Stripped Bare: A Few of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Most Devastating Portraits of Human Nature

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Warning: This article contains spoilers

From the furious ambition of oil magnates to the quiet desperation of lonely souls, Paul Thomas Anderson’s films plunge into the dissonant symphony of the human experience with unflinching intensity. Across his eclectic filmography, Anderson crafts narratives that orbit around deep emotional truths, both exhilarating and unsettling. The hunger for connection, the burden of legacy, and the corrosive pull of obsession — whether in the drug-fueled haze of Boogie Nights, the religious fervor of The Master, or the existential silence of There Will Be Blood — reveal to his audience the rawness of the human experience. His characters often drift through fractured families or surrogate tribes, clinging to found families in the absence of real ones. From pornographers forming a makeshift clan in the San Fernando Valley to a cult masquerading as spiritual salvation, Anderson’s characters yearn for meaning in a world that rarely offers clear answers. Their pain is deeply personal, yet rendered in operatic scale, blurring the line between the intimate and the epic. Through languorous camera movements, hypnotic scores, and unrestrained performances, Anderson excavates the emotional sediment beneath the surface of his characters. His worlds are populated by flawed, often morally ambiguous individuals who are simultaneously monstrous and irrefutably human. Power dynamics play out like ritualistic dances, revealing the fragility of ego and the violence simmering beneath suppressed emotions. Yet amid the loneliness and dysfunction, there are moments of startling grace. A trembling hand held out in forgiveness or a gaze that says what words cannot invite viewers into exposed emotional spaces, not to judge, but to witness the absurdity, tragedy, and beauty of being human. In his universe, the human condition is a kind of unsolvable riddle, one that loops through time, echoing across eras and genres. And as we await Anderson’s newest film, One Battle After Another, which hits theaters September 26th, we can reflect on some of the most powerful moments of cinema Anderson has given us: moments that hold up a mirror to our benevolent and horrific nature, and the scenes ahead are some of the most memorable emotional scenes film has delivered in years.

Amber Waves and Rollergirl (Boogie Nights) 

CIRCA 1997: Actress Heather Graham on set of the movie “Boogie Nights ” , circa 1997. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

In 1997’s Boogie Nights, Anderson’s second feature about a naive young man being consumed by the trappings of the porn industry in the 1970s and 80s, the frenzy of cocaine and disco lights fades sporadically to reveal the deep emotional wreckage beneath the film’s characters. As Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), with her maternal poise, and Rollergirl (Heather Graham), who sails through most of the film with a party-girl bravado, sit cross-legged, high and giddy, a hauntingly tender moment emerges. Rollergirl’s request, “I want you to be my mom, Amber. Will you be my mom?” floats out, a desperate plea from a girl lost in a world that failed to nurture her. Behind her glittering and coke-addled eyes is a longing for safety, structure, and for someone to care when the cameras stop rolling. Amber, who has already lost custody of her own son to the cold judgment of the courts, sees in Rollergirl not only a surrogate child, but a mirror of her own failure to belong and to be loved without conditions. It’s a moment of delusion and realness colliding. In this exchange, we find two desperate people clinging to a fantasy family built from brokenness, unsustainable and erratic, grasping for each other like driftwood in a storm.

Scotty’s Rejection (Boogie Nights) –

CIRCA 1997: (L-R) Jack Wallace, Rickey Jay Nicole, Ari Parker, Burt Reynolds, William H Macy, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly and Phillip Seymour Hoffman pose on set of the movie “Boogie Nights ” , circa 1997. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

It’s difficult to extract the most powerful scene in a film filled with moments in which our characters’ vulnerabilities are so mercilessly exposed, but this one hits hard. In one of many devastatingly relatable scenes from Boogie Nights, Scotty, played with discomfiting awkwardness by Philip Seymour Hoffman, tries to kiss Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). It’s New Year’s Eve, and the party is in full swing. However, for Scotty, the celebration masks a storm of unrequited longing. Dirk is the new golden boy of porn with feathered hair, sculpted features, and, of course, his “one special thing.” He is Scotty’s idol, crush, and emotional undoing. When Scotty, nervously showing off his new car in a desperate bid for attention, leans in for a kiss, Dirk recoils, confused, embarrassed, and repulsed. The rejection is swift, but what lingers is Scotty’s quiet, gutting collapse, repeating “I’m a fucking idiot” in the driver’s seat. It’s one of the film’s most poignant scenes, belying the glamour of our character’s surroundings, to reveal the aching human need for love, recognition, and belonging in a world that confuses performance for connection.

 

Informal Processing (The Master) –

TheMaster.jpg
Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master.”

In The Master (2012), the informal processing scene, which feels much more like an interrogation, hums with an almost intolerable intensity, drawing us deep into the strange gravitational pull between Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the charismatic, self-anointed prophet of a burgeoning philosophical movement, and Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), an unstable, war-damaged drifter teetering on the edge of sanity. Seated across from each other in a dimly lit room, Dodd, with all the poise and disquieting focus of Hannibal Lecter, bombards Freddie with a relentless stream of probing questions, commanding him to answer without blinking or hesitation. Every moment brims with unspoken danger as Dodd repeatedly asks invasive personal questions about Freddie’s mental health, predilection for violence, and sexual history, which includes an admission of sexual intercourse with his own aunt. Freddie tries to keep up, fidgeting like a cornered animal, while Dodd leans in with paternal calm, sensing something wild and pure in Freddie that he can either harness or destroy. What unfolds is less a conversation and more a psychic wrestling match, a wordless dance of dominance and vulnerability, where belief and control are the ultimate stakes.

 

Pharmacy Breakdown (Magnolia) –

In Magnolia (1999), the pharmacy scene is an exposed, unflinching glimpse into the unraveling psyche of Linda Partridge, played by Julianne Moore. Linda is a woman drowning in grief, guilt, and the unbearable weight of regret. Having married a much older man for money and now watching him die, she finds herself, too late, genuinely in love with him and emotionally unmoored. When she charges into the pharmacy, desperate for an arsenal of medications, the polite suspicion of the pharmacists feels like an assault. Her tightly coiled nerves snap, and in a burst of anguish and fury, she erupts. “I’m in pain!” Outwardly, this is a justification, but we understand it as a primal confession. It’s a meltdown charged with shame, heartbreak, and the desperate need to be seen not as a gold-digger, but as a woman who has made a tragic mistake and is now paying for it in full. Moore’s performance is shattering and unforgettable, turning an ordinary setting into the stage for a soul laid bare.

 

Reynolds Drinks the Tea (Phantom Thread) –

Vicky Krieps stars as “Alma” and Daniel Day-Lewis stars as “Reynolds Woodcock” in writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s PHANTOM THREAD, a Focus Features release.
Credit : Laurie Sparham / Focus Features

In one of the most unsettling turns of 2017’s Phantom Thread, the veil lifts on the twisted intimacy between Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Alma (Vicky Krieps), as he knowingly sips the poisoned mushroom tea she’s prepared. We watch his eyes locked with hers, a near-smile playing at the corners of his lips. Until this point, well into the film, Reynolds has ruled his pristine, couture world with tyrannical precision. We understand him to be a man with emotional walls as high as his standards for garment-making. At this moment, however, he is sickened not just by the mushrooms but by the weight of his own perfectionism. What Alma brings to him is a perverse offering, a mutual recognition that their love is sacrificial and ritualistic, not soft, not gentle. Alma’s poisoning is an intimate negotiation, a dark pact in which illness becomes a language of care, control, and submission. Reynolds, craving the vulnerability he cannot access on his own, allows her to break him down so she can build him back up on her terms. The moment is grotesque, tender, erotic, and absurdly romantic, revealing their love as a carefully stitched arrangement of pain, devotion, and mutual fantasy. 

 

Final Confrontation (There Will Be Blood) –

How could one discuss the most powerful moments in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films without mentioning the final scene in There Will Be Blood? In the film’s final minutes, we see the ultimate confrontation between two men whose lives have been fueled by abject, narcissistic hunger, as the decades-long tension between Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) comes to a brutal climax. Set in the cavernous bowling alley of Daniel’s estate, now a decaying monument to his isolation and wealth, the confrontation exposes the emotional and moral rot that has festered between them. A desperate and diminished Eli seeks Daniel’s help, only to be humiliated and ultimately destroyed. Daniel, dangling the carrot of financial salvation before Eli, forces him to repeat, “I am a false prophet, and God is a superstition,” until his timbre reaches the fever pitch of his own sermons. Daniel then reveals that Eli’s proposition is worthless, delighting in Eli’s weakness and haste to betray his purported faith. The exchange lays bare their mirrored narcissism. Both men are manipulative, performative, and obsessed with power, using faith and capitalism as tools of domination. Yet Daniel, now consumed by misanthropy, alcoholism, and madness, holds a deeper contempt for Eli, seeing him as a fraud and a petulant parasite who once dared to best him. In the film’s final violent moments, Daniel murders Eli by bludgeoning him with a bowling pin. This is less an act of passion than of finality, a declaration that the game of pride and vengeance is over. Daniel’s last line, “I’m finished,” is not just an indicator to his butler but a pronouncement signaling the end of the spiritual and emotional war that has defined his life. 

Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted so many moments of cinematic mastery throughout his storied career. He has, with his incredibly flawed and undeniably human characters, reflected to us the nuance of the human emotional experience, and his newest film, One Battle After Another, promises to be a new mirror through which we are shown our very nature. Look for it in theaters September 26th.

Caption: (L-r) Director/Writer/Producer PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON, LEONARDO DI CAPRIO and BENICIO DEL TORO on the set of “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton

 

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) LEONARDO DI CAPRIO and Director/Writer/Producer PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON on the set of “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton 

How “Nino” Producer Sandra da Fonseca Turned a First Time Director’s Story Into Global Festival Gold

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As producer Sandra da Fonseca is telling The Credits about the theatrical release of her newest film, Nino, serendipity strikes. “Oh, I just saw a bus go by with the film’s poster on it,” she says. “That makes me happy — it’s the first one I’ve seen!”

The poster may have been on the bus side, but Nino is gaining acclaim at rocket speed. After premiering at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2025, the film went on to win the MPA-founded d’Ornano-Valenti Award at the Deauville American Film Festival. It has since embarked on what da Fonseca calls a “world tour” of international festivals, from Jakarta to Helsinki, Rio to Rome.

Nino tells the story of a young man whose cancer diagnosis prompts a fragile but tender reconciliation with the people who have crossed his life. Led by a “career-best performance” from Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin (Becoming Karl Lagerfeld), the film is a masterclass in poetic direction and meticulous collaboration with cast and crew.  

It’s not surprising that an arthouse, character-led story finds success in France. But with distribution already secured in more than ten territories, Nino is casting light on the global appeal of genuine, relatable human stories.

What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that Nino is the very first feature film by director Pauline Loquès — and she couldn’t have found a better producing partner. Da Fonseca’s first film, À peine j’ouvre les yeux, also had a first-time director, Leyla Bouzid. And in 2017, she accompanied another director, Léonor Serraille, on her debut feature Jeune Femme. On that occasion, they also took home the Deauville Festival’s top prize, as well as the Caméra d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

“The most important part of supporting an emerging filmmaker [is to] believe in the project,” da Fonseca concludes. Indeed, in her case, believing in young women directors has helped bring their voices onto the international stage.

 

What first attracted you and Blue Monday Productions to Nino?

Pauline had directed a short film, La vie de jeune fille, which aired on Franco-German public broadcaster Arte in 2019. I found the short film very interesting, and that’s how we first met. At that time, she already had an idea for a feature film, and eventually, she started sharing different stages of her writing, like the treatment and several dialogue drafts. Conceptualising the story was what took the longest. At some point, we brought in Maud Ameline as a script consultant, and she helped strengthen the narrative and refine specific elements. Once the script was clearly defined, we decided to truly embark on the search for funding and make this film together.

Congratulations on the film’s success and on the d’Ornano-Valenti prize. Reviews are even comparing it to Agnès Varda’s work. What are the prospects for the film in the next year or so?

Nino has just been released in French cinemas on September 17. So we’ve been preparing for this for many weeks now. After this major milestone in France, the next step will be the film’s screenings at international festivals, which already started at the Toronto International Film Festival. In Helsinki, as well, it was screened just a few days ago. The film is also programmed to screen in Namur, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Poland, Rome, El Gouna, Mexico, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Montreal, Lithuania, and Cairo. And that brings us to December! So, in two months, the film will have played at fifteen festivals. It’s safe to say the film is truly going on a world tour, which is very exciting.

Left to right: Louis Hallonet, Director of Cultural Affairs at Sacem | Sandra da Fonseca, Producer | Pauline Loquès, Director | Jean Guillaume d’Ornano, son of Deauville Festival founder | Julie Garcia, Head of the Franco-American Cultural Fund | Théodore Pellerin, Actor | Emilie Anthonis, President and Managing Director of MPA-EMEA

It’s also been sold in a few places, too?

It has been sold in a few territories for theatrical release. Canada — the home country of Théodore Pellerin, the lead actor. Then there are Taiwan, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, India, Brazil, and Indonesia, among others, totaling about ten territories so far. We’re still waiting for something in North America, where sales usually take a bit more time.

Reviews are also calling it Theodore Pellerin’s career-best performance, as well as praising the editing, cinematography, and other creative elements. What were you looking for in cast and crew to tell this story?

We chose the cast meticulously. Especially Théodore, of course, since he is in every shot — but it was also essential to carefully select his scene partners.  We didn’t go for the easy option or the most pragmatic or “marketable” option for financiers. That wasn’t our approach at all. It was Youna De Peretti, the casting director I’ve worked with on many films, who introduced us to Théodore’s work. He wasn’t the obvious choice, as he’s based in Canada and doesn’t have a Parisian accent. But it soon became clear that he was exactly the right one.

Theodore Pellerin in Nino. Courtesy Blue Monday Productions/Disney+

What about for your crew?

Selecting the right crew members was also crucial. Pauline has real talent; she writes very well and has a very precise sense of direction, despite not having attended a film school. It was important for her to be surrounded by the right people, who could bring ideas while respecting what she wanted to achieve.

How is it producing an arthouse film like Nino in France? Do you see a difference with international co-productions?

There are national and regional subsidies in France, but they’re by no means a given. France has a very supportive system, but it’s also highly selective because there are many films competing for production. So, producing a film by a first-time director who wasn’t especially visible meant we really had some convincing to do. We had to centre the pitch on the artistic aspects of the project. It wasn’t so much about market factors, even though some of the cast are fairly well-known in France, like Jeanne Balibar or William Lebghil.

With international co-productions, you might have two, three, or four countries involved, with multiple producers. I think that makes the process quite different from the work I did for Nino, which was more that of a lead producer: working closely with the director on major decisions, big discussions, strategies, and directions.

Theodore Pellerin in Nino. Courtesy Blue Monday Productions/Disney+

And how does the process of bringing it to an international audience, in Europe and beyond, unfold?

For Nino, that started with the Cannes Critics’ Week selection. It really was an extraordinary showcase for the film. The Cannes Film Market is where the main activity happens. The film is shown several times to buyers from all over the world, who purchase it either during the festival itself or in the weeks that follow.

After that, there’s the significant work of submitting the film to international festivals. But it’s true that for a film like this, being or not being at Cannes makes a huge difference. Cannes provides visibility, a spotlight. So we were fortunate to have that platform. For a first feature, it’s an incredibly valuable opportunity.

À peine j’ouvre les yeux was your first feature, and also the first of its director, Leyla Bouzid. Nino is Pauline Loques’ first. What advice did you have for her?

There’s also Jeune Femme by Léonor Serraille, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 2017. A producer friend recently said, “First-time directors are a lot of work because you’re helping to give birth to a filmmaker.” Of course, the filmmaker would have emerged with or without you. But when you’re the chosen one, there is true partnership in the process. I say that sometimes it’s a bit like a marriage: a film takes years to make, and the producer is in contact with the director almost daily. It’s easy to have faith for a month; it’s much harder to keep it alive over the years. So, the challenge is to stay the course, to believe in the project, and to keep telling the director (and yourself) that we’re on the right path. That, I think, is the most important state of mind to be in when supporting a rising filmmaker. What truly sustains the journey is faith and passion.

Out of 27 d’Ornano-Valenti Awards, 17 have gone to women. You have consistently worked with women filmmakers. What drives that choice, and do you see a difference in the industry today from when you started?

I don’t see it as a militant act. For me, it’s about finding meaning. Since I’ll need to fight to get the film made and bring it to audiences, I need to feel a deep sense of purpose right from the start. You really have to fall in love with the person and with the project to be able to dedicate years of your life to it. And it just so happens that recently, those projects have come from women. I work with women directors because the stories they tell interest me, and I find their approach to telling them to be very powerful. We probably share a common outlook on the world, cinematic references, tastes, and a certain sense of meaning.

We’re seeing a new generation of female directors emerge, young women who are also achieving major international recognition. I feel that in film schools, festivals, and other filmmaking circles, there’s more awareness now. It’s very encouraging and exciting.

Featured image: Theodore Pellerin in Nino. Courtesy Blue Monday Productions/Disney+

 

Scarlett Johansson on Her Directorial Debut “Eleanor the Great”: “I Don’t Think I Could Have Done It 10 Years Ago”

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Grief makes people do crazy things. 

And sometimes that includes moving across the country after the death of your closest friend, befriending a 19-year-old college student, and lying about your identity.

Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, stars June Squibb as Eleanor, a 95-year-old woman who moves to New York after the passing of her dear friend. The film explores how grief spans generations, both isolating and connecting us. 

JUNE SQUIBB as Eleanor, RITA ZOHAR as Bessie in ‘Eleanor the Great.’ Image: Anne Joyce. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Squibb delivers a performance as Eleanor that portrays the all-consuming nature of grief, as she begins to lose parts of herself while trying desperately to keep her late friend’s memories alive. The film works to create a sympathetic version of Eleanor, while also showing how “tough” she can be on those around her.

“She’s a hard person to like,” Johansson says, describing Eleanor. “She’s very hard [on] her daughter, and she’s bossy, dismissive, and opinionated.”

JUNE SQUIBB as Eleanor in ‘Eleanor the Great.’ Image: Jojo Whilden. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Eleanor’s actions throughout the film are also morally questionable, but Johansson says she hopes audiences can understand “why she does what she does…that it comes out of love and loneliness,” she says.

Johansson says Squibb spent a lot of time thinking about Eleanor — “what she wanted out of life, her expectations, her disappointments” — to create a wholly complex character that becomes neither a hero nor a victim, but a realistic portrayal of a woman dealing with a painful loss.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON, JUNE SQUIBB on the set of ‘Eleanor the Great.’ Image: Anne Joyce. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

“All that work that an actor puts into the backstory to make something rich, June did all of that stuff,” Johansson says. “So I knew that my job was just to capture it, and that actually, if you could see that side of Eleanor, then you could have compassion for what she was experiencing.” 

Johansson trusts her actors to allow their faces to tell the story. With tight camera shots on furrowed brows and tear-stained cheeks, lingering looks on a portrait on the wall or a hand stretched out of a car window, she allows the audience to experience the grief alongside the characters. 

JUNE SQUIBB as Eleanor in ‘Eleanor the Great.’ Image: Jojo Whilden. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

“It’s plot-driven in some ways, but it’s a real character study,” Johansson says. “I wanted to spend time with the characters in intimate moments in the natural light.”

Eleanor the Great is minimalist in creation. Johansson allows the audience to spend necessary time with the character’s emotions in an easily digestible format that is both simple and beautiful.

“I think because the emotion is so complicated…I wanted [the film] to look uncomplicated,” she explains of her creative style.  Johansson says that she and her team had a shot list, but ended up just going “in and in and in” on tighter shots, because the actors were so “nuanced” in their performances. “It really feels like you’re inside their mind,” she says of the close-ups. 

JUNE SQUIBB as Eleanor in ‘Eleanor the Great’
Image: Anne Joyce. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Johansson has had a career in acting since she was eight years old, starring in her breakout role at 17 alongside then-52-year-old Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, and becoming a household name before she turned 20. 

“When I was really young, a teenager, I thought that I would act until I was an adult, and then I would direct, you know, that seemed like the most interesting job,” she recalls. “But then, as I got older, I think just figuring out how to get better at my job as an actor and understand it on a deeper level — that took precedence forever.”

It wasn’t until the founding of her own production company, These Pictures, in 2022, that she started toying with the idea of directing again.

“It felt like it happened at the right time in my life, and it happened at the time where I could read a script like this and know that this is something I think I could actually pull off,” she says thoughtfully.

 

As a first-time director, Johansson says there were some surprisingly unexpected aspects of the job. 

“Directing is a funny — it’s kind of a weird, lonely gig sometimes,” she says, reflecting. “I never realized that. As an actor, it always seemed like the director was…you’ve got the crew, and you guys are kind of doing your whole other thing, and the actors are kind of isolated from that experience. But the reality is, as a director, it’s like everyone is having fun doing fun stuff and getting together, and you’re not doing any at all. You’re just working all the time.”

JUNE SQUIBB as Eleanor, ERIN KELLYMAN as Nina in ‘Eleanor the Great’ Image: Anne Joyce. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

But despite her occasional feelings of loneliness, she says she loved her cast and crew, and the overall experience was very “warm” and “positive.” 

“I also thought, ‘Oh, directing, you have all this extra time because you’re not in hair and makeup for two hours,’” she laughs. “But that’s not true either. You’re the first one there and the last one to leave.” 

Johansson’s hard work is reflected in the beauty of her storytelling style. Eleanor the Great is a sincere, heartwarming first step into the world of directing.

“I don’t think that I could have done it 10 years ago — I wouldn’t have had the confidence,” she says candidly. 

Johansson has long ago proven herself as an actor—her confidence as a director should only build after this debut.  

 

Eleanor the Great is in select theaters on September 26.

Featured image: SCARLETT JOHANSSON on the set of ‘Eleanor the Great’. Image: Anne Joyce. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Final “Wicked: For Good” Trailer Brings Dorothy to Oz

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When we spoke with Wicked and Wicked: For Good co-writer Dana Fox, they were just at the very end of the years-long process of bringing the colossal Broadway smash hit to its cinematic conclusion. Fox told us that she’d recently watched both the films, which were shot back-to-back, back-to-back herself, and had this to say, “By the end of the day, I was like a shell of a person who had to be swept off the floor – makeup all over, mascara, sweating, weeping, joyful, happy, singing. It was all of the emotions.”

Now, Universal has released the final trailer for Wicked: For Good, which opens with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) instructing Glinda (Ariana Grande) that “it’s more important than ever: to lift everyone’s spirits, as only you can.” She introduces Glinda to a fantastic piece of technology, her special bubble, which is activated by a button on the floor that helpfully reads “tap to bubble.” When Glinda says, “I’m obsessulated,” (a classic Glinda-ism), and Madame Morrible is pleased. Glinda is, in her eyes, the perfect pitch woman to keep those with real power in control of Oz. To make the point about Glinda’s role in all this crystal—or bubble—clear, Madame Morrible adds, “the wand really sells it.”

When we spoke to director Jon M. Chu, he said that while it’s Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) whose courage becomes contagious and sparks the challenge to finally overthrow the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) dominion over Oz, Glinda’s own courage will be highlighted in “For Good.“ It was a courage, Chu told us, that Grande had in pursuing the role in the first place. “When you see Ariana Grande going through her life and trying to find her escape from her own life and finding her authentic self, and you see that in her performance as Glinda, then you can see that it also takes courage for someone with privilege to live in their bubble, to pop their privilege, to come down and see what’s actually happening.”

Glinda the Good, as she’s called, becomes a public figure in For Good, and in that role, she’s supposed to paint Elphaba as, well, wicked. The trailer offers a wand battle between the two old college friends, as well as a glimpse of a house flying through the sky. Yup, enter Dorothy, who, along with her four new friends, is instructed by the Wizard to bring him the Wicked Witch’s wand, so he knows that she’s dead. For Good is set both before and after Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, and the trailer gives us a glimpse of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.

Wicked: For Good will enchant theaters on November 21. Check out the final trailer here:

Featured image: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.

“Alien: Earth” Cinematographer and Director Dana Gonzalez on Bringing Cinema’s Most Iconic Monster to TV

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On Earth, everyone can hear you scream. No apologies for the dreadful play on the classic logline for Alien, which continues to reach new, strange heights in FX’s Alien: Earth, created by Fargo‘s Noah Hawley. Cinematographer and director Dana Gonzalez establishes the expressive vision in the pilot, titled “Neverland,” which introduces a young, terminally ill girl named Marcy Hermit (Florence Bensberg) to a future world in which she’ll survive, but not quite as herself. Instead, her consciousness will be uploaded into the body of a young woman, entirely synthetic, named Wendy (Sydney Chandler), thanks to technology invented and lorded over by a tech trillionaire who goes by “Boy Kavalier” (Samuel Blenkin) and his company, Prodigy.

The world that Marcy-turned-Wendy will exist, and potentially thrive in, is one dominated by technology and the five behemoth corporations who control it—Weyland-Yutani (made famous in the Alien film franchise), Prodigy, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. When a Weyland-Yutani research vessel carrying alien specimens snatched from their home planets, including one of the most iconic monsters in all of cinema (and now TV), the Xenomorph, crashes into a Prodigy-owned building in the city of New Siam, the world order is about to be shaken up. Gonzalez was a major creative force in establishing the world of Alien: Earth and the stakes at play, particularly in the thrilling combo of episodes two and three, “Mr. October” and “Metamorphosis,” both of which he directed.

In the pilot, “Neverland,” Wendy searches for her brother, Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther), among the crash site, where the Xenomorph has slaughtered almost everyone aboard the Weyland-Yutani ship, and the nearby apartment building is swiftly becoming its hunting ground. Earth is now under a threat that might prove too unstable even for the corporate overlords to handle. 

Recently, Gonzalez spoke with The Credits about portraying some of the franchise’s more iconic signatures in his visceral episodes in one of the year’s standout series.

 

Earth was always talked about as a living hell in the franchise. Here, this is the first time fans get to experience it. How did you and Noah want to depict Earth? 

Noah had this whole idea of a wet, overgrown world. And then, between the development, which is about three years before shooting, and the world, the world was changing too. There’s the billionaire situation, now trillionaires, and the Elon Musks of it all that started taking on a whole new meaning. You now have that cerebral atmosphere that people can tap into. If we’re feeling this pressure now from that class of people, it’s likely to be even worse in the future. There’s an inequality in the distribution of wealth, and there’s climate change. These people are dealing with possibly the end of the world. Then you add five corporations that will eventually be two corporations that screw up the world. So, it’s more than just a physical, atmospheric place.

FX’s Alien: Earth — Pictured: L-r: Dana Gonzalez, Adarsh Gourav as Sligthly, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, and Babou Ceesay as Morrow. BTS. CR: Patrick Brown/FX.

Seeing the rich get eaten is also fairly new to the series. In episode two, there’s a Barry Lyndon party turned into a slaughterhouse by a Xenomorph. How’d you land on the Last Supper image?

It can be bombastic. It’s already ludicrous. The whole thing is like this [rich] guy’s just like, “No, we’re having this party. I don’t care if a ship crashed into the building.” And so, that image of them at the table — I worked with a concept artist. I wanted it to be the Last Supper that a Xenomorph destroyed. I wanted to have this iconic image that you could tap into.

Noah wanted to steer away from the more human qualities of the Xenomorph and approach the alien more like a cockroach. What did that direction mean to you? 

You couldn’t just build the tension and then cut to the Xenomorph, and then boom, he’s cooked. There’s more story that has to be told, even in the Lordship scene — the Xeno jumping and chasing and pinning Hermit. You’re showing more than ever, so you try to get the suit in a great way. The physicality – it’s flying and jumping around. With full CGI, we have more control, but it’s never going to be the tactility of how we photographed it. With eight hours, how many minutes will effectively be spent with the Xenomorph? More than any other movie would have to deal with. In episode seven, you see it outside in its full glory.

 

What did you discover in early camera tests about which lighting works and doesn’t work for a Xenomorph suit?

There were early tests in New Zealand with Wētā in the first year. You put it on camera, adjusting the color and the sheen. And then in Bangkok, we did the more serious tests. Even in that [party] scene, you’re not able to light it where you just see the Xenomorph in such a way that you’re seeing all these reflective areas and everything. So, a product shot — actually in space, moving around — you’re lighting it more holistically than you’ve ever done. Hopefully, the Xenomorph was presented in a much more controlled lighting space. You have to make this thing scary.

 

In your eyes, how do you make it scary?

You want to see the details of it, and find out what that is. And so, it was an evolution of designing the suit, the finishes of the suit, and the final testing in Bangkok. Then you start bringing it into the physical space, and you have wires on it, and it’s moving around. Hopefully, you nail all those things throughout that process, knowing that it will work. Adding the goop, does that work as effectively in one shot as the other? When you’re doing practical stuff and you have a time element, it’s tough because it’s not like in CGI, where you could tweak it until you think it’s perfect. So, if suddenly the drool isn’t working as well from the earlier shots, the payoff is that it’s practical, and I think that’s better. So, if the drool is not as good in one shot as in another shot, you’re still winning.

As a director, you had the privilege of shooting a close-up of the iconic egg. What details pop when you’re up that close? How do you want to light it just right?

You start with the design, and you keep hitting it. You keep hitting hard, you add details, and then you photograph it. Where does it photograph the best? How does the color come across? If you look at even Alien, the egg kind of changes a little bit from shot to shot. When you first see the egg, and then when you see the clear egg, or when you see the facehugger through it as it’s coming out — it’s almost like three different eggs. You realize that ours is definitely more consistent because we had to nail it down. But look, we have the luxury of looking at Alien. We could always say, “How did Ridley make this work?” Here, there’s a modern feel to it. There are new materials that didn’t exist in those days. But it does start with the original, thank God. 

 

A few of the franchise’s practical visual elements remain strong — smoke, shadow, and rain. As a cinematographer and director, how do you master those elements?

I’m always trying to have an atmosphere in everything I do. I don’t feel like I’ve ever nailed it. I’m not sure if I will ever nail it perfectly to what I think it is. I love it when I see things that have an atmosphere. I like places where, as an audience member, I’m transported into a different environment. I love being thrown into this heavy feeling and heavy texture. That, to me, always wins. I’m always taken out of things — like period pieces or even things like this — where they’re just too real. Because I do think that’s a big part of it, even in your earlier question about [showing] Earth. 

FX’s Alien: Earth — Pictured: Sydney Chandler and Dana Gonzalez on set. CR: Patrick Brown/FX.

How so?

You want to feel the wetness and the steam, all kinds of different things going on. We use practical effects for the atmosphere and real water. I have filtration. You’re finding some lenses that give that. So, that’s my big thing that, hopefully, by the time I retire, I’ll say, “Yep, there it is. That’s what I’ve been trying to fight for my entire career.” Obviously, this one has maybe a heightened version of that, but I try to do it in everything I do.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu.

Featured image: Sydney Chandler in “Alien: Earth.” CR: Patrick Brown/FX

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” Rises: Christian Bale is Frankenstein’s Monster & Jessie Buckley is his Resurrected Companion

Posted on by babrams

The first trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! has officially risen.

“Was I just the same before the accident?” asks Jessie Buckley’s The Bride in the opening seconds of the trailer for writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! The response comes from none other than Frankenstein’s Monster, played by Christian Bale. “There wasn’t any accident,” he says. “Everything we did, we did it on purpose.”

We see Buckley’s Bride murder, and then we see her very much alive—in a manner of speaking—and face-to-face with the man who helped make it happen, Frankenstein’s Monster, who tells her “there’s nothing left to do now but live.”

Gyllenhaal’s script sends a forlorn Frankenstein to Chicago in the 1930s, hoping to enlist the help of Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) to help create him a companion. Their solution is to resurrect the corpse of a murdered young woman—Buckley’s The Bride—but when they succeed, they create a being unlike any they could have expected. The trailer reveals that Gyllenhaal’s film is part horror, part romance, part outlaw narrative, with Buckley and Bale’s monstrous couple like a Grimm’s Fairy Tale version of Bonnie and Clyde.

The cast is appropriately star-studded, given Gyllenhaal’s pedigree, which includes her sensational directorial debut, The Lost Daughter. The cast includes Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz, Julianne Hough, and John Magaro. Gyllenhaal assembled a potent team behind the camera, too, including composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, cinematographer Lawrence Sher, costume designer Sandy Powell, production designer Karen Murphy, and editor Dylan Tichenor.

The Bride! rises in theaters on March 6, 2026. Check out the trailer below.

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Featured image: Caption: Jessie Buckley as The Bride in Warner Bros. Pictures “THE BRIDE!” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Caged Dynamics: How DP Ula Pontikos Frames Willem Dafoe & Corey Hawkins in “The Man in My Basement”

Posted on by babrams

The Man in My Basement marks Nadia Latif’s feature directing debut, and it’s a doozy. Latif adapted author Walter Mosely’s acclaimed 2004 novel of the same name, from a script she co-wrote with Mosely. The film is set in the quiet village of Sag Harbor, New York, where Charles Blakely (Corey Hawkins) is a man adrift until he gets a strange offer from an even stranger businessman, Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), to rent out his basement. What seems like a saving grace quickly turns south when Charles finds his new house guest has locked himself in a metal cage. Kinky? Hardly. What plays out is a psychological thriller steeped in weighty themes – race, colonization, preservation, power, self-reproach – as the two try to understand each other better, the situation, and, for Charles, why the hell this is all happening to him.

For Polish cinematographer Ula Pontikos (Russian Doll), it meant creating a striking visual language that supported the simmering animosity of the characters through light and shadow, camera angle, and shifting eye lines to guide the audience through changing power dynamics. In designing the movement, Pontikos tells The Credits, “Most of our discussions kept coming back to one thing: What’s the intention behind each frame? What feeling are we going for in each moment? Who does the audience need to be with at any given time? Are we seeing this through Charles’s eyes, or are we observing him? That intention was everything. And most importantly, when do we get inside the cage and observe Charles from within? Every shot was a storytelling decision.”

Did you reference any material to create the dynamics between Charles and Anniston? 

Nadia’s a huge fan of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, and that definitely shaped how we approached our character, Charles—that raw, intimate feel with gentle coverage. We even shot a scene with a girl in a dog mask as a direct homage to Burnett’s film. We were also watching the film Chameleon Street by Wendell B. Harris Jr, and films from Ousmane Sembène, Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Med Hondo. There’s a parable-like quality to all those men’s films, which Nadia used as a reference and a big introduction for me to West African Cinema.

 

How about defining any visual themes to support the story? 

For Nadia and me, this is fundamentally a story told through a multitude of two-shots. The entire film is woven together with these pairings – sometimes romantic, sometimes antagonistic, and sometimes moments of raw connection. Each two-shot was carefully considered: how we framed it, what the lighting conveyed, what color subtly signaled about the characters’ relationship in that moment. Even the use of split diopters became a deliberate device to visually articulate the shifting power dynamic between Charles and Anniston, keeping them both in focus but emotionally worlds apart.

Willem Dafoe is Anniston Bennet and Corey Hawkins is Charles Blakely in “The Man in My Basement.” Courtesy Hulu.

Most interactions between Charles and Anniston take place in Charles’s basement.  How did you treat the evolving camera language?

Visually, it was interesting to explore artists like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose work both Nadia and I bonded over. The way she not only paints from imagination but also paints the figures against these dark, muted backgrounds. But our biggest reference point was The Silence of the Lambs. We had long talks about how to frame the dynamic between two people when one is almost completely stationary. A lot of it came down to how we reveal the cage — we were super conscious about holding back just enough to make it feel powerful when you finally see it.

We also looked at the controlled chaos in Zulawski’s Possession for inspiration on visualizing a total psychological breakdown, especially the way the camera moves, almost like its own character with intention. The steadicam in that film doesn’t just follow the action—it reveals story points on its own terms.

How did you want to reveal Charles seeing Anniston in the cage for the first time?

So, in that first shot where Charles comes down into the basement, we stay with him – really sit with his expression – and only then do we reveal that Anniston is already in the cage. That said, it was never about recreating a specific shot directly. Our focus remained on what each scene fundamentally needed to feel true. While Nadia shared a list of about twenty films that inspired the overall tone and mood of the project, our on-set conversations were less about replicating those references and more about uncovering the emotional authenticity of Charles’s journey. Those films were a compass, not a map.

L-r: Corey Hawkins is Charles Blakely and Willem Dafoe is Anniston Bennet in “The Man in My Basement.” Courtesy Hulu

You mentioned using the split diopter, which brings two subjects at different distances into focus. Films like Jaws, Pulp Fiction, and Mission Impossible have famously used it. What was the thought process behind this use? 

These shots weren’t just stylistic choices; they were emotional statements to us. We used two split diopter shots in the film, and I believe they were to make an important power dynamic point. Like so much of our approach, it comes back to how you convey a story through two-shot frames. In a single frame, the split diopter visually articulates the power dynamic between Anniston and Charles: Charles appears small and vulnerable, almost receding into the background, while Anniston feels overwhelmingly present and oppressive, whilst keeping them both in focus, giving equal importance to them. Throughout the making of the film, we were asking ourselves: What feeling are we trying to evoke between these two characters? How does framing affect perception of power?  

There’s a moment where Charles turns off the lights on Anniston. “Tonight you’re the prisoner and I am the motherfucking warden,” he says. It’s followed by several sequences of them questioning each other, where there’s a tonal shift in lighting. What went into that language? 

That scene marks the dramatic lighting shift in the film. Charles is struggling to reclaim control, while Anniston is desperately begging him to stop. My initial approach for the basement was straightforward – a simple, diffused tungsten bulb to maintain a raw feel. But for this pivotal moment, when Anniston begs him to leave the light on, I swapped the bulb for a harsh, underused photo flood bulb. Its aggressive, powerful glare is intentionally uncomfortable. It strips away any warmth or subtlety, visually amplifying his panic and helplessness. The light itself becomes a manifestation of his state of mind: exposed, merciless, and utterly hopeless.

Willem Dafoe in Anniston Bennet in “The Man in My Basement.” Courtesy Hulu.

Later, Anniston has a breaking point, telling Charles, “I don’t want to play anymore.” The dramatic scene starts, only lit by a flashlight. How was that pulled off?

The color, intensity, and quality of the light were very important. We tested numerous torches to find just the right hue and brightness. To augment the single-source setup, I positioned a polyboard just off-camera to bounce enough light back onto Charles’s face. Sometimes, you’d find me or Willem himself holding that board to keep the exposure back on Charles’s face to get a return of the single source light. But a little extra came when Willem suggested moving the torch itself during the moment Anniston grabs Charles. That subtle motion – the light shaking, flickering, becoming nervous – didn’t just illuminate the scene; it added great tension to the scene. 

 

The Man in My Basement is in select theaters now before arriving on Disney+ and Hulu September 26.  

 

 

Featured image: Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins in “The Man in My Basement.” Courtesy Hulu.

From Abbey Road to “Alien: Earth”: Composer Jeff Russo on Bringing Xenomorphs Home Through Music

Posted on by babrams

Alien: Earth doesn’t rehash the familiar, even if it beats with the acid-pumping heart of Ridley Scott’s original Alien. The series expands on the terrifying world Scott first unleashed on audiences on May 25, 1979 by focusing not only on the iconic Xenomorph, one of the most legendary movie monsters of all time, but by imagining what the world might look like decades later when the Xenomorph, and a slew of other captive galactic creatures, are brought down to a rapidly changing, capitalist-facsist Earth. The series comes from a man who has already taken a beloved film and turned it into a sprawling world, Fargo creator Noah Hawley. There’s little in the way of nostalgia – only faithfulness and creative freedom. It’s heard in composer Jeff Russo’s score alone, as well as in the rock songs from music supervisor Maggie Phillips.

Alien: Earth, true to its title, is a chapter largely set on Earth, which is another rarity for the franchise. possibleSydney Chandler) is a dying girl whose consciousness is placed in a synthetic body, a feat made possible by the talented, narcissistic “boy genius” (Samuel Blenkin) and his company, Prodigy. Even the protagonist of the story is an alien to our world, which welcomes the infamous Xenomorph and a wide variety of new aliens to our shores after a Weyland-Yutani ship crash lands on our planet. Unlike in space, on Earth, people can hear you scream.

Hawley’s long-time collaborator, Russo, looked at scoring Alien: Earth as an eight-hour film. There are over three hours of music on the soundtrack, bursting with organic string instruments and an elegant brokenness. Recently, Russo spoke with The Credits about composing a new sound for the Alien universe.

 

For the song “Xenomorph,” how did you want to communicate the alien’s inner life?

Xenomorph is a catchall piece of music that was basically meant for anything alien. It is more of a study in the tension between beings, because are they evil, or are they misunderstood, or are they protecting themselves? In the Alien franchise, you never know. There’s no way to know what they’re thinking. I needed to study that idea in music, and that’s what that piece really is in my brain.

What about Wendy’s thought process? How’d that shape her childlike theme?

With Wendy, I had to dive into the feeling of the transition as well: what she was before and what she became. She evolves as a being, whatever that being may be. Transition and evolution, that’s what that piece of music is. It discovers and studies her state of mind, which is tenuous. A lot of push and pull. Sometimes she feels comfortable, and other times, she feels completely uncomfortable in this body.

FX’s Alien: Earth — “Mr. October” — Season 1, Episode 2 (Airs Tues, August 12) — Pictured: Sydney Chandler as Wendy. CR: Patrick Brown/FX

It’s funny hearing you say “push and pull.” In her theme, it sounds like innocence fighting horror.

And that’s what it is. It’s the push and pull against that. She evolves and realizes things about herself as the show continues.

How important is contrast in general when you’re composing?

Contrast is probably the most important thing in any narrative, because white is only white when there is black behind it — or vice versa. You need contrast to see, or everything would be blank. That’s how I look at it in terms of music. For something dark, you need to show the light in order to understand what the dark is — and the same thing in reverse. Contrast, in this particular case, is important. I need to show Wendy’s innocence in order to show what she will become. 

FX’s Alien: Earth — “Emergence” — Season 1, Episode 7 (Airs Tues, Sept 16) — Pictured: Alex Lawther as Hermit, Sydney Chandler as Wendy, Lily Newark as Nibs. CR: Patrick Brown/FX

What about scoring Wendy’s relationship with her brother, Hermit (Alex Lawther)? How’d you want “Siblings” to, musically, bring them together when they reunite?

“Siblings” was a piece of music I wrote early on in the process. I’ve been writing music for this for about five years, and that piece of music has been tooling around in my head for three years. When I read the second and third scripts, I felt they needed some sort of musical moment — because I knew that was going to happen. The scripts had been changing as we were rolling through it, but I always knew there was going to be that moment, and what that moment felt like was going to be very important. 

 

What was the first track you wrote five years ago? How’d it lay the groundwork for the rest of the score? 

On the soundtrack, that piece of music is called “The Apartments.” That was one of the first pieces I wrote because I had gotten a script — or it wasn’t even a script, it was an outline. They were doing some VFX tests to see what the Xenomorph VFX would look like. Noah sent the outline to me and was like, “Can you do something here to help us along?” That piece of music is what I wrote for that. It was an earlier form than what you heard, but basically, that’s the piece.

Does Noah play your music on set to create atmosphere? 

We did that on Fargo and Legion. I wrote these themes when he first sent me a script. He just sent me a new script for a new project, and I always tell him, “As soon as you send me a script, I have to hold off on reading it — because once I read it, I’m inspired to write. I have other stuff I have to finish before I start something new.” So, I wrote a bunch of music prior to him shooting, and he had it and was listening to it. 

A great element of the Alien franchise is the flaws and the filth of the future, despite the incredible technology they possess. For the score, did you ever want to create a similar atmosphere and embrace the messiness of humanity?

Well, I don’t pay attention to perfect performances pretty much anytime I’m putting a score together. I can’t think of anything that happened by accident. Everything was deliberate, but it is a very broken feeling, so there’s very emotional music in the score.

FX’s Alien: Earth — “Emergence” — Season 1, Episode 7 (Airs Tues, Sept 16) — Pictured: Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, Sydney Chandler as Wendy, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier. CR: Patrick Brown/FX

What did you want that brokenness to communicate? 

Playing emotional music against the backdrop of something as cold is great for contrast. There’s also the idea that this narrative, this storytelling, has character connectivity we haven’t really seen in any of the Alien franchise movies — like the brother-and-sister storyline. One of my favorite scoring moments was when Hermit starts to believe that Wendy is his sister in episode two, and they hug. That’s an emotional watershed moment for the characters, and that’s not typical for Alien. Emotional music as a backdrop can be very effective, from a contrast perspective.

FX’s Alien: Earth — “Metamorphosi” — Season 1, Episode 3 (Airs Tues, August 19) — Pictured (L-R): Alex Lawther as Hermit, Sydney Chandler as Wendy. CR: Patrick Brown/FX

You have a “Let It Be” poster behind you, so when you were recording the orchestra at Abbey Road studios, what do you feel and hear when you’re there? 

It’s very evocative of all the scores I loved growing up. When the strings played, or when the brass and winds played, you could hear echoes of those scores — echoes of previous music that’s been made there — because the room is so unique. It’s a unique-sounding space. I recorded in both studios there, Studio One and Studio Two. They’re iconic. I also recorded a little bit at Air Studios, which is the other major scoring stage in London. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s an incredible feeling to be in that studio.

You’ve said that the Alien: Earth score presented you with several new opportunities as a composer. Which new territory was gratifying for you to explore? 

I’m always really interested in dissonance, and in this score, there’s a good amount of it. I’m fascinated by how dissonance affects people, because it hits different listeners in different ways. Emotional music affects most people in the same way — it’s the same with scary music. But when you talk about true dissonance, like notes that shouldn’t go together but you put them together to make that weird sound, I’m always interested in how that affects people’s psyches. I did a lot of thinking about that in the making of this score and how to utilize it. A lot of the score lulls you into a sense that everything’s okay, and then gradually turns that on its head to unease.

 

Alien: Earth is now streaming on Hulu.

Featured image: FX’s Alien: Earth — “Metamorphosi” — Season 1, Episode 3 (Airs Tues, August 19) —  Pictured: Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh. CR: Patrick Brown/FX

New “Mandalorian and Grogu” Images Reveal AT-ATs, Alien Creatures & Sigourney Weaver

Posted on by babrams

We just got a look at the first trailer for director Jon Favreau’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and now it’s time to parse a slew of new images from Favreau’s film. What we know about what Favreau, his co-writer Dave Filoni, and the rest of the stellar cast and crew have cooked up is scant, but the trailer is nonetheless revealing. There are creatures aplenty—mainly of the classic Star Wars type, meaning they were created practically, and their variety of types, from the small Anzellan creatures, first seen in the form of Babu Frik in The Rise of Skywalker (you may remember the little droidsmith helping fix C-3PO), to the large beasts battling it out in a cage match.

The images reveal a few of those creatures, some classic Star Wars vehicles, plus, of course, our stars, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his protege Grogu, lovingly referred to as Baby Yoda. We get a still of a trio of the massive AT-ATs, which first appeared in the iconic The Empire Strikes Back and are seen here trooping along a snowy ridgeline, one in their number falling to its destruction. We see Grogu, brandishing a small monocular, as he and his mentor, Din Djarin, engage in some reconnaissance. There’s also an image of an Amani, a species of tall, flat-bodied aliens from Maridun, capable of curling into balls and rolling at high speeds. We’ve also got Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward, a member of the Rebel Alliance and the only non-masked human we saw in the trailer.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is set after the events of The Mandalorian season 3 in the era of the New Republic, after the evil Empire has been defeated and the galaxy is in a moment of transformation. The fledgling New Republic is trying to protect all that the Rebellion fought for, and part of their effort includes calling on Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu to take on a fresh mission. The cast also includes The Bear and Deliver Me From Nowhere star Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, son of the iconic warlord Jabba the Hutt, and Jonny Coyne as an Imperial warlord. The music is composed by the Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to hit theaters in May of 2026, followed a year later by director Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, which stars Ryan Gosling and is set five years after the events of Rise of Skywalker.

Check out the photos below:

AT-AT walker in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Grogu and Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Grogu, Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), and Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Grogu and Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
An Amani in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Bai, Clang, Keeto and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R) Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.

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Featured image: THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU – Concept Art courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Baby Yoda Speaks in the First “The Mandalorian and Grogu” Trailer

Posted on by babrams

The first trailer for director Jon Favreau’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens on Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) spaceship the Razor Crest curising over a coastline. The next thing we see is one of those images that has made the Disney+ series The Mandalorian such a hit—we’ve got Mando and Baby Yoda doing some recon in a desert landscape, with the little guy sporting a little single-lens pair of binoculars to aid him. It’s an undeniably cute image, and it’s the relationship between the taciturn, almost-always helmeted bounty hunter and the very special child he’s taken under his wing that has made the series so dependably enjoyable. Now, Favreau and his co-writer Dave Filoni are bringing the duo to the big screen in one of the many upcoming Star Wars feature films slated for release.

The trailer introduces Sigourney Weaver’s rebel alliance leader, reveals an alien cage match for the ages, and features those most reliable of Star Wars terrestrial bad guy war machines, the AT-ATs, traversing a snowy landscape (and getting destroyed). We also get the first words ever spoken by Baby Yoda, when he compliments himself on repelling a rat-like creature with, “Good shot, baby.”

The Mandalorian and Grogu are set in a time after the evil Empire, and the galaxy is in a moment of transformation. The fledgling New Republic is trying to protect all that the Rebellion fought for, and part of their effort includes enlisting Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu on a fresh mission.

The film is set after the events of The Mandalorian season 3, which was set in the New Republic era, five years after the fall of the Galactic Empire in Return of the Jedi. The trailer is chock-a-block with creatures and robots (in fact, Weaver’s Rebel Alliance Colonel is the only unmasked human we see), and the adventure looks decidedly family-friendly. It’s the first new Star Wars film since J.J. Abrams’ 2019 trilogy-capper The Rise of Skywalker. It boasts The Bear and Deliver Me From Nowhere star Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, son of the iconic warlord Jabba the Hutt, and Jonny Coyne as an Imperial warlord. The music is composed by the Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to hit theaters in May of 2026, followed a year later by director Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, which stars Ryan Gosling and is set five years after the events of Rise of Skywalker.

Check out the trailer below.

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Featured image: (L-R) Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd™. All Rights Reserved.

How Director Justin Tipping Mixed Art, Nike Ads & Multiple Genres in His Singular Sports Horror Film “Him”

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Supernatural sports horror film Him not only blends two hugely popular film genres but also draws inspiration from the art of Jeff Koons and Edward Hopper, as well as Nike ads from the 1990s—a blend of disparate influences that cohere into a singular cinematic experience.

Produced by visionary filmmaker Jordan Peele, a man who had made his own sui generis horror films, from Get Out to Us to Nope, Him is helmed by up-and-coming director Justin Tipping. Tipping’s film is centered on Atlanta‘s Tyriq Withers as Cameron “Cam” Cade, a star football player who suffers a potential career-ending injury but gets taken under the wing of legendary quarterback Isaiah White, played by Requiem for a Dream‘s Marlon Wayans. White promises a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train with a titan of the sport; however, Cam’s dream shot at a comeback for the ages devolves into a proper nightmare. Withers and Wayans are joined by Julia Fox and comedians Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies in dramatic roles.

Here, Tipping, who also co-wrote the script with Zack Ackers and Skip Bronkie, explains how classic and contemporary art inspired Him, finding unique but perfect locations in New Mexico, and the creatives without whom he couldn’t have realized his vision.

 

Him melds two major genres that very rarely cross. Did you think it was overdue?

My head was just like, ‘Wait. You’re telling me that no one’s executed this before in this way?’ That immediate reaction was both terrifying and amazing. If it’s done right, you’re taking two very different languages and finding a way for them to have a conversation, and you create a new language out of it. There’s something inherently violent about American football itself. Its roots and the architecture of the game are intentionally analogous to militarism taking land, generals, soldiers, and a hierarchy. It felt like the body horror was already at play, so serving the horror fans in the Venn diagram felt natural and easy. It happens behind the scenes in the locker room. Even to recover, just getting an ice bath can be painful. We’re exploring the psychology of these athletes who strive to be the greatest, so a psychological horror film was the way to go as a metaphor.

L to R: Marlon Wayans (as Isaiah), director Justin Tipping, and Tyriq Withers (as Cam) on the set of HIM, from Universal Pictures.

Many of the visuals appear more rooted in art than in film, particularly the work of artists such as Jeffrey Koons, Edward Hopper, and Tam Joseph. It really comes through in the colors, tones, and use of light.

Absolutely, yes. I wish I could show you the original lookbook I put together. I was talking to Kira Kelly, our DP, and production designer, Jordan Ferrer, about pulling from fine art in terms of color palette and approach to the entire vision. We were also looking at some of the most stylish Nike ads, like the ’90s Freestyle campaign. Jonathan Glazer also made a Jordan ad that is slow motion, and it all dips to black. There was a very seductive marketing and advertising language that we wanted to take and subvert, but at the same time, speak to the iconography of horror language. It was channeling artists and saying, “Let’s find the most batsh*t crazy images that we can reference, whether they’re from the baroque period or more contemporary.” With the architecture, I was inspired by very specific brutalist styles. It was about trying to find a new, interesting way to take on the haunted house, or that there’s a monster in the house, and we don’t know where it is or who it is.

You shot this in Albuquerque, New Mexico. What was already there, and what did you create?

The beauty of shooting somewhere like Albuquerque, New Mexico, is that there are a lot of interiors and locations that haven’t been touched yet. It’s somewhat new, and there are still a lot of gems. Working with the location scout, the most random things started falling into place. I had this lookbook of brutalist architecture and cement-inspired things, and there happened to be a high school football field that was made out of cement with towering cement walls. I was just like, “Why does this exist? I don’t even understand the choices that the town made to use those materials and have it shaped like this.” It was exactly what I wanted to lean into. So I’m using that brutalist, weird high school football field for the field, but then, we also shot some of the interiors of White’s house in the hallways of the stadium. It was a very big puzzle to fit all this into the 30 days we had, but things like that made it work. I’m also a first-time studio director, and I think I have a lot to prove. They made it very clear, saying, “This is the sandbox.” It was a challenge, and it came down to having an amazing crew and a team that could do that.

(from left) Marlon Wayans, director Justin Tipping and Tyriq Withers on the set of HIM.

Did you use a largely local crew? I recently spoke with Ari Aster, and he mentioned that New Mexico has an excellent infrastructure for film and TV.

We brought in our DP, our production designer, and our costume designer, but that was about it. We shot at the same time Ari Aster was filming Eddington. We also attended AFI at the same time, but he was a year ahead of me, and we edited our films at the same place as well. Anyway, there were so many things shooting there at the time that it was like, “Wow, this place is becoming the place to be,” and I can understand why. You can make it look like many different things, the seasons, and there’s a culture of artisans and artists.

They also offer generous incentives and tax breaks.

That was a motivating factor for the studio, but we would have never found some of the locations had we not been there. For instance, the exterior of the housing compound where they go is a space port. The state of New Mexico is leasing it to Virgin Galactic Atlantic. They were taking millionaires into space for five-minute flights, and that’s where they were launching them out of. It was bizarre shit where it’s like, ‘Why does this exist?’ You don’t get that anywhere else. 

(from left) Isaiah (Marlon Wayans) and Cam (Tyriq Withers) in HIM, directed by Justin Tipping.

How did you come together with your DP, Kira Kelly?

She is one of those people who paints with light and is locked in. She can see things that other people don’t see when setting a frame. She was on a very short list of names and had experience shooting there. Kira also had all this experience shooting action, VFX, and her commercial reel is insane. We had the same vision, she spoke the same language, and she also had that documentary background. That was vital to capture this ESPN 30 for 30 sports movie feel and the handheld montage movements. It was very improvisational. Her attention to detail is amazing.

 

Dominique Dawson’s costume work for Him ranges from the practical to the fantastical. It’s a broad canvas from tinsel mascots inspired by folklore to performance sportswear.

She brought so much to this. We all knew, producers included, that a lot of this hinges on the costume design because they’re so central in the scenes. She even reached out to fine artists. There’s a Native American fine artist who did sculptural work, and she was like, “Yo, what if we got his pieces like the gloves and hat and added that to something we could source from a prop house.” These ideas and combinations all came from a very art-centric point of view. That did force us to come up with creative solutions. One of my favorite costume designs is the tinsel mascot. That was out of necessity because tinsel is cheap, but it is also exciting, because now people can maybe make it at home. She had relationships with Klutch Sports and Nike, but a lot of these scenes are really popped up and dark, so they were like, “Yeah, nope.” She would have to customize some of the sportswear, alter it, and do deep dives on the internet. 

HIM, directed by Justin Tipping.


We can’t ignore the fact that Jordan Peele is a producer on this. What was his input in all of this?

He had a very gentle guiding hand, rather than being like, “Hey, I don’t like this or that.” I would get through a draft, then sit down with him one-on-one, and I could page through and say, “I’m having trouble here because if I undo this thread, then that thread does this, but the studio is blah, blah, blah.” He would also help me navigate how to address the studio without sacrificing too much of my vision, explain what they really mean, so that I can get the note behind the note. Also, being able to be like, “I have this crazy idea,” and having a sounding board in Jordan, being like, ‘That’s crazy. I love it. Also, this could be crazy?” It was a nice, creative tennis match where we could keep riffing, and there was no ego involved. It was getting into fun trouble, making movies.

L to R: Director Justin Tipping, Tyriq Withers (as Cam), Producer Jordan Peele, and Marlon Wayans (as Isaiah) on the set of HIM, from Universal Pictures.

 

Him is in theaters now.

“One Battle After Another” Review Round Up: Paul Thomas Anderson Delivers a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

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A recent re-watch of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood reminded me—reconfirmed, really—that my experience in the theater watching his masterpiece, with an absolutely mesmerizing performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as the soused, ruthless oilman Daniel Plainview, had been exactly as transforming as I’d always remembered. It was and remains my favorite cinematic experience, and I’d waited years (decades, actually) to rewatch it. While finally sitting down and absorbing Anderson’s tale of carnivorous greed in America of the late 19th and early 20th Century on my couch wasn’t quite as transporting as being plastered to my seat in a New York City theater, it still had me entirely in its grip from the thrilling, wordless opening sequence to the deranged, bloody end.

Now, PTA is back with another film that promises a potentially equally momentous theater experience—with all due respect to the excellent Phantom Thread (2017) and the lovely coming-of-age drama Licorice Pizza (2021)—One Battle After Another looks more akin to TWBB in that it deals with men (and this time, women) in extremis. Only for the first time since Punch Drunk Love, Anderson has set his film in the present day; in this case, in an America that’s turned into a police state, where ex-revolutionaries, including Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), must reunite after an old enemy resurfaces and Bob’s daughter has been kidnapped.

Caption: (L-r) TEYANA TAYLOR as Perfidia and LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Bob Ferguson in “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

The critics have been weighing in on PTA’s latest, and the reviews have confirmed that the writer/director, here adapting and reshaping Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” has struck gold (oil?) once again. Reuniting with his go-to composer, Jonny Greenwood, and surrounding DiCaprio with a cast of scene stealers, including Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim, and Wood Harris, Anderson has pulled off a breathless, bonkers tour de force.

Following its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 8, critics have been praising Battle to such a degree that it currently holds a 97% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 96% critics’ score on Metacritic.

Let’s take a quick peek at what some of those critics are saying. One Battle After Another opens on September 26.

Featured image: Caption: LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Bob Ferguson in “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

“Star Wars: Starfighter”: New Look at Ryan Gosling & Flynn Gray in Cryptic Photo

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Ryan Gosling and co-star Flynn Gray are ready to make waves in their upcoming film Star Wars: Starfighter. 

Director Shawn Levy posted a photo on Instagram of Gosling and Gray “somewhere in the Mediterranean,” according to Levy’s caption, although the geotag indicates “Sardinia, Italy.” It’s the second glimpse we’ve gotten of Gosling and the newcomer Gray since production began, after that first cryptic shot of Gosling and Gray sitting and leaning on a cruiser of some sort.

Plot details are scarce for Disney and Lucasfilm’s first Star Wars installment since J.J. Abrams’ 2019 trilogy capper Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. What we do know, however, is that Starfighter is set five years after the events in The Rise of Skywalker, and that it’s not connected to the broader Skywalker Saga, which has been the driving narrative force of the nine film franchise that began with George Lucas’s 1977 Star Wars IV – A New Hope, and carried on through the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and the sequel trilogy that Abrams both launched and concluded.

Here’s the new look provided by Levy:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shawn Levy (@slevydirect)

Levy directs from a script written by Jonathan Tropper. Recent additions to the cast are the always excellent Amy Adams and rising star Aaron Pierre. They’re joined by recent additions Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, and Daniel Ings. It was previously announced that Mia Goth and Matt Smith are on board as villains. 

“I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter,” Levy said in a statement when production kicked off in the United Kingdom. “From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally. Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.”

Star Wars: Starfighter is scheduled for release on May 28, 2027. Before that, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu is set to hit theaters on May 22, 2026.

Featured image: Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray on the set of “Star Wars: Starfighter.” Courtesy Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios

Paul Rudd and Jack Black Are Snake Bit in First “Anaconda” Trailer

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Co-writer and director Tom Gormican has enlisted Paul Rudd and Jack Black for his bonkers reimagining of the 1997 horror film Anaconda in his new comedy (helpfully called Anaconda), and the first trailer is appropriately bananas.

Rudd and Black played best buddies Griff and Doug, respectively, friends since childhood who have sustained one lifelong dream: to remake their favorite film of all time, the cinematic masterpiece Anaconda. The original followed a National Geographic film crew who were taken hostage by a lunatic hunter and forced to join him on his suicidal quest to capture the world’s largest snake.

The film was not short on stars—Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Owen Wilson, and Jon Voight were all involved—and for those of us old enough to remember the film, there was no shortage of goofy joy in watching J. Lo and Ice Cube try to outsmart or outrun a colossal reptile. In the remake, Griff and Doug plan to remake the film on a shoestring budget (the loan they secure tops out at $9,000), turning Sony’s 1997 blockbuster into an indie film. It does not go to plan. The snake the team has arranged for the film shoot meets a grim fate, forcing the intrepid filmmakers to venture into the Amazon to find another one. Guess what? They end up coming face-to-fang with a massive anaconda that’s just as ferocious as the one from the original film.

Rudd and Black are joined by Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, Daniela Melchior, Ione Skye, and more. Gormican directs from a script he wrote with Kevin Etten. Check out the trailer below. Anaconda slithers into theaters on Christmas Day.

For more upcoming films from Sony Pictures, check out these stories:

Novelist & Screenwriter Charlie Huston on Preserving the Raw Truth of “Caught Stealing” With Darren Aronofsky

Ralph Fiennes Dr. Kelson and Samson the Alpha Return in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” Trailer

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique on Shooting Back-to-Back NYC Thrillers for Spike Lee & Darren Aronofsky

Featured image: L-r: Jack Black and Paul Rudd in “Anaconda.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.

From USC Benchwarmer to Cartel Smuggler: Inside “Cocaine Quarterback” With Director Jody McVeigh-Schultz

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If the infamous trope “I know a guy who knows a guy” had a poster child, it should be Owen Hanson. Chronicled in a three-part docuseries, Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel, from director Jody McVeigh-Schultz, the shocking events reveal how the former USC walk-on went from National Champion to convicted drug cartel smuggler.­

McVeigh-Schultz, best known for helming the school spying scandal docuseries Spy High, gravitated towards the project for its unfiltered access to those involved. The interviews pull no punches – criminals speak with disarming honesty, often sounding a little smug or proud of their exploits. Listening to them recount their past unravels more like a plot to a Sicario film than real life. McVeigh-Schultz dug into the alluring subtext during prep. “We wanted to infuse this with a specific absurdity, unique style, and point of view,” he says of the Mark Wahlberg Unrealistic Ideas produced series. “I’ve compared the world we’re in to Cohen Brothers-esque. They’re masters, so I don’t want to compare this project to them, but that’s the kind of world it felt like.”

To give shape, the director researched news reports, interviews, and a book Hanson wrote about the incident. “I knew there were points of view that were going to be different from Owen’s, so it was very important to talk to criminals and co-conspirators who felt like he screwed them and talk to people who got involved in various things.”

Some of those connected to Hanson are from the 2004 Pete Carroll-coached USC football team, which was then led by quarterback Matt Leinart and running back Reggie Bush. The documentary frames that chapter of Hanson’s life as a kind of springboard for his future criminal activity, marking when he first connects with a rolodex of who’s who. “It’s interesting because Owen is like this benchwarmer, but he was literally the social center of that USC team,” he says. Speaking to that era is former USC and NFL running back LenDale White, who does not hold back, suggesting at one point that if anyone needed anything during their historic undefeated season, they’d tap Owen. “He’s the doctor. You call Dr. Owen, and he would make a play.”

And that only scratches the surface of what Cocaine Quarterback uncovers. Below, the director talks about the development, the most compelling part of Hanson’s story, and the production’s biggest surprise (which is not Owen laundering money through UGG boots). 

You’ve done multiple projects with Unrealistic Ideas. Did this idea come from them or you?

They brought it to me. I’ve been able to do stuff in the true crime space, the sports space, and comedy. What’s interesting about this project is that it’s a little bit of all of those things. It’s tragic at times, but it’s totally absurd and hilarious at times. They also knew that I went to USC, and it turned out, I actually went to USC in the exact same years Owen did. So I think the Unrealistic team, and I should shout out [executive producers] Archie Gips and David Wendell, knew this would be in my wheelhouse.

Were the initial conversations with Owen the catalyst for the narrative?

Yeah, I did start with Owen. I had conversations with him while he was in prison, so they were in 20-minute segments because that’s the longest you can be on a prison phone. We talked a lot, and I think the one thing that you are thinking about speaking to someone who’s incarcerated for their crimes is what version am I getting? And I must say, I was impressed that Owen was so open about the things he did, even the things he wasn’t proud of.

Owen Hanson in “Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.

With three episodes, the tension rises fast. Was a tight format always the plan?

This could have been six episodes, but I think it wouldn’t have been as compelling. You want to ramp up the tension, the stakes, each time he gets into a bind. Owen had a whole early career building an offshore sports betting business, which was interesting. But for us, it was about how to tee up the most amazing part of his story, which was this incredible money laundering scheme in Australia, where he loses $2.5 million and everything goes incredibly wrong. It was about how to work backwards from this totally absurd moment and have that payoff in the best, most compelling way.

One opposing viewpoint is R.J. Cipriani, a gambler turned FBI snitch who goes by Robin Hood 702 and plays a crucial role in Owen’s arrest. How did you want to tell his side of the story?

Robin Hood 702 gets embroiled in this, and it culminates in a full-out conflict over the missing money. We also talked to law enforcement, who were hunting him down. Once you get a full picture and get several people saying what Owen’s saying may not be the truth, you can begin to piece together the most honest telling of this story from multiple perspectives.

R.J. Cipriani in “Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.

Owen was connected to the Sinaloa cartel. Did you consider connecting with someone from the outfit?

For us, that wasn’t what the story was about. It’s already been litigated so we didn’t think there was a need to create drama around it. But there is something interesting about the fact that in Owen’s telling of this, that guy is like this mythical, almost fictional person. But I can confirm that it’s a real person. Owen made a conscious choice to use essentially a nickname, El Jefe, for the guy who’s a lieutenant in the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.

Former USC and NFL running back LenDale White is absolute fire as an interviewee.  Were you surprised by him?

LenDale White is a legend. That guy says whatever is on his mind, and he has no filter. I just love that about somebody who could decide to play it very close to the vest and not be blunt. But he says exactly what’s on his mind and what was happening. And that’s so refreshing when you get that kind of interview, especially from an athlete. What’s funny is that we shot his interview at the 901 Bar, which, if you went to USC, is a legendary dive bar on campus. So, it was this hilarious, nostalgic moment for me where all these things came together.  

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 07: LenDale White looks on during warm ups prior to the game between the USC Trojans and the Arizona Wildcats at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on October 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)

The doc revisits Owen’s ties to celebs and USC stars. Do you think they’ll distance themselves after this is released?

I mean, this is a guy who was at Reggie Bush’s wedding, which was not that long before his arrest. [Bush married in 2014, and Owen was arrested in 2015.] Reggie Bush declined to be interviewed, and I totally understand why. These are people with major media deals, and I don’t blame them at all for that. So it’s not like they’re staying good friends, but I don’t think there are hard feelings for him besmirching their name.

Did you know Owen was going to be released during production?

We got very lucky that he was released during the time we were in production, because that’s just such a unique moment. I think it’s been done a lot in documentaries, specifically about incarcerated people, but we wanted to show the reality of that. I don’t want to give away too much, but there’s a real ambivalence with his loved ones about whether he’s going to change. You do wonder with somebody whose entire life has been a hustle of some sort. It’s like, how do you turn that off? Or how do you put that hustle towards something positive? I think that’s the hope in all of it.  

Owen Hanson in “Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.

Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel is streaming on Prime Video. 

For more on Amazon MGM and Amazon Prime Video, check out these stories:

Dave Bautista Poised to Play Iconic “Highlander” Villain Opposite Henry Cavill in Amazon MGM’s Remake

Denis Villeneuve’s James Bond Movie Enlists “Peaky Blinders” Creator Steven Knight to Write Script

From “Dune” to 007: Denis Villeneuve Will Direct Next James Bond Film

Featured image: Owen Hanson in “Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.

 

From “Barbie” to “Bridgerton”: Entertainment Partners is the Secret Sauce Behind Many of the Films & Shows You Love

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For nearly five decades, Entertainment Partners (EP) has been the secret sauce behind the scenes of your favorite films, TV shows, and commercials, from Barbie to Bridgerton. Headquartered in Burbank, California, the company has revolutionized the way the entertainment industry manages payroll, accounting, and production finance, with a world-class team of experts specializing in a wide range of areas, including global tax incentives, labor compliance, residuals, and healthcare.

Their industry-standard digital platform featuring Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling, SmartAccounting, and SyncOnSet is the gold standard for studios big and small. Also part of the EP family is Central Casting, which dates back to 1925 and remains the largest and most trusted background actor service in the United States.

As a member of the California Production Coalition, we sat down with Entertainment Partners to get the inside scoop from Mark Goldstein, EP’s president and CEO.

For those unfamiliar with Entertainment Partners, how would you describe the company’s remit? 

At its core, Entertainment Partners is a trusted production partner that’s been supporting the entertainment industry for nearly 50 years. We help productions of all sizes – from small indies to major studio blockbusters – bring stories to life. Whether it’s choosing the best location, forecasting costs, managing budgets, or making sure crew and talent are paid accurately and on time, we support the full production lifecycle. We also help studios make strategic decisions across multiple productions, providing the tools, insights, and expertise they need to plan, scale, and operate efficiently.

What has been the central stepping stone in the company’s growth?

Over the last five decades, Entertainment Partners has grown alongside the industry, constantly adapting and innovating to meet changing client needs. We started as a payroll services company, but quickly expanded into production accounting, residuals, and technology, creating the first integrated software and hosted services systems in the industry. As production became more complex, we broadened our offerings to support every phase of the process. Today, our ecosystem includes payroll, onboarding, timecards, payables, payments, production accounting, and document management. We also provide global-standard solutions for budgeting, scheduling, and script-to-screen document control, along with Emmy-award-winning SyncOnSet for on-set coordination.

Since you mentioned SyncOnSet, what type of productions can benefit from the service the most?

One of the most overlooked challenges in production is keeping track of creative details, such as costumes, props, hair, makeup, and set dressing, which must match from one scene to the next, even when shooting out of order. That’s where SyncOnSet comes in. It’s the first and only digital platform built specifically for those departments, supporting film and TV productions of all sizes. Creative departments use SyncOnSet from pre-production through wrap. It helps with script breakdown and budgeting early on, tracks continuity photos and notes in real time during the shoot, and generates reports that make wrap and archiving more efficient.

SyncOnSet

The industry is evolving much faster now. How has EP adjusted to new trends in the last three years?

The pace of change has been dramatic, and we’ve made it a priority not just to keep up, but to lead. We’ve reimagined our platforms to give production teams greater flexibility and control no matter where they’re shooting, and enhanced our casting technology to meet growing demands for speed, accuracy, and compliance. We’re delivering intelligence, not just technology. With our Insight Solutions, productions can make faster, smarter decisions on everything from budgeting and scheduling to compliance and labor costs. That visibility is a game changer, reducing risk while improving efficiency. We’re also actively investing in advanced technologies that can move the industry forward – building connected tools, scalable technology, and more intelligent insights that work across any size production, anywhere in the world.

EP has introduced SmartStart, SmartTime, and SmartPO. How has that helped users?

What we’ve done with our Production Finance Studio solutions is bring together all the core parts of production finance into a modern, connected system. These solutions take what used to be a paper-heavy, manual process and digitize it for production anywhere in the world. Because everything is integrated, teams aren’t wasting time chasing approvals or re-entering data. It speeds things up, reduces errors, and gives better visibility and control across departments.

Courtesy Entertainment Partners.

For a producer or accountant just starting out, where is the best place to begin on the EP platform?

A great starting point is the EP Academy – our on-demand, online training hub designed for individuals new to the industry or transitioning into new roles. It covers fundamentals, workflows, and how production finance really operates, with walk-throughs of our most widely used tools and courses in production accounting. We also encourage professionals to join The Production Lot, our global online community for people working in production at all levels. It’s a great space to ask questions, exchange ideas, and connect with peers and mentors.

Central Casting is celebrating 100 years. What contributes to its success?

Central Casting’s success over the last century comes from evolving with the industry while staying focused on what they do best: delivering quality, reliability, and great service. It’s the original name in background casting, so iconic that it inspired the phrase “Straight Out of Central Casting.” Since the earliest days of film, Central Casting has made it faster and easier for productions to find, hire, and manage background actors, saving time and money. For background actors, it’s been a trusted gateway to finding work in Hollywood – many actors can trace their first gig back to Central Casting.

Courtesy Entertainment Partners.

How has the EP Casting Portal improved workflow for clients?

EP’s Casting Portal has completely changed background casting. It’s the industry’s go-to platform for casting directors and agencies to find, book, manage, and pay all in one place. Things that used to take days, such as onboarding, approvals, and timecard processing, now happen in hours.

How important are competitive film tax incentives for keeping productions shooting locally?

Production incentives are huge in how film and television are made today. They don’t just influence where a project shoots – they can determine whether it gets made at all. For many productions, especially in the current climate, the incentive can be the deciding factor in both location and budget. Strong incentive programs create a ripple effect, bringing jobs, boosting local economies, attracting infrastructure investment, and supporting workforce development. With more than 120 jurisdictions worldwide offering incentives, studios have more choices than ever. At Entertainment Partners, we support productions globally with the strongest tax incentive team in the industry. We partner with productions from day one, offering strategic guidance to maximize eligibility, structure budgets intelligently, and ensure full compliance.

What is something EP offers its competitors that they do not?

What really sets EP apart is the breadth of our services and the depth of our expertise. We’ve been doing this for decades, and that experience shows up in everything we offer. We bring together a fully connected ecosystem backed by knowledgeable, hands-on support. We’re not just a service provider – we’re a strategic partner. Our platform is backed by the most experienced in-house team in the business, with experts in production finance, legal, labor relations, tax, and incentives. People who have worked in the field, negotiated contracts, and helped pass legislation that shapes how productions get made.

How have EP’s acquisitions contributed to the company’s growth?

Through strategic acquisitions and investments, we’ve expanded globally across Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, allowing us to serve productions of every size in every major production hub. Most recently, we acquired CASHet, a leading provider of digital payment solutions, which will offer our clients a single, integrated process for managing production finance.

What was something EP saw missing in the industry that the company sought to change?

Early on, we saw productions slowed down by disconnected systems and paper-heavy processes. There was no real integration – onboarding, timecards, accounting, and approvals all lived in separate places. EP set out to fix that by developing a truly connected, end-to-end platform designed to work together within a single ecosystem. The difference between our platform and others claiming integration is that we’ve built ours with decades of hands-on industry knowledge. We know what it takes to run any scale production, and we designed our solutions to support both indie and major studio tentpoles with the same precision and control.

This article is part of an ongoing series that raises awareness about businesses in the film and television community. Entertainment Partners is a member of the California Production Coalition. The series includes:

The Studio Giant You’ve Never Heard Of: How MBS Group Powers James Cameron and Some of Hollywood’s Biggest Productions

Building Hollywood’s Village: HPA President Kari Grubin on Community, Innovation, and Change

Sylmar Studios: Hollywood’s New Production Powerhouse Built for the Modern Era

Featured image: aption: (L-r) MARGOT ROBBIE as Barbie, ALEXANDRA SHIPP as Barbie, MICHAEL CERA as Allan, ARIANA GREENBLATT as Sasha and AMERICA FERRERA as Gloria in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “BARBIE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Robert Redford, Hollywood Star and Sundance Visionary, Dies at 89

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If it is possible to be both larger than life and understated, Robert Redford would be the person who managed the feat. The big screen idol of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men became a legendary, Oscar-winning director, helming classics like Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show. His work in front, behind, and well away from the camera equaled a singular life in the arts. Redford was an outspoken advocate for environmental causes and the rights of individuals to express themselves as they were, and the driving force behind the creation of the Sundance Film Festival. He passed away on Tuesday morning at his home in Utah at the age of 89.

Redford was a four-time Academy Award nominee and an honorary Oscar recipient. He was the kind of performer, director, and force in Hollywood who was larger than any specific accolade. Redford was one of the genuinely iconic stars of the screen of the past half-century, whose body of work included some of the most compelling and challenging depictions of the country he lived in, loved, and challenged. Those roles included playing irreverent U.S. Senate hopeful Bill McKay in 1972’s The Candidate, the grifter Johnny Hooker, opposite Paul Newman’s Henry Gondroff, in George Roy Hill’s 1973 The Sting (surprisingly, his only Oscar nomination as an actor), introverted C.I.A. codebreaker Turner in Sydney Pollack’s 1975 thriller Three Days of the Condor, and director Alan J. Pakula’s aforementioned classic All the President’s Men, in 1976, in which Redford played Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward who, alongside Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), investigated the Watergate scandal.

American actor Robert Redford, wearing a brown corduroy blazer over a checked shirt, in a recreation of The Washington Post’s offices, in a publicity still for ‘All the President’s Men’, filmed at Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, 1976. The political thriller based on the Watergate scandal, directed by Alan J Pakula, starred Redford as Bob Woodward. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

He was as comfortable in comedies and romantic dramas as he was in political thrillers—his work in Barefoot in the Park in 1967, The Way We Were in 1973, and Out of Africa in 1985 saw him matched with Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Meryl Streep, respectively.

Redford used his massive star power to advocate for and make films that dealt with some of life’s weightiest topics, whether they be political corruption or grief. When he began directing in his 40s, he won an Oscar for directing the staggering Ordinary People in 1980, which was centered on a family’s implosion after a child’s death, and which also took home the Best Picture Oscar. In 1992, Redford directed A River Runs Through It, adapted from Norman Maclean’s story, which starred a young Brad Pitt and was a beautifully shot, elegiac story about Montana fly fishermen considering life’s biggest questions. It was nominated for three Academy Awards. His directorial work in his 1994 hit Quiz Show, centered on a 1950s television scandal, was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

In 1981, Redford founded the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit created to help young, emerging filmmakers find a foothold in the industry. In 1984, he took over a film festival in Utah and a few years after that, he renamed it after the institute. The Sundance Film Festival turned Park City, for a week or two a year, into the hottest film hub in the world. It launched the careers of dozens, then hundreds, of star filmmakers, including Steven Soderbergh, Darren Aronofsky, Quentin Tarantino, Nicole Holofcener, Ava DuVernay, Robert Rodriguez, Ryan Coogler, and Chloé Zhao. It has been at the forefront of progressive causes, became a major launching pad for documentaries, and more. It grew, in fact, larger and more influential than Redford himself had possibly intended or imagined. He was not the biggest fan, to put it mildly, of all the hoopla associated with the festival that wasn’t about film itself.

He was a passionate environmentalist and a supporter of Native American and LGBTQ rights throughout his life—he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2016. His retirement from acting came nearly 8 years ago, after 2018’s The Old Man and the Gun, yet he remained engaged with the industry (he was an executive producer on AMC’s Dark Winds, which he had an uncredited cameo in early this year). He was a force of nature, an impossibly charming onscreen presence with a ferocious work ethic and a lifelong desire to tell important stories and do important work. In fact, in 2013, he was the sole performer in J.C. Chandor’s brilliant adventure film All is Lost, when he played a sailor staring mortality in the face while adrift at sea. You couldn’t take your eyes off of him—at 76 years old, he was still a commanding screen presence—while he managed to make the business of being resourceful and resolute in the face of overwhelming odds and immense pressure look not only inspiring, but beautiful.

Featured image: Robert Redford walks the red carpet ahead of the ‘Our Souls At Night’ screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 1, 2017 in Venice, Italy.

Novelist & Screenwriter Charlie Huston on Preserving the Raw Truth of “Caught Stealing” With Darren Aronofsky

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In 2008, author Charlie Huston and filmmaker Darren Aronofsky had breakfast. The filmmaker was interested in adapting the author’s debut novel, “Caught Stealing,” the first entry in the Hank Thompson trilogy. The collaboration didn’t come to pass. 

In 2022, Huston revisited the script they wrote for Caught Stealing, which tells the story of Hank (Austin Butler), a former baseball star and now an alcoholic bartender, caught in the crossfire of criminals chasing a bag of dirty money.

The script is a lean, mean crime adventure set in ’90s New York City. Hank’s punk neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), asks the bartender to watch his cat while he leaves the country. The cat holds the key to a considerable fortune, which has caught the attention of various gangsters and the NYPD. After a series of mistakes, mishaps, bruising beatdowns, and chases, all exacerbating years’ worth of bad life choices, Hank places himself and those closest to him, including Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), in danger.

The crime project came back around 2022, after Huston sent a polished script to Aronofsky. Three years later, Caught Stealing is an acclaimed crime caper, a mad dash through a not-so-distant New York City of the past buoyed by crackerjack performances and Aronofsky’s always able directorial command. Recently, Huston spoke with The Credits about adapting their debut novel, polishing the script until it was ready for prime time, and more.

 

How’d you approach your first crack at the script?

I was very schematic about it because I had a super cynical motivation, which was that if you option my book, you’ve got to option my script. I didn’t try to reinvent it. I just wrote the story as it was on the page. There were things that I made more cinematic. There were characters I eliminated. There was storytelling that I simplified. I collapsed the moment when he broke his leg in the baseball game, and then had the car crash where his friend died. I turned those into a single event: just the car crash.

How faithful did you want to be to your own story?

It’s irrelevant. The book is the book, and it’s there. As long as we’re not turning Hank into a neo-Nazi, you know what I’m saying? I’m saying this in the context of Darren liking the book, and he wanted to tell the story of the book. He didn’t want to reinvent it either. Things that I thought might get jettisoned – nobody’s going to want to have to deal with all the baseball stuff. They’re going to try to minimize the cat as much as possible. People are going to have a problem with Hank throwing up on himself. All these things that I thought might get eliminated in the process, but not Darren, he wanted all of it.

 

You two didn’t soften Hank’s edges too much. He’s still an alcoholic and an aimless mess. How crucial was preserving his flaws?

I thought that once we were with the studio and talking to any movie star, I really thought there’d be a push to make Hank more active, because that’s a note you were always getting: “Can they be more active?’ Can they do more? Can they drive the story?” Which, to me, is completely contrary to the point. I’m going to talk about Hitchcock without meaning to make a Hitchcock comparison with myself.

Please, go on.

Nobody’s looking at 80% of Hitchcock’s heroes and saying, “They should be driving the story.” The whole point is that they’re caught in circumstances that are out of their control, which they don’t understand until very late in the story. That’s the satisfaction. Those circumstances come with the suspense of being in their shoes and going on that ride with them. These days, there’s not a lot of appetite for that. But that was not the case here. Part of that is because Darren was telling the story that he wanted to tell. Everybody trusts him for good reason.

[Spoilers Ahead]

When Yvonne dies in the book, Hank acknowledges how an action star would react to her death. Instead of fighting, he wants to sleep. How’d you want to stay true to Hank’s reaction to that death?

I can remember being in Video Village the day that we shot Yvonne’s death. Somebody hanging out, was like, “Shouldn’t he go and check on her?” I said, “I think this is authentic. I don’t think there’s any mystery about whether she’s dead or not. Checking on her is just something that we’re throwing at the audience, like we want them to feel better about Hank.” The reaction of horror and going straight to the phone to see if he can get help is an authentic reaction. And then the other thing that I said was, “If this character were female, I don’t think you’d be asking that question. Because it’s a guy, you expect him to take action in a different way. But I think if a female character walked into a room where the dude was dead and went for the phone to call for help, nobody would be saying, ‘Shouldn’t she blah, blah, blah?’” 

Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and Hank (Austin Butler) connect back at Hanks apartment in Columbia Pictures CAUGHT STEALING. photo by: Niko Tavernise.

“Caught Stealing” was your debut novel. How do you look back at the writer you were when you wrote it?

I didn’t know I had the self-discipline to write every day, and that was really what I was chasing as I was in a raw place. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a creative outlet. I needed one. I needed structure because I was off my drinking, which I didn’t solve, because I kept drinking for 25 more years. But, I needed something that I was doing that was feeding me creatively. I’d been reading a lot of noir and crime, and I’d never written a noir crime story. I’d written a bunch of short stories, but not like, “I’m going to try and write some kind of noirish short story.”

L-r: Yuri Kolokolnikov, Austin Butler, Bad Bunny, and Nikita Kukushkin. hoto by: Niko Tavernise.

What was it that made you tell Hank Thompson’s story at that time in your life?

I had a starting place for it, using my day-to-day life at that time as the framework to hang everything on. It was exciting to feel the story grow, to have things click into place. I was engaged with it when I was away from it, thinking about it, and scribbling things down. The night that I finished it — and of course, this is a long time ago, so I’ve got my mini disc with my book on it — I went down to the bar. That’s where I worked with the brothers, the real Ed and Paris, who are [criminals] in the book but got written out of the movie, unfortunately. I went down to see those guys and told them that I’d finished my book. When you do something that you’ve always admired in others, always thinking to yourself, “Oh boy, I wish I could do that, but I’ll never do that,” and you do it, at that point, anything else would’ve been icing on the cake for me.

 

I’ve heard from writers that they learned a lot about storytelling from working at bars. Was that your experience?

Specifically for Caught Stealing, obviously, it’s intrinsic to the story. It’s a classic first novel where I used so much of my personal experience — everything up to when the guns came out. Basically, I’m just drawing from all my day-to-day life, the geography of the neighborhood, and how I knew New York at that time, what was going on in baseball. I mean, probably the thing that came out of it that fed a part of me that was already there is just a fondness for human weakness and people who don’t have their shit together.

Usually, the best stories to tell.

You pick up a lot about human nature at a bar. You pick up a lot about vulnerability and how people undermine themselves. You see a little bit of people at their best, a little bit of people at their worst. For someone in their early thirties, it’s probably a bit of a graduate course in that. You can get those kinds of lessons working in an office building or being in some hierarchy. You’ll see a lot about human nature that way, too, but maybe it’s not as raw, perhaps. I mean, being amongst those folks and being one of them is a huge part of my life’s journey.

As someone who’s now sober, how do you reflect on the work you produced during that period in your life? 

Since I’ve been sober, it’s one of the things I reflect on — this irony that if I had not been an active alcoholic for so long… I mean, Caught Stealing is a novel about an alcoholic, how it’s destroying Hank, and how he’s destroying other people’s lives through his alcoholism. If you look at it hard, that’s what’s going on. Flat out, if I weren’t an active alcoholic, I couldn’t have written that story. And there’s plenty of other stuff that I’ve written. I wrote a five-book vampire series effectively about addiction. I look at my life experience. I look at how I’ve lived, the choices that I’ve made, and I have to recognize that there’s a great deal that I have been able to draw from those experiences to create opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. Although I was never a drinking writer. I drank every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, but it was always after the work was done. It was always about getting the work done. Now, I can have my drinks. Now, I can maintain it. But it was present in terms of the addiction itself, in terms of the disease itself; it was always present in what I was writing. I just wasn’t aware of it.

Featured image: Russ (Matt Smith) and Hank (Austin Butler) on the move in Columbia Pictures CAUGHT STEALING. photo by: Niko Tavernise

Director Oliver Hermanus and Actor Chris Cooper Wax Lyrical on “The History of Sound”

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Director Oliver Hermanus calls his latest film, The History of Sound, “a love letter to the films of the ‘90s.”

The period drama stars Paul Mescal as Kentucky singer Lionel and Josh O’Connor as Boston composer David White, who have a brief but life-changing romance in 1920 while hiking through rural Maine to record local folk music on wax cylinders.

Hermanus grew up in South Africa, where American films were plentiful. His family “loved melodrama and sweeping films” such as Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It, and The English Patient; the kind of films that “don’t exist anymore,” he said. Older classics, such as Badlands, and other “landscape films” also influenced him.

L to R: Paul Mescal (as Lionel) with Director Oliver Hermanus on the set of THE HISTORY OF SOUND.

With The History of Sound, which premiered at Cannes and opened September 12, Hermanus aimed to “tell the story of an American landscape which, for me, is a cinematic passion.”

Adapted by Ben Shattuck from his own short story, The History of Sound is the first film Hermanus shot in the United States. He was developing the project simultaneously with his acclaimed 2022 British feature film, Living, which earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Bill Nighy.

“I was always going to do Living first and naively thought I’d do The History of Sound right after. But I became super busy and it took another year or more to get it off the ground,” he said. “It was a slightly schizophrenic time, doing this very British movie and a very American movie.”

Josh O’Connor is David in THE HISTORY OF SOUND, directed by Oliver Hermanus.

Hermanus read Shattuck’s short story in early 2020 and “was drawn to the wisdom of it,” he said. “Great writing has an idea at the center, a window inside the story. The director in me [wondered] ‘How do I put this in a cinematic context?’ That was to see it as a portrait of a man’s life and to understand that somebody can enter your life for a short period of time but become the resonance of your life. David inspires Lionel’s life; he literally tells him what to do and where to go. Lionel’s voyage of discovery is that he prefers to listen rather than sing; it’s a revelation that’s the association with what he loves about music.”

Mescal and O’Connor remained committed to the project even after it was delayed by the COVID pandemic. “All development took place during lockdown. We were zooming away; I met Paul and Josh through Zoom,” said Hermanus. Shooting finally began in the winter of 2024.

Hermanus has become known for films that treat queerness as another part of life’s textures. “I personally like to watch films where love and romance can be posed in the context of queerness without being about the problems or sadness. I’ve seen enough of that and I’ve explored it in movies myself,” said Hermanus, who made his first film, Shirley Adams, when he was 24. “That was very much about my mother and my understanding of motherhood in South Africa. My second [Beauty, released in 2021] was about queerness and repression, and then I moved on to questions of shame” with 2019’s Moffie.

“This time, I finally made a film where queerness wasn’t the issue or a problem. The relationship is as organic and natural as it can be. It plays out in Lionel and David’s connection at the piano [in an early scene of the film], and there’s no fear about the connection. They both go with it.”

 

Hermanus took a “deep dive” into authentic American folk music and the oral histories that were passed down through generations, dating to “the Irish influence, the slavey influence. The American tapestry of music is about arriving from other places and telling stories through written song,” he said.

“The Smithsonian’s collection of wax cylinder recordings is the holy grail of how you can find all this stuff. Can you imagine no recorded music? It is almost unfathomable. This story is at the cusp of when people are hearing recorded voices for the first time. The magic trick of that must have been overwhelming,” he said. “There’s poetry to the idea that sound can be this echo to a moment in time and this connection to the past. It’s a beautiful and fortunate thing that we can do, which is time travel.”

Veteran actor Chris Cooper plays the older Lionel, whose memories of David and their bonding over music provide the film with its entry into the story.

“I’ve done enough work in the film business to realize that the other actors and the director have a lot on their shoulders, and I want to make their work as easy as possible. Paul was assigned an accent coach for the Kentucky accent,” Cooper said. “I am from Missouri, and I’ve done a Kentucky accent, but it was a concern that the two of us match, dialect-wise.”

 

Cooper contacted Mescal’s coach and “told him that once Paul was comfortable with it, to send me his work and I’ll try to match it.”

Beyond the sound and speech patterns of Lionel’s voice, Cooper aimed to bring to the role his own “life experience; love, loss, regrets. I don’t know how else to work,” he said. Like Hermanus, Cooper is drawn to sophisticated, character-driven films that, he said, have become “harder and harder” to make.

“The business has changed. The films I was brought up on — it was person-to-person, one-on-one, not explosions, blue screens, or Marvel superheroes. It was human-to-human; that’s what got me interested. That’s hard to find in film work today.”

The History of Sound is in theaters now.

Featured image: L to R: Josh O’Connor is David and Paul Mescal is Lionel in THE HISTORY OF SOUND, directed by Oliver Hermanus.

“The Pitt,” “The Studio,” “Adolescence,” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Have Big Night at the Emmys

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The 2025 Emmys Awards telecast crowned the year’s big winners on Sunday night, with The Pitt, The Studio, Adolescence, and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert winning big.

The Pitt nabbed three Emmys, including for Best Drama Series. Star Noah Wyle also took home the Best Actor in a Drama Series win, and his co-star, Katherine LaNasa, topped four White Lotus stars to pull in the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 14: Cast and crew including Simran Baidwan, Katherine LaNasa, R. Scott Gemmill, Noah Wyle, John Wells, Tracy Ifeachor, Shawn Hatosy, Christopher Meloni, Patrick Ball, Supriya Ganesh and Taylor Dearden accept the Outstanding Drama Series award for “The Pitt” onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Adolescence earned six awards, including the Best Limited or Anthology Series, and Owen Cooper became the youngest-ever winner in any category when he took home the Best Supporting Actor award in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Executive producer/writer/star Stephen Graham won the Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and Erin Doherty won Best Supporting Actress. Philip Barantini won for Best Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series, and Graham won his third Emmy when he and Jack Thorne won for Best Writing.

On the comedy side of the ledger, the night belonged to The Studio, which won Best Comedy Series and co-creator Seth Rogen won again for Best Actor, then again for Best Director and Best Writer, both with Evan Goldberg, while they shared the writing honors with Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won Best Talk Series, an emotional victory that came two months after CBS announced it was canceling the series. Colbert and his staff enjoyed a standing ovation.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 14: Cast and crew of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” accept the Outstanding Talk Series award onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Tramell Tillman became the first Black man to win Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work in Severance. His co-star Brit Lower nabbed Best Actress in a Drama Series. Meanwhile, Cristin Milioti won Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series for her stellar work playing Sofia Falcone in The Penguin. 

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 14: Tramell Tillman accepts the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award for “Severance” onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

In a fun surprise, Jeff Hiller won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his superb work in Somebody Somewhere. Jean Smart nabbed another Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, while her costar, Hannah Einbinder, won Best Supporting Actress.

Dan Gilroy took home an Emmy for his writing on Disney+’s riveting Andor. 

SNL50: The Anniversary Special won the Best Variety Special (Live) category, which now makes SNL total win haul a staggering 112.

Here’s the full list below:

Best Drama Series

Andor
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Paradise
The Pitt (WINNER)
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus

Best Comedy Series

Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Shrinking
The Studio (WINNER)
What We Do in the Shadows

Best Limited or Anthology Series

Adolescence (WINNER)
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin

Best Reality Competition Program

The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Survivor
Top Chef
The Traitors (WINNER)

Best Talk Series

The Daily Show
Jimmy Kimmel Live! 
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (WINNER)

Best Scripted Variety Series

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (WINNER)
Saturday Night Live

Best Variety Special (Live)

The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar
Beyoncé Bowl
The Oscars
SNL50: The Anniversary Special (WINNER)
SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

Best Actor in a Drama Series

Sterling K. Brown, Paradise
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
Adam Scott, Severance
Noah Wyle, The Pitt (WINNER)

Best Actress in a Drama Series

Kathy Bates, Matlock
Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters
Britt Lower, Severance (WINNER)
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Keri Russell, The Diplomat

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Zach Cherry, Severance
Walton Goggins, The White Lotus
Jason Isaacs, The White Lotus
James Marsden, Paradise
Sam Rockwell, The White Lotus
Tramell Tillman, Severance (WINNER)
John Turturro, Severance

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Patricia Arquette, Severance
Carrie Coon, The White Lotus
Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt (WINNER)
Julianne Nicholson, Paradise
Parker Posey, The White Lotus
Natasha Rothwell, The White Lotus
Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus

Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Colin Farrell, The Penguin
Stephen Graham, Adolescence (WINNER)
Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent
Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief
Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
Meghann Fahy, Sirens
Rashida Jones, Black Mirror
Cristin Milioti, The Penguin (WINNER)
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex

Best Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Bill Camp, Presumed Innocent
Owen Cooper, Adolescence (WINNER)
Rob Delaney, Dying for Sex
Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocent
Ashley Walters, Adolescence

Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Erin Doherty, Adolescence (WINNER)
Ruth Negga, Presumed Innocent
Deirdre O’Connell, The Penguin
Chloë Sevigny, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Jenny Slate, Dying for Sex
Christine Tremarco, Adolescence

Best Actress in a Comedy Series

Uzo Aduba, The Residence
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Jean Smart, Hacks (WINNER)

Best Actor in a Comedy Series

Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Seth Rogen, The Studio (WINNER)
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Liza Colón-Zayas, The Bear
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks (WINNER)
Kathryn Hahn, The Studio
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary
Catherine O’Hara, The Studio
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams, Shrinking

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Ike Barinholtz, The Studio
Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons
Harrison Ford, Shrinking
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere (WINNER)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
Michael Urie, Shrinking
Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live

Best Writing for a Drama Series

Dan Gilroy, Andor (WINNER)
Joe Sachs, The Pitt
R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt
Dan Erickson, Severance
Will Smith, Slow Horses
Mike White, The White Lotus

Best Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Jack Thorne, Stephen Graham, Adolescence (WINNER)
Charlie Brooker, Bisha K. Ali, Black Mirror
Kim Rosenstock, Elizabeth Meriwether, Dying for Sex
Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin
Joshua Zetumer, Say Nothing

Best Writing for a Comedy Series

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, Hacks
Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola, The Rehearsal
Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, Bridget Everett, Somebody Somewhere
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez, The Studio (WINNER)
Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis, Paul Simms, What We Do in the Shadows

Best Writing for a Variety Series

The Daily Show
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (WINNER)
Saturday Night Live

Best Directing for a Comedy Series

Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Lucia Aniello, Hacks
James Burrows, Mid-Century Modern
Nathan Fielder, The Rehearsal
Seth Rogen, The Studio (WINNER)

Best Directing for a Drama Series

Janus Metz, Andor
Amanda Marsalis, The Pitt
John Wells, The Pitt
Jessica Lee Gagné, Severance
Ben Stiller, Severance
Adam Randall, Slow Horses (WINNER)
Mike White, The White Lotus

Best Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Philip Barantini, Adolescence (WINNER)
Shannon Murphy, Dying for Sex
Helen Shaver, The Penguin
Jennifer Getzinger, The Penguin
Nicole Kassell, Sirens
Lesli Linka Glatter, Zero Day

Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 14: (L-R) Katherine LaNasa and Noah Wyle, winners of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Lead Actor in a Drama Series for “The Pitt,” pose in the press room during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)