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Issue 46 2012

Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.

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18 6 FILM Issue 46 / 2012 www.guestlist.net LIFE OF PI After the one-two punch of hefty dramas Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution, director Ang Lee continues down the more whimsical route he forged with 2009���s Taking Woodstock with this almost universally praised adaptation of Yann Martel���s supposedly unfilmable novel. Okay, so the tone may be a few hundred shades lighter than the aforementioned masterworks, but Lee is hardly making things easy for himself. After all, the lion���s share of the plot takes place on a boat stranded in the Pacific Ocean, as the eponymous Pi recovers from the shipwreck that claimed his parents and their collection of animals ��� with only a tiger, a hyena, an orangutan and an injured zebra for company. Upon the inevitable depletion of numbers, the audience are treated to a pair of two-handers: the teenage Pi (Suraj Sharma) left to confront a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) dictating his story to Martel (Rafe Spall). Advancements in CGI are one of the main reasons for this long-gestating projects fruition, and Lee takes full advantage, at times portraying the dauntingly vast ocean as a lush, liquid playground, while occasionally reveling in its ambivalence towards life. This is perhaps most evident in the aforementioned storm, a taut, romantic realization that will leave animal-lovers howling. But in a film crammed with digital achievements, it���s Richard Parker who emerges as leader of the pack. With his scorching eyes and bristling fur, he���s a truly beautiful creature, and any gaps in the capabilities of modern animation only add to his ethereality. Acting alongside such a superb creation can be a thankless task, but first-timer Sharma does a good job of establishing Pi as a believably resourceful character, lending credibility to the notion that he could have well survived this fantastical struggle. Khan is exceptional, which is just as well considering his scenes feature Lee���s most notable diversion from the novel. As with almost all of Lee���s work, and despite the spiritual explorations of Pi���s youngest incarnation (Gautam Belur), The Life of Pi just can���t help but celebrate humanity. It���s a near-perfect adaption, and more than worthy of the awards it���s bound to scoop up next year. 20th DEC DISNEY GOES STAR WARS Disney acquires Lucas Films and immediately announces a new starwars film, starting where Lucas stopped. In what will probably dominate film news, as well as the minds of sci-fi lovers for the next decade. It has been announced that Disney will acquire LucasFilm including the rights to Star Wars films among other divisions and intellectual properties. In doing so we have been promised to see Star Wars Episode VII in 2015 with a new Star Wars film being released every two to three years after that. The deal is reported to be worth $4.05bn (��2.5bn), a price similar to what Disney paid for Marvel 2009. Whilst George Lucas, the franchise���s creator will remain as ���creative consultant,��� he is effectively passing the reigns to Kathleen Kennedy, whose previous work includes being a producer on a number of Spielberg films, who will now oversee future LucasFilm projects. This is unsurprising as Lucas several months ago stated in a New York Times interview that he would never make a Star Wars film again, crediting the abuse and intense criticism he received after making the much maligned prequel trilogy as part of his reasoning.

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