Deconstructing Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s With his Cinematographer Robert Richardson
When you dig past the humorous and unnerving storylines of Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, you’ll find a serious tale about friendship.
Set in 1969, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fading Western star trying to stay relevant in Tinseltown has one sure thing—his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Booth’s past includes being a war hero and some domestic trouble, but now the two friends find themselves on a collision course with the Mason Family,...
Digging Doom Patrol‘s Signature Look With Costume Designer Laura Jean Shannon
The members of the Costume Designers Guild who joined the panel at San Diego Comic-Con hope you watch their shows multiple times in hi-def and that you hit the pause button now and then. They have always been obsessed with detail and they have always enjoyed putting little in-jokes and Easter eggs into those details for their own satisfaction and amusement, but for the first time, new technologies have made it possible for the audience to see and appreciate those details as well...
Danai Gurira Confirms her Return as Okoye in Black Panther 2
Look, it would have been insane had Danai Gurira not been included in Black Panther 2, but it’s still nice to get the confirmation. The Black Panther star was at San Diego Comic-Con promoting the final season of The Walking Dead when the inevitable question about Black Panther 2 was put to her by MTV News. You can watch the whole Walking Dead conversation below,...
Making Smart Hulk: Avengers: Endgame‘s VFX Supervisor Reveals his Secrets
One of the most shocking reveals in Avengers: Endgame (a film filled with shocking reveals) was when Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) tracked down Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo)—only to find him in some new, semi-Hulk form. Not only was Banner now in this new semi-Hulk form, he still retained all of Banner’s brilliance. He became, in essence, Smart Hulk. Now Marvel has released a new video featuring VFX supervisor Dan DeLeeuw who explains to us how they were able to create this new and improved Smart Hulk...
Killing Zombies Looks fun Again in Zombieland: Double Tap Trailer
The gang is back, and this time, they’ve found an even more suitable place to while away their non-zombie-killing moments—the White House. Director Ruben Fleischer returns, along with his core zombie-killing cast of Emma Stone as Wichita, Abigail Breslin as Little Rock, Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, and Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus in Zombieland: Double Tap. The last time Fleischer and his cast were together, they gave the zombie genre a major jolt with the original Zombieland way back in 2009...
The Real Mandarin Will Finally Appear in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Marvel‘s upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, will introduce the MCU’s first Asian-American superhero. Shang-Chi will be played by Simu Liu, and while Liu will be introducing a brand new superhero to the MCU (although, of course, one well-known to comics fans), he’ll be facing off against a villain that’s been lurking in the shadows of the MCU since 2008’s Iron Man—the Mandarin—to be played by Tony Leung...
The Buzziest Non-Marvel Projects From San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con, now in its 50th year, draws an estimated 135,000 fans of comic books, movies, and pop culture. This year, the major studios dropped a slew of highly-anticipated movie trailers (like Top Gun: Maverick), TV productions teased scenes from new shows (like Netflix’s The Witcher), and fans geeked out over behind-the-scenes tidbits about popular and upcoming projects. Yes, there was a lot more happening at this year’s con than just Marvel’s return to Hall H...
The Batman Adds Vice & Rogue One Cinematographer Greig Fraser
Director Matt Reeves is reteaming with cinematographer Greig Fraser for The Batman. The last time these two rising stars teamed up, it was to collaborate on Reeves’ critically acclaimed Let Me In, which was a remake of the critically acclaimed Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In. Since then, Reeves and Fraser have gone on to do big things—on their own. Fraser has worked on a string of excellent films—Zero Dark Thirty (2012),...
Regina King’s Masked Vigilante Revealed in new Watchmen Images
HBO has finally released some images from their upcoming, highly secretive new series Watchmen, all of them focused on Oscar-winner Regina King’s character Angela Abar. King’s character is one of the new faces that series creator Damon Lindelof is introducing in his adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons iconic graphic novel. The little we know about Angela Abar is that she’s a Tulsa police officer who, after her family is attacked, dons a mask at night to mete out vigilante justice...
The Russo Brothers Finally Reveal How Captain America was Able to [Spoiler Alert]
With Avengers: Endgame headed for its digital HD release next week, lots of interesting, spoiler-riffic tidbits are finding their way online. Here’s one that just caught our attention.
Quick—what was the single most shocking moment in Avengers: Endgame? [Spoiler alert, obviously.] Very good arguments could be made for the film’s two major deaths—Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. These moments were, without a doubt,...
See how They Digitally Created a Young Will Smith in Ang Lee’s Gemini Man
The last time we checked in with Ang Lee’s sci-fi thriller Gemini Man, we were unpacking the first trailer. Now Paramount Pictures has released a behind-the-scenes featurette, giving us a better sense of what Lee has up his sleeve for his latest film. The basic premise of Gemini Man is fairly straight forward: hitman Henry Brogen (Will Smith) faces off against a younger version of himself. The 50-year-old Henry versus the 23-year-old “Junior”...
Natalie Portman Will be Called “Mighty Thor” in Thor: Love and Thunder
One of the biggest reveals coming out of San Diego Comic-Con was that Natalie Portman will be playing the Goddess of Thunder in Taika Waititi‘s hotly-anticipated Ragnarok sequel Thor: Love and Thunder. One immediate point of contention was that folks started calling her “Female Thor,” which is, at best, inelegant. The fact that Portman’s Jane Foster would be raising Mjolnir isn’t shocking to comic book fans, where Foster becomes worthy of the sacred hammer when Thor no longer is...
Daniel Brühl’s Reveals First Look at Zemo’s Return in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
There has been so much news coming out of Comic-Con that it can be a little hard to keep up. One of the most fecund sources of information at the Con this year revolved around Disney’s new streaming service Disney +, and specifically, the upcoming Marvel series it’ll be exclusively hosting. So not only did Marvel return to Hall H with a ton to reveal about their upcoming film projects, including their gangbusters Phase 4 slate,...
James Gunn Confirms Guardians 3 Set After Thor: Love and Thunder
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding right before our eyes. Thanks to San Diego Comic-Con, the news out of Marvel HQ is coming at us fast. Marvel took over Hall H and shared one reveal after another, including the news that Takai Waititi’s Thor 4 was not only titled Thor: Love and Thunder, but would also see Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster raise the hammer as a female Thor. Now Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn is getting in on the action...
Amazon’s Mysterious The Lord of the Rings Series has a Cast Member
You have to hand it to Amazon—they’ve kept their upcoming The Lord of the Rings series so shrouded in secrecy, Gandalf himself would be impressed! We finally have some semi-concrete news, however, thanks to Variety. The upcoming series looks close to casting Markella Kavenagh, Variety reports, with sources telling them she’ll be playing a character named Tyra. Kavenagh starred in the Australian movie Romper Stomper, ...
Meet the Sound Team That Helped The Lion King Roar
After a massive worldwide opening weekend, it’s safe to say the iconic songs from 1994 Disney animated classic The Lion King are still infectious.
In the retelling of the story, not only did director Jon Favreau bring back the original Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer and songs from Elton John and Tim Rice, but he added icons Pharrell Williams as a producer and Beyoncé singing “Spirit” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” as Nala...
How the Spider-Man: Far From Home Writers Crafted a Swinging Summer Hit
They first worked together on TV satire American Dad, then mastered the dysfunctional dark comedy of Community before breaking into features by subverting superhero conventions with their neurotic title character in The Lego Batman Movie. Now, screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna are riding high as the team who scripted Spider-Man: Far From Home. The rare summer hit that’s won over critics as well as audiences,...
From The Dark Crystal to Pennyworth: Our Comic-Con TV Round-Up
Television series stars and creators came to San Diego Comic-Con to talk about new and returning shows. Here are some of the most intriguing announcements and previews we caught:
Undone (Amazon Prime) is a stunning new animated series as far from the usual computer-generated images as it can be; every background is a hand-painted oil painting and all of the characters are photographed and rotoscoped. Composer Amie Doherty said that she created “a super-organic score to match the beautiful,...
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Crew Promises Mind-Melting Final Shot
We got a glimpse at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s new Sith Trooper at Comic-Con, but that was hardly the only news from a galaxy far, far away coming out of San Diego. One tidbit that deserves extra scrutiny comes from writer/director Kevin Smith, who was at the Con to show off his upcoming film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Smith is not only a filmmaker, but he’s a beloved lover of all things sci-fi and comic book...
Tom Hanks is Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘s First Trailer
Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor gave us insight into the late, great Fred Rogers only a year ago. The documentary felt like a sorely needed corrective on our current climate of anxiety, anger, and otherism. The life and work of Fred Rogers was essentially one long campaign for a better world, with Mr. Rogers focusing his heroic goodness, his belief that everyone is equal and worthy of respect, on children. If you were going to make a narrative film about Mr...