Love & Struggle in the City in Love is Strange

Writer/director Ira Sachs and painter Boris Torres were married in New York City in 2011. They joined the many couples who exchanged vows after the state legislature legalized same sex marriage in 2011. Their twin children were born a week after their marriage. It was around this time that Sachs was thinking about his fifth feature film. “I wanted to make a film about love from the very particular perspective of my own age and experience—as someone who’s not either very old or very young,

The Cast of The Giver on Bringing the Book to Life on Screen

The film adaptation of The Giver has been a long time coming. In fact, it has been in the works for 18 years since Jeff Bridges found out about the Newbery Medal winning book while searching for a part for his dad, Lloyd Bridges, to play. Unfortunately, his father since passed away in 1998, but Bridges was already engaged with the book and the idea of a movie.

“I said,

Creating the Incredible Time Travel Sequence in Lucy

If you have not seen Luc Besson’s Lucy but plan to, do not read this article. Just stop. There are SPOILERS AHEAD.

Towards the end of Luc Besson’s mind-bending Lucy, Scarlett Johansson's title character, having nearly reached harnessing 100% of her brain capacity, travels back in time. This capability, which was brought on by having a drug she was forced to smuggle, internally, leak inside of her, sends her back eons to the birth of the universe.

How Into The Storm‘s DP Filmed in Torrential Rain & 100-mph Wind

How do you take a moderately budgeted action film that requires Biblically ferocious storms causing massive damage and make it look like money was no concern at all? With ingenious filmmaking techniques, expertise along a broad spectrum of skills, and a whole lot of problem solving is how. Into the Storm was initially contracted with the VFX house Rhythm & Hues to handle the creation of the cataclysmic tornados that are the film’s raison d’etre,

Filming in the Paris Catacombs for As Above, So Below

Imagine all your fears, mistakes and regrets returning to haunt you…while you’re trapped in a claustrophobic 180-mile underground cave system and mass grave. Apparently brothers John and Drew Dowdle found this premise inspiring enough to write Legendary and Universal’s new psychological horror film As Above, So Below. The same twisted minds behind Quarantine and Devil, the brothers are no strangers to inducing audience-wide panic attacks. Legendary CEO and As Above producer Thomas Tull called the Dowdles with the idea of setting a movie in the Paris Catacombs and the two filmmakers were all too happy to oblige him.

Industrial Light & Magic’s Cody Gramstad on Painting Lucy’s World

There have been plenty of spectacular special effects to feast on this summer, which has really been the case every summer since the blockbuster was invented. Edge of Tomorrow offered Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt on a time-looped platter for voracious aliens, while Guardians of the Galaxy’s glorious, color-soaked space epic includes the spectacle of a gun-toting raccoon and a sentient tree-person that feeds off the flowers that grow on his own body.

Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne on Gearing Up the Guardians

Oscar-winning costume designer Alexandra Byrne is a major reason why Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't look like your average space epic. Part of the film's appeal is its visual splendor and wit—along with all of the eye-popping special effects there is an undeniable charm and style on display that bring to mind Han Solo's timeless black vest and buttonless collared deep-v (also known as the pared-down space pirate look). From Peter Quill's leather jacket to Rocket's sleeveless armored vest to Gamora's battle-ready green bustier,

Watch Artists Hand Paint Murals for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As we wrote back in May, not all advertisements are created equal. Colossal Media is responsible for the hand painted, photo realistic murals that you see scattered through New York City (and in cities across the country), that look more like art than ads. They are, in fact, as close to works of art as an advertisement can get, creations that are crafted with painstaking precision. You know they’re doing something right when their murals make you thirsty for a beer you don’t even like.

Into the Storm Brews a Mighty Economic Wind in Michigan

The premise of Into the Storm is simple and terrifying; a series of tornados, each more violent than the next, lays waste to a small town. These freakish storm systems (achieving EF5 status—the highest metric on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of more than 200 miles per hour) behave erratically and do things they haven’t done before, sending terrified residents under ground (if they’re lucky) and confuse and humble the storm chasers who follow and film them.

International Cast & Crew Cook Up The Hundred-Foot Journey

Sitting in the theater of the Museum of the Moving Image, everyone eagerly awaits the arrival of Bollywood icon Om Puri. Located in Astoria, Queens, the recent renovations at the museum added this 267-seat theater for events such as this, where locals and tourists alike can take in great films and sit for interviews with legends they likely have never heard of. Om Puri is here to be interviewed by Indian actress and author,

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shelled Out Big Bucks in New York

New York City is in trouble once again (just once it would be fun if the city in peril were, say, Charleston) and it’s up to four heroes (really five, counting reporter April O’Neil) to save the city, and mankind, from a remorseless villain and his minions. We’re talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of course, which opens this Friday, but before the film’s villain Shredder threatened to destroy New York City,

Fall Films Show Family Affairs Gone Bad (and Beyond)

As we look ahead to fall, we see several intriguing films coming out that focus, in one way or another, on family. While every year brings plenty of movies that focus on family matters, this year boasts what might be the single most astonishing film about a family ever created—Richard Linklater's masterpiece Boyhood. This gorgeous, meditative dance with time exposed the beauty, love, hardship and turmoil of one single family over 12-years, a feat of filmmaking that is all the more breathtaking for being in the service of a film that actually moves you. This fall’s family-centered films are a touch darker,

The Beautiful Art That Shapes & Sells Our Favorite Films & Shows

Sketches, illustrations, storyboards, concept art, posters, digital painting and even 'for your consideration' Emmy ads for print publications like Variety are just a few of the ways in which artists help filmmakers and television creators tell, and sell, their movies and shows. The artwork can be extremely visible to the public, as AMC's Mad Men has done so brilliantly with their poster design for each new season, or simply a tool for filmmakers to use to help them craft a specific scene or sequence.

Space Creators: Building the Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy opens on Earth, where a young Peter Quill sits alone in a hospital corridor, listening to his walkman. Prop master Barry Gibbs lead the search for the perfect cassette player, which took four months of internet searching and yielded only 16 cassette players in various states of disrepair that would be suitable for the film. Every detail in the film was chosen on purpose, often at great effort. In our opening scene,

Playing With Fire: Chadwick Boseman is James Brown in Get On Up

Some lives seem almost too perfectly suited to be portrayed on the big screen. The larger-than-life figures whose existences seem endlessly dramatic, enjoying the highest highs—success, adoration, fame, fortune, romance, and the lowest lows—shame, disgrace, and the specter of death. These individuals often turn out to be nearly impossible to portray successfully on screen. For every winning portrayal of an icon (Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, for example), there’s a dozen or more than seem to suffer from the responsibility of plausibly portraying an outsized personality,

Garrett Brown: An Interview With a Visionary—Part II

In part one of our two-part conversation with Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown, the Philadelphia-based cinematographer talked about holing up in a motel for a week in the early 1970s to experiment with designs for a more commercial version of his revolutionary camera stabilizer. He talked about shooting his first-ever feature film using a Steadicam on Bound for Glory. And he described his improvised solution for filming one of the most famous scenes in all of cinema history: Sylvester Stallone running up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum in Rocky.

15 Images Celebrating Batman’s 75th: Still Swinging After All These Years

DC Comics formally recognizes March 30, 1939 as the official debut of Batman, created by comic book artist Bob Kane. Or was it his secret collaborator, Bill Finger? It's fitting that the exact origin for our most tortured superhero is still somewhat murky (and part of a panel at this year’s Comic-Con, “Who Created Batman?”). Whoever deserves the credit, the first time we got a glimpse of the caped crusader was actually in May of 1939,

Comic-Con 2014: A Snapshot of Films, Panels & Events

Comic-Con and its overflowing abundance is upon us once again. We’ll help guide you through the costumed chaos with a selection of offerings from top movie studios, the “only at Comic-Con” events, and our own wish list of events.

Major Studio Showings:

Thursday, July 24

11:15am Toy Story That Time Forgot (Disney)

If the words “you’ve got a friend in me” set your heart aflutter,

Master of Mayhem: Prosthetic Supervisor Conor O’Sullivan

There’s not a scratch, scrape, slash or bite mark he can’t create. Broken bones and severed heads aren’t a problem. Welts, warts, rashes and burns are perfectly doable. Whether you need prosthetics for a superhero, war hero, or son or daughter of Westeros, Conor O’Sullivan is your man. O’Sullivan doesn’t only work in the realm of gore—he’s also created one of the most famous noses in film history, turning Nicole Kidman’s perfect sniffer into Virginia Woolf’s more pronounced proboscis for The Hours, 

Hairstylist Aldo Signoretti Wigs Out on Set of Hercules

He’s done hair and makeup for the epic battles between ancient Greeks (Troy) and warring Mayans (Apocalypto). He’s created wigs for the sordid characters scheming and seducing their way through the 15th century Vatican (Borgias), 19th century gangsters vying for supremacy in the Five Points (Gangs of New York), and 20th century bohemians reveling and raving in a Paris cabaret (Moulin Rogue!