Saving Mr. Banks & the Story Behind Mary Poppins
As Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks debuts, step back in time to discover the story behind the making of Mary Poppins and the inspiration behind one of the greatest and most beloved films ever made.
INT: The Walt Disney Studios. Burbank, California, April 1961.
A rehearsal room in the Animation Building—suffused with sunlight and equipped with storytelling necessities: an upright piano, storyboards, a table and a couch.
Multi-Instrumentalist Mark Orton on Composing Alexander Payne’s Nebraska
Mark Orton is a man of many talents. He can play on any type of guitar, keyboard and percussion instrument. He’s a trained sound engineer and composer. He’s provided scores for feature films, documentaries, experimental radio, video/art installations, concert halls, modern dance, theater and, wait for it—the circus. He’s a co-founder of Tin Hat, a composer/improviser collective that is internationally renown.
Orton’s path to becoming the composer for Alexander Payne’s critically acclaimed Nebraska is an unusual one,
What a Champ: A Q&A with David Koechner of Anchorman 2
The highly anticipated sequel to 2004’s Anchorman opened Wednesday at midnight after what was possibly the greatest (and most hilarious) marketing campaign in the history of film. David Koechner, who stars as Champ Kind, the sportscaster on Ron Burgundy’s (Will Ferrell) news team, attended a Tuesday night premiere at Washington D.C.’s Newseum and offered this advice to anyone worried that The Legend Continues will tarnish the beloved status of the original: “Don’t worry!”
Going Viral: The Hilariously Savvy Selling of Anchorman 2
When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was released in July 2004, YouTube was just a glimmer in the eye of three PayPal employees and the world’s now-ubiquitous social network was still known as The Facebook and open only to college students. What a difference nine-and-a-half years makes.
Despite being released almost exactly two years before the launch of Twitter (and three years before star Will Ferrell and co-writer/director Adam McKay created their wildly popular humor channel,
Gift Guide: 10 New Books for Film Lovers
2013 was a fantastic year for film, and it also turned out to be a fantastic year for books about or by filmmakers. Memoirs, book-length interviews, biographies, histories and insightful how-to guides offer the film lovers and budding auteurs in your life inspiration, illumination and, very often, serious laughs.
Here’s a short list of some of great books on our favorite subject released in the past year. Whether you’ve got a hipster, horror lover or anime fan on your Christmas gift list,
Playing Dress Up with American Hustle Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson
He was the man who dressed Leonidas and his well-toned warriors in 300, made a graphic novel come to life in Watchmen and outfitted Krypton’s favorite son in Man of Steel. Sure, costume designer Michael Wilkinson had worked on smaller projects before—Garden State and American Splendor, to name a few—but he was still an unlikely choice to take on director David O.
Fashion Lessons From 10 Golden Globe Nominated Actors & Actresses
When we looked at the Golden Globes list of acting nominees, we were struck by how these characters would make really compelling fashion icons. Seriously. Aside from being a spectacular year for film, it's been a spectacular year for costume design. American Hustle alone is like a hair and wardrobe fever dream—you know you're enjoying everything about a film when you could mute it and still marvel at what's on display.
Explaining the Characters of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug via Photos
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth has a teeming population that can be very hard to keep track of. Hobbits, dwarves, elves, orcs, wizards, trolls, goblins, men, women, giant eagles, giant spiders, stone giants, wargs, skin-changers, and yes, dragons (to name a few).
With the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug coming December 13, we thought a good way of reacquainting you with some of the characters (and introducing you to some new ones) would be through visual identification.
AFI Joins New York, Los Angeles, Boston & More With Film Award Announcements
Unless you’ve gone to a screening, you’ve probably not gotten a chance to see David O. Russell’s American Hustle (December 20) or Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (December 25) yet, but film critics have, and they’re being mentioned as two of the best films of the year. They join the robust list of great movies that have already been released this year, creating a glut of truly remarkable films that are giving critics from New York to Los Angeles (and points in between) a remarkably hard task as they hand out their awards.
Production Designer K.K. Barrett on Creating Her’s Beautiful Future
One walks out of the theater after seeing writer/director Spike Jonze’s Her with lots of different feelings. First, and perhaps foremost, is a kind of bittersweet hope—similar to the way Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes you feel when it ends. These are films about love, warts and all, and what we’ll put ourselves through in pursuit of it.
In Sunshine,
Thor-Inspired Contest Encourages Young Women to Pursue STEM Careers
Ten high school students at the top of their science game took a trip to Hollywood to meet the cast of Thor and visit with a host of inspirational women scientists along the way.
When Aurora Hake, a ninth grader at Annie Wright School in Washington, heard about Thor: The Dark World Ultimate Mentor Adventure, she immediately began preparing her video application. The contest—a joint venture designed by Marvel,
Video Featurette: Behind-the-Scenes With the Creators of Walking With Dinosaurs
Ever since June of 1993, audiences have grown to expect a lot out of their dinosaur movies. You can thank Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park for turning audiences into very exacting judges of what does, and does not, look like a believable dinosaur on screen. Jurassic Park was a huge leap forward in what CGI can do for a film, but for dinosaur fans (which is just about everyone who was ever a child at one point),
Breaking Braddock: New Christian Bale Film Puts Spotlight on Hard Hit Town
Director Scott Cooper’s new movie, Out of the Furnace, boasts a cast that includes Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Zoé Saldana, Sam Shepard and Forest Whitaker. It’s a thrilling drama about the lengths we’ll go for family, and, what pernicious elements fills the void in a town when the jobs disappear. Filmed and set in the ragged, depressed Rust Belt town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Bale’s Russell Baze works at a mill that is likely going under,
Meeting Of The Memes: J.R.R. Tolkien’s 21st Century Film Fandom
J.R.R. Tolkien has long been known for having an eclectic group of die-hard fans. From modern-day celebrities like Stephen Colbert (unequivocally one of the most hardcore Tolkien fans of our time, who elicited this from Peter Jackson: "I've never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life." ) to the 1960s counter culture attachment to The Lord of the Rings and 1970s rock bands who wrote epic songs about the books,
Steve Coogan on his “Surprising” Serious Turn in Philomena
Steve Coogan is a major star in Britain, but his work in American films (2010’s remarkably funny The Trip and the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days, among others) never made much of an impact. He first read about the real-life Philomena Lee in an article in The Guardian newspaper. He then optioned BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith’s 2009 book “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee,”
Walt Disney a Movie Character for 1st Time in Delightful Saving Mr. Banks
In the tradition of the behind-the-scenes Hollywood story comes Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks. The crowd-pleaser, set for a December 20 release, employs the studio’s time-tested, multi-layered storytelling approach to the tale of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) managed in 1961 to convince prickly Australian author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to release the rights to her successful books about a nanny named Mary Poppins.
It’s a departure for the stalwart studio,
Trailer Talk: Holiday Weekend Special
There’s some great films coming out, and there's still a lot of greats left in theaters. Let’s take a quick tour of what’s out there so you have an excuse to take a two hour (or more) break from the festivities and enjoy some quality time with your cinematic friends.
Thor: The Dark World
Thor's back in the second installment and he's got a whole lot of trouble brewing.
Thanksgiving Holiday Movie Survival Guide
Thanksgiving is a great holiday for bingeing—not just on food but also on films. As we did last year, we’re providing you with a Thanksgiving Movie Survival Guide.
So loosen that belt (or your sweatpants band) and enjoy all the cinematic bounty on offer. The Thanksgiving holiday is a major cinematic feast.
*All times Eastern Standard
Wednesday, November 27
Morning
It’s transit day for many of us,
Composer Jozef van Wissem’s Bloody Good Score for Only Lovers Left Alive
Jozef van Wissem’s score for Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is one of the reasons you walk out of that film in a kind of satiated trance. From the very beginning of the film to the last scene, music is a huge component of the story, and Wissem’s a huge reason it all works so well. Tom Hiddleston’s character, Adam, is a musician as well as a vampire.
The Rose Theatre in Washington State: A Beloved Local Movie House Embraces Digital
If you want to get cinematic about it, you could say that Rocky Friedman is like Humphrey Bogart’s Rick in Casablanca. Both men hold court nightly in neighborhood joints that reflect their refined and idiosyncratic tastes. Like Rick’s café, there’s always action at Rocky’s.
Some of it takes place on screen.
Friedman, 60, is the owner of the Rose Theatre in the tiny seaport of Port Townsend, Washington.
