How Cinematographer & Director Jessica Lee Gagné Shaped “Severance” Season 2’s Most Devastating Episode
After racking up 14 Emmy nominations for its first season in 2022, Severance returned this spring with a much-ballyhooed set of episodes that fortifies the show’s stature as a dread-saturated mind game drama on par with Twin Peaks and Lost. In the Apple TV+ + series, creepy experiments conducted by cult-like Lumon Industries center on split personalities (Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, and Dichen Lachmann) wrestling with their “innie/outie”
From Converse to Converts: How “The Last of Us” Costume Designer Ann Foley Mapped Ellie’s Dark Journey Toward Vengeance
In a world decimated by zombies, human survivors don’t have much time to worry about fashion, which explains why form follows function in The Last of Us. In the HBO Max drama, which concluded its shocking second season with a May 25 finale, characters primarily focus on staying warm and as dry as possible. Most of our major players in season two had two goals: revenge and killing any of the infected who got in their way.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” DP Nicola Daley on Bringing the Story of Elizabeth Moss’s June Home
The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale picks up where it left off: on a train driving away from Gilead. June (Elisabeth Moss) is aboard, headed for Alaska, and so is her former tormentor, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), the latter woman’s fortunes in Gilead having tumbled after the death of her husband, Fred (Joseph Fiennes). Each with a child in tow, June and Serena are seeking safety, but neither will keep it once they find it.
Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s Final Dive: “The Final Reckoning” Writer/Director Takes Us Inside the Submarine Stunt That Caps a Franchise
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning closes out a behemoth chapter of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s career. For over a decade, he’s crafted missions for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to accept, starting with an uncredited rewrite on Ghost Protocol. He stepped behind the camera for his first film in the franchise as director, the muscular Rogue Nation, which included Cruise holding onto the side of an Airbus A400M as it took off and rose to 5,000 feet,
From Indie Darling to Action Hero: Katy O’Brian on Her Leap from “Love Lies Bleeding” to “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”
If there’s a performer well-suited for the world of Mission: Impossible, it’s Katy O’Brian. The films are wildly ambitious technical endeavors – hugely physical and highly creative. Those are just a few of the characteristics that define O’Brian’s work, both on and off screen. On screen, she’s appeared in a galaxy far, far away in the world of Star Wars (The Mandalorian), mixed it up with superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania),
Building the First “Black Mirror” Sequel: How Production Designer Miranda Jones Upgraded the USS Callister Universe
Back in Season 4 of Black Mirror, an enthusiastic programmer, Nanette (Cristin Milioti), gets trapped in a virtual-reality game by its creator and her boss, Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons). Shy and self-minimizing in real life, Nanette’s in-game clone is creative and confident enough to lead the rest of her colleagues, also trapped as crew by Daly on the starship USS Callister, out through a wormhole. Black Mirror picks up the thread with a sequel in Season 7,
Fire Drill: “Final Destination Bloodlines” DP Christian Sebaldt & VFX Supervisor Nordin Rahhali on Creating a Scorcher
A quarter of a century after the first Final Destination movie landed in theaters, the beloved franchise is back with a vengeance. Final Destination: Bloodlines leans into two things: using practical effects wherever possible and paying homage to the franchise’s core concept—Death can’t be cheated.
Final Destination: Bloodlines, now in theaters, follows college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) as she is plagued by a recurring nightmare that leads her to discover her family on Death’s list.
Crafting Continental Studios: How Julie Berghoff Built Seth Rogen’s Fictional Production Powerhouse in “The Studio”
In The Studio, the fast-talking movie executives who make and sell motion pictures to mass audiences might use “on the nose” as a pejorative. But sometimes, the obvious solution can’t be denied. For show creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, there was only one place to set their behind-the-scenes look at how cinematic sausage gets made: Warner Bros. Studios.
The Burbank, California backlot serves as headquarters for the fictional Continental Studios.
Ground-Level Galaxy: “Andor” DP Christophe Nuyens on Making the Most Visceral “Star Wars” Story Ever Told
The satisfactions of Tony Gilroy‘s Andor were such that many viewers comforted themselves when the series came to an end on May 13 by immediately turning to Rogue One, the 2016 feature film that Andor served as a prequel series for. Such has been the power of Andor—it’s been hard to let go, and there’s no better way to keep the rebel spirit alive than by following Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) story to its bittersweet conclusion.
One-Shot Wonders: How Casting Director Shaheen Baig Assembled the Perfect Cast for “Adolescence”
Co-created by and co-starring Stephen Graham, Netflix’s four-part series Adolescence has been a widely viewed hit for the streaming site. Nothing about casting the show, about an otherwise ordinary boy, Jamie (Owen Cooper), who has been influenced to such a malign degree by his online life that he becomes capable of murdering a classmate, Katie (Emilia Holliday), was standard operating procedure. Each episode is a single take, and finding an actor young enough to play the difficult role of thirteen year old Jamie and do so while shooting repeat one-shots was no small feat.
Rufus Sewell on Playing ‘The Good Guy’s Bad Guy’ in Netflix’s “The Diplomat”
A proper English thespian who originated a role in Tom Stoppard’s Laurence Olivier Award-winning play Arcadia fresh out of acting school, Rufus Sewell has since excelled as a character actor with leading man looks. Over the past few years he’s played a sadistic aristocrat (The Illusionist); a Nazi (The Man in the High Castle); an astrophysicist (Eleventh Hour);
Designing Dance: Production Designer Bill Groom’s Meticulous Ballet World-Building in “Étoile”
In the world of ballet as dramatized in Étoile, prickly personalities throw tantrums one minute and dance with exquisite grace the next. Created by former dancer Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Dan Palladino, the Amazon Prime series (now streaming) follows imagines a contentious talent swap between New York and Parisian dance companies desperate to create buzz about their new seasons.
It doesn’t go well.
The quarrelsome characters include Cheyanne (Lou De Laâge) the world’s best ballet dancer and eco-activist who publicly denounces the company’s billionaire arms-dealer benefactor;
Lighting Love in LA: How “Nobody Wants This” DP Adrian Peng Correia Lit Netflix’s Coziest Rom-Com
The moment Nobody Wants This became one of Netflix’s most beloved romantic comedies comes at the end of the second episode. Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) have been glancing off one another in an uneasy will-they-or-won’t-they start to their relationship that finally ends in a kiss over ice cream. But it’s not just any kiss, Joanne later tells her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), but the greatest kiss of her life.
How Co-Creator & Showrunner Aeysha Carr Transformed “Government Cheese” into a Series of Indie Film Experiences
If Wes Anderson and David Lynch partnered on a story set in 1969 about a Black family living in the San Fernando Valley, you might approximate the vibe of the new Apple TV+ show Government Cheese. The surrealist comedy is inspired by co-creator Paul Hunter’s childhood, and stars David Oyelowo as eternal optimist Hampton Chambers, a man chasing the American dream after being released from prison.
Hampton aims to repair the relationship with his wife Astoria (Simone Missick),
The Gauls Go Global: Inside Director Fabrice Joubert’s Vision for Netflix’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight”
It was in 1959 that Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo published their first comic strip about a village of Gauls resisting occupation by the Roman Empire.
In the nearly 70 years since, Asterix & Obelix have placated the Romans and conquered the entire world. It has become one of France’s most successful franchises, leading to 40 volumes of comics, 10 animated films, 5 live-action movies, games, merchandise, and a theme park.
Director Alex Graves on Keri Russell’s Balletic Excellence in Netflix’s Hit Series “The Diplomat”
Keri Russell plays blunt but brilliant U.S. Ambassador Kate Wyler in The Diplomat. She’s often anything but diplomatic in the taut political thriller, loath to dress in fancy clothes or brush her hair, but Kate exhibits invaluable tenacity as she tracks down the perpetrators of a horrendous ship explosion and car bomb attack. The Emmy-nominated Netflix series, which aired its second season last fall, co-stars Rufus Sewell as Kate’s ambitious husband Hal,
Precision and Passion: How Director Amanda Marsalis Choreographed the Chaos of “The Pitt”
There are few careers that could fill an entire season of TV with a single day’s work, but The Pitt proves that the emergency room is a source of endless inspiration. Drama and trauma pump into a Pittsburgh hospital led by attending Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) over fifteen hours.
Medical dramas aren’t new to the screen – in fact, Wyle is well known for his role as Dr. John Carter on ER.
“Sinners” Production Designer Hannah Beachler on Conjuring Ryan Coogler’s Supernatural Stunner
Warning: Contains spoilers
Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners, made history with a second-weekend box office tally only six percent lower than its opening weekend. Just past its fourth weekend, it crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office. Both audiences and critics adore this Southern Gothic vampire thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan as identical twins Smoke and Stack. The pair has just returned to the Mississippi Delta after fighting in World War I and then getting involved with the Chicago mob,
Pinstripes and Blood Spatter: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Making Dark Magic in “Sinners”
Two-time Oscar winner Ruth E. Carter takes us behind the seams of Ryan Coogler's horror masterpiece "Sinners," revealing how she brought the 1930s Mississippi Delta to life while dressing Michael B. Jordan's gangster twins.
“Dark Winds” Showrunner John Wirth on Building a Peabody-Winning Thriller with Native Voices at its Core
"Dark Winds" follows tribal cops Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) as they solve crimes on their Navajo Nation turf.
