Rick Deckard’s Companion in Blade Runner 2049 is Top Dog, Literally
The Oscars may have been what most people were tuned into last night, but another important award ceremony was held just a day before. Palm Dog USA held their annual award ceremony on March 4 in Los Angeles. THR reported that the competition for dogs in show business is typically a staple of the Cannes Film Festival, but the ceremony in L.A. marks the first time the awards were held in the United States...
Phasma Madness, Rey Rage & More: Here are the First Details on Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s Deleted Scenes
The home release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is like manna from heaven for Star Wars fans. It’s when we not only get to own the film so we can watch it, again and again, parsing for the small details we missed in the theater, but also when we get to see those delicious deleted scenes. Delicious because the scenes that didn’t make the final cut can offer a ton of context and a deeper understanding of what writer/director Rian Johnson was going for in his ambitious,...
Watch Charles Barkley Slay in This SNL Star Wars Skit That was Cut for Time
One of the more absurd and overlooked aspects of the Star Wars franchise is that somehow everyone in the galaxy is multi-lingual. No matter what planet people travel to and who—or what—they might encounter there, no one in any Star Wars film ever says, “I have no idea what this person/alien/thing is saying.” This includes the beeping language of droids like R2-D2 and BB-8. Everyone understands everyone else, all the time. This narratively understandable but patently ridiculous phenomenon is what the gang at SNL explored they wrote this hilarious sketch (which was cut for time) in this past Saturday’s show,...
The Shape of Water, Jordan Peele & Frances McDormand: Your 2018 Oscar Highlights
The Shape of Water turns out to be that of an Oscar statue, Jordan Peele nabs an Academy Award for his Get Out original script, Frances McDormand wins Best Actress and ignites the industry with two choice words, and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins has finally won the big award for his stellar work on Blade Runner 2049. And let’s not overlook Phantom Thread costume designer Mark Bridges, who not only won an Oscar but also a jet ski, ...
Tony Stark Got Marvel to Release Avengers: Infinity War One Week Earlier
The Avengers have one less week to gear up for battle than they thought. Previously slated for a May 4 release, Avengers: Infinity War will now hit theaters April 27. Summer blockbusters kick off in the first week of May, but when you’re the defenders of the galaxy, rules do not apply.
Robert Downey Jr. had the honors of breaking the news. He is Tony Stark, after all – the man who launched the cinematic MCU...
The Missouri Policeman Who Prepared Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Sam Rockwell’s character, Officer Dixon, is by no means a model police officer in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He’s violent, bigoted, temperamental and aloof. Yet, in order to play a character that gets everything wrong, sometimes you have to know what it looks like to get the job right. To research the role, Rockwell turned to Springfield, Missouri police officer Josh McMullin to learn the ropes.
Three Billboards dialect coach Liz Himelstein first contacted the Springfield Police department to research a Southwest Missouri accent...
How the Hair Design of Mudbound Became the Basis of an Oscar Nominated Performance
The heat and mud of the Mississippi farmland is palpable from the makeup to the clothing to the score in Dee Rees’ Mudbound. As the Jackson and McAllan families struggle through the muck and mire of poverty and racial tensions, they wear the Earth like badges of war. The oppressive climate was no trick of the camera, said hair department head Lawrence Davis.
“It was physically challenging just to be there walking through the mud,” Davis recalled...
Baby Driver’s Oscar-Nominated Supervising Sound Editor Dissects the Movie’s Unique Syncopated Style
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, while publishing new interviews throughout the week. Baby Driver sound editor Julian Slater is nominated alongside his collaborators Tim Cavagin and Mary H. Ellis. They’re up against Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill & Mac Ruth (Blade Runner 2049), Mark Weingarten, Greg Landaker & Gary A Rizzo (Dunkirk), Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern & Glen Gauthier (The Shape of Water), and David Parker,...
I, Tonya‘s Oscar-Nominated Editor Tatiana S. Riegel on What Makes a Scene Work and Why
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, while publishing new interviews throughout the week. I, Tonya Editor Tatiana S. Riegel is nominated alongside Paul Machliss & Jonathan Amos (Baby Driver), Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water) and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri).
One could make a case that the most competitive category in the upcoming Oscars isn’t for best picture or best director,...
How The Shape of Water‘s VFX Producer Turned a Monster Into a Romantic Lead
In the final part of this two-part interview, visual effects coordinator and frequent Guillermo del Toro collaborator Luke Groves reveals how he worked with the filmmaker to craft some of The Shape of Water’s most awe-inspiring sequences and reveals how he and the visual effects team at Mr. X walked the line between CG magic and practical effects to create movie magic that looks impressively real.
I want to talk about the opening sequence because I know it was shot wet-to-dry which is absolutely incredible...
The Shape of Water‘s VFX Producer on Creating the Year’s Most Unique Leading Man
For all its ambitious underwater sequences and that stunning central creature, it’s oddly easy to forget the technical majesty at work in Guillermo del Toro’s meticulous, Oscar-nominated The Shape of Water. Not for its lack of quality, in fact, quite the opposite. The work, which makes every inch of del Toro’s beguiling fantasy possible, is so seamless as to give the impression that even the film’s most outlandish design elements are through some mysterious magic,...
Love & Other Illusions: How Blade Runner 2049‘s Oscar-Nominated Sound Designer Played With our Heart Strings
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, as well as publishing new interviews with those vying for Oscar gold this Sunday. Sound editor Theo Green is nominated alongside his Blade Runner 2049 collaborator Mark Mangini. The Sound Editing category includes Julian Slater (Baby Driver), Richard King & Alex Gibson (Dunkirk), Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira (The Shape of Water), and Mathew Wood &...
How Blade Runner 2049’s Oscar-Nominated Sound Designer Pulled no Punches
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, as well as publishing new interviews with those vying for Oscar gold this Sunday. Sound editor Theo Green is nominated alongside his Blade Runner 2049 collaborator Mark Mangini. The Sound Editing category includes Julian Slater (Baby Driver), Richard King & Alex Gibson (Dunkirk), Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira (The Shape of Water), and Mathew Wood &...
Jennifer Lawrence Deconstructs the Typical Femme Fatale Role in Red Sparrow
Glimpses of a balletic profile and icy blonde hair are intercut with moments of startling violence—this is Jennifer Lawrence’s journey as ballerina-turned-Russian super agent in Red Sparrow. The films paint a picture of vicious femininity that would understandably incline many to assume that Lawrence’s Russian spy Dominika Egorova is simply one in a long line of big-screen femme fatales. Yet in Jennifer Lawrence’s ultra capable hands (and the actress her most stark), Dominika is actually the beating heart of the film...
Replicant vs. Replicant: How Blade Runner 2049’s Oscar-Nominated Sound Designer Pulled no Punches
K. vs. Sapper
It’s a mismatch. One replicant is 6’0” and slender. The other is a goliath, standing at 6’3” and weighing 290lbs. They’re all alone in a creaky cabin on a distant, desolate protein farm, and they know they are about to have at it. The slender replicant, Officer K (Ryan Gosling), is there to “retire” Sapper (Dave Bautista, most well known as the lovable brute Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise), the rogue replicant whose existence is deemed an existential threat to the good people of Los Angeles,...
Black Panther Fans Get a Big Surprise on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
The impact of Black Panther has been overwhelming. The thoughtful care that went into the African inspired design from the Wakandan nation to the fierce Dora Milaje costumes to the artfully choreographed stunts, the film was truly groundbreaking. Black Panther has been making historic waves in ticket sales too. It clocked in at the second largest box office earnings in the second weekend in American cinematic history...
How the I, Tonya Composer Helped Recast an Infamous Villain as a Tragic Character
When the news hit in 1994 that Olympic ice skater Nancy Kerrigan had been struck in the knee just before a performance, viewers were gripped. As the sensational story unfolded and the assailant became tied to rival Tonya Harding, America thought it would never forget the event. Nearly 25 years later, it turns out that the details have grown fuzzy – some even remembering Tonya swinging the baton herself. Three-time Oscar nominated I, Tonya returned to the scene of the crime and uncovered fresh perspectives on the infamous event...
Baby Driver‘s Oscar-Nominated Editor Paul Machliss on Marrying Music to Mayhem
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, while publishing new interviews throughout the week. Paul Machliss is nominated in the Film Editing category, alongside his co-editor Jonathan Amos. They join fellow nominees Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water) and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri).
Of all the masterly edited films of 2017,...
Watch as the Star Wars: The Last Jedi VFX Team Morphs Andy Serkis into Snoke
Few things in life are more mesmerizing than watching Andy Serkis’ motion capture performance transform into the final character. Yesterday, we had an in-depth discussion with the VFX team from War for the Planet of the Apes. There’s so much cool technology here and it is incredible how all of the pieces come together. The VFX wizards at Industrial Light & Magic have pulled the curtain back now on Serkis’ performance as Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi...
Oscar-Nominee Aaron Sorkin on his Directorial Debut Molly’s Game
As part of our Oscars week coverage, we’re re-posting our conversations with some of this year’s Oscar-nominees, as well as publishing new interviews with those vying for Oscar gold this Sunday. Writer/director Aaron Sorkin is nominated for Writing (Adapted Screenplay) alongside James Ivory (Call Me By Your Name), Scott Neustadter & Michael Weber (The Disaster Artist), Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green (Logan), and Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (Mudbound).
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is famed for writing the words uttered by The West Wing’s imaginary president and the semi-fictionalized tech magnates of Steve Jobs and The Social Network...
