A Conversation With Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox serves as the guide of director Sam Feder’s crucial new documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen. The film offers a vivid, frankly startling history of the portrayal of transgender lives on screen, and Cox (also an executive producer) captains a compelling cast of influential trans creators, cultural critics, and thinkers. They include The Matrix creator Lilly Wachowski, Pose star Mj Rodriguez,
Colin Kaepernick Signs First Look Deal With Disney
If you were to name the most influential athletes of the last decade, Colin Kaepernick must be on your list. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has become one of the most crucial voices in America demanding and working towards social justice. He started this journey in the public eye with a simple gesture and, perhaps more importantly, a sustained commitment thereafter in the face of injustice against himself personally. Colin Kaepernick became a known quantity to NFL fans in 2012,
How “Queer Eye” Casting Director Danielle Gervais Found the Perfect Team
Danielle Gervais had the daunting task of finding the new Fab Five when the iconic reality series Queer Eye was rebooted by Netflix for a new generation. The Emmy-winning casting director scoured America with her team to find Antoni Porowski (food and wine), Bobby Berk (interior design), Karamo Brown (culture), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming) and Tan France (fashion). Five seasons later, countless lives changed, and many tears shed in the process, Gervais reflects on how it all came together and why choosing a favorite ‘hero’ is like choosing a favorite child.
Dashaun Wesley Takes MC Duties to a New Level on HBO Max’s “Legendary”
It’s a party that’s been years in the making.
Legendary, the original HBO Max series that debuted on May 27, celebrates the “legendary” underground world of Voguing and Ball culture with a reality competition unlike any other on television. Eight houses (aka teams), mostly comprised of Black and Latino LGBTQ members, pour it all out and onto the stage in a series of challenges, showcasing everything from dancing and voguing to fashion and flair.
A Chat About Netflix’s “Disclosure” and Trans Representation on Screen
We have something very special planned for tonight, folks. As part of our ongoing Pride Month coverage, the Motion Picture Association has teamed up with Netflix for our next installment of our Film School Friday series. We’re really excited for tonight’s conversation with leading transgender and LGBTQ+ creators of Netflix’s groundbreaking documentary Disclosure. Our panelists are Disclosure‘s director Sam Feder (you can read our interview with Sam here),
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.
#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,
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 Watchmen, one 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.
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.
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,
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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,
