Dope Debuts in Theaters After Smashing Sundance Premiere
One of the buzziest crowd-pleasers to come out of Sundance, Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a 90s hip-hop obsessed geek from Inglewood with dreams of studying at Harvard. After a wild night there’s suddenly a backpack of drugs standing in his way and only his two nerdy friends to help him offload them. (Hint: their plan involves bitcoin).
We talk to writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood,
How Inside Out Writer Meg LeFauve Created An Emotional Battle Inside The Mind
Inside Out comes with all the classic marks of a great Pixar movie. An all-ages storyline? Check. Beautiful animation paired with an unexpected, off-kilter premise? Check. Tears? Check and check.
The story takes place inside the mind of Riley, a pre-teen girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, a transition that unleashes a flurry of upheaval among her five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.
Battle of the Titans: Robert Gordon on William Buckley vs. Gore Vidal in Best of Enemies
Playing at the BAMcineamaFest in Brooklyn and AFI Docs in Los Angeles tonight, Magnolia Pictures' Best of Enemies is a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr., where these two intellectual heavyweights clobbered each other over their views about God, sex, and politics.
We spoke with co-director and producer Robert Gordon about how this film came to be,
Talking to the Young Stars of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Olivia Cooke, Thomas Mann and RJ Cyler, the three young stars enjoying breakout success in Fox Searchlight’s summer hit Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, know they’ve part of a rare thing in Hollywood: a teen-centric movie that’s fresh and original.
The Sundance crowd-pleaser and winner of the festival’s Jury and Audience awards for US Drama, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl might on paper sound like a host of other teen movies.
Me and Earl and The Dying Girl Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has faced rejection before in the movie business. In 2014, his horror film The Town that Dreaded Sundown was only released in a few theaters nationwide and then went straight to video on demand. He wanted a chance for that film to build an audience but never had the opportunity. The Texas born filmmaker had steadily worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a personal assistant for some of Hollywood's biggest stars (Nora Ephron,
Listen to the Work of American Horror Story: Freak Show‘s Composer
It’s not like composer Mac Quayle got into this line of work exclusively to score seriously demented moments, but the Grammy® nominated musician has done just that for one of TV’s most wild shows. Quayle has written music for more than 30 films and television shows, and has made a name for himself as a dance re-mixer and multi-instrumentalist, but you might have encountered his work most recently on FX’s hit series American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Spy’s Stunt Coordinator on Melissa McCarthy’s Butt Kicking
A chance introduction to Jean-Claude Van Damme in the late ‘80s led to Spy’s stunt coordinator J.J. Perry’s long career in the movies. Perry, who was on the Atlanta set of Ang Lee’s latest film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk when we spoke, has worked on countless films, including Divergent, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Warrior. He tells The Credits about how he battled to make sure he sent Spy’s star Melissa McCarthy,
Writer/Director Garrett Bradley is an Artist to Watch
If you haven't heard of director Garrett Bradley, you're probably not alone but you will be if eventually, as this is one young director you want to keep an eye on. Bradley’s very powerful debut, Below Dreams, is a haunting homage to the beauty and spirit of New Orleans’s underside and the passion of those with dreams, both great and small.
Below Dreams is a narrative in the neo-realism style that melds fiction with reality.
Watch & Listen to Empire Composer Fil Eisler’s Favorite Scenes
Yesterday we published our interview with Empire composer Fil Eisler, and today we're going to take a look at two scenes Eisler chose as his favorite illustrations of what he brings to the show. Thanks to 20th Century Fox, who were kind enough to send us these clips.
Let's go through a few of your favorite scenes that you scored last season.
There’s a couple of scenes that I could use to illustrate the extremes of what the music can do.
Empire‘s Composer Fil Eisler on Scoring TV’s Best Show About Music
Empire was a big part of Fox's recent upfront presentation for reasons that are easy to parse. It was the number one series on TV, a smashing success for the network and invigorated the entire TV landscape. The upcoming season has been expanded to 18 episodes, and Fox announced that Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Chris Rock will be among the guest stars.
The appeal of Empire is obvious; the King Lear-like premise,
Composer Atticus Ross on Brian Wilson Biopic Love & Mercy & More
Atticus Ross is one of the most well respected composers working in film today. He is probably best known for the work he has done with two of his longtime collaborators; fellow musician and composer Trent Reznor and director David Fincher. Ross and Reznor's work on The Social Network earned them an Academy Award for Best Original Score and they grabbed a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won them a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack.
Here’s How They Built the Beastly Machines for Mad Max: Fury Road
How do you fuse two Cadillac bodies together, install two huge engines, and actually make the thing not only drive, but serve as one of the main vehicles in a film that's essentially one long car chase? This was one of the many challenges facing Jacinta Leong, art director on Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the most kinetic, relentless action movies in years. Max goes gear for gear and wreck for wreck with Fast &
H.R. Giger—The Man who Created the Ultimate Alien
H.R. Giger's work has informed the popular imagination to an extent the Swiss surrealist painter could never have guessed when he began his work. He's most well known for his Oscar-winning creations for Ridley Scott's Alien, a film that has touched nearly every science fiction story that has followed it. Giger's influence extends far past Hollywood, however. Horror fanatics, punk and goth culture, pop music, a cottage industry of album cover art, tattoos,
Karl Bushby Attempts 36,000 Mile Trek in The Walk Around the World
Karl Bushby had two rules when he set out to walk an unbroken path around the world: No form of transport to advance, and he couldn’t go home, to Hull, England, until he arrived on foot.
He made this pact with himself nearly two decades ago, and Bushby's still walking. He's walked across 25 countries, over seven mountain ranges, from the southern tip of Argentina up through South and Central America,
Learn About Modern Film Composing With the Blair Brothers
On May 20, from 8:00am to 3:00pm, the film channel CreativeLive will unveil it's newest course in its' ongoing online global classroom for creatives; "Modern Film Composing," hosted by Will and Brooke Blair. The Blair Brothers will be coming off their latest premiere, Green Room, their second collaboration with writer/director Jeremy Saulnier after the outstanding Blue Ruin, which premiered at Sundance in 2014.
The Blair Brothers have worked in a variety of mediums.
Music Supervisors Sync Up For Pitch Perfect 2
Turns out, even music supervisors work better in harmony. Though most movies hire just one music supervisor, for the vocals-heavy Pitch Perfect Julia Michels and Julianne Jordan offered themselves up as a team to pick the songs and mash-ups for the a capella musical.
Since then, they’ve worked on four projects together, including DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls. Naturally, the duo reunited for Universal’s Pitch Perfect 2.
Starring the same a capella group three years later –with Anna Kendrick,
Made in Louisiana: On Set With the Crew of NCIS: New Orleans
On a warm March day, we took a drive outside of New Orleans to Harahan, Louisiana, and found ourselves, improbably, back in New Orleans. We were standing in a courtyard off of St. Ann street between Bourbon and Royal. Directly in front of us was a large kitchen, and beyond that a high-tech command center where serious investigative work is routinely conducted. But out in the courtyard, we were marveling at the weather-beaten air conditioner, a fountain overflowing with plants,
How to Make a Killer Trailer: One of the Best Explains
As a international economics student at Middlebury College in Vermont, Nick Temple had no idea he'd wind up becoming one of Hollywood's top trailer cutters. But when a post-graduation cross-country trip with a couple of buddies brought him to Los Angeles in 2000, Temple needed a job so he started working as a runner at Burbank, California production house. There, he quickly became hooked on movie teasers. "There was something compelling for me about looking at footage and compressing it to tell a story,"
Brett Morgen on Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck & how Frances Bean Made it Happen
Nearly eight years after director Brett Morgen (The Kids Stays in the Picture) was approached by Courtney Love to make a film about her late husband’s life, the documentary, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, is finally available to fans around the world — premiering on HBO and in select theaters tonight, May 4th.
Using never-before-seen and heard artwork, personal writings, music and home movies (it’s amazing how much footage there is of young Kurt),
How’d They Film That? Avengers: Age of Ultron Production Designer Explains
You might imagine when you see Avengers: Age of Ultron that nearly everything is CGI. Yet Joss Whedon, when at all possible, wanted practical effects and real sets. Much like JJ Abrams has reportedly done on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Whedon prefers to build as much of his world “in camera” as he can.
What does “in camera” mean? It’s the question we asked production designer Charles Wood (Thor: The Dark World,
