Emilia Clarke on Daenerys’ arc in Game of Thrones

*The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up all the way through the finale, read no more.*

Now that Game of Thrones has finally ended, there will be much rumination on what the show meant. To those of us (and we are legion, of course) who watched every episode and spent as much time, if not more, debating the series various merits, deficits, and many, many plot twists, it’s safe to say the arc of Daenerys Targaryen will rank as the most debated facet of all...

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum Director on the Film’s Epic Stunts & Real Dogs

Chad Stahelski started out as a kick-boxer, served as Keanu Reeve‘s stunt double in The Matrix and rose through the ranks as a stunt choreographer with his own 87eleven Action Design before co-launching the John Wick franchise in 2014. Directing Reeves as an indomitable assassin, Stahelski has staged most of the 54-year-old actor’s action sequences “in camera,” minimizing digital effects in favor of physical performance. The old school approach has wowed fans to the tune of $261 million in world wide box office,...

Westworld‘s Surprising Season 3 Trailer Hints at Totally Different Show

When we heard that Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul was joining Westworld for season three, we had no idea he would be doing so in a completely different looking show. if you were one of the millions of people hunkering down for Game of Thrones‘ series finale last night, you likely caught the trailer for Westworld season 3, without realizing it was a trailer for Westworld season 3 until the very end...

Cruel Catharsis in Game of Thrones Finale “The Iron Throne”

*This is a recap of the finale of Game of Thrones, spoiling said finale if you haven’t seen it.*

Jon Snow, Queenslayer. Bran Stark (now somewhat rudely dubbed Bran the Broken), Ruler of the Six Kingdoms. Bronn of High Garden, Master of Coin (!?). The series finale of Game of Thrones bestowed old friends with new titles, altered lives, and the suddenly unavoidable (and largely predictable) downfall of Daenerys Targaryen. “The Iron Throne”...

Composer Herdis Stefansdottir on her Intimate score for The Sun is Also a Star

Herdis Stefansdottir, scoring artist for the new release The Sun is Also a Star, is a rare example of a female composer working on a major studio film. She was hired when she was 7 months pregnant, and says that had a major impact on the creation of her emotional, often intimate score.

The film follows the college-bound romantic Daniel (Charles Melton) and a Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha (Yara Shahidi) who meet—and fall in love—over one momentous day in New York City...

The Batman has Found Its Caped Crusader—Robert Pattinson

There you have it, folks. The man who became a star playing a teenage vampire in the Twilight series, Robert Pattinson, will be your next Batman. Variety‘s Justin Kroll reports that Pattison is close to closing a deal to star in Matt Reeves The Batman, playing Gotham’s dark knight in the hotly anticipated reboot. The film is slated to begin filming this summer. Reeves has been developing the project since he officially took over directing duties from Ben Affleck in 2017...

Chris Rock is Rebooting the Saw Franchise

Nobody saw this one coming. Yet once you think about it for a second, it’s both exciting and intriguing. Chris Rock, arguably the greatest comedian of his generation and a serious filmmaker as well, is rebooting the Saw franchise. Bloody Disgusting reports that Rock came up with a new story for the famously brutal franchise, which was turned into a script by Jigsaw writers Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg. The film will be directed by Saw alum Darren Lynn Bousman,...

Trial by Fire Director Edward Zwick on Revisiting a Heartbreaking Story

Cameron Todd Willingham, who’s played by British actor Jack O’Connell in director Edward Zwick‘s Trial by Fire, was not an exemplary character. But he almost certainly didn’t set the 1991 blaze that killed his three young daughters, an alleged crime for which he was executed by the state of Texas in 2004. The fire was likely accidental, as was demonstrated by the evidence presented in David Grann’s 2009 New Yorker piece and Incendiary: The Willingham Case,...

Put up Your Dukes for Black Mirror‘s Season 5 Trailer

One of the best shows on TV is back. Black Mirror has released the first trailer for season 5, and it’s as cryptic and unsettling as you’d expect. It’s not a stretch to say that Black Mirror has been one of the most consistently excellent, boundary-pushing series on television since it first aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom back in 2011. Since moving to its new home at Netflix, Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have delivered ever more ambitious,...

Game of Thrones Finale Images Tease the Mad Queen

How do we know that HBO wants to keep whatever secrets are left in Game of Thrones as secret as possible? Usually, they release about a half dozen (or more) photos for the upcoming episode—for the finale, they’ve given us but two. The first and most potent is the featured image of Daenerys Targaryen looking down upon her victorious army and the smoldering ruins of King’s Landing. It’s safe to say that last Sunday’s episodes “The Bells”...

Did Game of Thrones Tease Dany’s Fate With Green Fire?

This post contains spoilers for those of you not caught up to last Sunday’s episode “The Bells.” Apparently, you weren’t one of the 18.4 million people who watched it.

At the end of Game of Thrones gut-punch of a penultimate episode, “The Bells,” there were several blasts of mysterious green fire. You might have missed them in all the death and destruction Daenerys Targaryen was raining down on King’s Landing...

How Avengers: Endgame‘s Editor Handled Time Traveling Twists & Turns

SPOILER ALERT: This story reveals plot points seen in Avengers: Endgame and other Marvel films.

Even before Avengers: Infinity War was completed editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt were already working on what they were calling Avengers 4 in April of last year. The project, shrouded in secrecy, was to be a culmination of 10+ years and 22 films in the making cleverly dubbed Avengers: Endgame.

During its first three weeks at the box office,...

Avengers: Endgame Visual Effects Supervisor on Happy Hulk, Lebowski Thor & More

Spoiler alert for those of you who still haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame. 

The Marvel universe’s supersized super-villain Thanos (Josh Brolin, plus CG) last year dealt a heavy hand to overpopulation in Avengers: Infinity War, wiping out half of humanity with a snap of his fingers warmed by his Infinity Stone encrusted gauntlet. Five years onward the Avengers are looking stuck, with those remaining still in mourning and low on solutions. Their situation appears irreversible until Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) re-emerges from the quantum realm,...

Costume Designer Jennifer Rogien on Outfitting Netflix’s Brilliant Russian Doll

As Nadia, Russian Doll’s wise-cracking heroine who dies repeatedly only to be reborn in the bathroom of her birthday party, Natasha Lyonne looks the part of the quintessential New York woman (which, in real life, she is), her all-black ensemble from boots to blouse easily complementing the withering energy with which she confronts her friends, ex, the homeless guy on the corner, and assorted other compatriots. In contrast, the only other soul in the world who understands her plight because he,...

Game of Thrones “The Bells” Breaks Series Record for Viewership

Divisive, devastating, and now, historic. Game of Thrones’ penultimate episode “The Bells” broke the series record for viewership this past Sunday. The episode in which Daenerys Targaryen turned King’s Landing into a hellscape hauled in a record 18.4 million viewers across HBO’s platforms. This topped the previous record holder, “The Long Night,” which aired a mere two weeks ago. It’s not terribly surprising that the series’ two top performing episodes would be the final seasons’...

Disney Confirms Next Star Wars Film Coming From Game of Thrones Co-Creators

Game of Thrones is currently the most talked about piece of pop culture entertainment in the world. Especially now that Avengers: Endgame has been out for a while, everybody is either talking about Game of Thrones or complaining about how much people are talking about Game of Thrones. That won’t change for at least another week, with the finale coming this Sunday, and now the official word is in about another massive franchise—Game of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D.B...

Midsommar Trailer From Hereditary Director Teases a Sunlit Nightmare

Writer/director Ari Aster burst onto the scene with last year’s insanely scary Hereditary. What that film did for miniatures and sticking your head out of car windows to get some air, his new film Midsommar will likely do for summer festivals. The first trailer is here and it delivers the kind of thrills you’d expect from Aster, but in an entirely different setting and without the advantage of being able to hide his horrors in darkness...

Angelina Jolie is Back in First Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Teaser

Angelina Jolie is back on the big screen. The actress, producer, writer, and director is returning to the front for the first time since her 2015 film By the Sea. Jolie is reprising her role as the tortured, complex Sleeping Beauty villain in director Joachim Rønning’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and the first trailer delivers back to the mystical world of magical spells and embittered queens. In Mistress of Evil, Jolie’s Maleficent will have a richer role to play...

Here’s What Made Dany’s Assault on King’s Landing so Viscerally Terrifying

Director Miguel Sapochnik and cinematographer Fabian Wagner have worked together on four of Game of Thrones most ambitious episodes. The two teamed up for season 5’s skirmish with the Night King, “Hardhome,” season 6’s muddy epic “Battle of the Bastards,” this season’s Battle of Winterfell in “The Long Night,” and finally, last night’s shockingly horrific “The Bells.” While everyone had understandably assumed that the battle with the Night King would be the marquee war episode,...

Jean Grey Breaks Bad in new Dark Phoenix Trailer

Daenerys Targaryen isn’t the only powerful women breaking bad these days. Over on the big screen, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones very own Sansa Stark!) is having a moment. The powerful telekinetic mutant and longstanding member of the X-Men (X-people) is headlining Simon Kinberg’s new film. This is so much Jean Grey’s film, they even dropped X-Men from the title. A new trailer brings us all the way back to the very first X-Men movie 20-years ago,...