The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup Designer on Creating Misery in the Colonies
In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the radioactive Colonies are more felt than described. We’re told it’s where all Gilead’s undesirables, the childless handmaids, the criminals, the sick and insane, are sent to die. In Hulu’s adaptation of Atwood’s novel, however, the Colonies became one of the show’s most fecund sources of misery in season two. As Maria Elena Fernandez described in a piece for Vulture, The Handmaid’s Tales creators did something brilliant when they set out to create the location—the asked Atwood what she had in mind when she wrote about them.
How the The Simpsons new Composers Took on Springfield
The Simpsons boasts not only the longest run of any scripted primetime series, along with catch-phrases and characters that have been part of popular culture for almost two generations, but theme music recognizable within its first few notes—on a short list with Star Trek, Hawaii Five-O, Batman, Sesame Street, and a handful of others.
And now that series has new composers.
Godzilla vs. Kong Writer on Kong’s Chances in Mismatched Fight
With Godzilla: King of the Monsters opening wide this Friday, folks are already starting to ask the next logical question—how in the world will King Kong last even a single round with his lizard king counterpart in Godzilla vs. Kong? King of the Monsters pits Godzilla against fellow titans like Rodan and the three-headed super-predator King Ghidorah. The early reactions hyped the epic clashes between the Titans,
It’s a Gnarly Brawl in Final Trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters
The early reactions to Godzilla: King of the Monsters were so positive we had some people calling it the event movie of the year, and this is after Avengers: Endgame already stormed into theaters. Comparing this kaiju battle royale to the biggest Marvel movie of all time seems a little unnecessary, but the important point is that folks were fired up about Godzilla’s epic return. Now Warner Bros.
Building Thousands of Years of History in Amazon’s Good Omens
“Corners are where everyone makes decisions. This is the point where you change directions.” And corners are usually located at crossroads, to boot, the very place—especially if you’re a Mississippi bluesman—where it’s said deals with the devil can be struck.
The corner in question, however, concerns an angel, and the London bookshop that he owns—part of Michael Ralph’s production design on the upcoming Amazon/BBC adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens.
Showrunner Lauren Morelli Spins New Tales of the City for Netflix
The interwoven stories of the residents of Barbary Lane are being told again. Introduced in author Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City 40 years ago, and then adapted for television several times since the 1990s, the beloved San Francisco-set saga is being revived by Netflix and starts streaming this June.
Like its predecessors, which were based on Maupin’s nine novels, the 2019 version focuses a lot on the LGBTQ community—but it does so with some new characters and a modern take.
Qualified Director Jenna Ricker on Indy’s Pioneer Janet Guthrie
“This is my first documentary,” says producer/director Jenna Ricker, of Qualified, a look at the life of Janet Guthrie, the first woman—in that pre-Danica Patrick/Pippa Mann era—to ever drive a car at the Indianapolis 500.
The doc is part of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series, in celebration of the cable pioneer’s 30th anniversary. But you have to go farther back than that, to 1977, to find Guthrie in the cockpit of a racer at Indianapolis.
Sir Patrick Stewart Returns in First Star Trek: Picard Trailer
The captain is back.
Sir Patrick Stewart returns to the role that made him famous (in America, at least)—CBS All Access has released the first trailer for their new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Picard. Stewart returns to the role of Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek‘s most cerebral captain, who logged stardates (and much more ) for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation and four movies—Star Trek: Generations,
Martin Ruhe on Shooting George Clooney’s Catch-22 Adaptation
“Certain things I don’t think we’d be legally allowed to do now,” observes cinematographer Martin Ruhe, ASC, when reflecting on the prior attempt to bring Joseph Heller’s classic, absurdist, and decidedly non-chronological Catch-22 to the screen.
That would be the 1970 Mike Nichols film version, which was somewhat of a commercial and critical bust at the time but has since come to be regarded in more classic “70’s cinema” terms.
Sarah Connor Returns in First Terminator: Dark Fate Trailer
The sixth installment in one of the most game-changing sci-franchises has arrived. Behold the first trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate, which is taking us back to the last truly great Terminator film and resurrecting some of the most memorable characters to boot.
Dark Fate picks up where James Cameron’s iconic 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day ended, with Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles as Sarah Connor and the T-800 respectively.
Fresh Details Emerge About Christopher Nolan’s Mysterious new Film Tenet
So we’ve got a title. Christopher Nolan’s mysterious new film is called Tenet, which should fire up the internet’s vast speculation engine on what the title could possibly mean. Fresh details have emerged revealing a talented cast, including many of Nolan’s long-standing collaborators, for what will be another epic event film from the mastermind behind the Dark Knight trilogy and so much more.
We knew that John David Washington,
John Wick 3 Costume Designer Conjures Elegance Amid the Carnage
Italian-born costumer Luca Mosca pulled off a major sartorial coup in 2014 when he designed the instantly iconic suit worn by Keanu Reeves in John Wick. The elegant silhouette impacted pop culture to the point where Amazon now sells $139 “John Wick Suit” knock-offs. But to see the real deal, action fans have been flocking to director Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,
Director Olivia Wilde & Screenwriter Katie Silberman on the Hilarious Booksmart
The creative team behind Booksmart wanted to showcase women being funny. Not one or two women, but many women.
“That’s how it is in our lives. All my female friends are as funny as my male friends. They’re not comedians; they don’t think of themselves as funny,” said screenwriter Katie Silberman, who shares writing credit with Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, and Sarah Haskins.
Silberman credited Olivia Wilde, the actress who makes her feature directorial debut on Booksmart,
Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson on Outfitting the Live-Action Aladdin
In Guy Ritchie’s live-action remake of Aladdin, Disney revisits Agrabah, the fictional Arabian land where a plucky street thief and his incorrigible monkey sidekick cross paths with an unlikely love interest, the local sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine. Similar to the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake, turning a bustling, fictional historic animated township into a three-dimensional place is a colorful, lively affair. In both, labyrinthine city streets give way to the intensity of nature,
New Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Images, Video, & Character Details
There is always so much to learn when Vanity Fair does one of their massive cover stories on a franchise like Star Wars. They deploy famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, enjoy incredible access to the film’s stars, and they share with the rest of us fresh photos, character details and more. Vanity Fair also shot an on-set video in which Leibovitz arrived on set to join director J.J.
Three new Black Mirror Trailers Tease Season 5
Black Mirror is back. Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones‘ techno fever dream of a series is returning with a truncated—but hotly anticipated—three-episode season. Three new trailers for each episode gives us a tiny bit more information, yet, we still really don’t know much about what these stories will fully explore. We just know they’ll likely make us feel paranoid and freaked out, which is precisely what we want from a fresh Black Mirror installment.
New Dark Phoenix Clip Teases the X-Men’s Oldest Frenemies
If there were one relationship that has animated the X-Men franchise for nearly two decades, it would be between Charles Xavier and Magneto. In the first decade of the franchise, these two venerable mutants were portrayed by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, respectively. Charles, better known as Professor X, has long quarreled with Magneto about the best way to handle humanity’s distrust and hatred for the mutant kind. Charles believes they do that by respecting their laws and proving that mutants are people,
The Early Reactions to Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Any and every Quentin Tarantino film is an event movie. This is because Tarantino so reliably stirs up debate, from his 1994 game-changer Pulp Fiction to his historical epics, which gleefully rewrote or refocused history, beginning with Inglorious Basterds (2009) and through Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015). When word spread that his ninth film, set in Hollywood in 1969,
Behold the Killer new Trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Oh, happy Tuesday! We’ve got a fresh look at Quentin Tarantino‘s hotly anticipated ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which delivers a bit more narrative bits and pieces than the first trailer. This new look has debuted ahead of the film’s Cannes premiere, one of the marquee films at this year’s festival. The trailer is, in a word, fantastic, and should give both Tarantino fans and movie lovers in general something to include on their must-see list.
A new Toy Story 4 Trailer Teases a Existential Journey Like no Other
The first trailer for Toy Story 4 hinted at some of life’s deepest questions. As we wrote at the time, the Toy Story gang, led by Woody (Tom Hanks), has long moved past the Andy era, in which Woody sparred with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the big questions were mostly who Andy preferred most. We’re officially in the Bonnie era, and the latest trailer makes clear that our favorite talking toys are going on a journey that’ll be their most profound yet.
