Little America’s Production Designer Amy Williams on Apple TV+’s Beautiful New Series
Apple TV+‘s Little America is the rare show that you could argue really and truly needs to be seen right now. The anthology series from executive producers Alan Yang (Parks and Recreation, Master of None) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick, Silicon Valley) focuses on the lives of largely working-class immigrants in America. Each episode focuses on the experience of a different character,
Production Designer Arwel Jones on Designing a New Dracula
Consistent with Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Netflix’s new three-episode Dracula series begins with a hapless English solicitor, Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan), ignoring the Transylvanian locals’ misgivings to make his way on a snowy evening to Count Dracula’s forbidding castle. In the original novel, Harker is initially impressed with his host’s social graces before realizing he’s a prisoner, but 2020’s Dracula (Claes Bang) is ratty haired and grim, intent on getting the social skills he’ll need for England from his guest.
The First Trailer for HBO’s The Plot Against America Reveals David Simon’s Gripping Roth Adaptation
When word spread that The Wire mastermind David Simon would be adapting legendary novelist Philip Roth’s brilliant dystopian book “The Plot Against America” for HBO (along with executive producer Ed Burns, another The Wire alum), we were enthused. Now that the first trailer for the upcoming series has dropped, it’s safe to say the limited series is on our must-see list.
The story is set in a World War II-era America that looks very much like our past on the surface.
Ambition and Risk Highlight Narcos: Mexico Season 2 Trailer
The last time we left Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), commonly referred to as Félix, he had managed to talk his way out of imprisonment and stay atop the Guadalaraja Cartel—the first Mexican drug cartel—using his wits alone. Granted, in order to become Mexico’s leading narco-trafficker, Félix used a lot more than wits. He was ruthless in his rise to power, and inarguably brilliant, but he only escaped prison (or death) by cutting a last-second deal in which he promised to keep the secrets of powerful players in Mexico secret,
Adam Driver Returns to SNL and Reprises Kylo Ren in Undercover Boss Sketch
Adam Driver has been just about everywhere lately. The supremely talented actor is up for an Oscar for Best Actor for his work in Noah Baumbach‘s Marriage Story. Driver also starred in a little film called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, finishing out his arc as the First Order’s conflicted Alpha, Kylo Ren. And this past Saturday night, Driver returned to Saturday Night Live for the third time,
Watch the First Trailer for Snowpiercer, Adapted From Oscar-Nominated Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 Film
Considering there are few directors more beloved than Parasite‘s Bong Joon Ho, there couldn’t be a better time to see one of his most overlooked films get adapted for TV. Bong Joon Ho’s epic sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer, based on the “Le Transperceneige” graphic novels, was unceremoniously buried way back in 2013, despite being an absolutely ripping story with a great cast (Tilda Swinton!
Westworld Season 3 Date Announced in Cryptic New Video
Westworld‘s beguiling third season just got a very cryptic date announcement video. How cryptic? We’re given not only the date when HBO’s expansive, ambitious sci-fi series returns but also a series of crucial dates within the show’s universe that seem to reveal more about the world outside the titular theme park then we’ve ever known about before. The dates include 6/12/19, the date of the first of a series of “Divergences,”
Devs Trailer Reveals Annihilation & Ex Machina Director’s Intriguing new Series
So you were a fan of Alex Garland‘s Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018)? Yeah, us too. Garland has made a name for himself as one of the most compelling writer/directors of sci-fi in the business. Ex Machina took the artificial intelligence run amok narrative and made something wholly new (with an incredible trio of cast members in Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, and Domhnall Gleeson).
Virgin River Editor Nicole Ratcliffe on Cutting to Where it Counts
Editor Nicole Ratcliffe has an unusual story to tell—she began editing right out of film school. Why this is unusual is it usually takes some time before you’re properly cutting scenes in the editing room, but for Ratcliffe, who grew up in Vancouver and works there, she began editing more or less immediately. Not only that, she worked on so many visual effects-heavy projects that she became a visual effects editor.
“I went to Vancouver film school,
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Drops Delightful Music Video Ahead of Season 3
Just because her boyfriend’s been sent to hell doesn’t mean Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is giving up on him. Not even close. In a very charming, let’s go ahead and callig it a “chilling” new music video just released by Netflix, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is teasing season 3 with a devilish beat and a nasty hook. The song is called “Straight to Hell” by Sabrina Spellman & Lovecraft. The vocals are in fact supplied by Kiernan Shipka herself,
Servant Costume Designer Caroline Duncan on Dressing M. Night Shyamalan’s Thriller
M. Night Shyamalan and Tony Basgallop’s Servant is one of Apple TV+‘s weirdest, wildest new shows. As always with a Shyamalan production, there are creepy twists aplenty on offer here, but there’s more to Servant than narrative surprises—there’s bracing oddness to it, amplified by terrific performances from a great cast and technical mastery from Shyamalan and Basgallop’s talented crew.
Servant is set in Philadelphia (Shyamalan’s preferred location,
Director Kate Woods on Faith and Belief in her Netflix Drama Messiah
Early on in the new Netflix drama Messiah, CIA agent Eva (Michelle Monaghan), paradigmatically dogged in her duties, informs a failed prospective job candidate, “the truth may look gray, but I assure you, it is not.” It’s easy to guess that Eva’s next assignment will have her rethinking the office hiring policy. After she becomes aware of a long-locked, proselytizing enigma first spotted preaching mid-sandstorm to a band of followers in Damascus,
Freya Allan & Anya Chalotra on Playing The Witcher’s Powerful Women
For millions of excited fans around the world, the first season of Netflix’s long-anticipated fantasy series The Witcher has not disappointed. The show is based on the best-selling novels and short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and the subsequent video games based on the stories, which have sold over 40 million copies worldwide. The Witcher follows three powerful individuals with colliding destinies living on a continent full of magic and monsters,
Best of 2019: Orange Is the New Black’s Production Designer Malchus Janocko’s Favorite Sets
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
Production designer Malchus Janocko set out to be a painter and glassblower before he discovered show business as a livelihood. Janocko art-directed the glossy Gossip Girl, then channeled small-town Americana for the first season of The Leftovers before taking a deep dive into the muted world of incarceration dramatized in Orange Is the New Black.
Best of 2019: Watchmen’s Costume Designer Meghan Kasperlik on This Extraordinary Series
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
Now that Watchmen has made its glorious debut on HBO and confounded just about every expectation, we can say with confidence that Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons iconic graphic novel is a remarkable testament to the original and a bold, powerful piece of original storytelling itself. The reason is Lindelof and his incredible team of writers,
Best of 2019: Carmen Ejogo on her Pivotal Role in True Detective’s Season Three
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
In season three of True Detective, creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto returns to the series’ Southern Gothic roots, with two detectives, Vietnam vet Wayne “Purple” Hays (Mahershala Ali) and Roland West (Stephen Dorff) trying to solve the murder of one child and the disappearance of another in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hays takes the lead on the case in 1980 and is doing desk work and starting to lose his memory by the time we reach 1990 (West,
Best of 2019: Makeup Designer Burton LeBlanc on Creating Misery in the Colonies in The Handmaid’s Tale
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the radioactive Colonies are more felt than described. We’re told it’s where all Gilead’s undesirables, the childless handmaids, the criminals, the sick and insane, are sent to die. In Hulu’s adaptation of Atwood’s novel, however, the Colonies became one of the show’s most fecund sources of misery in season two. As Maria Elena Fernandez described in a piece for Vulture,
Best of 2019: Craig Mazin on Getting the Details Right for the Shocking Chernobyl
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded, sending radiation into the atmosphere and ultimately causing many radiation-related deaths. While the disastrous accident, attributed to faulty reactor design and insufficiently trained operators, is widely known, the details of its aftermath are less so. Screenwriter Craig Mazin looks to change this and up the knowledge base with Chernobyl,
Best of 2019: Fleabag‘s Emmy-Nominated Cinematographer on Crafting a Nearly Flawless Second Season
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!
There’s no such thing as flawless art. Flaws are baked right into anything a human being creates, and often they are hard to disassociate from the strengths that make any art worthwhile. Yet I’ve heard several people call Fleabag‘s second season flawless, and I’ve been hard-pressed to argue the point. Few shows on television are as personal,
Best of 2019: Spencer Averick on Finding Truth & Humanity in the Edit of When They See Us
*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019 from some of our favorite films and shows of the year.
Netflix rarely releases viewer numbers, but on June 12th, the streaming service tweeted that Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us has been its most-watched content in the US since the show’s premiere on May 31st. In the UK, When They See Us has been running second only to Black Mirror.
