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,
From Italian Disco to Tupac Shakur, Master of None Music Supervisor Explains Tonal Twists &Turns
Aziz Ansari fans probably have no idea who "Mina" is, but they'll hear plenty from the famous-in-Italy pop singer when Master of None season 2 begins streaming on today. "Mina was an Italian pop star in the late sixties, very much in the Phil Spector / Dusty Springfield vein," says deejay-turned-music supervisor Zach Cowie. "Aziz found out about her when he was in Italy and now she's kind of become the guiding voice for the season."
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,
Fargo Song Picker Finds Obscure Gems to Underscore Quirky Criminality
It was weird enough that bleakly funny Minnesota noir series Fargo (Wednesdays on FX through June) kicked off its third season last month with an eight-minute interrogation set in Cold War East Berlin. Adding to the strangeness was the spooky recording of of an ancient Russian folk song performed by the Ural Cossacks Choir, which played throughout the scene. Maggie Phillips, the artist-turned song picker who supervises music selections for the series,
The Get Down’s Costume Designer on Hitting the Perfect 70’s Notes
Part two of Baz Luhrmann’s musical melodrama The Get Down was released earlier this month on Netflix, jumping forward from 1977 to 1978. The South Bronx tale of love and the pursuit of fame saw its religious and criminal secondary plot lines toned down, ever so slightly, to let the show focus on hero Ezekiel (Justice Smith), his girlfriend Mylene (Herizen F. Guardiola), her burgeoning disco stardom, and the divergent paths taken by Zeke and his childhood best friend,
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,
Here’s How VFX Artists Turned Neil Gaiman’s American Gods Into a Visual Feast
Starz takes a big swing starting April 30 with its eye-popping adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantastical novel American Gods. The eight-episode spectacle follows fresh-out-of-prison "Shadow Moon" (Ricky Little) as he partners up with ancient trickster Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) as he preps for battle against "New Gods" including the bratty "Technical Boy" (Bruce Langley).
Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon), Ian McShane (Mr Wednesday). Courtesy Starz.
Shot in the hyper-crisp 4K resolution,
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,
Beyoncé Latest Move? Creating a Formation Scholarship
In celebration of the one year anniversary of her award-winning album Lemonade, Beyoncé is giving back.
Lemonade emerged with the intent of starting a conversation, stemming from one of culture’s most influential black women. In an interview with The Credits, production designer Hannah Beachler said one of the driving forces behind the music video was the idea of putting women of color in positions of power.
John Ridley on his Post-Rodney King Verdict Riots Doc Let It Fall
He wrote 12 Years a Slave and tackled anti-Muslim prejudice, homophobia and immigration in his American Crime TV series. Now, 25 years after the Rodney King "not guilty" verdict sparked riots in Los Angeles, Oscar-winning writer-director-producer John Ridley takes another deep dive into American dysfunction with Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992. Opening theatrically April 21 and airing on ABC April 28, the documentary examines a decade's worth of catastrophic decisions culminating in the six-day uprising that cost 55 lives and more than a billion dollars in property damage.
The Makeup Designer Behind Logan and Star Trek Beyond
When Hollywood needs to create a character that’s cool, creepy, crazy or out of this world, they know just who to turn to. Academy Award winner Joel Harlow and his team, Morphology FX, have created special effects makeup designs for Planet of the Apes, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek Beyond, and many more. Harlow has established himself as the go to designer for master chameleon Johnny Depp creating amazing transformations like “Whitey”
Soldier Tells His Tale in Iraq War Drama Sand Castle
Screenwriter Chris Roessner's strange but rewarding career began the summer after he graduated from high school, when he sold air humidifiers door to door in his home town of Temple, Texas. Three years later, he found himself in Saddam Hussein’s abandoned palace working the night shift for U.S. Army occupation forces. Inspired by his deployment in Iraq, Roessner wrote Sand Castle (April 21), which stars Nicholas Hoult and Henry Cavill as soldiers working to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi civilians.
Silhouettes Say it All in Dramatic Feud Title Sequence
When Feud: Bette and Joan creator Ryan Murphy envisioned a retro opening for his FX series about Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) and Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange), he reached out to Emmy-winning main title director Kyle Cooper with a simple mandate: take inspiration from mid-century graphic designer Saul Bass. "Ryan wanted this to be like the kind of thing Saul Bass did for Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, so that was our creative brief,"
The Filmmakers Behind the Sweeping Historical Epic The Promise
Although best known for 2004's Hotel Rwanda, Terry George has written or written and directed a half dozen films about areas of conflict, notably his own childhood homeland, Northern Ireland. With The Promise, which opens April 21, George addresses the genocide of Armenians in what is now Turkey during World War I. The murder of approximately 1.5 million is well documented, yet Turkish authorities have never acknowledged it.
How Ghost in the Shell ’s VFX Supervisor Got Cyberpunk Right
A cult hit since its manga origins, Rupert Sanders’s live-action Ghost in the Shell has had to meet high fan expectations, particularly in regard to visuals. The film is as well known for its gritty, near-future post-cyberpunk aesthetic thanks to Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 animated film, and as Paramount Picture’s Scarlett Johansson-driven feature arrived in theaters, a legion fans were more curious about what the movie would would like than the cybernetic-focused science fiction plot.
The Amazing Year of Moonlight, Lemonade, and Black Panther Production Designer Hannah Beachler
Production designer Hannah Beachler has produced incredible artwork that led her to a former slave owning plantation in Louisiana where she stood among forty powerful women of color. They danced and cried and shared their stories. Oh, and they listened to Beyoncé sing Freedom a capella on a paper stage Beachler created.
Beyoncé’s triumphant visual album Lemonade splashed into the social conversation almost a year ago. Coming from one of the most influential black women in the world,
The Women’s Summit Captures a Moment for Action
The purpose of the recent Women’s Media Summit in Provincetown, which drew 114 participants from around the country and from many areas of film and media, wasn’t just to talk about the gender gap in popular entertainment. Instead, the emphasis was on concrete action.
So, after a day of presentations and panel discussions, the Summit organized attendees into working groups which hammered out specific suggestions aimed at increasing gender equity in film and TV.
Cynthia Nixon on Channeling Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion
The ads won’t scream ‘Cynthia Nixon IS Emily Dickinson!’ but they might have if A Quiet Passion was a lavish ‘50s biopic. The actress’s uncanny portrayal of the 19th-century American poet in Terence Davies’ latest film rivals that of Julie Harris; until now, the best-known interpreter of Dickinson on stage and film.
Nixon says she was influenced as a child by Harris’ performance as Dickinson in a television version of The Belle of Amherst.
