Interview

Composer

“The Gray Man” Composer Henry Jackman Breaks Down His 17-Minute Suite

Classically trained at Oxford University, British-born musician Henry Jackman moved to Los Angeles in 2001. Within five years, he’d landed an apprenticeship gig at Hans Zimmer’s music company, and from there, Jackson quickly rose through the ranks to become one of Hollywood’s most versatile composers. Credits range from Kong: Skull Island and Tom Hanks’s tense, fact-based drama Captain Phillips to half a dozen zany animation features, including Wreck-It Ralph.

By Hugh Hart  |  July 21, 2022

Interview

The Weeknd Reveals “The Idol” Teaser For “Sleazy” New HBO Series

You may be coming out of the weekend, but The Weeknd is still here to help get you through your Monday.

Behold the first teaser for The Idol, the upcoming HBO series created by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, which promises to be “the sleaziest love story in Hollywood.” The Weeknd stars alongside Lily-Rose Depp, and the teaser revels in the seedy, glam-god version of Los Angeles where massive mansions,

By The Credits  |  July 18, 2022

Interview

Actor

Isabelle Huppert on the Beauty & Depth of “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”

Isabelle Huppert, one of the world’s undisputed queens of stage and screen, has won nearly every award an actor could possibly receive. In France, she is an Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, an Officer of the National Order of Merit, and a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, the highest honors given to citizens of the country. She is now co-starring in the ensemble cast of Mrs.

By Leslie Combemale  |  July 15, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

How “Where the Crawdads Sing” Production Designer & Cinematographer Captured Nature’s Challenging Splendor

After delighting in the alluring visual tapestry throughout director Olivia Newman’s adaptation of the beloved novel Where the Crawdads Sing (in theaters now), you might find it hard to believe production faced a crippling onslaught of rain. So much so, that it flooded the practical set of protagonist Kya’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones) home.

Production designer Sue Chan, whose work includes Shang-Chi, Gone Girl, and Punch Drunk Love (the latter two as supervising art director),

By Daron James  |  July 15, 2022

Interview

Director

“Where the Crawdads Sing” Director Olivia Newman on Capturing the Haunting Beauty of a Beloved Novel

Based on Delia Owens’ best-selling novel of the same name, Where the Crawdads Sing (playing in theaters now) tells the stirring story of Kya, a young girl abandoned by her family and forced to raise herself in the marshes of North Carolina. Shunned by her town as the “marsh girl,” she becomes the prime suspect in the murder of an ex-boyfriend. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones delivers a captivating, stand-out performance as Kya, alongside David Strathairn,

By Julie Jacobs  |  July 15, 2022

Interview

Costume Designer

“Thor: Love and Thunder ” Costume Designer Mayes C. Rubeo on Dressing Gods & Goddesses

Thor: Love and Thunder has scored the biggest Thor opening yet, proving MCU fans are loving writer/director Taika Waititi’s romantic comedy space adventure. The film reunites Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has become the Mighty Thor. They fight to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) from killing all the gods and goddesses of the universe. 

Essential to capturing the essence of Waititi’s aesthetic is the bright explosion of color represented in every aspect of the project,

By Leslie Combemale  |  July 14, 2022

Interview

Composer

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” Composer Natalie Holt Finds the Force

The series Obi-Wan Kenobi concluded to great acclaim, especially for star Ewan McGregor’s emotional performance in the title role, Moses Ingram’s intensity as Inquisitor Reva, and the astonishing cat-and-mouse game between Obi-Wan and his former protogé, Darth Vader. Speaking of Vader, Hayden Christensen returned to the role and gave a haunting performance, creating a richer, more tragic character arc for one of the greatest villains of all time. As with other Star Wars projects for the small screen,

By Leslie Combemale  |  July 7, 2022

Interview

“Stranger Things 4” Music Editor Lena Glikson on Cutting Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”

From the get-go, Netflix hit Stranger Things has excelled in the art and craft of needle drops. Encompassing eighties classics from David Bowie’s “Heroes” in Season One to “Everlasting Love” in Season Three, song choices curated by three-time Emmy nominated music supervisor Nora Felder have consistently amplified the characters’ emotions to uncanny effect. 

But nothing in Stranger Things’ previous hit list prepared audiences for this summer’s zeitgeist-smashing anthem “Running Up That Hill.”

By Hugh Hart  |  July 6, 2022

Interview

Editor

“Elvis” Editors Jonathan Redmond & Matt Villa on Keeping the King’s Story Rocking Along

The broad strokes of Elvis’s (Austin Butler) life are all there in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis — the precarious childhood, Army stint, loss of his beloved mother, marriage to Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge), glittering Las Vegas residency masking a perilous personal descent. But this isn’t a biopic. Rather, the director’s first feature since 2013’s The Great Gatsby is also an electrifying tale of rags to riches to ruin, this time set to a compelling score mixing the best of the King’s musical catalog with unexpected contemporary bops.

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  July 5, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” Production Designer Liz Toonkel Appreciates the Little Things

If you closed your eyes, could you picture the hardware on your kitchen cabinets? The knobs on your bathroom sink? When is the last time you stopped to notice your surroundings? Marcel the Shell (Jenny Slate) appreciates all the small things because to him, they’re very, very big.

The star of the viral videos, created by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp, is used to oversized adventures, but he is finally making his big screen debut.

By Kelle Long  |  June 30, 2022

Interview

Sound Designer

“Elvis” Sound Guru Wayne Pashley on the Sonic Glue Holding Baz Luhrmann’s Biopic Together

Bursting through in the golden age of television, Elvis Presley had stunning good looks and taboo-shattering dance moves that instantly attracted legions of female fans, but his legacy rests in that sound. His voice was inimitable with the pain and power he had to share to survive.

Wayne Pashley, the re-recording mixer, sound designer, and supervising sound editor of Baz Luhrmann’s epic biopic Elvis bravely took up the mantle of resurrecting one of the most famous voices ever recorded.

By Kelle Long  |  June 29, 2022

Interview

Director

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” Director Dean Fleischer Camp on His Big-Hearted Feature

Director Dean Fleischer Camp has turned Marcel the Shell, the itty bitty seashell turned YouTube sensation that he created with actress/comic Jenny Slate, into a feature film. But he and Slate, who provides the distinctive voice for the philosophical, one-eyed, one-inch mollusk, knew it had to be on their terms.

“I basically make movies to try to trick my dad into crying in public,” says Fleischer Camp who developed the script with Slate and Nick Paley.

By Loren King  |  June 29, 2022

Interview

How the “Top Gun: Maverick” Sound Team Ingeniously Captured Raw Emotion Mid-Flight

Mark Weingarten is no stranger to navigating the challenges of a production sound mixer. Over his accomplished career, Weingarten’s mixed on Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic Dunkirk, traveled to another dimension in Interstellar, captured the spirit of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, and tracked the drama behind The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In director Joseph Kosinski’s world-beating Top Gun: Maverick,

By Daron James  |  June 28, 2022

Interview

Cinematographer

“Winning Time” Cinematographer Todd Banhazl on Capturing the Flow State

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty sounded, on paper, like a no-brainer for HBO. Based on Jeff Pearlman’s book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s,” the source material had every ingredient you’d want for a prestige series. It had larger-than-life figures in Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar (as well as their foils and foes around the NBA), it’s set largely in Los Angeles in the late 70s and early 80s (gaudy,

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 27, 2022

Interview

Composer

“Elvis” Composer Elliott Wheeler on The King’s Music & That Doja Cat Collab

The dazzling visuals of director Baz Luhrmann’s spine-tingling biopic of Elvis, which were beautifully shot by cinematographer Mandy Walker, undoubtedly hold your attention. But it’s the rhythmic melodies of the soundscape that flutters the soul. Elvis is made to be seen (and heard) in the theater.

The journey explores the relationship between the legendary artist and his manager, a former carny named Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), who sees the potential profit in Elvis’s musical gift.

By Daron James  |  June 24, 2022

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

“The Black Phone” Co-Writer/Director Scott Derrickson & Co-Writer C. Robert Cargill Wring Our Nerves

The always versatile Ethan Hawke first teamed with writer-director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill on their 2012 horror film Sinister, in which he played a good guy protecting his family. In Derrickson and Cargill’s new horror movie The Black Phone (opening Friday), Hawke plays a very bad man. Wearing a mask and preying on children, Hawke portrays “The Grabber,” who’s partially based on serial killer John Wayne Gacy,

By Hugh Hart  |  June 24, 2022

Interview

Cinematographer

“Moon Knight” Cinematographer Gregory Middleton on Creating Marvel’s Head Trip

Moon Knight cinematographer Gregory Middleton came to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with considerable world-building experience. He helmed six episodes of HBO’s colossal fantasy series Game of Thrones, as well as three episodes of Damon Lindelof’s fantastic adaptation of Watchmen (also for HBO), so it would be unfair to say he was daunted to take on Marvel’s vaunted, ever-expanding cinematic universe.

Yet Middleton had his work cut out for him with Moon Knight, 

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 23, 2022

Interview

Director

“Father of the Bride” Director Gaz Alazraki on Re-Tooling the Story as Cuban-American Comedy

Spencer Tracy charmed moviegoers as the original Father of the Bride in 1950. Then Steve Martin reprised the wedding-overwhelmed dad in Nancy Meyer’s 1991 romantic comedy of the same name. Now, Andy García headlines a new reboot playing an old-fashioned Cuban-American patriarch hilariously bewildered by complications that arise when his very modern daughter announces she’s getting married.

Father of the Bride (opening Friday in theaters and on HBO Max),

By Hugh Hart  |  June 17, 2022

Interview

Sound Designer

How the “Stranger Things” Sound Team Creeps You Out

When Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven experiences a flashback a couple of hours into Stranger Things‘ fourth season, sound effects tell the mutant teenager’s nightmarish origins story in a nutshell: thunder, whooshing, whistles, choral voices, more thunder, pistol shots, birds screeching, rumbling, slithering sounds, squishes and thumps flood her head with 50 seconds worth of precision-orchestrated mayhem. In Matt and Ross Duffer’s supernatural thriller, sound effects, melded with Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein‘s throbbing synthesizer music,

By Hugh Hart  |  June 16, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“Maid” & “Under the Banner of Heaven” Production Designer Renee Read on Building Trust

Production designer Renee Read is responsible for the look of two of TV’s most successful adaptations over the past two years. For Maid, Read was tasked with helping showrunner Molly Metzler Smith and the rest of the crew adapt author Stephanie Land’s 2019 best-selling memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.” The series is centered on Alex (Margaret Qualley), a young woman relying on the Byzantine social services complex to get her and her daughter on their feet.

By Bryan Abrams  |  June 16, 2022