Film Details

From director Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is the gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012.

When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right. Based on the nonfiction book “13 Hours” by New York Times bestselling author Michell Zuckoff and Members of the Annex Security Team.

Starring James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Pablo Schreiber, Toby Stephens, Dominic Fumusa, Matt Letscher, David Denman, David Costabile, David Giuntoli, Demetrius Gross, and Alexia Barlier.

In theatres January 15th, 2016.

ThirteenHoursMovie.com

Screening Details

Date: Wednesday, January 13th, 2015

Theatre: Fifth Avenue Cinemas

*you must be 19 years of age or older for admittance to this theatre

Time: 7pm

How to Enter

Please send an e-mail to info@bizbooks.net and please include this information:

• Your Name

• Your E-mail Address

• Your Phone Number

• “13 Hours Movie Contest” in the subject line

Winners will be selected at random and will be contacted by e-mail.

The post 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Movie Contest appeared first on Biz Books.

We spoke to Jonny Weston about his preparation for the film, the ongoing popularity of time travel movies, and his advice for young actors wanting to enter the industry.

Tell us a little bit about Project Almanac and how you became involved in it.

It was just an audition process…. It was a four or five month process because it was a risky move for Michael Bay to give the project over to the director Dean Israelite and then to give it over to an actor that’s not necessarily famous like myself. So it was this long process of convincing them that I was right for it and eventually, [it] came through.

What do you like to do to get into character? Did you find yourself doing anything for this role specifically?

It’s completely different every single time. I’d like to say that I have some formula or something, but it’s completely different. It depends.

I studied a lot of time travel literature as well as technology literature. I found that beyond Einstein, Stephen Hawking, there’s professors that teach in colleges about this stuff. It’s a legitimate thing. That’s what we wanted with this movie with time travel as well is to bring to light how legitimate it is as a real possibility, not just a fantasy thing.

Time travel movies have been around for so long. Why have they become such a long-lasting genre?

The endless curiosity, endless possibility. That’s what’s great about this movie is that they’re sequels, especially. You can go anywhere, anytime. You can end up in part 5 of this movie, re-visiting ourselves in part 1, but it’s a really interesting concept, the idea of being able to do something over.

What was the biggest challenge for you as an actor for this film?

For me, I lost 25 pounds on my own accord. I wanted to really be like David, a little bit thin, underfed, underslept, and really overstudied and obsessive about this goal that he has. So I think the biggest challenge was holding this weight off and living his lifestyle and at the same time, he’s running from the police. There’s all these scenes where like 3 or 4 days at a time, I’d just be sprinting down the street. Just keeping my body in proper shape to be able to do that was extremely difficult.

Are there any books that have been influential to you in your career?

Actually, I re-visit constantly my acting coach’s book. His name is Michael Woolson. He’s this incredible acting coach, very specific to who he’s coaching. It was a blessing. I’ve read that book over and over again.

As far as literature for time travel and technology, I mostly was looking at YouTube videos of seminars and colleges like Harvard, like the theory of relativity and whatnot.

What advice would you offer to new actors who want to pursue a career in acting?

I’d say take a few minutes and think really long and hard about why you’re doing it because there’s a lot of disappointment and if you’re doing it because you want some sort of end result, you’re going to be really disappointed constantly. My advice to young actors always is do you love it? Is it the best part of your day? Then go for it.

For you, was there a moment when you know that this was what you wanted to do?

Yeah, I took a theatre class in college when I was 18 to get out of chemistry because it’s just not my deal. It was an incredible class. It was just the best part of my day and I remember thinking I either stay here and rough it out with whatever subject – I was in engineering – or I just go to New York and give it a real shot and that’s what I did. It’s been a long road.

Besides Project Almanac, what have been some of the other highlights for you that stick out?

Well, I went straight from Project Almanac almost directly into shooting a movie, Insurgent, the sequel to Divergent where I play basically not such a good kid, kind of a villain and someone who’s trying to move up in the ranks as essentially a King. So it was really neat to go from [Project Almanac] to Insurgent.

Do you have a preference as far as playing the hero or the villain or are they both rewarding in their own ways?

Both rewarding… I walked on set of Insurgent – a $100 million set – an already moving vehicle of people that already knew each other that had been shooting and I think that my character – I just try and draw parallels between my life and what the character is going through and certainly walking on that set, I was a little isolated, a little high-stakes, and I used all that.

Were there elements that you could relate to between your character in Project Almanac and your own life?

I was super geeky in high school. I was really serious about mathematics and the kind of black and white finality of the answers as opposed to in high school, all the social life is messy and inconclusive. I really was drawn to math and science and technology in that way.

What are some of your favourite time travel movies?

I like Back to the Future: Part 3. I remember watching that over and over again as a kid – with the Wild West with the Indians chasing them and Bif (Thomas F. Wilson) playing the villain in the third one.

If you could time travel anywhere anytime, where would you pick?

I would go to the Wild West. As I was saying, I would love to see what it was like to live in those times with no technology or no running water.

Besides Project Almanac and Insurgent, are there any other projects that you have going on that you would like to mention?

I have this movie called We Are Your Friends with Zac Efron about the DJ World and EDM (Electronic Dance Music). It’s pretty dope. Basically Zac is like a DJ trying to make his first big track and my character is his best buddy and he outgrows my character a little bit and my character spirals off and it’s a little dark. It’s fun and everything, but it’s similar to the way you come up as an actor in that town and your friends – how they leave you or how they stay and who wants the best for you.

At this stage of your career, what would you want your fans or audiences to feel when they see your name or be able to expect from you every time out or your choice of projects?

Well, that’s the reason I don’t have social media or any of that stuff is I hope that they don’t know what to expect.

Project Almanac is now playing in theatres.

The post The Biz Interview: Jonny Weston appeared first on Biz Books.

Film Details

Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth film in director Michael Bay’s global blockbuster franchise. Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Li Bingbing, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, T. J. Miller, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor and Titus Welliver star. The film begins after an epic battle that left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history… while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from a new cast of humans, Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet. In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and evil, ultimately leading to a climactic battle across the world.

In theatres on June 27th, 2014.

TransformersMovie.com

Screening Details

Date: Wednesday, June 25th, 2014

Theatre: Scotiabank Theatre

Time: 7 pm

How to Enter

Please send an e-mail to info@bizbooks.net and please include this information:

• Your Name

• Your E-mail Address

• Your Phone Number

• “Transformers: Age of Extinction Movie Contest” in the subject line

Winners will be selected at random and will be contacted by e-mail.

The post Transformers: Age of Extinction Movie Contest appeared first on Biz Books.

Having already teamed up with director Michael Bay on past films like Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, The Rock, and Bad Boys, Ken Bates served as the Stunt Coordinator/Second Unit Director/Co-Producer on Transformers: Dark of the Moon and last worked in the same capacity for his friend and director Michael Bay on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

He joined us from Prague to discuss his refined approach to stuntwork with the added challenges of 3D and CGI in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Transformers is a series that uses a lot of visual effects and action sequences. What’s the creative process like for coordinating sequences that involve actors, stunt performers, and combine them with CG footage later on?

The most difficult thing that people don’t realize is that we’re shooting the movie with things that aren’t there, so we’re working with previews, we’re working with ideas and concepts. It’s not like we have solid scripts… Half of what we shoot is not on the page. It gets really complicated, but I mean the biggest challenge is story structure (and) characters… I think what we didn’t deliver in the second one – and what we delivered in the first – is definitely in the third. I think we have a story structure. I think the characters are great. I think Rosie did a fantastic job. I think Shia really stepped up to the plate. I mean we had so much great talent. The story, it just flows better.

It’s easier to build action when you’re building it around your characters and it goes within your characters and your story, but what people don’t understand is there’s a whole blind side to it. There’s the previews that no one sees that we have to shoot. We’re always shooting around things that aren’t there – for instance, we have to make frame size for robots that will be put in later and we have to know where they are, where they’re coming from, where they’re going, and where what moves, and don’t cross these lines and make space. I think it’s much more complicated than shooting a real film. There’s so much CGI. A real film has like one side to it, but when you get into so much action in Transformers, it’s got like 5 layers to it. This is a CG layer, this is the action, this is a CG layer, this is the visual effects layer, this is the 3D layer, and this is the coverage. I mean it’s just so much and we shot so much 3D. I’ve never worked on a film in my life where we shot so much 3D, just about every day… A lot of films are like 15% 3D or 10% IMAX. I mean we shot a lot of 3D and I think the audience is going to love it. I think we really went overboard in delivering a great film.

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You’ve worked with Michael Bay for a long time. What is it that makes the two of you a great team?

I think the fact that we can talk to each other very badly on the set and go to dinner at the end of the day, but we don’t hold back. Michael – actually, to his credit – he respects me and I respect him. We have a very unusual relationship, but I don’t think it’s something that somebody else could walk into. We’re pretty close. We’ve spent a lot of time together and work is work and fun is fun… we always joke about it cause we clock in and it’s like kind of hitting the time card and going to work and we fight like hell all day long. It’s not about him and it’s not about him. It’s always about the movie, but we get into it. We fight a lot and the result is fantastic. I think we make great movies together. We always have and Michael will continue to make great movies and I will continue to support him.

What advice would you offer to anyone who’s interested in working in the stunt side of things?

The first thing is to do their homework to know what it’s all about because it’s not just about action. It’s about characters and story. It’s about vision and it’s about comprehension of the director. If you’re missing one of those elements, then you’ve missed the boat. Homework is homework. There’s a lot of stunt people, but there’s a select amount of stunt people who have the imagination to offer something to the director. I would like to think I’m one of those guys… For every picture, there’s a different approach. I think that knowing the style of filmmaking, knowing the style of the director – what he’s done, where he’s been, and what you need to do – it’s all part of it. I mean there’s stunt people that come to work that don’t even read a call sheet and they have no idea what they’re shooting, and they ask people sometimes “Hey, what am I dong? What do you want me to do?”. They don’t really keep the call sheet, they don’t read the scenes, they don’t ask questions, and yet they are very big in participation in the film. Without action, without stunt people, there wouldn’t be big action movies.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is in theatres now.

The post The Biz Interview: Ken Bates of Transformers: Dark of the Moon appeared first on Biz Books.