Names and faces

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Mark Wahlberg, star of the forthcoming Transformers: Age of Extinction, is promising that the fourth installment of the Michael Bay-directed franchise will be a huge hit. “For moviegoers all over the world, I guarantee this will take it up a notch,” Wahlberg said Monday at the annual movie-theater convention, CinemaCon, in Las Vegas. Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said Bay was hesitant to return to the franchise until they were able to zero in on the right story and cast that would capture his imagination. “Michael promised me it would be a very different, stand-alone movie, which it absolutely is,” Wahlberg said. “It is bigger and better than the other three [films] combined. This will be the biggest movie of 2014.” Wahlberg, who re-teams with Bay after last year’s Pain and Gain, plays Cade Yeager, an automobile mechanic who discovers a rundown truck that is really a transformer. Soon, he’s the target of Autobots, Decepticons and the government. Transformers: Age of Extinction is due June 27.

It was extremely hard for Dwayne Johnson to keep his Hercules look under wraps while filming the Brett Ratner-directed movie in Hungary last year. But he did it for the greater good of the big reveal. “As an actor, not showing my chiseled, extraordinary, handsome face was a tremendous sacrifice for me,” he joked on Monday before the premiere of the film’s trailer at Las Vegas movie-theater convention CinemaCon. “Paramount, MGM and I made a pact,” he added. “We wanted to make a massive, global and entertaining movie while doing all we could to never reveal the actual look of Hercules.” Slowly rolling out photos from the set of the film for the past few months via his Twitter page, Johnson aimed to take fans along on his journey - from his training to his diet and preparation. On Sunday, the 41-year-old actor finally unveiled his Hercules look in its entirety. Via Twitter, he posted a photo revealing his full beard, shoulder-length brown locks and armor. In the caption accompanying the photo he wrote: “The world’s first superhero. #TilDeathOrVictory.” At 6 feet 5 inches, the extremely muscular Johnson said he trained harder for Hercules, which hits theaters July 25, than any other role. “But in the end,” he added. “It was all well worth it.”

Front Section, Pages 2 on 03/26/2014