How “Afraid” Writer/Director Chris Weitz Cracked the Artificial Intelligence Code in His First Horror Film
What happens when a charming AI device makes itself indispensable to an unsuspecting family of five? In Chris Weitz‘s new horror film Afraid, the smooth-talking “AIA” aims for nothing short of total domination. The film stars John Cho, who caught his first acting break when Weitz and his brother Paul cast him in their directorial debut, American Pie. Katherine Waterston co-stars as Cho’s wife, with Lukita Maxwell, Wyatt Lindner, and Isaac Bae portraying their kids.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” Second Unit Director & Stunt Coordinator George Cottle on Capturing Those Cameos
In the last installment of our conversation with Deadpool & Wolverine’s second unit director and stunt coordinator George Cottle, we covered the hysterical dance/action opening sequence and what it took to shoot the bone-crunching brawl inside a real Honda Odyssey minivan. Smashing box office records on every level—the first R-rated movie to open domestically over $200 million, the sixth biggest domestic opening of all time—the film joined the billion-dollar club just 23 days after opening in theaters,
A Symphony of Success: Emmy Nominees Talk VFX, Composing, and Editing
We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our first panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. For our second panel, our Emmy nominees came from a wide-ranging group of shows—Lessons in Chemistry‘s ace director Millicent Shelton, nominated for directing episode 6, “Poirot,” Shōgun‘
All the World’s a Stage: The Team Behind “Sing Sing” on Crafting a Powerful Human Drama
Sing Sing screenwriters Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley are unusual, even in the world of indies. They immerse themselves in the world of the story they want to tell for years, in this case a drama program in a maximum-security prison. They surround professional performers like Colman Domingo in the case of Sing Sing, with real-life inhabitants of that world, with a seamless naturalism that straddles documentary and narrative filmmaking.
Twin Forces: “The Acolyte” Director Hanelle M. Culpepper on Crafting Amandla Stenberg’s Dual Roles
When she helmed the first episode of Star Trek: Picard in 2020, director Hanelle M. Culpepper made history as the first woman to launch a Star Trek series. She went on to win the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for that project. This, along with her work on shows like Westworld, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Kung Fu,
MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director JA Bayona’s Epic Journey
J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, a reimagining of the real-life 1972 Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes Mountains that caught the world’s attention, is a viscerally astonishing feat of empathetic filmmaking. It was nominated for two Oscars: Best International Feature for Spain and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé), a sweet coda for a filmmaker who returned to his home country of Spain for the majority of the film’s production.
“Space Cadet” Writer/Director Liz Garcia on Crafting Her Cosmic Comedy
It was an article about NASA’s first class of astronaut candidates in which women constituted half the participants that piqued Liz Garcia’s curiosity about the highly competitive candidacy process and ultimately prompted her to write about it. As the writer/director/producer (The Lifeguard, The Sinner) notes in her Director’s Statement, “Once I learned how astonishingly competitive it is to even get to the point that you’re being considered, I knew I wanted to set a movie in that world,
“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” Director Mark Molloy on Capturing That Eddie Murphy Magic
Mark Molloy is just as much a fan of Beverly Hill Cop as you are. Growing up, the Australian native had an Axel Foley poster pinned to his bedroom wall and turned that into helming the fourth installment of the franchise, which hits Netflix on July 3, nearly 40 years after the original 1984 film.
This time, Foley (Eddie Murphy) finds himself in Beverly Hills protecting the life of his daughter Jane (Taylour Paige) as they uncover a conspiracy connected to the drug cartel.
“Fancy Dance” Writer/Director Erica Tremblay on the Power of Indigenous Storytelling
Fans of Lily Gladstone will be happy to know they can see her on the big screen again in Apple’s new release, Fancy Dance. The film centers on Jax (Gladstone) and Roki (newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson), an Indigenous aunt and niece who live on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation and are dealing with the disappearance of Tawi, Jax’s sister and Roki’s mom. Jax and Roki are hoping they’ll meet up with Tawi at the annual powwow if she’s not found beforehand.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” Director Michael Sarnoski on Creating Emotional Stakes & Killer Silences
A Quiet Place: Day One turns up the action, tension, and scares. For filmmaker Michael Sarnoski, though, creating real emotional connections with his (mostly) new cast in the A Quiet Place world was key. Sarnoski wanted to maintain the intimacy from John Krasinski’s first two films, which depict a world run by blind, sound-hunting monsters who, in the first two films, had already established their dominance on Earth. On Day One,
“Silo” Director/Executive Producer Morten Tyldum on Helming Rebecca Ferguson’s Sci-Fi Mystery
Apple TV+’s Silo, created by Graham Yost, is an ingeniously constructed sci-fi series that nevertheless opens with a shot worthy of any classic western—a Sheriff’s badge—and goes on to meld elements of that genre, along with police procedural and conspiracy thriller, in 10 satisfying episodes. The series’ claustrophobic setting, the titular Silo, serves as a character almost every bit important as Rebecca Ferguson’s resourceful, remorseful Juliet, an engineer plucked from the obscurity of the Silo’s lowest levels to take over for the last lawman,
“BRATS” Director Andrew McCarthy on Reuniting With the Iconic Brat Pack
It’s fair to say the youth movie genre in the 1980s was defined by the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who appeared together in such classics as Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo’s Fire. They are famously familiar: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Andrew McCarthy, among others. What is less well known is the profound impact that moniker,
“Shakespeare but with football”: Director Matthew Hamachek Unpacks “The Dynasty: New England Patriots”
Director and executive producer Matthew Hamachek calls The Dynasty, the 10-part docu-series now streaming on Apple TV+, “Shakespeare but with football.”
He’s not overstating it. As Dynasty charts the rise and fall of the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots over the course of 20 years, dazzling on-field highlights are deftly layered with the documentary’s themes of male ego, betrayal, the price of success, and the corporatization of sports at the expense of players.
Richard Linklater on the Killer Chemistry in his Romantic Comedy “Hit Man”
In Richard Linklater‘s latest film, an irresistibly sexy romantic comedy that’s also a bit of a noir, a giddy satire on the hitman genre, and a screwball quasi-whodunit, the one constant is a vibe that is decidedly and effusively all Linklater. Glen Powell, a rising star who has been Linklater’s longtime collaborator through a string of roles dating back to 2006’s Fast Food Nation, plays Gary Johnson, a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of New Orleans who is as passionate about Nietzsche as he is dispassionate about the affairs of his own life.
“The Garfield Movie” Director Mark Dindal on Taking a Famously Lazy Indoor Cat Way Outdoors
Garfield, the lasagna-eating original grumpy cat, has been painted with a fresh coat of animated fur and given a new voice in actor Chris Pratt for director Mark Dindal’s The Garfield Movie, a hilarious roller-coaster romp that’s going to bring out the kid in you, nostalgia aside. Garfield purred into theaters on May 24.
Published as a comic strip in 1978, the beloved feline has made its way onto television series,
“Thelma the Unicorn” Director Lynn Wang on Marshaling the Magic of Brittany Howard’s Voice
When director Lynn Wang and her co-director Jared Hess set out to adapt Aaron Blabey’s popular 2015 book about a plain-Jane barn pony who dreams of being a unicorn, Wang brought to bear years of animation experience to this sure-hoofed, very funny adaptation. Thelma the Unicorn hits its high notes but also manages to work in sly humor that adults will particularly savor.
What Wang and Hess both have in spades is a deep appreciation for music (the film is chock full of tunes,
“Under the Bridge” EP/Director Quinn Shephard on Lily Gladstone & Riley Keough’s Twisty Murder Mystery
In 1997, fourteen-year-old Reena Virk went to a party and never came home, then became front page news around the world when a tight-knit circle of girls and one troubled teenage boy were implicated in her murder. Journalist Rebecca Godfrey wrote about the crime in her acclaimed book “Under the Bridge”, and now Hulu’s narrative series of the same name delves into the life of the victim, as well as those involved in her death.
Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun on Their Stunning New Film “I Saw the TV Glow”
While a student at Boston University, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun enjoyed “many formative movie experiences” at the nearby Coolidge Corner Theater. “A fond memory is of a zombie movie and me and all my friends dressing in zombie makeup,” says Schoenbrun. “It was one of the happiest memories of my college experience, and it probably says something about me.”
So it’s a fitting, full circle moment for Schoenbrun when they returned to the historic Boston theater on May 11 as the 2024 recipient of the Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award.
From Feudal Japan to Tokyo’s Neon Underworld: “Shōgun” & “Tokyo Vice” Director Takeshi Fukunaga Unmasks Japan
Japan is enjoying a moment. Godzilla Minus One landed a Best Visual Effects Oscar and a record U.S. box office for a Japanese live-action film; Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron scored a Golden Globe for best-animated feature, while Shōgun (将軍) and Tokyo Vice have won fans and plaudits around the globe.
As the only local director on both those acclaimed series set in Japan,
From “SNL” to the Director’s Chair: Julio Torres Lights Up With “Problemista”
There is a cornucopia of comedy happening in Problemista, Julio Torres’ debut feature. In a little over 90 minutes, writer/director Torres pokes fun at cryonics, the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the U.S. immigration system, and the eccentricities of the art world. Along the way, there are jabs at Craigslist, FileMaker Pro, and Bank of America. All of it is wrapped around a virtuoso performance by Tilda Swinton as a madcap,
