Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Composer Henry Jackman on Scoring a Superhero

The versatile Henry Jackman follows his scores for Seth Rogan's apocalyptic comedy End of the World and the animated NASCAR-racing snail film Turbo with a full-on superhero, Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  He took time for an interview to talk about the superhero who finds himself something of a Rip Van Winkle, dealing with a world more than 60 years after he was frozen in WWII.

How do you approach a score for a superhero? ...

Painting a Renaissance Masterpiece From Scratch for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Renaissance painter Johannes van Hoytl the Younger (1613-1669) worked in solitude. Known for his use of light and shade, as well as his attraction to the lustrous and velvety, the painter was particularly un-prolific and a financial failure. Yet, van Hoytl nevertheless produced up to a dozen of the finest portraits the world has ever seen.

He also never existed.

In 2012, director Wes Anderson approached 62-year-old British portrait artist Michael Taylor with a unique challenge: create a fictional Renaissance painting—not too Italian and with a bit of a northern spin—for his upcoming film,...

Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me Director Chiemi Karasawa’s Rising Star

Although she’s being heralded as a breakout director for the acclaimed documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, Chiemi Karasawa is no overnight sensation. The California native moved to New York the day after she graduated from Boston University’s film program and began working for a film producer. She apprenticed as a script supervisor, then worked for many years in that position on numerous films including High Fidelity, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,...

Talking With Diego Luna About Directing Cesar Chavez

Directing his second feature, and his first in English, Mexican actor Diego Luna turned to one of the most admired figures in recent history: Mexican-American labor leader Cesar Chavez. In the 1960s Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers, organized an historic grape boycott, and led a 300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California that drew global attention to the plight of migrant farm workers.

Michael Pena stars in the biopic that focusses on Chavez’s early years,...

Noah: Artistically Ambitious, Economically Advantageous

At first blush, it appeared that Noah represented writer/director Darren Aronofsky’s first real foray into pure big budget spectacle. The indie auteur that burst onto the scene with his twitchy, unsettling debut Pi, only to follow that up with one of the most breathtakingly devastating cinematic depictions of addiction in many years with Requiem for a Dream, was now going big budget CGI in the retelling of the Biblical story of Noah's ark on a grand scale...

CinemaCon 2014: 20th Century Fox & Warner Bros. Tout Strong Women, Big Monsters

Funny, smart and tough women abound in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming slate of films. Three of them will be making appearances today in CinemaCon to tout their films—Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann for their revenge comedy The Other Woman and current Divergent star Shailene Woodley for the adaptation of the beloved YA book The Fault in Our Stars.

Cameron Diaz and Leslia Mann have proven their comedic acting chops time and time again,...

CinemaCon 2014: The High-Tech Moviegoing Experience

You’ve heard the logic before: high-definition screens and on-demand content have altered the moviegoing environment forever, creating a home entertainment experience that rivals a night out at the local movie theater. Of course, anyone who saw Gravity in IMAX 3D might beg to differ, but it doesn’t necessarily take a game-changing tour de force to pack an auditorium. Today, the local multiplex has done an impressive job of not just keeping pace but surpassing your trusty living room sofa,...

CinemaCon 2014: Sony Teases The Amazing Spider-Man 2 & More

What better way to enjoy Sony Pictures’ presentation than after a few cocktails? The studio is hosting a pre-event cocktail reception in The Colosseum Lobby at Caesar’s before they unveil their 2014 films. Classy. President, Rory Bruer is the man on hand to give folks a glimpse of everybody’s favorite web-slinger, as well as everybody’s favorite undercover cops, to name a few of the films that’ll be teased during their presentation.

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) faces a host of super villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2,...

CinemaCon 2014: Disney Unveils Maleficent, Million Dollar Arm & More

It's day three of CinemaCon and the schedule is packed. Alternative content and event cinema companies, fro Arts Alliance to Screenvision, will be hosting a special exhibit in the Palace Ballroom at Caesar's Palace this morning, followed by Walt Disney Studios exclusive presentation.

Disney Chairman Alan Horn and executive vice president of distribution Dave Hollis will host the presentation, which includes a screening of Million Dollar Arm presented in Dolby Atmos.

Along with Million Dollar Arm, ...

CinemaCon 2014: Universal Unveils Summer Lineup

While it’s an inexact science figuring out how much a festival crowd’s enthusiasm means for the future of a film, the screening of Universal’s Neighbors at SXSW must have delighted many in the studio. Hundreds of people waited patiently, in the rain, for roughly an hour to see director Nicholas Stoller’s movie and roared with laughter for just about all of its running time. Universal is offering a look at their summer slate today at CinemaCon, and will host a special screening of ...

CinemaCon 2014: A Brief History of Moviegoing

There's no substitute for watching movies in a theater. These days it's easy to watch the same film at home, but without the surround sound, the larger-than-life screen, the crowd around you making every emotion more intense and the tingle of excitement as the lights darken as you and all the strangers around you set off together on a journey into another world- it's not really the same film at all.

This week CinemaCon is taking place in Las Vegas...

CinemaCon 2014: A Peek at Paramount’s Summer Lineup

Paramount’s got a slate of massive films coming out in the next few months, with perhaps it most marquee release bookending the run—Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, coming on November 7. Nolan himself will be on hand at CinemaCon, as he was in 2012 when he showed a five minute clip of The Dark Knight Rises during a Warner Bros. presentation. Tonight at CinemaCon, Paramount will be showcasing some of their upcoming films for eager audiences at 6:30pm...

CinemaCon 2014: 5 Jaw Dropping American Theaters

The worldwide motion picture theater industry descends on Caesars Palace in Las Vegas today for the fourth annual CinemaCon, the official convention of NATO [National Association of Theater Owners] that runs through March 27. CinemaCon is the largest annual gathering of cinema owners and operators from around the world, drawing filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors alike for a four-day celebration of the theaters and films we love.

We’ll be celebrating CinemaCon this week by highlighting theaters and the films that’ll be filling them this coming summer...

How to Shoot Stunts & Action on a Budget

The stunts in the recent Liam Neeson action flick Non-Stop were breathtaking, thanks to the work of stunt coordinator (and Neeson body double) Mark Vanselow. In the upcoming Divergent, fight coordinator J.J. Perry helped turned Shailene Woodley into a credible action heroine. There will be more wild sequences on display in Noah, Darren Aronofsky's very singular take on the Biblical story in which he had his stars, including Russell Crowe, Ray Winstone and Emma Watson,...

The Grand Budapest Hotel Production Designer Adam Stockhausen Goes Handmade

Seven years ago, a young art director was given an appropriately quirky assignment on the set of The Darjeeling Limited: design the dishes for the dining cabin of Wes Anderson’s India-traversing train. It took “an awful lot of versions” to win over the discerning director, but Adam Stockhausen must have made a good impression—since then, he has served as production designer on Anderson’s last two films, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel...

Re-Drawing History With the Storyboard Artists of Mr. Peabody & Sherman

They rose to prominence more than half a century ago, a genius talking beagle who invented a time machine (plus won a Nobel prize and two Olympic medals) and the dorky little boy he adopted. As the whimsical world travelers who showed up in the middle of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Mr. Peabody and Sherman brought a generation of cartoon audiences to the farthest reaches of history thanks to their WABAC machine. Today, the characters are doing they’re own bit of meta time traveling,...

SXSW 2014: Richard Linklater’s Epic, Masterful Boyhood

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was in pre-production for roughly a year. The film took 39 days to shoot, and then two more years for post-production. It premiered at Sundance in mid January, played at the Berlin International Film Festival in early February (where Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director), and then played at the Paramount Theater here in Austin on Sunday morning, March 10, at 10:30 a.m. Linklater, a legend here in Austin, the founder and creative director of the Austin Film Society,...

SXSW 2014: Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers on Grand Jury Prize-Winning Fort Tilden

How do you write and shoot feature in a few months, cut it, have it accepted by a major film festival and then have it win that festival's major award? Writer/directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers would be the perfect speakers on a panel here at SXSW on this very subject, considering as recently as last May, their Grand Jury Prize Winning feature Fort Tilden wasn’t even a thought in their mind.

“A lot of favors,”...

SXSW 2014: Catherine Gund’s Born to Fly Tracks Elizabeth Streb’s Genius

Dancers strut, cling, and leap from a giant swinging metal contraption. It looks like a massive mouse wheel, something you might see in a Cirque du Soleil performance or perhaps the circus. Despite the padding on the floor, the thing looks medieval and very, very dangerous, but the dancers atop, inside and below appear calm and in control. During one of the wheel’s rotations, a young man holding onto one of the bars appears to lose his grip, and as the heavy wheel swings down he’s brutally thrown onto the ground and into a block of padding...

SXSW 2014: Jason Bateman’s Directorial Debut Bad Words

There was something perfect about watching Jason Bateman’s Bad Words on opening night here at SXSW. There are no official press screenings here; your press badge allows you access to any film, but you take in the movie with the general public as well. The vibe is different from Sundance, which befits the laid back Austin setting. Screenings here differ from screenings at Sundance in another, significant way—one can enjoy a drink while watching a film...