Knock Down the House Director Rachel Lears Captures History in the Making

One of the big success stories of Sundance 2019 has been the documentary Knock Down the House, which was snapped up by Netflix for ten million. The festival screening got a standing ovation and a subsequent Festival Favorite Award. Streaming on Netflix starting May 1st, Knock Down the House, which is directed and co-produced by Rachel Lears, follows four female candidates as they run for office for the first time,

Savannah Knoop on Adapting her Memoir Into the Fascinating J.T. LeRoy

It’s often said that truth is stranger than fiction. No doubt this adage applies to the remarkable story of Savannah Knoop, who as a young woman assumed the persona of J.T. LeRoy, an adolescent author admired for his gut-wrenching semi-autobiographical books with themes of childhood abuse and prostitution. In actuality, LeRoy didn’t exist. He was the creation of Knoop’s sister-in-law and the real writer, Laura Albert. When the public began clamoring for LeRoy, Albert asked Knoop to play the part.

Watching The Orville’s Composer Conduct a Live Orchestra to Scenes From the Show

They look laid back in their shorts, tee shirts, and running shoes, but the Los Angeles musicians gathered in the cavernous Newman Scoring Stage on the Fox Lot snap to attention with astonishing precision once snowy-haired composer John Debney arrives. Debney’s on hand to conduct his music for Seth MacFarlane‘s sci-fi series The Orville. The Fox show, which concludes its second season today, Thursday, April 25, draws inspiration from vintage space dramas like Star Trek Voyager and counts on Debney to enhance the old-school vibe with his brawny brass and string music cues.

How Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘s Production Designer Creates the Occult

Based on the “Archie” comic book series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa cast another spell with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The series takes the source material from the comics and infuses them with equal parts horror and humor. Here Sabrina (played by Mad Men‘s Kiernan Shipka) struggles with trying to reconcile her two very distinct natures—she is half mortal,

A Visit to Theaterkunst, Germany’s Oldest and Biggest Costume Design House

What do Metropolis, Ben-Hur, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay all have in common? Their actors were outfitted, in full or in part, by a costume house in Berlin. And not just any costume house, but one that survived two world wars and Germany’s partitioning. It is now the country’s largest collection of historic and contemporary garments and accessories.

The Dirt‘s Production Designer on Recreating Mötley Crüe’s Wild Ride

Netflix‘s The Dirt focuses on the wild, often sordid and ultimately stratospheric rise of the seminal heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Directed by Jeff Tremaine, The Dirt is based on the band’s 2001 New York Times best-selling autobiography, which detailed how they managed to go from sharing a truly disgusting apartment and booking gigs on the Sunset Strip to selling out stadiums and becoming one of the most infamous acts in the world.

Robert Pattinson on High Life & Working With Claire Denis

The career arc that took actor Robert Pattinson from teen heartthrob vampire Edward Cullen in five Twilight movies to one of independent cinema’s most adventurous actors has few parallels — except perhaps for his Twilight costar Kristen Stewart.

Like Stewart, Pattinson has reinvented himself since the blockbuster Twilight franchise as a go-to actor for ambitious indie projects, ranging from David Cronenberg’s  Cosmopolis (2012) to the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time (2017).

Fosse/Verdon Hair Designer Perfects Art of the Comb-Over for Sam Rockwell

Director-choreographer Bob Fosse had nearly everything an auteur could desire in 1973. That was the year he became the only person in history to win one Oscar (Cabaret), four Emmys (Liza with a Z), and two Tonys (Pippin) inside of a year. He also had a gifted wife in the person of four-time Tony-winning dancer/muse/collaborator Gwen Verdon. But as portrayed by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell in Fosse/Verdon (premiering Tuesday,

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.