Talking to Landline Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre & Producer Elisabeth Holm
The year is 1995. Bill Clinton is president, Natalie Merchant sings about the weather, Mad About You is must-see TV, Lorena Bobbitt jokes are all the rage, floppy discs are a clunky necessity – and cellphones are nowhere to be seen.
Director-writer Gillian Robespierre and producer Elisabeth Holm’s first film together, the 2014 art-house circuit darling Obvious Child, was a moving contemporary comedy that focused on a stand-up comic (Jenny Slate) who deals with an unexpected pregnancy after a one-night stand.
Quentin Tarantino Prepping new Film About the Manson Murders
We mean this in a good way; we can’t think of a better director to tackle a film about the Charles Manson murders than Quentin Tarantino. The scoop comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which has it that Tarantino is already in talks with actors, and one can only imagine the mayhem of a movie about the most infamous murders in American history through Tarantino’s lens.
THR reports that Tarantino has already written the script (naturally he’d direct),
Talking to The Journey’s Director Nick Hamm on Facing Ireland’s History Head-on
Belfast-born producer-director Nick Hamm has worked mostly in British television, although he's also directed theater and movies. As a filmmaker, he's drawn to stories that are contemporary, set close to home and involve real-life characters. 2011's Killing Bono was a comedy about teenage rockers upstaged by the Dublin schoolmates who founded U2. Hamm's new movie, The Journey, is a sometimes comic drama that fictionalizes a pivotal 2006 van ride shared by two confirmed enemies: Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) founder Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall).
Women Directors Made the Best Movies of the Summer
Director Patty Jenkins has been reaping breathless headlines since Wonder Woman’s premiere — having made a summer blockbuster that isn’t rote or corny, with a lead, relative newcomer Gal Gadot, who deservedly looks like the breakout star of the summer, the film has exceeded all of Warner Bros.’ box office expectations and met with critical success. Audiences are broadly into a superhero film about a woman, made by a woman,
Writer/Director Edgar Wright Talks his Brilliant new Film Baby Driver
*We’re sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year this week in our ‘Best of 2017’ roundup.
It’s is odd that British auteur and fan-boy fave Edgar Wright, 43, known for spoofing horror flicks (2004’s Shaun of the Dead), buddy-cop procedurals (2007’s Hot Fuzz) and sci-fi thrillers (2013’s The World’s End) has produced his most mature and satisfying spin on a popular genre – this time,
John Waters Interviews Sofia Coppola at the Provincetown Film Festival
Sofia Coppola is Hollywood royalty, an Oscar winner for Lost in Translation, and she has a highly-anticipated new film, The Beguiled, ready to hit theaters. But the soft-spoken director is known for being reticent in interviews.
So it’s no wonder that the Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) paired Coppola with renowned raconteur John Waters for a one-on-one conversation when Coppola was honored recently as the PIFF’s 2017 Filmmaker on the Edge.
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.
One to Watch: Dream, Girl Director Erin Bagwell
You could be excused for reading into the success of Erin Bagwell's directorial debut, the documentary Dream, Girl, and assume she's a graduate of one of the most prestigious film schools in the country. Dream, Girl focuses on more than a dozen female entrepreneurs, uncovering their unique paths, their many challenges and setbacks, and their insights into how they succeeded. Bagwell hired an all female crew, moved into an office,
Zoe Lister-Jones on her Directorial Debut Band Aid
Zoe Lister-Jones has a robust career as a comic and dramatic actress. She’s a regular on the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces and had a featured role as then-Senator Joe Biden’s assistant in HBO’s 2016 drama Confirmation about the Clarence Thomas hearings famous for the testimony from Anita Hill.
But in the indie film world, Lister-Jones has thrived by creating her own roles and wearing many production hats.
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,
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,
Talking to Writer/Director/Star Demetri Martin About his new Film Dean—Part II
In part I of our interview with the comedian-turned-filmmaker, Demetri Martin explained how he came to make his first semi-autobiographical feature, Dean. The second part begins with Martin’s discussion of the way he incorporated aspects of his own experiences into supporting characters in his script.
"They're not based on anybody, and the story didn't happen to me. My mom sold our house years ago. I was happy about that.
Talking to Writer/Director/Star Demetri Martin About his new Film Dean—Part I
Although best known from TV, beginning with The Daily Show in 2005, actor-comedian Demetri Martin has acted in such movies as Contagion, Taking Woodstock, and In A World…. Now he adds a few more hyphens to his resume as the writer-director-star of Dean, a comedy about a New York-based illustrator who flees to Los Angeles after his mother dies.
Talking to Writer/Director Robin Swicord About Wakefield
It’s been a decade since screenwriter Robin Swicord’s directorial debut, The Jane Austen Book Club, opened in theaters and managed to gross slightly more than its $6 million budget in worldwide ticket sales. Since that time, she has struggled to find backers for a sophomore effort – despite being Oscar-nominated for her contributions to the adapted screenplay for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
It’s a situation that many females in the industry know all too well.
Director Steven James on his Crucial Doc Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
When discussing the 2008 financial crisis, the word "big" comes up a lot. The big banks, The Big Short, too big to fail. But the first American financial institution to be indicted for mortgage-lending misconduct after 2008 was not big, as director Steve James acknowledges in the title of his new documentary, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, which opens in New York on May 19.
"I had to inform them today that they have dropped from being the 2,651st largest bank to the 2,652nd largest bank,
Actor Tracy Letts & Writer/Director Azazel Jacobs Talk The Lovers
Writer-director Azazel Jacobs' rueful new drama began with Debra Winger's interest in its 2011 predecessor, Terri. The actress told Jacobs she liked that movie, so he consulted with her as he wrote what eventually emerged as The Lovers. In it, Winger and actor-playwright Tracy Letts are Mary and Michael, a suburban couple whose marriage has gone dormant. Each is dallying with another — Richard (Aiden Gillen) and Lucy (Melora Walters),
Ridley Scott Says Alien: Covenant Sequel to Start Filming in 14 Months
With Alien: Covenant scoring positive early reviews, Ridley Scott is already talking about the sequel (and Covenant isn’t even out until May 19!). Starting with 2012’s Prometheus, Scott has been reverse engineering the Alien mythology, leading us back to his iconic 1979 masterpiece that started it all—and inspired countless sci-fil films since.
Considering Scott has been working on this since well before 2012,
Talking to Eleanor Coppola on her Feature Directorial Debut Paris Can Wait
You know a first-time narrative-feature director and writer has chutzpah when they include a Hitchcock-style cameo in their debut effort. Yes, that lady quietly reading a magazine in a hotel lobby as Paris Can Wait star Diane Lane exits an elevator is indeed Eleanor Coppola. You might not know the face, but you definitely recognize the surname of this matriarch who presides over a tight-knit cinematic dynasty. Members include two Oscar-winning filmmakers, Francis,
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Doc Writer/Director on Unsung Film Heroes
The work of storyboard artist Harold Michelson and researcher Lillian Michelson was integral to some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history: The Ten Commandments, The Apartment, The Birds, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and Rosemary’s Baby, to name just a few.
But you won’t find their names in most of the credits.
The couple,
Spotlight Director Tom McCarthy Eying Disney’s Timmy Failure
Tom McCarthy is most recently known for his excellent directorial work on the Academy Award-winning Spotlight, which catapulted the already Oscar-nominated writer/director (he co-wrote Pixar's sensational UP, to name a few of his credits) into the "choose whatever project you want" portion of his career. It looks as if McCarthy's next move will be a turn from his recent very serious topical work: adapting the kids’ book series,
