Warner Bros. beats $3 billion global box-office record, unveils 2015 movie line-up!

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For the second consecutive year, Warner Bros. Pictures International has exceeded the coveted $3 billion mark at the international box office, it was announced recently by Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

This benchmark comes on the heels of the release of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, which has surpassed $400 million at the international box office and is still going strong.

Oscar Awards contender AMERICAN SNIPER digitally re-mastered into IMAX (Opens Jan. 21)

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IMAX Corporation, Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures have just announced that “American Sniper,” the newest film from legendary director Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® format and released into all IMAX® theatres in the Philippines on Wednesday, Jan.21, 2015.

“American Sniper” has just earned six major Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. It also got Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing nods.

WWF urges DOE to seize the wind this year

World leaders gathered in Lima last month for the 20th Conference of Parties (COP 20), designed to set the stage for strong climate change agreements in Paris this 2015.

WWF’s latest initiative encourages the Department of Energy to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s power mix. Its first phase highlights windfall opportunities from wind farms. Shown are the famed Bangui windmills in Ilocos Norte, which simultaneously powers 40% of the province while drawing in thousands of tourists yearly. (Gregg Yan / WWF)

The 2015 United Nations Climate Conference is slated from 30 November to 11 December this year. Among the expected outcomes are Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), which are country-wide climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments.

Trek America's roughest trail in WILD

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Pacific Crest Trail, America’s wildest through-rail, with its infamous harsh passages, has recently rose to further prominence in the latest Reese Witherspoon starrer – “Wild,” based upon the personal accounts of Cheryl Strayed’s  journey to bring her life back together after losing everything that deeply meant to her.

Wilderness epics have been around since the beginning of cinema. But from the 1912 silent film “The Conquest of the Pole” to “Jeremiah Johnson” to “Into The Wild” to “127 HouRs,” nearly all have traced the paths of men far from civilization.  But the fact that WILD takes a different, less expected direction drew a devoted group of filmmakers.

Paramount Pictures releases PROJECT ALMANAC poster

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“Today is Better the Second Time Around,” so says the newly-released poster artwork of Paramount Pictures' time-travel movie “Project Almanac” from producer Michael Bay.

The one-sheet – which shows four photos of teenagers wallowing in luck, and fifth one with a sinister vibe – echoes the presumptive theme of the film: every good luck has a hidden, dark consequence.
In the film, a brilliant high school student and his friends uncover blueprints for a mysterious device with limitless potential, inadvertently putting lives in danger. The youthful cast is composed of Jonny Weston (“Chasing Mavericks”), Sofia Black-D’Elia (TV's “Gossip Girl”), Sam Lerner (TV's “Suburgatory”), Allen Evangelista (TV's “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”) and Ginny Gardner (TV's “Glee”).

Filipino families to meet Pope Francis in Mall of Asia Arena

January 2015 marks the year in which His Holiness Pope Francis, will en route his apostolic trip to the Philippines with the goal of encountering Filipino families from all over the region. In support of the Pope’s advocacy, SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc. (SMLEI) together with the entire SM Group, will have the Mall of Asia Arena as the venue for the papal visit on January 16, 2015.

With its capacity to house over 15,000 guests, Mall of Asia Arena is a fitting venue for the Pope’s monumental visit. Mall of Asia Arena’s existing CCTV cameras provided by Mobotix, is at par with the same equipment used at the Vatican Apostolic Library at the Vatican with professional-grade, high-resolution security devices, aside from this enhanced surveillance system, management is placing additional measures to assure safety of not only His Holiness the Pope, but of all the guests who will be in attendance of the event.

Narnia's Prince Caspian Ben Barnes is now the SEVENTH SON (Opens January 8)

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He’s best known for his role as Prince Caspian in the international hit franchise “The Chronicles of Narnia,” based on the books by C.S. Lewis. Now, Ben Barnes stars as the title character Tom Ward in Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures' fantasy adventure “Seventh Son.”

In a time of enchantments when legends and magic collide, the sole remaining warrior of a mystical order (Jeff Bridges) travels to find a prophesized hero born with incredible powers, the last Seventh Son (Ben Barnes). Torn from his quiet life as a farmhand, the unlikely young hero embarks on a daring adventure with his battle-hardened mentor to vanquish a dark queen (Julianne Moore) and the army of supernatural assassins she has dispatched against their kingdom.

The Five Core Filipino Values championed by the #ChangeForTheBetter campaign

“The year 2015 is harvest time - harvesting all what is good about the Filipino to transform our country into a great nation,” said Dr. Mina Ramirez, phenomenological sociologist and president of Asian Social Institute.

As we ended 2014 and as we welcomed the New Year with excitement, it is another season and reason for us to reflect on our lives in the past year and plan for a better future.  This is the perfect time to start doing our list of resolutions as we start things right for the New Year.

Photo courtesy of participating bloggers Enzo Luna, Ed Uy and Earth Rullan, among others.

This has inspired Krem-Top coffee creamer to launch a campaign to motivate and challenge individuals to exercise a habit of aspiring to become a better person.  Dubbed as Change for the Better, the campaign that started in 2012, is a call for everyone to commit and sustain the personal, not just during the turn of the year but throughout the year and beyond.

Over time, the campaign has grown from being a personal call to being nationalistic as the mission is not just on improving one’s self but or the entire nation to rally towards becoming better Filipinos. Krem Top’s Change for the Better campaign reminds us that even small changes when put or done together can create a huge impact in the community.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB gathers Hollywood's acclaimed comedians (Opens January 8)

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Imagine walking into the world’s most magnificent museums, where the wonders and history of the world come to life in “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.”  That was the starting point for the Night at the Museum motion pictures, which have captivated audiences globally and grossed over one billion dollars.  Now, its third installment takes all of its beloved characters around the world for their greatest adventure yet.

Ben Stiller reprises his role as museum guard Larry Daley, and Shawn Levy is once again at the helm, producing and directing.  When New York’s Natural History Museum’s exhibits, which come to life at night, start to behave strangely, Larry, the newly-promoted director of nighttime operations at the Museum, must find out why.  The Tablet, which magically brings the creatures to life, has started to decay and the only way to restore it may be at the British Museum.  Larry, who’ll do anything to save his museum “family,” along with his son Nick and the museum exhibits, travel from New York to London, where they must discover the Tablet’s secret.

Youngest Oscar Best Actress Nominee Quvenzhané Wallis is the new ANNIE (Opens January 21)

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Who's that girl who moves with the rhythm of a busy NYC? Who's the foster kid who sees the good in everybody - even her foster mom, the queen of mean, Miss Hannigan? Who Hearts New York - and finds out that New York Hearts her right back? Just one kid - it's “Annie!”

The youngest person ever nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, Quvenzhané Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) - advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) - makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he's her guardian angel, but Annie's self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it's the other way around.