How The Voice Production Design Inspires Musical Creativity
Tonight, Spensha Baker, Britton Buchanan, Brynn Cartelli or Kyla Jade will be crowned the newest winner of The Voice. Whether you’re Team Blake, Team Alicia, Team Kelly, or even Team Adam, The Voice is always an inviting place to spend time every week. The talent is astonishing, the rivalry is riotous, and the environment is electric. Production designer James Pearse Connelly is responsible for transforming a singing competition into a glamorous music haven where dreams are born...
Writer/Director Ramin Bahrani on the Spooky Timeliness of his Fahrenheit 451 Adaptation for HBO
We’re living in times that are increasingly concerning. Okay, that’s a massive understatement. After the election of Donald Trump, dystopian novels became increasingly popular again with reissues of novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The latter novel, which is now a bleak and hugely popular Hulu series, is a good example of the types of stories audiences have been looking to turn to in confusing and trying times...
How Annihilation‘s Team Created That Insanely Gruesome Bear
Alex Garland makes sci-fi films for people who love the genre’s malleability, the way it can contain other genres within itself like a Russian nesting doll. He wrote the twitchy, truly terrifying zombie thriller 28 Days Later, the brilliant, pared down artificial intelligence “romance” Ex Machina, the gorgeous, heartbreaking Arrival, and last year’s trippy, terrifying Annihilation. Each one was singular. Each one was a sci-fi film that relished in the genre’s plasticity...
Farewell to The Middle, One ‘Heck’ of a Show
There are few things in this world as simple and pure as a snow globe. A beautiful snapshot of an idyllic place that brings joy and comfort to those who cherish it. The Middle has been that rare perfect keepsake for nine incredible seasons, and tonight we say goodbye. Grab a jar of olives, meet at the fridge, and toast to the Hecks.
By 2008, reality TV had exploded. The genre had evolved from Big Brother where ‘normal people’ were doing ‘normal things’ into the ultimate celebrity voyeurism,...
Your First Look at Zachary Levi in his Shazam! Costume
Here’s your first look at Zachary Levi (Chuck) in his Shazam! costume, the first time we’ve seen the star of the upcoming Warner Bros./DC release in his superhero duds. Granted, it’s an image of Levi smiling in front of an ad with him in the suit, but it still gives us a glimpse of what director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) is doing with the film...
Go Behind-the-Scenes of Andy Serkis’ Mowgli
In Andy Serkis’ new film Mowgli, the classic Rudyard Kipling children’s story “The Jungle Book” is getting an adaptation that is much closer in spirit to Kipling’s darker tone. The new trailer showed just how much Serkis was committed to capturing the story of a feral child torn between the home he has always known in the jungle, and the confusing, even more terrifying world of humans. Played by Rohan Chand, Mowgli is very much the title character’s story,...
Mowgli Trailer Reveals Andy Serkis’ Darker Take on “The Jungle Book”
We can think of few better filmmakers to take another look at Ruyard Kipling’s iconic “The Jungle Book” about a feral child raised in the jungle than the multi-talented Andy Serkis. The actor, director and motion-capture trailblazer has been everywhere in recent years, from playing the chimpanzee Caesar in the consistently excellent Planet of the Apes trilogy to the gleeful super criminal Klaw in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther to the big bad Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. ...
President and Mrs. Obama Will Bring Their Storytelling Skills to Netflix
Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama worked their way up from young dreamers to the most powerful stage in the world. Their messages of hope and hard work was heard around the world and now they’re sharing their voice with others. Netflix announced the Obamas have signed a multi-year contract to produce content for the streaming service.
The couple has established ‘Higher Ground Productions,’ a reference to Mrs. Obama’s famous motto, “When they go low,...
Check Out The Incredible Makeup Design of Deadpool 2
Earlier today we published our interview with Deadpool 2 makeup designer Bill Corso, and now, we’re sharing some brand new behind-the-scenes images that showcase the incredible work he and his team did. The most obvious—and crucial—makeup design was making sure Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) was just as hideous as we remember him from 2016’s Deadpool, but Reynolds asked Corso if he could find a way to cut down the amount of time it would take to turn the actor’s handsome mug into the Merc with the Mouth’s signature freak show of mottled,...
Shogun World Felt Oddly Familiar to the Westworld Hosts
This is Maeve’s world and the rest of the hosts are just living in it. The mid-season finale of Westworld finally brought us into Shogun World, and it was a brutal introduction. The gorgeous parallels Jonathan Nolan has been teasing between the two parks really pays off in an interesting way. As always, HBO released a fascinating behind the scenes look at the latest episode, as well as a teaser for what’s to come in episode 6. Warning,...
Your Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 Villain Might be Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio
Have you seen Avengers: Infinity War? If not, stop reading.
Still here? Great. So yes, despite the fact that Thanos killed Spider-Man (and Black Panther, and Doctor Strange, and half the universe, possibly including you), there will be a Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 (only it’ll have a different title), slated for a July 5, 2019 release. Now THR has it that Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to play the villainous Mysterio in director Jon Watt’s sequel...
Deadpool 2 Has a Record Breaking Opening Day
Superhero movies are sort of a big deal, you may have heard. They just keep getting bigger, crazier, and more even more fun. Deadpool 2 took a winning formula from the first film and ramped it up, big time, to a massive opening weekend, smashing a few records in the mouth on the way. Andy Muschietti’s It opened last fall to a whopping $50.4 million— Deadpool 2 slid past with $53.3 million this past weekend,...
Watch Wade Wilson Join the X-Men in Deadpool 2
You may have heard that Deadpool 2 hit theaters this past weekend, breaking records and firmly establishing the Merc with a Mouth (Ryan Reynolds) as a superstar superhero. Everyone seems to agree that Deadpool 2 is even crazier and more fun than the original. Yet even though Deadpool is a bonafide bada**, he still yearns for the cachet that his more established colleagues have. We’re talking about the X-Men, who Deadpool finally joins during the shenanigans in Deadpool 2. ...
Deadpool 2‘s Makeup Designer Bill Corso on Creating Wade’s Brutal Face
Makeup designer Bill Corso earned an Emmy Award nomination for crafting jowls and big ears for Bryan Cranston so he could look like President Lyndon Johnson in All the Way. But more often, Corso traffics in the realm of the fantastical as he does with Deadpool 2. Re-teaming with star Ryan Reynolds, Corso devised the hideous skin of cancer patient/medical experiment/mercenary Wade Wilson, whose mottled face appears in close-up during movie’s opening sequence...
Stunning War for the Planet of the Apes VFX Reel Captures Incredible Scope of Work
Planet of the Apes was a groundbreaking cinematic experience in 1968 and continues to be the vehicle for the most advanced filmmaking techniques today. The level of detail in War for the Planet of the Apes is absolutely mesmerizing. The actors’ performances have been fully translated into multiple species of ape characters. VFX Supervisor Joe Letteri once gave us a deep dive into the process of turning and actor into an ape...
Director Wim Wenders on his Unprecedented Access in Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
At 72, German-born auteur Wim Wenders defies categorization as a filmmaker. He is as much at home with Oscar-nominated documentaries that deal with the arts (1999’s music-filled Buena Vista Social Club; 2011’s Pina, about German choreographer Pina Bausch; and 2014’s The Salt of the Earth, about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado) as he is with visually striking features (1984’s road-trip Western Paris, Texas, 1987’s angelic fantasy Wings of Desire)...
It’s a T-Rex Versus a Lion in Ferocious new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Spot
At the 21-second mark in this new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom TV spot you’ll see the matchup you didn’t know you’ve been waiting for—a T-Rex versus a lion. While the two don’t actually tangle in the brief glimpse, the very fact they’re in the same place tells you Fallen Kingdom will be venturing off Isla Nublar and plunging the dinosaurs into populated areas, much like Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park did in 1997...
Clark Duke Isn’t Always Playing for Laughs on Season 2 of I’m Dying Up Here
Ron Shack was a struggling comedian who was so broke that he was living in a closet—an actual closet—with his best friend Eddie Zeidel during season one of I’m Dying Up Here.
Now, Ron is enjoying the sweet taste of success in season two of the Showtime drama series that follows standups working at a comedy club called Goldie’s in Los Angeles in the 1970s. In the second season opener of I’m Dying Up Here,...
It: Chapter 2 Casts Two More Members of the Losers’ Club
Something enchanted is happening with the It cast. We’re not sure yet if it’s secretly evil or really as incredible as it seems. Pennywise knows how to lure people in and then unleash their deepest terror upon them, but if this is a trick, we’re all in. According to Deadline, It: Chapter 2 has added James Ransone and Variety reported that Andy Bean joined the already eerily perfect cast.
Ransone has been cast as the adult Eddie Kasprbrak,...
Deadpool Recounts the Long, Eventful Journey of the Two Film Franchise
If there’s anything to be said about Deadpool, it is that nothing is sacred. Not even the masterfully crafted and brilliantly delivered Marvel Universe in which he lives. The MCU has been enjoying a whiz bang ten-year anniversary since Iron Man launched the franchise. Black Panther roared to the top of the box office and Avengers: Infinity War is handily smashing the competition. The Merc with the Mouth decided to take his own trip down memory lane to reflect on the decade long journey to get to Deadpool 2...
