HBO Reveals First Footage From Game of Thrones Final Season
What better time for HBO to drop the first official footage from Game of Thrones 8th and final season than during the Golden Globes? With a TV and film-loving audience planted on their couches as a captive audience, it’s a great opportunity for studios and networks to tease their upcoming projects (as Marvel did for Captain Marvel). Not only was HBO teasing the GoT, but we also got a peek at the first footage from Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series.
How Ruth Ginsberg’s Nephew Wrote On the Basis of Sex
Before he experienced the memorial service epiphany that led to On the Basis of Sex, writer Daniel Stiepleman had knocked around for a few years, working in the Peace Corps, teaching high school English and producing TV commercials in Wisconsin. Then, he attended the 2010 funeral of his uncle Martin, the late husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. “Martin’s friend gave a eulogy and mentioned in passing that discrimination on the basis of sex was the only case Ruth and Marty ever argued together,”
Stan & Ollie Director Revisits a Great Doubles Act
When he was a kid growing up in Scotland, filmmaker Jon. S. Baird loved Laurel and Hardy movies so much that he impersonated Stan Laurel at his school’s “fancy dress” day alongside a classmate dressed in an Oliver Hardy outfit. Three decades later, Baird pays homage to the great song-and-dance comedy team as director of Stan & Ollie. In the movie, opening wide January 11, Steve Coogan plays the duo’s rake-thin mastermind with Golden Globe-nominated John C.
Oscar Watch: Black Panther‘s Co-Editor on the Key Scene She Influenced
A rich African inspired heritage and fierce women warriors proved this year that fresh perspectives are long overdue on screen. Black Panther came out swinging and took a major swipe at barriers to cinematic representation. The immensely talented team dreamed up a world that was not only thrilling and gorgeous but also put new faces at the forefront of the superhero genre. Not only were there more black actors on screen than any other Marvel film,
Ruby Rose’s Batwoman Role Will Be Expanded in Spinoff Pilot Episode
Kate Kane was one of the most buzzed about TV characters of last year, even though she only had a few minutes of screen time and appeared on a series other than her own. Ruby Rose was announced in the role to much fanfare back in August, but the news was just that she would appear in the Arrow-verse crossover event “Elseworlds.” Unsurprisingly, Rose made a magnificent debut as Kane and Batwoman has officially snagged a standalone series.
Oscar Watch: Cold War‘s DP Lukasz Zal on Crafting Pawel Pawlikowski’s Latest Masterpiece
Cinematographer Lukasz Zal won the prestigious Silver Frog Award at Camerimage for his work on Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, a ravishing look at a romance over the course of 30-years and several thousand miles through Europe. Zal had worked with Pawlikowski on Ida, the director’s previous masterpiece, as a cameraman (he ultimately earned himself a co-cinematographer credit). For Cold War, Zal was in command of the camera team,
Oscar Watch: Barry Jenkins on his Lyrical Adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk
If Beale Street Could Talk has been getting awards buzz and accolades for months, and with the Golden Globes set to arrive this Sunday, Barry Jenkins second masterpiece (in a row, no less) will be one of the night’s big winners. Still hot from his 3 Oscar wins for Moonlight, Jenkins is reaffirming he’s a major force in film, with Beale Street already winning or nominated for dozens of awards,
How the Solo: A Star Wars Story VFX Team Designed an Early Millennium Falcon
Han and Chewie are both great, but they share the screen with another serious Star Wars icon. Solo: A Star Wars Story rolled back the clocked to reveal some iconic moments from the franchise’s legacy. Chief among them was the unveiling of a retro Millennium Falcon. Industrial Light and Magic were charged with creating the new design and have now released a behind the scenes glimpse at how and why the changes were made.
Oscar Watch: BlacKkKlansman Hair and Makeup Designers on the Impact of Appearances
BlacKkKlansman was one of the most stirring films of the year with a chilling portrayal of hatred. In typical Spike Lee fashion, it was also funky, cool, and completely enthralling. The true story of dangerous prejudices and brave efforts to fight back was rooted in appearance. Some of the most monstrous of the characters masqueraded in a façade of normalcy.
“As far as the Klansmen, I wanted some of them to look like normal people and clean-cut,” makeup department head Martha Melendez said.
Oscar Watch: Mary Queen of Scots‘ Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne
Mary Queen of Scots is a gorgeous film to behold, with the dueling Queens looking period-perfect from head to toe. As the film’s hair and makeup artist Jenny Shircore told us, “You’ve got two queens, two powerful women, two women who have never met, who are yet influenced by each other’s beauty and power. They are jealous of each other, afraid of each other, all the way through this is the story we’re telling.
Oscar Watch: If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne on Love, Stillness, & Working With Barry Jenkins
KiKi Layne stars as Tish Rivers in Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of the novel by James Baldwin. A beautiful love story layered in social commentary, as relevant now as it was when the novel was originally released in 1974, Layne draws the viewer in with one of the best performances of the year, making you feel her hope, her fear, her potent love and, ultimately, her resolve. A relative newcomer to feature films,
Cinematographer René Richter on Creating the Sumptuous Head Full of Honey
When director Til Schweiger and his team shot Honig im Kopf, about a family dealing with a grandparent’s onset of Alzheimer’s, his team primarily worked where the film was set: continental European countryside, plus a bit of London. Minor interior replacements subbed Germany in for Venice. When Schweiger and his crew reconvened to film an English-language remake, Head Full of Honey, the settings changed, though the locations often didn’t.
The Justice League Comes to the Rescue in The LEGO Movie 2 Trailer
The first trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part was kind of bleak and despairing. Bricksburg was destroyed and there were super cheery alien invaders wreaking havoc. Fear not, though. All hope is not yet lost. There are still superheroes in Bricksburg, even if they don’t seem particularly super.
Our LEGO pals are not going to just stand by and let their friends be kidnapped by shapeshifting extraterrestrials. When Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) and others go missing,
Stranger Things 3 Announces a Summer Release
These poor kids. Haven’t they been through enough already? The Upside down, the Mind Flayer, the Demogorgons. That should be enough for any preteen years. Can the next season be called Awkward School Dances or Boring Summer Job? No? It’s still called Stranger Things? Fine, but please pick on someone other than Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) this time.
Your favorite supernatural teenage torture show dropped in on the New Year to announce its return.
Oscar Watch: The Favourite‘s Editor on Cutting the Year’s Most Deliciously Devilish Film
Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite is a delicious piece of filmmaking. Gorgeous to look at, actors having the times of their lives, and that special brand of merry malice that Lanthimos is uniquely capable of is all on the menu here. Set in the 18th-century, The Favourite revolves around Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and rival courtiers Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone) who vie for her attention,
Writer David Magee on Recreating the Magic in Mary Poppins Returns
The character Mary Poppins has been as well known for a very long time. She was beloved in the pages of P.L. Travers’ eight-volume children series, and then she became something of a global sensation thanks to Disney’s 1964’s Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews made the role an icon, not just for the magical nanny’s ability to effortlessly tidy up, but to do so with her wit, vanity, and compassion ever intact. The film’s early seamless blend of live action and animation,
Oscar Watch: Roma‘s Production Designer on Recreating Mexico City in the 1970s
Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is one of the most astonishing film experiences of the year. The word experience fits, as Cuaron and his team created a lush soundscape that’s nearly as captivating as the shimmering black-and-white cinematography. Then there’s Roma‘s exquisite design, which recreates Cuaron’s hometown of Mexico City, specifically the neighborhood of Roma where he grew up. The focus is on a middle-class family and their live-in servants,
The Bone-Chilling Trailer for Jordan Peele’s Mysterious Us Has Arrived
How well do you really know yourself? Hopefully, well enough to outsmart another you if it should ever attack. This is the terrifying new premise that we didn’t even know we were afraid of until Jordan Peele made it into a nightmare. The first trailer for Us is here and it is more awesomely unsettling than we ever imagined.
Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) and Gabe (Winston Duke) Wilson look like loving, happy,
The Talented Screenwriter Behind the Lovable, Genuinely Fun Bumblebee
The Transformers franchise has been, well, transformed with the coming of Bumblebee. The newest chapter of the Autobot saga has been hailed for infusing the metallic morphing machines with real heart. Director Travis Knight is the first director to helm one of the films after Michael Bay, but much of the credit for pushing the explosive action films into an emotional new era goes to screenwriter Christina Hodson.
On the Basis of Sex: Editing the Origin Story of a Real-Life Hero
Every great hero begins somewhere. Before saving the planet, superheroes often channel their gift from the gods, survive the bite or a spider, or mutate after alien radiation exposure. The hero of On the Basis of Sex, however, began her journey of toppling titans and freeing the people in a place far more ordinary. A courtroom.
“When [director] Mimi [Leder] approached me initially about the project, I also had expectations this is going to be this grand biopic of Justice Ginsburg’s life and how she got to where she is,” editor Michelle Tesoro recalled.
