese whispers, everybody has a version of that story that gets handed down and transforms over the years. Approaching this film, that is the way I had to look at it as well. We are taking the seeds within history, but we are

It’s a coming-of-age story, but it’s really an exploration of the idea of legacy

turns to the dark side when ruler of the Ottoman Empire (Dominic Cooper) demands

expanding that and making something and that grows into pure fiction.”

Dracula Untold is out out on February 4

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Serving aboard submarines in the US Navy, and a love of classic war movies, provided writer-director DAVIDAYER with the inspiration forWorldWar II film FURY.

I f any filmmaker understands the nature of life inside a war machine it is David Ayer. The 46-year-old writer-director of End of Watch began his working life in the US Navy, serving onboard submarines. “I have lived in a war machine so I understand the life and I understand the regard you have when you are dependent on a machine in terms of keeping you alive,” Ayer explains. “In the Navy, when I first got to the boat, I slept in the torpedo room on a weapons rack next to a missile and if I wanted to turn over, I had to get out of bed, turn over and slide back in. And yet there is this idea of maintaining your home and being ready to fight in it – it is your living room and your office and bathroom all in one.” Ayer’s most recent movie is the WWII picture Fury , which he wrote and directed. It focuses on 24 hours in the life of a Sherman tank crew fighting the Germans during the last months of the war. The five-man team have served together

and suffered together through days of combat and violence, and the bond they have formed is made even firmer by the constricted space in which they live and fight. In truth, the writer-director regards the tank crew as a family. “There is a bond that men who face danger together have and it is very clear in my work,” he says. “And I just loved the idea of telling a story about a family in a tank. It is really that simple. I wanted to tell a story of a family under extreme conditions that lives inside a war machine.” The patriarch in this family is Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, played by three-time Oscar-nominated actor Brad Pitt. “As a writer you have these shadows, these shades in your head, and the Wardaddy character was one of the first to emerge from the mists,” Ayer says. “It was this idea of a veteran who is an absolute brutal warrior, yet has a big heart and loves this family he has created. He loves his men whose lives he is trying to preserve.”

These men are the gunner Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (played by Shia LaBeouf); Grady ‘Coon- Ass’ Travis, the loader (Jon Bernthal); and the driver, Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña). The audience meets the crew not long after their fifth member, the assistant driver, has been killed. His replacement is a rookie called Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a typist with no tank training who has been thrust into frontline combat due to the US manpower shortage during the last phase of the war. Norman is an innocent, with no battle experience, and it is up to Wardaddy to initiate him into the ways of war. “It is the heart of the movie,” says Ayer. “Norman learns that he can’t be who he is and expect to survive in that world, and I think that’s part of growing up, part of life, and we all go through that as we mature. From childhood to adolescence and into adulthood, it has to be dealt with and it is a painful process. Norman’s journey is universal in that way.

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I wanted to tell a story of a family under extreme conditions that lives inside a war machine.

“And then for Wardaddy there’s the inner conflict of having to save somebody by destroying their best nature,” continues Ayer. “It is really sad and beautiful in that regard and Brad did a fantastic job of bringing all those flavours to the screen.” Pitt is no stranger to the WWII movie, having already served on Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds , and Ayer says that he was an ideal collaborator on Fury , arriving with no movie star pretensions. “Brad is a worker,” says Ayer. “He is humble and you don’t get the movie star baggage. You don’t get the entourage. He will stand in the mud and eat the cold sandwich with you. He is smart and he would challenge me to do my best work and I would challenge him to do his best work. You don’t want a rubber stamp and you don’t want someone who is high maintenance. “All our mutual effort went into making this film and making this amazing character, and he would always force me to ask that question – is this the best version? Have we done our best? He is a perfectionist who knows that it can never be perfect.” Ayer wrote the screenplay for Denzel Washington’s Oscar-winner Training Day and has a reputation for bringing authenticity to the worlds he creates on screen. This was especially true of his recent LAPD movie End of Watch , and he has achieved an equally high degree of veracity with Fury .

“I knew I wanted to do something about WWII, something very contemporary in the sense of demythologising, and I realised that no one had done a movie about the tanks, about the armour experience of WWII,” says Ayer. “And yet these were the guys who won the war. “The 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions were heavy divisions and they punched through into Germany and won the war along, obviously, with a lot of Russians. But no one in detail had shown a day in the life of these men.” Fury was shot in England over a 12-week period, in the fields of Oxfordshire and at Bovingdon Airfield in Hertfordshire, and it features a rare array of vintage battle tanks. “It took a lot of fortune and effort to accumulate the vehicles and equipment we had,” says Ayer. “It was a minor miracle getting these authentic vehicles, getting all the Sherman tanks, getting the real German vehicles, like the Tiger, because there is an audience

“There are several major battle scenes and each one has an entirely unique flavour,” he says of the film, “and these show how fun it is to be on the winning side and how horrible it is to be on the losing side. And the film is also about not giving up, no matter what; fighting with tenacity and fighting with fury.” The tank is a character throughout the movie. It is one of the first and one of the last things that we see in the film. “It is this family’s home and you can tell that they love the tank, that the actors love the tank. But this film is different,” Ayer continues. “I tried to be fairly realistic about the tactics. People who understand military tactics and armour tactics I think will be pleasantly surprised by the realism with which these scenes are executed.” Bringing realism to the world of American war movies was part of Ayer’s motivation in making Fury . He grew up watching the likes of Battle of the Bulge and The Longest Day , films regarded as classics but which are not always authentic in the representation of the conflicts that they portray. Battle of the Bulge famously used incorrect tanks for the period.

out there that knows these things.” The Tiger tank in the film is the only surviving model that is still operational.

Indeed, even though Fury stands as a serious and powerful film, set against a brutal backdrop, WWII enthusiast Ayer concedes that certain moments filled him with joy, not least the first day that five Sherman tanks were ready to roll. The director really was a general that day. “The first day when we had all five Sherman tanks kitted up exactly as they were in the war, painted up in camouflage that was done properly, and they were all in formation, fully loaded, fully weaponised, and moving out, it was awe-inspiring,” he says. “Everybody just stopped and looked and you could feel the ground rumble. It was a sight that hadn’t been seen for 70 years and when you see that come alive, it is a powerful moment.”

Fury is out on Jan 21

The Crew of ‘Fury’: Brad Pitt, Jon Bernthal (behind), Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña

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In bringing the young adult bestseller THE MAZE RUNNER to the big screen, first time director WES HALL was conscious that it was important to stay true to the book.

B ringing a young adult bestseller to the big screen is a balancing act. It has to stand up in its own right as a film, whether you know the book or not; on the other, fans of the original printed version tend to be fiercely protective and if they don’t approve, then the movie may become a box office disaster. Wes Ball, whose only previous directorial effort was a seven-minute CGI animated short entitled Ruin , was certainly very conscious that it was important followers of James Dashner’s bestselling trilogy The Maze Runner would give the thumbs up to the film version. “I thought the first script I read was good, but it was a bit too far away from the book,” admits Ball. “So we brought in two writers and kept working on it, to bring it closer to the book, because I thought that was important. That was our fan base, that was where we started from. So we tried to take it back to that initial source material, while changing what we had to along the way to make sure it was a movie that could stand on its own. That’s the balance – what you can keep, and what you can’t.” First published in 2009, The Maze Runner follows the adventures of a young teenager Thomas (played by Dylan O’Brien) who wakes up to find himself among a colony of boys in The Glade, a large open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. He and his fellow

become another lucrative teen franchise – a sequel is already in production – an impressive achievement given that Ball was working with a much more smaller budget; in fact, he shot it in just eight weeks. However, he believes that actually worked in its favour. “We were a very small movie,” according to Ball. “We didn’t have the resources other movies like ours have, in terms of time and money, so we had to have character, and intensity and suspense. In a way, the schedule contributed to the movie. I’d say to the cast members ‘all right guys, we’ve got three hours to shoot this scene’ and they’re on it. ‘Okay, let’s do this.’ We all joined together to get this thing done, and there’s something interesting in that limitation, it forces out some good choices.” And the initial feedback suggests that fans of the book are pleased with the way The Maze Runner has turned out. “James wrote this book in 2009, even before Hunger Games , so there have been fans of this book for a long time,” Ball notes. “Thankfully, they’ve been really nice to us from the start. They’ve enjoyed the casting decisions and given us the thumbs-up. We can’t just get by on the original fans, we need new fans too,

‘Gladers’ don’t know how or why they got there, only that each of them has a role to play, whether it be gardening and construction or being one of the elite runners who map the walls of the Maze that keep them captive. As well as keeping fans of the book happy, Ball also knew that his debut feature would inevitably draw comparisons with other hit dystopian franchises aimed at young teenage audiences. “I was very aware of The Hunger Games and Divergent, though of course Divergent hadn’t even come out when we were making this movie,” he says. “I knew we didn’t have some of the same ingredients, we didn’t have the love triangle, we didn’t have the oppressive government in this first movie. This was basically a really cool adventure, with these fun situations around it. A little bit of a monster movie in there, too. Hopefully people will give it a shot and see it’s different to what they’ve seen before.” With a worldwide box office gross of more than $350 million, The Maze Runner is on track to

but it was important for us to respect the fans of the book who have been waiting for this movie for so long.”

The Maze Runner is out out on DVD and Blu-ray on January 21

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