Rendering Possibilities Fused With Digital Wizardry Comes To Life In “Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb”
Walk into the world’s most magnificent museums in the
third instalment of the global hit franchise Night At the Museum that have
captivated audience round the globe starring Ben Stiller. The latest “Night At The Museum: Secret of
the Tomb” completes the trilogy that started some eight years ago and now, all
of its beloved and new characters come alive for their greatest adventure yet.
Ben Stiller reprises his role as
Larry Daley, the museum’s night security guard.
This time, trouble simmers anew
at New York’s Museum of Natural History. The iconic figures from the past,
which come to life each night, are malfunctioning and wreaking havoc. The magic
has gone awry. Larry, to the rescue, has
to take urgent action to save the lives of his historic friends. That means
embarking on a trip to the British Museum in London.
As the sun goes down on New York
and the legendary museum exhibits turn into living, breathing people and
creatures as always. But they are not acting normally. Larry Daley (Stiller) is
shocked to find that his friends Teddy Roosevelt, (Robin Williams) the
miniature Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and the two inch tall Roman centurion
Octavius, (Steve Coogan) are on the rampage, fighting and creating pandemonium.
They are all out of control. Larry discovers that the ancient Egyptian tablet,
which brings them to life each night, is losing its special powers. He sets off
across the Atlantic to London with his son Nick, (Skyler Gisondo) and the rest
of the familiar crew. They are hoping that when they arrive at the British
Museum, the great Pharaoh Of The Nile (Ben Kingsley), father of Pharaoh
Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek), will be able to solve the problem and reboot the
tablet.
Also returning is Patrick
Gallagher as Attila The Hun and Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck). Mickey Rooney (in his
final role), Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs are back as the retired security guards,
and Dexter the Capuchin monkey is up to mischief again. There are some
wonderful new characters, including the suave, debonair and very funny Sir
Lancelot, (Dan Stevens). Rebel Wilson stars as Tilly, the British Museum’s
security guard who falls for the primitively rugged charms of Laaa, a
Neanderthal man bearing an uncanny resemblance to Ben Stiller.
Director Shawn Levy and the
writers wanted to take some of the rules from the previous films and take them
to a new level, so they created a sequence where Larry, Teddy and Lancelot fall
into one of Escher’s lithographs, “Relativity,” setting off what may be the
most unique chase sequence in cinematic history. It’s a race through an impossible world, with
multiple planes, three levels of gravity and endless possibilities.
Stiller was delighted to return
as Larry Daley in the third, eagerly anticipated instalment of the hugely
successful franchise and this time, take on an extra role – as a caveman. That meant doing some scenes where he is
literally acting opposite himself. It was, he says with a smile, surreal and
ultimately, a lot of fun.
“So he comes to life, his name is La and he
sees me, and immediately thinks that I’m his father, and he gets a little
jealous of my real son, Nicky (Skyler Gisondo), so I had to do a bunch of
scenes with myself as two characters. I’d never done that before, and that’s
where that motion control stuff comes in, which was very interesting.”
Director Shawn Levy – who also
helmed the first two films – and his team utilised motion capture technology to
enhance the look of Stiller as La. And the actor admits that it was a
fascinating learning curve. “It was
probably the most involved technical thing I’ve ever done in a movie. You have
to first figure out who is driving the scene, and then you do that character
first.”
“Shawn and I would rehearse, and
he would play whichever role I wasn’t. Then I would do both sides of it with
him, and we would figure out which side was the character to do first—so I
could then react.”
“There were a couple of times
when we saw that we’d made a mistake, and should have done the other character
first, so we would come back and do the other side again because I knew how to
react more to what I was doing than the first time. That was an interesting
learning process for all of us. I’d never done anything like that before,
that’s for sure.”
Action-packed
with breathtaking visual effects, “Night at The Museum: Secret of the Tomb”
opens January 8 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed
by Warner Bros.
Post a Comment