Studios & Stars Offer Social Distancing Education & Entertainment
Comedians, musicians, actors, and film and television studios have begun stepping up to try and add a little levity, light, and a sense of much-needed solidarity as we all deal with COVID-19. Individuals and companies with massive platforms can do a lot of good by informing citizens about the best way to stay safe and keep others safe in these unprecedented times. With governments across the world urging citizens to practice social distancing and, in many cases, stay in their homes,...
Amy Adams & Jennifer Garner Team Up to Help Kids Affected by COVID-19
While all of us are trying to come together—mostly, and crucially, by staying apart—to help flatten the curve of the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the damages, it’s nice to see those with a large platform doing their best to spread the word. There was Max Brooks’ hilarious and heartfelt message, alongside his dad, the legendary Mel Brooks, for people to keep their distance from one another.
A message from me and my dad, @Melbrooks...
Universal Pictures to Offer First Run Films in Your Home
With governments across the globe asking people to hunker down due to the spread of COVID-19 (the United States joined today, suggesting that folks don’t congregate in any groups larger than 10), and the film and TV industry facing an unprecedented stoppage of work, responsible people all over the world are looking for options to keep them sane while they sequester themselves in their apartments and homes. While there is no shortage of entertainment available to stream,...
An Easy Girl Director Rebecca Zlotowski on Her Version of French Feminism
Lush and sun-kissed, An Easy Girl, the latest feature from French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, is a Cannes-set summer vacation coming-of-age centered on a teenager named Naïma (Mina Farid) and her visiting older cousin, Sofia (Zahia Dehar). A screen descendant of Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot, Dehar is enviably confident and sexy; however, many French audiences have struggled to separate Dehar’s character from her real-life persona, the one who was involved in an underage prostitution scandal in 2009...
Westworld Cinematographer & Director Paul Cameron on Season 3’s Big Time Ambitions
“As a DP,” says director of photography Paul Cameron, ASC, “you tend to walk into a location and visualize it and pitch it to a director.” But what happens if you are the director? Well, he allows, “I may have been a little stronger in pitching my ideas” back to the cinematographer.
Cameron had a chance to pitch in both directions, in quick succession, on HBO’s currently unfurling third season of Westworld...
How Coronavirus is Affecting Below the Line Filmmakers
As COVID-19 has spread across the globe, hundreds of governments are attempting to deal with the rapidly spreading pandemic. The first and most important factor in assessing the damage that coronavirus has caused is measured in human lives. According to the most recent accounts from the New York Times, coronavirus has sickened more than 170,400 people, with 6,619 deaths. The pandemic has spread to at least 140 countries.
Then there is the damage to the economy...
Stunt Coordinator Kathy Jarvis Drives the Action in Paramount’s TV Series 68 Whiskey
A television series set on a military base during the height of the Afghan war is where you’ll find one of the best stunt coordinators currently working on television—Kathy Jarvis. Creating the stunts for 68 Whiskey, the Paramount Network comedy/drama about a team of medics battling to save lives while keeping their sanity in the midst of constant carnage and danger, is giving her an opportunity to use the range of skills she’s developed over her long career...
The Trailer for the Spike Jonze Directed Beastie Boys Story is a Sure Shot
Joy feels in short supply about now, which is why this is a good a time as ever to take in the first trailer for director Spike Jonze’s Beastie Boys Story. The saga of how three buddies from New York became, against considerable odds, global superstars, reinventing themselves and their entire approach to music and life in the process, is both joyous and bittersweet. Joyous because Beastie Boys fans will finally get to see a proper documentary about their unlikely rise,...
Swallow Production Designer Erin Magill Builds a House of Horrors
Handsome husband, rich in-laws, and a stunning house might seem to provide a comfortable perch for the newly pregnant housewife at the center of Swallow. And yet, Hunter (Haley Bennett) suffers privately from a disturbing disorder hinted at in the film’s title. For the psychological thriller (now playing), production designer Erin Magill joined writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis in setting up a seemingly perfect milieu riddled with dark secrets.
Magill, who also re-tooled the small Louisiana town of Garyville to serve as West Texas backdrop for Michael Shannon’s thriller The Quarry (opening April 17),...
The Official Soul Trailer Reveals Pixar’s Latest
Pixar is taking a deep dive into the afterlife, the meaning of life, and the necessity of living your life in the (scarily) timely Soul. In Pixar’s vast stable of excellent writers and directors, few so reliably break your heart as Pete Docter. Docter has brought us Monsters, Inc., Up and Inside Out, three of the most searching films in the company’s history. In Soul, he’s training his eye on the afterlife,...
Styling Teenage Romance With To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Costume Designer Lorraine Carson
Costume designer Lorraine Carson has helped steer the look of the romantic comedy franchise To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (based on Jenny Han’s novel series) for the second and third films. As the franchise’s ensemble has grown up, so too has their wardrobe. With the second film currently available on Netflix (with the third film in post-production), we spoke to Carson about realizing character growth through costume, exploring Lara Jean (Lana Condor)’s personal life (she’s now officially dating Peter,...
Prepare for a New Dracula From Director Karyn Kusama & Blumhouse Productions
With The Invisible Man earning critical praise and enjoying box office success, horror powerhouse Blumhouse Productions is turning to the most iconic monster in Universal’s archives for the reboot treatment. A new adaptation of Dracula is in the works, with none other than Destroyer and The Invitation director Karyn Kusama. Folks, the combination of Blumhouse and Kusama is manna from heaven for all horror fans...
A New Spider-Man Spin-Off is in the Works
Well, this is big news. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 scribe Roberto Orci will be penning a script for a brand new Spider-Man spin-off. What’s more, this film will exist in the Spider-Verse world, enlarging Sony‘s web-slinger world, and highlighting a character from their still rather large archive of superheroes and villains.
The Wrap broke the story, which explains how Orci’s film will not be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but rather will exist wholly within the Sony-owned Spider-Man world...
Early Mulan Reactions Praise a Stunning Live-Action Remake
Everything we’ve seen from Mulan, via trailers and featurettes up to this point, has been ravishing. Director Niki Caro’s upcoming live-action remake of Mulan revisits this warrior’s tale with the kind of sweeping, epic grandeur the story deserves. Yet like any live-action remake, Mulan had the difficult task of living up to its animated predecessor and striking new ground. Now we know that Caro’s Mulan doesn’t just look good,...
Universal Archivist Jeff Pirtle on the Legacy of Noble Johnson, Harriet & More
When we interviewed Jeff Pirtle, Director, Archives & Collections at NBCUniversal last October, we learned, among other things, about Universal’s gleefully ghoulish collection of assets that touch upon the studio’s rich history of monsters. From the original set design from Jaws to gorgeous black-and-white photos of Bela Lugosi from 1931’s Dracula, Pirtle helps maintain some of the most coveted assets in the film world, as well as keep his eye on upcoming productions and fresh opportunities to extend the collection...
Emily Blunt & Dwayne Johnson’s Epic Adventure Revealed in Jungle Cruise Trailer
Disney knows a thing or two about turning their theme park rides into mega-blockbuster film franchises. That was the case with Pirates of the Caribbean, which spawned five films from 2003 to 2017 and was a cinematic juggernaut for most of that stretch. Now they’ve got Jungle Cruise setting sail, and they’ve assembled a pair of megawatt stars in Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson. They’ve also got a very able director in Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows,...
Jude Law Stars in 1st Trailer for HBO’s Intriguing, Creepy new Limited Series The Third Day
The post-Game of Thrones HBO has been a very interesting place. When the premium channel said goodbye to its flagship series, it had a slew of well-crafted new series primed and ready to go. We loved Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, which pulled off the remarkable feat of creating a show worthy of its iconic source material by giving us something entirely new. Another excellent adaptation, The Outsider (based on a Stephen King novel),...
A Quiet Place: Part II Featurette Highlights Cillian Murphy’s New Character
The early reactions to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place: Part II were more or less all raves. In revisiting the remaining members of the Abbott family after the thrilling, chilling events in his surprise 2018 smash hit, Krasinski expands the post-apocalyptic world in Part II. The early reactions praised Part II‘s brilliant expansion of the story, as well as retaining what made the original so, well, original. Part of the expanded world includes newcomers like Cillian Murphy’s Emmett,...
The Final Trailer for Black Widow Highlights the Mysterious Taskmaster
Fully conscious but no choices. This is the way Yelena (Florence Pugh) describes the minions of the Taskmaster, the main baddie—or so we think—in director Cate Shortland’s Black Widow. Although the identity of the Taskmaster has been kept a secret, this final trailer for Marvel’s upcoming stand-alone film about Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff reveals at least a little of what this faceless villain is all about. The Taskmaster controls the Red Room, where future Black Widows are trained to be the world’s most lethal assassins and drained of their free will in the process...
Early Reactions to A Quiet Place: Part II Praise Taut, Terrifying Sequel
We’ve been eagerly anticipating director John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place: Part II since we heard the sequel was in the works. Now, with the first early reactions appearing online, we feel vindicated in our belief that Krasinski, along with his stellar cast and crew, were going to nail the follow-up. The first reactions hail Part II, reveling in the way the film finds fresh ways to tease out its central conceit; people trying to survive in a world in which alien monsters hunt by sound...
