Walt Disney's The Finest Hours, an epic treasure of
a true account
"You watch the news it's so depressing. This
is news that actually happened...that good is being done. We need more stories like this," said Ben Foster (X-Men: The
Last Stand) who stars in the Walt Disney presentation of The Finest Hours. "...To do stories of people looking out for
others. The world needs to devote their lives in service to others. The selflessness...is appealing."
Films based on real life stories are on the rise and I love
it too. Walt Disney's presentation of The Finest Hours is yet another true tale. This dramatic American disaster story is
about four brave men on the U.S. Coast Guard Lifeboat #36500 that rescued 32 crewmen of a sinking oil tanker, SS Pendleton,
in 1952. Written by Scott Silver, Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, The Finest Hours is an epic treasure. Directed by Craig Gillespie
The Finest Hours also stars Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Academy Award nominated Casey Affleck (Ocean's Trilogy). The Finest
Hours - shown in 3D, Real D3 and IMAX 3D - arrives in theaters January 29, 2016.
"It's not an American story it's a human story," said MTV Movie Award nominated
Chris Pine. "It's based on a true story. The fact is it was a 36 foot boat in 75 foot waves. They carried 32 men that
night. There is something good that we all have that's in us."
During a massive storm U.S. Coast Guard Officer Bernard Webber (Pine) takes a crew of three with
him to see if an oil tanker was in distress and if so to see whether there were any survivors. Webber uses his skills to ride
the gigantic waves and find 32 surviving crewmen who were desperately trying to make half the remaining oil tanker mobile
enough it would give them more time until a rescue boat arrived. All the oil tanker crewmen that survived lived to see the
rescue boat thanks to crewman Ray Sybert (Affleck) who had the leadership skills and tons
of cleaver ideas to fix crisis when things went wrong. Boatswains Mate 1st Class Webber
and crew - Engineman 3rd Class Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner, "CSI:NY"), Seaman Livesay
(Foster) and Maske (John Magaro) - tracked the oil tanker down without a compass and found their way back with
32 men on board to make a place in history as accomplishing the greatest rescue in U.S. Coast Guard
records.
"It was destined. He
had never been in a position to be a leader, to tell people what to do," said Casey
Affleck (Chasing Amy) about the character he played who pushed into the reluctant hero
role on the sinking oil tanker. "People put themselves in danger and he had to step up...so he came
out of his cocoon."
The Finest Hours is based also on the 2009 book of the same name by Casey
Sherman and Michael J. Touglas. It also stars Holliday Grainer (Giant Expectations) as
Miriam Webber; Eric Bana (Hulk) as Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff who ordered the rescue;
Josh Stewart (Third Watch) as tanker crewman Tchuda Southerland; John Ortiz (Miami Vice)
as Seaman Wallace Quirey; Graham McTavish (The Hobbit, "The Outlander") as tanker crewman Frank Fauteux; Kelynan
Lonsdale (The Flash) as tanker crewman Eldon Hanan; Rachel Brosnahan ("House of Cards")
as Bea Hansen; Michael Raymond-James as A.B. Seaman D.A. Brown; Matthew Maher ("Law
and Order") as Carl Nickerson; Benjamin Koldyke as Sam and Beau Knapp (Southpaw) as
Mel Gouthro.
The Finest Hours is Rated PG-13 and is a Walt Disney Pictures, Whitaker Entertainment and Red
Hawk Entertainment Production.
DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 3 takes Po on a great adventure
to be the true Dragon Warrior
While facing the tasks of defeating Kai the evil
Master, adapting to his new found Panda father Li and his Panda hometown Po takes on a
great adventure to be the true Dragon Warrior he was meant to be in this 20th Century Fox
presentation of the DreamWorks ‘Animation Kung Fu Panda 3. Kung Fu Panda 3 is Rated PG and arrives in theaters
January 29, 2016 in 3D.
Po, voiced by Jack Black (King Kong), has life altering events one after the other. First
the Panda Ninja meets his biological father Li (voiced by Bryan Cranston, "Breaking
Bad"), then returns home to learn the life of a panda is not so adventurous and then he
learns he must defeat the evil villain Kai (voiced by J.K. Simmons, "The Closer") to save the ones he loves.
So along with his hometown (whom he trains to fight) and his crew
of Ninjas - that include Tigress voiced by Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft: Tomb Raiders); Monkey
voiced by Jackie Chan (Rush Hour); Vipor voiced by Lucy Lui ("Southland"); Mantis
voiced by Seth Rogen (The League); Master Crane voiced by David Cross ("Arrested Development),
and Master Shifa voiced by Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) - Po embarks on a journey that will have
him evolve into the ultimate Dragon Warrior.
Executive produced by Gullermo del Toro, produced by Melissa Cobb and directed by Alessandro
Carloni and Jennifer Yuh Nelson Kung Fu Panda 3 is written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn
Berger. Also starring in the DreamWorks and Oriental DreamWorks Animation is Kate Hudson
("Glee") as Mei Mei; James Hong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) as Mr. Ping Po's adapted father; Randall
Duk Kim (John Wick) as Master Oogway; Steele Gagnon as Bao; Liam Knight as Lei Lei and Wayne Knight
as Big Fun.
