GRAND MAGAZINE 2019 MOVIE PREVIEW JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 GRANDFREE JAN/FEB 2019 LIAM NEESON TAKES NO COLD PURSUIT PURSUIT COLD PRISONERS IN REVENGE NOW THE MOVIES THRILLER PAY YOU • 2019 MUST LIST LIST 2019 MUST COLD BACK • G-POINTS LAUNCH PURSUIT MEL GIBSON AND VINCE VAUGHN WIN REUNITE TO GET THEIR DUES A G-POINTS +DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE BOARD GAME THE GAULS BREW NEW ADVENTURE celebrating the launch ASTERIX: THE SECRET OF of the Grand Cinemas THE MAGIC POTION loyalty program GOGRAND #alwaysentertaining SOCIALISE TALK MOVIES, WIN PRIZES @GCLEBANON CL BOOK NEVER MISS A MOVIE WITH E/TICKET, E/KIOSK AND THE GC MOBILE APP. EXPERIENCE FIRSTWORD FEATURING DOLBY ATMOS ISSUE 121 A new year and a new journey Hello 2019! As we head into the new year, we’re very proud to have launched the G-Points loyalty program which has been met with a tremendous response from cinema-goers—check out our launch and cross-country game tournament in GC DIARY. We look forward to LOCATIONS many more exciting announcements and movie releases to come. Our top-of-the-year issue is a banger headlined by our 2019 MUST LEBANON KUWAIT LIST, a massive round-up that gets off to a crackling start with the GRAND CINEMAS GRAND AL HAMRA ABC VERDUN LUXURY CENTER Liam Neeson revenge thriller Cold Pursuit and the action-packed 01 795 697 965 222 70 334 11 SCREENS MX4D ATMOS Dragged Across Concrete starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn. MX4D featuring Study up for the year’s biggest releases, including the epic finale of DOLBY ATMOS GRAND GATE MALL Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth’s Men in Black: International, 300 CLUB SEATS 965 220 56 464 GRAND CLASS Will Smith as the genie in Aladdin, and the new entry from Quentin GRAND CINEMAS JORDAN Tarantino starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. ABC ACHRAFIEH GRAND CINEMAS 01 209 109 CITY MALL With the Academy Awards around the corner, you’ll want to catch 70 415 200 962 65 813 461 the major contenders showing in cinemas this season—we’ve got your IMAX GRAND CINEMAS cheat list in OSCAR BUZZ, featuring the powerful What They Had. For ABC DBAYEH 04 444 650 BAHRAIN a selection that will entertain your whole clan, FAMILY PIT STOP offers GRAND CLASS GRAND CINEMAS up Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion and an amazing adventure THE WALK RIFFA GRAND GALAXY 973 1766 3729 filmed over three years inMia and the White Lion, plus the sequels CINEMAS, GRAND CLASS CHIYAH to How to Train Your Dragon and The Lego Movie. The francophone 01 544 051 crowd also gets a treat with the follow-up to the smash hit comedy, GRAND LAS Qu’est-ce qu’on a encore fait au bon Dieu? SALINAS, ENFEH, NORTH LEBANON Wishing all our valued readers and patrons a joyful new year. 06 540 970 See you at the movies! GRAND SAIDA, THE SPOT 07 723 026 ANITA NASR EDITOR grandcinemasme.com 3 GOTEAM #dropusamail 08 PUBLISHING DIRECTORS CARLY RAMIA HABIS 26 [email protected] JEAN RAMIA [email protected] 12 EDITOR ANITA NASR [email protected] FOR YOUR MARKETING INQUIRIES 46 52 ISAAC FAHED [email protected] RALPH SEMAAN GRANDMAGAZINE [email protected] FOR YOUR JAN/FEB 2019 ADVERTISING INQUIRIES MPS T: 01 253 577 THE SCENE LE FILM RIMA KAI 06 Your movie production bites, 46 FRANCOPHONE [email protected] casting news and first looks Christian Clavier returns in GEORGE RAHI the hit sequel Qu’est-ce qu’on a [email protected] OSCAR BUZZ encore fait au bon Dieu? 08 With awards season heating PUBLISHER up, we highlight the contenders HORROR FANATIC playing in cinemas this season, 50 Our horror selection will have SELIM RAMIA & CO featuring What They Had. your pulse racing in no time. HABER BLDG, M LEVEL P.O. BOX 146 GC DIARY FAMILY ADVENTURE HAZMIEH, BEIRUT T: 05 457 146 12 Hot events: learn about the 52 PIT STOP F: 05 457 221 game tour that launched our Looking for a movie to www.srndco.com G-Points loyalty program. entertain the whole family? We’ve got you covered with the MX4D CALENDAR new Asterix chapter and more. 24 Plan your 4D adventure. CINEMA GUIDE 2019 MUST LIST 58 Now playing and coming soon 26 Check out our massive round- to a GC near you up of the biggest titles of the PRINTED BY year, led by Liam Neeson’s GC MOVIE CROSSWORD BYBLOS PRINTING SAL Cold Pursuit and Mel Gibson’s 66 Test your movie knowledge of T: 01 697 111 Dragged Across Concrete. Oscar winners. [email protected] 4 GRAND CINEMAS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 ß Emma Roberts stars in Paradise Hills alongside Eiza González and LUCE Milla Jovovich ADOPTED SON SHOWS HIS (below inset). TRUE COLOURS Oscar nominated actors Naomi Watts and Tim Roth (see above, right and left) join Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Oscar winner Octavia FIRST Spencer to form a brilliant ensemble cast in director Julius Onah’s Luce. The buzzed about film LOOK is a nominee for the Grand Jury Prize in the upcoming Sundance Film Festival (scheduled to kick RECENT REVEALS STIRRING off on January 24), where it will UP BUZZ ON THE WWW enjoy its world premiere. In the the musical numbers live up to the drama, a married couple is forced ALADDIN fantastic originals. Starring Mena to reckon with their idealised WILL SMITH IS HERE TO GRANT US THREE WISHES Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott image of their son, adopted from PARADISE as Jasmine and Marwan Kenzari war-torn Eritrea, after an alarming HILLS Our first look at Will Smith’s genie as Jafar, the film is directed by discovery by a devoted high school and Milla Jovovich in a unique in the live action recreation of Mr Lock, Stock and Two Smoking teacher threatens his status as an EMMA ROBERTS LIVES OUT A vision of a not-too-distant future. SHAFT Aladdin is even better than we Barrels himself, Guy Ritchie. all-star student. VISION OF THE FUTURE THE FAMILY IS GROWING. A young woman wakes up in a CAN YOU DIG IT? could have imagined. Here’s hoping IN CINEMAS MAY 23 IN CINEMAS Q1 2019 Premiering at the Sundance Film high-class treatment facility on an Festival where it is a nominee for isolated tropical island where well- Four decades since we were first the NEXT Innovator Award, Alice off families send their troublesome introduced to Richard Roundtree “I got a call which was really Waddington’s debut directo- daughters to be reformed. She as the smooth-talking detec- NEWS rial feature stars Emma Roberts soon learns that the facility’s beau- tive Shaft, and two decades since FLASH cool, out the blue, from the tiful facade hides a sinister secret. Samuel L. Jackson joined the lovely people at Pixar... They IN CINEMAS Q1 2019 storyline as his nephew John pitched the character to me and Shaft II, the Shafts welcome a new ß Paradise Hills is one of multiple upcoming then we spoke and they allowed releases for Milla Jovovich, including the member. In a new action-comedy me to kind of riff on it.” April dated Hellboy—in which she plays from director Tim Story, Jessie T. Nimue the Blood Queen; the fantasy Monster Usher plays John II’s estranged son, KEANU REEVES CONFIRMS HIS (AS YET Hunter from director Paul W.S. Anderson; UNREVEALED) ROLE IN THE HIGHLY and Hummingbird, in which she stars as a a cybersecurity expert who has to ANTICIPATED TOY STORY 4, OUT JUNE 20. black-ops assassin. team up with his elders. 6 GRAND CINEMAS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 grandcinemasme.com 7 OSCAR AMAZING CONTENDERS OSCAR FACTS With the Oscar awards airing February 25th, we've got a few fascinating facts that will impress your friends on the PLAYING special night. MOST NOMINATED FILM THIS Throughout the history of the Academy Awards, three films have earned the most nods, with 14 a piece: All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997, winning a record SEASON 11), and La La Land (2016). BIGGEST WINNER Considering the number of now-classics that he brought to the screen, it’s no wonder that Walt Disney has won the most Oscars, with 26 statuettes from a possible 64 nominations. What LONGEST FILM And you thought The Lord They Had of the Rings was long? Oscar winner O.J.: Made in A tender story of a challenge America, which conquered faced by many families the Documentary Feature category, clocks in at 7 hours 47 minutes. After her ailing mother (Blythe Danner) wanders off during a blizzard, YOUNGEST AND Bridget (Hilary Swank) returns to her OLDEST WINNER childhood home in Chicago, accom- Winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar panied by her rebellious college-age at age 10 for Paper Moon, daughter (Taissa Farmiga). Forced Tatum O'Neal is the youngest ever recipi- to referee between her father’s THE BUZZI ent. The oldest is Jessica Tandy, who at 81 (Robert Forster) stubborn insistence collected the Best Actress Award for her that his wife remain at home and "Blythe Danner does a role in Driving Miss Daisy. her equally determined brother’s remarkable job of conveying (Michael Shannon) efforts to place Ruth's irreversible path into FEB 28 THE OSCAR her in a sought-after “memory care” director ELIZABETH Costing $500 to make, the facility, Bridget struggles to make total memory loss without CHOMKO cast HILARY gold-plated statuette goes sense of a lifetime of family conflict. SWANK, MICHAEL home with the winner only turning her into a movie-of- SHANNON, BLYTHE With her mother’s decline becoming after he or she has signed the-week cliché." DANNER, ROBERT increasingly obvious, long-simmering a winner’s agreement, agreeing not to sell CHICAGO SUN-TIMES FORSTER, TAISSA FARMIGA resentments make an already difficult genre DRAMA 101 MINS the award without first offering it back to decision close to impossible.