The Guys of “ParaNorman” Scare Up the Screen

Leading the talented voice cast of Focus Features' new 3D animated comedy “ParaNorman” are Kodi Smit-McPhee (“Let Me In”), Casey Affleck (“Ocean's Thirteen”) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (“Superbad”). The acclaimed family film will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas starting Sept. 5.

The voice of the film’s 11-year-old hero, Norman Babcock, is provided by Kodi Smit-McPhee, a young Australian actor who in a brief few years has made a big name for himself. While Norman talks to ghosts in order to rid his town of zombies and stop a witch's curse, the film is really a comedy, which was perfect for Smit-McPhee, whose work in recent years has been in fairly dark films. As he told Entertainment Weekly, “my favorite genre is comedy…It’s pretty ironic and funny that I always get these kind of dramatic…movies.”

“ANONYMOUS” Exclusive at Ayala Mall Cinemas on April 18

Columbia Pictures' Oscar-nominated thriller “Anonymous” will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma) starting Wednesday, April 18.


Directed by Roland Emmerich from the script by John Orloff, “Anonymous” stars Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Xavier Samuel, Sebastian Armesto, Rafe Spall, Edward Hogg, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Derek Jacobi. The film speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Sigmund Freud, namely: who actually created the body of work credited to William Shakespeare?

Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. “Anonymous” poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when scandalous political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles lusting for the power of the throne were brought to light in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.

It might not seem that Roland Emmerich – best known as the director of the epic blockbusters “Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012” – would necessarily choose as his next project a story set in Elizabethan England. However, for nearly ten years, he has wanted to make a film with the Shakespeare authorship question as a backdrop – a yearning that is fulfilled with “Anonymous.”
Screenwriter John Orloff says he had been fascinated by the Shakespeare authorship question since first learning about the controversy as a 25-year-old graduate student 20 years ago. “My first thought was, ‘Why had no one told me this?!’” he says. “My second thought was that this would make a fantastic film. It had everything – murder, sex, lies, betrayal – truly the stuff of Shakespearean drama.”

“MY WEEK WITH MARILYN” EXCLUSIVE AT AYALA MALLS CINEMAS

The Weinstein Company's critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated film “My Week With Marilyn” starring Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh will be shown soon exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3 and Trinoma).

Early in the summer of 1956, American film star Marilyn Monroe (Williams) set foot on British soil for the first time. On honeymoon with her husband, the celebrated playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), Monroe came to England to shoot “The Prince and the Showgirl” - the film that famously united her with Sir Laurence Olivier (Branagh), the British theatre and film legend who directed and co-starred in the film.
That same summer, 23-year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) set foot on a film set for the first time in his life. Newly graduated from Oxford, Clark aspired to be a filmmaker and found a job as a lowly production hand on the set of “The Prince and the Showgirl.” Forty years later, he recounted his experiences of the six-month shoot in a diary-style memoir entitled The Prince, the Showgirl and Me. But one week in Clark's account was missing... It wasn't until years later that Clark revealed why. In a follow-up memoir entitled My Week with Marilyn, he recounted the true story of one magical week he spent alone with the world's biggest star -- the week he spent with Marilyn.

"For a lot of people Marilyn is more of an iconic image than an actress,” admits director Simon Curtis. "People haven't seen her films as much as they have her portrait. My way into this project was falling in love with the first of Colin Clark's two memoirs. As somebody who was assistant director at The Royal Court Theatre, I found it fascinating to uncover this moment in time.”