Decoding The Brilliance of Michael Giacchino’s “The Batman” Theme in Eight Bars
In his score for The Batman, the brooding emotional tone of composer Michael Giacchino’s character theme is established from bar one in the track of the same name. No soaring violins. No muscular brass orchestra. No superhero triumphalism. In their stead, a muted piano taps its rhythm low and slow, establishing the key of B flat before quickly descending. The tonal interval—moving from the tonic down two whole tones to the minor sixth degree—is inherently menacing,
“The Staircase” Writer/Director Antonio Campos’s Dazzling Twist on True Crime
Writer/director Antonio Campos (The Devil All The Time) first began thinking about adapting the iconic docu-series The Staircase back in 2008. As a young, up-and-coming filmmaker, Campos imagined adapting the French series, centered on the sensational trial of American novelist Michael Peterson, accused of killing his wife Kathleen, in 2001, into a feature film. In fact, the French doc itself was meant to be a feature, but after director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and producer Denis Poncet embedded with the Peterson family,
“Severance” Production Designer Jeremy Hindle’s Dystopian Office Space
“Large room, four desks.” That’s the only description production designer Jeremy Hindle had to work with when he came up with this TV season’s most spookily immaculate office, as seen in Apple TV + series Severance. The high-concept sci-fi thriller, partially directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller from a script by first-timer Dan Ericson, centers on the tyrannical Lumon Industries corporation whose employees (played by Adam Scott, John Turturro, Britt Lower,
Chris Hemsworth Reveals “Furiosa” Prequel Has Begun Filming
Mad Max: Fury Road fans, start your engines. Chris Hemsworth has revealed on Twitter that the Furiosa prequel has finally begun filming. Like so many other movies, Furiosa was delayed due to the pandemic, and the original release date of June 2023 got pushed to May 2024. But now, the stars have literally aligned as the cast has finally assembled and filming is underway on George Miller’s highly-anticipated prequel,
Ewan McGregor, “Star Wars” & “Star Trek” Family Defend “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Star Moses Ingram
You might recall back in 2017 when Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered and some Star Wars “fans” began bullying Kelly Marie Train, one of the film’s stars, often using horrific language. “I won’t be marginalized by online harassment,” Tran wrote shortly thereafter, in an essay for The New York Times. “It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them.
Bill Hader on Bringing Up “Barry”
For eight seasons, Bill Hader gained a legion of fans with the hilarious characters he brought to life on Saturday Night Live. Since then, his popularity has only grown with his Emmy-winning portrayal of the manic hitman/aspiring actor in the HBO series Barry. But to hear Hader tell it, performing wasn’t his initial goal. For as long as he can remember, he wanted to direct.
“Since I was fairly young…I would say 10 or 11 was when I first started to notice the ‘directed-by’ name,” Hader says during a recent Zoom interview.
“Stranger Things” Season 4 Smashes Netflix Record With 287 Million Hours Viewed
Sorry, Bridgerton season 2, but Stranger Things just turned Netflix’s record books upside down. The fourth season of the Duffer Brothers’ beloved series has smashed the record for the best premiere for an English-language series, with viewers notching 286.79 million hours of viewing time from May 25 to 27. Bridgerton was the previous record-holder for an English-language series with a healthy 193 million hours over its premiere weekend this past March.
Bradley Cooper is Unrecognizable as Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro”
Bradley Cooper’s next project might be his most ambitious yet. Imagine being offered the plum role of playing the legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein by Steven Spielberg, and telling Spielberg you’d take on the role, but you’d also like to write and direct it, too. This is the path Cooper took, and you’ve guessed by now that Spielberg said yes, and while the film’s not due until 2023, we have our first look at Cooper as Bernstein,
Tom Hanks & Cynthia Erivo Highlight First Trailer For Live-Action “Pinocchio”
There are few tales as timeless as Pinocchio, the story of a wooden puppet’s quest to become a real boy, and there are few actors as beloved as Tom Hanks, so, what might happen when you put the two together? We’re about to find out in director Robert Zemeckis’s live-action Pinocchio, which stars Hanks as Geppetto, the woodcarver who treats his wooden creation, Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as if he were his actual son.
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Season 2 Trailer Reveals Chaos in the Galaxy
The Bad Batch is back. Disney+ has revealed the season 2 trailer for the animated series, which finds our favorite clone mercenaries getting back into the business of taking on dangerous missions to try and help who they can in a galaxy gone berserk. The members of The Bad Batch were first introduced in the animated series The Clone Wars and under the guidance of The Mandalorian director and executive producer Dave Filoni and head writer Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance).
Tom Cruise’s Historic “Top Gun: Maverick” Opening Weekend
Did you see Top Gun: Maverick this weekend? If you’re anything like us, you were one of the many, many people who eagerly went to the theater to catch Tom Cruise reprise the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, 36 years after the original Top Gun, and you’re a part of the astonishing $154 million haul that the film made in North America. Globally, Top Gun: Maverick pulled in a whopping $248 million.
“Willow” Trailer Reveals Disney+’s Epic Fantasy Series
The trailer for Willow is extremely promising, both for us (ahem, older) fans of the original 1988 film, and for newcomers to the fantasy epic.
The trailer begins with some stage setting. A voiceover tells us “There is a story of a child destined to be an empress and the unlikely hero who would protect her.” That unlikely hero, as fans of Ron Howard’s original film know, is a farmer named Willow (Warwick Davis),
First “Indiana Jones 5” Image + Release Date Reveals Indy’s Back on the Hunt
Harrison Ford made an appearance at the Lucasfilm panel at the Star Wars celebration to make a very big announcement—Indiana Jones 5 will hit theaters on June 30, 2023. Along with that big news, the first image from the hotly-anticipated film, from ace director James Mangold, has also been revealed. It shows us Indy in silhouette, flashlight in hand, his iconic brown fedora on his head, moving across a rickety-seeming bridge (Indy loves rickety bridges) on a fresh case.
First “Andor” Trailer Reveals Diego Luna’s Big “Star Wars” Return
The first Andor trailer is here, revealing a glimpse, at long last, at the origin story of Diego Luna’s heroic pilot Cassian Andor before he took on the fateful mission to steal the Death Star plans depicted in Rogue One. There are those of us out there who believe that Rogue One is, by far, the best Star Wars spinoff yet, and the reasons are myriad,
Going to Flight School With “Top Gun: Maverick” Stars Glen Powell & Greg Tarzan Davis
Based on everything from the reviews to the overwhelmingly positive chatter online to the 5-minute standing ovation at Cannes, Top Gun: Maverick seems destined to become Tom Cruise’s biggest weekend opening in his career, which is saying something. For the sequel to the beloved 1986 film, Cruise, the film’s executive producer and star, waited until he had a great story and the right people in front of and behind the camera,
Idris Elba is Hunted by a Rogue Lion in First “Beast” Trailer
Director Baltasar Kormákur knows a few things about filming the sublime beauty and terror of the natural world, and he’s bringing all the skills he’s honed in films like his Himalayan adventure epic Everest and North Atlantic ocean adventure The Deep to South Africa. The first trailer for Beasts implies that Kormákur is just at home on the South African savanna, too.
Beast stars Idris Elba as Dr.
Natalie Portman & Christian Bale Highlight New “Thor: Love and Thunder” Images
Marvel has revealed new Thor: Love and Thunder photos, including one of a Goddess (Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor, and one of a God Butcher (that would be Christian Bale’s Gorr)—two new sparring partners in the MCU’s hotly-anticipated next film. Following the ripping new trailer released just a few days ago, we’re now starting to get a better picture of what co-writer/director Taika Waititi’s sequel is all about.
Here’s what we’ve learned thus far: Thor (Chris Hemsworth,
Going Down the Rabbit Hole With “Russian Doll” Editor Todd Downing
One of the best descriptions we’ve heard of Russian Doll, the consistently surprising, genuinely hilarious series from co-creator and star Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler comes from the show’s most tenured editor, Todd Downing. Describing a moment in season two, episode six, “Schrödinger’s Ruth,” in which nearly every character who has been in the series shows up on a Subway platform in a crucial moment, Downing said he had a realization.
From “Moana” to “Lupin”: How the Tool “VoiceQ” Does Dubbing Right
It’s all about “lip flap” when it comes to quality voice dubbing for movies and TV. Voice actors make their living by synchronizing dialogue to the micro-movements that happen when on-screen characters open and close their mouths, AKA lip flap. Imprecise voice work results in cheesy-sounding foreign language adaptations. But voice dubbing, done right, has helped propel series like the Korean language Squid Game, Spanish-language Money Heist, and French-language Lupin to hit status in the United States.
It’s Ryan Gosling vs Chris Evans in Ripping First “The Gray Man” Trailer
“What do you know about the Sierra Program?” Regé-Jean Page’s character asks CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas), as we see another CIA operative, Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) stepping into the frame. Gentry also went by another name back in the day— Sierra Six—but that was when he was employed by the American government. “Reckless mystery men you guys sent in when you can’t officially send anyone else,” she replies. “The gray men.”
The first trailer for Joe and Anthony Russo’s The Gray Man is really something else,
