This Sneak Peak at AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead Raises One Huge Question
AMC’s zombie ratings colossus, The Walking Dead, wrapped up arguably their best season to date this past March with their season five finale. So it was hardly surprising when word came they’d be expanding the franchise with Fear the Walking Dead, a companion series set in Los Angeles and featuring new storylines and characters.
So what have we gleaned from the feautrette AMC just released today? Executive producer Dave Erickson says that Fear the Walking Dead will be a “family drama,...
Here’s How They Created Minionese, the Language of the Minions
In Universal Pictures' Minions, the three lead Minions are Kevin, the “big brother,” protector and leader, Stuart, the rebellious “middle brother,” and Bob, the innocent, eager “little brother” who loves everyone and everything. They're on a mission to find a new master (this is a prequel to Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, so they haven't met Gru yet), a mission they've been on,...
New Ant-Man Featurette: Marvel’s Biggest Avenger May Come in its Smallest Suit
He may not be as sexy a character as billionaire geinus (and narcissist) Tony Stark, as irresistibly rococo as the Hulk, or as satisfyingly kick-ass as the Black Widow, but you could argue none of these beloved Avengers are more important than Dr. Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, and the man he puts in his miraculous suit, thief-turned-hero, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd).
As one of the original founders of the Avengers, and “one of the smartest people in the Marvel universe,”...
A Q&A With Sam Elliott, Whose Career, Like his Mustache, is as Strong as Ever
Veteran actor Sam Elliott, known for his impressive mustache and that velvet-in-gravel voice, at age 70 is experiencing a late-career resurgence.
Not only did he star in the final season of FX’s critically acclaimed series Justified (playing the clean-shaven Markham), Elliott was feted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for three films: Digging for Fire, directed by Joe Swanberg; I’ll See You in My Dreams, directed by Brett Haley; and Grandma,...
Michael Fassbender Channels Steve Jobs to Startling Effect
A great opening monologue, a great beat beneath it, and images of the legions of Apple fans (and worshippers) starts yet another fantastic new trailer released this week. In this new trailer for director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs, Apple’s tech genius Steve Wozniak, played by Seth Rogen, asks his mercurial, infuriating mastermind of a partner, Steve Jobs (Fassbender), the question we have all wondered about Jobs – “What do you do?” He goes on to list what Jobs'...
Writer/Director Patrick Brice on the Late Night Intimacies in The Overnight
Over the years, plenty of films have featured over-the-top parties that slowly spiral out of control, but there have been few movies like Patrick Brice’s new comedy The Overnight.
The film tells the story of two sets of parents who come together for a pizza party in a Los Angeles home. The couple played by Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling have recently moved to L.A. from Seattle and are looking for new friends in the neighborhood...
New Creed Trailer is a Mike Tyson-in-his-Prime Knockout
“A great fighter once said, ‘it ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’”
This reference to the 2006 film Rocky Balboa by the eponymous protagonist Adonis Johnson Creed says it all about the future of the “Rocky” franchise. This first Creed trailer has come out swinging and is definitely moving forward. The music, the first rate editing, and a irrefutably dynamic leading man in Michael B...
Modern Family Editor Tony Orcena on the Show’s Trickiest Episode
Tony Orcena has edited 32 episodes of Modern Family, but the one he gets asked about most was one of the most discussed comedy episodes of 2015. This was the episode that was filmed entirely on a variety of personal devices—phones, computers—as Claire, stuck at an airport, is desperately trying to track down Haley after an argument. "Connection Lost" was a first for television, and it couldn't have been possible with Orcena's editing skills.
We talked to the ...
Cutting Chaos With Homeland Editor Jordan Goldman
You may watch Homeland and assume the reason you're so riveted is the subject matter (international espionage), the performances (Claire Danes brilliant, bi-polar CIA operative Carrie Mathison, Mandy Patinkin's CIA chief Saul Berenson, etc.), and, of course, the relentless action. And you wouldn't be wrong. But what you might be missing is another key element that makes watching Homeland so intense: it's edited to put you, the viewer, in the character's shoes. As Emmy-winning editor Jordan Goldman,...
Will Legend be the Best Gangster Film in Years?
The premise is pretty fantastic—identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray aim to takeover the London underground, with a little help from the Mafia. The twins are both played by Tom Hardy, an actor of singular intensity who can hold the screen with anybody (as he did with the incredible Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road). The writer/director is Brian Helgeland, the man who wrote 1997’s L.A. Confidential, one of the best cop dramas of that decade...
Maya Forbes on her Highly Personal, Illuminating Infinitely Polar Bear
Behind the scenes, writer/director/producer Maya Forbes has helped directors and filmmakers tell a lot of stories, but in her directorial debut Infinitely Polar Bear, she’s telling her own.
Her new drama chronicles the eighteen months that Forbes and her sister lived with their bipolar father in Boston in the 1970s while their mother attended graduate school in New York. Although that period was sometimes tumultuous, it also gave her a lot of beautiful memories about her dad—...
From Bigelow To Scorsese: 7 Music Videos & Commercials By Iconic Directors
There’s something profound to appreciate when it comes to renowned film directors who’ve pursued telling stories with images beyond the silver screen. For many, this has meant moving into the world of the music video or the high-end fashion commercial. You’re probably already familiar with some of these high profile collaborations—from Tim Burton directing “Here With Me” and “Bones” for The Killers to Sofia Coppola directing a risqué video for The White Stripes or even several of Martin Scorsese’s ad campaign ventures with brands such as Dolce &...
Dana Nachman on the Phenomenon of her Doc Batkid Begins
When Miles Scott told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be “the real Batman” no one could have predicted how epically his dream would be fulfilled. The documentary Batkid Begins, which premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, goes back to November 15, 2013, when, with the help of the Mayor, the Chief of Police and thousands of volunteers, San Francisco became Gotham City, to the delight of a five-year-old boy battling leukemia. A few hundred people were expected to come out that day to cheer on Miles*,...
Thomas Haden Church Talks War Dogs, More in Max
Here’s a little known fact about actor/director/writer Thomas Haden Church: Following memorable turns on television (Wings) and in film (Free Money), he stepped away from acting in late 2000 and left Los Angeles for his 2,000-acre cattle ranch in his native Texas. It was director Alexander Payne who lured him back to the screen with a plum part in 2004’s sleeper indie hit Sideways, which paired him with Paul Giamatti on an eventful road trip through the California wine country...
Feeling the Music of Fargo With Composer Jeff Russo
You would have been excused for wondering how in the world the folks behind FX's Fargo were going to take a classic Coen Brothers film and turn it into a viable television series. The challenge of adapting something beloved is hard enough when what you're adapting is a book, but to take an award winning and critically acclaimed film and turn it into a television series? That takes guts.
One of the ways in which ...
Dope Debuts in Theaters After Smashing Sundance Premiere
One of the buzziest crowd-pleasers to come out of Sundance, Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a 90s hip-hop obsessed geek from Inglewood with dreams of studying at Harvard. After a wild night there’s suddenly a backpack of drugs standing in his way and only his two nerdy friends to help him offload them. (Hint: their plan involves bitcoin).
We talk to writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood, about making his fourth feature film and how he recruited Pharrell Williams for the soundtrack...
How Inside Out Writer Meg LeFauve Created An Emotional Battle Inside The Mind
Inside Out comes with all the classic marks of a great Pixar movie. An all-ages storyline? Check. Beautiful animation paired with an unexpected, off-kilter premise? Check. Tears? Check and check.
The story takes place inside the mind of Riley, a pre-teen girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, a transition that unleashes a flurry of upheaval among her five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.
Before the move,...
Battle of the Titans: Robert Gordon on William Buckley vs. Gore Vidal in Best of Enemies
Playing at the BAMcineamaFest in Brooklyn and AFI Docs in Los Angeles tonight, Magnolia Pictures' Best of Enemies is a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr., where these two intellectual heavyweights clobbered each other over their views about God, sex, and politics.
We spoke with co-director and producer Robert Gordon about how this film came to be,...
Aligning Past, Present & Future in Terminator Genisys
Director Alan Taylor and writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier had a lot to juggle when they went to work on Terminator Genisys. With the four previous Terminator films and their corkscrewing stories, the filmmakers had to find a way to honor the universe the franchise has already built while setting off on their own, singular path. At what part of the saga of man's battle with machines would they pick up, when the travails of Sarah and John Connor and the Terminators sent to both destroy and protect them have been so thoroughly intertwined over the course of those four films,...
Meet the Crew That Worked on Both Jurassic Park & Jurassic World
Universal's new Jurassic World is being heralded as a proper folllow-up to Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic Jurassic Park, the film that raised the bar for what CGI could accomplish and blew the minds of kids and adults alike. When director Colin Trevorrow took the helm of Jurassic World, the first film in the franchise in 14-years, both he and executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted to recapture the magic of that first film...
