Joker’s Oscar-Nominated Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on Creating a “Wordless Dialogue”
We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on October 7, 2019.
A female composer being hired for a studio film is a rarity, with 94 percent of the 250 films released in the US in 2018 scored by men. It is to his credit that director Todd Philips hired Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir to create the score for Joker...
Oscar-Nominated Visual Effects Supervisor Pablo Helman on De-Aging the Iconic Actors of The Irishman
We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on December 6.
In 2015, visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman was working with Martin Scorsese on Silence, a stirring film about the Christian faith during 17th century Japan. The two ended up having a conversation that ignited a technological advancement within the visual effects industry—one that will likely become a new standard in how images can be captured and processed during filmmaking...
First Spiral Trailer Reveals Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson in new Saw Movie
It was mid-May of last year when we learned that Chris Rock would be rebooting the Saw franchise. Now Lionsgate has released the first trailer for Spiral, the ninth film in the Saw franchise. The story centers on Rock as Detective Zeke banks, a brash cop who is pulled into a deepening, and yes, disgusting series of murders reminiscent of the horrific slayings in the city’s past. The trailer is potent—Rock, Max Minghella (as his rookie partner Detective William) and a tough veteran officer Marcus,...
How Little Women‘s Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Shaped the Story
We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on January 2.
In the opening scene of writer-director Greta Gerwig’s adaption of Little Women, Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) walks into the New York offices of the Weekly Volcano and offers a novella to its publisher Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts), who chuckles at its jokes,...
How Parasite’s Oscar-Nominated Editor Helped Shape Thrilling Shifts in Tone
We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on January 2.
Palme d’Or winner and Best Picture Oscar contender Parasite shocked audiences this autumn on the strength of writer-director editor of Bong Joon-ho‘s meticulously constructed blend of comedy, melodrama and thriller elements. The story follows the poor but well-educated grifters in the Park family,...
Writer/Director/Star Numa Perrier on Her Autobiographical Sex Work Film Jezebel
Though filmmaker Numa Perrier only spent four years of her life in Las Vegas, those formative years being surrounded by adult vocations served as the backbone for her autobiographical ’90s-set film, Jezebel (now available on Netflix). Not only did Perrier write, direct, and produce, but she also stars as her older sister (executive producer Livia Perrier), who used to work as a phone sex operator and with whom Perrier shared cramped living quarters. To play the screen version of her 19-year-old self,...
The Gentlemen’s Costume Designer Breaks Down the Felonious Finery
Early in his career, British director Guy Ritchie specialized in making good movies about bad guys. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RocknRolla told stories about pugnacious criminals plying their trades in and around London’s working-class demimonde. His latest romp The Gentlemen (now in theaters) marks a return to form with its cast of alpha males Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell and Charlie Hunnam augmented by the presence of elegant Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery...
Production Designer Arwel Jones on Designing a New Dracula
Consistent with Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Netflix’s new three-episode Dracula series begins with a hapless English solicitor, Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan), ignoring the Transylvanian locals’ misgivings to make his way on a snowy evening to Count Dracula’s forbidding castle. In the original novel, Harker is initially impressed with his host’s social graces before realizing he’s a prisoner, but 2020’s Dracula (Claes Bang) is ratty haired and grim, intent on getting the social skills he’ll need for England from his guest...
How Oscar-Nominated Songwriter Joshuah Brian Campbell Helped Harriet Find its Voice
One of the more inspirational moments of Harriet, the stirring 2019 feature about Harriet Tubman, the legendary 19th-century slave turned abolitionist, happens when Cynthia Erivo sings Stand Up, an uplifting anthem to human dignity and the struggle to be free.
Erivo has deservedly received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Harriet Tubman. But she also landed a second nomination for Best Original Song as the co-writer of Stand Up...
Inside the National Association of Latino Independent Producers Events at Sundance
As part of their mission to discover, promote, and inspire Latinx content creators and diverse voices across media platforms, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) hosted a series of events during Sundance 2020.
One of the most compelling panels was called ‘Inclusion in Action’, sponsored by Coca-Cola, Skullcandy, and Latino Reel. NALIP is also an MPA multicultural creative partner. The panel began with a mixer including industry leaders. It featured moderator Laarni Dacanay,...
No Time to Die Super Bowl Spot Promises Everything is About to Change
With No Time to Die representing Daniel Craig’s final turn as her Majesty’s most resilient (and lethal) super spy, it doesn’t feel like hyperbole when the studio claims that the film will change everything. In a deliciously action-packed Super Bowl spot, we’re not only promised that the 25th installment in the venerable franchise would change everything forever, but that there’s a secret that will be the death of Bond should it ever get out. You know his many enemies will make sure that happens...
The Black Widow Super Bowl Spot is Pure Adrenalin
Marvel released a brand new Black Widow spot at the Super Bowl, the perfect high-octane mega-event to tease this upcoming high-octane mega-event. The spot gave us some fresh footage from the first stand-alone feature for Scarlett Johansson’s iconic super-assassin. “At some point, we all have to choose,” Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff says, “between who the world wants you to be, and who you are.”
The 30-second spot is nonstop action, further solidifying the notion that director Cate Shortland has crafted a breakneck spy thriller...
Disney+ Reveals WandaVision, Loki, & Falcon and the Winter Soldier in Super Bowl Spot
The Super Bowl is always a rich fount for brand new trailers and big reveals for upcoming films and television series. When you have that many eyeballs glued to the same channel for three-plus hours, there’s simply no better opportunity for a studio to fire viewers up. In last night’s deeply satisfying clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, Disney+ revealed three of their highly anticipated upcoming Marvel series. Their big game spot revealed our first look at Falcon and the Winter Soldier,...
A Quiet Place: Part II’s Super Bowl Ad Packs a Big Surprise
For those of us who are more than a little bit excited for writer/director John Krasinski‘s A Quiet Place: Part II, Paramount Pictures has done us a solid. The studio has released its upcoming Super Bowl spot early, giving us a glimpse at Krasinski’s follow-up to his surprising creature-feature smash hit from 2018. Krasinski co-starred in the original film alongside his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, as Lee and Evelyn Abbott respectively, the parents of Marcus and Regan (Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds) who were trying to keep themselves and their children alive in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by sound-hunting aliens...
The First Trailer for HBO’s The Plot Against America Reveals David Simon’s Gripping Roth Adaptation
When word spread that The Wire mastermind David Simon would be adapting legendary novelist Philip Roth’s brilliant dystopian book “The Plot Against America” for HBO (along with executive producer Ed Burns, another The Wire alum), we were enthused. Now that the first trailer for the upcoming series has dropped, it’s safe to say the limited series is on our must-see list.
The story is set in a World War II-era America that looks very much like our past on the surface...
How The Irishman’s Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Crafted Scorsese’s Mob Epic
Central to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is retired hitman Frank Sheeran’s (Robert De Niro) fifty-year oral history of his time with the mob, culminating in his murder of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The three-and-a-half-hour epic spans from 1949 to 2000, with most of the 295 different sets and locations made up to look like Philadelphia and environs between the 1950s and the 1970s. Designing the look of the film was a huge undertaking for the art department—“you’re reading the script and you’re thinking,...
The Early Reactions to Birds of Prey Hail the Glorious Mayhem of Harley Quinn’s World
The first reactions to Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) are pouring in, and we’re happy to report that folks seem as delighted as Harley herself often does. Director Cathy Yan and her star and producer Margot Robbie had a distinct vision for what Birds of Prey was going to be. Everything we’ve seen up until now, especially the last trailer, hinted at a go-for-broke approach to one of DC’s most colorful characters and her new band of friends...
Enlightening Panels Highlight the Launch of The Latinx House at Sundance
One of the most successful, well-received experiences at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival was the official launch of The Latinx House. Their mission is to bring artists, organizers, thought leaders, and other supporters together to address issues that impact the Latinx community and create narratives that shift culture. A worthy aim, given the statistics. The Latinx population is the largest ethnic minority in the country, but erasure and misrepresentation onscreen continue to be a problem. Latinx audiences have the highest rate of moviegoing among ethnic groups in the US...
Ambition and Risk Highlight Narcos: Mexico Season 2 Trailer
The last time we left Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), commonly referred to as Félix, he had managed to talk his way out of imprisonment and stay atop the Guadalaraja Cartel—the first Mexican drug cartel—using his wits alone. Granted, in order to become Mexico’s leading narco-trafficker, Félix used a lot more than wits. He was ruthless in his rise to power, and inarguably brilliant, but he only escaped prison (or death) by cutting a last-second deal in which he promised to keep the secrets of powerful players in Mexico secret,...
Peter Sarsgaard’s Mysterious Role in The Batman Revealed
Yesterday, co-writer and director Matt Reeves revealed the first photo from the set of The Batman, officially announcing the start of production. The film is led by Robert Pattison, who takes over the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman from Ben Affleck (most recently) and Christian Bale (most effectively). Pattinson is surrounded by an incredible cast, including Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, ...
