Winter Officially Arrives in Game of Thrones Season 7 Premiere

What better day to confirm that Winter has officially arrived in Game of Thrones than on the summer solstice (for us northern hemispherians)? HBO confirmed in a brand new social media campaign that winter will arrive in the first episode of the season on July 16 via some “winterizing” activations across Twitter, Reddit, and Google.

First, they revealed this via a winter-themed promo for Season 7, which showcases how with winter comes the Night King and his army.

By  |  June 21, 2017
Lost & The Leftovers‘ Damon Lindelof Developing Watchmen for HBO

Arguably the most iconic comic book series of all time looks like it might be coming to HBO. Variety reports that Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers, is in talks to develop a TV adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ brilliant comic book series "Watchmen." Lindelof is no stranger to this material; in 2015, he tried to bring the story to the small screen. 

"Watchmen" takes place in an alternate history in which superheroes work in league with the government and helped shape the course of the 20th Century.

By  |  June 21, 2017

Interview

Cinematographer

Check out This Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Clip From Nat Geo’s Genius

Last week we shared with you the story of how the hair and make-up departments working on National Geographic's Genius have transformed stars Johnny Flynn and Geoffrey Rush into the young and not-so-young Albert Einstein at the different stages of his life. Now, we've got an exclusive clip from behind-the-scenes of the show (Nat Geo’s first foray into scripted drama, by the way) that showcases the work of showrunner Ken Biller and cinematographer Mathias Herndl. 

By  |  June 20, 2017

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Dear White People Creator Justin Simien Talks Race and Comedy

In Netflix series Dear White People, sarcastic black radio host Samantha (Logan Browning), worn out after a long day of anti-racist activism at fictional Ivy League Winchester College, asks her best friend Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson) to "Say something funny and specific." Joelle obliges with a snappy one liner involving Drake and his ancient sitcom Degrassi High, propelling the show into its next scene on a buoyant comedic note.

By  |  June 19, 2017

Interview

Hair/Makeup

Genius‘s Hair & Make-up Department on Creating Einstein’s Look

Genius marks National Geographic’s first foray into scripted drama. The series, which is based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe and executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, charts the rise of the disruptive physicist who changed the way we understand the universe. We chat to Fae Hammond (hair) and Davina Lamont (make-up) about the process of transforming stars Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn into the wild-haired genius at the different stages of his life. 

By  |  June 16, 2017
Ryan Murphy’s Next American Crime Story Will be About Gianna Versace

Ryan Murphy’s (Glee, American Horror Story) critically acclaimed anthology American Crime Story has been pushed back to air the next cycle until early 2018.

The second cycle was originally slotted to be Katrina: American Crime Story. Instead, Versace: American Crime Story will air first in early 2018 and Katrina will follow in late 2018.

By  |  June 14, 2017
Watch Video That Captures Every Single Death in Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones became a cultural phenomenon in part due to the show’s fearlessness with which it approached the death of major characters. Granted, this was in large part because show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were committed to staying as true to George R.R. Martin’s source material as possible, but it was still a shock to see arguably the main character, Sean Bean’s Ned Stark, get killed in season one.

By  |  June 14, 2017
Meet the Fire Starters: Go Behind-the-Scenes With Game of Thrones‘ Special Effects Team

Last week we told you that Game of Thrones had likely entered the Guinness Book of World Records with a massive stunt they pulled off for season 7. In the upcoming season, thanks to Dany's dragons now being the size of 747s, the stunt, visual and special effects department cooked up a massive sequence in which 20 stunt professionals were set on fire simultaneously. Now,

By  |  June 13, 2017

Interview

Actor

Remembering Adam West

Friday night, the world lost the original Batman, Adam West. West, 88, passed away after a short battle with leukemia.

West played the original Batman in the 1960s television series. Following his run on the show, he went on to pursue other ventures in his acting career, and was beloved for never taking himself too seriously, being kind to those both in and outside the industry, and forever making Batman a part of the American cultural landscape.

By  |  June 12, 2017
More Monsters and Horror Coming in Season Two of Stranger Things

Season two of Stranger Things is going to be all hands on deck for the VFX team. Season one rekindled the excitement of 1980s era mastery of practical effects that was seriously amped up by digital techniques. The CGI was awesome and anyone who watched the series had at least one nightmare about the deadly demogorgon. As VFX supervisor Marc Kolbe told us, "What the Duffers saw [in season one] can be done digitally,

By  |  June 8, 2017

Interview

Special/Visual Effects

Stranger Things VFX Supervisor on Making Monster Mayhem

The Duffer Brothers' Stranger Things was a critical smash for Netflix, a medley of throwback charm, real tension, ace casting and superb pacing. The setting (small town Indiana) and the era (1983) were handled with loving attention and period-perfect detail, as we followed the mysterious case of a missing child, his friends' courageous attempts to find him, and the deepening weirdness that involved government experiments, supernatural creatures and worlds, and a possibly superpowered little girl who goes by Eleven. 

By  |  June 7, 2017

Interview

Actor

Matt Smith on Playing Petulant Royalty in Netflix’s The Crown

One of television’s priciest shows to date, the first season of The Crown offers a faithfully detailed portrait of Elizabeth II’s early years as sovereign. Claire Foy plays the graceful if young queen; the difficult glory faced by her husband, Prince Philip, is portrayed equally well by the British actor Matt Smith (previously one of the doctors on Dr. Who). A lauded naval officer during World War II, Philip had to give up his career as he transitioned into being,

By  |  May 30, 2017

Interview

Costume Designer

The Crown & Game of Thrones’ Costume Designer Michele Clapton

Costume designer Michele Clapton, who won an Emmy for her work on Game of Thrones, swapped the diabolical Lannister family for the Windsors to work on Netflix’s The Crown. We talk to Clapton about why a man’s shirt was one of the most pivotal pieces Claire Foy’s Elizabeth wore, why she hates costumes that look like costumes and how she was drawn back to Game of Thrones.  

By  |  May 30, 2017

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Black Mirror‘s Charlie Brooker & Annabel Jones on TV’s Most Twisted Show

British sci-fi series Black Mirror reflects with chilling plausibility myriad ways in which technology brings out the worst in human behavior — one freestanding episode at a time. Creator Charlie Brooker and producer Annabel Jones, in Los Angeles on a break from shooting the fourth season of their Netflix limited series, say they hate repeating themselves and love the anthology format. "It's lunacy but by doing each episode as a one-off 50-minute film,

By  |  May 26, 2017

Interview

Director

Director Stephen Daldry on The Creation & Execution of Netflix’s Brilliant The Crown

Rumoured to be the most expensive television show ever produced, the first series of Netflix’s lush period drama The Crown delves deep behind the palace doors into the events around Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. Director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot), chats to The Credits about how the idea for The Crown came about, diverting from the truth,

By  |  May 26, 2017
Netflix Teases new Castlevania Animated Series

Nostalgia itself is no reason to create a film or a television series, but as inspiration, or merely a starting point, it can lead to some pretty spectacular creations. The 1980s have been very good to Netflix; their smash hit Stranger Things, which conjured the decade by way of Steven Spielberg, was enlivened by the passion and wit of the Duffer brothers, the show’s creators, to become much more than mere pastiche.

By  |  May 25, 2017
Game of Thrones Drops Thrilling Official Season 7 Trailer

Game of Thrones has dropped their season 7 trailer, putting into sharp focus just how action-packed things are going to be. The trailer hints at what stars Kit Harington and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau mentioned in a recent interview; season 7 is going to start fast and stay that way. Everything you're excited about—colossal dragons involving themselves in massive battles, the Starks reunited, the Lannisters plotting, Dany in Westeros with her army,

By  |  May 24, 2017
Massive Dragon Highlights new Game of Thrones Season 7 Photos

We wrote back in March about how Game of Thrones season 7 would include dragons the size of 747s. Season 7 director Matt Shakman told Entertainment Weekly“The dragons this year are the size of 747s…Drogon is the biggest of the bunch — his flame is 30-feet in diameter!”

Now EW has expanded upon this scoop with a series of new photos from season 7,

By  |  May 23, 2017
Twin Peaks Premiere Delights, Creeps out Critics

David Lynch and Mark Frost’s iconic Twin Peaks returned to television last night, 27 years after it first appeared and changed the medium as we knew it, and it seems the wait has been worth it. Critics have spent today largely hailing the 2-hour premiere, which reacquainted us with FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), the Palmer family and the deeply creepy, supernatural weirdness that goes on in the fictional,

By  |  May 22, 2017
Watch Marvel’s The Defenders Come to Life on the Page

Marvel's latest TV series, coming to Netflix this August, is The Defenders. The entire roster of Marvel TV superheroes will finally be together—Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Iron Fist (Finn Jones) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) are all joining forces to try and take down a secretive assassin collective called The Hand. It's big news for Marvel fans. Here's the trailer to get you up to speed.

By  |  May 19, 2017