Interview

Producer

Documentarian Robert Kline Talks Oliver Stone, JFK, & Release of JFK DVD Box-Set

Veteran filmmaker Robert Kline served as Oliver Stone’s producer on Stone’s 1993 film Heaven and Earth. But that didn’t stop the two from arguing about who killed President John F. Kennedy.

“Oliver and I have been on location in Vietnam, and in various areas of the world, and I’ve said to him, ‘You still haven’t given me compelling proof [of a conspiracy]. You optioned two books, one by Jim Garrison and the other by Mark Lane and you made a movie.

By  |  November 12, 2013

Interview

Actor

Thor’s Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on Playing the Villain

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was born in London, the son of Nigerian immigrants.  He has a law degree and speaks four languages, but his intensity, deep voice and powerful 6'2" physique have him cast most often as a bad guy, from a fierce prisoner in HBO’s Oz to Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. On ABC’s megahit Lost, Akinnuoye-Agbaje played the conflicted, beguiling Mr. Eko, who quickly became a fan favorite.

By  |  November 11, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director

Brothers in Arms: Chris Hemsworth & Tom Hiddleston Talk Thor: The Dark World

For the last time, do not—repeat—do not leave the theater before the end credits are done scrolling in Marvel’s newest epic Thor: The Dark World. As any fan knows, Marvel has nearly created its own cottage industry of mid- and post-credit scenes that reward the patient moviegoer (shawarma ring a bell?) That being said, stay put till the lights come on, because this film is filled with enough action to have you white-knuckling the back of the seat in front of you—especially because of Thor and Loki’s shared plight—for most of its two hours.

By  |  November 8, 2013

Interview

Actor, Animator, Cinematographer, Director, Production Designer, Screenwriter

The Many Moving Parts to The LEGO Movie

The toys and games of our youth have long been fodder for filmmakers. There have been six films (all direct-to-video, it should be noted) made from Mattel’s ‘American Girls’ line. Dungeons & Dragons was made into a feature film in 2000 and starred Oscar winning actor Jeremy Irons. G.I. Joe has been called into duty twice, in 2009 and just this year, in monster big budget spectacles. Transformers have been clanging their multi-purpose parts together since 2007 in three films,

By  |  November 7, 2013

Interview

Composer, Sound Designer

Soundtrack Heaven: Inside Llewyn Davis, Her & More

Part of what we try to do on this site is introduce you to all the people who make movies. By that we mean all the people, as each film you see is a final product that was assembled by dozens, sometimes hundreds, of talented people.

Looked at a certain way, there's a Russian nesting doll quality to the medium—the director and the stars are the largest doll in the set,

By  |  November 6, 2013

Interview

Actor

Warner Bros. Recruits World’s Greatest Pickpocket, Apollo Robbins, for Will Smith Film

In 2001, the Gentlemen Thief, Apollo Robbins, was performing at a show at Caesar’s Palace, in Las Vegas. He was told former President Jimmy Carter was coming to the show, but, owing to Robbins profession, he wasn’t allowed to shake Carter’s hand. Instead, Robbins chatted up his Secret Service men. A few minutes later, he held up a copy of Carter’s itinerary, which an agent snatched from him and said, “You don’t have the authorization to see that!”

By  |  November 5, 2013

Interview

Cinematographer, Costume Designer, Director, Editor, Production Designer, Screenwriter, Sound Designer, Special/Visual Effects

Star Wars: Episode VII’s Galaxy of Talent Behind J.J. Abrams

As useful as IMDBpro is, it’s recommendable to take the “projects in development” rubric with at least a grain or two of salt. Because really, how could one man have 28 projects in development, including the next Star Trek and Mission Impossible, while also working on a little film franchise called Star Wars?

If it were any one other than J.J. Abrams, you’d be right to assume that most of these would fall through,

By  |  November 4, 2013

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Ender’s Game and 8 Films That Touch on Bullying

Looked at in a certain way, Ender’s Game follows The Hunger Games into theaters (even though the story itself predates it) as a film about the pernicious reality of bullying, and, the myriad ways one can stand up to it.

In each film, some form of tyranny is meted out, both from up close and personal and from afar. There are antagonists who tease, torment and threaten our protagonists,

By  |  November 1, 2013

Interview

Actor, Casting Director, Cinematographer, Composer, Costume Designer, Location Scout, Production Designer, Screenwriter

Breaking Down Rom-Com Master Richard Curtis’s About Time

Richard Curtis wrote three of the most beloved romantic comedies of the mid 90s and early 2000s—in a remarkable string, he penned Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones Diary (which he co-wrote with Helen Fielding and Andrew Davies). His directorial debut in 2003, Love Actually, which he also wrote, was an international success and helped create cross-pond love for fantastic actors like Bill Nighy, Chiwetel Ejiofor (now poised for an Oscar nomination for his starring role in 12 Years a Slave),

By  |  October 30, 2013

Interview

Special/Visual Effects

USC’s Paul Debevec‘s Role in The Matrix, Avatar, Gravity & More

Paul Debevec can rightfully claim that he has helped, in small ways and large, create some of the most technologically groundbreaking films of the last two decades. Debevec leads the graphics laboratory at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, and is a research professor in their computer science department. He is one of the most influential academics in the film world today.

Debevec’s research and technology have been used in The Matrix 

By  |  October 29, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director

Directing Diana: Oliver Hirschbigel On His Princess Di Film

German director Oliver Hirschbiegel is no stranger to controversy. His 2004 Oscar-nominated film Downfall triggered rancor in the German press for its complex, humanistic depiction of Adolph Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz. Now Hirschbiegel faces another firestorm in Great Britain for Diana, a portrait of another larger- than-life figure: Diana, Princess of Wales, played by Naomi Watts. The British press has been vitriolic towards the film, which is based on the book “Diana: Her Last Love”

By  |  October 28, 2013

Interview

Actor, Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Person

Daredevil King Johnny Knoxville & Six Other Fearless Actors

Blunt force trauma—this is both a medical term and a description of Johnny Knoxville’s Jackass-related career. He’s been concussed multiple times (once via a bull), torn his urethra (attempting to backflip a motorcycle, the less you read about the particulars the better), had bone chips removed from his elbow (and probably needs further surgery on it), thrown out his back (he told he Dave Kitzkoff of The New York Times he’s not even sure how),

By  |  October 25, 2013

Interview

Actor, Costume Designer

Janty Yates on Dressing Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender & the Cast of The Counselor

Academy Award winning costume designer Janty Yates is a fashion time traveler. In her last 12 films (eight of which were with director Ridley Scott), Yates has designed clothes (and armor, and flight suits, and period piece suits, and…) for characters in ancient Rome (Gladiator, which earned her an Oscar), World War II era Europe (Charlotte Gray), 12th century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), 1970s New York (American Gangster),

By  |  October 24, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director, Hair/Makeup

A Bloody Good Job: Carrie’s Makeup Maestro Jordan Samuel

Makeup department head Jordan Samuel had quite a task in front of him when he joined director Kimberly Peirce and the filmmaking team behind Carrie. "Truthfully, blood itself is one of the most difficult things for a makeup artist," Samuel says, "and the more there is the more difficult it is."

Now, add to the amount of blood Samuel would be working with in Carrie to the fact that he was a major part of making sure they could pull of recreating one of the most iconic scenes in horror film history,

By  |  October 23, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director, Special/Visual Effects

Gravity Shines Light on Future of 3D Filmmaking

How do you create a 3D film that’s truly worth the price of admission? If one lesson can be taken from James Cameron’s Avatar, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, it’s that the extra dimension has to be crucial to the narrative itself. It’s not enough to wow people—you need a good story reason for the technology, which all of the above directors had in spades.

3D Serving the Story

Cuarón’s masterpiece took place in space,

By  |  October 22, 2013

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Right Stuff With Writer/Director Philip Kaufman

“There’s a demon that lives in the air. They say that whoever challenged him would die.” –Levon Helm’s narration at the beginning of The Right Stuff.

Test pilots attempting to break the sound barrier at Muroc Army Air Field in California, where that demon lived, often died. It’s at Muroc where Philip Kaufman’s seminal film begins. Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) has been given the opportunity to try and break the sound barrier in the X-1,

By  |  October 21, 2013

Interview

Actor

The Carrie Phenomenon: A Brief History of Telekinesis

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” – Marcello Truzzi, the founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and the director of the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research.

Covered in pig’s blood, Carrie surveys the most terrifying scene imaginable—a room full of cackling high schoolers. And they’re all laughing at her. It’s one of the most famous scenes in horror film history, to be relived anew in theaters around the country tonight,

By  |  October 18, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Diablo Cody Discusses Paradise, her Directorial Debut

Diablo Cody is still probably best known for her freshman outing as a screenwriter with Juno, back in 2007. After all, the smart, offbeat comedy-drama about a pregnant teenager earned the Illinois-born-and-bred scribe a flurry of ovations for her original screenplay, including an Oscar, a BAFTA and honors from the Writers Guild of America. But come October 18, Cody, who has since penned and produced Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult and Showtime’s United States of Tara,

By  |  October 17, 2013

Interview

Actor, Director, Screenwriter

Spike Jonze’s Soulful, Searching Sci-Fi Romance Her

A Spike Jonze film is always an event. He’s made four features in fourteen years—starting with Being John Malkovich (1999), a film so singularly peculiar and original (a puppeteer finds a portal that leads into the actual mind of John Malkovich), that the long-time music video director found himself nominated for an Academy Award at the ripe old age of 30.

Malkovich was written by Charlie Kaufman,

By  |  October 16, 2013

Interview

Actor

Chatting with Jerry Ferrara About Last Vegas, Being Punched by De Niro, & More

In Last Vegas, which boasts the tagline, “It’s going to be legendary,” legendary actors Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline play four old friends (literally) who throw a Las Vegas bachelor party for the only one of them who has remained single all these years. Call them The Wolf pack, 40 years later.

The movie, which hits theaters November 1, was directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure,

By  |  October 14, 2013