“THE MAZE RUNNER” RACED TO FIRST PLACE AT THE PHILS. BOX-OFFICE WITH P 62.4 MILLION

 “The Maze Runner” landed top spot at the Phils. Box-Office with an outstanding P62.4 million on its first five days of release (opened Sept. 17) outrunning all other films that simultaneously opened that week.  The movie clinched its place as the 3^rd Biggest Opening Weekend for a Fox film this year (“X-Men: Days of Future Past” being the 1^st) and is now the 4^th Biggest Opening Weekend for a Fox film all-time (again succeeding “X-Men: Days of Future Past”) so far. 

                “The Maze Runner” has exceeded expectations and is also currently tracking higher than previously released YA (young adult) blockbusters such “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.”

                Rated PG by the local censors board, “The Maze Runner” opened in more than 170 screens nationwide and has thus far reached a wider demographics outside the books’ fan base.  Within the Philippines, it’s Ayala Malls Cinemas’ Trinoma that ranked top with P2.47million of the movie’s opening weekend gross. Next is SM Mall of Asia with P2.46million, coming in 3^rd is SM Megamall with P2.11million, SM North Edsa/The Block recorded 4^th with P1.92 million and Greenbelt3 at 5^th with P1.68million.

                Nationwide, the other top grossing cinemas included in “The Maze Runner” dash are: Glorietta4 (P1.58M); Ayala Cebu (P1.56M); Alabang Town Center (P1.54M); Powerplant (P1.42M); SM Cebu (P1.41M); Greenhills TheatreMall (P1.28M); Bonifacio High Street (P1.26M); Gaisano Davao (P1.19M); Gateway Cineplex/Ali Mall (P935, 436); EastWood (P934, 350); Market!Market! (P902,572); Robinson’s Ermita (P894, 810); Shang Cineplex (P882, 519); SM Aura (P862, 056) and Newport (P862, 056).

  

Directed by Wes Ball from the bestselling book of the same title by James Dashner, “The Maze Runner’s” remarkable feat at the box-office was compounded with the film’s high-adrenaline tempo that lived up to the book’s spirit, making it a film  worth-watching with groups of friends and families.  For most film critics who have had enough of the YA genre of recent years expecting the same of “The Maze Runner,” they were all pleasantly surprised at how the filmmakers upped the ante in the genre, thereby eliciting rave reviews of the movie’s unique premise and stunning visual effects.  

Mikael Francisco of www.gmaonline.com  enthuses, “The Maze Runner manages to navigate through the dangers of retreading repeatedly explored storytelling paths in order to deliver a solid, albeit at times predictable, two hours of suspense and adventure.   The visual effects are nothing to scoff at, either. The ever-changing Maze evokes a sense of dread and horror.”   While Kai Magsanoc (Yahoo Phils.) lists down six reasons to watch the movie: “Based on the Best-selling adult novel, Read or not (the book) – you will enjoy the movie, the casting is stellar, the pacing is perfect, the costume design en pointe and the production design deserves props.”

               

“The Maze Runner” finds Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) along with other boys and an only girl, in a mysterious prison field known as the Glade who learns that each resident has a role to play, from gardening to construction to being one of the elite runners who map the walls of the Maze that keep them captive and change configurations every night. Maze Runners race the clock to cover as much ground as possible before the end of the day when the Maze locks down and the deadly biomechanical Grievers roam the corridors of the concrete structure.

                “The Maze Runner” is currently showing in cinemas nationwide from 20^th Century Fox distributed by Warner Bros.

Korean Teen Actor KI HONG LEE Stars as Elite Runner in "THE MAZE RUNNER"

Korean actor Ki Hong Lee has obviously set a firm pace to stardom starring opposite Dylan O'Brien in the upcoming book adaptation of "The Maze Runner."  By the looks of it, the recently concluded Greenies Screening in the Phils. had the girls giggling after the movie, charmed by his notable presence and performance in the movie.

                Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up in a lift, moving slowly upward. As the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he finds himself among a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. Thomas’ mind is blank. He has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t remember his parents, his past, or even his own name.

               

                 Thomas and his fellow “Gladers” don’t know how or why they got to the Glade.  Thomas learns that each resident of the Glade has a role to play, from gardening to construction to being one of the elite runners who map the walls of the Maze that keep them captive and change configurations every night. Maze Runners race the clock to cover as much ground as possible before the end of the day when theMaze locks down and the deadly biomechanical Grievers roam the corridors of the concrete structure.

                The elite among the Gladers are called Runners, whose athleticism propels them through the Maze each day, which helps them compile a map of the foreboding structure and, maybe, figure out a way to escape.  Their captain is Minho, played by Ki Hong Lee.  The young actor grew to understand his position of leadership among the Gladers in a very individual way.  “I looked at the Marines and the Army and, and I consider Minho like a general of the Gladers,” Lee explains, “It’s his job to rally the troops.”

Meet the Gladers in “THE MAZE RUNNER”

“The Maze Runner” is set to turn things in a dizzying blur as the teenage captives in a virtual prison known as The Glade run for a chance to save their lives. Headed by “Teen Wolf’s” heartthrob Dylan O’Brien along with a group of talented young actors including Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee and Blake Cooper, “The Maze Runner” is directed by Wes Ball based on James Dashner’s hugely successful (trilogy) tome.

 

                At this year's Comic Con, the cast attests that the movie will be shocked on how the book’s famous baddies known as the Grievers, were depicted. Director Ball further stressed that the audience will definitely be in for a pretty terrifying ride.

Published in October 2009, “The Maze Runner” became a New York Times Best Seller and captured the imaginations of readers around the world, who described it as a combination of “Lord of the Flies,” “ The Hunger Games,” and the legendary television series “Lost.” Dashner understands those comparisons, especially to Lord of the Flies, but notes that THE MAZE RUNNER is at its heart a very different story.  “I don’t think characters would react they way they do in Lord of the Flies,” he explains.  “I think they’d be more civilized, orderly, and determined to survive and escape.  THE MAZE RUNNER is an adventure story that’s also about hope and the potential of the human spirit.”

               

The book caught the attention of producers Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman from the management/production company The Gotham Group.  “We see a lot of young adult novels,” Stollman explains. “And you always look for something that has a big world creation with characters that are identifiable and something we haven’t seen before,” which is what they found in Dashner’s book.

                Leading man Dylan agrees, "That’s something that might separate this, I think, being like one of those YA movies that are coming out. I so genuinely don’t think it’s like that. It totally exists in its own right and like he said, it could easily be taken as a kid’s movie just objectively, but there is a real sense- there’s this gravitas to it It’s really, really mature in that aspect of performances and just the story."

                Reflecting on the story’s appeal, Dashner notes that much of it stems from the “constant state of not being able to predict what’s going to happen next.  I wanted my readers, and now the moviegoing audience, to feel like Thomas when they enter the Glade.”

                “The Maze Runner” opens September 17 from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

From Pages to Movies: “THE MAZE RUNNER” AND “KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE”

20^th Century Fox adapts two of the world’s best-selling thrilling young adult fictions, “The Maze Runner” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service” into the big screen. 

                Based on James Dashner’s futuristic thrilling adventure of the same title, “The Maze Runner” by filmmaker Wes Ball , primarily known for his successful venture as the owner of Oddball Animation tells a story about life in a post apocalyptic world unlike no other. 

“The Maze Runner” sees a group of young boys living together and surviving on their own in a place they call the Glade, not knowing who put them there and why they are there, they soon find out the chilling mystery of their entrapment when Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is sent to the Glade.  Thomas along with the other boys and the only girl named Teresa dare to defy status quo and risk their lives to get out and run through the series of dangerous maze where predators wait to feast on human flesh.  The movie also stars Will Poulter, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aml Ameen, and Blake Cooper.

                Matthew Vaughn, director of worldwide box-office hit “X-Men: First Class” and “Kick Ass” recruits a whole new ensemble of another first class in the “Kingsman: The Secret Service” starring Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Strong with a squad of young new trainees for non-stop action deployment headed by Taron Egerton, with Sofia Boutella,  Sophie Cookson and Tom Prior.  

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is based upon the acclaimed comic book from Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons that  tells a story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

                From 20^th Century Fox, join the thrilling escape when “The Maze Runner” opens September 17 and meet the young new knights ready for action in “Kingsman: The Secret Service” when it opens October 22 in cinemas nationwide.