Director Dime Davis on Making Emmy History With “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Last year, director Dime Davis visited California desert retreat Joshua Tree to take a break from her burgeoning career as director of Showtime drama The Chi and BET rom-com Boomerang. “I’d been trying to get my head together so I wasn’t getting back to people,” Davis recalls. But Robin Thede kept calling. The comedian had created a new sketch series for HBO and wanted Davis to direct the whole thing. “When I finally called Robin back,...
Watch This Touching Chadwick Boseman Tribute
Last night ABC aired Black Panther ad-free, followed by a touching tribute to its late, great star Chadwick Boseman. It’s still hard—and will continue to be hard—accepting that the gifted, deeply humane actor is gone. ABC released this nearly 5-minute-long tribute to Boseman, specifically about his work in Black Panther, one of the rare films that transcends the medium and makes an impact on the culture at large. Black Panther made a difference in the lives of millions of people,...
ABC to Air “Black Panther” Ad-Free with Chadwick Boseman Tribute
By now you’ve heard the heartbreaking news that Chadwick Boseman has passed away at 43. The colossally talented star of Black Panther—to name but one of his many roles—died this past Friday night from colon cancer.
Boseman was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 and, incredibly, performed in a string of films throughout his treatment, including his game-changing turn as T’Challa in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther in 2018. Boseman made his first appearance in the role in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War,...
How Emmy-Nominated Editor Katheryn Naranjo Cut “Stranger Things” Season 3 Finale
The third season of The Duffer Brothers’ Netflix hit Stranger Things culminated in an epic finale with two huge battle scenes and a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows. For the uninitiated, Stranger Things is a sci-fi/horror series set in set in the 80s (with the soundtrack to match), which follows a group of young kids as they explore what’s behind a series of supernatural happenings in their town. Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers) leads the young cast—including Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven),...
Documentarian Barbara Kopple on Her Ground-Breaking New Film “Desert One”
Documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s films have tackled subjects ranging from labor strikes in her landmark Oscar-winners Harlan County, USA (1976) and American Dream (1990) to a feminist portrait of the Dixie Chicks in Shut Up and Sing (2006). After a groundbreaking, fifty-plus year career, she’s now made the action/adventure/war documentary Desert One, about the top-secret, dangerous mission by US special forces in 1980 to rescue 52 American hostages held in Iran...
Emmy-Nominated Production Designer Monica Sotto on “Drunk History”
Let’s get the sad part out of the way; Comedy Central’s beloved Drunk History was recently canceled, after 6 glorious, inebriated, compulsively watchable seasons. Shortly before that bad bit of news was revealed, we got a chance to chat with the show’s production designer Monica Sotto, whose work on the season 6 finale “Bad Blood,” which focused on the highly infectious Typhoid Mary (narrated by Jackie Johnson) and Cleopatra’s younger sister, the highly ambitious Arsinoe (narrated by Lyric Lewis),...
Go Behind-the-Scenes of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” in Thrilling New Video
If you don’t want to know anything about Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, then this is not the video for you. If you are inclined to find out a bit more about his latest, Warner Bros. has just done you a major solid. Stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh and, of course, Nolan himself take us behind-the-scenes of the auteur’s time-inverting epic. You’ll also hear from Nolan’s equally stellar crew, including cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and producer Emma Thomas...
Does “The Suicide Squad” Have the Best Ensemble Cast of 2021?
The DC FanDome event brought us a ton of new teasers, trailers, images, and actual information about some of the films we’re most excited to see. While co-writer and director Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 is due to hit theaters (we hope) this October and features a lot of excellent performers, three of Warner Bros. and DC’s biggest films are slated for 2021. Those are James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (August 6), Matt Reeves’...
Emmy-Nominated DP Greig Fraser on Harnessing Cutting-Edge Tech in “The Mandalorian”
The Emmys have spoken: The ballots are in, and among the most-nominated shows was Disney’s first live action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian.
One big reason for that was cinematographer Greig Fraser, a previous Oscar nominee for his work on Lion, and now sharing an Emmy nom with Barry “Baz” Idoine on the Disney+ series, in particular its gunslinging penultimate episode, The Reckoning...
How Emmy-Nominated Choreographer Jemel McWilliams Makes His Moves
When Emmy-nominated choreographer Jemel McWilliams was a first grader growing up in the D.C. area, most of his friends spent their time worshipping and talking about Michael Jordan. It was the Nineties, and Jordan and the Bulls were at peak fame level. But McWilliams had a few other idols in his sights: Sammy Davis, Jr. and Savion Glover.
“I just loved that Sammy was an actor, a singer, a dancer, and a pioneer of this entire space for black Americans...
Emmy-Nominated Production Designer Jason Sherwood on Designing the Oscars
At 30 years old, Emmy-winning production designer Jason Sherwood became the youngest person to ever design the Oscars for this past year’s historic ceremony. Sherwood, already a talented theater designer, nabbed his first Emmy just last year for the design of Rent Live (which was also his first foray into major TV production).
For this year’s Oscars, Sherwood and his collaborator and fellow nominee, art director Alana Billingsley, teamed up to design what turned out to be a historic ceremony...
The Final “Tenet” Trailer is a Big, Beautiful Puzzle
While this weekend saw a ton of major Warner Bros. related trailer reveals thanks to the DC FanDome Event, Christoper Nolan’s Tenet, decidedly not a superhero movie but a film with some super wild abilities on display nonetheless, revealed it’s the final trailer, too. While Tenet has been in the news for months due to the ever-evolving question of will it or won’t it premiere in actual theaters, the trailer reminds us that the reason there’s been so much press on its’...
Here’s the First Trailer for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
By now you likely know the story of how Zack Snyder’s Justice League came to be. The broad strokes are that Snyder was helming the original Justice League when he had to leave the production, and the film was taken over by director Joss Whedon. The result, released in 2017, wasn’t something Snyder ever felt connected to. After much fan demand on social media, Snyder, his team, and Warner Bros. got together to make magic happen—his vision for the first film in which Batman,...
The New “Wonder Woman 1984” Trailer Delivers the Goods
So. Many. Good. Things. Happened. On. Saturday.
Yes, we’re talking about the epic DC FanDome event, which really did deliver. We got to see Matt Reeves’ noir detective story take with The Batman, James Gunn’s epic reboot of The Suicide Squad, and now this—co-writer and director Patty Jenkins delivered pure goodness directly into our eyeballs. Wonder Woman 1984 is the movie we need right now. Jenkins and Gal Gadot delivered us from DC’s somber,...
James Gunn Reveals “The Suicide Squad” Footage at DC FanDome Event
The DC FanDome event promised a lot and delivered a lot. One of those special deliveries came courtesy The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn and his cast, who revealed the first footage for their reboot. And friends, Gunn and his ensemble’s The Suicide Squad looks truly, insanely epic. And with all due respect to Suicide Squad director David Ayer, who is an excellent filmmaker, Gunn’s vision couldn’t look more different than Ayer’s 2016 film...
At Long Last “The Batman” Trailer Reveals Robert Pattinson as Caped Crusader
At long last, the Caped Crusader is back.
The above almost rhymes. Add a question at the end, and you could make yourself a riddle. Now that Warner Bros. and writer/director Matt Reeves have revealed the first trailer for The Batman at the DC FanDome event this past Saturday, we finally know a few things about the film’s plot. And the most major thing of all—aside from the unique look and feel of Reeves’...
Patty Jenkins Reveals Epic New “Wonder Woman 1984” Poster Ahead of Trailer
There is a lot of incredible stuff coming tomorrow at the DC FanDome event, folks. And to remind us of this fact, Wonder Woman 1984 co-writer and director Patty Jenkins just dropped this delicious new poster for the film. She also let us know she’ll be revealing the trailer during her FanDome panel tomorrow, where she’ll be appearing—virtually, of course—alongside her stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, and Pedro Pascal.
First, let’s have a look at the poster,...
Production Designer John Paino Snags Dual Emmy Noms for “The Morning Show” and “Big Little Lies”
They might be rich and powerful, but that doesn’t mean the women of Big Little Lies and The Morning Show are content. Production designer John Paino made it his mission to create sleek environments that counterpoint the characters’ well-concealed inner turmoil. His efforts for each series have nabbed him two Emmy nominations this year. “My contribution is mood and atmosphere and continuity,” says Paino. “A lot of design is about finding this sweet spot where something’s so realistic you don’t even bat an eye,...
Behold “The Batman” Logo & Concept Art From Director Matt Reeves
You knew it was coming. With only two days until the kickoff of the DC FanDome event, the folks involved with some of Warner Bros. and DC’s biggest movies are starting to reveal some sneak peeks. Zack Snyder revealed a teaser for his upcoming Justice League—with the full trailer coming on Saturday—and now The Batman director Matt Reeves has dropped the film’s new logo and some concept art...
See Superman & Cyborg in a New Teaser for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
Zack Snyder has taken to Twitter once again to give us a little taste of what’s to come at the DC FanDome Event, which begins this Saturday, August 22. Snyder revealed a new teaser for his Justice League cut, with the full trailer coming on August 22. Snyder will be revealing that trailer and more during his panel at the event, which begins at 5:45 pm ET on Saturday. His long-awaited vision for Justice League, ...
