How Color Created Character in Brie Larson’s Unicorn Store

Captain Marvel aside, Brie Larson makes her feature-length directorial debut with Unicorn Store, now on Netflix. First screened at the Toronto Film Festival in September, the fantastical allegory written by Samantha McIntyre follows Kit (also played by Larson), a colorful art student who receives mysterious invitations to visit The Store where she’s granted owning the unicorn of her childhood dreams.

The use of color was fundamental to the story as it painted a metaphor for Kit finding her identity.

Pet Sematary‘s Makeup Designer on Creating Death From Life

It’s always risky adapting a beloved novel for the big screen. It’s even riskier when that novel has already been adapted in a beloved film. Yet this is precisely what directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer took on with their Pet Sematary reboot. Director Mary Lambert’s iconic 1989 film version of one of Stephen King‘s most wrenchingly unsettling novels gave the world some of the most disturbing sequences of any film that decade.

Fear & Grieving With Pet Sematary Breakout Star Amy Seimetz

Pet Sematary star Amy Seimetz remembers reading Stephen King’s novel when she was just eight years old.

“I was too young but my parents were great—being a parent was different in the ‘80s,” she says. “They were happy that I was a voracious reader and they were present to answer questions. I went from [children’s authors] R. L. Stine to Christopher Pike to Stephen King. I read Cujo,

Taraji P. Henson & the Team Behind The Best of Enemies on Crafting History

The Best of Enemies is based on the true story of an African-American activist named Ann Atwater and a KKK official named C.P. Ellis who were forced to work together in a fight over school desegregation in 1971. In an interview with The Credits, star Taraji P. Henson, who plays Ann, writer/director Robin Bissell, and producer Dominique Telson talked about bringing this potent true story to the screen.

Taraji,

Dumbo’s Production Designer on Building Real Sets for a Flying Elephant

Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo is not for children faint of heart. The iconic baby elephant with his signature oversized ears is ripped just as mercilessly from his mother in this modern update as he once was in Disney’s original 1941 animated feature. This time around, however, Dumbo’s got bigger, better allies. Upgraded from Timothy the mouse we now have the Farrier children, Milly, and Joe (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins),

Going to the Circus With Dumbo Costume Designer Colleen Atwood

Costume designer Colleen Atwood has made herself one of the most recognized costume designers in Hollywood. An Oscar-winner for Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice in Wonderland, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Atwood has been the designer of choice for director Tim Burton ever since she collaborated with him on Edward Scissorhands in 1990.

How Dumbo‘s Producer Carves out Creative Space for Tim Burton

Twenty-three years ago, Dumbo producer Derek Frey started working for Tim Burton as a gofer on Mars Attacks. Over the course of Burton’s next 11 movies, Frey rose through the ranks to become a trusted consigliere to the visionary director. Among Frey’s chief tasks: making sure that Burton gets to be Burton. “Tim’s an artist,” Frey says. “He treats every project like a canvas. I always try to – I don’t want to say ‘protect’

Esmé Creed-Miles on Becoming Hanna in Amazon’s new Series

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, in his Hollywood novel The Last Tycoon, that “there are no second acts in American lives,” he either hadn’t considered international lives. Nor had he considered the advent of streaming television.

Thus Amazon brings us Hanna, a reboot, reconsideration, and expansion of 2011’s feature film of the same name. British actress Esmé Creed-Miles plays the 15-year-old titular character. Hanna is raised in feral isolation in the forests of Eastern Europe,

Captive State DP Pictures Chicago After Aliens

Director Rupert Wyatt took motion capture technology to the next level in 2011 with VFX-intensive Rise of the Planet of the Apes. For his new sci-fi movie Captive State (opening Friday, March 15), Wyatt and director of photography Alex Disenhof took a stripped-down approach, filming on the wintry streets of Chicago to conjure a near-future urban dystopia ruled by aliens. Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) plays the leader of a resistance movement,

How Highwaymen‘s Production Designer Recreated the Pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde

Production designer Michael Corenblith has a gift for recreating period films focused on real people including McDonald’s mogul Ray Kroc (The Founder), Walt Disney (Saving Mr. Banks), Davey Crockett (The Alamo) and astronaut Jim Lovell (Apollo 13). Now comes The Highwaymen. Opening Friday [March 15] and streaming March 31, the film casts Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as real-life Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault.

Meet the Creative Team That Helped Captain Marvel Soar

Captain Marvel‘s Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is a part human part alien superhero who can 100% kick-ass. Seriously. Watch out Thanos. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck propelled Marvel’s most potent superhero to the big screen this weekend and the results are a critical and commercial smash. Meet the creative team who helped Boden, Fleck and Larson create a Marvel movie unlike any other.

The allegory catapults us to the Kree home planet of Hala where Danvers already touts her powers and is training as a member of Starforce,

The Gilligan Manifesto‘s Director on Revisiting a Radical Show

I had two reasons to be eager to see The Gilligan Manifesto, the new documentary about the 1960’s television series Gilligan’s Island, now available on Amazon. First, writer/director Cevin Soling’s film is a thoughtful, serious (really!) exploration of the way a silly, slapstick comedy reflected and examined the issues of its era, the midst of the Atomic Age. The seven very different characters did not choose or expect to have to spend more than three hours together but ended up having to build a society.

Gloria Bell Director Sebastián Lelio on Julianne Moore’s Greatness

It was Julianne Moore who persuaded writer-director Sebastián Lelio to revisit his 2013 Chilean film Gloria for an English-language version.

“It was quite moving to listen to her talking so passionately about the story and the characters. She had a deep understanding of everything so I was quite moved by that,” says Lelio, whose 2017 film A Fantastic Woman won the best foreign language film Oscar,

Writer/Director Anthony Maras on his Harrowing Debut Hotel Mumbai

For his debut feature, Hotel Mumbai, out March 22, Anthony Maras wore many hats: director, executive producer, and co-writer. The film chronicles the siege by terrorists at the upscale Taj Hotel in Mumbai in 2008 that took the lives of more than 160 people and injured countless others.

Maras conducted months of research to pen the script, which weaves a tapestry of stories set throughout the hotel. He also assembled an outstanding ensemble cast led by Dev Patel,

Dressing Misfits, Robots & Superheroes With The Umbrella Academy‘s Costume Designer

Understandably, there’s been a lot of fan interest in the gargantuan prosthetic that Tom Harper wears for his portrayal of Luther Hargreeves, a.k.a. No. 1, in the well-received Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy. However, no one is emailing the show’s costume designer Christopher Hargadon about actually purchasing one. Hargadon is getting inquiries from fans asking where they can buy Luther’s mom’s outfits. The first time we meet the show’s matriarch,

Building Sets in Malawi for Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Today Netflix is releasing actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Based on the 2009 bestselling memoir, co-written by its subject, William Kamkwamba, and Bryan Mealer, the film depicts Kamkwamba’s teenaged years in Malawi during a famine, when he successfully built a windmill irrigation system based on an old library book and using parts from a scrapyard. Prior to its Netflix release, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind premiered at Sundance in January and was screened at the Berlinale film festival.

Greta Director Neil Jordan on the Twisted Consequences of Loneliness

It’s somewhat of a cinephilic fantasy to be terrorized by Isabelle Huppert, who has made a career out of sadomasochistic affairs (The Piano Teacher), psychopathic matriarchy (Merci Pour le Chocolat), and unconventional rape revenge (Elle). It’s eerily perfect, then, that the French actress’ latest role is that of a stalker—a seemingly genial old lady named Greta who becomes increasingly attached to,

Director Karyn Kusama Goes her Own Way

Director Karyn Kusama is one of Hollywood’s boldest voices. Her films are visually arresting, emotionally taxing and riveting to the last frame. Whether it’s a pugilist drama like Girlfight or a horror film like The Invitation, Kusama’s gifts bend genres to her will.

Her most recent film, Destroyer, was the year’s most unsettling crime thriller—by a mile. Starring Nicole Kidman in another impressive,

Celebrating The Little Mermaid‘s 30th Anniversary With Ariel

Thirty years ago, The Little Mermaid initiated the second golden age of Disney animated features, with a spectacular score, including what star Jodi Benson calls the “I dream” opening number that introduces us to the title character, “Part of Your World.” The young mermaid princess sings about wanting to explore the human world. “I want to be where the people are/I want to see/want to see ’em dancin’/Walkin’ around on those/(Whad’ya call ’em?) oh – feet.” 

Jodi Benson’s sweet voice brought Ariel to life,

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World‘s Creators on the Trilogy’s Epic Conclusion

Director Dean DeBlois always knew How to Train Your Dragon would be a three-part series where fans would see its main character Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) grow up and bond with a loveable dragon named Toothless. Now in its final chapter How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World illustrates how the animation has matured in complexity and detail alongside its resonating story of friendship.

“Dean had his mind set on a trilogy that would conclude with Hiccup and Toothless learning how to stand on their own feet,” says head of character animation Simon Otto.