Ridley Scott-produced film 'Child 44' opens April 29 at Ayala Malls Cinemas

From blockbuster and acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott comes a chilling action drama “Child 44” based on Tom Rob Smith’s best-selling novel of the same titled starred in by Hollywood’s most admired actors headed by Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Vincent Cassel, Joel Kinnaman and Jason Clarke about an unlikely hero amidst desperate times.

Orphan-turned-war-hero Leo Demidov (Hardy) has risen through the ranks of the MGB, the state’s domestic security apparatus, to become a star investigator of dissident activity. When he and sadistic colleague Vasil (Kinnaman) capture suspected spy Anatoly Tarasovich Brodsky (Clarke), the “traitor” names Leo’s own wife, beautiful schoolteacher Raisa (Rapace), as a co-conspirator.

Read More

"Child 44," based on crimes of real-life serial killer Andrei Chikatilo

A sumptuous period thriller encompassing themes of power, love, betrayal and murder, “Child 44” is novelist Tom Rob Smith’s fictionalized version of the grisly case that was met with resounding critical and popular acclaim upon publication in 1998. Real-life serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, also known as “The Butcher of Rostov,” was convicted of murdering and mutilating 52 women and children in Soviet Russia in the early 1950s.

Winner of the Crime Writers Association’s CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award and translated into 26 languages, “Child 44” became the first in a trilogy that now includes “The Secret Speech” and “Agent 6.”

Read More

Tom Hardy stars in crime thriller 'The Drop'

Tom Hardy heads up a phenomenal cast in this gripping tale of crime and passion in “The Drop” from a screenplay of world-renowned crime novelist Dennis Lehane. At first glance nothing looks particularly unusual as the movie starts. But as the clientele of the bar put their hands on their hearts, Bob (Hardy) discreetly stashes an envelope of cash behind the bar. Indeed, there's more to Cousin Marv's bar than meets the eye. Cousin Marv (played by the late James Gandolfini) has been drawn into working with a group of nefarious Chechen gangsters, meaning his employee Bob has to go along with the scheme. Meanwhile, the bartender has found an abandoned pit bull puppy in a trash can, leading him to cross paths with the beautiful but troubled Nadia (Noomi Rapace) and her violent ex-boyfriend Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts). It's the set-up for an explosive, emotional drama with plenty of twists and turns.

Bob’s simple life becomes much more complicated when he discovers a battered pit bull puppy in a trash can. Turning to his neighbor Nadia for help, he nurses the puppy back to health, as their mutual concern for the dog sparks an unexpected attraction between them. But when Eric Deeds, the dog’s original owner and Nadia’s abusive ex-boyfriend, tries to reclaim both of them, and a robbery at the bar puts Bob in the crosshairs of the Chechen crime boss who owns it, Bob is forced to face the shocking truth about the people he thinks he knows best—including himself.

Read More

James Gandolfini stars in his final movie, 'The Drop'

“The Drop,” a thrilling and emotional drama that stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and Matthias Schoenaerts based on a short story by Dennis Lehane follows Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy), a lonely bartender who one day finds a pit bull puppy in a trash can. Soon Bob will cross paths with the equally damaged Nadia (Noomi Rapace), her ex-boyfriend Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a gang of hardened Chechen criminals. There will be violence, but also the possibility of redemption for Bob.

Also starring the late James Gandolfini and John Ortiz, “The Drop” is directed by Michaël R. Roskam, whose debut picture “Bullhead” was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. “The Drop” is a gripping and suspenseful movie, centered around a powerful performance by Tom Hardy. Pulling pints at a grubby Brooklyn bar run by Cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), a place used for organized crime money drops, Bob has nothing and no-one in his life. But a chance encounter with an abandoned puppy gives him a glimmer of hope. Lehane masterfully crafts a story that is both dark and heartwarming, as only he can.

Read More

Noomi Rapace is a wounded soul in 'The Drop'

Tom Hardy heads up a phenomenal cast along with actress Noomi Rapace, the late James Gandolfini and Matthias Shoenaerts in “The Drop,” a gripping tale of crime and passion where Bob (Hardy) works as a bartender at his cousin Marv’s (Gandolfini) bar and crosses paths with Nadia (Rapace) that unearths the depth of human frailties leading to an explosive, emotional turns never before bared.

Acclaimed director Michaël Roskam assembled an international cast for his American film debut, he says was not specifically looking for European actors to headline this film. “But when I found them, it made sense. New York is a city full of nomads. It’s a gateway to the rest of the world. There are so many nationalities represented here. Probably 40 percent of the people I met during location scouting spoke with an accent that wasn’t purely Brooklyn.”

Read More

Tom Hardy tries to get back to old self in 'The Drop'

Money hardly ever stays in place in the much-anticipated crime thriller “The Drop” where an unusual love story is set in the midst of an organized crime’s unbreakable grip on small pubs and taverns used as money-laundering “drops.”

Director Michaël Roskam assembled an international cast for his American film debut in “The Drop,” including British actor Tom Hardy, who electrified audiences as the masked criminal mastermind Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises,” Swedish-Spanish actress Noomi Rapace, who captured international acclaim as the brilliant, damaged Lisbeth Salander in the original “The Girl with the Golden Tattoo” series; the late “The Sopranos” star and New Jersey native James Gandolfini in his last film role; as well as and Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts, who played the lead role in Roskam’s award-winning “Bullhead.”

Read More