Early Reactions to Midsommar Hype Horror Masterpiece
Jordan Peele loved it, and now it seems others who have gotten an early look at Ari Aster‘s Midsommar agree—this film is a wicked, wild horror masterpiece. It’s also funny! Early reactions to Aster’s follow-up to his smashing, terrifying 2018 debut Hereditary are starting to surface online. The reactions are essentially raves. Aster seems to have pulled off the very tricky feat of nailing his second film. This is what Peele himself just accomplished...
Avengers: Endgame Returning to Theaters With Extra Footage
If you thought that the original theatrical release of Avengers: Endgame could have been a little longer, you’re going to be very happy indeed. The Russo Brothers’ colossal critical and commercial smash is returning to theaters with additional footage. The scoop comes from ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davis, who spoke with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige at the Spider-Man: Far From Home press junket in London. (Yes, there will be spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen Endgame yet.)
“We are doing that,”...
Marvel is Coming to Comic-Con’s Hall H—What are They Coming With?
Well, this is big news in the world of film. Deadline reports that Marvel is returning to Comic-Con’s Hall H after sitting out last year’s fest. So far, no one knows what kind of lineup they’re bringing to San Diego, which means there’s plenty of room for professional and amateur speculators to start guessing.
Considering we’ve just witnessed the culmination of a 22-film art with Avengers: Endgame, and the wrap on Marvel’s Phase 4 with the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home, ...
The Game of Thrones Prequel Pilot has Begun Filming
If you’re still not quite over the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, you’re not alone. HBO’s record-breaking series has only just ended after a shortened, controversial final six episodes. Regardless of how you felt about the ending, GoT became something truly rare in our culture of atomized interests, infinite options and niche programming—must-see programming that millions of people dutifully waited to watch. Considering the success of the series and the richness of George R...
Former Mythbusters Cohost Built a Real-Life Iron Man Suit That Actually Flies
If anyone was going to be able to build an actual, working Iron Man suit, former Mythbuster cohost Adam Savage would have been a great bet to pull it off. Savage revealed the suit for the first episode of his new Discovery series Savage Builds. He worked with a group of engineers who helped him 3D-print a titanium suit that took its inspiration directly from Tony Stark himself. Folks, this suit actually flies...
Spencer Averick on Finding Truth & Humanity in the Edit of When They See Us
Netflix rarely releases viewer numbers, but on June 12th, the streaming service tweeted that Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us has been its most-watched content in the US since the show’s premiere on May 31st. In the UK, When They See Us has been running second only to Black Mirror. But audiences hardly need to turn to Black Mirror’s fictional, dystopian worlds to watch the miscarriage of justice play out on the small screen...
New Spider-Man: Far From Home Images & Footage Tease Ambitious Final Film in Marvel’s Phase 3
There are a few things we’ve learned about Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home that speaks to how this film is a lot more than just the chaser to Avengers: Endgame‘s very strong shot. One is the fact that it deals directly (spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen Endgame) with Tony Stark’s death. The second is that Far From Home teases out the repercussions of Endgame‘s time-traveling madness by introducing the multiverse...
How Russian Doll’s Cinematographer Owned the Night in Netflix’s hit Series
“Joel was amazing for coming up with solutions for turning New York into a Russian Doll city.” The Big Apple already boasts its share of Russian dolls, mobsters, peroshkis, and more, of course, but cinematographer Chris Teague is instead referring his gaffer, Joel Minnich, and the recent hit Netflix series of the same title, which he shot.
Starring co-creator, co-producer (and for one episode, director) Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll follows the various embedded and unraveling realities of Nadia,...
Here’s Your First Look at Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story
There isn’t a genre that Steven Spielberg can’t tackle. The legendary director has worked in nearly every genre, save one. He’s delivered groundbreaking CGI spectacles from Jurassic Park to Ready Player One, and taut espionage thrillers like Bridge of Spies or Munich. He’s obviously a master of sci-fi (not only does Ready Player One qualify, but so does Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., A.I., and War of the Worlds,...
Carmen Ejogo on her Pivotal Role in True Detective’s Season Three
In season three of True Detective, creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto returns to the series’ Southern Gothic roots, with two detectives, Vietnam vet Wayne “Purple” Hays (Mahershala Ali) and Roland West (Stephen Dorff) trying to solve the murder of one child and the disappearance of another in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hays takes the lead on the case in 1980 and is doing desk work and starting to lose his memory by the time we reach 1990 (West,...
Jared Harris on Creating Valery Legasov, Chernobyl’s Reluctant Hero
It’s the lies told throughout Craig Mazin’s five-episode series Chernobyl that get you. After all, most anybody watching the HBO program set in today’s northern Ukraine will already know that the Soviet nuclear plant exploded in 1986, the area was eventually evacuated, and the adjacent newly-built town of Pripyat transformed into a ghost city, as did 1,000 square miles of other towns and villages in what’s now known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone...
Todd Phillips Scares up a new Image of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker
While we’ve still got more than four months until writer/director Todd Phillips’ Joker hits the big screen, it’s fairly incredible how little we actually know about the film. The first stand-alone film for one of the most iconic villains in comic book (or comic book movie) history, Joker gets extra intrigue points for having Joaquin Phoenix in the title role. We’ve parsed the trailer for every conceivable Easter Egg,...
Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ VFX Supervisor on Giving Mythic Dimension to the Titans
Godzilla first came to life in 1954 when actor Haruo Nakajima put on a sweltering 220-pound suit and tromped around a Tokyo soundstage smashing miniature buildings. Orchestrated by special effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya, the black and white Godzilla, King of the Monsters terrified movie audiences and effectively birthed the Kaiju cinematic universe of radiation-mutated ogres. This summer, Godzilla: King of the Monsters version 2 relied on five visual effects shops to digitally resuscitate the gargantuan title reptile and fellow titans Rodan,...
Which Villains Will Appear in Matt Reeves The Batman?
Now that we know Robert Pattinson is the next Caped Crusader in Matt Reeves The Batman, the focus can turn towards the villains. There has been quite a lot of speculation on the old internet (you don’t say?) about which of the many iconic Batman villains might appear. One of the things that have always made Batman such a great superhero, both in the comics and on the big screen, is Gotham is such a rich source of weirdo villains...
How Rent: Live‘s Production Designer Created a 360-Degree World on Live TV
One of the most ambitious TV projects of this year that didn’t include CGI dragons and battles with ice zombies happened on Sunday night, January 27. This was the moment when Fox aired a live version of the iconic musical Rent. To call staging a live version of Rent on TV ambitious is probably underselling it. The musical, which focuses on seven artists living in New York City’s East Village in 1996, dealing with immense social and political turmoil,...
First Doctor Sleep Trailer Reveals The Shining‘s Long-Awaited Sequel
May the sun never set on the Stephen King empire. Adaptations of the horror master’s novels keep coming at us, on the big screen and small, at a truly astonishing pace. Among those are Andy Muschietti’s beloved 2017 adaptation IT (and the upcoming IT: Chapter Two), the recent reboot of Pet Sematary, and now Doctor Sleep. This latest film is based on King’s 2013 sequel to “The Shining,”...
All of Game of Thrones‘ Most Iconic Deaths Rendered Art in new Video
*At some point we’ll probably stop including this disclaimer, but…the following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up, stop reading.
Illustrator Robert Ball is the man behind Game of Thrones “Beautiful Death” series. For all 8 seasons of HBO’s game-changing series, Ball has re-created the most iconic deaths from every single episode. His work is achingly beautiful—despite, or possibly because of—the dark subject matter. He also aimed to put each death he illustrated in context for what it meant for the show going forward...
Here’s Why Captain Marvel‘s Directors Made the Skrulls the Good Guys
Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck made a lot of bold choices with their excellent Captain Marvel. In fact, the film was filled with fun twists, clever Easter Eggs, and narrative turns to enliven this origin story into something stranger than you’d expect. Yet no choice was as bold—or surprising—as their decision to make the shape-shifting Skrulls the good guys. The entire marketing campaign was essentially a deft fakeout—we were led to believe these reliable villains from the comic books would be the main baddies in Captain Marvel. ...
Leaving Neverland‘s Composer on Scoring a Legacy Shattered
It’s sometimes hard to fathom the kind of pinnacle Michael Jackson reached. The King of Pop was a singular phenomenon without equal. His dominion was the entire planet. His star power was so colossal, his status as the greatest living entertainer so secure, it is not unreasonable to say no one will ever enjoy (if you can call it enjoyment) that level of fame again. His influence on artists far and wide is still being felt today. This was a different time and a different industry,...
Meet The Other Two‘s Secret Weapon—Songwriter Brett McLaughlin
If you haven’t watched Comedy Central’s The Other Two, I’m jealous of you. It is one of this year’s most consistently funny shows, with a joke-per-minute ratio that rivals some of our recent standard bearers, like HBO’s Veep. Go watch it and see for yourself. Created by SNL alums Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two centers on a young musician named Chase Dreams (Case Walker),...
