RYAN KWANTEN joins the PURE ONES

Popularly known as the amorous Jason Stockhouse in the HBO original hit series True Blood, Ryan Kwanten now provides the voice of wayward owl, Kludd, in Warner Bros.’ fantasy adventure in 3D, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.

The film follows Soren (voice of Jim Sturgess), a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’ Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones.

Emerging as a rival sibling, Kludd envies Soren’s natural talent for flight and finds his enthusiasm for their dad’s tales of the Guardians tiresome. “When Kludd is taken by the Pure Ones, he quickly becomes enamored by the idea that he can be a great soldier for them, that he can be the more important brother now,” producer Deborah Snyder says. “He embraces their ways because he likes the attention, which starts him on this dark path. But Soren still wants to believe in Kludd’s salvation, that he can bring Kludd back around.”

“Kludd is sort of a tortured individual,” Kwanten comments. “He’s the oldest sibling, but he doesn’t have the natural abilities of his younger brother; he feels like he’s not living up to expectations. When he’s approached by the Pure Ones’ queen, Nyra, who praises him just for being a tyto owl, he’s vulnerable and easily manipulated into joining their efforts.”

Ryan Kwanten can currently be seen starring in the acclaimed series True Blood, based on the books by Sookie Stackhouse, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

He spent his hiatus from the popular Golden Globe-nominated show working on feature films, playing a police officer in the modern-day revenge western Red Hill, which debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival to rave reviews, and crafting the title role of secret agent and part-time superhero Griff the Invisible. He is currently in production on the film The Knights of Badassdom, alongside Steve Zahn. His other film credits include Don’t Fade Away; the title role in American Brown, which received the Audience Award for Best Film at the Montreal Film Festival; Liquid Bridge, nominated for Best Picture at the Australian Film Festival; and James Wan’s Dead Silence.

Kwanten appeared in numerous films and television shows while earning his business degree at Sydney University , gaining international notoriety when he joined the cast of his native homeland’s long-running popular Australian series Home and Away. Among his other credits are the critically acclaimed series “Summerland” and the ESPN original movie The Junction Boys.

An accomplished athlete, Kwanten qualified for the world Biathlon in Sweden in 2006 and Italy in 2007 after winning the Los Angeles Biathlon series two years running.

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, Sept. 24 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular format, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS movie review

the story of The Legend of the Guardians talks about how Soren became a hero and one of the Guardians of the sacred tree in Ga'Hoole. based on Kathryn Lasky book, we follow the epic journey of Soren.

dreamer as he be, his brother Kludd resists this and gets into practicality and being realistic. one day as they were practicing to fly, they fell on the ground and ended up kidnapped by the Pure Ones. then they knew that the legends are true and the Pure Ones have something planned to destroy the Guardians.

Kludd, jealous of his brother who is a positive-dreamer, joined the Pure Ones and even kidnapped their own sister to be with the Pure Ones. kidnapped owlets gets "moonblinked" and before they knew it, they are following the orders of the evil owls to take over the whole owl kingdom. and that's what Soren's mission is - to save the innocent from the dark plans of the Pure Ones.

the road might not be easy for Soren to get to the sacred tree of Ga'Hoole. however, he found new friends that helped him to rescue his brother and the other owlets. this epic journey may not be too successful for Soren to save Kludd but he is able to stop the plans of the Pure Ones.

this story inspires all those who will watch it to bring an open-mind, believe in dreams and to have a strong will for sacrifice. this also opens the curios mind of why owls get moonblinked and the variety of owls in the cast.

CGI is well-crafted and best to see in 3D for effects. kids and adults will love the cute owlets and will be able to tell the differences in the different species of owls. a good scientific and literary piece for the whole family.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole takes flight in cinemas starting September 24. distributed by Warner Bros Pictures, a Warner Bros Entertainment company.

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LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS in 3D!

Young owlet Soren embarks on a quest to follow his dreams…only to discover they’re real, in Warner Bros.’ new fantasy, family adventure in 3D, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Stepping into the legend that he’s faithfully followed through his father’s nest-time stories, he becomes a crucial part of the next chapter in the epic tales.

Now on a true hero’s journey of self-discovery, young Soren and his friends join their mentors in an action-packed battle against the evil Pure Ones to protect not only their freedom, but the very existence of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, who have sworn an oath to mend the broken, make strong the weak, and vanquish evil.

“Isn’t it every kid’s fantasy to become a character in his or her favorite story?” director Zack Snyder asks. “In our film, it’s a young owl who wants to find these legendary warrior owls that have been part of his personal mythology since he was born. And when the stories actually turn out to be true, it’s very powerful.”

In Legend of the Guardians, Snyder and the gifted creative team at Animal Logic sought to open a window into a world that hasn’t been seen before, with mythic environments and expansive terrains like nothing they’d ever imagined, and owls so wonderfully realized that you almost forget they’re not real.

“Zack brings a visual language to his movies that is distinctive, and so do we at Animal Logic, so the marriage between Zack’s vision and our vision was easy right from the get-go,” says the film’s producer, Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian.

Drawing from his experience on the Academy Award®-winning Happy Feet, Nalbandian assembled a crew of more than 500 digital professionals, including a team of computer animation specialists, to bring Legend of the Guardians from the page to the screen, with the added dimension of a 3D film.

“We don’t think about our movies as animated,” he continues, “we think of them as movies; Zack didn’t come on board to make an animated movie, he came to make a great action fantasy adventure, tracking a hero’s journey, which happened to be in an animated world. It was about creating a visual feast for audiences that would be unique.”

In addition to the challenge of taking on his first entirely computer-generated project, Snyder, whose previous work includes the epic action films 300 and Watchmen, found that his motivation for making this particular story hit close to home. “I know it sounds cliché,” the director admits, “but my kids are always saying to me, ‘Dad, when are you gonna make a movie we can see?’ And the chance to work with the animators at Animal Logic really appealed to me; there were moments in Happy Feet that I found artistically breathtaking. So when I saw their initial Guardians artwork, and then read the stories of Soren and his friends on this incredible quest, I looked at it as a perfect opportunity to bring my own sensibilities to a family film.”

“Both Zack and I loved the notion of this young boy—who just happens to be an owl in an owl world—learning to believe in himself and in something bigger than himself,” executive producer Deborah Snyder says. “He has to battle the odds, and in doing so, becomes the owl kingdom’s only hope for survival. We felt it was a story we would love to bring to the screen.”

“There’s real vigor in the story and a full spectrum of characters, from cute and cuddly to downright evil,” says star Geoffrey Rush. “Adding to that, the sophistication, the brilliance really, of the technique has truly been elevated in animated movies. I believed this could be a film that would be appreciated by both kids and their parents on many different levels.”

Stepping into the animation realm for the first time, Snyder enthuses, “Animation is filmmaking without limits. When I saw the potential of what the movie could be, and thought about the chance as a filmmaker to actually be able to create any shot I wanted…I couldn’t wait to see what we could do.”

Opening soon across the Philippines, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole will be presented in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular format and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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KATHRYN LASKY interview for Legend of the Guardians

The beloved Guardians of Ga’Hoole books by award-winning author Kathryn Lasky are brought to the screen by acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) in Warner Bros.’ fantasy family adventure in 3D, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.

The film follows Soren (voice of Jim Sturgess), a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’ Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd (voice of Ryan Kwanten), scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones.

Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls. Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.

A New York Times best-selling author, Lasky has written over 120 children's and young adult fiction and nonfiction books and sold over 11 million copies. She talks about her Ga’Hoole series of books in the following interview:

Question: How long did it take to write the first Guardians of Ga'Hoole book?

Kathryn Lasky: The first book took the longest because I was trying to really set the main characters and the whole future course of the series. So that was about four months of writing and editing.

Q: Where did you get the inspiration for the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series?

Lasky: Well, my first idea was to do a non fiction book about owls. My husband Christopher Knight, a former National Geographic photographer, and I had done several non fiction books together illustrated with his photos. But Chris said that it would be awfully hard doing a non fiction book what with owls shy, rare to the point of endangered and that the best pictures would be at night. So lighting would be difficult. It was his idea that I try a fantasy book. In the beginning I thought I would just do one book. But when I sent the proposal into Scholastic, Jean Feiwel, the editor in chief, called me up and said "This is not just one book. It's six". I was kind of shocked. I thought how on earth do I stretch this out to six? But now I am just starting book 13. So I guess I sort of figured it out.

Q: Did you hope, on some level, that your use of owls would enlighten readers to respect nature more?

Lasky: Maybe on some level. But I rarely write with a moral objective in mind. To me the most important thing is to tell a good story. If I can do that I think that enlightenment, respect of nature, etc. follows.

Q: How did you research the books? Did you consult with owl experts?

Lasky: I early on discovered the Owl Pages and it was enormously helpful. But I did a lot of research in libraries. I talked to some people at the Audubon Society. I live in Cambridge , Massachusetts and there are wonderful libraries there. So I used the Harvard libraries as well as the public ones.

Q: What is your favorite Guardians of Ga'Hoole book?

Lasky: That's like asking what is your favorite child. But I have to a admit that I enjoyed especially writing the legends trilogy, books 9, 10 and 11 - The First Collier, The Coming of Hoole and To Be a King where I delved back into the ancient history of the owl kingdoms.

Q: If you were an owl, what kind would you be? Or What owl are you most like?

Lasky: I don't know which of the owl characters I am most like but I have a special fondness for Barn owls and Spotted owls.

Q: Which Guardians of Ga'Hoole character are you most like?

Lasky: As is said I don't know which one I am most like. I think they all have elements of my own personality, except for Twilight. Twilight is absolutely modelled on Muhammed Ali who has always been right up there as one of my all time favorite heroes.

Q: Which books will be included in the Legend of the Guardians movie?

Lasky: The first movie, or what we hope will be the first of many, will include books 1 through 3. The movie is going to be CGI and they used a lot of the owls from the Harry Potter movies. It is the same movie company Warner Brothers and the same producer.

Opening soon across the Philippines, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole will be presented in 3D and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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