All the Easter Eggs Hidden in the Joker Trailer

The Joker trailer sent a chill and a thrill through the movie-loving world this week. Director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix‘s upcoming take on the origins of Gotham’s most iconic villain looks mesmerizing. Joker looks like no other film based on a comic book character that we’ve ever seen.

In fact, Joker looks more like a very intriguing character study of a man with mental illness (just as Marc Maron said it was) than a film based on a character ripped from the DC Comics universe.

By The Credits  |  April 5, 2019
Review Round-up: Shazam Sizzles

We already knew that the early reactions to Shazam were electric. With the film is coming out tomorrow, full-length reviews are out and they sizzle with enthusiasm. The critics have some very good things to say about David F. Sandberg’s film about a kid who becomes a superhero. One of the recurring themes in the reviews is how Shazam! manages to be a blast and a great family film.

By The Credits  |  April 4, 2019
Sarah Connor is Back in new Terminator: Dark Fate Images

Sarah Connor is back.

Linda Hamilton’s iconic character from James Cameron’s game-changing Terminator and T2: Judgement Day is back. Sarah Connor rejoins Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator in director Tim Miller‘s Terminator: Dark Fate. Paramount has released six new images from the film, which appeared alongside an exclusive interview IGN conducted with Miller.

Miller’s Dark Fate will handle the various Terminator films much in the same way David Gordon Green’s Halloween handled the previous films in that franchise;

By The Credits  |  April 4, 2019
The Cast of Cats Will be Shrunk to the Size of Actual Cats

First, right off the bat, our featured image is of an actual cat from Captain Marvel. That’s Goose—who was played by four different cats. He stole most of the scenes he was in. Now Tom Hooper is one-upping Goose in a major way. In Hooper’s upcoming adaptation of the iconic Broadway musical Cats, the remarkably talented cast will be shrunk to the size of actual cats.

By The Credits  |  April 4, 2019
David Harbour Joins the Black Widow Cast

Hellboy himself is joining the MCU. More accurately, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Hellboy and Stranger ThingsDavid Harbour is joining Marvel’s stand-alone Black Widow film. He’ll be joining the very talented actress Florence Pugh (Lady Lady Macbeth, Outlaw King) in director Cate Shortland’s film, which will track Scarlett Johansson’s titular superspy before she became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.

By The Credits  |  April 3, 2019
Our Planet‘s Composer Scores Nature’s Astonishing Variety—and Fragility

Composer Steven Price is best known for his Oscar-winning music used in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. Recently, Price turned his talents to creating the sweeping, majestic score for Netflix’s new original eight-part documentary series Our Planet. From the creators of Planet Earth, the show features spectacular footage of wildlife and their habitats and focuses on the importance of preserving them for our future.

By Leslie Combemale  |  April 3, 2019
Put on a Happy Face—The Joker Trailer Delivers

You are about to understand why audiences at CinemaCon were so blown away by the first trailer for Joker. Todd Phillips‘ origin story about one of the most iconic villains of all time looks as gritty as promised, with Joaquin Phoenix inhabiting the title role with his trademark intensity and craft.

“Arthur, does it help to have someone to talk to you?”

We open with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) in therapy.

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 3, 2019

Interview

Actor, Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Taraji P. Henson & the Team Behind The Best of Enemies on Crafting History

The Best of Enemies is based on the true story of an African-American activist named Ann Atwater and a KKK official named C.P. Ellis who were forced to work together in a fight over school desegregation in 1971. In an interview with The Credits, star Taraji P. Henson, who plays Ann, writer/director Robin Bissell, and producer Dominique Telson talked about bringing this potent true story to the screen.

Taraji,

By Nell Minow  |  April 3, 2019
The Joker Poster is Here, Trailer Coming Tomorrow

It’s time to put on a happy face.

The first poster for Todd Phillips‘ upcoming Joker is here. It’s delightfully creepy. Joaquin Phoenix’s titular psychopath is in his iconic clown paint. In Joker, Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck begins the film as a failed comedian. The poster gives us the Clown Prince of Chaos after his transformation from laughing stock to laughing lunatic. You’ll note that there appears to be blood on the Joker’s face.

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 2, 2019
Game of Thrones Season 8 Images Tease the Brutal Winter Ahead

No matter where you are or what the weather is like, this is the month of winter. It has finally arrived. The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is just two Sundays away.

If you are not fully caught up, we suggest you get back to binging before pouring over these new photos.

The first thing we notice is that it is really freaking cold.

By The Credits  |  April 2, 2019
New Game of Thrones Teaser Envisions the Victorious Dead

The tattered sigil of House Stark flies over what appears a destroyed Winterfell. Considering this new Game of Thrones teaser is entitled “Aftermath,” you would be forgiven for assuming the Night King and his army of the dead have already won.

HBO has been releasing Game of Thrones promos, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and videos that look back at previous seasons at a breakneck pace.

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 2, 2019
Thanos Makes his First Appearance in new Avengers: Endgame Trailer

Oh boy. Finally. It’s our first glimpse at the big purple lunatic since he laid waste to half the universe in Infinity War. Thanos returns—finally—in this new Avengers: Endgame special look. Or more accurately, our heroes return to Thanos. This point is key. And this “Special Look” delivers more fresh footage than we thought we’d get from any Endgame spot leading to the premiere.

By The Credits  |  April 2, 2019
Two new Game of Thrones Promos Highlight the Cost of War

True to its title, the first new Game of Thrones promo is all about survival. Here we get a remix of sorts of some of the more thrilling moments we saw from the season 8 trailer. You’ve got Jon Snow (Kit Harington) standing before the weirwood tree in the godswood of Winterfell. There are brief shots of Cersei (Lena Headey) and Qyburn (Anton Lesser), looking smug and sinister both. There’s Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) suiting up for the coming war.

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 2, 2019
How Game of Thrones‘ Visual Effects Team Give Dany’s Dragons Life

We are less than two weeks away from Game of Thrones season 8 premiere. In the run-up to the first episode of the series last season, HBO has been giving us a ton of behind-the-scenes looks. We’ve learned how the stunt crew safely sets people on fire. We’ve watched the prosthetics team turn actors into White Walkers. We revisited one of the series most seminal moments with director Alan Taylor,

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 1, 2019
Evil Targets The Warren’s Daughter in First Annabelle Comes Home Trailer

If the Warrens say that something is dangerously possessed by an evil spirit, you had better believe them. Of course, people never listen and the creepiest doll on the planet breaks loose again in Annabelle Comes Home.

The Warrens keep the most dangerous items from their cases under strict lock and key to protect the public from curses and demons. However, they cannot protect people from their own stupidity in a new trailer for Annabelle Comes Home.

By Kelle Long  |  April 1, 2019
Bill Murray & Adam Driver Battle Zombies in The Dead Don’t Die

Is this the best cast ever assembled for a zombie movie? Yes. Yes, it is. Or, “disassembled,” as the film’s poster would have it. A zombie movie with the likes of Tilda Swinton and Steve Buscemi? Bill Murray and Adam Driver? Musician-actor phenoms Iggy Pop, RZA and Tom Waits? Jarmusch has a way of taking genres and making them cooler, funnier and weirder. He’s done it for westerns (1995’s Dead Man),

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 1, 2019
Captain Marvel‘s Co-Editor Debbie Berman On her Favorite Scenes

In order to defeat the all-powerful Thanos, the Avengers will have to reach back in time. That doesn’t mean using the Time Stone to rewind back to before the snap, although we won’t rule that out. I’m referring to our recent trip to 90s era MCU to meet the newest and most potent Avenger.

With a decade of character development behind us, Marvel had just one movie to catch us up on all things Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) before pulling her into the fight of a lifetime.

By Kelle Long  |  April 1, 2019
Pet Sematary‘s Final Trailer Digs Deep

Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer Pet Sematary reboot had a lot to live up too. Director Mary Lambert’s 1989 original, based off one of Stephen King‘s most wrenchingly unsettling novels, made a whole generation of moviegoers appreciate the importance of their Achilles heel. That particular scene still gives me the creeps anytime I think about it. Lambert’s Sematary had a bunch of shocking sequences that crept out of the theater and stalked the viewer for days,

By Bryan Abrams  |  April 1, 2019
Director Joe Russo on Avoiding Avengers: Endgame Spoilers

Avengers: Endgame opens in China on April 24, two days before its’ April 26 premiere in America. This is significant for one major reason above all others—the film is filled with spoilers. The Russo Brothers finale to their two-part epic will likely break the worldwide box office opening weekend record set by—yup, Avengers: Infinity War. If you want to see the film without having major plot points spoiled for you,

By Bryan Abrams  |  March 29, 2019

Interview

Production Designer

Dumbo’s Production Designer on Building Real Sets for a Flying Elephant

Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo is not for children faint of heart. The iconic baby elephant with his signature oversized ears is ripped just as mercilessly from his mother in this modern update as he once was in Disney’s original 1941 animated feature. This time around, however, Dumbo’s got bigger, better allies. Upgraded from Timothy the mouse we now have the Farrier children, Milly, and Joe (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins),

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  March 29, 2019