Best of 2022: How “Nope” Production Designer Ruth De Jong Built & Bloodied the Haywood Ranch
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
There was a moment when writer/director Jordan Peele and production designer Ruth De Jong realized they were going to shoot Nope practically. Tucked in the Agua Dulce area of California’s Santa Clarita Valley is the Firestone Ranch, which would become the setting for the Haywood home where OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) discover an unexpected visitor living in the sky above them...
The Adam Driver Versus Dinosaurs Film “65” Gets New Release Date
What happens when you pit Adam Driver and some high-tech weaponry against…some dinosaurs? This conceit alone is enough of a draw for us, but there’s a lot more to his upcoming thriller 65, which finds Driver playing Mills, a spaceship pilot who crash lands on a mysterious planet while ferrying thirty-five sleeping passengers. Once on the planet, and now saddled with only one survivor (a young girl named Koa, played by Arianna Greenblatt), Mills makes a shocking discovery—the mysterious planet?...
How “Avatar: The Way of Water” Visual Effects Wizards Conjured Underwater Magic
How long can you hold your breath underwater? One minute? Two? Maybe three? For James Cameron’s highly-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water, now in theaters, the cast had to take lessons from free diving expert Kirk Krack in order to fluidly capture the transcendent water scenes. Why so? Bubbles.
The sequel picks up from the 2009 blockbuster exploring the enchanting oceans of Pandora, in particular, the lush island reef village of the Metkayina clan, led by Ronal (Kate Winslet,...
Hugh Jackman Dropped a Big Clue About How Wolverine Returns for “Deadpool 3”
When the news broke that Hugh Jackman was reprising his role as Wolverine in Deadpool 3, the first question was, understandably, but how? Jackman’s iconic embodiment of the adamantium-clawed mutant came to a brutal, beautiful close in James Mangold’s Logan, dying a very definitive, very noble death. Mangold’s Oscar-nominated film gave Jackman’s Wolverine a hero’s death, as he sacrificed himself to save his young,...
Watch Tom Cruise Perform the Most Insane Stunt in “Mission: Impossible” History
Paramount has released a look at what might be one of the most insane stunts in the history of cinema. Tom Cruise, legendary (among other reasons) for upping the ante with his stunts for each and every Mission: Impossible installment, can be seen in this new featurette pushing the envelope presumably as far as one would think it’s possible to go. The new stunt is for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One. It’s been years in the making,...
Donald Glover to Produce & Star In “Spider-Man” Movie Based on Villain Hypno-Hustler
Donald Glover will have a meaty role on and offscreen in an upcoming, recently revealed Spider-Man movie for Sony Pictures.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Glover is attached to star in and produce a film set within Sony’s Spider-Man Universe of Marvel characters. The film will be written by Myles Murphy, son of Eddie Murphy, and is said to focus on the Hypno-Hustler, an obscure Spider-Man villain.
The Hypno-Hustler comes from Bill Mantlo,...
First “Oppenheimer” Trailer Unveils Christoper Nolan’s Atomic Bomb Drama
The first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer dropped last night, revealing the auteur’s upcoming period epic. Oppenheimer boasts yet another stellar A-list cast as the writer/director now turns his attention to a turning point in world history, focusing on the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man who risked creating something that could destroy the entire planet in order to save it.
Nolan’s film will explore Oppenheimer’s life and role in Manhattan Project,...
How The “Babylon” Sound Team Built a Sonic Bacchanal
The opening sequence to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (in theaters today) hits you like one of the many lines of powder its characters will ingest. It’s eye-opening, choreographed chaos, leaving you with an intensely euphoric feeling – quite fitting for a story that revisits Hollywood’s infancy of the 1920s and ‘30s when La La Land was a sandbox of drugs, sex, and all night partying.
It’s here we meet Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a low-level “yes man” with aspirations to make it in the biz,...
First “Barbie” Trailer Reveals Margot Robbie as the Iconic Mattel Doll Come to Life
“Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been…dolls.”
This is how the first teaser trailer for writer/director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie opens, with little girls playing with dolls in a beautiful but barren landscape that is meant to evoke, both in sound and image, the iconic prehistoric “Dawn of Man” sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyessy, where a band of apes are ejected from their watering hole...
“Devotion” Score Mixer Alvin Wee on Letting the Music & Emotion Take Flight
Growing up in Malaysia, Alvin Wee was drawn to “big action movies” such as the Harry Potter series and Transformers. “I liked sensory overload, the loud, visual spectacle. My favorite movie was Superman with Christopher Reeve. It’s also my favorite score, by John Williams,” says Wee, the Score Mixer on Sony’s Devotion, now in theaters. Wee was also the score mixer for Disney’s Encanto, working closely with composer Germaine Franco...
“Avatar: The Way of Water” Poised to Make Huge Splash This Weekend
James Cameron’s long-awaited return to Pandora is tracking to make a monster splash in its opening weekend. Avatar: The Way of Water, riding high on a wave of good reviews and overwhelmingly positive reactions to its visual splendor, is looking to overtake Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion, and The Batman for the biggest opening weekend. If current tracking holds, it could also become the largest global opening of the year, topping Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness...
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” Animation Supervisor Brian Leif Hansen Packs Puppets With Emotion
Inside a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Portland, a little boy made of wood galvanized efforts by stop motion filmmakers for three years before emerging now to wow moviegoers in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. This dark stop-motion iteration of Carlo Collodi’s 1882 tale, in theaters and streaming on Netflix, takes place in 1930’s Italy, adding Mussolini and forest witches to the story’s signature evil doers: circus master Volpe (voiced by Christoph Waltz) and the monster whale.
Puppets were fabricated in Manchester,...
James Gunn Writing New “Superman” Film About Superhero’s Early Days
As you’ve likely heard, Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn has taken over DC Studios, along with producer Peter Safran, and the two have made major headlines in the past week and change about coming changes to DC’s superhero universe. Now, we have some concrete news—Gunn is penning a new Superman film that will focus on the superhero’s early days, and the role will not go to Henry Cavill.
Multiple outlets have confirmed Gunn’s script and Cavill’s exit from a role he clearly loved...
The First “Scream VI” Trailer Finds Ghostface in New York City
Ghostface is about to take a big bite—er, slash—out of the Big Apple. The mayhem leaves Woodsboro, California, for the first time in the franchise and relocates to the City that Never Sleeps. Ghostface on a crowded F train during rush hour? Talk about a hellish commute! (Apologies).
The first trailer for Scream IV picks up after the horror in Woodsboro from the last film. The four survivors from the last chapter have left Woodsboro—who can blame them—and have moved to NYC to try and get a fresh start...
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Composer Ludwig Göransson on the Score’s Secret Weapon
One of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler’s closest collaborators throughout his entire Marvel journey has been composer Ludwig Göransson. Beginning with Coogler’s 2018 Black Panther, Göransson has been by his side, helping him breathe life into the music and sounds of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Along with other key collaborators like costume designer Ruth E. Carter and production designer Hannah Beachler, Göransson’s talent has helped Coogler create the most immersive,...
“Deadpool 3” Director Shawn Levy Promises Franchise Remains As Hardcore As Ever
Just because the Merc with the Mouth is moving over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, don’t expect him to be any less foul-mouthed, ferocious, or funny. That’s the promise that Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is making. In a conversation with Collider, Levy says that what fans have come to expect from the Deadpool franchise remains very much intact as they prep the third film, the first to officially fall under Disney’s MCU banner...
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” Trailer Finds Miles Morales in a Spot of Trouble
The first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is here, and Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), is in a Spot of trouble. Pun intended, of course, because the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) is one of the villains Miles will be facing in this sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The trailer reveals Miles and his mother, Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Vélez), having a conversation in which Mama Morales is having a little trouble letting go of her baby boy...
New “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” Images Drop Ahead of Today’s Trailer
The first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse arrives today, yet Sony has revealed a sneak peek via four new images.
The images remind us of what made Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse such a revelation. Those colors! That fantastic design work! The gorgeous animation makes the world of the Spider-Verse a Spidey fever dream, but the original film was rooted in the epic adventures of Brooklyn’s own Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he traversed across the multiverse encountering fellow Spider-People and lunatic villains. ...
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Hair Department Head Camille Friend on The Sequel’s Stunning Looks
Both 2018’s Black Panther and this year’s Wakanda Forever have hugely impacted popular culture, not least by expanding the acceptance and expression of Afro-Futurism in everything from fashion and hairstyles to architecture. Both production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. Carter won Oscars for their work on the first film and are in the running for a return to the podium with Wakanda Forever.
For Black Panther,...
“Dune: Part Two” Wraps Filming
Co-writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two has officially wrapped filming. We learned this from Paul Atreides himself—Timotheé Chalamet—via an Instagram post. The image shows Chalamet in the desert, along with his father Marc, and the caption “DUNE 2 WRAPPED (with desert dad !!).
Dune: Part Two will now move into post-production, where editing, visual effects, sound, color correcting, and a whole lot more will be fine-tuned. The sequel will pick up where Dune left off,...
