STACK NZ Oct #67

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YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CINEMA, DVDs, GAMES &MUSIC

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ISSUE 67 OCT '15

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ISSUE67 OCT '15

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

Issue 67 OCTOBER 2015

EDITOR’S LETTER O ctober marks the beginning of the blockbuster season – and they don’t come much bigger than Jurassic World and Assassin’s Creed . And we have loads of coverage on both titles in this month’s edition of your essential home entertainment guide. As well as an in-depth interview with two key members of the creative team behind Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate , there’s a Q&A with Jurassic World ’s Chris Pratt, who is fast becoming the go-to guy for action blockbusters. October also sees the return of another much loved franchise in Terminator Genysis , together with the DVD and Blu-ray debuts of one of the best newTV series of the year The Leftovers and the acclaimed documentary Amy , all of which feature prominently in this month’s STACK . On the music front, we have interviews with homegrown stars Fat Freddy’s Drop , Tami Neilson and Villainy and you should also check out our new ‘HowTo Buy’ feature, which kicks off with reggae legend Bob Marley . Happy shopping!

Games Consultant Sachi Fernando Production Manager Craig Patterson Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Contributors Graham Reid, Judy Ewens, Gareth Thompson, Ian Marriott, , Liam Gannicliffe, Scott Hocking, Zoë Radas, Gill Pringle Alesha Kolbe, Doug Wallen, Ryan Huff, Simon Lukic, Michael Dwyer, Chris Murray, Doug Wallen, Denise Hylands, Bec Rowlands Correspondence 31B Bertram Street Warkworth Auckland 0910 RATINGS GUIDE

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The large print giveth, the small print taketh away. RIPRufus (Jack) 2002–2014

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#1 IN SOUND & VISION New CD/DVD/Blu-ray editions of The Beatles’ ever-popular greatest hits collection 1 are being readied for release just in time for Christmas. The 27-track CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray pairs beautifully restored videos for each song, with new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS HD surround audio mixes. The audio visual editions of The Beatles 1 have involved extensive research and restoration of the original promo films, classic television appearances and other carefully selected videos spanning the band’s history. As well as the standard editions, there is also a special deluxe version Beatles 1+ , which celebrates the Fab Four’s career through 50 promotional films and videos. A new CD only version is also available, along with a double LP vinyl set.

Beatles 1 is due out on November 6

With Minions now the second highest grossing animated movie of all time, Illumination is emerging as a serious contender for Pixar’s crown. ILLUMINATING ANIMATION

Chris Meledandri’s animation house’s sixth full length feature The Secret Life of Pets has just opened in cinemas and is set to follow on from the blockbuster success of Minions , which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray at the end of the month. A comedy about the lives pets lead when their masters leave them alone each day, the film boasts the voice talents of comic stars Modern Family ’s Eric Stonestreet, Louis CK and Kevin Hart, together with the likes of Lake Bell, Ellie Kemper and Albert Brooks. It is co-directed by Chris Renaud, who helmed Illumination’s first big hits Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 . And Illumination already has an intriguing line-up of titles in the pipeline. As well as third Despicable Me film, work has begun on an as yet untitled project from Garth Jennings ( Son

Of Rambo ), which will reportedly follow the adventures of a koala called Buster, to be voiced by Matthew McConaughey. It is expected to be released next year, along with a new adaptation of Clifford The Big Red Dog , although things have gone a little quiet on that front. Illumination has also been linked with a number of new Dr Seuss projects, including new takes on How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat In The Hat , although there have been no formal announcements on those yet. In the meantime, though, fans can look forward to the release of Minions , which at press-time was closing in on Frozen as the highest grossing animated movie of all time. More on the lovable villain sidekicks in next month’s edition of STACK.

i PAD GOES PRO

The largest iPad yet, plus new versions of the iPhone 6 were unveiled at Apple’s annual September confab. The iPad Pro boasts a 12.9 inch Retina Display with 5.6 million pixels, the most ever in an iOS device, and can be used with a new take on the stylus, the Apple Pencil. The latter will be sold separately, along with a new smart keyboard, which attaches to the device’s Smart Connector port. New Zealand pricing and the release date are still be confirmed, but the iPad Pro is expected to be released in November, along with a souped up new version of its streaming device Apple TV. The computer giant has also just released the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which are billed by Apple as “the most advanced iPhones ever”.

The Secret Life Of Pets

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GOOD VIBRATIONS BrianWilson and the makers of Love & Mercy back new mental health initiative.

A s well as a charity concert in November for Give an Hour, a national nonprofit organization

encouraging all Americans to put as much care into their mental well-being as they do into their physical health. “My wife Melinda and I are very excited to be a part of this important campaign,” Wilson says. “It’s time for us to bring the conversation of mental health in America out of the shadows, and Change Direction is leading the way.” Wilson struggled for decades with mental issues and those battles are central to Love & Mercy , which looks both at his major breakdown in the mid-60s and his later attempts to break free from the care of a controversial psychiatrist Dr Eugene Landy. The former Beach Boy – who is played by both Paul Dano and John Cusack – has given the thumbs up to director Bill Pohlad’s account of his life. “Bill paid so much attention to the details and made everything perfect,” he says. “My reality shows. Also premiering from Lang and Strawhan in 2016 will be Dirty Laundry , in which a wealthy family have to cope with a major drop in finances when the matriarch is jailed for money laundering. Other new local shows confirmed for next year are a major new drama series about Sir Edmund Hillary, 800 Words , a Trans-Tasman co-production about an Australian columnist starting a new life in NZ, and The Cul de Sac , a mystery series centred on a group of teenagers who wake to a world where the adults have mysteriously disappeared.

favorite scenes in the movie are the ones set in the studio where I’m producing the record. It brought back so many wonderful memories of working with great musicians like Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew.” He also approved of the soundtrack,which has just been released and is made up mainly of Beach Boys classics and a new score from Atticus Ross, who won an Oscar – along with Trent Reznor – for The Social Network . However, Wilson did contribute an original song to the film, the appropriately titled One Kind of Love . “It’s about Melinda and me,” he says. “The song is about the way we fell in love and the way we are in love. Love is timeless in the same way great music is timeless and this is an expression of that.”

providing free mental health services to the military and veteran community, Wilson and the team behind the biopic Love & Mercy – which is out this month on DVD and Blu-ray – have pledged to help promote the work of the Campaign to Change Direction, which is

Love & Mercy is out on October 28; the soundtrack album is out now

Love & Mercy

MULTI HOMEGROWN TREATS

Television New Zealand has unveiled a strong line-up of homegrown dramas and comedies for 2016, including the broadcaster’s first ever multi-night series. Filthy Rich is a new local drama from Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawhan ( Outrageous Fortune , Nothing Trivial ), and follows the stories of three illegitimate children who discover they each have a claim to the fortune of one of New Zealand’s wealthiest men. The network says the show will get multiple screenings each week, something which has only ever been done for

Red Oak

Although Steven Soderbergh did serve as a cinematographer on Magic Mike XXL , for now he looks as if he is sticking to his pledge to concentrate only on television. As well as a second season of his period medical drama The Knick , this month will see the premiere in the US of new comedy series Red Oaks , which

follows the adventures of a young tennis pro at an exclusive country club in the ‘80s. Soderbergh is executive producing the series

NEW VOICE DIMENSIONS FOR LEGO

with David Gordon Green ( Pineapple Express ). The iconic indie director is also working on a 13 part anthology series based on his film The Girlfriend Experience ,

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Gary Oldman are just some of the many stars lending their voices to LEGO Dimensions . The game features 14 fan-favourite universes from games, film and television, and will include principal voice actors reprising some of their most well-known roles. Alongside the wonders from Back To The Future , Chris Pratt returns to voice The LEGO Movie ’s Emmet and Jurassic World ’s Owen, Elizabeth Banks can be heard as Wyldstyle, and Gary Oldman embodies the game’s antagonist - Lord Vortech. And from Doctor Who , Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez voice their respective roles.

which will explore the relationships of

high class escorts who provide their clients with far more than just sex.

LEGO Dimensions is out on now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.

Magic Mike XXL is out on October 21

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STACK SOCIAL Listening to you lot chatting and interacting with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is all kinds of awesome!

Jurassic World Prize-pack With the franchise’s two main requirements, kids and raptors, present and correct in J urassic World , we have the perfect giveaway including a Jurassic World Hero Masher toy and DVD prize-pack. Thanks to Universal Pictures New Zealand

Make sure you get involved and follow us on: STACK Magazine NZ @STACKMag stackmagazine

Fully Loaded Terminator Genisys Pack As Arnie storms onto JB Hi-Fi shelves this month in Terminator Genisys , one lucky STACK reader will be taking home this wicked Terminator pack! Thanks to Universal Pictures New Zealand

What you've been loving on social this month:

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MAGIC MIKE XXL On Your Bed! Unfortunately we cannot guarantee the real Magic Mike will ever be on your bed, but we can give you a pillow to snuggle up to instead! Five Magic Mike XXL pillows and the movie on Blu-ray are up for grabs. Visit stack.net.nz to enter Thanks to Roadshow

#JokeOfTheDay Rick Astley will let you borrow any movie from his collection of Pixar films except one. He's never going to give you Up .

HappyBirthday Hugh Jackman

born on October 12th, 1968. Did you know, before Hugh became a Hollywood actor, he worked as a gas station attendant and a birthday party clown. #STACKBirthday

Score Assassin's Creed: Syndicate Meet assassin Jacob Frye, who with the help of his twin sister Evie, will change the fate of millions in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate . For your chance to win a copy on the platform of your choice, head to stack.net.nz Thanks to Ubisoft

STACK ’s Fave Movie Quote: “Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?” Marty McFly, Back to the Future

QUIZ

Q1 Who directed the 1945 movie that tells the story of a headstrong woman who travels to Scotland to marry a rich old industrialist, only for her head to be turned by a dashing young laird? Q2 In which 2014 movie does a mother and son unwittingly invite a mythical monster into their home? Q3 Who plays the "designated ugly fat friend" in an appropriately titled 2015 movie? Q4 Which 1951 movie was based on Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories?

Q5 In this 1968 musical, a charming gambler con-man slowly grows to resent his entertainer wife's all-consuming success. Title please. Q6 Which director claimed that inspiration for his 1999 movie was the fatwa declared on Salman Rushdie following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses ? Q7 Name the beautiful (and five times married) silent screen actress who died of a drug overdose, only to have the cause "Hollywoodised" for the press as death by

"over rigorous dieting". Q8 Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Sandra Bullock. What's the link? Q9 In order to raise money to finance his 1979 debut feature, which director worked as an ER doctor and also drew inspiration for his film from the grisly sights he saw? Q10 Which actress described her legendary actor ex-husband as "a balding, paunchy hypochondriac, an egomaniac, a rock upon which other egos founder"?

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Caprice (1967) A10. Red River (1948), quoted by Thomas Dunson (John Wayne)

(2008) A9. Richard Harris in

A8. Dean Spanley

A7. Gambit

A6. Russell Crowe in Romper Stomper

(1973) A5. Sam Peckinpah –

A4. Lee Marvin in Emperor of the North

A3. Anna Sten

A1. Lucy A2. The Man from the Alamo (1953) starring Glenn Ford

Straw Dogs

Quiz Answers September 2015 (Issue 66) -

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Sound bites

HE’S NOT A JEALOUS GUY The real-life inspiration for Danny Collins has no regrets about his career path.

Damian Lewis on playing a slim- line HenryVIII in Wolf Hall . “We all have this understanding that he was this womanising, syphilitic, bloated, genocidal Elvis character. And actually the truth is, he had a 32-inch waist and he remained that way for quite a long time. I think the grandiose, more paranoid, cruel Henry emerged in the period after this series. Actually, the more I read about him the more I was happy - and alarmed - to find that I did share character traits with him. I do find similarities between myself and him. I think there’s no question it helps having had the kind of schooling that I’ve had [at Eton] to play a King.The sort of court structure, hierarchies, the way they’re set up, it’s something I feel I implicitly understand.”

I said, ‘well, yes it would. It would have a very detrimental effect’. The article ran and I thought no more about it.” However, in 2005 Tilston was contacted by a memorabilia collector who had purchased a letter addressed to Tilston from Lennon and wanted to

I n Danny Collins , Al Pacino plays the

titular jaded pop star who reassesses his life and career choices when he belatedly

discovers that John Lennon had written him a letter of encouragement when he was just starting out on his career. The film is loosely based on an event the life of singer- songwriter Steve Tilston, but unlike Pacino’s character, he has no regrets about the way his career has gone. “The parallels with my life and

authenticate it. The music legend, it seems, had read the article in Zig Zag and wanted to assure Tilston that one could be rich and famous, and still be true to oneself, saying: “Being rich doesn’t change your experiences in the way you think.” “It’ s quite a friendly letter,” says Tilston. “It’s not in any way castigating me for having these feelings. And then he asked me in the last sentence, ‘so whadya think of that,’ and included his home phone number. It would have been fascinating to have met him. We might have hit it off – or he might

Danny Collins ’ begin and end with the device of the letter,” he says. “I made a decision about the kind of music I wanted to make. I was never remotely interested in becoming a pop singer. I have no regrets about the fact that I didn’t become fabulously rich and famous. I’ve done alright.” Tilston admits it would have

Danny Collins

Steve Tilston

have taken an instant dislike to me and shown me the door! Who could say – life is full of ‘what ifs’.” So what does Tilston think of the film inspired by his missed encounter with a music legend? “I think the movie is great,” he replies. “It’s very true to life and Al Pacino is a brilliant choice to play that kind of entertainer. From the moment he first appears on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him.”

been great to meet his idol, but like Collins, he didn’t find out about the letter’s existence until long after the former Beatle’s death. The letter was prompted by an interview the young Tilston did with a reporter from the music publication Zig Zag (Michael Shannon cameos as the journalist in Danny Collins ). “I was asked, if I received wealth and fame beyond the dreams of avarice, would it affect my songwriting?” recalls Tilston. “And being a kind of pretentious, precocious young songwriter,

Wolf Hall is out on October 7

Danny Collins is out on October 7

How did you get involved in this project? I love the Insidious films and auditioned, like anybody else. I had just wrapped the shoot of Jem and the Holograms when I got an email to audition for the role of Quinn. I was so excited! What was your recollection of the previous Insidious movies? I actually saw Insidious: Chapter 2 before the first one, because I wasn’t much into scary movies before. I remember being so scared. I saw it one night with a bunch of friends. I had a hoodie that I kept on pulling over my eyes every time the creepy lady in the white dress came out. Then I saw the first film after I started going for this role, which made it all make more sense to me because this movie is a prequel that introduces the characters and brings Elise back.

What did you think of the script when you read it? I thought it was super creepy. I remember being in my apartment reading it and how it freaked me out. It’s a very cool script, and what I love about it is that it’s creepy but not gory. After reading the script I started working the lines, met with the director Leigh Whannell, did some scenes for him and got the role. I was so thrilled because it is such a cool franchise. What do you like the most about your character? That even though she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her she still has hope. That’s what I find the most inspiring about Quinn. Also, she really beats to her own drum, and her style is so cool. Funnily enough, when I walked into her room on the set I thought it reminded me of my own.

And Maggie, your best friend in the movie, is portrayed by one of your best friends Hayley Kiyoko. That’s another thing! Hayley is one of my best friends in real life, so I feel our connection on screen is real. Isn’t she the coolest? And she has all these crazy hair colours! I wish I were more like her. Were you looking forward to working with her again? Yes, Hayley and I had just worked on Jem and the Holograms together, so it was really fun to be with her again on a movie set. We just have this great relationship and are both in real life so much like our characters.

Stefanie Scott

The tween star of the Disney Channel’s A.N.T. Farm encounters bad spirits and best friends in the hit horror prequel INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3.

Insidious Chapter 3 is out on DVD and Blu-ray on October 28

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Toby Laing Fat Freddy’s Drop

Q1/ Unlike your previous albums, Bays was written mainly in the studio. How did you find that experience? It was luxurious, you know, to plan these sessions and jam for hours. Obviously you have to go back and comb though it but Fat Freddy’s have been together now for so long, we’ve got our own kind of culture, which makes the songwriting process really enjoyable. Q2/ Talk us through the process. Does someone bring a horn part or a bass line to the group and then you build it from there? The studio process was very different; it was a lot more coming from the ground up. It does all start with the simplest thing, a discussion about a certain type or vibe of a tune. Take for example Cortina Motors , which is kind of more extended dub techno kind of thing. That came about because a mate of ours came up to the studio and started playing the bass guitar there, and the tune grew from that. They all came about from us tinkering around with ideas we have talked about over the years that we wanted to realise; having time in the studio, we could do that. Q3/ It also seems a bit more percussive than previous records? Like I said, we had a lot more time to zero in on the basics of the track. I think sound quality is something we are all particularly interested in just because we have now had the experience of playing on some big stages. Q4/ You spend quite a bit of time in Europe these days – why do you think audiences there have embraced the band so much? We’re so grateful to the reception that we have received over the years. The reason it goes well is that it’s a huge and sophisticated music market in Europe; they have a broad range of tastes and are very open-minded. At the same time, all the different sub-genres and sub-cultures are strong and well represented, and a band like Fat Freddy’s can go there and do some good gigs and get the name out there. Q5/ Fat Freddy’s Drop have followed a distinctly independent path; it seems that your success has come up on your own terms? We never kind of expected the band to be an international touring act, and that kind of grew organically. We always had an idea of what we wanted to do: to make records and put things on vinyl, but we were not really interested in radio. In a way, that idea hasn’t changed – the cool thing is that it has worked.

Jon Hart fromAussie folk popsters Boy & Bear talk working at Peter Gabriel’s studio with iconic producer Ethan Johns. By Zoë Radas. UNLIMITED CHOICE

P eter Gabriel’s studio looks a bit like the isolated, wood-bound mansion from Ex Machina , and its insides might be even more magical. “It’s unusual for a studio, isn’t it,” Boy & Bear’s Jon Hart tells us. “It has a lot of vibe but it’s also got a lot of natural light. [Gabriel] has a ridiculous collection of

was getting recorded. Ethan was just sitting there listening to us play, he wasn’t listening back on speakers. It was just him being a listener in the room and being able to tell whether or not we had a take. And that was really exciting.” It’s clear that Jon and his bandmates are fanboys of the revered producer, but apparently their nerves cleared within a day or two. “I mean, he has

instruments, but Ethan [Johns, producer] has a collection that would rival Peter’s. It was a mix of his gear and Gabriel’s gear... a drum kit from the 1960s he’d played on a lot of Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne records, a

He has rock and roll stories that go back like you wouldn’t believe, because his dad worked with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles

rock and roll stories that go back like you wouldn’t believe, because his dad worked withThe Rolling Stones and

really niceWurlitzer, an old B3 organ, heaps of guitars, and a grand piano. The only thing I contributed was a Roland Juno from the ‘80s; it’s an amazing analogue synth.” In recording new album Limit Of Love , Johns and engineer Dom Monks managed to produced an extremely clean sound despite the fact there was no separate control room or partitions between players. The whole thing was taped in real time. “[Normally we’d] build the song in layers as opposed to capturing it live,” Hart explains, “and we realised there was a bit of a disconnect between [live shows] and what

TheWho andThe Beatles,” Hart says. “So when we had a down moment we’d talk Ryan Adams stories or Kings of Leon stories... it just went on.” The result of that snug rapport is a beautiful record which moves through several eddies of style: Hart’s own grace note-inflected piano on Where’dYou Go , the gorgeous arrhythmia in Man Alone , the spectre of Nick Drake on Fox Hole , Hart’s delayed and reverbed Juno on the wonderful Ghost 11 and the stand-out Just Dumb .

Bays by Fat Freddy’s Drop is

Limit of Love by Boy & Bear is out October 9 .

out on October 23.

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CINEMA

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AN IRISHMAN IN THE SCOTTISH PLAY

Witty, charming and successful on a global level, if anyone can play Macbeth, a man driven to madness by his own ambition, it’s Michael Fassbender.

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interview

CINEMA

“I 'm happy in my skin, and I never think about whether my characters are unsympathetic or tormented in terms of wanting to play those kinds of roles. I look at every part as a way of expressing different aspects of their humanity,” explains Michael Fassbender, when asked about the contradiction of being seen as a sex symbol, when most of the characters he plays are complex and even contemptible. “The whole notion of being a sex symbol is a bit frightening and ridiculous – although it suits me!” he adds, laughing. His next role is certainly no different, as he takes on one of Shakespeare’s most tragic anti- heroes: Macbeth. Directed by Australia’s own Justin Kurzel and starring Gallic goddess Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, it is a rare opportunity to bring one of The Bard’s most famous plays to the big screen. Since his 2006 Hollywood debut as a young Spartan warrior in 300 , Fassbender’s career has gone from strength to strength. From embarking on a 600 calories-a-day diet to play hunger-striking IRA prisoner Bobby Sands in Hunger , for which he won a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, to taking on the world as the younger incarnation of super mutant Magneto in the blockbuster X-Men franchise, Fassbender has the kind of bankability and diversity that is incredibly rare. Shakespeare, however, is a new challenge altogether. "It was a rare privilege for me to be able to do a Shakespeare play, and Macbeth happens to be my favourite of his works. Both the language itself and the character are so daunting that it's almost as if you're being dared to take it on. I like taking risks, and this was one I couldn't pass up," says the actor. `Challenges don’t phase Fassbender, and even when he’s

• Macbeth is in cinemas on October 1

Macbeth

300

Hunger

Steve Jobs

I like taking risks, and [Macbeth] was one I couldn't pass up.

not acting, the daredevil star loves chasing adrenalin highs. Often seen riding his motorbike, he was recently spotted at the Monaco Grand Prix with his stunning Swedish actress girlfriend, Alicia Vikander. For him, motorsports are more than just a thrill: he uses speed as a survival tool to find control and calm amidst the intense chaos of Hollywood superstardom. “Being on a motorbike and concentrating while you're going as fast as possible is also a

as reprising his role as Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse , we can expect to see more much more of this charming and mercurial actor over the coming year. But just what is it that draws him to playing men who seem forever doomed? “It might be because I'm really mad myself!” he laughs. “But I'm not mad enough to allow that to destroy myself. I think we're all a little mad and it's more interesting to acknowledge and portray madness than to ignore it. If you look at how we behave on this planet, there is no doubt that madness is everywhere...”

strange form of relaxation – your mind just adapts to what you're doing and you stop worrying about everything else that's going on in your life,” he explains. With several major

films in post-production, including the lead role in Steve Jobs , who Fassbender says was “an extraordinary man,

who changed the way we live on so many levels,” as well

15

X-Men: Days of Future Past

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John Connor’s belief that “the future is not set” enabled the writers and producers of Terminator Genisys to create an entirely new timeline.

I t’s been six years since the last Terminator film, Salvation , polarised fans of the franchise. Now, in a cinematic climate where everything old is new again, the Terminator has been upgraded, with Arnold Schwarzenegger slipping comfortably back into his cyborg's skin for Terminator Genisys . The creative force behind the Terminator’s return began with producers David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, who were both longtime fans of James Cameron’s Terminator films.

“When it was announced that The Terminator rights were going to be available, we were obviously interested, “ says Goldberg. “The first two Terminators, in particular, are movies David and I revere. The idea of resetting Terminator for both the audiences that loved the originals and a whole new audience was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.” To devise a new direction to take the franchise, the producers approached screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, who initially turned them down. “We said no because of respect for James Cameron’s universe,” Kalogridis explains. But after consulting with Cameron, the director gave the pair his permission and blessing on the proviso that they “write a good part for Arnold”. The writers’ approach was to revisit the world and characters established in the first two Terminator films in a present day setting… and beyond.

Arnold Schwarenegger on set with director Alan Taylor

Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney

screens in 1984 allowed the writers to logically upgrade the concept for today’s hi-tech world. Skynet is now a global operating system known as Genisys, which is set to go online in 2017. “To me, science fiction is at its most effective when it’s actually taking real world events and placing them in a fictional setting,” notes David Ellison. Ellison insists that Terminator Genisys is not a remake, reboot or sequel. “It’s really a reimagining based on the Cameron source material,” he explains. “Viewers don’t have to be familiar with any of the previous films at all – this is definitely a stand alone. But that being said, for the fans who have seen the first couple of films, there are some great Easter eggs in there. Exploiting the inherent

It's a reimagining based on the James Cameron source material

“Time travel is embedded in the DNA of the material, which gives rise to the possibility of alternate universes and different timelines without affecting the original material at all,” Kalogridis notes. “Those stories exist and continue to exist, they have still happened, but you can tell a different story that

branches off in a different direction using the characters that all of us love.” The digital revolution and advancements in AI since the Terminator first arrived on

nature of time travel, we go off on a different timeline to take these characters that audiences and I grew up with in a completely new direction.”

• Terminator Genisys is out on October 21

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Queuing up to see the original movie as a youngster, JurassicWorld star Chris Pratt never dreamed he would ever get the chance to battle dinosaurs himself.

be this character and I was ready to help lead this movie. It was a culmination of many years as an actor, building my resume and my skills; it just felt great. I kind of felt like a baseball player would feel if they were walking out into a major league stadium for the first time. This was the big leagues. And it felt very good. And you actually started working on Jurassic World before Guardians of the Galaxy came out… Yes, for sure; when Colin cast me, I think that was taking a risk because Guardians of the Galaxy had not been released and no one knew if that movie was going to work. But I think he saw something in me that rang true with who he envisioned the character to be. What was it like watching Jurassic World when it was finally put together? It’s beautiful. You’re seeing in full colour and 3D what this was supposed to look like. You had a sense of how it would look, but it was mind blowing. Sadly I’m never going to be able to watch this movie the way somebody watches a movie… I know every turn, I know every scare, I know every jump, I know exactly what happens; I was there when we filmed it! So it’s a little like being dad on Christmas

What’s it like to be in a film like Jurassic World ? CHRIS PRATT: You know, it’s a real treat. It’s so rare for me as an actor or for anyone to get an opportunity to be part of a franchise that they cared so deeply about as a kid. Jurassic Park was a big deal for me. I was 13 when I saw it in the theatre. I mean, I stood in line and waited opening weekend…that event in my mind is so crystal clear. If you would have told that kid, 22 years ago, that he would grow up to (a), be an actor and (b), star in another installment of this franchise, my brain would have exploded. What was it like the day you found out you got the part? I didn’t audition for this movie, so it was not quite like you’d expect, like going in with your fingers crossed, then getting the call that you got the news. I approached

It’s beautiful. You’re seeing in full colour and 3D what this was supposed to look like

different from the first movies. In the first Jurassic Park movie we got to witness the birth of these dinosaurs coming back from the dead. Here, we’re seeing John Hammond’s [Richard Attenborough’s] dream come to life. When that gate opens,

we’re not seeing just dinosaurs, we’re seeing the entire vision in terms of a park with the 20,000 visitors a day, the city walk, the hotel…it’s like Universal Studios, with dinosaurs. What was it like for you stepping onto the set that first day? Intimidating? Exciting? Intimidating, exciting, those are a couple of words to describe it but it was humbling. I felt a great deal of responsibility to make sure the story was told correctly. But at the same time it was very gratifying to know in my heart that I was ready to

this very practically, with great emphasis on my concern for telling another chapter of this story. You know, I talked to Colin [Trevorrow, who directs]. I said,

“Hey, buddy…What are you doing, why are we doing this movie?” It took him about three minutes to

morning rather than being a kid on Christmas morning. You know what’s inside the package; you’re just excited for everyone to open it up.

• Jurassic World is out on October 14

completely convince me. He was telling a story that was

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CULT STATUS Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney talks about arguably his most controversial project to date Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood andthe Prison of Belief.

How did you first encounter LawrenceWright’s book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief ? ALEX GIBNEY: I’ve known Larry since we worked together on another film on HBO, My Trip to Al Qaeda . We developed a good working relationship and pledged to

life. It’s amazing and it’s really interesting, too, because you see Hubbard in a completely different light. You also understand that from the very beginning, what he wanted out of Scientology -- even though he came to be a believer in the end -- was a way to make a living without being taxed.

find another project to work on together. We talked during his reporting process and eventually I read the book. I was terribly impressed -- particularly by his interest in learning what people got out of Scientology. I thought that was a much more interesting angle than doing an expose, which is what had been done many times in the past. How did you go about finding the former members of Scientology featured in the film? Some of them were interviewed in the book and Larry made introductions. It was tough, because some were wary about going on camera. It took a long period of time to persuade them. I interviewed a lot of people who didn’t make the film, so it was an extended process. Ultimately, I decided to focus the film around the stories of these individuals and tell their stories -- and, in the process, to tell part of the larger story of Scientology. What was your strategy for weaving the pieces together? We wanted to follow the story of these people through the church -- what attracted

What do you hope viewers take away from this film?

them to it, why they got involved, how they lost their way and ultimately, how and why they decided to leave. That actually imposed a very complicated structure because we had to keep each personal story going, even as they intersected with the story of the church. We were able to come up with a structure that feels very personal even though you’re getting a good idea of how the church works. I felt that I had my eyes open going in; so long as I was careful, everything would work out. How were the recollections of [Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard's ex- wife] Sarah Northrup uncovered? Larry touches on her life in his book, but there’s a great deal more direct testimony from her in the film. I can’t say exactly how they were found, but I can tell you that they were her late-in-life recollections about her Were you concerned about being attacked?

I honestly hope that this is a helpful film and that it gives comfort. It’s been very powerful to be approached by ex-Scientologists at screenings. People have come up to us, saying, “This was so important to us because we didn’t think anybody was ever going to tell our story.” That is to say -- how people had gotten lost in the church and how they managed to escape.

What about current members of Scientology?

By charting the journey of these people, I think we showed what smart people get out of it. It’s something real. The goal in the film is not to delegitimize anybody’s belief, it’s to

• Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief is out on October 22

question the way an outfit like Scientology can take the belief of good-hearted people and turn it in a very sinister direction.

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FROM WRITER & DIRECTOR PAUL FEIG THE DIRECTOR OF BRIDESMAIDS AND THE HEAT

OWN IT ON BLU-RAY ™ AND DVD OCTOBER 7

© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and TSG Entertainment Finance LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2015 Twentieth Century FoxHome Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX, FOX and associated logos are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and its related entities.

From the award winning team behind ‘SENNA’

The girl behind the name

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RAPTURE-PALOOZA! Damon Lindelof andTom

MUTE WITNESS Liv Tyler talks about the appeal of making the switch to long- form TV. “I feel like there are things being told in television that can't really happen in movies,” reckons Liv Tyler, who plays a new recruit to the sinister Guilty Remnant cult in The Leftovers . It’s the first major TV role the Lord of the Rings star has ever undertaken, but as soon as she read by script, she was hooked. “I knew when I first heard the premise that I was very interested,” Tyler explains. “I love things that are a little bit off and a little bit mysterious and different. I grew up loving The Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks . I felt like it had some of those elements as well as so much depth, and so much heart and soul in the exploration of characters and the world.” And the fact that her character would be mute for much of show – the cult she joins are not meant to speak, even to

T he mysterious disappearance one day of 140 million people around the globe makes for one of the most compelling premises ever dreamed up for a television show. Is it the Rapture that will herald the Second Coming? Could it be an alien invasion? Or could it be a more sinister human-inspired conspiracy? But for the creators of The Leftovers – Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel the show is based on – the series is less about the Sudden Departure (as it eventually called) itself, rather than the impact it has on a cross-section of ordinary people. “I can't deny that the hook of the book is the idea that this huge event occurred,” says Lindelof. “But the story that we're telling doesn't seem to feature anyone trying to figure that out. It would be the same as you or I saying, ‘We are going to find out what happens when you die’. I can tell you right now that if you put together a team of the greatest Perrotta, the creators of the latest HBO hit The Leftovers , warn that viewers seeking easy answers about the Rapture like that forms basis of the series might be left disappointed.

scientists in the world, the greatest religious experts in the world, and the greatest mediums in the world, we would still not be sure 100 percent that we had come to that conclusion.” Perrotta agrees that The Leftovers is concerned primarily with addressing important philosophical questions about faith, family and relationships. “If you're a contemporary middle-class American, you've lived your life in unparalleled comfort,” he explains. “Maybe without any religious faith at all. There's a kind of inertia through your life. This story places characters in situations where they're no longer able to have that comfortable passivity in terms of these questions. So it is a philosophical show in that sense, but these characters are living that philosophical question, not just pondering it.” Set in a small town in New York State, The Leftovers focuses mainly on the Garvey family, in particular chief of police Kevin Jr (Justin Theroux) who is trying to maintain a sense of normality, but is struggling to retain his own grip on reality. “To me, Kevin is somebody who's trying to guard and uphold the social order

each other – didn’t faze her. “It's interesting, the whole silent thing,” she muses. “As an actress, I tend to

trim my dialogue back and feel I can convey certain things through emotions or feelings or looks. Sometimes my costars laugh and say that I should be a silent film star and that I was born in the wrong era.”

that exists, which is under threat,” Perrotta says. “So there's that overt mission. The subterranean mission is whether he's going to go crazy doing it because the stresses on him are enormous. Can Kevin preserve the order of the town and remain sane

viewers guessing about the Sudden Departure, they were also keen to keep them on their toes as far as the motivations of the characters were concerned. “Every character on the show should be questioned,” insists Lindelof. “How is this individual coping with the Departure? What is their coping mechanism? That's the question that should be asked, versus ‘Who is he?’ and ‘What's his agenda?’"

while doing it are the through lines of the show.” And just as the makers have kept

• The Leftovers: The Complete

First Season is released on October 7.

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GAMES

PS4 owners will get the chance to play Uncharted:The NathanDrake Collection in High-Def this month.We spoke with senior producer at Naughty Dog, SamThompson. Drake Remastered

W hether you missed them the first time around or just want to revisit the ternion with some next-gen spit and polish, the timing for this remastered collection couldn’t be better with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End just around the corner. “Naughty Dog has been kicking around this idea since before The Last of Us Remastered,” reveals senior producer Sam Thompson. “There were lots of conversations, tons of ideas internally about how to best make it happen, but it wasn’t practical considering the direction of our technology, and resource wise, it wasn’t something Naughty Dog could support internally. It took aligning with a great partner like Bluepoint to make the idea a reality.” Bluepoint Games were selected when, Thompson says, the studio literally “moved mountains for the chance of working with us”. While Bluepoint did most of the hump work, Naughty Dog were on hand to dispense guidance and feedback during the project. “We knew we needed to work closely in order to maintain the integrity of Naughty Dog’s product, while providing opportunities for Bluepoint to try to improve the product where possible,” says Thompson. “The key to this process was being flexible and open to how Bluepoint wanted to work, and allowing them to put their stamp on the collection wherever possible.” So where do you start on a monumental project like this? What’s involved in bringing three games from the last generation of consoles to Sony’s latest platform? “To start, just resurrecting a decade of code from tape backup and old hard drives is not an exact science,” explains Thompson. “Then there was locating old PC hardware, software licenses, graphics cards, software plug-ins, middleware, licenses, rights to fonts, locating tape backups, master audio files, session tapes and stems – the list went on and on.

“Next there was defining the scope of the remaster: i.e., how far do we want to push improvements on the title? This was followed by getting the source code and the compiler running on the Bluepoint side. If that isn’t enough, there was coordinating legal approvals, localisation, resurrecting old QA bug databases, and sorting through years and years of old emails looking for submission materials.

unifying the weapon and aiming systems across the three titles, updating character models, audio, localisation, bug fixing, lighting, particle systems, shadows, texture resolution, draw-distance – this was all important to make happen. “For example, eliminating the screen tearing issues in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a huge win," Thompson adds. "There were so many areas where we improved the product, it would be challenging to list them all here.” While there was universal praise for the recently remastered Gears of War, originally released in 2006, some of the gameplay did feel dated. So is Thompson concerned that Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune , a game of a similar vintage, may garner a similar reaction in 2015? “I do believe the franchise has stood the test of time, and I have really enjoyed going to back and working on it again for the PS4,” he counters. “It’s been incredible to be able to relive those classic Uncharted moments and experience them again on the PS4. It never gets old. I still get goosebumps playing; it’s always a very emotional experience for me.”

Naughty Dog has been kicking this idea around since before The Last of Us Remastered.

Oh, and then there was actually making the game, play balancing and tuning, feature implementation!” Not wanting to delay load times or supply the game on several discs, Naughty Dog resisted the temptation to throw in a heap of bonus features, as the studio had originally intended to do. Instead, they decided to place an emphasis

on gameplay and visual enhancements. “Some things are sacred, others not so much. We knew we didn’t want to touch the story, but there were gameplay improvements we could make that would be meaningful. Removing certain motion controls,

• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is out Oct 7

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