“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.
New “WandaVision” Featurette Teases Wanda’s World Coming Undone
A new behind-the-scenes featurette makes the case that the wild ride we’ve been on in WandaVision hasn’t even kicked into high gear yet. Showrunner Jac Schaeffer and director Matt Shakman’s patient, period-perfect series has begun to reveal some of the secrets it holds. The sitcom world that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) exist in seems to be of Wanda’s creation. As we’ve seen in recent episodes, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) infiltrated Wanda’s Westview creation to find out just what the heck is going on in there.
“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.
“The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” Official Trailer Revealed During Super Bowl
If WandaVision is Marvel’s weird, wonderful, and supremely odd shot on Disney+, you can think of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the chaser. Whereas WandaVision is centered on a loving (if fantastically bizarre) couple in Wanda Maxmimoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s duo are the bickering odd couple. The Falcon, known to his family and friends as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie),
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,
“Miss Juneteenth” Writer/Director Channing Godfrey Peoples on Her Potent Feature Debut
Writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples‘ feature debut Miss Juneteenth is a subtlety powerful lesson in compassionate observation. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, with a theater degree from Baylor University (just a 90-minute drive south from Forth Worth on the I-35), Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth is a moving portrait of her hometown, and, more to the point, the tight-knit community of mostly Black people she grew up with. After graduating from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (where she met her husband and creative partner,
How Costume Designer Paolo Nieddu Worked With Prada For “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”
Few musicians are as iconic as Billie Holiday. So much about Holiday was avant-garde for the time, and as a queer Black woman of power, she ruffled more than a few feathers just by existing. Lee Daniels’ new film The United States vs. Billie Holiday is focused around one specific event in the singer’s life, chronicling her determination to sing the protest ballad “Strange Fruit,” and the consequences of that commitment.
Golden Globes 2021: Female Directors Make History
The Golden Globes nominations are in, and female directors have made history. For the first time, the Globes have nominated more than one woman for the Best Director category. The nominees are Regina King (One Night In Miami), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). This trio joins David Fincher (Mank) and Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7) in the category.
“The Suicide Squad” Synopsis Reveals an Epic Mission
We finally have an idea of just how suicidal the mission will be. Warner Bros. has revealed the synopsis for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which “features a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup,” as they put it. Up until now, we’ve known very, very little about Gunn’s vision for his reboot of sorts. We learned during the DC FanDome event that the film would riff on epic 1970s war movies.
Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, and an A-List Cast Highlight First “Coming 2 America” Trailer
And now we’ve got our most sustained look yet at director Craig Brewer’s Coming 2 America, which really, couldn’t come at a better time. This long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Coming to America brings back a whole royal family’s worth of original characters. The ensemble is led, of course, by Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem, and the new trailer reveals he has risen in the royal ranks to become King. With the newly-crowned King Akeem preparing to take over Zamunda,
Sundance 2021: Writer/Director Carey Williams on his Romeo & Juliet Adaptation “R#J”
In partnership with producer Timur Bekmambetov, who is known for the innovative film style Screenlife as exampled by Unfriended and Searching, co-writer and director Carey Williams offers his feature debut with a modern and of-the-moment adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” R#J, told entirely through social media and smartphone screens. Using an entirely Black and Brown cast, and blending text messages and Instagram posts with timeless Shakespearian language,
Zack Snyder Reveals First Image of Joker in “Justice League”
Well folks, we’ve finally got our first, admittedly blurry look at Jared Leto’s Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Snyder has revealed the image of Leto’s version of the Clown Prince of Chaos, who will be involved in some capacity in his upcoming HBO Max cut. The Joker was not a part of the original theatrical release of Justice League, which was shepherded by director Joss Whedon after Snyder had to leave the production.
HBO Unveils the Trailer for “Black Art: In the Absence of Light”
Yesterday, we published our interview with MLK/FBI director Sam Pollard, who is also the director behind HBO’s upcoming Black Art: In the Absence of Light, which will shed light on some of the best Black visual artists working today—and likely introduce them to many folks who haven’t seen their work or heard their names before. In discussing his long career making documentaries on immensely gifted Black talents, which Black Art: In the Absence of Light zeroes in on,
