Entertainment
35 FRIDAY APRIL 18, 2014
MTV Movie Awards showcases upcoming Hollywood studio blockbusters BY JESSICA HERNDON The Associated Press LOS ANGELES—Last year, the MTV Movie Awards moved up its broadcast date from June to April to incorporate a summer movie plug-fest. Sunday night’s show cemented that change, as clips from anticipated blockbusters debuted at the madcap ceremony. In its 22nd year, the MTV Movie Awards show has become an important event for Hollywood studios. And oh yes, there were some awards, too. At last year’s show, which saw an average of 3.8 million viewers, up from 3.2 million for the previous year’s telecast, included new footage from “Iron Man 3” and the world premiere of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” trailer, which was introduced by one of the films’ stars, Liam Hemsworth. Sure, an abundance of golden popcorn-shaped prizes were again presented for fun fair, like the award for best shirtless performance, which Zac Efron accepted, well, shirtless. But it’s the summer movie teasers—and the stars attached to them—that really make the show. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone (who will also appear in Woody Allen’s “Magic in the Moonlight,” July 25) and Jamie Foxx, star in the seventh installment of Sony’s “SpiderMan” franchise, which kicks off the summer movie season
on May 2. The trio introduced a clip of the film showing SpiderMan (Garfield) and the sparkling blue villain Electro (Foxx) battling in New York’s Times Square. Also expected to dominate at the box office, Fox’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” was touted with an intro by one of its new stars, Ellen Page, who will take on the role of Shadowcat. The upcoming film, out May 23, sees the X-Men joining forces with their younger selves and introduces a number of new mutants—Blink, Sunspot, Warpath and Bishop. There to present the award for best fight was Aaron TaylorJohnson, the star of Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla,” which opens May 16. A short clip of the film, showing the monster preparing to wreak havoc, aired before Taylor-Johnson appeared on stage. Seth Rogen, Dave Franco and Efron, who lead Universal Pictures’ comedy “Neighbours,” out May 9, also presented the award for best kiss together. No clip was shown for Disney-Marvel’s opted against showing a clip of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a bit of a superhero spoof set in space, this year. But Chris Pratt, the star of the film, out August 1, checked in at the show as well with a long speech encouraging viewers to vote for their favourite nominees online. First-look footage from Fox’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” starring
The award for best shirtless performance was accepted by Zac Efron, well, shirtless. PHOTO FROM MOVIES.MTV.TV
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, showed the beginnings of the onscreen couple’s romance in the heartfelt comedy. Mark Wahlberg, who received the generation award at the show, touted his upcoming “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” saying the Paramount Pictures’ flick would be the biggest movie of 2014. Some of the crew of the hit HBO show “Entourage” presented Wahlberg with his award and the presence of Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon reminded us that the “Entourage” movie is being readied for 2015. Starring in two possible summer hits, Channing Tatum will appear in both the buddy cop comedy “22 Jump Street,” out June 13, with Jonah Hill (who picked up the best comedic performance award for “The Wolf of Wall Street”), and sci-fi fantasy “Jupiter Ascending,” out July
18, with Mila Kunis (who scored the title of best villain for “Oz the Great and Powerful”). Both Kunis, looking very pregnant in a short, loose black dress, and Hill presented Tatum with his Trailblazer Award. And not to be missed was Josh Hutcherson’s mention of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died on Feb. 2 from a combination of heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Hoffman appeared in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which earned the evening’s top prize of movie of the year. “If Philip were here he would think this was really cool,” said Hutcherson, one of the stars of “Hunger Games” and the best male performance recipient. “To have him in our movie was one of the coolest things,” Hutcherson said. “We think about him every day on set. This definitely goes out to him as well.”
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1” will release later this year. No MTV awards show would be complete without a few music numbers. Ellie Goulding sang “Beating Heart,” while Zedd took the stage for “Find You.” Both tracks appear on the “Divergent” soundtrack. Host Conan O’Brien kicked off the ceremony, which aired live from the Nokia Theatre, with a challenge to gain 50 celebrity cameos for his opening segment. And of course he came through with many stars like Paul Rudd and Adam Sandler, who have films expected in the coming months. The MTV awards had some stiff competition from other networks on Sunday night, including the latest installment of HBO’s popular “Game of Thrones” and the final season premiere of AMC’s “Mad Men.” ■
Wally Pfister and Johnny Depp reunite for sci fi mystery ‘Transcendence’ BY JESSICA HERNDON The Associated Press LOS ANGELES—For more than a decade, cinematographer Wally Pfister brought director Christopher Nolan’s cinematic visions to life. Now, he’s the one calling the shots. His directorial debut, the new sci-fi mystery “Transcendence,” has many elements of a Nolan blockbuster—eye-popping visual effects, a mind-bending story and an A-list lead in Johnny Depp. All of those things trans-
late into high expectations for Pfister, who jokingly likens his newly christened director’s seat to an “electric chair.” In the film releasing Friday, the mind of Depp’s terminally ill scientist, Will Caster, is uploaded into a computer after his death, spawning an eerily unruly machine. At the heart of the story is the disrupted relationship of Will and his wife, Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall. “Transcendence,” which was executive-produced by Nolan and written by first-time screenwriter Jack Paglen, hooked Pfis-
ter because of the emotional weight put on the study of husband and wife and the increasing reliance on technology. “We start to wonder where it’s all going to go,” he says. “We are dependent on technology. It’s got us,” affirmed Depp in a recent joint interview to promote the film. Depp, 50, first met Pfister, 52, when they worked on Paul McCartney’s 2012 video for his romantic ballad “My Valentine,” in which Depp and Natalie Portman starred and Pfister was the director of photography. www.canadianinquirer.net
“I was immediately intrigued and curious from (the) initial reading,” says Depp of “Transcendence.” “So many things come into my mind as far as the dangers of technology. Say I’m suddenly holding a gun,” Depp illustrates, lifting his left hand as his formidable engagement ring with Amber Heard sparkles. “The gun is not inherently bad. It’s a tool. It’s what we do with it. I think it’s the same with technology.” For his first directing gig, Pfister, who’s worked on everything from “Memento” to “The Dark Knight Rises,” swayed
from doing a big action film. “I’d done a lot as a cinematographer,” he says. “What was important was telling some sort of character-driven story. Exploring human emotion. That is the logical reason to jump from visual storytelling to narrative.” Nolan will also release a thought-provoking sci-fi film this year: the time travel-focused “Interstellar,” out in November. But Pfister assures he’s not in competition with his long-time collaborator. “Chris is an old friend,” he says. “He has been incredibly supportive of my move into this.” ■