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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The anticipated June 2014 release of the fourth installment of Jurassic Park, one of the highest-grossing film franchises, has been put on hold, Universal Pictures said on Wednesday.

The decision was made to give "the studio and filmmakers adequate time to bring audiences the best possible version" of Jurassic Park 4, the studio said in a statement.

The film was slated to be released in theatres on June 13, 2014. Universal has yet to announce a new date for the release.

The three Jurassic Park films generated US$1.9 billion in worldwide ticket sales between 1993 and 2001, according to the movie website Box Office Mojo.

Steven Spielberg directed the first two and will be taking on the executive producer role for the fourth film, while newcomer Colin Trevorrow will direct.

No announcement has been made on casting or on whether franchise stars Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough will return.

The first film, released in 1993, captured audiences with its story of a theme park of cloned dinosaurs and generated US$967 million in worldwide ticket sales, according Box Office Mojo, ranking 16th among best-selling films in the United States.

It has generated US$400.9 million in domestic sales to date, including $42.5 million from its limited theatrical re-release in 3D in April.

Comedienne Melissa McCarthy has learnt to leverage on her size and add nuances to her roles.

Audiences love it when Melissa McCarthy misbehaves. There is something inherently funny about confounding expectations and with McCarthy, the perverse delight lies in witnessing vulgarities and over-the-top obnoxiousness coming from that sweet, cherubic face.

A gifted comedic actress, the 42-year-old knows how to work this. She did it to perfection in 2011’s Bridesmaids, the breakout hit in which she played a bride’s hilariously inappropriate sister-in-law.

And she looks set to do the same with starring roles in two films this year: the comic caper Identity Thief, with Jason Bateman, and the upcoming buddy-cop flick The Heat, with Sandra Bullock.

McCarthy was well aware that these projects were a direct result of her scene-stealing turn in Bridesmaids.

“It opened so many doors. I got to work with people I’ve always admired. It’s a bit mind-blowing.”

Bateman, a producer on Identity Thief, is the reason McCarthy was offered the role in the film. He was so impressed when he saw her in Bridesmaids that he persuaded the studio to cast her even though the role had been written for a man.

Helmed by Seth Gordon, who directed Bateman in the 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses, the result is a broad comedy with plenty of odd-couple gags and precisely choreographed physical humour.

It was panned by American critics but moviegoers seemed to like it, spending more than US$133mil (RM396mil) in box office tickets in the United States alone.

Bateman gives full credit for this to McCarthy.

“Sometimes, you work with comedic actors who will swing a little too hard all the time because they want to score and make everything funny, even when you might just be saying a line of exposition.

“She’s not greedy like that.”

The actress does not operate purely on instinct, though. She learnt her craft the hard way - as a stand-up comic in New York and a member of The Groundlings, an improvisational comedy troupe in Los Angeles.

After that came a recurring role in the popular TV series Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) and the lead in the sitcom Mike & Molly, where she won a wider fanbase as one half of a couple who meet in an overeaters’ support group.

Some reactions to that show have also schooled her in an altogether less pleasant way, with one particularly uncharitable blog on Marie Claire - titled Should “Fatties” Get A Room? - arguing that no one wants to see overweight actors in a romantic clinch.

McCarthy, who later won an Emmy for Outstanding Actress In A Comedy Series for the role, admitted that the piece had stirred up her own insecurities about her weight, but she held her head high nonetheless.

In her sketch comedy, which she continues to do on shows such as Saturday Night Live, she has not been shy about getting laughs because of her size – which she is also embracing by designing her own yet-to-be-released line of plus-size clothing.

McCarthy, who trained as a textile designer and made customised clothing before turning to a comedy career, is doing it because the clothing currently available to fuller-figured women is “terrible”.

“I don’t think there should be any difference,” she says of the fashion available to women of different sizes.

“If you want to be fashionable, why should it stop at a US size 10?

“I’ve been a 6, I’ve been a 12 and I still have the same sensibility, so why on earth do I now have to buy a 90-year-old woman’s T-shirt up by the tyres or next to the Tupperware on the third floor? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

She is equally thoughtful about her characters, no matter how over-the-top or two-dimensional they may appear.

In Identity Thief, it was important for her that the character Diana makes sense psychologically, and that there was a believable backstory to explain all her behaviour.

“That was what made me love the character. I wouldn’t really know how to play someone who just goes, ‘Oh, I do evil stuff.’

“It was so interesting because she wasn’t even fully aware of them,” McCarthy says of her character’s many flaws.

“There was denial, guilt, loneliness ... She doesn’t really want the items she’s stealing as much as she wants a connection with another person. For me, that’s what fuelled her compulsion to steal.”

She is just as committed to realism when it came to the stunts in the film, Bateman reveals.

“You try to do as much as you can, but there are certain things that are just not smart and the studio won’t insure you for, like getting hit by a car. But she wanted to do it,” he says.

To which McCarthy’s answer is: “I’m an idiot.”

She reveals that she got the wind knocked out of her during one over-enthusiastic dust-up on set.

In her everyday life, however, she says she is nowhere nearly as weird as the women she plays. She has been married to fellow comedian and actor Ben Falcone, 39, for eight years, and has two daughters, aged five and three.

The couple often work together. In Bridesmaids, he played the air marshal whom McCarthy’s character sexually harassed on a plane ride.

Next year, he will direct her in Tammy, a film they co-wrote, with McCarthy playing a woman who goes on a road trip with her boozy, foul-mouthed mother (Susan Sarandon) after learning that her husband has cheated on her.

Her inspiration for these characters comes from people-watching and this compulsion is about as weird as it gets with the actress.

“I should probably stop but, sometimes, I have followed people,” she says sheepishly.

“I’m kind of enchanted with people. The stranger and more peculiar they are, the more I’m taken with them. I love somebody who really doesn’t care, they just do what they do.”

Often, the person she cannot take her eyes off is the weirdo in the corner “who has to snap his fingers three times before he picks up a can of soup”.

“I steal some peccadilloes from people,” she admits.

“But I do it with a lot of love.” –The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

Identity Thief is currently playing in cinemas. The Heat opens June 27.

MY “geekness” was forged by the fantastic stop-motion creations of special-effects maestro Ray Harryhausen who passed away on May 7 at age 92.

From the time my mum took me to watch The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad at Odeon KL in the early 1970s (thanks, Mum!), I developed a huge fascination with his work, at the way he brought amazing creatures from legend and prehistoric times to life. Dad followed through by getting me issues of Famous Monsters Of Filmland Magazine (thanks, Dad!) which frequently devoted many pages to Harryhausen’s past work and upcoming projects.

So when I heard that Ray Harryhausen was coming to town to promote Clash Of The Titans in late 1981, I literally begged my editor at the time for the assignment. Just seven months on the job and making demands? Such presumption – but he caved when he saw how eager I was.

Still, no mere press conference would suffice for me. I had to get an exclusive, which meant tracking the visiting filmmaker down the day before his scheduled media session. His first day in Kuala Lumpur was supposed to be a “site visit” to various cinemas to look at the promotional materials and displays for Clash. And it was off limits to the press! Coaxing and cajoling and some wear and tear on my knees later, I was told by a source: “Go to Odeon at 2pm.”

A bus ride and a brisk walk later, I was told I had just missed him. “Maybe he’s gone to Pavilion (on Jalan Bukit Bintang),” was all the staff there could offer. No bus – time to splurge on a cab ride. After all, what was my princely sum of RM40 in monthly transport allowance for?

But nope, he wasn’t at that cinema. Without thinking twice, I dashed across the side road to the Cathay KL lobby and ... almost keeled over when I saw Ray Harryhausen and his long-time filmmaking associate Charles Schneer inspecting a large cardboard cut-out of Harry Hamlin’s Perseus, the hero of Clash, in the cinema lobby.

The cinema company PR person who was with them looked rather surprised to see me there. “How did you know we were here?” she asked.

“Er, I’ve been chasing you guys across town,” I said breathlessly, before introducing myself to Harryhausen and asking if I could interview him ahead of his press conference.

“Why, of course. But on one condition. Let’s do this over tea,” he replied graciously.

So after they finished their “site visit”, off we trudged down Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail over to the Regent of Kuala Lumpur (now Parkroyal).

It turned out Harryhausen had a fondness for papaya, and was happy to learn that the hotel coffeehouse served it.

Between mouthfuls of fruit, Harryhausen obligingly answered my questions and as expected, was full of anecdotes and sage observations of the state of special effects.

He was quite patient, allowing me to compose myself when I found myself lost for words at first (hey, it’s not every day you get to interview your idol, you know), and humble when I started gushing about his work. By the end of the interview I had filled almost my entire notebook – oh, if only we had The Star Online back then, I could’ve written volumes!

I remember that one thing Harryhausen was quite annoyed about was the advent of computer-generated effects. His painstaking animation technique appeared to be losing favour with movie studios, which wanted slicker, less “jarring” effects. “Can a computer simulate warmth?” he asked pointedly. Thirty years on, I’d say they are just beginning to, and even then they need a performance-capture assist – nothing like Harryhausen’s wide-eyed, expressive stop-motion creations that could often emote better than the actors they shared the screen with!

As for Harryhausen’s legacy, Clash Of The Titans – the hammy acting, cliched dialogue and kiddish clockwork owl aside – contains two scenes that have become classics in fantasy cinema: The first appearance of the Kraken, as one huge clawed hand after another grasps the rocky shoreline; and the Medusa sequence where Perseus and his companions stalk (and are stalked) by the snake-haired creature, truly one of the most atmospheric and chilling confrontations in the genre.

Clash was the last film he worked on, but it capped a career that gave us swordfighting skeletons, dragons battling cyclops, griffins, centaurs, dinosaurs, rampaging alien beasts, the multi-headed hydra, demigods and colossal animated statues – creations that fired the imagination of millions and inspired many of today’s filmmakers. That people continue celebrating his work and achievements 30 years after his retirement speaks volumes about the passion, heart and soul that went into his work.

As for this one geek who went on to get a job writing about all the things he loves, that memorable half-hour interview so early on in my career was like having the icing way before the cake could even be baked.

Rest in peace, Ray.

Forget classical crossover music (aka popera), Sarah Brightman rockets ahead with a space-themed album.

WHEN Sarah Brightman speaks, she has a certain innocence about her that is alluring. It’s hard not to like her.

Widely considered one of the world’s best-selling sopranos, her work transcends any specific musical genre, synthesising many influences and inspirations into a unique sound and vision. Her voice has rung out from theatres, arenas, cathedrals, world heritage centres and Olympic stadiums, bringing to life some of the world’s most beautiful music.

Presently, Brightman is busy promoting her 11th studio album, Dreamchaser, which hit the stores on April 8. She is about to begin her world tour, which will kick off in China next month. We catch up during a phone interview while she is staying on an island between Sicily in Italy and North Africa.

“I’m in the middle of some island. Just to let you know, I am not on a holiday!” she chirps in her high-pitched voice, apologising for the late night call. “I am actually working and I’ve just arrived at the hotel.”

Produced by Mike Hedges, Brightman considers the album her best to date.

“I have known him since I was 18. He has worked with groups like U2, Dido, monks and spiritual people, and I felt he was the right person for the album, which is very space-themed. I wanted someone who would understand the expansive feelings I wanted from the album so it’s different from what I have done before. The soundscape is completely different but it is still me singing,” she explains.

Her last album Symphony (2008), had a dark, gothic feel to it and reflected the happenings at that point in her life.

“With this album, I wanted to embark on a space journey so it’s quite uplifting. It was scientific talk when we made the sound, it is quite metaphysical as well. It ranges from beautiful pieces like One Day Like This, which is an (British indie band) Elbow song to Glosoli, from Sigur Ros. My favourite is the first track, Angel. These pieces link together beautifully because the message is all about emotions of human beings.

“I’m an interpreter of music and I’m proud of that,” Brightman attests. “I’m able to be very free, to go in all directions – to choose music (based on) what it makes me feel within myself. That guides me to what I need to do. It comes from very deep feelings. Although I’m singing other composers’ music, it’s still very connected to me.”

For Brightman, Dreamchaser is a culmination, an ethos – the perfect soundtrack to what’s next for her, and what’s next for all of us.

“Humankind’s ability to set and deliver goals combined with the individual’s pursuit of their dreams and desires are perhaps the most powerful forces that we know. Believing that something may be out of reach should never stop us stretching for it – the journey should be as rewarding as arriving at the destination.”

Dreamchaser is also the realisation of a lifelong journey that began when she was a little girl growing up in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in England, dreaming of spectacular things.

“When I look back, my mind’s eye brings me a rush of images from all of the incredible things that I have been privileged to experience in my life,” she says. “But if I keep tracking back, my thoughts eventually come to rest on a flickering TV screen in 1969.”

That summer, when Apollo 11 touched down on the moon and Neil Armstrong bounded across its surface, Brightman felt herself transform, and all her hopes and aspirations shift.

“Watching the first man land on the moon – it was an epiphany. It changed things. It actually helped me understand what it was that I had to do in my life, to further myself, to do things, to think outside of the box,” she adds. “I could go that far, I could do that. From that moment, I started to work really hard.”

Now, at age 52, Brightman is about to embark on what she calls “the greatest adventure I can imagine.”

As if travelling the world is not enough, she plans on becoming the first recording artiste to venture into space en route to the International Space Station sometime in the next two years.

She will be part of a three-person team on board a Soyuz rocket, where she’ll orbit the earth 16 times daily and become the first professional musician to record a song from space – another groundbreaking moment in a career already riddled with firsts.

Who would have thought Brightman, who was tone deaf as a child, would achieve international fame.

“I had extremely bad tonsils and adenoids which impaired my hearing for a while. It affected my speech and I had to be operated on twice. I guess the doctor didn’t get all the parts out so my hearing was affected,” she recalls.

Adenoids are a mass of enlarged lymphatic tissue between the back of the nose and the throat, which often hinders speaking and breathing in young children.

“But I was always very musical and my only way of communicating was through songs, so I sang. I was only clear with my hearing at seven or eight – even then I had some problems. Everything’s fine now!”

Now she takes care of her voice and trains with somebody every day.

“Depending on where I am geographically, I work with vocal coaches. It’s the best care you can take although there is a metaphysical side to singing, and a sort of spiritual side to it. It’s also very physical. We’re really like an athlete who has to fine-tune the muscles,” she says.

Once typecast as composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big-eyed, toothy toy girl, Brightman, has a voice that is soothing yet powerful.

She started singing and dancing at the age of three. She began her career as a member of the television dance troupe, Hot Gossip and released several successful disco hit singles as a solo performer. In 1981 Brightman made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats where she met Lloyd Webber.

Just from listening to her three-octave vocal range, you can tell why Lloyd Webber, whom she eventually married and divorced, created the role of Christine in Phantom Of The Opera specifically for her.

He apparently cast such a shadow that she had to leave Britain after the split to re-establish herself in her own right. With that, her stage career ended. She has since come out on her own.

Brightman has found a new level of fame as a classical crossover or “popera” artiste, a phrase she can’t stand, though it’s a genre she is lumped under, along with tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.

“I don’t really know what it means,” she states, a little agitated over the label. “I think the term started with Pavarotti. Over time, record companies didn’t know how to deal with us. It wasn’t really classical or pop though it’s a genre by itself. There are no crossover sections in billboards or charts so they had to find somewhere to put artistes like us. It still doesn’t make sense to me.”

But, there is mass appeal in the genre. Brightman is the first artiste to have been invited twice to perform at the Olympic Games, first at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games where she sang Amigos Para Siempre with the Spanish tenor Jose Carreras, and in 2008, in Beijing, China, with Chinese singer Liu Huan, performing the song You And Me to an estimated four billion people worldwide.

Singing runs in her family and the entire Brightman clan, comprising six siblings, can all sing, except for one.

“The others didn’t really want to pursue it more. My very youngest sister talks about wanting to do it, but has yet to,” she says, laughing when asked if singing was part of family gatherings.

“We’re not like the Osmonds, I’m afraid! And I’m always travelling.”

Dreamchaser by Sarah Brightman is released by Universal Music Malaysia.

I spy with my eye: In Flower Boy Next Door, Park Shin-hye is the shy and quirky girl who spies on her hunky neighbour.

Sharing screen time with heartthrobs is all in a day’s work for Park Shin-hye.

In South Korea, actress Park Shin-hye is often described by the media as having “saved a country in her last life”. The expression, often used in envy, alludes to having a blessed life.

After all, the 23-year-old has shared the small screen with some of South Korea’s hottest stars: actor-singer Jang Geun-suk, 25, in You’re Beautiful (2009); rock group CNBlue’s leader Jung Yong-hwa, 23, in You’re Beautiful and Heart Strings (2011); and up-and-coming actor Yoon Si-yoon, 26, in her latest drama Flower Boy Next Door.

Next up - she will star opposite heartthrob Lee Min-ho, 25, of Boys Over Flowers (2009) fame, in a new drama series, The Heirs.

When asked which of her swoonworthy leading men she shares the best chemistry with, Park replies: “If I had to choose one, it would be Jang Geun-suk. He’s been acting for a long time, so it was comfortable exchanging lines with him in scenes.”

Park previously revealed on a Korean variety show that Jang’s mother is a big fan of hers. In fact, she is a hit with mothers in general.

In an e-mail interview, she says of her fans: “I think there’s quite a good range of age groups, generally between 10 and 30 years of age, but it does seem that I’m a favourite among mothers. I’m really thankful for that.”

It is understandable, given the string of sweet and demure roles she has played. She established her status as the girl next door when she played angelic daughter-in-law Hana in Tree Of Heaven (2006).

In Flower Boy Next Door, she plays the shy and quirky Go Dok-mi, who spies on her handsome neighbour, played by Kim Jung-san.

When asked if the real Park Shin-hye is sweet or quirky, the actress says: “I don’t think any of the characters I’ve acted thus far are completely different from my own character. Be it demure or lively, I think they all contain a part of me.”

It may be hard to believe, but the fresh-faced beauty is practically a small-screen veteran, having made her acting debut 10 years ago in the popular tearjerker Stairway To Heaven (2003). She won the Child Actress Award at the 2003 SBS Drama Awards for her role as the younger version of the lead character Han Jung-suh.

“Stairway To Heaven was the first drama I worked on, and You’re Beautiful was the drama that brought me beyond Korea to meet fans from other countries. That is especially meaningful to me,” reflects the actress, who is studying drama and cinema at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

Park has also appeared in movies such as romantic comedy Cyrano Agency in 2010 and the heartwarming melodrama Miracle In Cell No. 7, which was released last year.

The latter broke records just 52 days after its release and is now the third highest grossing Korean film in Korea.

On the difference between dramas and movies, she says: “It’s easier for dramas to reach out to audiences, since dramas can be viewed at home. But films are different because one has to go out, look for a cinema and buy the ticket to watch the film.

“I think I still need to work harder at cultivating the ability of bringing audiences out of their homes into the cinemas.” –The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

The finale of Flower Boy Next Door airs this evening on Channel M HD (HyppTV Ch 601) at 7pm.

State of grace: Vehaara Arts is presenting Inheritance: An Odissi Voyage, a showcase of the traditional odissi dance repertoire.

Vehaara Arts introduces a new generation of Indian classical arts performers.

Odissi may have originated in Orissa, India, but thanks to pioneers like Sutra Dance Theatre founder Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, there is no denying that the classical dance has a vibrant presence in Malaysia. Furthermore, with more and more second- and third-generation dancers emerging with their own unique approaches, the art form looks set to grow and evolve in interesting ways here.

Lawrence Sackris is among this new generation of Malaysian odissi dancers, and as one of the founders of the Vehaara Arts dance theatre studio, he is eager to introduce their take on the odissi dance repertoire. The multi-genre dance school is presenting Inheritance: An Odissi Voyage, a classic odissi dance programme.

Started three years ago by Lawrence and his fellow arts practitioners Kunaratnam Vellautham, Hanusha Balashanmugam, Rama-krishnan and Balashanmugam, Vehaara Arts aims to continue highlighting the various Indian classical arts in Malaysia. Inheritance is their first classical show, and they hope many more will follow.

As the production’s art director, Lawrence hopes to showcase the many influences he has internalised as an odissi dancer. Having gotten his primary training under Ramli’s tutelage, Lawrence has also learnt under prominent dancers Dr Chandrabanu in Australia and Durga Charan Ranbir in Orissa, who is one of the custodians of the Deba Prasad Das school of odissi. He has also studied in Nrityagram, India’s premier residential school for Indian classical dancers.

“Each of the masters I’ve studied under have their own style of dancing, and being exposed to these was very useful to me, both as a dancer and now as a teacher. My time in Nrityagram, too, opened my eyes to what kind of dancers I would like my students to become,” says Lawrence.

His emphasis in his dance school, he adds, is on technique.

“A dancer, especially a classical one, must excel at technique. For example, the upper body is very important to attract the audience but, at the same time, the footwork must be very strong. Odissi’s footwork is not easy to master because it has to be strong yet soft,” he explains.

After staging Inheritance in Kuala Lumpur, the folks behind Vehaara are planning to bring the show to Penang, Kedah and Singapore later this year, for which they are currently on the lookout for sponsors.

The production will feature 12 dancers showcasing a traditional odissi margam (a specific arrangement of dance items), starting with a mangalacharan (invocatory piece) on Hariharo, the united form of Lords Shiva and Vishnu.

This will be followed by a sthai (pure dance item that mirrors the temple sculptures of Orissa), in which Lawrence has incorporated elements of acrobatics as homage to the gotipua dancers of Orissa, where young boys dressed as women perform intricate acrobatic movements inspired by the life of Radha and Krishna.

“It is a very intense and vigorous piece, and I am excited to be able to honour the gotipua tradition. Their dance is a precursor to odissi, and what they do is really difficult. These people deserve to be adored!” says Lawrence.

He has further included in the programme two contrasting pallavi (pure dance) pieces – the Vasantha pallavi and the Kedarakhamboji pallavi.

“The first is a lyrical piece that will be performed by the girls, and it will show the beauty and curviness of odissi. The second, by the boys, has high crescendo and lots of energy,” he says.

Lawrence will also be performing the abhinaya item – Lalitha Lavanga – a poetic piece that emphasises hand gestures, facial expressions and body movements.

“The show is going to be very interesting in terms of the choreography and music, and we hope it will show our audience what Vehaara Arts is capable of,” he says.

> Inheritance: An Odissi Voyage will be staged this Saturday, 8pm, at Auditorium Shantanand, The Temple Of Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur. For invitations, contact Kuna (014-638 3771) or Munes (017-455 3968).

Award-winning choreographer and UM graduate student Khairulazhar Mohtar will present Abadi, which means eternal.

Six new choreographies will be presented by the UMa Dance Company next week in a two-night performance.

THE Universiti Malaya Dance Company (UMa Dance Company) will present a contemporary dance showcase next week, featuring six new works by established and emerging artistes.

Choreographed by lecturers and graduate students of the dance department, the showcase, which is held biannually, aims to demonstrate the learning outcomes of practical courses offered to students during the semester. It also serves as a platform for students to create, manage and present a stage production.

To begin the performance, which takes place at Universiti Malaya on May 15 and 16, Azura Abal Abas will present Rusuk. Inspired by a verse from the Quran, she examines the existence of Adam and Eve and the origin of the creation of mankind. The choreographer dissects the mystery and mystique of Eve, who is believed to have been created from Adam’s left rib (rusuk). This experimental work focuses on the issue of equality among man and woman in fulfilling their religious duties to God, to complete and support each other. Azura further examines the concept of equality by referring to the oneness created by the right and left ribs.

Moments by Syafizal-Syazlee Salehuddin will explore the various stressful periods in one’s life.

“There are moments when we feel the pressure in our lives. We feel the breach from within before crisis takes over our bodies. The urge to strip off the pain and the stress feels like a time-bomb imploding within us. There are times when we need a moment to peel away ... not more than a moment,” explains Syafizal.

Muhammad Syaffiq Hambali, who was voted the best dancer in the Short & Sweet (Dance) Festival 2012, will show his mettle in So What? Utilising three dancers, he poses the question as he discovers the mixed emotions that lead to the shaping of a better person.

Award-winning choreographer and UM graduate student Khairulazhar Mohtar will present Abadi, which means eternal. This piece portrays the human life cycle and mortality. He asserts that all beginnings must have an end. However, death and the after-life are often forgotten as humans indulge in all kinds of whims in the present life.

Leng Poh Gee and his students will stage Remembrances. Using the choreographic materials provided in the course, it features games, interactive activities and discussions among the dancers of diverse ethnic backgrounds; these are the essential tools that have shaped this piece.

“The title for this piece is derived from the remembrances of the dancers of their lives, from the day they were enrolled in the dance programme at the university,” says Leng, who heads the dance department.

To wrap up the night, Hii Ing Fung will present Space, examining it from various dimensions. This piece looks at the delicate relationship between human beings through interactive bodies and isolated movements depicted in public and private spaces.

UMa Dance Company was established in 2007 to enable UM dance students to showcase contemporary works featuring challenging choreography.

Although a young company, it has gained quite a reputation nationwide and was selected to perform at the World Dance Alliance Conference (Singapore, 2007), Tari – Aswara International Dance Festival (Kuala Lumpur, 2009), Pra-Festival Negara Kretagama (Indonesia, 2009), Contact – full-length contemporary dance performance (Kuala Lumpur) and Youth Dance Festival (Kluang, 2009-2011).

The UMa Dance Showcase will take place at Experimental Theatre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, on May 15 and 16 at 8.30pm. Entrance is free but call 010-226 7190 or 016-960 0610 to reserve your seats.

LONDON: British film director Bryan Forbes, who made the 1970s sci-fi horror classic "The Stepford Wives", has died aged 86, a family friend said on Wednesday.

Forbes passed away at his home in Surrey, southern England, "following a long illness" and was surrounded by his family, including the actress Nanette Newman, according to his friend, the journalist Matthew D'Ancona.

"Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema, known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries and known in other fields including politics," D'Ancona said in a statement.

"He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family."

"The Stepford Wives" (1975) based on a novella by Ira Levin, tells the story of a woman who moves to a conservative American town only to find out that the bland, submissive women who live there are actually robots.

Forbes also directed "Whistle Down the Wind" (1961), about three English farm children who discover a fugitive living in their barn and believe he is Jesus. - AFP

LONDON (Reuters) - Director J.J. Abrams is hoping to persuade mainstream film audiences to boldly go where they have never gone before and embrace the next instalment of Star Trek, a franchise usually reserved for sci-fi geeks.

The man behind the cult TV series Alias and Lost told Reuters he initially hesitated when Viacom's Paramount Pictures asked him to take on the film series, whose instalments in 1998 and 2002 failed to draw crowds.

But then he worked out how to make Star Trek appeal to a broader audience, by forgetting its creaking legacy and focusing on the drama.

His first attempt to "reboot" the epic with 2009's Star Trek was a critical success, though analysts were disappointed with foreign box office sales of about US$130 million.

Now he is hoping to push even further towards the final frontier with the 3D sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, the 12th in the series, opening in Britain on May 9 and the United States on May 17.

"The idea was to make a movie that works on its own terms ... This (film) was not meant to be like an in-joke. This is very much for moviegoers and not just Star Trek fans," said Abrams (pic), wearing his trademark thick-rimmed black glasses.

The plot focuses on the crew's emotions and moral dilemmas to make "an action adventure thriller .. a little more visceral and thrilling", he said.

Most hardcore Star Trek fans welcomed Abrams' involvement in the series; he already had a huge geek fan base thanks to his TV and film back-catalogue. But Abrams himself was far less enthusiastic about the franchise when he first encountered it.

"NEVER GOT IT AS A KID"

"I never really got it as a kid. I never really understood Star Trek. It felt very talky and still to me. I have come to appreciate what it is and what it means."

Since working his magic on Star Trek, he has already been asked to revive another sci-fi behemoth. In January, Walt Disney Co. said he would direct Star Wars: Episode VII, giving hope to that franchise's long-suffering fans who were disappointed by the last three instalments.

J.J. Abrams, British actress Alice Eve, US actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto pose during a photocall for 'Star Trek Into Darkness' in Moscow, Russia.

Star Trek Into Darkness again casts Chris Pine as the womanising Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, a mixed-race human-Vulcan who lives by the laws of logic.

The 23rd-century action starts with an attack on Starfleet's base in London by the one-man killing machine John Harrison, played by the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, best known as the detective Sherlock Holmes in the BBC drama Sherlock.

The crew of the Enterprise are soon face-to-face with their old foes the Klingons, but things are not what they seem.

Cumberbatch, 36, said it was daunting to be a newcomer on the Star Trek cast, but he bulked up and threw himself into the role of the villain.

"The 10-year-old in me relished throwing people around the set, jumping and flying through space and the air, and running through glass walls," he told Reuters.

Critics have not been as glowing in their praise for Abrams' second Star Trek movie as for his first.

"People are unlikely to charge out of the cinema with quite the same level of glee as they did in 2009; but this is certainly an astute, exhilarating concoction," wrote Andrew Culver in Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Abrams said no official discussions have yet started on a third movie but he would be "love to be in that conversation" if there was the demand for another.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. rapper Ja Rule was released from prison on Tuesday after serving about two years on gun and tax evasion charges, a spokesman for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, was released from federal prison in Ray Brook, New York, and will be under house arrest until July 28, a spokesman for the Always On Time rapper said.

Ja Rule, 37, pleaded guilty in 2011 to failing to file tax returns over a five year period and attempted criminal possession of a weapon in 2010.

He was sentenced to 28 months in prison after failing to pay $1.1 million in taxes between 2004 and 2008, prosecutors said.

The rapper was also sentenced to two years in prison for possessing a semi-automatic handgun, which police found hidden in his car following a 2007 concert in New York.

He was able served both sentences concurrently.

Ja Rule scored No. 1 albums with 2000's Rule 3:36 and 2001's Pain Is Love, which also garnered a Grammy nomination.

The rapper is best known for his collaborations with Jennifer Lopez, I'm Real and Ain't It Funny, which both topped the U.S. Billboard song chart in 2001.

REUTERS - Madonna sold an abstract painting by French artist Fernand Leger for US$7.16 million on Tuesday to raise funds for girls' education projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

The 1921 painting, Trois Femmes a la Table Rouge, which carried a pre-sale estimate of up to US$7 million, was purchased by an unidentified buyer at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale in New York, according to the auction house's website.

The pop singer said in April that she bought the painting in 1990 and that selling it would combine her passions for art and education by raising funds for the Ray of Light Foundation, a non-profit organization offering vocational training for street children and poor farmers.

"I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls' schools. We don't have time to be complacent," Madonna said in a statement last month.

"I want to trade something valuable for something invaluable - Educating Girls!"

Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi in southern Africa and plans to build 10 schools there.

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Tim Lambesis, lead singer for the heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has been arrested over accusations he sought the help of an undercover detective to have his estranged wife killed, police said.

Lambesis was taken into custody on Tuesday in Oceanside, California, after he solicited help in the scheme from the undercover detective, said San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell.

Police had previously learned Lambesis was seeking someone who could commit the slaying, Caldwell said.

"The information came to us late last week. We acted quickly on it. I believe that we averted a great tragedy," she said.

Caldwell said the ongoing investigation prevented her from disclosing any details about why Lambesis might have wanted to have his estranged wife killed or how police first learned about what they described as his murder plan.

A representative for the As I Lay Dying's record label, Metal Blade, could not immediately be reached for comment. It was unclear if Lambesis had an attorney.

The band's 2007 album An Ocean Between Us debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 list, and ranks as one of their top-selling releases. Last year, As I Lay Dying put out its sixth album Awakened.

Lambesis is a founding member of the band, which was formed in San Diego.

As I Lay Dying has at times been described in the media as a Christian group, but Lambesis said this year in an interview with heavy metal website Noisecreep that group members wanted "to be judged on the music" rather than their "personal beliefs."

Lambesis is expected to appear in court for an arraignment on Wednesday or Thursday. A spokesman for the San Diego District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment.

While the third installment of the Iron Man franchise enjoys box office glory, taking in over US$351 million over the weekend, Hollywood is reeling in shock that the movie's lead, Robert Downey Jr. has indicated that he does not want to return for a stand-alone Iron Man 4 movie.

The actor, however, is open to the idea of returning as the iron-clad hero in Marvel's The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3.

Movieweb.com reports that in April the actor wanted to “retire” his Tony Stark character but he didn't leave a timetable as to when he wanted to do so. His latest, Iron Man 3 is the last movie Downey Jr. is obligated to do under his current contract with Marvel Studios.

In the meantime, the Marvel franchise has continued to attract a massive audience in worldwide cinemas, with US$175.9 million made in 54 international territories, bringing the global revenue for Iron Man 3 to just over US$680 million.

The Avengers 2 is slated for a May 2015 release and The Avengers 3 is due in 2017. Returning to the Avengers movie are stars Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders and Mark Ruffalo.

While The Avengers 3 does not have a director, The Avengers 2 will be directed by Joss Whedon.

It’s heating up in MasterChef Selebriti Malaysia (Season 2).

A detective who’s funny and celebrities who bicker around the kitchen sink – hey, it’s only TV.

LOCAL TV channels did a good job in covering the 13th General Election last Sunday. Sure, there were some mistakes made by either field reporters or show hosts/anchors, but overall, the newsrooms did well in getting viewers all the information we needed.

Now, back to regular programming.

British investigative comedy Dirk Gently (ITV Choice) is a current favourite on this reviewer’s list. It is based on the character Dirk Gently, a private investigator who owns Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, created by author Douglas Adams (he of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fame).

Played by the funny Stephen Mangan, Gently is pretty much a bumbling “holistic” detective who solves cases based on the belief that everything is connected to one another. Because of this rather unorthodox method, he sometimes ends up in the most hilarious of situations, much to the chagrin of his sidekick Richard MacDuff (played by Darren Boyd).

Although the agency does get some big cases – mostly from eccentric clients or those who have tried all other means of solving their problems – they are few and far between. Last week’s episode saw Gently’s agency in a dire financial situation, a constant problem he can’t ever seem to get rid of.

Dirk Gently received positive reviews when it premiered as a teaser episode in Britain way back in December 2010; this prompted ITV Studios to produce three more episodes (they were shown in 2012), which in British TV terms may be considered as a “full series”. Unfortunately, positive reviews from critics did not manage to keep the series alive as Dirk Gently was not commissioned for a second season.

One show that’s currently in its second year is MasterChef Selebriti Malaysia (Astro Ria). The show follows the blueprint of the original British MasterChef series, from the rules and regulations right down to its kitchen plan, which is actually quite nice. There are currently more than 30 countries with their own versions of MasterChef, but Malaysia and Australia (where the show is hugely popular) are the only ones that have a “celebrity” edition.

If you have ever seen MasterChef Malaysia before, you would know that the cooking standards of some of the contestants are ... well, let’s just say they could be better. Much better.

The contestants themselves are not that exciting either and always don’t seem to have anything interesting to say.

However, in MasterChef Selebriti (facebook.com/masterchefselebritimalaysia), things are lot more dramatic and the dishes look more appetising. The contestants are, after all, entertainers so each one of them knows how to work the cameras and make things more entertaining for viewers. The celebrities are also, perhaps, more exposed to other cultures and have travelled the world, so their knowledge of food is better.

Last year’s series was won by Datuk Fazley Yaakob; it’s difficult to pick the top three competitors yet from the current batch of celebrities – among them are Datuk Aznil Nawawi, Shanie Hisham, Radhi Razali, Rozita Che Wan, Norish Karman, Celina Khor, Michael Ang and Cat Farish – since the show just debuted on April 22.

Unfortunately, the judges for MasterChef Selebriti Malaysia are as dull as before. Chefs Zubir Md Zain and Moh Johari Edrus, who have been with the franchise since it began in 2011, have improved slightly in terms of their hosting skills but are still a little stiff.

Chef Adu Amran Hassan is a lot more animated and charismatic but doesn’t seem to jive with the other two chefs.

Let’s hope this will improve soon, or it’s burnt toast for the show’s future (cue lame joke sound effect).

Tweet (@MyStarTwo) us what you’ve been watching on television!

The Spudniks discuss shows that shaped their lives.

SO we’ve decided to write about TV shows that have defined us as human beings. And while at first it seemed a simple topic, I’ve been mulling over it for quite some time now and I am still unsure.

Am I a product of what I have watched on television? I definitely remember a lot of programmes, and I remember that my life used to revolve around watching these shows – so I must have, at some level, been transformed or at least influenced by the plots, themes and characters.

Until today, we (my sisters, cousins and I) still giggle and wish each other good night the way everyone did on The Waltons (ending in a good and proper “Good night, John Boy”). How the life and trials of a 1930s American mountain family could have made me what I am today, I don’t really know. But I do know I loved the show during my growing up years of six, seven and eight. Ditto Little House On The Prairie.

In fact, there were a string of family-themed programmes which gave me relief that I was not the only person in the world who had it tough dealing with my parents and siblings, like Family, Eight Is Enough, Family Ties, Growing Pains, The Cosby Show, Diff’rent Strokes and Charles In Charge. I worry about my kids sometimes because their equivalent for what was my Jetsons is The Simpsons and Family Guy. But who am I trying to kid? Next up on my list of shows to devour is Modern Family! Yes, I’m dysfunctional.

Then there were the space years – Space 1999, as I’ve mentioned before in this column, really blew me away.

I was about nine years old then. The British sci-fi series featuring Martin Landau heralded my entrance into the world of science fiction, and was my humble introduction to aliens and UFOs.

Then, during my early 20s, The X-Files kind of took over my television experience completely; and week after week it became an obsession to know more about paranormal phenomena, cryptids and mutants, with Mulder and Scully as my guides. Monsters and ghosts became part of my life – the likes of Eugene Tooms (a mutant capable of stretching and contorting his body) and the Jersey Devil (a feral cannibal type) became wildly fascinating.

I can fully appreciate now why my own children find Supernatural interesting (they carefully placed a trail of salt at the doorstep of their bedrooms at one stage ... you know, to keep the bad guys out). In fact, above my desktop computer at home, I still have a poster that says “I want to believe” – just like the one Mulder had in his office.

More recently, I was good and completely hooked to the Fringe series, which I guess, was in a way a worthy progression to my “paranormal progress”. Yes, I’m also loony.

When it came to school life and growing up, I remember loving Sarah Jessica Parker in Square Pegs way back in the 1980s, and Fred Savage in The Wonder Years. And these days, it has become just such a joyous experience watching Community. My favourite on the show is Abed Nadir (portrayed by Danny Pudi), a coloured kid (of Palestinian Polish American parentage) who may – or may not – have Asperger’s syndrome. Now, why didn’t I ever have a collegemate like that? No worries, though. I’m only on Season Two, and with three more to go, Abed’s surely on my list of potential new best buds. Anyone who can do a great impersonation of the Caped Crusader has to be!

Yes, I want to go back to school. – A.M.C.

* TELEVISION shows that defined moments in my life? Well, the earliest one I can think of was a children’s show in the late 1970s and early 1980s called The Big Blue Marble.

It was a 30-minute programme which featured children from around the world each week, highlighting not only the way they live but also their culture and country.

It was interesting to see how a kid somewhere far, far away lived and what they wore, ate, how they spoke, what their houses looked like, etc.

Heck, I’ve lived in Klang and Petaling Jaya in Selangor, and even in Penang until I was 20. The most foreign place I’ve lived in was Singapore!

The best part of the show was the “pen pal” segment where viewers were encouraged to write in (the postal address was somewhere in California, United States). The show’s producers would then pair you up with another child from another country with whom you could correspond.

I gained two friends through The Big Blue Marble’s pen pal programme: Janne from Finland and Kerstin from the United States. These were the days before the Internet so correspondence was slow – I’d receive a letter every two months (or more) but it was always very exciting. The idea of being friends with someone from across the globe was just so cool.

I learnt a lot about Janne and Kerstin (who were both around my age) and I think it gave me a bigger perspective on life and it also made me realise that my English was pretty good (their tenses were all wrong!) and could spell a lot better than my American friend (he, he).

I was amazed at how – despite our differences – we had so much to talk about, without ever meeting! I complained about my life and they about theirs. It was like a scared, secret sisterhood. I kept in touch with Janne and Kerstin for five or six years and I do sometimes wonder where they are now or if I will ever bump into them.

In my youth, I’d like to say that edgy (at the time), decade-defining shows like Sex And The City or the very gritty and ultra-cool mafia series The Sopranos marked moments in my life, but nope, I wasn’t ever that “cool”, nor was my life that interesting. The X-Files, however, had a major impact on me, pushing boundaries of what I previously believed about paranormal activity and conspiracy theories. Seriously, I thank Chris Carter for getting me to question everything I had previously believed in.

One of my all-time favourite quotes in the show was from Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson): “Mulder if they dropped you off in the middle of the desert and told you that the truth was out there, you would ask them for a shovel.” – S.I

Tweet (@MyStarTwo) us what shows defined your life, and if you know a Janne from Finland or Kerstin from the US, who used to be pen pals with a girl from Malaysia.

Life of the party: Leo Bloom (Vince Chong, left), Franz Liebkind (Alfred Loh) and Max Bialystock (Peter Ong) perform the hilarious Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop.

A hilarious musical about a bad musical about Hitler. Yes, we’re not kidding.

THE acclaimed playwright and screenwriter William Goldman once famously summed up the entertainment industry in one sentence: “Nobody knows anything.”

And I think the man was right: it really isn’t easy to predict what audiences will go for nowadays. Many a sure-fire hit has fizzled out into a flop, while a quiet show not expected to do well goes on to rake millions at the box office.

The saying is especially apt to describe the musical The Producers: who knew a show about two men setting out to commit tax fraud would prove to be such a beloved Broadway hit?

The Producers was recently staged by Pan Productions at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac), and it runs until May 11. Featuring visually-impressive sets, live music, and a highly-talented cast, the musical proved a wonderful watch, a delightfully over-the-top show packed with hilarious jokes and catchy tunes.

Directed by Nell Ng, with music direction by Onn San and choreography by Farah Sulaiman, the production featured a principal cast of Peter Ong, Vince Chong, Safia Hanifah, Alfred Loh, Alizakri Alias, and Joshua Gui.

The Producers, featuring music and lyrics by the legendary Mel Brooks, tells of faded Broadway producer Max Bialystock, who hatches a scheme with his accountant, the mousy Leo Bloom, to make two million dollars through a complex scheme involving a Broadway flop.

After finding the worst play in the world (Springtime For Hitler, written by the volatile ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind) and the worst director in the world (the flamboyantly gay Roger DeBris), the duo deliberately set up their show for failure.

Things however, ‘go horribly right’, and the show becomes a smashing success, resulting in hilarious complications.

The Producers was impressively staged. Credit has to be given to the set designers and prop crew, who leave no stone unturned in bringing the world of the show to life. Whether it was major props, such as painted backdrops with suggestively-placed doorknobs, or minor details such as fake theatre posters, the show’s sets were indeed remarkable.

Leo Bloom (Vince Chong, centre, illuminated) sings of his Broadway dreams in the catchy tune I Want to Be A Producer.

The show’s music was provided by a six-piece band, which was a great touch. I personally feel a musical should always have live music (I’m fussy that way) and the band did a great job, despite occasionally overpowering the cast’s vocals.

Jokes were fast and furious, with a very wide array of humour. Slapstick antics, clever wordplay and innuendo, jabs at Nazis and gays, theatre in-jokes and breaking of the fourth wall, the show had it all.

Much of the humour was very politically incorrect: easily offended types will probably have a heart attack by the show’s fourth number, while others may bust a gut from laughing too loud.

The musical’s greatest strength was its wonderful cast, all of whom delighted in their roles. Ong wowed as the sleazy and charming Bialystock, delivering many of the play’s most hilarious lines with aplomb. While occasionally going too over the top, Ong mostly kept his character funny yet believable, an impressive achievement.

Chong shone as the timid, repressed Bloom, with his straight-faced reactions to the show’s outlandish situations providing some of The Producers’ biggest laughs. Vocally, Chong also does well, particularly during the songs Till Him and I Want To Be A Producer.

The duo have good chemistry, and scenes between them were always a hoot.

Safia performs well as the duo’s seductive secretary Ulla (changed from Swedish to Indian in this production, which works out quite well).

Alizakri and Gui are wonderful as the flamboyant Roger DuBris and his flighty assistant Carmen Ghia, combining great line delivery and unbounded physicality to create some terrific scenes.

My favourite performance, however, would have to be Loh’s Franz Liebkind. I don’t know if he will be flattered or insulted to hear this, but Loh seems completely natural as the paranoid, Hitler-obsessed playwright. Delivering his lines in a thick German accent, Loh goose-stepped and heil-ed his way to a highly memorable performance, with his song Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop one of the show’s highlights.

My only nitpick with the show was the infamous Springtime for Hitler number, one of my favourite musical theatre songs. Despite its terrific energy, and a zany display of swastika banners, cardboard tanks, and a huge Iron Eagle stand, it somehow still didn’t feel over-the-top enough for me. I don’t think this is the fault of the show: perhaps my expectations were too high.

I hope that unlike Bialystock and Bloom, Pan Productions genuinely intended to create a great musical, because that what was their production of The Producers was. A side-splitting, toe-tapping delight.

Watch The Producers at KLPac, Jalan Stratchan, off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur which runs until May 11 at 8.30pm and 3pm (Saturday and Sunday). Tickets are priced at RM125, RM105 and RM85. Call the KLPAC Box Office at 03-4047 9000 to book tickets.

Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno is back to rock the region with the band playing Singapore on May 28.

THE return of Grammy-winning alternative metal band Deftones to this region has been much anticipated. Despite not having a concert date in Kuala Lumpur on this tour, the band’s fans here can prepare for a trip to Singapore on May 28 where the quartet will play at The Coliseum, Hard Rock Hotel Singapore, Resorts World Sentosa.

The Deftones previously performed in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 14, 2011 on the Diamond Eyes Tour to rave reviews.

The upcoming concert in Singapore is part of Deftones’ tour in support of its critically acclaimed seventh studio album Koi No Yokan. Released in Nov 2012, it debuted at No.11 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, with over 65,000 copies sold in the first week. The first single, Tempest, proved the band, which includes Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Frank Delgado, Abe Cunningham and Sergio Vega, has not lost its bite.

In the United States, Revolver magazine declared Koi No Yokan its “Album of the Year”, Spin selected it as one of its Top 50 Albums of 2012 (and its No.5 Metal Album of the Year), and the NY Post hailed it as “one of the best rock albums of the year.”

From its 1994 debut Adrenaline to their platinum-certified, Billboard chart-topping, Grammy-winning breakthrough album White Pony, Deftones have continually crossed-over genres, defied categorisation and delivered compelling live performances around the world. The Sacramento band’s 2010 release Diamond Eyes was named iTunes’ “Rock Album of the Year” as well as KERRANG!’s 2010 Album of the Year. Diamond Eyes also graced many other “Best Of” lists.

Sadly, Chi Cheng, original bassist with Deftones, died on April 13 this year, which leaves a poignant mark on this tour as his bandmates continue his legacy.

Tickets for Deftones show in Singapore on May 28 are priced at RM240. Grab them at Rock Corner and Victoria Music outlets in the Klang Valley. Buy online at airasiaredtix.com.

Class act: Joey (Jason Statham) cleans up his act, only to wind up in the criminal world in Hummingbird.

Jason Statham takes flight in Hummingbird, a movie which zeroes in on the homeless.

RESEARCHING into homeless people in London, director/writer Steven Knight found that 10% of them are former soldiers. It was remarkable to him that people who lived by strict rules and absolute orderliness at one point of their lives would end up living on the street. It has become a norm to ignore the homeless, but to Knight, each and every one of them have a story. He then fictionalised the story of a soldier who ends up homeless in the film Hummingbird.

In the film’s production notes, Knight remarked: “I discovered there is a direct route between coming out of the army and becoming homeless ... I talked to a lot of homeless ex-forces people, and I started to put the bones of the story together.”

The film revolves around an ex-special forces soldier named Joey Jones (Jason Statham) who becomes homeless after running from a military court-martial. While looking for a place to stay, he breaks into an empty apartment. Here, he tries to change his ways, giving up drinking and subsequently assuming the identity of the man who lives in the apartment. Joey finds work as a dishwasher in a restaurant and then later, an unofficial bouncer. His talents soon get noticed by a gangster, and he is recruited as a driver and enforcer to the man who rules the underworld in Soho, London. Joey, being a nice guy, shares his wealth by buying food for the shelter that once housed him. Unfortunately, his good fortune ends quickly when he’s involved in a shooting.

To play this ordinary working-class Englishman who goes through so many different experiences within a movie, the producers immediately thought of action-star Statham.

Producer Guy Heely explained: “Jason Statham is the most incredible athlete, which means we were able to shoot the big action scenes very easily with him. He comes in and does it all himself and is the most proficient person on the set.”

Knight added: “Statham has got a particular presence about him that makes it absolutely believable that he is this character. He was so committed to doing the research, to meeting homeless people, meeting ex-forces people and really getting the character right that it pays dividends on the screen.”

Hummingbird is filmed largely on location in London, with focus on Covent Gardent, Chinatown and Soho, and mostly at night. Knight also wanted to highlight the River Thames as a sinister location for dumping of bodies, giving it a malevolent notion. Unlike most action-based films, however, Knight wanted to capture the beauty of the city as well. “What I set out to do was to say – OK we’re going to be shooting in, for example, an alleyway where homeless people are sleeping, or some of the seedier sides of Soho, and the easy thing to do would have been to make it gritty. But what I wanted to do was to make it beautiful, and for the camera to have a dignity about it and for the whole thing to be done almost as if it were the pastoral look.” – Mumtaj Begum

Hummingbird opens in cinemas nationwide on May 16.

STOCKHOLM: ABBA fever hit Stockholm on Tuesday when a museum devoted to the Swedish pop legends opened - filling a void in the hearts of millions of fans since the group disbanded three decades ago and likely to fill the pockets of Sweden's tourism industry too.

"I'm so moved, I think it's so fantastic that we get to see the history of ABBA," 46-year-old Swede Henrik Ahlen, who lives in London but came to Stockholm to be one of the first to tour the new museum.

"I was eight years old when they won the Eurovision Song Contest (in 1974) and they have always been a part of me."

Like many of the first visitors, most of whom were in their 40s and all of whom were taking pictures, Ahlen had tears in his eyes as he looked around.

The museum features a host of exhibits including the glitzy costumes worn by the group, which has sold more than 378 albums worldwide.

A 31-year-old Argentinian woman named Celeste, who said her grandmother raised her on ABBA music, said she could "spend the whole day in the costume room".

"I've already been to Sweden eight times and every time it was ABBA-related," she said, adding that she learned Swedish because of the band and that she had had five ABBA costumes sewn up for herself.

The quartet dominated the 1970s disco scene with their costumes, kitsch dance routines and catchy melodies such as "Voulez Vous", "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo", the song that won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and thrust the band into the international spotlight.

They last performed on stage together in 1982 and split a year later, and have vowed they will never reunite to sing together again.

"There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were," band member Bjoern Ulvaeus, 68, said in a 2008 interview.

On Monday, Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad and Benny Andersson attended a VIP event at the museum. Agnetha Faeltskog was promoting her latest solo album in London and did not attend.

The state-of-the-art museum, located on Stockholm's leafy island of Djurgaarden, allows visitors to get up close and personal with the band, offering a bevy of interactivity.

In one room, fans who have dreamt of becoming the fifth member of the band will be able to appear on stage with the quartet and record a song with them thanks to a computer simulation.

In another room dedicated to the song "Ring, Ring", a 1970s telephone will be on display. Only four people know the phone number: the four ABBA members, who may occasionally call to speak live with museum visitors.

Other rooms feature childhood photos, the band's costumes and instruments, gold records, replicas of their recording studio and dressing rooms, and their stylist's worktable.

Visitors get the band's inside story told "with humour and warmth. They'll get close to the truth," Ulvaeus, who was married to Faeltskog, told AFP in an interview. Andersson and Lyngstad were also married.

"We also talk about daily life, life with the children, our break-up, the crises, things we haven't talked much about, the divorces. We've gone beyond the happy image that we presented," he said.

"A Really Successful ABBA Mix," Sweden's Dagens Nyheter headlined in a review Tuesday, adding that it was as if the whole museum was permeated by "Bjoern's and Benny's mildly sceptical smiles."

"The mix of cultural history, experience, and interactivity that seldom works at museums is really successful in a way that gives fans, the traditional museum public and families with children what they want."

Yet the entrance fee may deter some. At 23 euros, or US$30 a ticket for anyone over the age of eight, a family of four with two children will have to dish out 91 euros or US$120 for a few hours of fun.

But that hasn't stopped the most die-hard fans, who have booked up most of the available tickets online for the first few weeks, the lion's share of them from abroad, according to museum officials.

The museum says it expects to attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013. - AFP

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It is hailed as "the great American novel," but so far The Great Gatsby has defied attempts by some of Hollywood's top filmmakers to bring its lyrically romantic story and tragic characters to cinematic life.

But that didn't faze director Baz Luhrmann.

Luhrmann (pic), known for his lavish productions, assembled a roster of stars led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire in the latest incarnation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's mournful ode to the carefree, hedonistic 1920s and its youthful, wealthy and self-absorbed denizens.

One of the year's most anticipated films, The Great Gatsby opens in U.S. theaters on Friday and has been accorded the prestigious opening-night slot at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15.

As far back as 1926, just a year after the book was published, Hollywood has tried to capture and project Fitzgerald's artful prose onto the silver screen. A 1949 version starring Alan Ladd focused on Gatsby's criminal connections and even took significant liberties with the ending.

The last effort, apart from a TV film, in 1974 featured Robert Redford and Mia Farrow atop the marquee. Critics slammed it as lifeless and lugubrious, and the box office was a dismal US$20.6 million.

Luhrmann aims to change its checkered history with a lush 3-D production rendered in his trademark eye-popping visual style that first dazzled fans in the surprise 2001 hit Moulin Rouge, which went on to win several Oscars.

But the challenges of adapting The Great Gatsby were mired in both its period source material and its cinematic failures.

MASTERS OF ILLUSION

Jay Gatsby is an enigmatic hero pining for a lost love in the person of the not always sympathetic Daisy Buchanan, played by Mulligan. The tragic love story is built around illusion, but illusion might well be said to be Luhrmann's stock-in-trade.

Due to budgetary restraints, the Australian director abandoned his plan to shoot in New York, where the book is set, and moved the entire production to his native country.

In the end, he said: "It was great plus. We felt that we could create this grand illusion."

Even so, the production was plagued by everything from rain-drenching weather to on-set accidents, one of which resulted in a concussion for Luhrmann and shut down filming while he recovered.

Early on, the filmmakers asked themselves how they could make the classic story, indelibly linked to the 1920s, "feel like it was about now," as producer Douglas Wick put it.

DiCaprio and Mulligan as lovers in 'The Great Gatsby'.

Luhrmann agreed that the challenge lay in making the story relevant for today's audiences, while respecting what DiCaprio called "American Shakespeare ... one of the most celebrated novels of all time."

"I wanted the film to feel like it would have felt to read Fitzgerald's novel in '25," Luhrmann told Reuters, noting that Fitzgerald infused his novel with African-American street music and coined the term "Jazz Age."

"It made ... the book extremely pop cultural, extremely of the moment. It summed up the crazed, intoxicating times," he said of that music, adding, "But it doesn't do it for you now."

Enter Jay-Z, who was executive producer of the soundtrack.

In what Luhrmann called "a great collaboration," Jay-Z brought to fruition his idea of translating jazz into hip hop, with the help of music from Beyonce, Bryan Ferry, Fergie, Lana Del Ray and will.i.am.

Despite the 21st century concept of filming the movie in 3-D and driven by contemporary music, Luhrmann remains confident that Gatsby's story is a timeless one. "It plays in any place at any time. And the central idea of Gatsby is universal," he said.

HOLLOW OR GREAT ROMANTIC?

Even so, it can also be in the eye of the beholder, as DiCaprio said he discovered upon rereading the book as an adult.

"Everyone who reads it has their own interpretation of who these people are," the actor told reporters at a recent news conference, explaining how his own view on Gatsby had changed from his schoolboy impression of a great romantic, to one of a hollow figure of great sadness.

"It's incredibly nuanced, it's existential, and here at the center is this man that is incredibly hollow. He's searching for some sort of meaning in his life, and he's attached himself to this relic known as Daisy. She's a mirage," said DiCaprio.

"That's what's very difficult about making a movie about it. Everyone has their own personal attachment to this book and they feel like they know these characters on a very intimate level."

Maguire, as the movie's moral compass, Nick Carraway, reflected that even without updating, The Great Gatsby - which ends with the line "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" - remains timeless and cautionary.

"In a lot of ways this book predicted the great (1929) crash," he said. "It's a book that talks about great opulence and wealth in America ... and the idea that the future is endless, and that we can keep consuming and living the way we do without any consequences."

"We've encountered it again in our modern era, and it's something that we keep doing," Maguire said.

"And it's not just an American novel in that regard. It's something that's happening worldwide."

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