Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Press Junket...

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a press junket in New York City for Paramount Pictures upcoming film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot which is slated to open nation wide this Friday.

So basically I got to listen to Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Kim Barker (Author of "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan"), Robert Carlock (Screenplay), John Requa (Director) and Glenn Ficarra (Director) talk about the film, what it was like to film a war dramedy, what it was like for Kim to have her story transformed into a major motion picture, etc. It was just the most fascination forty minutes, especially after having seen the movie -- Which I'll have a review on on Friday.

For those of you interested below is the actual audio from the junket. But I will say, if you're planning on seeing the movie (Which I totally recommend you do) you should wait to listen to it.

The Conjuring...

When I went to New York Comic Con last October I attended a press conference for the upcoming movie The Conjuring (2013) which will be out July 19th, but because of Hurricane Sandy and all the chaos that came along with that I never ended up posting about it. Since the movie is coming out in a few weeks and because I totally loved the synopsis, what the actors had to say at the press conference, etc. I figured better late than never.

Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. Based on a true story, "The Conjuring" tells the horrifying tale of how world renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were called upon to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse.

Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.

From New Line Cinema comes a feature film drawn from the case files of married demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. "The Conjuring" stars Academy Award® nominee Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air," "Orphan") and Patrick Wilson ("Young Adult," "Prometheus") as the Warrens, and Ron Livingston (HBO's "Band of Brothers") and Lili Taylor ("Public Enemies") as Roger and Carolyn Perron, residents of the house.

Joey King ("Crazy, Stupid, Love"), Shanley Caswell ("Detention"), Haley McFarland (TV's "Lie to Me"), Mackenzie Foy ("The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn") and newcomer Kyla Deaver play the Perrons' five daughters, and Sterling Jerins (upcoming "World War Z") is the Warrens' little girl, Judy.

James Wan ("Saw," "Insidious") directs from a screenplay by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes ("The Reaping"). The film is produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter serving as executive producers. Reuniting with the director are members of his "Insidious" creative team, director of photography John Leonetti, editor Kirk Morri and costume designer Kristin M. Burke, and his "Saw" production designer, Julie Berghoff. The music is composed by Joseph Bishara.

New Line Cinema presents a Safran Company / Evergreen Media Group Production of a James Wan Film: "The Conjuring." Opening July 19, 2013, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.


I don't know about you guys, but this is totally my kind of movie. I love ghosts and paranormal investigations, so I'm definitely going to go see this one in theaters and I'm going to bring my mother who likes everything I listed above also.

What do you guys think? Is The Conjuring your kinda movie? Do you enjoy ghosts and all that stuff?

Beautiful Creatures Press Screening & Review...

Last night I got to attend the press screening of Beautiful Creatures (2013) in New York City at the AMC Lincoln Square. They were nice enough to let me have a plus one, so obviously I brought Erin with me because she was so awesome and patient while I attended the press conference at New York Comic Con back in October (You can read all about that here if you'd like).
 
The screening was scheduled to start around 7:00pm, so we got there a bit early to pick up our tickets, get decent seats and some popcorn to munch on during the movie. I'm glad we did because the place pretty much filled up and I don't know about you guys, but I hate sitting too close to the screen.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect since I had never done anything like this before. But it was like going to a normal movie minus the fifty million trailers before the film actually started and men in black suits with night vision equipment to make sure no one was trying to make a bootleg of the movie since it doesn't actually open in theaters until Thursday, February 14th.

So some popcorn, a large cherry Coke and 124 minutes later the movie was over and I was dying to talk to Erin about what we just watched, but she made a beeline to the restroom leaving me trailing behind. Because of this these two chicks ended up between us, and they spent the whole time on line complaining about the fact that Ethan wore "hipster" glasses and how could he have them if he was from such a small town in the south. There was at least five full minutes of "hipster" glasses commentary. I had to stop myself from interjecting and making a snarky comment about how even in Gatlin, South Carolina I'm sure they have internet access, so they can order stuff off of Amazon. Instead I kept quiet and waited to talk to Erin about the movie and mock the girls between us until we were about to walk out of the movie theater.

The verdict, both Erin and I really enjoyed the movie. I don't know if it was because we both love witchy things or what, but we agreed that it was an interesting and fun movie. Erin actually enjoyed it so much she decided that she wanted to read the 'Caster' series (I let her borrow my copy of the first book and I'm sure as you're reading this, she is reading the book). Also we are looking forward to seeing the sequels, press screening or not.
Okay, now that you kinda-sorta know about my press screening experience here is my official official review...

First I'd like to start off by noting that I'm not going to pretend like I analyzed the movie while watching it. I'm not a movie reviewer, so I wasn't watching it nitpicking or anything. I just went into it with the following in mind...

1. It's a movie based off of a young adult book series, thus it is about and geared towards teens.
2. Movies based off of books aren't always the same and to make sure to think of the movie as a separate entity.

That all being said, I absolutely adored this movie (Which I'm sure you totally didn't get from my ramblings above about the screening). It was funny, there was just the right amount of teenage angst, I cared about Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) and Lena's (Alice Englert) relationship, I love love loved cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) and the biggest bonus of all, there were no sparkling vampires! So, if you enjoy a little witch craft and teenage romance, I say go for it and if you do lemme know what you thought about it!

Beautiful Creatures Giveaway... CLOSED

Back in October I got to attend a press conference for the upcoming Warner Bros. movie Beautiful Creatures while I was at New York Comic Con and since the movie is coming out in a few weeks (February 14th to be exact) I've been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do a Beautiful Creatures giveaway thanks to Warner Bros. and the wonderful Jennifer who found my blog and gave me the chance to do a bunch of wonderful things. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

So, I'm really excited to be able to do this giveaway for you guys for Beautiful Creatures because since attending New York Comic Con I've read all four books in the series and I'm can't wait to go see the movie. But I'm sure unlike myself not all of you are familiar with the books or the upcoming movie so here is a mini synopsis and a promo for you to watch so you can get an idea about it...

Beautiful Creatures (Based on the novels by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl) tells the story of two star-crossed lovers; Ethan, a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena, a mysterious new arrival. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, history and town. As the tie between them strengthens, they become tangled in a dangerous web of spells and secrets from which there may be no escape.


Now on the the good stuff! I'll be giving away TWO (2) sets of prizes to TWO (2) lucky winners.

The First Winner Chosen Will Receive:
♥ 4x6 Paperback of Beautiful Creatures
♥ 1 Messenger Bag
♥ 1 T-Shirt
♥ 1 Bookmark
♥ 1 Poster
♥ 1 Lip Balm
♥ 1 Tattoo

The Second Winner Chosen Will Receive:
♥ 4x6 Paperback of Beautiful Creatures
♥ 1 Zip Jacket
♥ 1 Poster
♥ 1 Tattoo
♥ 1 Bookmark

Like all of my other giveaways this one will be your standard Rafflecopter type giveaway. Being a Google Friend Connect follower to this blog and leaving a comment below about the book and/or movie (i.e. - If you've read the series and liked it, if you're excited to see the movie, favorite character for those of you who've read the books, etc.) are mandatory and gain you two entries. If you wanna do everything else specified in box below you will get more chances to win! Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dark Secrets Will Come To Light 

Valentine's Day 2013

••••••••••••••••• CONTEST ENDS FEBRUARY 17TH AT MIDNIGHT •••••••••••••••••

This giveaway was sponsored and all prizes were sent to me by Warner Bros. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post, just some of the same goodies the winners will receive.

Beautiful Creatures...

As I mentioned in my overview post of my second day attending New York Comic Con I had the amazing opportunity to attend the press conference for the upcoming Warner Bros. film Beautiful Creatures which is slated to open nation wide February 13th, 2013.

The film is an adaptation of Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl's southern supernatural romance series baring the same title (I haven't actually read any of the books in the series as of yet, but I have honestly heard nothing but great things about it). The movie focuses on the relationship between Gatlin, South Carolina's newest resident, outsider Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) and Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) a member of one of the small town's oldest families. There are strange powers, dark histories, etc. -- Basically all of the things that make up a great young adult supernatural romance and c'mon you know there is always room for a good supernatural romance in theaters.

Here is the official information from the one-pager I was sent before the conference...

A supernatural love story set in the South, “Beautiful Creatures” tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert), a mysterious new girl.  Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

Oscar® nominee Richard LaGravenese (“The Fisher King,”“P.S. I Love You”) directs from his adaptation of the first novel in the best-selling series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  The film stars Alden Ehrenreich (“Tetro”), newcomer Alice Englert, Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons (“Reversal of Fortune”) Oscar® nominee Viola Davis (“The Help,” “Doubt”), Emmy Rossum (TV’s “Shameless”), Thomas Mann (“Project X”) and Academy Award® winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”).

Erwin Stoff (“Water for Elephants”) is producing with Academy Award® nominees Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson (“The Blind Side”), Molly Mickler Smith (“Something Borrowed”) and Oscar® nominee David Valdes (“The Green Mile”). Yolanda Cochran and Steven P. Wegner are co-producing.

The behind-the-scenes team includes Academy Award®-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot (“A River Runs Through It”), production designer Richard Sherman (“Gods and Monsters”), editor David Moritz (“Jerry Maguire”) and Oscar® -nominated costume designer Jeffrey Kurland (“Bullets Over Broadway”).  Music is by THENEWNO2.

Alcon Entertainment presents a 3 Arts Entertainment/Belle Pictures Production, “Beautiful Creatures.”  Opening February 13, 2013, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.

How could you not want to see a movie with a cast like that? Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson and a bunch of pretty people? I don't know about you, but I'm down with it.

 

So, during the conference I got a great audio clip of the cast talking about their characters and here it is for your listening pleasure...




Here is the first official trailer for the film...

After having a chance to listen to the cast talk about the movie I honestly can't wait to see it. For now I guess I'll just have to put copies of the books on hold and gorge myself on the series once they are available.

For anyone interested in reading the series before the film comes out here are current the titles...

• Beautiful Creatures
• Beautiful Darkness
• Beautiful Chaos
• Beautiful Redemption ← This title will be released October 23rd, 2012

New York Comic Con 2012: Day Two...

Today I got to spend my second day at New York Comic Con (It was actually day three of the event). Erin met up with me in the AM and the two of us hopped on the LIRR and made our way to the Javits Center.

I was given the amazing opportunity to attend not one, but two press conference while I was at Comic Con (I'm going to write about those in other posts because they need their own individual posts). So I spent the first few hours I was at Comic Con at taking those in. While I was doing so ended up meeting Giselle from the website Mamás Latinas, the two of us clicked so I we ended up hanging out during and after the conferences (She was a Comic Con newbie, so Erin and I showed her around the showroom floor, etc).

After all of the above was said and done I found Erin, who was actually with Lenni and her family.
Once we got done taking some pictures (People were stopping them left and right) we all headed onto the showroom floor to get our geek on. Erin bought a pair of Necomini Brainwave Cat Ears, we all got tied up in corsets, we bought some beautiful leather books, found out about bacon lollipops, costume watched, etc.

We wandered around for hours before Erin and I parted ways with Giselle and tried to attend the Oddities Antique Road Show, which was a panel with Mike & Evan from the Science Channel show Oddities, but we got closed out -- I'm still sad about this. We also went to inquire about the Walking Dead event in the IGN Theater, but that too was full and there was no way in hell we were getting in. So the two of us walked around a bit longer before headed back to Long Island.

It was a great day. I love going to New York Comic Con and it was made that much better by being given the opportunity to go to the press conferences. I'd like to thank Jennifer from H+M Communication for stumbling across my blog and inviting me to cover Beautiful Creatures, as well as Sally and Salomon for The Conjuring invite. You are all awesome.