Foundation Trailer Reveals Apple TV+’s Hugely Ambitious Sci-Fi Epic

If you’re a fairly new streaming service and you’re prepared to go all-in on an epic sci-fi series, you could hardly pick better source material than legendary sci-fi author Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series. In fact, many consider it the greatest work of science fiction ever produced. This is precisely what Apple TV+ has done, and the first trailer for their adaptation reveals a hugely ambitious new show with excellent performers and the kind of big-budget production design and visual effects we now want and expect from our television series.

By The Credits  |  June 23, 2020

Interview

Costume Designer

#blackAF Costume Designer Michelle Cole on Re-Teaming With Kenya Barris

The creator of the hugely successful sitcom Black-ish, and its spin-offs Grown-ish and Mixed-ish, chose to step in front of the camera for #blackAF. The mockumentary series is Kenya Barris’ first project for Netflix. Based on his own life, Barris plays himself, alongside Rashida Jones as his wife Joya, in the show, which is now streaming. He’s an extremely wealthy TV showrunner with six kids,

By Alice Wasley  |  June 15, 2020
Watch Regina King & Damon Lindelof’s Peabody Award Acceptance Speech for Watchmen

HBO received four Peabody Awards this year, which tied it for the most of any cable network or streaming platform. The awards went to three of their very best series—Chernobyl, Succession, and Watchmen—and the documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality. For Watchmenone of 2019’s best shows, period (remember 2019?), creator Damon Lindelof and his star Regina King accepted the award in a charming video from their homes that we’ve embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 11, 2020
HBO Reveals the Trailer for Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

HBO has revealed the first look at Director Ivy Meeropol’s Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which focuses on the infamously callous, cruel attorney and hails from a director whose life was impacted by Cohn’s relentless drive for power at all costs. Meerpol’s grandparents were Jules and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and were ultimately put to death at Sing Sing Correction Facility in New York in 1953.

By The Credits  |  June 9, 2020

Interview

Director, Editor, Producer

Arielle Kilker On Assembling a Largely Female Crew to Create Her Netflix Series Cheer

Arielle Kilker brings pretty much everything she’s learned in her career to bear in her Netflix‘s Cheer, the series she co-created, co-directed, edited, and produced. That includes the Emmy-nominated work she put in as editor on Chef’s Table and a supervising editor on the Peabody nominated Last Chance U. She’s also edited and written crime docuseries on projects for MSNBC, A&E, and PBS. For Cheer, 

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 8, 2020
The Trailer For HBO’s Lovecraft Country Reveals a Series That’s Sadly Perfectly Timed

We all can see with our own eyes what’s happening in America right now. In the middle of a global pandemic that has devastated the world and the country, taking the lives of more than 100,000 Americans and disproportionately affecting Black, Hispanic, Latino and Indigenous communities, we are also witnessing protests against police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. In the entertainment industry,

By The Credits  |  June 4, 2020

Interview

Actor

Josh Gad & Kristen Bell on Their New Animated Musical Series Central Park

Before he was an adorable singing snowman named Olaf, Josh Gad was a Tony-nominated Broadway star (“The Book of Mormon”) and before that, he was a devoted fan of old-fashioned Broadway musicals, you know, the kind that begin with a big “I wish” song and use the music to reveal character and move the story along. He was also a fan of New York’s Central Park. And the animated TV series Bob’s Burgers.

By Nell Minow  |  June 3, 2020
Join us For Our Second Film School Friday Event Featuring Creators From Insecure, Batwoman & More

Join us today for our second Film School Friday event at 2 pm ET, which will feature leading Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators and continues our coverage of AAPI Heritage Month. Today’s virtual panel features creators from HBO’s Insecure, Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, The CW’s  Batwoman, and more. Your host is John Gibson, the Motion Picture Association’s Vice President for External and Multicultural Affairs. 

By The Credits  |  May 29, 2020
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Makes TV History With Season 15 Renewal

There is some good news to savor on this otherwise bleak post-holiday Tuesday; FX has renewed It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for its 15th season, breaking The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet‘s record as the longest-running live-action comedy ever. Of course the gang made TV history!

FX’s gleefully insane, inane, and yet oh-so-brilliantly written and performed stalwart has somehow, miraculously, remained funny and charming for all of these years.

By The Credits  |  May 26, 2020
Living With Michael Jordan (And More) In These Strange Times

Listen, we got the memo about social distancing. Really. But the houseguests are really starting to proliferate, and I’ve run out of courtesy masks.

Let me tell you who’s over right now. Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, that’s who. Man are they yuge. And you know who was also recently over? Doron Kavillio, the most dynamic counter-terrorist agent I’ve ever met.

By Desson Thomson  |  May 22, 2020

Interview

Composer

The Righteous Gemstones Composer Joseph Stephens on Creating Earworm Tune “Misbehavin”

Joseph Stephens is the composer behind Danny McBride’s HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, and he helped craft one of the show’s funniest moments—the song “Misbehavin”—which he co-wrote with McBride and co-star Edi Patterson. In the show, “Misbehavin” is performed by the sibling musical duo of Baby Billy (Walton Goggins) and Aimee-Leigh (Jennifer Nettles). Watching it now feels like a musical blast from an alternate dimension when laughs were easy to come by and the sight of seeing musicians perform shoulder-to-shoulder was commonplace.

By Bryan Abrams  |  May 20, 2020
Who is Timothy Olyphant Playing in The Mandalorian Season Two?

The news broke last week that Timothy Olyphant would be joining season two The Mandalorian, Disney+’s wildly popular live-action Star Wars series. Then, /Film shared the scoop that Olyphant’s mysterious character will be wearing—wait for it—Boba Fett’s iconic armor. But hold on, it doesn’t appear that Olyphant is playing the legendary bounty hunter who first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, as that role seems to have already been filled.

By The Credits  |  May 20, 2020

Interview

Director, Producer

Director & Executive Producer Lesli Linka Glatter on Filming Homeland’s Series Finale

Lesli Linka Glatter has spent the last several years being alarmed by what she’s heard in intelligence briefings. This doesn’t just set her apart from many of the current apparatchiks in Washington, but also from many of her fellow directors. Not because her colleagues lack the capacity to be alarmed, but because her work as a director and an executive producer on Showtime’s Homeland would bring her, on an annual basis, to something that series creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa would call “Spy Camp,” in the D.C.

By Mark London Williams  |  May 19, 2020

Interview

Production Designer

Devs Production Designer Embellishes Big Tech Aesthetic in Alex Garland’s Gorgeous, Beguiling Series

What if a Silicon Valley behemoth ran a top-secret project that threatened the well-being of unwitting civilians? That’s the not entirely outlandish premise underlying Devs, now streaming on FX on Hulu. Created by Ex Machina and Annihilation director Alex Garland, the sci-fi limited series largely takes place at a sleek big tech “campus” surrounded by woods.

The exteriors evoke Google, Apple,

By Hugh Hart  |  May 18, 2020
How Snowpiercer’s Costume Designer Hopped On the Post-Apocalyptic Ride

Unlike Snowpiercer the train, which hurtles non-stop around the globe during a post-apocalyptic Ice Age, Snowpiercer the series has encountered numerous stops and starts en route to its May 17 premiere on TNT. Based on Parasite‘s Oscar-winning co-writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 film adaptation of a 1982 French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige, the TV version of Snowpiercer was initially developed by writer-producer Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles,

By Hugh Hart  |  May 15, 2020

Interview

Costume Designer

The Boys Costume Designers Carrie Grace & Laura Jean Shannon – Part II

In part 2 of our interview with the costume designers for Amazon Prime’s anti-hero superhero series The Boys, Laura Jean Shannon and Carrie Grace talked about the mechanics as well as the artistry involved in creating the superhero costumes—and the titular Boys’ more regular-guy clothes—for the hit series. Each super-suit requires a ton of work and enough duplicates that the actors and stunt performers can keep looking good. Season 2 of The Boys will be available later this year.

By Nell Minow  |  May 13, 2020

Interview

Costume Designer

Dressing The Boys‘ Wholesome Hero Starlight With Costume Designers Carrie Grace & Laura Jean Shannon

A comic book artist has the luxury of creating superhero costumes that have to meet just one standard—looking cool. But when it comes time to translate those looks to screen, the costume designer has challenges that require more than imagination and a pencil.  Superhero costumes worn by actors have to look real, even in hi-def. They have to withstand action scenes and they inevitably have to be cleaned and repaired afterward. But they can’t appear too brand-new;

By Nell Minow  |  May 13, 2020

Interview

Composer

Composer Vivek Maddala Underscores Discrimination in Asian Americans Documentary for PBS

The versatile composer Vivek Maddala recently shifted gears from his zany Emmy-winning music for Cartoon Network series The Tom and Jerry Show to score PBS’ somber documentary Asian Americans (debuting May 11). A musical prodigy, Maddala enrolled in Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music at age 15 with dreams of becoming a jazz drummer but switched to electrical engineering at Georgia Tech before earning a graduate degree in applied physics.

By Hugh Hart  |  May 11, 2020

Interview

Production Designer

How Production Designer Anne Seibel Built a Jazz Club From Scratch in Damien Chazelle’s The Eddy

Contrasting the difficult lives of professional jazz musicians with their joyous, airy music, Damien Chazelle’s (Whiplash, La La Land) new Netflix series The Eddy turns on the personal and professional drama surrounding a titular jazz club in Paris’s down-to-earth 19th arrondissement (premiering on Friday, May 8). A legendary jazz pianist, it’s Elliot’s (André Holland) job to run the struggling club’s musical program until he unexpectedly inherits a backstage mess from his business partner,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  May 7, 2020

Interview

Cinematographer

Westworld and Snowpiercer Cinematographer John Grillo on Crafting Dueling Apocalypses

Right before lockdown and social distancing began in earnest, we had a chance to talk with notable cinematographer Paul Cameron about his return to Westworld, for which he not only shot the pilot but returned to film the just-concluded season’s opening episode and to direct the fourth.

He kept singing the praises of John Grillo, his cinematographer for that fourth installment, “The Mother of Exiles,” replete with action-strewn set pieces,

By Mark London Williams  |  May 6, 2020