‘What happens on the train is pretty extraordinary,’ movie’s star Paul Bettany says.
Although it didn’t have quite enough oomph to top R-rated romp “Bridesmaids” at the box office, the unique thriller “Priest” has plenty to offer filmgoers via its high-caliber stars Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, and Lily Collins, its “satisfying mash-up” of genres, and, the key ingredient to any popcorn flick, plenty of action.

When MTV News caught up with the cast recently, we asked them to pick their favorite action scene in the film, which was directed by Scott Stewart and revolves around a specially trained warrior priest (Bettany) who must fight vampires in order to save his kidnapped niece (Collins). Coincidentally enough, they all agreed on a favorite: the climactic battle scene, which takes place on top of, inside and in front of a speeding train.

“There so many,” Maggie Q said. “I guess the train sequence, where everybody is kind of into it, is pretty great,” she said. “They’re on the train, and then she [Maggie’s character] is on the bike. I thought the editing was genius.”

“What happens on the train is pretty extraordinary,” Bettany added. The action intercut with Cam [Gigandet] inside the train, with Karl [Urban] and I on top of the train, having this battle royale, and with Maggie further down the track trying to blow the track up, and fighting with all the familiars, on motorbikes and stuff. … [It’s] pretty great.”

“I thought it was really cool when Paul [Bettany] and Karl [Urban] are on top of the train,” Collins said of the pivotal scene. “I remember the day they shot that, and it looks epic from far away,” she said. “I remember how hard it was to choreograph that. It was like a dance on wires. It looks really, really cool. I feel like my stunt scenes are cool too, but visually I think that one looked really awesome.”

“I have to go with Maggie’s [action sequence],” Gigandet added. “In the very end with the thingamajig [a knife blade/Chinese star-type weapon that she swings around her head], that’s pretty rock star-ish. She does it with this simplistic grace.”

“Yeah she just does it, and she’s [so] calm about it,” Collins added.

Source: MTV News

‘It’s not a vampire film,’ Maggie Q tells MTV News, saying the comic adaptation can’t be labeled so easily.
We’ve had our eyes and ears on the movie “Priest” for quite some time now, from its comic book beginnings to its star-studded feature-film adaptation, 3-D conversion and new release dates.

With the film’s arrival in theaters only days away, it’s time to take an even closer look at this unique thriller. Directed by Scott Stewart and starring Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban and Lily Collins, “Priest” is the story of a specially trained warrior priest (Bettany) who must fight vampires in order to save his kidnapped niece (Collins).

Despite the words “thriller” and “vampire” being in the plot description, there is a lot more going on in this film. When MTV News caught up with the cast recently, we asked them to explain what kind of movie “Priest” really is.

“I think it’s really, a really satisfying mash-up of urban sci-fi, a little drop of Western in there, a lot of horror, and a shed-load of action,” Bettany said.

“We’ve been kind of going through that today: ‘How do we talk about this film? What do we say?’ ” Maggie Q wondered aloud. “It’s not a vampire film; it just isn’t. There are vampires in it, but vampires we’ve never seen before, so that’s even cooler.”

“I think what [Stewart has] successfully done is taken a whole mesh of different genres and come up with this new thing that really works,” Urban, who plays the villainous Black Hat, said. “It’s a postapocalyptic futuristic, sci-fi, Western- slash-horror thing.”

“We had seen pictures of the world Scott was creating,” Gigandet said when asked if he and his fellow castmembers were aware of how unique the film would look and how many genres would be included. “You get the feel from even the comics that we had looked at, and you kind of just get that sense, even when just looking on the sets, you know what world you’re stepping into, as well as the costumes,” he said.

“I was just going to say the costumes,” Collins added. “You look at his [costume] and then the priests, and then Maggie’s little leather getup, and I have a corset. I mean, you’re like, ‘What is this?’ It’s a blend of crazy. It’s epileptic.”

Source: MTV News

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• Photoshoots > Solo Shoots > 024

The stylish Priest star Cam Gigandet takes a break from his steamy shoot in Mexico to chat about his John Wayne aspirations, young fatherhood, and his nastiest habit.
In the past twelve months, Cam Gigandet has played a Jesus freak with chlamydia (Easy A), a frat boy coping with a crazed stalker (The Roommate), and Christina Aguilera’s bowler-hat-wearing arm candy (Burlesque).

That makes this month’s Priest, in which he stars as a small-town sheriff and wannabe vampire hunter, his only recent project that could even semiplausibly be compared to a John Wayne film. And the Washington-state native doesn’t miss the opportunity.

“Priest is like The Searchers with vampires,” the 28-year-old actor explains, though he’ll cop to wearing a lot more makeup in this Westernish bloodsucking thriller than the Duke ever had to.

Gigandet is used to playing dress-up. He has a 2-year-old daughter (“Am I a young dad? Maybe in the year 2011 I am”), and she encourages his homebody habits, if she hasn’t exactly curtailed his smoking. Of the tyke’s influence over him, Gigandet says, “I could go out somewhere and talk to a bunch of strangers. Or I could sit and watch Megamind for the seventh time with my little girl. That usually wins out.”

So how did he explain this little escape to Mexico, then? Sometimes it’s nice to play dress-up with the big girls, too.

Source: GQ

I’ve just added photos from the Priest Press Conference which was held last Sunday.

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• Events And Appearances > 2011 > May 1, 2011 – “Priest” Press Conference

Sony UK flew three students from London’s Westminster film school to Hollywood to present their work to the stars of our latest blockbuster, Priest in 3D — watch what happened!