Director Chris Wedge on the Joys of Making Monster Trucks
Unlike Scrat, the nutty cartoon rodent who has shared his voice for nearly 15 years, Chris Wedge, 59, has claimed more than a few choice acorns throughout his career. He is the Academy Award-winning director of Bunny, a ground-breaking computer-animated short from 1999. He co-founded Blue Sky Studios, whose movies are distributed by 20th Century Fox. He directed the company’s first feature, 2002’s Oscar-nominated Ice Age, as well as 2005’s Robots and 2013’s
Chris Hemsworth Calls Star Trek 4 Pitch “Amazing”
You might recall that right around the time director Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond premiered, JJ Abrams mentioned that he’d had an idea for how to bring back Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk for the fourth filming the franchise. As James’ (Chris Pine) father and the driving force behind the young captain’s enrollment into the Starfleet, George Kirk’s ghost has had a huge impact on the storylines thus far. In fact, Bones (Keith Urban) and Captain Kirk have a fairly lengthy discussion about George in Beyond,
Writer/Director Rian Johnson Talks Star Wars: Episode VIII
If there is one (and honestly, probably only one) thing you can be sure about in 2017, it's that Star Wars: Episode VIII will likely be the biggest film of the year. As the galaxy far, far away has gotten a much needed bost of fresh female heroes in the form of The Force Awakens' Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Roge One's Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones).
New Justice League Images Reveal Glimpse into DC’s Biggest Film Yet
With the Golden Globes over and the Oscars on the way, we're officially in that period of time where we're simultaneously appreciating what came the year before, and preparing for what's to come this year. Without a doubt one of the biggest films of the year will be Zack Snyder's Justice League, which brings together Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), The Flash (Ezra Miller), and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) in a battle royale that will be DC Films biggest contribution yet to their shared cinematic universe.
New Beauty and the Beast Promo Drops During Golden Globes
Perhaps you're one of the millions of people who are thrilled about director Bill Condon's live-action Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as your beauty, Belle, and Dan Stevens as your beast. In fact, this past November, Disney’s trailer for the film set a new record with 127.6 million views in its first 24 hours, making it clear that fans of this classic story are eager to see what Condon and his stars can bring to the tale in a lushly realized,
Golden Globes Highlights: Moonlight, La La Land & Meryl Streep
If you didn't catch last night's Golden Globes, we've got you covered. It was an emotional night, highlighted by a big win for Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, a record number of Globes for Damien Chazelle's La La Land, and a stirring, eloquent, pointed speech from living legend Meryl Streep upon accepting her Cecil B. De Mille Award for lifetime achievement.
We begin with the fact that La La Land
The Music of A Monster Calls Captures the Hope of Humanity
A Monster Calls is a simultaneously explosive and fragile tale that finds some of its most powerful moments in the quietest scenes. Celebrated composer Fernando Velázquez carefully molded the score to cradle audiences as the tender story unfolds. The film illustrates the imagination of a young boy coping with his mother’s illness, but Velázquez reveals how the story transcends the fairytale. “It’s a movie about why we do movies,” he explains.
Moonlight‘s Breakout Star Trevante Rhodes Joins Shane Black’s The Predator
Trevante Rhodes is the third and final actor who plays Chiron in Barry Jenkins' phenomenal Moonlight. The character is portrayed at three stages of his life; as a child (by Alex Hibbert), as a teenager (by Ashton Sanders), and finally as an adult, by Rhodes. The actors get roughly the same amount of screen time, and each deliver astonishing performances, with Rhodes in particular soaring in a scene set in a diner that was so good,
The Sci-Tech Awards Honor the Industry’s Wizards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced the recipients of its 2017 Scientific and Technical Awards. Among the thirty-four individual winners and five organizations honored are some of the tech brains behind several of our favorite films of the prior year. Having pioneered the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios, Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy, and Maurice van Swaaij are included in the Technical Achievement Award winners — Blue Sky, it should be noted,
Fences: a Critical Smash and a Boon for PA Economy
When Denzel Washington set out to adapt August Wilson's brilliant 1985 play Fences for the big screen, he brought along his co-star from the 2010 Broadway revival, Viola Davis (they both won Tony's for their performances) and set his film where it had to be; Pittsburgh's Hill District. "Fences" was the sixth part of Wilson's ten-play "Pittsburgh Cycle," an epic undertaking in which Wilson explored the evolving African-American experience, examining many themes,
Oscar Watch: Picking Three Actors for One Role in Moonlight
Yesi Ramirez knew she wanted to pick the actors for Moonlight as soon as she read the script — twice. "The first time I read the script I cried," she says. "The second time, I cried again." The Los Angeles-based casting director had never worked with Moonlight writer-director Barry Jenkins before, but she liked what she heard when they sat down for breakfasts to discuss the gay-themed Oscar contender that called for three actors to portray the forlorn "Chiron"
Moonlight‘s Editor Joi McMillon on Cutting the Story of a Lifetime
Nominated for six Golden Globes, the stunningly beautiful, brilliantly executed Moonlight was one of the best films of the year. We've spoken to composer Nicholas Brittell, breakout star Janelle Monáe and cinematographer James Laxton about how they helped bring director Barry Jenkins film to life. The story, tracking three periods of time in one young man's life—as a child, a teenager and a grown man—was based on the play by Tarell Alvin McCraney called "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue."
Woody Harrelson Eyes Mentor Role in Han Solo Spinoff?
Woody Harrelson is no stranger to playing a mentor to troubled but potentially potent young fighters. His Haymitch Abernathy was a crucial mentor to Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in The Hunger Games franchise, very often helping her stay alive amid not only the deadly games at the center of the film, but the equally deady politics that surrounded them. So Variety's exclusive that Harrelson is in talks to play Han Solo's mentor in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's upcoming
Watch Michael Keaton as McDonalds Honcho Ray Kroc in new The Founder Trailer
Like a McDonald's cheeseburger, it will be hard to resist watching Micheal Keaton as the ubiquitous fast food chain's creator Ray Krock in The Founder. Directed by John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks), The Founder delivers the true story of how Ray Kroc, a down-on-his-luck salesman from Illinois, had a fateful meeting with brothers Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California that managed to turn out food in astonshingly little time.
HBO’s Timely Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds Doc Bright Lights Premieres Jan 7
Last year ended with the unexpected deaths of both Carrie Fisher (read our obit for her here) and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, just a day later. In a year that included the deaths of many icons, from David Bowie and Prince to Leonard Coen and Gene Wilder, losing both Fisher and Reynolds at the very end of the year felt unduly cruel.
Yet there is also much to celebrate in the lives of these two extremely talented women,
Watch Fifty Shades Darker‘s Extended Trailer
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey and in Fifty Shades Darker, the second chapter based on the worldwide bestselling “Fifty Shades” phenomenon. Anastasia is no longer the demure wallfalower we met in the original film, and she's not about to let Christian call the shots anymore.
Christian Grey is an emotionally wounded man in Fifty Shades Darker, but he's committed to get Ana back into his life.
Orange is the New Black Director Lev Spiro Talks Crazy Eyes
Lev Spiro has been behind the camera on some of the most successful shows on television. The impressive list includes Modern Family, Wizards of Waverly Place, Dawson’s Creek, and Arrested Development. In season 4 of Orange is the New Black, he had the high-pressure task of directing the backstory for fan favorite, Crazy Eyes.
Oscar Watch: Editor Expertly Shreds Time in Manchester By the Sea
Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan famously spent years in the editing suite trying to achieve perfection on his previous movie Margaret. He shot the film in 2005, delivered a much debated cut in 2008 and three years later watched the picture open in two theaters. Lonergan's comeback effort Manchester by the Sea represents an astonishing return to form, widely expected to land a Best Picture Oscar nomination on the strength of Casey Affleck's moving performance as a New England man haunted by his past.
Writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve on Things to Come
French actress Isabelle Huppert is reaping awards from critics’ groups for her roles in two films this year: Elle, from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, and the quietly poignant Things to Come, from young French writer/directer Mia Hansen-Løve.
While Huppert’s audacious performance in Elle jut might earn the actress her first Oscar nod, it’s the delicate blend of youth and wisdom, melancholy and joy,
Remembering Carrie Fisher
To a generation that came of age in the ‘70s and ‘80s, she will forever be Princess Leia of the Star Wars films, with her iconic buns-like-headphones hairdo, wielding a blaster as she leads the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. To another, slightly older demographic, Carrie Fisher was synonymous with one of the last great Hollywood scandals. The daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and pop star Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher became tabloid fodder at age three when her father left Reynolds to marry Elizabeth Taylor in 1959 at the height of Taylor’s fame.
