Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

 

Some people’s lives are so incredible that they deserve to have movies written about them. Nelson Mandela is one of those people. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom follows his life story from child to inmate to president, and along the way shows us what it really means to see an ideal through to fruition.

 

Born in a rural village in South Africa, Nelson Mandela (played by Idris Elba) grew up poor during the apartheid. Based upon Mandela’s 1994 autobiography of the same name, the film focuses on his time as an activist fighting the apartheid and the resulting 27-year prison sentence he was forced to serve. Mandela was an extraordinary and oft-controversial figure whose influence extended far beyond the prison walls he spent half of his life inside. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom explores the unbreakable spirit of a man dedicated to an ideal, as well as the great deeds that hard work and determination can accomplish.

 

Written by William Nicholson and directed by Justin Chadwick, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom will be released into theaters on November 29, 2013. This Weinstein Company drama also stars Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Jamie Bartlett, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Deon Lotz, and Terry Pheto.

 

Pacific Rim

“We always thought that alien life would come from the stars. We never considered it might come from deep beneath the sea.” In Pacific Rim it is the near future, and monstrous creatures called Kaiju have been swarming out of the Pacific Ocean, sparking a years-long war that has cost humanity millions of lives and billions of dollars. Mankind’s greatest weapons against the Kaiju are the Jaegers, giant robots controlled by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even these fearsome constructions are proving powerless against the relentless assault of the Kaiju. Exhausted and on the brink of destruction, humanity’s leaders have no choice but to turn to an unlikely duo for help—a washed-up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) piloting a legendary but obsolete Jaeger from the early days. Will their power be enough to save mankind from total annihilation?

Conceived as director Guillermo del Toro’s “beautiful poem to giant monsters,” Pacific Rim promises a compelling storyline and fantastic visual effects. “The Kaiju counted on the humans to hide, to give up, to fail,” rallies the leader of the human forces. “But today, we are canceling the apocalypse.”

Written by Travis Beachman and Guillermo del Toro and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pacific Rim will be released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX on July 12, 2013. This Warner Bros. Pictures sci-fi action film also stars Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Brad William Henke, and Diego Klattenhoff.

Prometheus

It’s late in the 21st century, and archeologists have discovered identical star maps amidst the ruins of several ancient civilizations that were previously believed to be completely disconnected. Based on these star maps, the crew of the Prometheus, a highly-advanced, top of-the-line ISRV (Insterstellar Research Vessel), is dispatched on a scientific mission. Their goal: to follow the map to a distant planet, in the hopes of discovering the origins of mankind.

Led by Captain Jeremiah Janek (Idris Elba), the Prometheus’ mission is sponsored by the Weyland Corporation, which is actually hoping to use the mission’s findings for its own financial gain. What the crew discovers, though, is a distant world and advanced civilization that threatens mankind’s very existence. In the end, they’re forced to fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

With Prometheus, director Ridley Scott (“Alien” and “Blade Runner”) returns to the genre he helped define. Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, Prometheus is a science fiction adventure that will be coming to the big screen in Imax 3-D on June 8, 2012.

The film also stars Noomi Rapace as archeologist Elizabeth Shaw, Michael Fassbender as android David, Guy Pearce as Weyland Corp.’s multibillionaire founder and CEO, Logan Marshall-Green as scientist (and Shaw’s love interest) Charlie Holloway, and Charlize Theron as Meridith Vickers, the Weyland Corporation employee who is sent along to monitor the expedition.