Redmayne talks on ‘Fantastic Beasts’ – ‘Pickett favorite beast’

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NEW YORK, Nov 15, (RTRS): With his peacock-blue coat, bow tie and battered suitcase, Eddie Redmayne stars as J.K. Rowling’s latest magical hero in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”.

Redmayne spoke with Reuters ahead of the movie opening on Friday about his favorite beasts and his hopes for his character, Newt Scamander. The following are edited excerpts.

Question: How much of Newt came from you and how much from J.K. Rowling?

Answer: Newt was wonderfully well defined on the page and then it was about hearing where Newt came from in her imagination. She wrote that Newt walks his own walk and that he has a Buster Keaton-eseque quality. So I met a man who tracks animals for a living, and he said that if you are trying to be absolutely silent, you turn your feet out. So I brought in that open-toed stance, which was great until I had to do stunts running like that and I kept pulling muscles.

Q: Do you know if you’re going to be in all five of the “Beasts” movies?

A: No, I don’t. The whole production is so top-secret that at nights our scripts would get locked up and put in a safe. Jo has kept the story very close to her.

Q: How do you feel about becoming a young adult icon, like Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter?

A: I don’t really know. How does one prepare for that? There’s nothing you can do really. A few more people ask for selfies and that’s about it. I think?

Q: What was it like acting against the computer-generated beasts?

A: With the erumpent, we had some of the guys who worked on “War Horse” make a huge puppet that I rehearsed with for a few weeks. Then when it came to shooting, it would go away and I would have the sense memory.

Q: Did you have a favorite beast?

A: I think Pickett was my favorite. He has got attachment issues and he just wants a bit of a hug. He is bullied by the other bowtruckles.

Q: Where would you like Newt’s character to go in the second film?

A: You get a sense when you see Leda Lestrange’s photograph that this girl has clearly had an effect on him, so that would be interesting to see. Also you hear that Newt has spent a year out in the field in Equatorial Guinea. I would love to see him out with his sleeves rolled up, wrangling some of these extraordinary creatures.

Mark Wahlberg is in a race against time in the first official trailer for “Patriots Day”, portraying a Boston police sergeant in the story of the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers.

The trailer — released Monday by Lionsgate and CBS Films following its teaser debut last month — opens with scenes of Wahlberg going to work, being greeted by John Goodman’s police commissioner, and watching the joyful crowd at the 2013 race before the bomb creates devastation near the finish line. That triggers a massive search for perpetrators.

“We’ve got to find these guys before they do this to someone else”, he says.

Besides the story as seen through Wahlberg’s eyes, the trailer also shows special agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) taking charge of the investigation.

Aside from stars Bacon, Wahlberg, and Goodman, the cast also includes J.K. Simmons as Sgt Jeffrey Pugliese and Michelle Monaghan as nurse Carol Saunders.

The drama is directed by Peter Berg and written by Berg & Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer from a story by Berg & Cook, and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson.

Samuel L. Jackson, Joan Cusack, and Bradley Whitford have joined Brie Larson in her directorial debut on the independent comedy “Unicorn Store”.

Hercules Film Fund is fully financing with Rhea Films producing. Larson, Lynette Howell Taylor, Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas, and the District’s David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer, who developed the script, are producing. Jean-Luc De Fanti, Anne Woodward, and writer Samantha McIntyre are executive producing.

Larson came on to the project in August. Based on an original screenplay by McIntyre, “Unicorn Store” centers on a woman who moves back in with her parents. She receives an invitation to a store that will test her ideas of what it really means to grow up.

The comedy just began principal photography in Los Angeles. Jackson and Larson recently worked together on “Kong: Skull Island”, which Warner Bros will release on March 10.

Jackson just wrapped “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” for Lionsgate.

Cusack starred in Showtime’s “Shameless” alongside Emmy Rossum and will next be seen in Netflix’s upcoming series “A Series of Unfortunate Events” with Neil Patrick Harris.

Whitford most recently starred alongside Bryan Cranston in HBO’s “All The Way” and will next appear in “Get Out” with Megan Leavey, Kate Mara, and Tom Felton.

Hayden Christensen and Harvey Keitel have begun production on the apocalyptic thriller “Numb, At The Edge of the End”.

Argentinian director Rodrigo H. Vila is helming from his own script. Christensen plays a war veteran with PTSD who believes the end of the world is coming. After establishing a relationship with a Keitel, he leaves his normal life and begins building an underground shelter, causing people to believe he is insane — but as he too begins to doubt his sanity, something extraordinary happens.

The film is produced by Cinema 7 Films and Aicon, in association with 3dar and Non-Stop. Gonzalo and Rodrigo Vila are producing; Dalila Zaritzky and Guillermo Rossi are executive producing.

Christensen recently completed production on “First Kill” opposite Bruce Willis. His credits include “Life as a House”, “American Heist”, “Jumper”, “Takers” and his role as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader in “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”.

 

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