Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Tribeca 2015: Tim Blake Nelson on Writing/Directing/Producing Anesthesia

Writer/director Tim Blake Nelson’s ensemble drama Anesthesia premiered Wednesday night at the Tribeca Film Festival. A fitting setting for the New Yorker’s latest film about the intersecting lives of erudite city-dwellers who are united by a violent crime. The film, which explores the different ways we attempt to numb our pain, was filmed on location in New York, with an impressive cast of mostly New York-based actors, including Glenn Close, Sam Waterston, Gretchen Mol,

By  |  April 27, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Producer

Which Dinosaur Would You Fear The Most in New Jurassic World Trailer?

First of all, who in their right mind would get into one of those transparent orbs and go rolling off into a huge herd of dinosaurs? Tourists, will they ever learn? Anyway, this new Jurassic World trailer gives you a bevy of dinosaurs to fear, and the morbid question that popped into our heads was; which way you rather go if you had to be eaten by a dinosaur at this completely insane theme park?

By  |  April 20, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Alex Garland on Building Ex Machina‘s Perfect Woman

Novelist-turned-screenwriter Alex Garland knows how to create strong characters that are trapped in inhospitable and oftentimes dangerous situations.

In 28 Days Later (2002), his characters were faced with the outbreak of a disease that was turning people into zombies. In Sunshine (2007), his characters were sent on a dangerous space mission to prevent the destruction of the human race. In the remake Dredd (2012), his main character was trapped in a criminal’s lair and forced to fight through hundreds of thugs eager to end his life.

By  |  April 17, 2015

Interview

Director, Producer

Why NBA Star Serge Ibaka is the Son of the Congo

He would wake up at four in the morning to go running through the streets of Congo. He'd play as much basketball as he could, in old sneakers or barefoot, if need be. When his mom died and his dad was thrown in prison, he was kicked out of his uncle's house and lived on the streets, often sleeping in a parking lot. But Serge Ibaka never wavered in his commitment to make basketball his life. And when he did,

By  |  April 16, 2015

Interview

Director

The Next James Bond? Paul Blart Returns, Takes Vegas

Remember Paul Blart? The hapless mall cop who Segwayed into our hearts? Well, he’s back. This time, he’s heading to Vegas to take down a new crew of bad guys.

We spoke to Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 director Andy Fickman (She’s The Man, Parental Guidance) about putting his spin on the sequel and how filmmaking is like sport.

It’s been six years since the original Paul Blart Mall Cop,

By  |  April 15, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director

The Mindy Project’s Chris Messina Moves Behind the Camera with Alex of Venice

We had a both delightful and thought provoking conversation with busy actor Chris Messina about his feature film directorial debut – Alex of Venice. Having premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, this heartwarming and emotionally wrenching story of a woman and her family in quiet crisis is set to open on April 17th.

While Messina is perhaps best known as Dan Castellano in The Mindy Project,

By  |  April 15, 2015

Interview

Director

James Franco, Jonah Hill Matched up for Murder? Director Rupert Goold Explains

True Story is just that: the real-life story of a journalist who meets with a criminal to understand his crime and write a book about the experience.

In one corner is Michael Finkel, a former star journalist for The New York Times who gets fired after stretching the truth in a magazine cover story. And across the table is Christian Longo, an Oregon man accused of murdering his wife and two children and then going on the run in Mexico.

By  |  April 14, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director

Abraham Lincoln in Film, on the 150th Anniversary of his Assassination

Today, April 14th, marks the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln while attending a performance of ‘The American Cousin’ at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. The 16th President passed the following day, leaving a shocked, grieving nation to heal the wounds of the Civil War without its leader.

Lincoln’s epic story has been manna for filmmakers from the inception of the medium. From D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) to Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) to the television movie Killing Lincoln starring Tom Hanks in 2013,

By  |  April 14, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Writer/Director Vindu Vinod Chopra on Broken Horses

The bonds of brotherhood are explored and testing in Broken Horses, the gritty thriller from writer-producer-director Vindu Vinod Chopra (Parinda, 1942: A Love Story.). The story follows a young music prodigy, Jacob Heckum, (Anton Yelchin) who returns to his desolate hometown only to discover that his brother, Buddy (Chris Marquette), has been persuaded by a local drug gang to join their ranks. As they grapple with the memories of their father’s murder when they were children,

By  |  April 13, 2015

Interview

Director

Game of Thrones Music Editor David Klotz Makes Melody of Mayhem

On the surface, it may seem like Game of Thrones, Glee and American Horror Story have little in common. The first is a mythological drama about feuding families lusting for power. The second is a musical comedy focused on the daily activities of a high school singing group, and the third is an anthological horror series.

One asset they do all have in common though is David Klotz,

By  |  April 10, 2015

Interview

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

5 Interesting Choices Made by Cast & Crew in Skype Horror Unfriended

There are few things creepier in life than an unexplained, unwanted intrusion on our privacy. In the pre-internet era, the phone was the communication medium of choice for sadists to torture their victims in films. When a Stranger Calls (1979) revolves around that phone call from the titular stranger to a babysitter named Jill (Carol Kane), asking “have you checked the children?” Spoiler alert; the police trace the call and tell the babysitter the call is coming from inside the house.

By  |  April 8, 2015

Interview

Cinematographer, Composer, Director

Lies, Illusions & Murder: A Look at True Story

Journalist Michael Finkel had a promising career ahead of him when he started at the New York Times Magazine, although his future was soon shattered by his own mistakes. Finkel was caught fabricating elements of his feature story “Is Youssouf Malé a Slave?” which looked at the life of the young, titular laborer on a cocoa plantation on the Ivory Coast. Although Malé was a real boy, it was revealed that Finkel had create the version you meet in the article from a composite of several boys he met,

By  |  April 7, 2015

Interview

Animator, Director

Animation for Adults: Oscar Nominee Bill Plympton’s Gorgeous Cheatin’ World

Cheatin, directed by Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton, the “King of Indie Animation,” is the animated, adults-only tale of love, jealousy, revenge and murder. It follows the story of Jake and Ella, who meet and become lovers — and then ultimately face problems when an “other” woman comes between them. “The personal inspiration for the film came from a relationship I had years ago, when I was madly in love with a woman and we moved in together,

By  |  April 7, 2015

Interview

Director, Production Designer

Making It: Ruth De Jong’s Designs on Paul Thomas Anderson & Terrence Malick

Ruth De Jong never thought she would end up working on movies. She wanted to be a painter.

But now, a decade into her career as a production designer and art director, she’s tallied up credits on films like The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups from director Terrence Malick, and There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice with Paul Thomas Anderson.

By  |  April 6, 2015

Interview

Director

3 Countries, Forged Art, Lighting? The Struggles of Directing Woman in Gold

In 2011, in his cinematic directorial debut, Simon Curtis helped bring a simple yet personal story to life in the film My Week with Marilyn. The film— which told the true tale of a young man’s adventures with Marilyn Monroe during one eventful week in the 1950s— earned critical raves and helped nab Oscar nominations for stars Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh.

This year, Curtis has brought another incredible true story to the big screen in the new film The Woman in Gold.

By  |  April 2, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actress Katharine Emmer Wanted A Life in Color, so she Became a Director

NYU graduate Katharine Emmer looked to have a bright acting career in front of her. She landed an episode of Desperate Housewives; she had a role in indie film Puccini for Beginners, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. At NYU she was the recipient of the Annual Tisch Artistic Achievement Award. But even with her growing resume, she was not a full-time working actor;

By  |  April 1, 2015

Interview

Actor, Director, Producer

New Trailer for Straight Outta Compton Raw & Exciting

The new Straight Outta Compton trailer has all the power of the movement that inspired it. N.W.A. was the musical progenitor of a new, and largely ignored, raw urban voice. Even in this short clip, we get a taste of the story of an America that we don’t read about in many history books, but nonetheless was a lived experience for millions. For N.W.A., including Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Eazy-E, their “art was a reflection of their reality.”

By  |  March 31, 2015

Interview

Director

Lethal Force: Sheriff Confronts SWAT Team he Founded in Peace Officer

“Since the late 1970s, there has been a 15,000% increase in SWAT team raids in the United States.” This alarming fact is revealed in Peace Officer, an extremely timely, unsettling documentary that swept the Audience and Jury Awards for best feature documentary at this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, Peace Officer focuses on the increasingly militarized state of American police, told through the story of Dub Lawrence,

By  |  March 31, 2015

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Prolific Screenwriter Dan Fogelman on Directing Debut Danny Collins

Not yet in his 40s, Dan Fogelman is a force to be reckoned with.

In the past ten years, Fogelman has written over a half-dozen hit films. He was the screenwriter responsible for animated hits like Cars, Bolt, and Tangled and star-studded comedies like Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Guilt Trip and Last Vegas. He also helped create television shows like The Neighbors and Galavant.

By  |  March 30, 2015

Interview

Director

It’s Me, Hilary Director Matt Wolf Discusses his HBO Doc

Who exactly is Hilary Knight, the artist behind the iconic "Eloise" books? Director Matt Wolf sets out to paint a complete portrait of the now 88-year-old artist, covering not only his odd and wonderful life as an illustrator but also his often contemptuous relationship with not only his most famous creation, the character of Eloise, but also to Eloise author Kay Thompson, who passed away in 1998. If you missed last night’s premiere of It’s Me,

By Alison Prato  |  March 24, 2015