“My Muse”: Directors & Actors Who Keep Working Together—Part I
The Wolf of Wall Street marks the fifth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio. But not all frequent director-actor pairings are made in A-list heaven. Many high-profile directors collaborate repeatedly with an actor who simply shares a similar vision, understands their method, or can read between the lines of a script—no matter if the actor is famous or a B-lister. In part one of a two-part series, the Credits takes a look at four frequent director-actor pairings you may not have realized have been right under your nose for years to discover what makes those collaborations tick.
Saving Mr. Banks & the Story Behind Mary Poppins
As Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks debuts, step back in time to discover the story behind the making of Mary Poppins and the inspiration behind one of the greatest and most beloved films ever made.
INT: The Walt Disney Studios. Burbank, California, April 1961.
A rehearsal room in the Animation Building—suffused with sunlight and equipped with storytelling necessities: an upright piano, storyboards, a table and a couch.
Multi-Instrumentalist Mark Orton on Composing Alexander Payne’s Nebraska
Mark Orton is a man of many talents. He can play on any type of guitar, keyboard and percussion instrument. He’s a trained sound engineer and composer. He’s provided scores for feature films, documentaries, experimental radio, video/art installations, concert halls, modern dance, theater and, wait for it—the circus. He’s a co-founder of Tin Hat, a composer/improviser collective that is internationally renown.
Orton’s path to becoming the composer for Alexander Payne’s critically acclaimed Nebraska is an unusual one,
What a Champ: A Q&A with David Koechner of Anchorman 2
The highly anticipated sequel to 2004’s Anchorman opened Wednesday at midnight after what was possibly the greatest (and most hilarious) marketing campaign in the history of film. David Koechner, who stars as Champ Kind, the sportscaster on Ron Burgundy’s (Will Ferrell) news team, attended a Tuesday night premiere at Washington D.C.’s Newseum and offered this advice to anyone worried that The Legend Continues will tarnish the beloved status of the original: “Don’t worry!”
Going Viral: The Hilariously Savvy Selling of Anchorman 2
When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was released in July 2004, YouTube was just a glimmer in the eye of three PayPal employees and the world’s now-ubiquitous social network was still known as The Facebook and open only to college students. What a difference nine-and-a-half years makes.
Despite being released almost exactly two years before the launch of Twitter (and three years before star Will Ferrell and co-writer/director Adam McKay created their wildly popular humor channel,
Playing Dress Up with American Hustle Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson
He was the man who dressed Leonidas and his well-toned warriors in 300, made a graphic novel come to life in Watchmen and outfitted Krypton’s favorite son in Man of Steel. Sure, costume designer Michael Wilkinson had worked on smaller projects before—Garden State and American Splendor, to name a few—but he was still an unlikely choice to take on director David O.
Fashion Lessons From 10 Golden Globe Nominated Actors & Actresses
When we looked at the Golden Globes list of acting nominees, we were struck by how these characters would make really compelling fashion icons. Seriously. Aside from being a spectacular year for film, it's been a spectacular year for costume design. American Hustle alone is like a hair and wardrobe fever dream—you know you're enjoying everything about a film when you could mute it and still marvel at what's on display.
Explaining the Characters of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug via Photos
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth has a teeming population that can be very hard to keep track of. Hobbits, dwarves, elves, orcs, wizards, trolls, goblins, men, women, giant eagles, giant spiders, stone giants, wargs, skin-changers, and yes, dragons (to name a few).
With the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug coming December 13, we thought a good way of reacquainting you with some of the characters (and introducing you to some new ones) would be through visual identification.
Production Designer K.K. Barrett on Creating Her’s Beautiful Future
One walks out of the theater after seeing writer/director Spike Jonze’s Her with lots of different feelings. First, and perhaps foremost, is a kind of bittersweet hope—similar to the way Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes you feel when it ends. These are films about love, warts and all, and what we’ll put ourselves through in pursuit of it.
In Sunshine,
Video Featurette: Behind-the-Scenes With the Creators of Walking With Dinosaurs
Ever since June of 1993, audiences have grown to expect a lot out of their dinosaur movies. You can thank Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park for turning audiences into very exacting judges of what does, and does not, look like a believable dinosaur on screen. Jurassic Park was a huge leap forward in what CGI can do for a film, but for dinosaur fans (which is just about everyone who was ever a child at one point),
Breaking Braddock: New Christian Bale Film Puts Spotlight on Hard Hit Town
Director Scott Cooper’s new movie, Out of the Furnace, boasts a cast that includes Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Zoé Saldana, Sam Shepard and Forest Whitaker. It’s a thrilling drama about the lengths we’ll go for family, and, what pernicious elements fills the void in a town when the jobs disappear. Filmed and set in the ragged, depressed Rust Belt town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, Bale’s Russell Baze works at a mill that is likely going under,
Steve Coogan on his “Surprising” Serious Turn in Philomena
Steve Coogan is a major star in Britain, but his work in American films (2010’s remarkably funny The Trip and the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days, among others) never made much of an impact. He first read about the real-life Philomena Lee in an article in The Guardian newspaper. He then optioned BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith’s 2009 book “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee,”
Walt Disney a Movie Character for 1st Time in Delightful Saving Mr. Banks
In the tradition of the behind-the-scenes Hollywood story comes Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks. The crowd-pleaser, set for a December 20 release, employs the studio’s time-tested, multi-layered storytelling approach to the tale of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) managed in 1961 to convince prickly Australian author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to release the rights to her successful books about a nanny named Mary Poppins.
It’s a departure for the stalwart studio,
Composer Jozef van Wissem’s Bloody Good Score for Only Lovers Left Alive
Jozef van Wissem’s score for Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is one of the reasons you walk out of that film in a kind of satiated trance. From the very beginning of the film to the last scene, music is a huge component of the story, and Wissem’s a huge reason it all works so well. Tom Hiddleston’s character, Adam, is a musician as well as a vampire.
A Tale of Two Sisters: Meet the Creators of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Frozen
No two snowflakes are alike. The same could be said about sisters—especially Arendelle’s Anna and Elsa, the stars of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming comedy adventure Frozen, in theaters November 27. For many families, their story may sound familiar—sisters by chance, estranged by choice. But there’s a magical reason for the sisters’ chilly relationship—Elsa’s enigmatic but uncontrollable power to create snow and ice.
Voicing the fearless, yet lovable younger sister Anna is the charming Kristen Bell.
Christopher Nolan and the Increasing Utilization of IMAX Cameras in Film
Camera nerds, film lovers, Nolan-heads and even some regular film enthusiasts were abuzz earlier this week when word spread that Christopher Nolan was up to some wild business (once again) with an IMAX camera. Nolan is probably the format’s most prodigious advocate (he’s part of a tribe of filmmakers who utilize the bulky-but-beautiful technology), and he always seem to be pushing the boundaries of what can (and should?) be done with these cameras. This past Monday,
Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My! Sled Reynolds on Filming Ferocious Animals
Credited with more than 70 movies, according to IMDB—including six Best Picture winners—Sled Reynolds has much to “crow” about. The veteran animal wrangler/trainer/coordinator has worked around the globe on such esteemed films as Dances with Wolves, Gladiator, Water for Elephants and Life of Pi, and owns and operates Gentle Jungle, a highly successful California-based animal training establishment serving movies, television and advertising.
All Hail Mary: Three Minutes With Writer/Director Extraordinaire Mary Harron (VIDEO)
Mary Harron is probably most well know for taking Bret Easton Ellis’s notoriously gruesome novel, American Psycho, and adapting it for the big screen in 2000 as both writer and director. It has become a cult classic, cementing Harron’s status as a daring filmmaker with a penchant for taking difficult protagonists (some might argue despicable) and crafting compelling, often very funny, and ultimately challenging films around them. American Psycho was engulfed in controversy before the film even began principal photography—but Harron’s handling of Ellis’s graphic,
The Perfect Note: Oscar Isaac’s Inside Llewyn Davis Performance
Oscar Isaac has a long-overdue star-making role as the title character in the Coen brothers' new film, Inside Llewyn Davis, the story of one week in the life of a folk singer living in 1961 New York. T. Bone Burnett, who also worked with the Coen brothers on Oh Brother Where Art Thou? produced the soundtrack, which includes folk standards like "Fare Thee Well," "500 Miles" and Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind." Isaac came to Washington D.C.
Kind of a Big Deal: Anchorman Gets Newseum Exhibit
When Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opens Dec. 20, Ron Burgundy’s news prowess won’t be the only thing on display. So too will a whole new batch of period attire, newsroom props, and—if we’re lucky—maybe another pair of burgundy briefs.
Some of those props will simultaneously be on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where an Anchorman exhibit opens today with a prominent, mysterious feature: A black false wall that reads,
