You’re Going to Want to “Get Over Here!” for First “Mortal Kombat” Trailer
Hold onto your winter hats, ladies and gentlemen, because Warner Bros. has revealed the red-band trailer for the live-action reboot of Mortal Kombat. The film, adapted from the iconic video game, will be making its theatrical debut on the same day it premieres on HBO Max, and from this first glimpse, it looks like it’s going to be a wild ride.
The film was directed by Simon McQuoid from a script by Greg Russo and Wonder Woman 1984 scribe Dave Callaham.
Ava DuVernay Launches Crucial New Database to Diversify Film & TV Crews
When is Ava DuVernay not pushing the entertainment industry to become more inclusive? The answer is never. The powerhouse director/producer is launching a new venture in collaboration with major studios, streaming platforms, and producers to help diversify film and TV crew members. The new database tool, called ARRAY CREW, launches today and is part of DuVernay’s nonprofit organization ARRAY Alliance. The tool is aimed to help bridge a gap that has long stymied talented filmmakers—how to get their names in front of producers and production companies when they don’t already have established relationships with the insular entertainment community.
From “Black Panther” to “Jeopardy,” Stunt Coordinator & Actor Zee James Hits Her Mark
Zee James is an actress, a stuntwoman and stunt coordinator, and a background performer in movies and on television, ranging from Black Panther and Dolemite is My Name to Bosch and Everybody Hates Chris. She has even demonstrated an entire category of Jeopardy! clues about martial arts. James spoke to us about taking advantage of opportunities that might not be exactly what she planned,
Composer Jongnic Bontemps on Scoring America’s Past, Present, and Future
Jongnic “JB” Bontemps knows how to turn emotions into a musical composition, whether it’s for a character in a narrative or a historical figure in a documentary. Composing on narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and video games, Bontemps can speak to his collaborators in whatever narrative language they need. For Creed II, he provided director Steven Caple Jr. with additional music worthy of the film’s fighting spirit. For the doc United Skates, Bontemps threaded hip-hop through the story of America’s underground roller rink subculture as it was on the verge of being erased.
DP Marcell Rév on Going Black and White in “Malcolm & Marie”
From the moment Marie (Zendaya) strides into view, entering the borrowed Los Angeles digs she’s sharing with her director boyfriend Malcolm (John David Washington), you sense trouble. The couple’s home, where they will spend the rest of the night wide awake and arguing, is spacious and stunning, and Malcolm’s movie premiere earlier that evening was an unqualified success. Too bad the auteur forgot to thank Marie in his speech,
Emma Stone Shines in First “Cruella” Trailer
The first trailer for Disney’s Cruella is a glamorous hoot. Emma Stone stars as one of the Mouse House’s most beloved (and fashionable) villains, with her two-tone black and white hair, perfectly placed beauty mark, and total lack of remorse. The live-action Cruella comes from director Craig Gillespie, a man who knows a little something about building a ferociously entertaining film around a misunderstood woman. He did it back in 2017 with I,
Yuh-jung Youn on Creating Family in “Minari”
Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung’s film Minari is about a Korean family chasing the American dream in 1980s Arkansas. Steven Yeun and Yeri Han play parents Jacob and Monica, who have brought their two kids Ann and David to live and work on a farm, one Jacob hopes to make successful. Yuh-jung Youn plays foul-mouthed but loving grandma Soonja, who leaves Korea to come help care for the children. At first, David thinks Soonja just smells weird and doesn’t act at all the way a grandmother should,
New Fight Footage Highlights “Godzilla vs. Kong” Teaser
So where do you stand, with Team Godzilla or Team Kong? It seemed from the first trailer of director Adam Wingard’s upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong that we were being nudged to join Team Kong. Obviously, Kong is closer to our meager human species genetically, and we humans love stuff that reflects ourselves. Then there’s the pesky fact that the trailer set Kong up as the protector to an orphaned girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle).
The Joker Gets the Last Word in Official Trailer for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
We finally got our first proper look at Zack Snyder’s Justice League when the trailer dropped this past weekend. It arrives four years and change after the first Justice League, shepherded to its theatrical release by stand-in director Joss Whedon, hit theaters in 2017. That’s a long time to wait to see Snyder’s original vision for the film, but it might just be that the wait was worth it. The trailer opens with Superman (Henry Cavill) in pain,
“To All the Boys” Producer Says Goodbye with “Always and Forever”
What began with a letter is poetically set to end with one too. Okay, probably an email, but you get the idea. Netflix’s hit To All the Boys series will premiere its final installment on February 12. As the trilogy concludes, Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and Peter (Noah Centineo) are simultaneously coming to the end of their high school career and awaiting their college acceptance letters.
We met the adorable couple in 2018’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” Teaser Reveals Batmobile, Superman’s Laser Eyes & More
Consider this brand new teaser for Zack Snyder’s Justice League just a little appetizer before the main course hits this weekend, with the full trailer due to drop on Valentine’s Day. Until then, HBO Max is here to sate your appetite—just a bit—with 16-seconds worth of Justice League goodness.
So what will you see here? You’ll get some Batmobile action, some Wonder Woman action, and one very ticked off Superman.
“Clarice” Producer/Director DeMane Davis on Seizing the Moment
DeMane Davis, co-executive producer/director of the new CBS series Clarice which premieres February 11, calls her career “incredibly fortunate.” But Davis was ready when opportunity arose in the form of Ava DuVernay. When DuVernay opened the door for women directors on her groundbreaking series Queen Sugar, Davis burst through it. On crutches.
“I had broken my ankle and I’d had surgery; the cast had just come off and I was still on crutches,” recalls Davis in a phone interview from Toronto where she is shooting Clarice.
DP Sean Bobbitt on Framing a Historic Power Struggle in “Judas and the Black Messiah”
The late Fred Hampton, former chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, was renowned for his skill as an orator and his work in his community, though the American government chose to mainly view the young activist as a threat. After convincing competing and even hostile groups as disparate as Chicago’s Young Lords and the rural Young Patriots to work together with the Panthers toward the common goal of a better quality of life for all,
Oscars Announce Shortlists for Nine Categories
We’re starting to get a little bit of an outline of how this year’s Oscars is going to look. First, the Golden Globes nominations allow us to start our annual ritual of trying to read the tea leaves on what they might say about the Academy’s pending big night. Often, due to the Globes having a much smaller base of voters (the Hollywood Foreign Press) and the relatively little overlap between the HFP and the Academy means that the Globes nominations are hardly predictive.
Charlese Antoinette Jones on Dressing History in “Judas and the Black Messiah”
With ample photographs and documentary material to peruse for inspiration, designing costumes for a film set in recent history has its upsides. On the other hand, the descendants of the subjects you’re working to dress—or the subjects themselves—may be spending time on set, checking for historical accuracy. Such was the case for Judas and the Black Messiah, director Shaka King’s (Shrill, Newlyweeds) depiction of the lead-up to and FBI assassination of community activist and Black Panther chapter chairman Fred Hampton.
“One Night in Miami” Star Eli Goree on Channeling Muhammad Ali
The first time Eli Goree tried to be Muhammad Ali in the movies, he failed. But when Ang Lee picked another actor for his ill-fated biopic about the heavyweight champion of the world, Goree forged ahead. In between TV gigs like Riverdale and The 100, he trained in boxing gyms, hired a dialect coach to master the fighter’s Louisville accent, and commissioned a stage play about Muhammad that he intended to star in for L.A.’s annual Fringe Fest.
Director Sam Pollard on the Legacy of Black Art in his New HBO Documentary
HBO viewers likely know the names Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, the artists who painted Barack and Michelle Obamas’ respective official portraits. The network’s latest documentary, Black Art: In the Absence of Light, an expansive, joyous 90-minute look at art history directed by Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Atlanta Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children) and executive produced by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,
“F9” Drops a Super-Charged Super Bowl Spot
Universal let off the brakes—just a little bit—to reveal a 30-second F9 spot during the Super Bowl. It turns out that this glimpse of Dom, Letty, Han (!!), and the gang’s next adventure was way more exciting than the entirety of the game itself. Go figure!
The spot reveals—well, affirms—that Han (Sung Kang) is back, and F9 represents a real family reunion in which just about everyone who’s mattered in recent Fast &
M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old” Reveals Creepy Super Bowl Teaser
It’s only a bite-sized teaser, but it’s enough to let you know that yes, this is an M. Night Shyamalan movie, and yes, uncanny, unnatural, and unnerving things will happen posthaste. Old originally began its life as a graphic novel, which means that we actually have some cause to suspect we might know a little bit more about the perpetually secretive Shyamalan’s new film. But, alas, we really don’t.
Sundance 2021: Composer Kathryn Bostic on Scoring Two Docs About Trailblazing Women
As we near the close of the first week of Black History Month, it’s important to recognize those who are making history now. Given the overall lack of working female composers of any race, as a Black female composer, Kathryn Bostic has been carving out a road few have traveled, and she’s been doing it for decades. She arrived at this year’s Sundance with not one but two films for which she has supplied the score,
