“Blink Twice” Production Designer Roberto Bonelli on Crafting the Sinister Façade of Zoë Kravitz’s Thriller
For her feature directing debut, actor-turned-director Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies, The Batman) has chosen a visually luscious, sinister psychological thriller, which she co-wrote with screenwriter E.T. Feigenbaum. Exploring themes ranging from trauma and misogyny to sexual exploitation and greed, Blink Twice also shines a light on the vast chasm between the haves and have-nots. Cocktail cater-waitresses Frida (Naomi Ackie) and roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) are struggling to make ends meet when they are lured by the seemingly endearing and handsome tech mogul,
“It Ends With Us” Production Designer Russell Barnes on Crafting Visual Contrasts of Love & Control
Director Justin Baldoni’s film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s hit novel, It Ends With Us, in which Baldoni also stars as vicious neurosurgeon Ryle, is a surprise hit of the summer. The movie is a romance suffused with darkness, following Lily (Blake Lively as an adult, Isabela Ferrer as an adolescent) as she grows up and falls into a violent relationship that mirrors her parents (Amy Morton and Kevin McKidd).
As an adolescent in Maine looking to escape,
How “A Quiet Place: Day One” Production Designer Simon Bowles Harnessed VR to Unleash Aliens on NYC
When John Krasinki released A Quiet Place in 2018, the sonically immersive horror film made audiences hold their breath. Three years later, he followed the success of that film with an expansive sequel that saw the surviving members of the Abbott family run from their rural home in Part II. Now, we witness how the dystopian events started in A Quiet Place: Day One,
“3 Body Problem” Production Designer Deborah Riley on Melding Sci-Fi & Period Perfect History
Netflix’s adaption of the first book in Liu Cixin’s hit Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, 3 Body Problem, is more than science fiction. Facing a slew of inexplicable suicides, a group of scientists and friends begin to uncover the future arrival of an alien race, the San-Ti, and learn of the Cultural Revolution-era events in China that set this gradual but hostile takeover in motion.
The series is primarily set in contemporary London and the English countryside,
“Challengers” Production Designer Merissa Lombardo Sets the Stage on Court & Off
Director Luca Guadagnino’s sexy new tennis romance, Challengers, layers a years-long love triangle of three millennial-era players over the highs and lows of their careers. At the center is talented, driven, and stunning Tashi (Zendaya). She first dates Patrick (Josh O’Connor), who plays as well as she does, but doesn’t take his career or their relationship seriously enough for either to work out. After getting knocked out of the circuit with a knee injury,
“Civil War” Production Designer Caty Maxey on Designing an America in Ruins
Picturing the United States as a divisive hellscape juxtaposed with bucolic vistas of the East Coast, Civil War imagines a not-too-distant future in which Americans settle their differences by executing each other at close range. In the movie—in theaters now—writer-director Alex Garland follows four reporters (Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson) as they trek from New York to Washington DC so they can document the last days of the republic while insurgent “Western Forces”
How “Spaceman” Production Designer Jan Houllevigue Built Adam Sandler’s Sci-Fi Love Story
“I like the fact that there’s something a little bit strange in what we do,” production designer Jan Houllevigue tells The Credits about his collaboration with director Johan Renck (Chernobyl). The two have known each other for years, working on David Bowie music videos, Chanel No. 5 commercials, and the television mini-series The Last Panthers. Their latest is Spaceman, starring Adam Sandler as cosmonaut Jakub Prochazka on a solitary space mission to the edge of the galaxy.
Oscar-Worthy Plastic Fantastic! “Barbie” Designers Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer Share Their Dreamhouse Secrets
*Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards, we’re re-posting our interview with Barbie production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer, both of whom are nominated for Oscars. Barbie has eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Achievement in Costume Design, Best Performance by an Actress and Actor in a Supporting Role, America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling, respectively.
“It was trying to find a solution to what makes a toy,” says production designer Sarah Greenwood about creating the charmed sets of Barbie alongside set decorator Katie Spencer.
“Drive-Away Dolls” Production Designer Yong Ok Lee on Transforming Pittsburgh Into the Whole East Coast
Ethan Coen’s solo directorial debut, Drive-Away Dolls, stars Margaret Qualley as Jamie, an unhindered Texan attached at the hip to her best friend and human hand-brake, Marian, played by Geraldine Viswanathan. The only trait these two twenty-somethings seemingly share is that they are both lesbians, but when an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee turns into a game of cat and mouse involving a couple of hired goons, Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J.
“Lisa Frankenstein” Production Designer Mark Worthington on Reimagining 1980s Horror Comedy
In a send-up of 1980s slasher flicks, Lisa (Kathryn Newton), the anti-heroine of writer Diablo Cody’s and director Zelda Williams’s Lisa Frankenstein, spends too much time in an abandoned cemetery and accidentally calls up a deceased 18th-century hottie (Cole Sprouse) from the dead. Since Lisa is already in love with a living boy, Michael Trent (Henry Eikenberry), and her undead admirer is missing a hand and can’t speak, the high schooler finds herself at the center of a love triangle she’s ill-equipped to handle.
“Maestro “ Production Designer Kevin Thompson on Building the Bernstein’s Lives From Concert Halls to Connecticut
Bradley Cooper’s Maestro follows the arc of Leonard Bernstein’s career, but his rise from a lucky break at Carnegie Hall to becoming a household name as a composer and conductor is secondary in the film to the development of his relationship with his actress wife, Felicia Montealegre. The couple had three children and split their time between the Upper West Side Manhattan, where they eventually settled in an apartment in the Dakota, and a country home in Fairfield,
“Ferrari” Production Designer Maria Djurkovic on Building Enzo Ferrari’s World in Michael Mann’s Racing Epic
Ferrari raced into theaters this past Christmas, and the bright red color of the iconic racing cars featured in the film seemed perfectly timed for its holiday release. Based on the 1991 nonfiction book “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Car, The Races, The Machine,” and helmed by celebrated four-time Oscar nominee Michael Mann, Ferrari centers on the summer of 1957, a very difficult time for Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).
Creating the World of “The Color Purple” With Production Designer Paul D. Austerberry & Set Decorator Larry Dias
For production designer Paul D. Austerberry and set decorator Larry Dias, The Color Purple was a challenge in grounding post-Antebellum South aesthetics with whimsical musical environments. Scouring every nook and cranny of Georgia, the town of Grantville provided seven shooting locations for director Blitz Bazawule’s retelling of the beloved story that follows Celie (Fantasia Barrino), a Black woman trying to find her identity while married to an abusive husband named Mister (Colman Domingo).
“The Boys in the Boat” Production Designer Kalina Ivanov on Jumping On Board of George Clooney’s Stirring new Drama
For The Boys in the Boat, directed by George Clooney, production designer Kalina Ivanov had to make England of 2022 look like the Pacific Northwest of the United States in the midst of the Depression. No easy feat, but one the talented filmmaker was more than prepared to tackle. Ivanov, who worked with Clooney on The Tender Bar and currently helped create the iconic Gotham for the upcoming The Batman spinoff series The Penguin,
“Wonka” Production Designer Nathan Crowley on Creating a Chocolatier’s Whimsical World
For production designer Nathan Crowley, whose impressive list of credits includes The Dark Knight, The Greatest Showman, and First Man, creating director Paul King’s deliciously appetizing Wonka musical was an exploration of “whimsical, nostalgic, and romantic” visuals inspired by Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “I’m used to doing practical films, and with Wonka, we had to find the realism of Roald Dhal and what that looked like.
“Poor Things” Production Designers Shona Heath and James Price on Going Gleefully Mad for Director Yorgos Lanthimos
When we first meet Bella Baxer, she’s a bit unusual. Not in a physical sense. All her arms and legs are accounted for, and playing the character is Academy Award winner Emma Stone so that you can be the judge of her beauty. But something about Bella is off. Turns out, she’s the creation of Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a renowned London scientist who reincarnated her adult body with the brain of a child.
How “Leave the World Behind” Production Designer Anastasia White Built a House for the End of the World
Leave the World Behind has five main characters. Four are human, and the other is the house where they find themselves holed up together as an apocalyptic event rages outside.
In the acclaimed 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam, the house has colorful interiors and a white picket fence. Not anymore. Sam Esmail, who wrote and directed the film, got Alam’s approval to use something more foreboding, according to production designer Anastasia White.
“Napoleon” Production Designer Arthur Max and Set Decorator Elli Griff on Bringing Bonaparte’s World to Life
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon takes on the general-turned-emperor who ruled France from 1799 to 1814 and presents him (Joaquin Phoenix) as an indefatigable military strategist but also a tortured everyman obsessed with, and forever a touch spurned by, his wife and subsequent ex-wife, Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). Running in the background of this love affair are Bonaparte’s imperial conquests, his catastrophic losses in Russia, and finally, his banishment to Elba.
Scott’s portrait highlights a more intimate side of the former emperor,
How “Saltburn” Production Designer Suzie Davies Imbued a Palatial Estate With Sinister Detailing
Like so many of us, production designer Suzie Davies loved Emerald Fennel’s debut, Promising Young Woman. When she heard that the actress-turned-director planned a sex-drenched thriller called Saltburn as a follow-up to her debut feature, Davies, Oscar-nominated for designing Mike Leigh’s lush period piece Mr. Turner, threw her hat in the ring. “I was like, ‘Let me get in the room with Emerald!'” she says. “My agent got me the script,
“The Last of Us” Concept Illustrator & Designer Pouya Moayedi on Imagining a Deadly Green World
HBO’s brilliant The Last of Us is, inarguably, the most successful video game adaptation in TV history. The series is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name, which was created by Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog, and when it bowed at the beginning of this year (adapted by Druckmann and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin), it was an immediate sensation. Here was a slow-burn, character-focused zombie show that felt utterly different from any in the genre.
