Pinoy Actor Dave Bautista Back as Drax in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"

For Fil-Am actor Dave Bautista (Spectre, upcoming Blade Runner 2049), returning to the Guardians fold in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was a chance to reprise a character he truly enjoys playing.

“What I really love about Drax is he’s not what you’d expect from reading the comics,” Bautista says. “Everybody was expecting one thing, and we gave them another. It makes it more interesting. It’s easy just to be the big guy who’s always growling at people and intimidating people. We’ve seen it a million times. But when you get the same guy who looks the same way but just says the most ridiculous things that make you laugh, it makes him more interesting.”

REEL DEAL: Chris Pratt, Heroic Guardian of "JURASSIC WORLD"

2014 was truly the year of Chris Pratt. Pratt starred in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” as Star-Lord/Peter Quill, which was one of the top three grossing films of 2014, grossing more than $770 million at the global box office. Additionally, Pratt lent his vocal talent to the lead character Emmet in the enormously successful Warner Bros. Pictures animated feature “The Lego Movie,” which made more than $468 million worldwide.

Now, Pratt cements his superstar status as he headlines Universal Pictures' new dinosaur action-adventure “Jurassic World.”

REEL DEAL: Marvel Studios Unveils Phase 3 of Marvel Cinematic Universe

During a special event at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed the films that will make up Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring a mix of fan-favorite characters and several heroes who will be making their big-screen debuts.

The next two films to be released by Marvel are AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON on May 1, 2015, and ANT-MAN on July 17, 2015. Marvel revealed the dates and titles of nine additional films through 2019, including upcoming Captain America, Thor, Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy installments, along with films featuring Black Panther – who, Feige announced, will be played by Chadwick Boseman – Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, and the Inhumans.

REEL DEAL: “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY” Rockets To 4-Day Gross Of P104M To Claim No. 1

The heroic misfits of the universe took the Philippine box-office by storm as Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” opened at No. 1 nationwide with an otherworldly gross of P104-M in just four days (July 31 to Aug. 3). This was announced today by a spokesman of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International which distributed the film.

Capitalizing on solid reviews and positive word-of-mouth, "Guardians" built on its P15.94-M opening day gross July 31 to achieve the sixth-biggest opening of the year, making it ahead of recent blockbusters “Godzilla” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”

REEL DEAL: Pinoy Pride Dave Bautista Is Drax In “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY”

Filipino wrestling champion-turned-actor Dave Bautista takes on the role of Drax—a quiet yet physical brute, obsessed with avenging the death of his wife and child, in Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” (opening in the Philippines, July 31).

The casting of Drax was a tough one for the filmmakers, as executive producer Jeremy Latcham explains: “Drax is a complex character. He is a man who seeks vengeance on the people that murdered his wife, his daughter, ruined his life and took everything from him. He is a big, bulky guy covered in tattoos, and he looks like a menace but over the course of the film as the layers are peeled back, it is revealed that he is a deeply sorrowful, regretful man who wants to make amends, a multifaceted guy with much more going on than his physicality implies. Finding a big, hulking actor who could pull off that nuanced performance was really hard.”

REEL DEAL: Chris Pratt Seeks Stardom With “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY”

Bound-for-stardom Chris Pratt (“The LEGO Movie”) plays a brash space adventurer named Peter Quill, who was zapped into space at the age of nine, in Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

The filmmakers’ search for Peter Quill, the leader of the Guardians was extensive. Many actors were considered as contenders for the role but it was Pratt, best known for the role he plays in “Parks and Recreation,” and who was beginning to make a significant mark for scene-stealing roles in “Moneyball,” “The Five-Year Engagement” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” who triumphed. His ability to effortlessly switch between drama, comedy and action, together with his incredible charm, made him not only a great choice but also the only choice.

REEL DEAL: The Lethal Adversaries of “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY”

After last week's in-depth descriptions of the quirky heroes of Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy,” let's now introduce their formidable adversaries.

The antagonists of the Guardians in this epic space adventure is led by Ronan (Lee Pace, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”), a Kree radical who continues to fight an ancient war between his people and the Xandarians. Ronan has struck a bargain with the Machiavellian Thanos—retrieve a mysterious artifact, and in exchange Xandar will finally be eradicated. Ronan leads his army to hunt down Peter Quill and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy when they come between him and his genocidal goal.

REEL DEAL: The Unique Heroes of Marvel's “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY”

“I think ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ has one of the best ensemble casts for an origin movie that Marvel has ever had because it is so eclectic,” producer Kevin Feige says on the approach to casting the unique characters in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

We didn’t set out to cast a relative unknown for the lead nor movie stars for the voices of Rocket and Groot, it just evolved liked that, again, because we had the freedom to say ‘anybody’s on the table’ for this one.”

REEL DEAL: “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY” From Comic Book To Bug Screen

From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of “Iron Man,” “Thor,” “Captain America” and “The Avengers,” comes a new team — the “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.