R2-D2 Actor Kenny Baker Dies at 81

Kenny Baker lived a large, full life. The the 3-foot, 8-inch actor played beloved droid R2-D2 in all six Star Wars films, and was the very character (along with his sidekick, C-3P0) we meet in the very beginning of the first film, 1977’s A New Hope. Baker and C-3P0’s Anthony Daniels are the only actors to have appeared in all six Star Wars films (Daniels was in The Force Awakens,

Chatting With Daredevil’s Emmy-Nominated Stunt Coordinator Philip J. Silvera

Stunt coordinator Philip J. Silvera is one of the best in the business. In recent years, he's put his touch on one of the greatest fight scenes in recent memory (the bruising final beat down in Deadpool), helped make Iron Man 3 the best Tony Stark film of the bunch, and, applied his martial arts expertise to the animated series Star Wars: The Old Republic. Recently, Silvera has helped turn Marvel's 

Chatting With Kent Jones About his HBO Documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut

Airing Monday, August 8 on HBO, director Kent Jones’ documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut reveals the archival footage behind the titular directors’ legendary, weeklong series of interviews in Hollywood in 1962. A young Truffaut, who had only recently transformed his own career from film critic to filmmaker, traveled to Los Angeles to interview Alfred Hitchcock. He idolized the director, but at the time, Hitchock was widely perceived more as a popular entertainer than the visionary he is considered today.

Talking to Little Men Director & Co-Writer Ira Sachs

Like his 2014 film Love is Strange, director/co-writer Ira Sachs’ new film Little Men is a touchingly realistic examination of the relationships between people thrown together by circumstance. In Love is Strange, the economics of life in New York force a recently wed gay couple (John Lithgow and Alfred Molina) to live separately after Molina’s character loses his job. In Little Men, a struggling actor (Greg Kinnear) inherits a Brooklyn building from his father and moves his own family there.

Check out the Creepy Stranger Things Concept Art

Have you binged watched Netflix's new hit series Stranger Things yet? If not, we'll advise you to not check out the concept art below, as it showcases the stranger thing that's happening to th small town of Hawkins, Indiana. 

Still here? Okay, so as you know Matt and Ross Duffer have created sci-fi romp that celebrates the best of the 1980s (the clothes, the cars, Spielberg) yet forges it's own distinct,

Chatting With Writer/Director Patricia Rozema About Into the Forest

From her 1987 debut feature I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing to Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008), writer-director Patricia Rozema makes films with women characters that drive the action. But what’s unusual is how sanguine Rozema is about the always-looming issue of the dearth of central women’s roles and the financing obstacles most female-led films face, if they are not about Ghostbusters.

“You just never know what’s plain old getting-a-film-together difficultness and what’s because-it’s-girls difficultness.

Prolific Documentarian Alex Gibney on Zero Days

Documentarian Alex Gibney has made films on many subjects, including a wild-man journalist (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson) and a discredited cyclist (The Armstrong Lie). But his specialties have come to be privacy, technology and conspiracy. In just the last three years, he's directed Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine; We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks;

Comic-Con: The Big Bang Theory Writer’s Panel

No group is happier to appear at Comic-Con than The Big Bang Theory writers. “This is our Coachella,” Tara Hernandez told the audience filling one of Comic-Con’s biggest venues. The writers and producers appeared on a panel with their real-life science consultant, David Saltzberg, moderated by actress Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette. 

The characters in The Big Bang Theory are passionate fans of the same comic books, movies, television series,

Inspired by the Late Muhammad Ali, Gleason Doc Maker Captures an Athlete and His Disease

Documentary maker Clay Tweel first saw Steve Gleason on TV in 2005 when the feisty New Orleans Saints defensive back blocked a punt to win the team's first post-Katrina home game. Nine years later while promoting his film Print the Legend at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Tweel saw Gleason on screen again but this time, the former athlete faced the camera from the confines of a wheelchair. The clip documented the ravages of neuromuscular disease ALS and reduced Tweel to tears.

It’s All About the Doors: Production Designers at Comic-Con

“These images are more widely recognized than Michelangelo’s David or the Parthenon,” John Muto (Home Alone) said as he introduced the members of the production designers panel with a series of clips from films like The Avengers and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and television series like True Blood and Constantine.

 Before you hear a word of dialog or learn a character’s name,

How Lights Out Writer Stretched Fear of Dark Premise to Feature Length Hit

The 2014 short version of Lights Out teased a primal horror hook grounded in universal fear: people freak out in total darkness. After director David F. Sandberg uploaded his YouTube mini-thriller about a monster who pops up when the lights go out, the clip attracted 3.2 million views and caught the notice of Hollywood producers. When they enlisted screenplay writer Eric Heisserer to expand the short, he faced a daunting question: how do you stretch a two-minute,

Writer/Director Matt Ross on Captain Fantastic

Matt Ross is best known as an actor; besides dozens of films on his resume, he’s currently winning laughs and legions fans as narcissistic CEO Gavin Belson in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley. Before that, Ross was a standout on HBO’s Big Love, playing Alby Grant, the creepy son of the polygamist cult leader played by Harry Dean Stanton.

A Juilliard School graduate, Ross made his feature film debut at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with 28 Hotel Rooms.

Wig Wizard Breaks Down his Makeovers for Emmy Darling The People v. O.J. Simpson

Not many jobs inspire people to wake up in the middle of the night suddenly understanding how to make David Schwimmer look like O.J. Simpson lawyer Robert Kardashian. Then again, Hair Department Head Chris Clark had a lot on his mind when Ryan Murphy asked him to handle hair for actors re-enacting the trial of the century on FX Network’s Emmy-buzzed limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson. "We needed to find ways of blending the actors and the real-life counterparts they were playing so it wouldn't be jarring to the audience,"

Emmy Watch: How Fargo Production Designer Re-Created ’70s Prairie Noir

Coming off 18 Emmy nominations and three wins in 2014, Fargo posed a frosty challenge to production designer Warren Alan Young as he tackled the limited series' second season. (They announce the nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards at 11:30 a.m. EST.) For the show, set in wintry 1979 Minnesota and filmed in Calgary, Young needed to conjure period-perfect storefronts, kitchens, cars and diners tailored precisely to creator Noah Hawley’s prairie noir vision. "Noah wanted us to create a world that looked,

Actress & Director Catherine Corsini on Summertime

French actress and director Catherine Corsini’s most personal film to date, Summertime (the more accurate French title is La Belle Saison) manages the impressive feat of portraying early feminist and gay rights activism as an intoxicating adventure. Set in France in 1971, it captures the heady 1970s and its erotically charged atmosphere of liberation through the passionate romance between Delphine (Izïa Higelin), who moves to Paris from her conservative parents’

Chatting With Legendary Filmmaker James Schamus at the Provincetown Film Festival

James Schamus has been responsible for some of the best films of the last 20 years. The award-winning screenwriter, producer and CEO of quality film juggernaut Focus Features has put his stamp on modern cinema with a slew of stylish, intelligent independent films, which has included producing some of the most respected filmmakers in the industry. These filmmakers have included Todd Haynes, Nicole Holofcener, Michel Gondry, Gus Van Sant, Sofia Coppola, and the Coen Brothers. His creative partnership with Ang Lee has been a quiet,

Chatting With Jeff Goldblum About Independence Day: Resurgence

Twenty years after the humans united to fight the invading aliens, with the help of computer virus uploaded by a nerdy genius David Levinson, played by Jeff Goldblum, the aliens have returned, and Jeff Goldblum has, too, in Independence Day; Resurgence.  In an interview, Goldblum talked about returning to the role of David Levinson two decades after the first film. But any conversation with Goldblum is guaranteed to be wide-ranging and he asks at least as many questions as he answers,

From Gossip Girl to Billions: Costume Designer Eric Daman

Eric Daman, the man who learned from the inimitable Patricia Field on Sex and the City and then went on to put his own distinctive stamp as a costume designer on shows like Gossip Girl and The Carrie Diaries, discusses his latest work on Billions and The Astronauts Wives Club.

Some people might be surprise to find out that the same costume designer who created the over-the-top style of Gossip Girl and The Carrie Diaries is also responsible for Billions.

How Actual New York Chefs Reality-Checked Restaurant Drama Feed the Beast

AMC touts its new David Schwimmer/Jim Sturgess drama Feed the Beast (debuting Sunday, June 5, at 10 pm ET) as a show that explores the "insanity of the New York restaurant world." It's a topic series consultant Harold Dieterle knows a lot about. After winning Bravo TV's Top Chef crown, the American Culinary Institute-trained New Yorker came out swinging in Manhattan's hyper-competitive fine dining scene, where he ran three critically acclaimed restaurants at the same time.

Talking to Seth Meyers About Late Night‘s Growing Power

Seth Meyers is really starting to get comfortable in the hosting chair at Late Night: Seth Meyers and people are taking notice of his no holds barred skewering of political issues. We discuss how he manages to present a strong point of view and keep people laughing, being called the ‘heir to Jon Stewart’ and how he feels about Trump (hint: he’s not laughing so hard anymore).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn0eIAyYByI