Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Doc Writer/Director on Unsung Film Heroes
The work of storyboard artist Harold Michelson and researcher Lillian Michelson was integral to some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history: The Ten Commandments, The Apartment, The Birds, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and Rosemary’s Baby, to name just a few.
But you won’t find their names in most of the credits.
The couple, married for 60 years,...
How James Gunn Utilized IMAX Technology for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
It’s no secret that if you’re going to see a action-packed spectacle like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, IMAX is likely the best way to go. That’s even truer when the director, like James Gunn, shot and designed part of the movie specifically for that expanded ratio that IMAX delivers. For those scenes, the image expands to fill the entire IMAX screen (which is roughly 26% larger than standard theaters), giving viewers an unparalleled cinematic experience...
From Humble Disneyland Ride to Juggernaut Franchise: The Legacy of Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean has been one of Disney’s most surprising franchises, cementing Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as an iconic character in the course of four films. A new featurette explores how Pirates grew from a Disneyland ride into the juggernaut franchise it now is, ahead of the release of Dead Men Tells No Tales. The fifth feature in the series returns regulars Johnny Depp's Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa, and original Pirates star Orlando Bloom...
Lightning McQueen’s Crash is Front & Center of Cars Official Trailer
So far most of the news surrounding Pixar’s Cars 3 has been very good. While Cars has long been a bit of an outlier in the Pixar universe, the rumbling coming ahead of the latest film has been of fresh engines (notably in the form of one new breakout star) and details that suggest this film is the best of the bunch, with a recent screening of 50 some minutes of the film leaving critics feeling revved up...
Alien: Covenant Prologue Reveals Fate of Prometheus Survivors
Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) survived to the very end of Prometheus, alone, her entire crew dead and her fate grim. Her only companion was the severed head of David (Michael Fassbender), the treacherous humanoid robot who caused her so much trouble. In the lead up to Ridley Scott’s sequel, Alien: Covenant, we haven’t seen much of Shaw in any of the promotional materials, and her name has only been evoked in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in one of the film’s trailers where the crew of the Covenant find a security badge with her face and name on it...
Spotlight Director Tom McCarthy Eying Disney’s Timmy Failure
Tom McCarthy is most recently known for his excellent directorial work on the Academy Award-winning Spotlight, which catapulted the already Oscar-nominated writer/director (he co-wrote Pixar's sensational UP, to name a few of his credits) into the "choose whatever project you want" portion of his career. It looks as if McCarthy's next move will be a turn from his recent very serious topical work: adapting the kids’ book series, "Timmy Failure" for Disney.
The "Timmy Failure"...
Bollywood Superstar Priyanka Chopra Marks Hollywood Feature Debut as Baywatch Villain
The third Baywatch trailer delivers the most sustained look yet at Priyanka Chopra's villain Victoria Leeds. This is Chopra’s first major American feature, yet she looks right at home sharing the frame (and perhaps even stealing her scenes) with Dwayne Johnson’s Mitch Buchanan and his Baywatch team. Chopra is the multi-talented Bollywood star with a Miss World Pageant, National Film Award and Filmfare Award under her belt, including the Indian government’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri...
The Lion King Live-Action Remake Casts Seth Rogen & Billy Eichner as Timon & Pumbaa
We wrote about director Jon Favreau’s passion for taking on The Lion King live-action remake. Disney knew they had the right person for the job after his ace job handling The Junlge Book live-action remake, and now, they’ve got two very funny actors for the film’s funniest characters, Timon and Pumbaa.
The Wrap reports that Rogen and Eichner are in final negotiations to voice the warthog and meerkat respectively,...
Brie Larson on why She’s Taking on the role of Captain Marvel
We were very excited when he heard that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck would be directing Captain Marvel. The two young directors had done stellar work on Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind, as well as on the small screen on The Affair and Billions. In this piece we wrote about them (we interviewed them about Mississippi Grind), we touched upon how tricky it will be to take a very complicated,...
Star Wars: Episode IX, Frozen 2 & Indiana Jones 5 get Release Dates
Disney announced some updated release dates for a slew of its upcoming films; some of them are their very biggest titles. They include Star Wars: Episode 9, Indiana Jones 5, Frozen 2, Gigantic, The Lion King, and Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2.
The biggest news is for Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars: Episode IX, which will be released on May 24,...
Watch the First Official Trailer for Kingsman: The Golden Circle
After a few cheeky teasers, the first official trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle is finally here, and it’s a beaut. Vaughn’s follow up to his 2014 smash hit Kingsman: The Secret Service gives us a long glance at what happens when the deadly, dapper Kingsmen need to reach out across the pond for a little help from their American friends.
The two-minute trailer sets up the film's international scope,...
Go Behind-the-Scenes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Earlier we wrote about the insane success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One way to measure that success is by how different the individual films within that universe can be from one another. Guardians of the Galaxy is a perfect example of how Marvel has stayed ahead of the curve by dipping into their wild canon of misfits and antiheroes and giving you a new host of characters to care about that are nothing like the previous characters you also love...
What’s Marvel Planning After Avengers 4?
The vaunted Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has revolutionized the film industry in a way that perhaps only Marvel thought possible, continues apace. Marvel's achievement cannot be understated; they created an interconnected, multi-phase slate of films that has been a massive success by ever metric and is now the envy of the industry. Let’s have a brief look at the first three phases of the MCU.
Phase One:
It all began with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in 2008,...
Production Begins on Four Avatar Sequels
Nearly eight years after we were first enchanted by the world of Avatar, it’s beginning to look like we’ll get a sequel after all.
Or, four sequels, rather. The official Avatar Facebook page posted a photo of director and writer James Cameron in front of a large crew, with the caption, “Avatar takes flight as we begin concurrent production on four sequels. The journey continues December 18, 2020, December 17, 2021, December 20,...
Jon Favreau Talks Live-Action Lion King at Tribeca Film Festival
Director Jon Favreau is no stranger to huge expectations. When he took on directing a live-action remake of Disney’s beloved 1967 animated classic The Jungle Book, he had his work cut out for him. What he and his team pulled off in their version was stunning, a lush, fully realized world of bears, panthers, pythons, a seriously sinister tiger and one very spirited little boy named Mowgli was astonishing.
Favreau’s next project comes with even higher expectations,...
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Scores Again With Critics
Now that the review embargo has been lifted on James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we can get a sense of how the sequel stacks up against 2014’s juggernaut first film—and it looks as if there’s very good news in the galaxy. Considering Star-lord, Gamora and the gang aren’t hitting your local multiplex until next week, May 5, we’ll tread lightly here as we roundup some of the reviews and avoid any spoilers...
Listen to James Gunn’s Original Song for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Writer/director James Gunn is something of a renaissance man. Not content with simply helming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and committing to directing the entire run of its trilogy, he’s also a real music guru. Every Guardians fan knows that the films are infused with, and inspired by, great music—it’s right there in the title. Gunn recently released the playlist for “Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 2,” the songs that will help drive the action as Star-lord (Chris Pratt) and the Guardians try to track down his father and save the galaxy one again...
The Mummy Drops Action Packed International Trailer
A brand new international trailer for The Mummy has been released, giving us the most detailed glimpse yet at director Alex Kurtzman’s film. The Mummy is the first in a series of shared universe monster movies coming from Universal Pictures, with Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man (Johnny Depp) on the slate. The Mummy stars Tom Cruise as Nick Morton, a man who becomes irrevocably intertwined with the demands of the newly risen Ahmanet,...
New Game of Thrones Season 7 Images Hint at War to Come
Season six of Game of Thrones ended with a brutal war between the always scheming, striving humans of Westeros. What we know about season seven is that winter has officially arrived, which means that the power struggles for the Iron Throne will soon seem very silly when compared to the battle to come. Dany, Jon Snow, Cersei and the rest of our perptually agitated players will face their greatest test in the form of the Night’s King and his undead army...
John Ridley on his Post-Rodney King Verdict Riots Doc Let It Fall
He wrote 12 Years a Slave and tackled anti-Muslim prejudice, homophobia and immigration in his American Crime TV series. Now, 25 years after the Rodney King "not guilty" verdict sparked riots in Los Angeles, Oscar-winning writer-director-producer John Ridley takes another deep dive into American dysfunction with Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992. Opening theatrically April 21 and airing on ABC April 28, the documentary examines a decade's worth of catastrophic decisions culminating in the six-day uprising that cost 55 lives and more than a billion dollars in property damage...
