TRUEFILM Magazine Issue 1, May 2014 | Page 34

Summer Preview

Summer Preview

Butler, Amanda Ferrera

Writer and director Dean
DeBlois got the groundwork
out of the way in 2010 surprise
hit, How To Train Your
Dragon, and this summer
sees the return of Hiccup (Jay
Baruchel) and his dragon
Toothless in How To Train
Your Dragon 2. Everyone at
DreamWorks will have their
work cut out as the company
plan to expand the franchise
out to 2016 and beyond.
The first trailer for the sequel
showed something that
animation films very rarely
do, and it was like something
out of a hair-shaking advert.
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DreamWorks decided to make
hero Hiccup all grown up,
and he has now turned into a
bit of a hunk. “We just tried
to give him bed head! We’ve
done something that rarely
happens in animation… we age
our characters,” says DeBlois
at 2013 Comic-Con. Does
this now mean that loveable
Hiccup is to ditch his beloved
Toothless?
It’s been five years since Hiccup
and his pals save the lives of the
people on the island of Berk,
but the Vikings’ world has
changed. More dragons have
been discovered, but this brings
more and more enemies – most
notably, dragon trapper Eret
(Kit Harington). Cate Blanchett

also joins the cast as wyrm
whisperer, Valka, who claims to
be Hiccups mother.
DeBlois said outside the panel
to Entertainment Weekly that
Eret is his favourite character
from the new movie. “He’s my
favorite character on the show,
he has a youthful voice but a lot
of texture and mobility. There’s
a toughness and cockiness, but
a vulnerability and a sense of
misplaced loyalty in Eret. He
begins as a villain, but there
is potential for redemption in
him.”
Game of Thrones star Harington
also spoke about his character
saying, “Jon [Snow] never gets to
see dragons so this is my chance
to go into that world.”

TRANSFORMERS:
AGE OF EXTINCTION
RELEASE 10 July
DIRECTOR Michael Bay
CAST Mark Wahlberg,

Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor
Michael Bay’s Transformers
series has gone from strength
to strength since hitting our
screens in 2007. Box office
takings have progressively
gone through the roof with its
last outing Transformers: Dark
of the Moon destroying the box
office by taking an impressive
$1.12bn, which means the
franchise total takings are now
standing at $2.6bn. But now
with lead star Shia LaBeouf
not returning for the fourth
instalment, can it continue to
rake in the success?
LeBeouf’s departure may not
be of concern to the film’s

makers (especially if his
recent bag-wearing antics are
anything to go by), as they
now welcome Mark Wahlberg
who worked with Bay on Pain
& Gain. Transformers: Age of
Extinction is set four years on
from the last instalment and
sees Wahlberg play inventor
and single father, Cade Yeager.
Set in a world marred by
the events of the previous
three films, Optimus Prime
and co. have appeared to
vanished from Earth, leaving
all to get on in a world free
of Transformers. But when
Cade discovers a buried
Transformer, it signals the
return of a new and improved
Optimus to battle a new threat.

Photo: © Paramount Pictures

RELEASE 4 July
DIRECTOR Dean DeBlois
CAST Jay Baruchel, Gerard

Photo: © 20th Century Fox

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR
DRAGON 2

Age of Extinction is also the
first film in the series to boast
an entirely new cast with
Nicola Peltz playing Cade’s
daughter Tessa, Jack Reynor
playing Tessa’s boyfriend
Shane Dyson, and Stanley
Tucci and Sophia Myles
playing designer Joshua and
his assistant Darcy.
During an interview at
CinemaCon, Mark Wahlberg
says Age of Extinction is
compl WFVǒF