Jared Harris on Creating Valery Legasov, Chernobyl’s Reluctant Hero
It’s the lies told throughout Craig Mazin’s five-episode series Chernobyl that get you. After all, most anybody watching the HBO program set in today’s northern Ukraine will already know that the Soviet nuclear plant exploded in 1986, the area was eventually evacuated, and the adjacent newly-built town of Pripyat transformed into a ghost city, as did 1,000 square miles of other towns and villages in what’s now known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
How Rent: Live‘s Production Designer Created a 360-Degree World on Live TV
One of the most ambitious TV projects of this year that didn’t include CGI dragons and battles with ice zombies happened on Sunday night, January 27. This was the moment when Fox aired a live version of the iconic musical Rent. To call staging a live version of Rent on TV ambitious is probably underselling it. The musical, which focuses on seven artists living in New York City’s East Village in 1996,
All of Game of Thrones‘ Most Iconic Deaths Rendered Art in new Video
*At some point we’ll probably stop including this disclaimer, but…the following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up, stop reading.
Illustrator Robert Ball is the man behind Game of Thrones “Beautiful Death” series. For all 8 seasons of HBO’s game-changing series, Ball has re-created the most iconic deaths from every single episode. His work is achingly beautiful—despite, or possibly because of—the dark subject matter.
Leaving Neverland‘s Composer on Scoring a Legacy Shattered
It’s sometimes hard to fathom the kind of pinnacle Michael Jackson reached. The King of Pop was a singular phenomenon without equal. His dominion was the entire planet. His star power was so colossal, his status as the greatest living entertainer so secure, it is not unreasonable to say no one will ever enjoy (if you can call it enjoyment) that level of fame again. His influence on artists far and wide is still being felt today.
Meet The Other Two‘s Secret Weapon—Songwriter Brett McLaughlin
If you haven’t watched Comedy Central’s The Other Two, I’m jealous of you. It is one of this year’s most consistently funny shows, with a joke-per-minute ratio that rivals some of our recent standard bearers, like HBO’s Veep. Go watch it and see for yourself. Created by SNL alums Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two centers on a young musician named Chase Dreams (Case Walker),
Sharp Objects & Big Little Lies Production Designer on Creating Signature Worlds
If you had not one but two critically acclaimed HBO series under your belt, you’d be permitted to gloat. If those series were wildly different yet deliciously unforgettable, you might even be expected to brag a little. But that’s not production designer John Paino‘s way. The laidback pro was happy to discuss his work on Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies without any unnecessary braggadocio. With Big Little Lies back for season two,
Watch The First Trailer for Netflix’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Animated Series
The Jurassic Park world has always been kid-friendly, but simultaneously too scary for many a tyke. This duality was fairly robust until Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which was about as close to a horror film as any Jurassic installment could be. That film included a villainous Indoraptor that literally crept into children’s bedrooms and enough jump scares to unnerve children and adults alike. Now, a brand new trailer for DreamWorks Animation Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous offers the kids their very own dino theme park.
The One Tech Platform Used in Game of Thrones, Avengers: Endgame & (Much) More
From a remote outpost in Adelaide, Australia, a handful of techies in 2005 brought together far-flung filmmakers so they could critique VFX shots—not in the same room, but on the same screen. Today, cineSync software plays a behind the scenes role in nearly every spectacle-driven popcorn movie including this summer’s Men In Black, Spider-Man, X-Men and Godzilla sequels as well as recent hits like Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones.
Behold the Gorgeous Trailer for Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
The first trailer for Netflix‘s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance has lots of folks very excited. For those of us who grew up in the 80s, it offers a near-perfect blend of old school practical effects and today’s modern digital technology. For the millions of people who grew up loving the creations of Jim Henson, the closest we’ve ever come to a modern day Walt Disney, this Age of Resistance trailer is like a clarion call to return to childhood,
The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup Designer on Creating Misery in the Colonies
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, The Handmaid’s Tales creators did something brilliant when they set out to create the location—the asked Atwood what she had in mind when she wrote about them.
How the The Simpsons new Composers Took on Springfield
The Simpsons boasts not only the longest run of any scripted primetime series, along with catch-phrases and characters that have been part of popular culture for almost two generations, but theme music recognizable within its first few notes—on a short list with Star Trek, Hawaii Five-O, Batman, Sesame Street, and a handful of others.
And now that series has new composers.
Building Thousands of Years of History in Amazon’s Good Omens
“Corners are where everyone makes decisions. This is the point where you change directions.” And corners are usually located at crossroads, to boot, the very place—especially if you’re a Mississippi bluesman—where it’s said deals with the devil can be struck.
The corner in question, however, concerns an angel, and the London bookshop that he owns—part of Michael Ralph’s production design on the upcoming Amazon/BBC adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens.
Showrunner Lauren Morelli Spins New Tales of the City for Netflix
The interwoven stories of the residents of Barbary Lane are being told again. Introduced in author Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City 40 years ago, and then adapted for television several times since the 1990s, the beloved San Francisco-set saga is being revived by Netflix and starts streaming this June.
Like its predecessors, which were based on Maupin’s nine novels, the 2019 version focuses a lot on the LGBTQ community—but it does so with some new characters and a modern take.
Sir Patrick Stewart Returns in First Star Trek: Picard Trailer
The captain is back.
Sir Patrick Stewart returns to the role that made him famous (in America, at least)—CBS All Access has released the first trailer for their new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Picard. Stewart returns to the role of Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek‘s most cerebral captain, who logged stardates (and much more ) for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation and four movies—Star Trek: Generations,
Martin Ruhe on Shooting George Clooney’s Catch-22 Adaptation
“Certain things I don’t think we’d be legally allowed to do now,” observes cinematographer Martin Ruhe, ASC, when reflecting on the prior attempt to bring Joseph Heller’s classic, absurdist, and decidedly non-chronological Catch-22 to the screen.
That would be the 1970 Mike Nichols film version, which was somewhat of a commercial and critical bust at the time but has since come to be regarded in more classic “70’s cinema” terms.
Three new Black Mirror Trailers Tease Season 5
Black Mirror is back. Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones‘ techno fever dream of a series is returning with a truncated—but hotly anticipated—three-episode season. Three new trailers for each episode gives us a tiny bit more information, yet, we still really don’t know much about what these stories will fully explore. We just know they’ll likely make us feel paranoid and freaked out, which is precisely what we want from a fresh Black Mirror installment.
The Moment in Game of Thrones When Jaime Lannister Predicted his Fate
*This post reveals details from Game of Thrones’ finale and penultimate episode.
Now that Game of Thrones has come to an end (and broke some long-standing records along the way), interviews with reflective cast members are popping up left and right. One such interview was with Emilia Clarke, who spoke to both The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly about Daenerys Targaryen’s long,
Stranger Things Season 3 Clip Takes you to the Pool
We’ve got a fresh Stranger Things season three clip, which reveals that terrifying monster from season 2—Billy Hargrove (Darce Montgomery). Last season’s ruthless bully is yet another Stranger Things character with a cool new summer job. While Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) is working at the mall, Billy’s doing the very Billy thing and spending his time at the local pool, nominally as a lifeguard (can you really imagine him saving anybody?).
Emilia Clarke on Daenerys’ arc in Game of Thrones
*The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. If you’re not caught up all the way through the finale, read no more.*
Now that Game of Thrones has finally ended, there will be much rumination on what the show meant. To those of us (and we are legion, of course) who watched every episode and spent as much time, if not more, debating the series various merits, deficits, and many,
Westworld‘s Surprising Season 3 Trailer Hints at Totally Different Show
When we heard that Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul was joining Westworld for season three, we had no idea he would be doing so in a completely different looking show. if you were one of the millions of people hunkering down for Game of Thrones‘ series finale last night, you likely caught the trailer for Westworld season 3, without realizing it was a trailer for Westworld season 3 until the very end.
