Mutants, Maleficent & Tom Cruise: Summer Blockbuster Season is Upon us
Godzilla thrashes and trashes his way into theaters this weekend, marking the unofficial start of summer blockbuster season (you could argue The Amazing Spider-Man 2 kicked off the increasingly earlier start to tent pole season on May 2). In the coming weeks, some of the year’s biggest films are hitting theaters, including mutants, mutating robots, turtles who are also mutants, Maleficent, Tom Cruise, monkeys riding horses,
Cricket out of Water: The Sport Behind Disney’s Million Dollar Arm
It’s a story that seems tailor-made for film: the surprise twist is that it’s true. Million Dollar Arm, the latest feel-good sports flick from Disney, tells the tale of a down and out sports agent (Jon Hamm) who turned two Indian cricket players into Major League pitchers.
Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel were both seventeen years old, speaking no English and raised in villages without cellphones,
Looking Back at the Original Godzilla
In August of 1954, Toho Studios began shooting a film unlike any that ever been made in Japanese cinematic history. Three photography teams were required: a special-effects photography team to cover the film's star, a principal photography team to capture dramatic scenes between the rest of the cast, and a composite photography team who would help mesh star and cast into a cohesive whole.
That film was, of course, the original Godzilla,
Director Gareth Edwards, Producer Thomas Tull & Star Ken Watanabe Talk Godzilla
We combed through a few Godzilla round table interviews Warner Bros. recently uploaded to their press site in anticipation of the iconic monster's May 16 landfall, and have provided some choice quotes from three major players involved in the film—director Gareth Edwards, producer and Legendary Pictures Chairman and CEO Thomas Tull, and star Ken Watanabe.
DIRECTOR GARETH EDWARDS
On creating the look of Godzilla
"We imagined that sixty years ago,
Celebrating the Unsung Maternal Heroes of the Silver Screen for Mother’s Day
Mothers’ Day is this Sunday, and it’s come to our attention that, strange as it may seem, celebrities have mothers too. Some of them even have celebrity mothers. Though really, if you consider all the time, industry knowledge and innate talent that it takes to succeed in Hollywood, it makes sense that we see so many famous kids with famous parents (see Liza Minelli and Judy Garland) or sprawling thespian dynasties (see the Barrymores or Redgraves).
Mr. Sunshine: David Lynch, Auteur of the Uncanny, Talks Inspiration
One of the first words out of David Lynch’s mouth nearly brought the house down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a drizzly night last week. The icon behind films as disparate and evocative as Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, was patiently listening as Paul Holdengräber, the erudite director of public programs at the New York Public Library,
Sky High Murals With Colossal Media
If you've been to New York City, you've experienced the odd sensation of being the recipient of an endless stream of sales pitches. Whether you're waiting for the subway, walking down Houston street or sitting in a taxi, you're surrounded by advertising. Check out this upcoming show at Mercury Lounge! Buy this brand of flavored vodka! Do whatever is being asked of you on those taxi monitors before you can get the touch screen to respond to your desperate tapping off the 'Off''
Highlights from the 2nd Annual Creativity Conference
The second annual Creativity Conference (check out the link for photos and more here) was a celebration of the impact, and necessity, of the creative community on the economic stability and cultural legacy of America. “Year after year, audiences go to their local cinemas or sign up for streaming services to see what our industry has to offer,” Senator Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America said. “Our industries are far more than just creators of entertainment…the creative community contributes 3.2% to our GDP.”
Check out the Live Stream of the 2nd Annual Creativity Conference
The second annual Creativity Conference begins today in The Newseum in Washington, DC, drawing leaders from the entertainment, media, business, technology and political communities to talk about the role creativity plays in the global economy. The Creativity Conference is presented by the Motion Picture Association of America in partnership with Microsoft and ABC News. For roughly the next four and a half hours, speakers and panelists will engage one another in discussions ranging from the shifting definitions of the creative process to innovation’s impact on the personal,
Countdown to International Star Wars Day
May the Force be with you all, especially this Sunday, May 4th, a date otherwise known as International Star Wars Day.
I know what you’re saying: isn’t every day international Star Wars day? Well, yes. And never more so than now, when after weeks of rumors, J.J. Abrams’ cast for Episode VII has just been announced.
The epic trilogy (and the prequels,
A Living, Dangerous Dorian Gray: For No Good Reason Celebrates England’s Wildest Cartoonist
Avey Tare gets Ralph Steadman.
The Animal Collective frontman has made no official statements regarding Steadman’s art, but regarding psychedelia he says, “it's always been about the combination of moods and how fast a mood can change. I think combining humor alongside something extremely dark is always appealing in the world of psychedelia.” He could just as easily be describing the gonzo cartoonist’s style, where exuberant satire blends with slapstick nightmare,
World IP Day: Taking Stock of the Archives and Archivists
World IP Day, on April 26, was a day to celebrate movies, music and other creative works as well as all those who create these works. It is also a day to celebrate those who allow us to enjoy these works not only today, but in the future as well. Archivists and preservationists – in public and private archives – collect, catalog, preserve, restore and make available many of these culturally and historically important creative works.
Tribeca 2014: David Simon, Beau Willimon, Nate Silver & Anne Thompson Talk Stories
We all know that our shopping habits are fodder for various entities looking to target their advertising and increase their profits, but the same kind of Big Data is being used by media and entertainment entities, from HBO and Netflix to the New York Times and Fox News, to figure out who we are, what we read and watch, and what, perhaps, we want next. "Does betting on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ bode well or ill for future innovation in film,
Tribeca 2014: Kelly Reichardt’s Tense, Thrilling Night Moves
A group of environmental activists watch a somber film about the slaughter of the planet. A woman’s voice narrates the horrors of mankind's insatiable greed—eroding beaches, melting ice caps, deforestation, and carbon emissions to name a few of our sins, with a call to action as well. "Let the revolution begin…for the future, for the people, and for the planet."
This film-within-the-film ends to a smattering of clapping. The filmmaker is present, and she's asked to answer questions from the group.
Tribeca 2014: Writer/Director Angus MacLachlan’s Goodbye to All That
Writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s Goodbye to All That includes one of the more frank and pathos-free sex scenes in recent memory. Otto Wall (Paul Schneider) and Mildred (Ashley Hinshaw), who recently met on the online dating service OkCupid, sit opposite one another on chairs, naked. They are describing, with exacting detail, what they’d like to do to each other. Otto’s wife has recently left him, and he’s experimenting for the first time in his life with online dating.
2014 Tribeca Film Festival at a Glance—5 Female Directors to Watch
The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday, and as we plotted out which films we were going to see (festivals are all about painful choices—too many good films, too few hours in the day), we were struck by how many exciting projects were helmed by female directors. From Johanna Hamilton’s riveting documentary 1971 (which we included in our list of 5 Hot Docs in yesterday’s piece) to Israeli director Talya Lavie’s narrative feature Zero Motivation,
2014 Tribeca Film Festival at a Glance—5 Hot Docs
The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival begins its 13th season today with the world premiere of the Nas documentary Time is Illmatic. It’s a fitting opening film for the festival—the incredibly talented rapper, songwriter and actor was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, eventually moving to the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens, where he would get a thorough education in hip hop. The film, by multimedia artist One9, focuses on Nas’s groundbreaking 1994 debut album,
The Future of Mad Men‘s Secondary Characters
On April 13th, the seventh and final season of Mad Men premiers on AMC. It's been a long, wild ride. Just think, a mere six seasons ago Don Draper was happily married to Betty, Peter Cambell was a brash and ambitious young buck, Peggy was a secretary, and Sterling Cooper was still a thing. The world around them had barely heard of the Beatles. Who could have guessed then where they would be now?
Top 10 EDM Remixes of Songs from Movie Musicals
So you're watching a musical. This is great, you think. It's like a normal movie and a Broadway show put into a blender and turned into a delicious, nostalgic smoothie. But there's something missing, you think. Where's the drop?
Go figure, Disney has an answer to this insanely specific problem. Walt Disney Records announced recently that they are compiling an album of EDM remixes of Disney songs old and new,
Game of Thrones: What We Learned From Season Three
Our beloved lunatics from Westeros are back for season four of Game of Thrones, which means it’s time for a refresher course on what the hell is going on in the Seven Kingdoms (and beyond). We all needed a breather after last season’s penultimate episode, “The Rains of Castamere.” That infamous hour of television delivered such a collective gut punch to the millions of fans who hadn’t read George R.
