Interview

Screenwriter, Showrunner

“The Diplomat” Creator Debora Cahn on Refusing to Write Easy Villains in a World of Hard Choices

For Deborah Cahn, the journey from The West Wing to Netflix’s The Diplomat began with a simple encounter that revealed the extraordinary lives hidden within the foreign service. The former West Wing writer spent years cultivating relationships with real diplomats, ambassadors, and State Department officials, learning first-hand how complex the world of international politics was, and how much it demanded of the individuals who dedicated their lives to it.

By Bryan Abrams  |  July 16, 2025

Interview

Screenwriter

“Part Debate Club and Part Therapy”: Inside “The Pitt” Writers’ Room With Cynthia Adarkwa & Valerie Chu

HBO’s The Pitt emerged as one of television’s most gripping medical dramas in years by doing something deceptively simple yet extraordinarily difficult: following a single, brutal 15-hour shift in a Pittsburgh emergency room in real time. What made the series so compelling wasn’t just its relentless intensity or unflinching medical realism (the “floating face” fracture in episode 2 will haunt my dreams), but how writers like Valerie Chu and Cynthia Adarkwa managed to weave deeply human character arcs through the chaos of trauma bays and life-or-death decisions.

By Bryan Abrams  |  July 15, 2025

Interview

Costume Designer

Dressing Despair in Paradise With “The White Lotus” Costume Designer Alex Bovaird

The White Lotus costume designer Alex Bovaird, along with creator Mike White, wanted to make season three of the HBO show bigger and bolder than ever. Although it’s a longer season with more characters and more narrative complexity, for Bovaird, it still always comes down to researching reality and bending it from there.

Every season of The White Lotus has seen characters attempt to escape their own reality by descending upon another culture and failing to let go,

By Jack Giroux  |  July 14, 2025

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

From Maya Files to Magic: How Hollywood Creatives Help Build Epic Universe’s Immersive Worlds

Almost a decade in the making, Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida is a groundbreaking theme park that highlights the shared DNA between filmmaking, attractions, and immersive real-world experiences, taking audiences and guests on a cinematic journey.

Three of the five worlds that make up Epic Universe are born out of IPs that have graced both the big and small screens, namely The Wizarding World of Harry PotterMinistry of Magic,

By Simon Thompson  |  July 11, 2025

Interview

Showrunner

How “Nobody Wants This” Creator Erin Foster Finally Found Success Writing About Herself

After 15 years of chasing what television networks wanted—workplace comedies, procedurals, whatever was trending—actress and writer Erin Foster had almost given up on her writing career.

“I had a lot of setbacks as a writer,” Foster says. “Some of those were like, ‘You’re not a good joke writer’ and ‘You write things that feel sort of like a play—it’s just people talking and there’s not enough plot.’ So there were a lot of times that I really second-guessed what path I was going to go down.”

By Bryan Abrams  |  July 10, 2025

Interview

Director, Producer

Playing a Flush Hand: Inside “Poker Face” Season 2 With Producer/Director Adam Arkin

Few people in Hollywood have had as rich and varied a career as Adam Arkin. With decades of experience both in front of and behind the camera—from his breakthrough role in Northern Exposure to acclaimed directing work on series like The Americans, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Fargo, Succession, and The Night Agent—Arkin brings decades of experience both in front and behind the camera to every project he tackles.

By Bryan Abrams  |  July 10, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

“Murderbot” Production Designer Sue Chan on Building the Brilliant World Around Alexander Skarsgård’s Conflicted Robot

Growing up in New Jersey with immigrant parents who ran a Chinese restaurant, Murderbot production designer Sue Chan didn’t even know the job existed when she first laid eyes on the futuristic movie that would inspire her journey into show business. “I basically decided to be an architect after going to see Blade Runner,” she recalls. “When I walked out of that movie theater with my family, I was like,

By Hugh Hart  |  July 9, 2025

Interview

Actor

Case Closed: How Uzo Aduba Mastered the Art of Playing Television’s Smartest Detective in “The Residence”

From the moment the first episode streamed on Netflix in March, The Residence has garnered millions of fans and great ratings. There’s also been a growing fan base for its lead character, Cordelia Cupp, known as the world’s greatest detective by those surrounding her in this unique mystery dramedy. The whodunit comes from longtime Shondaland collaborator Paul William Davies (Scandal, For the People), and is inspired by Kate Anderson Brewer’s nonfiction book on the history of The White House and its staff.

By Leslie Combemale  |  July 8, 2025

Interview

Meet Nikkolas Smith: The Artist Who Painted the Soul of Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” and “Sinners”

In creating one of the year’s most talked about movie sequences, Sinners filmmaker Ryan Coogler assembled his de facto repertory company including Michael B. Jordan, production designer Hannah Beachler, costume designer Ruth Carter, DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw, composer Ludwig Göransson, and a lesser known member of his team: concept artist Nikkolas Smith. Smith previously worked on Black Panther and Wakanda Forever.

By Hugh Hart  |  July 3, 2025

Interview

Cinematographer

Eye in the Sky: How “F1” Aerial Cinematographer Phil Arntz Delivered Cinema’s Most Heart-Pounding Racing Sequences

Continuing in the tradition of his last blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski returns this summer with Apple’s most successful theatrical outing to date, with the sleek and thrilling racing drama F1, grossing north of $144 million on opening weekend. In a world where every fraction of a second could cost you a trophy—or worse, your life— Brad Pitt’s veteran driver, Sonny Hayes, wants to build “a car for combat” in order to salvage his old buddy Ruben’s (Javier Bardem) APXGP team.

By Su Fang Tham  |  July 3, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

“Duster” Production Designer Jonah Markowitz Brings 1970s Arizona to 2025 New Mexico

The moment writer-director-producer J.J. Abrams saw actor Josh Holloway pull up to a pay phone in a vintage mini-muscle car, he knew what his next show would be. Duster, co-created with LaToya Morgan and streaming on HBO through July 3, casts Holloway, revered for his role in Abrams’ ABC hit Lost, as fast-driving rogue Jim Ellis, whose entanglement with drug dealers in 1972 Phoenix warrants the attention of Rachel Bilson’s Phoenix FBI Agent Dana Hayes.

By Hugh Hart  |  July 2, 2025

Interview

Costume Designer, Production Designer

Inside the Bone Temple: How Designers Carson McColl & Gareth Pugh Crafted the Pagan-Apocalyptic World of “28 Years Later”

Serving as both production designers and costume designers for director Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later was a groundbreaking career moment for Carson McColl and Gareth Pugh.

Not only is the post-apocalyptic coming-of-age horror film the first film they have worked on, but the married couple, known as Hard and Shiny, is best known for their high fashion and for having worked with such icons as Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

By Simon Thompson  |  July 2, 2025

Interview

Director

“M3GAN 2.0” Writer/Director Gerard Johnstone on Killer Tech, Callbacks, and Respecting Genre

M3GAN 2.0 has gumption. The sequel to the Blumhouse production doesn’t play it safe by rehashing a formula. Instead, writer/director Gerard Johnstone rips up any atypical sequel blueprint and goes for broke in an action-comedy: a mad tech bro or two, a kitchen that kills (thanks to AI), and the proud influence of Steven Segal’s finest pictures. 

M3GAN (Jenna Davis) never truly died. Silicon Valley and beyond are still reeling from her dance-happy killing spree from the first movie,

By The Credits  |  July 1, 2025

Interview

The Great Escape: How Wrapbook is Freeing Hollywood from Payroll Hell

Wrapbook was founded with the idea of streamlining payroll and accounting services for the entertainment industry. Since its inception in 2018, the company has made significant strides in achieving this goal by creating a platform that seamlessly combines onboarding, payroll processing, expense tracking, and real-time financial reporting within a single interface.

“At Wrapbook, what’s really been coming together is the integrated experience for a company between payroll, accounts payable, and accounting.

By Daron James  |  July 1, 2025

Interview

Special/Visual Effects

The Secret Behind “M3GAN 2.0”: FX Duo Adrien Morot & Kathy Tse Reveal How They Perfected Horror’s Creepiest Eyes

Early in M3GAN 2.0 (in theaters now), the robotic title character complains to her maker Gemma (Allison Williams) about being confined to the clunky body of Teletubby simply because it/she killed a bunch of people in the first movie. Negotiating for an upgrade to fend off a weapons-grade android, M3gan says, “I want to be stronger. Faster. And while you’re at it, make me taller.”

That last demand posed a challenge to Morot FX Studio principals Adrien Morot and his wife,

By Hugh Hart  |  June 30, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

How “F1” Production Designer Ben Munro Built Real Racing Garages That Traveled the World

Architect-turned-director Joseph Kosinski knows how to build action movies modeled, more than most, on analog reality. Following on Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski has re-teamed with producer Jerry Bruckheimer to put Brad Pitt in the driver’s seat for F-1 (now in theaters). The filmmakers, deploying cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s ingenious camera rigs, worked with producer/ex-driver James Lewis to secure cooperation from the Formula One organization so that Pitt and co-star Damon Idris could get behind the wheels of real cars in front of actual crowds and speed down raceways in UK,

By Hugh Hart  |  June 30, 2025

Interview

Art Director

Inside Wes Anderson’s Art Hunt: Curator Jasper Sharp on Securing Real Masterpieces for “The Phoenician Scheme”

Early on in The Phoenician Scheme, Benicio del Toro’s billionaire character Zsa Zsa Korda tells one of his nine sons, “Never buy good pictures. Buy masterpieces.” The line comes and goes in a flash, but Zsa Zsa’s not kidding, and neither was director Wes Anderson. So, Anderson and his team built out a palatial realm brimming with real paintings — not reproductions — created by the likes of legendary artists,

By Hugh Hart  |  June 24, 2025

Interview

Flesh-Eating Evolution: VFX Supervisor Adam Gascoyne Reveals How “28 Years Later” Infected Got Scarier

In 1964, Queens, a woman named Catherine Genovese was attacked and murdered outside her New York apartment. Even after screaming for help, none of the neighboring witnesses called the police. The case became infamous for what is known as the bystander effect, which suggests that the more people present in a social situation, the less likely anyone is to step in and assist. Now, imagine living in a zombie apocalypse. Not among the infected who want to eat you alive,

By Daron James  |  June 23, 2025

Interview

Cinematographer

How “28 Years Later” DP Anthony Dod Mantle Mounted 20 iPhones to a Custom Rig For Danny Boyle’s Thrilling Sequel

Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle helped unleash an indie-film revolution as a key member of Denmark’s Dogma movement, utilizing handheld digital video camcorders and available light to shoot dramas of unsettling intensity. In 2002, he drew on that low-tech aesthetic to film 28 Days Later for director Danny Boyle. Now, six movies into their ongoing collaboration, comes 28 Years Later (opening Friday, June 20).

By Hugh Hart  |  June 18, 2025

Interview

Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Person

Scorching Stunts: “Ballerina” Stunt Coordinator Stephen Dunlevy on Flamethrower Finesse With Ana de Armas

In the first part of our conversation with supervising stunt coordinator Stephen Dunlevy, we covered the delicate balance involved with establishing the first theatrical John Wick spinoff, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, from an action choreography perspective. Ana de Armas’ titular ballerina, Eve Macarro, unleashes a deluge of ultra-violent a**-kicking as she tracks down her father’s killer, crossing paths with the Baba Yaga himself (John Wick,

By Su Fang Tham  |  June 17, 2025