Costume Designer Evokes Vintage NASA Look for Hidden Figures
Costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus had just heard about the death of astronaut John Glenn when she got on the phone last week to talk about NASA period piece Hidden Figures (opening limited Dec. 25). “I'm so upset," she said. "These guys were so brave and cocky and well-trained, they were like cowboys — the rock stars of their time." Cocksure yes, but not flashy. "I put Jim Powell, the actor who played John Glenn,
Screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick on Deadpool 2 & More
Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have created the perfect recipe for mixing high-octane action, gore, and comedy without being heavy handed. The duo struck gold with Zombieland and if you thought their success might be a fluke, they came back and did it again in Deadpool. The R-rated Marvel box-office smash was just nominated for two Golden Globes, thanks in no small part to Reese and Wernick's mastery of combining humor and action. Their ability to mix genres could be disastrous in less skilled hands.
La La Land Cinematographer Goes Wide to Evoke Classic Hollywood Look
Oscar frontrunner La La Land declares its affection for old-school Hollywood spectacle in its very first frame, when a retro-looking PRESENTED IN CINEMASCOPE logo takes over the screen. From that moment on, writer director Damien Chazelle’s movie musical unspools across an unusually wide screen as an expertly crafted love letter to mid-century movie making. The challenge for Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren? He needed to capture present Emma Stone's struggling actress and Ryan Gosling's downcast jazz musician against a modern-day Los Angeles backdrop that assumes fairytale like splendor once the sun goes down.
Production Designer Seth Reed Takes on Psychic Drama Shut Eye
With temperatures dropping, Hulu has your winter binge watching needs covered. Shut Eye, set in sunny southern California, dropped last Wednesday and the psychic drama sizzles. Production designer Seth Reed created the show’s sets with one big challenge you wouldn’t predict.
Composer Justin Hurwitz on Creating La La Land‘s Gorgeous Score
The collaboration between writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz has produced three of the most musically ambitious films of the last seven years. Their first, which began its life as a student film and ended up becoming a major calling card for both of them, was Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. The original concept for the film, as Hurwitz explained it to us in 2014, was to make a sixteen millimeter black and white vérité style movie,
How Jackie‘s Editor Helped Show First Lady in Brand New Light
When Chilean director Pablo Larrain chose to make Jackie his first film in English, he invited his frequent collaborator and fellow Chilean Sebastian Sepúlveda to edit the film. That’s little surprise, since Sepúlveda’s work is one of the reasons Larrain’s films are heralded for their distinct mix of the surreal and the politically incisive.
Sepúlveda edited Larrain’s acclaimed The Club (2015), about a secret retirement home in Chile for Catholics priests.
La La Land‘s Choreographer Puts the Pep in the Musical’s Steps
Mandy Moore, 40, a four-time Emmy nominee lauded for her routines on the talent competition show So You Think You Can Dance, is one of the most in-demand choreographers working today. She just finished Season 23 of Dancing With the Stars and is currently in rehearsals for the touring version, which kicks off Dec. 16. And she is film director David O. Russell’s go-to dance guru, overseeing the fancy footwork performed by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in
Tom Cruise’s Most Insane Stunt Yet: the Zero Gravity Scene in The Mummy
We've written about the insane dedication Tom Cruise has put in to accomplishing the most ambitious practical stunts, rivaling some of the work of the very best stunt performers. When we interviewed stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood about Cruise's work on Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, he talked about all the ways Cruise is consistently prepared and extremely hard working. What Cruise wants is to make the audience feel as if what they're watching is real,
Breakout Star Janelle Monáe on Moonlight and Hidden Figures
The multi-talented Janelle Monáe is having one of the most remarkable starts to a film career in recent memory. The iconic musician has moved into acting with two roles in films that will likely vie for Oscars, and her performances in both have been earning plaudits from critics far and wide.
As Teresa in Barry Jenkins' remarkable Moonlight, the story of a young man name Chiron's struggle to find himself,
Passengers Production Designer Takes Trip to Outer Space
Two actors and one space ship command center stage in Passengers, the science fiction star vehicle opening December 21. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt hold up their end of the entertainment bargain as travelers on the Starship Avalon who wake up way too early during their 120-year voyage to a distant planet. To craft a backdrop equal to the performances, British production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas challenged himself to infuse the story's familiar trapped-in-space premise with fresh visuals.
Cinematographer Mandy Walker Frames History in Hidden Figures
Mandy Walker knows a thing or two about defying expectations. One of the movie industry's very few female cinematographers, she decided at age 13 to become a DP. "My dad made me a little dark room in the back yard and I loved going to movies, so I decided to join those two things together," says Walker, an award-winning Australian with credits that include Shattered Glass and Mia Wasikowska's desert adventure Tracks.
Behind-the-Scenes of Rogue One on a Deserted Island in the Maldives
While a good chunk of any Star Wars film will be filmed at the colossal Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, there are still quite a few crucial set pieces that take place all across the world. For Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, that includes films shot in Jordan, Iceland, the Isle of Dogs, and, a deserted island in the Maldives.
On location in the Maldives.
Gorgeous Early Concept art for Arrival
If you haven't seen director Denis Villeneuve's brilliant sci-fi film Arrival yet, you're in for a treat. The short and sweet synopsis is this: Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors.
Costume Designer Madeline Fontaine on Outfitting the Inimitable Jackie Kennedy in Jackie
The sets, the tone, the colors — Jackie, which opens Friday, presents the early 1960’s and the tragic days just after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in precise, crisply re-created detail. With director Pablo Larraín’s at the film’s helm, Natalie Portman smolders and sears as the former First Lady, in an Oscar catnip performance.
She’s outfitted, unsurprisingly, in historically identical fashion to Jackie Kennedy, with a wardrobe that perfectly reflects the clothing the real Jackie made so iconic.
One DP Visualizes Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and now Iron Fist
He’s the go to cinematographer for Marvel's crop of Netflix shows, focusing on a new breed of super-flawed superheroes. First Manuel Billeter filmed private eye Jessica Jones in muted tones appropriate to her downbeat Hell's Kitchen environs. Then he showcased Harlem as backdrop for the bullet-proof ex-con with a mission in Luke Cage. And now, Billeter's serving as director of photographer for martial arts thriller Iron Fist,
Annie Awards: Zootopia & Kubo and the Two Strings Lead the Pack
Walt Disney Animation’s rollicking Zootopia was a critical and commercial success, and now the film is feeling the love from the International Animated Film Society—Zootopia leads all the feature nominees for the 44th annual Annie Awards with 11 nominations. (You can read our interview with Zootopia's animator Darrin Butters here, and the animation supervisors here.) Right behind Disney's packed, exuberant smash is Laika's moving,
Oscar Watch: Academy Award-Winning Composer Lightens Up for Secret Life of Pets
Nominated for eight Academy Awards over the past decade, French composer Alexandre Desplat has a gift for infusing somber period pieces incuding The Imitation Game, Philomena and The King's Speech with majestic scores. But Desplat also has a playful side. For animated hit The Secret Life of Pets, which opened in July, Desplat shifted gears from his Oscar-winning Grand Budapest Hotel music to score the New York City misadventures of runaway dog Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) and rebel pet leader Snowball the Bunny (Kevin Hart).
Composer Joby Talbot on the Many Musical Influences in Sing
With stars like Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, and Scarlett Johansson lending their voices, Sing is sure to be the must see family movie this Christmas (the official release date is December 21). The anthropomorphic animation about following your dreams features music by composer Joby Talbot. In a movie about a singing competition, the music becomes a character all its own. Talbot’s task was to weave together a score amidst a story featuring over 100 songs made popular by artists from Aerosmith to Sir Mix-A-Lot.
From Storyboard to Screen: Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Moana
Disney is in on the joke about “princess movies” in the new animated feature Moana (in theaters Nov. 23). In the film, a road trip by sea in which a young Polynesian woman named Moana leaves her island home to find the demi-god Maui and return a lost object to its right home, there is more than one joke about the title character’s princess credentials.
The Credits recently sat down with Hyrum Osmond,
Composer Michael Levine on Scoring Landfill Harmonic
Few people would have the creative vision to construct an entire orchestra from a mountain of trash, but such is the story of the Paraguayan town featured in Landfill Harmonic. Nearly ten years ago, the community came together to build instruments from the garbage flooding their home. The recycled music makers gave local students an opportunity to learn to play symphonies and propelled them to international acclaim.
The story was so transcendent that it attracted the attention of eight-time ASCAP award winner,
