Maximus Effort: “Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Creating Colossal Constructions
Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max has worked on 16 of Ridley Scott’s films. These include some of American cinema’s most indelible cinematic spectacles, such as the original Gladiator (for which Max scored his first Oscar nod), Black Hawk Down, and The Martian. Despite the impressive body of work between them, Max thinks that the Roman epic actioner, Gladiator II, is their most ambitious yet. For instance,...
“Wicked” Cinematographer Alice Brooks on Casting a Magical Light Over This Dazzling Adaptation
Embracing Old Hollywood and a plethora of source material, cinematographer Alice Brooks knew her Wicked vision for Oz would be rich and luxurious.
Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned woman. She finds an unusual kinship with Ariana Grande’s popular girl, Glinda. When their paths lead them to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz,...
“Gladiator II” Screenwriter David Scarpa on the Herculean Task of Writing a Worthy Sequel
It’s been a long time coming, but the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, opens in theaters nationwide on November 22. Starring Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), the iconic Denzel Washington, and original cast member Connie Nielsen, Gladiator II finally came to fruition thanks to the script from David Scarpa, who’d previously penned Scott movies All the Money in the World and Napoleon...
Mushroom Couture: “Wicked” Costume Designer Paul Tazewell on Drawing Inspiration From the Natural World
Few films this year showcase intricate detail and epic scale like director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked does. The breathtaking costuming created by acclaimed costume designer Paul Tazewell is a vital element of the filmmaker’s captivating vision.
Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, is inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 titular novel. Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned woman opposite Ariana Grande’s popular girl,...
Crime, Crazy Rich Rom-Coms, and More: Producer Janice Chua on Bringing Asian Stories to the World
Raised in a working-class Chinese family in Singapore, Janice Chua says, “Like every Asian person, I grew up with Hong Kong martial arts movies that inspired so much of my imagination. There was a sense of excitement and pride in those action-heavy films with crazy sound effects.”
But her world changed when she encountered Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which “just came across as very poetic…and the way women were portrayed was very different...
“Yellowstone” Costume Designer Johnetta Boone on Beth Dutton, Dueling Sons, and the End of an Era
Yellowstone rides again, six years after creator Taylor Sheridan defied Hollywood expectations by creating the country’s most-watched cable series. The show’s fifth season, part two, streaming weekly through December 15 on the Paramount Network, continues to follow the dysfunctional family of Montana ranchers formerly ruled by Kevin Costner’s grumpy patriarch, John Dutton. Now he’s gone, but his fierce daughter Beth (British actress Kelly Reilly), rivalrous sons Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Kayce (Luke Grimes), and ranch foreman Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) keep fighting to control the fate of their picturesque property,...
“The Day of the Jackal” Cinematographer Christopher Ross Lenses Fatal Game of Spy vs Assassin
Eddie Redmayne stars as an unrivaled, anonymous assassin in The Day of the Jackal, a new Peacock series inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel. Reimagined in a contemporary setting, the Jackal is an English hitman pursued across Europe by Bianca (Lashana Lynch), a British intelligence officer determined to apprehend her target before he gets to his next hit.
Written by Top Boy’s Ronan Bennett and lensed for the first three of ten episodes by cinematographer Christopher Ross,...
“The Penguin” Hair Department Head Brian Badie on Styling Gotham’s Gruesome Twosome
Spoiler warning…
The Penguin capped its remarkable eight-part run this past Sunday night and accomplished a rare feat—it’s a series set in a comic book world, boasting characters well known to the genre’s most read-in fans, that delivered a profoundly satisfying drama for a person unfamiliar with DC Comics or unenthused by Gotham’s most iconic resident, Bruce Wayne. The Penguin doesn’t even whisper Batman’s name nor allude to his presence until the very last shot in the series (a bat-signal,...
“Deadpool & Wolverine” Sound Designers on the Splatter-and-Slash Acoustics of a Honda Odyssey Brawl
In our last conversation about Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, sound designers Craig Henighan and Ryan Cole discussed the hilarious opening sequence where Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool uses Wolverine’s adamantium claws and bones to take down some Time Variance Authority goons, all set to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” and some sound tricks to make the adamantium hits stand out. Today, they break down the savage Honda Odyssey brawl and the stunning cameo extravaganza.
Since you both serve as Supervising Sound Editors,...
“Deadpool & Wolverine” Sound Designers on Turning Frozen Tea Towels Into Broken Bones
Three months after debuting in theaters this summer, Deadpool & Wolverine’s winning streak still wasn’t over. It eventually surpassed Barbie’s domestic gross in its 13th weekend, with director Shawn Levy’s R-rated box office juggernaut ranking as the 12th highest-grossing movie of all time, with a domestic haul of over $636M.
It has been a hectic year for Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning sound designer Craig Henighan, who not only worked on 2024’s second biggest film but also delivered Apple TV+’s two-hander dark comedy, ...
“Forrest Gump” DP Don Burgess Re-Teams with Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Director Bob Zemeckis on “Here”
Cinematographer Don Burgess earned an Oscar nomination and helped make an American classic when she shot Forrest Gump in 1994. He’s since re-teamed with star Tom Hanks and director Bob Zemeckis on The Polar Express, Cast Away, and Disney’s live-action remake of Pinocchio. Now, he’s the man behind the camera in Here (in theaters) which pairs Hanks and his Gump co-star Robin Wright in a story that mainly unfolds across ten decades within one New Jersey living room...
How The “Blitz” Sound Team Shook Steve McQueen’s Harrowing World War II Film
While researching Small Axe, a riveting series about the political awakening of London’s West Indian community, director Steven McQueen found a photograph of a young Black boy standing on a train platform holding a large suitcase. The stark image had the director questioning who the child was and what his story was during the London Blitz, a period in World War II when the city was bombed by Germany over eight long months. The image inspired McQueen’s latest film,...
“Venom: The Last Dance” Stunt Coordinator James Churchman on Tom Hardy, Wild Horses and Flying Kids
When he was nine years old, James M. Churchman bought his first motorcycle and started riding the backroads of his native Florida. A few years later, he became a professional stuntman, and by the late nineties, he’d invented a computerized flying system that is still in use today. In the 2000s, Churchman emerged as a go-to stunt coordinator for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, winning the 2014 Taurus World Stunt Award for staging Iron Man 3‘s 14-man free-fall spectacle...
“Here” Production Designer Ashley Lamont on Building an Entire Life in a Single Room for Tom Hanks & Robin Wright
Robert Zemeckis’ new film Here is based on an unusual concept: the entire movie takes place in one location, and the camera never moves. The living room at the center of the film is set in an early 20th-century house in New England, although as the story revisits different eras, the set also transforms into a forest and a colonial-era drive, both of which represent the same site before the house’s construction in 1907.
But for the most part,...
“The Wild Robot” Composer Kris Bowers on Accessing a Robot’s Humanity Through Music
Emmy and Oscar-winning composer Kris Bowers has become one of the go-to composers in Hollywood. Known for his work on films and TV shows like King Richard, The Color Purple, The Last Repair Shop, and Bridgerton, he has created well-known scores for a wide diversity of genres. For writer/director Chris Sanders‘ The Wild Robot, Bowers has added feature animation to his list of credits...
“Blitz” Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Threads Through a Traumatic History in Steve McQueen’s WWII Epic
Costume designer Jacqueline Durran first dressed Saoirse Ronan in director Joe Wright’s sweeping English drama Atonement in 2007. She did so again for Wright’s action thriller Hanna and Greta Gerwig’s heartwarming period adaptation of Little Women, winning an Oscar for Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Aclott’s beloved book. Durran collabs with the dazzling Irish performer for a fourth time in Steve McQueen’s wartime epic Blitz which follows Ronan as a widowed mother (Rita) trying to protect her only son George (magnificently played by eleven-year-old Elliott Heffernan) from the looming atrocities by sending him on a train far away...
“Smile 2” Horror Auteur Parker Finn on Crafting a Sequel About a Haunted Pop Star in New York
Writer/director Parker Finn has been enjoying a whirlwind victory lap in the days since his Smile 2 opened number one at the box office to become the year’s top-grossing horror film. “It’s been very surreal and exciting,” Finn told The Credits, speaking from his Los Angeles home. In fact, the past four years have unspooled for Finn with the kind of momentum young filmmakers dream about, thanks to his mastery of nightmarish scenarios.
Finn became obsessed with horror films growing up in Ohio,...
“Conclave” Confidential: Production Designer Suzie Davies on Recreating One of the World’s Most Secretive Events
“Hell arrives tomorrow when we bring in the cardinals,” quips the fair-minded Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the dean of the College of Cardinals, on the eve of the gathering to elect the new Pope. After the unexpected death of the current pontiff, it is Lawrence’s duty to oversee the titular Conclave, when over 100 cardinals from around the world gather to witness the cutthroat battle of succession steeped in tradition and secrecy.
In this riveting Vatican-set election thriller,...
“The Penguin” Costume Designer Helen Huang on Gotham’s Gritty Glamour
Costume designer Helen Huang bridges reality and comic book storytelling in The Penguin, finding a brilliant balance that gives the series weight and a churlish glamour befitting a story set in Gotham’s criminal underworld. The hit series led by showrunner Lauren LeFranc is familiar—Gotham is our most explored comic version of New York City—yet heightened and deliciously detailed, blending a tactical mob story with the haunting metropolis in a period of rapid decay following the Riddler’s bombing and flooding of the city at the end of The Batman—The Penguin is set in that tragedy’s aftermath...
“Smile 2” Prosthetic Makeup Designer Jeremy Selenfriend on the Sequel’s Gruesome, Grinning Details
Editor’s Note: The story contains spoilers to the movie Smile 2.
Prosthetic makeup designer Jeremy Selenfriend is no stranger when it comes to creating blood-curdling horror. He grew up watching Freddy Kruger films and turned an interest of the spooky into a career of conjuring some of the most terrifying dread imaginable. “It’s a weird thing to say, but when I was eight years old, I was in love with the Nightmare on Elm Street films,” he tells The Credits...
