How Annihilation‘s Team Created That Insanely Gruesome Bear
Alex Garland makes sci-fi films for people who love the genre’s malleability, the way it can contain other genres within itself like a Russian nesting doll. He wrote the twitchy, truly terrifying zombie thriller 28 Days Later, the brilliant, pared down artificial intelligence “romance” Ex Machina, the gorgeous, heartbreaking Arrival, and last year’s trippy, terrifying Annihilation. Each one was singular. Each one was a sci-fi film that relished in the genre’s plasticity.
Deadpool 2‘s Makeup Designer Bill Corso on Creating Wade’s Brutal Face
Makeup designer Bill Corso earned an Emmy Award nomination for crafting jowls and big ears for Bryan Cranston so he could look like President Lyndon Johnson in All the Way. But more often, Corso traffics in the realm of the fantastical as he does with Deadpool 2. Re-teaming with star Ryan Reynolds, Corso devised the hideous skin of cancer patient/medical experiment/mercenary Wade Wilson, whose mottled face appears in close-up during movie’s opening sequence.
Director Wim Wenders on his Unprecedented Access in Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
At 72, German-born auteur Wim Wenders defies categorization as a filmmaker. He is as much at home with Oscar-nominated documentaries that deal with the arts (1999’s music-filled Buena Vista Social Club; 2011’s Pina, about German choreographer Pina Bausch; and 2014’s The Salt of the Earth, about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado) as he is with visually striking features (1984’s road-trip Western Paris, Texas, 1987’s angelic fantasy Wings of Desire).
Clark Duke Isn’t Always Playing for Laughs on Season 2 of I’m Dying Up Here
Ron Shack was a struggling comedian who was so broke that he was living in a closet—an actual closet—with his best friend Eddie Zeidel during season one of I’m Dying Up Here.
Now, Ron is enjoying the sweet taste of success in season two of the Showtime drama series that follows standups working at a comedy club called Goldie’s in Los Angeles in the 1970s. In the second season opener of I’m Dying Up Here,
How Avengers: Infinity War‘s “Head of Digital Humans” Created the Purple Face of Doom
Darren Hendler‘s been changing live action humans into digital creatures for nearly two decades. Since moving from South Africa to London and finally to Digital Domain in Los Angeles, the former electrical engineer has helped designed CG effects for such spectacles as I, Robot and Furious 7. With Avengers: Infinity War, he focused on the face. Deploying a new motion capture program called Masquerade, Hendler and his team rendered every pore on Josh Brolin’s skin with unprecedented accuracy.
Costume Designer Phoebe de Gaye Brings Killer Style to Killing Eve
In the role of the international assassin known as Villanelle on Killing Eve, Jodie Comer is literally dressed to kill in a high-end wardrobe full of labels such as Burberry, Miu Miu, Dries Van Noten and Phillip Lim.
The chic attire, which prompted Vogue to hail Killing Eve as the most fashionable show on television, was sourced by a small team led by costume designer Phoebe de Gaye,
Book Club‘s Creators on How Fifty Shades of Grey Inspired Their Dream Project
Whatever you did to celebrate Mother’s Day probably wasn’t as great as Bill Holderman’s gift to his mom in 2012. The final book in the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy had just been published, and the Book Club director, co-producer, and co-screenwriter sent the entire set to his mother.
“As sons do, right?” Holderman joked.
Book Club co-producer and co-screenwriter Erin Simms worked with Holderman at a production company at the time and heard about the plan.
RBG‘s Cinematographer on Revealing an American Icon
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sparked a cultural fandom that is usually reserved for musicians, actors and athletes. The Supreme Court Justice’s face adorns stickers and pins at every bookstore and she has adopted the moniker ‘Notorious RBG.’ At 85 years old, Ginsburg is engaging the next generation of activists, but her personal history is just as inspiring. RBG Cinematographer Claudia Raschke worked with directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen to peel back the layers of Ginsburg’s career and grant us insight into her life as a wife,
Tara Strong on Voicing Rocky in the Rebooted Rocky and Bullwinkle Series
Over the last 20 years, actress Tara Strong has built a storied career for herself in the animation world as a voice artist. She is known for her expansive portfolio, including her work as Batgirl in Batman: The Killing Joke, Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls, Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Harley Quinn in DC Super Hero Girls.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinke’s Exec Producer on Rebooting a Classic
When you hear the executive producer of the new DreamWorks show The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scott Fellows, speak about this cartoon, you can hear the passion that he and the entire cast and crew must have put into it. Gratefully, all that enthusiasm shows up onscreen. From the opening credits to the artistry of backgrounds and the writing, they have crafted a reboot worthy of the fans of the 60s classic.
Sweetbitter Creator Stephanie Danler on Adapting her Award-Winning Novel for TV
Sweetbitter portrays a side of restaurants not often seen in mainstream media—delicate, sensual, feminine. The Starz TV show, based on Stephanie Danler’s award-winning novel of the same name, premiered Sunday, May 6.
As executive producer, Danler trades her lyrical sentences for powerful visuals. States of loneliness, intoxication and longing are portrayed in many ways, though most perceptively on star Ella Purnell’s face, best known for her role in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.
How Avengers: Infinity War’s VFX Animation Director Micro-Managed Thanos’s Facial Expressions
Phil Cramer doesn’t watch films the way most of people do. When the man who directed VFX animation for Avengers: Infinity War goes to the movies, he studies the characters’ cheeks. “I like to stare at the actor’s face and see what moves and why does it move,” he says. “You’d be shocked by how complex those motions are.”
Cramer became a student of twitches, jiggles and wrinkles in 2009, when he served as lead animator on the pioneering motion capture epic Avatar.
Ten-Time Daytime Emmy Nominee Sound Editor & Mixer Sean W. Karp on Dinosaur Roars, Dialogue & More
Ten-time daytime Emmy nominee Sean W. Karp is the sound-mixer and editor at Sinking Ship Productions, one of the most prolific production houses in children’s programming, including the series Annedroids, Dino Dana and Odd Squad. Karp began as a musician, playing for bands throughout Toronto throughout the early 90’s. In an interview, he explained the difference between sound editing and sound mixing, the delicate balance of music,
How Avengers: Infinity War‘s VFX Supervisor Created Thanos, Marvel’s Biggest, Baddest Villain Ever
Avengers: Infinity War, the biggest movie in history, found its CGI footing through the collective efforts of 11 different VFX outfits. Visual effects supervisor Kelly Port succinctly sums up the focus for his team at the Los Angeles-based Digital Domain company. Port says, “Basically, all the super depressing scenes were us.” He jokes, “It’s like ‘For the next one, give us something funny to do please,’ because these were really heavy scenes.”
The Supervising Art Director for Avengers: Infinity Wars on Mixing Many Worlds
At two-and-half-hours, Avengers: Infinity War might scare off superhero-movie detractors, and that would be too bad. Though most Marvel titles at least attempt to inject humor into their scripts for broader appeal, the jokes in Infinity Wars always land, no matter where that land might be. In Anthony and Joe Russo’s mega-blockbuster, most of the Marvel universe comes together to fight Thanos (Josh Brolin), a suddenly emotionally complex giant on a complicated mission he believes to be essentially good: population control.
Avengers: Infinity War‘s Production Designer on Helping Build the Film’s Heartbreaking Drama
By now, audiences have gotten to know the newly complex Marvel villain Thanos (Josh Brolin), thwarter of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Wakandans, the soulful psychopath who has haunted the Marvel Cinematic Universe practically from its inception. The third film in Disney’s Avengers franchise (and the 19th in the MCU), Avengers: Infinity War, is setting both box office records and (spoiler alert) records for how many beloved main characters can be killed off — at least seemingly so — in one 2.5 hour stretch.
Nailing the “Regular People Look” on Tully
For Jason Reitman’s new movie Tully (opening Friday), Charlize Theron gained 50 pounds to play Marlo, the bedraggled mother of three. By design, Marlo’s unkempt house reflects a character who’s way too exhausted to keep the place looking neat and tidy. Canadian production designer Anastasia Masaro explains the backstory. “Marlo’s home is meant to feel like she and her husband bought the house when their first kid was on the way and they really meant to fix it up.”
Howard Director Don Hahn on the Legendary Composer Howard Ashman
The name Howard Ashman — the subject of the new documentary, Howard, that premiered at the recent Tribeca Film Festival — might not immediately ring a bell. But you probably have hummed along to the timeless lyrics he wrote in collaboration with composer Alan Menken for the now-animated classics that led to Disney’s ‘toon revival in the late 80s and early ‘90s and continue to endure today.
The catchy words he penned for the Calypso ballad Kiss the Girl from 1989’s The Little Mermaid and the Oscar-winning title tune from 1991’s Beauty and the Beast just helped two American Idol contestants to advance to the next round of voting earlier this week.
The Music of Lizzie Strikes a Sympathetic Tone for the Famous Killer
The four-line Lizzie Borden rhyme is graphic, if not particularly sympathetic. A woman commits a double homicide and the victims are her own parents. The real Borden was acquitted of the 1892 murders, but her legacy was condemned to the role of cold-blooded killer. Sundance selection Lizzie, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart, revisited the infamous crime with a compassion for Borden and explored the motivation that drove her to pick up the axe.
RBG Co-Directors/Producers on Their Groundbreaking Subject – Part 2
In Part 2 of our two-part interview with Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the filmmaking team behind the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG that opens May 4, the pair discusses what they learned while doing their research (the justice is a huge opera fan), her nearly 56-year fairy-tale marriage to her incredibly supportive college sweetheart Martin Ginsburg and how they got around not being able to film the Supreme Court in session.
