Todd Phillips, the writer-director of Warner Bros.' male-oriented comedy “The Hangover Part III” talks about the final chapter of the trilogy in the following interview.

“The Hangover Part III” reunites Phillips with his original cast, led by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha. This time, there's no wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.

Question: When did it occur to you to make a third Hangover movie and, conceptually, where did you want to take it?

Todd Phillips: Well, I think it occurred to us on the second movie that we wanted to make a third movie because, honestly, we just love doing them so much. And people can be cynical and say it’s a money thing or it’s a studio thing, but if you talk to these guys, we love hanging out and doing this movie. We wake up every day and the goal is just to make each other laugh. And we just feel very privileged and lucky that we get to do this. That said, it was very much a goal to make a film that was a departure from the other two and, at the same time, was still aggressively funny and unapologetic in its tone.

That was kind of the goal, and the other goal was to make a movie that felt like part of a trilogy, that tied up the other two movies, and justifies why the other two movies exist. In other words, it doesn’t pretend that the other two movies didn’t happen; it’s because the other two movies happened, if that makes sense.

Q: Were there any sorts of broad themes or issues you wanted to hit?

Phillips: Well, yeah. I think that, ultimately, the first two movies have been about Stu. The first movie was about him getting control of his life and sort of growing, like becoming a man and standing up to that woman he was with and actually realizing he doesn’t have to be defined by this relationship.

This movie is very much about Alan, who in the second film described himself as a stay-at-home son. Alan is really the one who’s been flat-lined this whole time in that he causes all the trouble, he screws everything up and never changes at the end of it. You know, he takes no responsibility because he’s unaware. And in this movie, it’s about Alan finally being able to become a man and Alan finally taking someresponsibility in his life. He was the loose end that this movie ties up. So it’s Alan’s story, and it’s about our guys who try to help Alan finally "get better," and about how Chow comes into that and screws it up because there’s always somebody who’s got to do that.

Q: When you sat down to write the script with Craig Mazin, what is your process?

Phillips: We try to make each other laugh. [Laughs] But even before that—because we know that the funny stuff will come—it’s really about setting up a plot that will keep people interested and hold its own weight. We do this thing where we say, ‘Does this plot work if we do no jokes?’ In other words, will this movie work with zero jokes in it as a story? And if we get that story tight enough, which we hopefully do and did on this, we then go, ‘Okay, now how do we make it ridiculous, make it funny and all that?’

But it’s very much first about how the story works and we’re a little bit of logic police on ourselves, going, ‘Well, wait, why would that happen if this and this?’ And, again, when you watch this movie, you go back and there are things that were planted in The Hangoverthat are explained in The Hangover Part III, things that happened in The Hangover Part II that become clear in this film, so it all kind of ties together. And it’s pretty fun because it was kind of like backwards engineering a project. Because, obviously, we didn’t really set out to make a trilogy when we first made it, so the goal was to make it all feel like a giant story.

Q: And how much have the guys inhabiting these roles inspired you in writing this film?

Phillips: So much. I mean, in a sense, I jokingly say—although Craig Mazin would have a heart attack—that the movies write themselves. They don’t, but because when you put these guys in a situation, we’re so familiar with their characters, you kind of know what Alan would say or how he’d behave or how Phil would react here. And that’s a big head start.

Q: Can you talk about getting these four actors [Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha and Zach Galifianakis] back together and how their chemistry works. Is it always there in them?

Phillips: It does seem to be always there in them. I’ve talked to other directors—whether it’s Steven Soderbergh on his Oceansmovies or Jay Roach with his three Austin Powers movies or Brett Ratner with the Rush Hour movies—and everyone talks about a shorthand. There really is a shorthand when you go to a third movie on that side of the camera. Bradley knows his character almost better than I know his character, and I’ve written it. But Bradley’s inhabited it and made it his own over the years. So we don’t have to discuss those things anymore. It’s very much about the machinations of the plot and about how to amplify the comedy or pull off the moment. But it’s never about the character. That stuff gets so filled in, and that’s such a credit to the actors on any of these movies because even though you write the part in the beginning, the actors create the part when they step into the clothes and fill it all in. So it’s an interesting process.

Q: You talked about centering on Alan’s story, but can you talk a bit about the film and where these characters go?

Phillips: Well, like I said, Alan started going through this crisis in his life because of the death of his father and, at the same time, he’s sort of been off his medication, so to speak. And he’s having a moment. Meanwhile, over in Bangkok, Mr. Chow has broken out of prison and he’s headed to the West Coast, not for anything to do with our boys. He is going to recruit Alan to help him get revenge on something that was planted in the first Hangover. So, as our boys are trying to get Alan to get better, at the same time, Mr. Chow has come in and is messing up his life. It’s very much about them trying to deal with that and allow Alan to sort of be healed.

Q: And it takes you back to Vegas. What was it like returning to Vegas?

Phillips: It was fantastic. I mean, all the places there really rolled out the red carpet for us on The Hangover Part III. I mean, TheHangover was very different. It’s kind of an interesting thing because casinos are very much like movie studios. It’s not like Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Fox would all work together on one thing.

And when we went there, we were seeking five different properties to all work together on a sequence in our movie. And that’s like getting five movie studios to work together. But they did, because The Hangover means so much to Las Vegas. It was the summer of 2009 when the first one came out, and the country was going into a recession, probably still is, but I got calls from the CEOs of different casinos thanking us for The Hangover and what it did to bring young people back to Vegas. So those five properties all said, ‘Okay, let’s work together on this thing because it’s The Hangover.’ It was amazing. So, yes, they rolled out the red carpet; they all cooperated. I literally had a button at one point in my hand. If I pushed it, the Belllagio Fountains would go off.

Q: You also have new additions to the cast in this film in John Goodman and Melissa McCarthy. Can you talk about what it was like to bring them into the Hangover fold?

Phillips: Well, it’s always fun bringing sort of ‘outsiders’ into this insane traveling circus that we have, and Melissa McCarthy obviously fits in almost too perfectly. It’s weird. John Goodman can go into any movie and kill it for whatever you ask him to do. He’s just like nobody else. It’s kind of amazing to watch. So they were two great additions.

John Goodman plays a character who is introduced. His name’s Marshal’ and he’s actually talked about, if you watch The Hangover. We never see him, obviously, in The Hangover, but he’s brought up. We even flash back to that in The Hangover. You see when he’s mentioned and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Marshall?’ That’s who we’ve been talking about, this John Goodman guy. It’s pretty interesting.

Q: Was that a Eureka moment when you guys were working on the script, just like, ‘Marshall!’

Phillips: Yeah, it kind of was. It was like, ‘Wait, who is that? I know who it is. Let’s make it that guy!’ So that’s exactly what it was.

Q: You’re also working with Heather Graham again. What was that like?

Phillips: Heather has always, for me, represented a sort of ray of light, like sunshine, particularly in the bleak landscape that has been these Hangover movies. We had to bring Heather back because if we’re going to Vegas, we have to visit this beacon, which she is, always. She’s just this ray of light. And that was fun. We also brought back her kid from the first movie—that baby.

We got the same actor, who was six months old then, who’s now four-and-a-half, named Grant. He has the same cheeks as he had in the first movie, so we called up his mom, and she was like, ‘I don’t know if he can do this. He’s obviously not an actor. He was a six-month-old baby then.’ And I said, ‘Well, bring him in and let’s just hang out and see how he is.’ And he was so adorable that we couldn’t not try it, and he was great. And he has a really big moment in the movie with Zach. It’s so cute.

Q: That is so great. Does he have any conception of what he is a part of?

Phillips: No. He has no clue.

Q: Having worked with these actors for five years, what has it been like to watch the development of their careers, especially with Bradley Cooper’s recent accolades for Silver Linings Playbook?

Phillips: It’s amazing. I mean, literally Bradley’s one of my best friends, so to see that happen, for all of us and Bradley, it’s just been so astounding. But, you know, it’s always been there. The guy’s just a great actor and sometimes they just need to get that shot and I thinkThe Hangover put him on a stage that enabled people to say, ‘Okay, who is this guy?’ And ‘Look how good-looking this guy is and how much confidence he has in these movies. Maybe he could do this.’ And he’s gone on and killed it.

And with Zach, as a comic actor, I’ve worked with a lot of funny people over the years, having done now eight or nine movies. Zach’s the funniest. I feel like Bradley would have been discovered with or without The Hangover, quite honestly. I feel Zach is somebody that, by using his talent so appropriately—because he had shots in other comedies, but he would sort of disappear in the movies—by really knowing how to showcase his talents, I feel, in a weird way, more ‘ownership’ over Zach, in that I feel like we really put him out there. Like, here’s a highlight reel of why Zach is the funniest guy on the planet. I think, ultimately, people were going to find Bradley because he just looks like a movie star.

Q: I was also thinking about Ken Jeong [as Chow] because he’s so funny in these movies.

Phillips: Yeah, Ken owes me everything. [Laughs] No. He’s so freaking funny and so randomly funny—he’s all of our favorite guy. It’s a weird kind of funny.

Q: One last question, the beautiful cinematic look that your movies have, are you and [director of photography] Lawrence Sher continuing that in this film?

Phillips: This one, I think, is the most beautiful, really. They’ve always had a look to them, I think, and I’m glad you say that, but with this one we even had a little more time. I really wanted it to feel epic in certain ways and it really does. There are a couple of things in this movie I’m really proud of, just look-wise, and I don’t think ninety percent of the audience notices it, or I think if they do it’s subconscious, like there might be something different about this than other comedies that they’re used to seeing. So, with this one, I’m really happy with where it ends up and I think The Hangover, the three movies in general, just have this very specific look to them, and I think it’s really beautiful.

(A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures, “The Hangover Part III" opens in Philippine theaters on May 29, 2013.)

She wowed critics and audiences with terrific performances in “An Education,” “Drive,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and “Shame.” Now, Carey Mulligan adds another strong female character in her repertoire as he plays Daisy Buchanan in Warner Bros.' heart-stopping romantic drama, “The Great Gatsby.”

Daisy is the phantasmal object of Jay Gatsby’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) obsessions, ethereal and completely captivating, especially her voice, “the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again,” as author F. Scott Fitzgerald describes her in the novel from which the film was based.

Daisy is Gatsby’s “green light,” his “enchanted object” beckoning from across the bay, but forever out of reach, “high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…”

“The Great Gatsby” follows would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings, and sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without of the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Carey Mulligan offers, “The main thing about Daisy is her duality. She wants to be protected and safe and live in a certain way. But, at the same time, she wants epic romance. She’s just swayed by whatever is the strongest and most appealing thing. She’s not a grounded person or a genuine person, in a way.”

When we first meet Daisy, she is at a somewhat melancholic juncture in her life. Once a much-admired Southern belle, she’s still very charming and beautiful, but she’s sadly aware that her husband is a serial and unapologetic philanderer, prone to “sprees.” It is thus, when Nick reintroduces her to Gatsby, her lost love of five years ago, that she is tempted into a return to the past.

Director Baz Luhrmann took his time to find the right actress for the part. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that every actor you can imagine was keen to play that part; it’s one of the great, iconic roles. So we found ourselves in somewhat of a ‘Gone with the Wind’ situation, where we were exploring all the possibilities, not so much as auditions but as little rehearsals.”

“We did a big, wide net of a search for Daisy, which is the old-fashioned Hollywood way,” echoes producer Lucy Fisher.

“Leonardo was a constant partner in this search,” says Luhrmann, who immediately solicited his reaction after Mulligan read for the part. “Leo said the most brilliant thing: ‘You know, I’ve been thinking about it… Gatsby has had a lot of very beautiful women thrown at him. Carey’s very beautiful, but she’s also very unusual. Daisy needs to be sort of precious and unique and something that Gatsby wants to protect. Something that he’s never experienced before.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘It’s her.’”

“We knew we’d found our Daisy Buchanan,” DiCaprio recalls of that moment. “Daisy is such an incredibly important character in the film. She has to be a combination of the beautiful innocence that Jay sees in her, but she also has to have that whimsical carelessness. It takes not only a very intelligent actress, but also someone who can do both of these things simultaneously.”

It turns out that Mulligan was equally impressed by DiCaprio. “I remember the first audition that I had,” she says. “We were doing a scene right towards the end of the film, and Leonardo was playing Gatsby, and he was playing Tom Buchanan, and Nick Carraway. So, he’d sit in one chair and play his character, then he’d jump in another chair and play Tom, and then be standing up and he’d be Nick. He was learning all the different lines. He was incredible.”

Mulligan portrays Daisy as complex, more than just a vacuous heroine. “I think that when Daisy says something, she really means it, but five minutes later she might not mean it at all,” Mulligan observes. “She’s almost living in a movie in her own life, looking in on herself, which makes for a rather thin personality that was probably typical of women in her circumstances, and interesting for me to play.”

Opening across the Philippines on May 17 in Digital 3D and regular format, “The Great Gatsby” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Due to persistent clamor, director Guillermo del Toro has agreed to release the WonderCon footage of his upcoming giant-monsters-vs-giant-robots film “Pacific Rim” which can be viewed at Warner Bros.' Philippines YouTube channel at http://youtu.be/iK9Vgn0OD3U.

“This was originally intended for only WonderCon,” said del Toro in a statement, “but after listening to so many of you asking for more of the movie online, I think it time for me to show you more footage. Enjoy, my friends!”

The response to the footage at this year's WonderCon was overwhelmingly positive. As Charlie Day‘s character says, it’s “2,500 tons of awesome.”

In “Pacific Rim,” when legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge.

But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

The film stars Charlie Hunnam (TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”), Idris Elba (“Thor”), Rinko Kikuchi (“The Brothers Bloom”), Charlie Day (“Horrible Bosses”), and Ron Perlman (the “Hellboy” films).

Opening across the Philippines in July 11 in 3D, 2D and regular theaters, “Pacific Rim” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

The much anticipated line-up of finalists for the Cinema One Originals Festival of 2013 has, at last, been revealed.

The 15 chosen films showcase a new breed of Filipino filmmaking talent that is entirely its own.

The selected films fall under two categories, with the first having 2 million worth of production budget, and the second having 1 million worth of production budget.

Under the CINEMA ONE PLUS category (2 million production budget), there are five films:

“KABISERA” by director Borgy Torre tells the action-packed story of one man’s transformation from a naïve innocent citizen to a ruthless father and friend, eventually leading him into the bottomless pit of the drug trade.

“BLUE BUSTAMANTE” by director Miko Livelo is a family drama-comedy that focuses on the story of an OFW who suddenly becomes jobless in Japan. A friend introduces him to a Sentai director who convinces him to be a double for Blue Force, a superhero character in an upcoming Japanese show.

“SITIO” by director Mes de Guzman is a psychological drama about a family who moves from the city to the province in search of a simpler life, only to find more problems and setbacks instead.

“ALAMAT NI CHINA DOLL” by director Adolf Alix, Jr. tells the dramatic story of a woman named Helen who lives with her grandmother in an idyllic island down south. At the age of 25, she is hopeful about finally graduating from high school and starting a new life. However, an article entitled “China Doll” reveals details about a controversy and turns things around for Helen. Screenplay is by award-winning director Lav Diaz.

“WOMAN OF THE RUINS" by director Keith Sicat” is a mystery drama in which on a storm-ravaged island, a person assumed dead reappears and ignites a frenzy of reactions, ranging from ecstatic religious fervor to fear.

Under the CINEMA ONE CURRENTS category (1 million production budget), the 10 films are:

“ANGUSTIA” by director Kristian Cordero, is set in the 19th century Bicolandia where a Spanish friar falls for a woman of indigenous origins.

“ANG PAGBABALAT NG AHAS” by director Timmy Harn delves into a lower middle-class family who moves to an upper middle-class village where a mad scientist is keeping a snake-man captive.

“ISLANDS” by director Whammy Alcarazen, an experimental/science-fiction, is about a spacecraft that lands through the geographies of a fictional film entitled “Islands,” and the reality in which it is that is depicted as as a movie.

“BUKAS NA LANG SAPAGKAT GABI NA” by director Jet Leyco is a four-part narrative of three related occurrences sparked by an accident that happens to a Filipino-Spanish priest.

“ISKALAWANGS” by director Keith Deligero, a comedy, is an aching coming-of-age tale of friendship and youth set in a small town in Cebu.

“SUFFOCATING ETERNITY OF AN IMAGINED PURGATORY” by director Joseph Laban is a horror story about missing kids in Marinduque who are believed to have been kidnapped by spirits of the sea.

“PHILIPPINO STORY” by director Benjamin Garcia is a cautionary tale that reveals the dangers and drama behind male prostitution.

“SHIFT” by Siege Ledesma tells the story of an idealistic, tomboyish, call center slacker who is mentored by a pragmatic, gay senior agent. Their interaction develops into an unconventional relationship that eventually challenges their most personal convinctions.

“BENDOR” by director Ralston Jover is set in Manila's Quiapo Church 40 days before the annual Good Friday procession of the miraculous 400-year-old Black Nazarene statue. An early morning mass is disrupted when a candle vendor finds a blood-soaked box containing a dead fetus.

“RIDDLES OF MY HOMECOMING” by Davao-based director Arnel Mardoquio presents an insight into the lives of Lumads and Moros of Mindanao as it depicts the belief that when a person dies, his soul returns to his homeland.

This line-up of films is proof that local filmmakers are taking things to whole new heights.

The Cinema One Originals Festival will showcase all 15 new films this coming November. Stay tuned for more information about the Cinema One Originals Festival 2013.