Interview

Production Designer

“Swarm” Production Designer Sara K White on Creating Fractured Spaces for the Celebrity-Obsessed

Swarm has a way of hovering in your thoughts long after you’ve finished the latest episode. The new series from Janine Nabers and Donald Glover (available now on Prime Video) takes the conceit of toxic fandom and unleashes a psychological thriller with a nasty, lasting sting. Starring a phenomenal Dominique Fishback as Dre, a socially stunted retail worker who is deeply, even desperately committed to two and only two people in her life: Her beloved sister Marissa (Chloe Bailey),

By Bryan Abrams  |  May 3, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“Evil Dead Rise” Production Designer Nick Bassett on Building the Apartment From Hell

The Evil Dead franchise is all about cabin life. The franchise’s iconic location, however, is nowhere to be seen in Evil Dead Rise. The new installment gets a fresh look in director Lee Cronin’s sequel, thanks in part to production designer and art director Nick Bassett.

Evil Dead Rise is focused on two estranged sisters and the hell that’s unleashed once they’re reunited. Tattoo artist Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) lives in a dilapidated bank-turned-apartment complex with her three children,

By Jack Giroux  |  May 2, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“Shrinking” Production Designer Cabot McMullen on Laughing & Crying in Pasadena

Shrinking is that rare hybrid; a laugh-out-loud comedy that turns on a dime into a lump-in-your-throat drama. Created by star Jason Segel, Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence, and writer (and Ted Lasso star) Brett Goldstein, Shrinking follows Segel’s therapist Jimmy the year after his wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden), has tragically died. Because Jimmy is played by Segel, he’s naturally funny, but we also find him in a personal and professional tailspin,

By Bryan Abrams  |  March 29, 2023

Interview

Animator Art Director Production Designer

“The Magician’s Elephant” Creative Team on Netflix’s Warm, Wondrous New Animated Film

If you’re looking for a wonderful, feel-good movie to cozy up to, The Magician’s Elephant on Netflix is a beautiful story whose animation springs to life an ensemble cast of characters you’d want to befriend. The film is a re-imagination of a novel by Newbery award-winning author Kate DiCamillo and follows a young boy named Peter (Noah Jupe) and his search for his long-lost sister Adele (Pixie Davies). 

As the title suggests,

By Daron James  |  March 24, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“Boston Strangler” Production Designer John Goldsmith Recreates a City’s Nightmare

There’s an entire film genre known as Boston movies, many of which are lampooned for their mangled accents. Good Will Hunting and The Town are two of the best, owing in large part to homegrown talents Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Boston Strangler, which debuts March 17 on Hulu, can be added to the short list of movies that get many things about Boston right.

By Loren King  |  March 16, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“The Fabelmans” Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Rick Carter Gets Personal With Steven Spielberg

Veteran production designer Rick Carter art-directed the first Avatar, won an Oscar for his work on Forrest Gump, designed two Star Wars films, and collaborated with Steven Spielberg on ten movies ranging from Jurassic Park to Lincoln. Last month, Carter earned his fifth Oscar nomination for designing Spielberg’s autobiographically inspired The Fabelmans.

In contrast with much of his previous work,

By Hugh Hart  |  March 7, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“The Last of Us” Production Designer John Paino on Building a World in Ruins

“I’ve noticed an uptick in mushroom articles,” production designer John Paino jokes. So have I, actually, but it might be a case of being suddenly aware of the ubiquity and centrality of fungi to the living world ever since HBO’s The Last of Us premiered. The series, based on the critically acclaimed video game by Naughty Dog, asks us to look afresh at the fungus and fear. It presents a world in which fungi,

By Bryan Abrams  |  February 23, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“Sick” Production Designer Jenny Möller Builds the Lake House From Hell in Peacock’s Peak Pandemic Slasher

Slashers don’t take sick days, even during a lockdown. Leave it to Scream writer Kevin Williamson to give us more to fear than the virus in Peacock’s Sick, which takes us back to the peak of the COVID pandemic. Best friends Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) quarantine together at a luxury lake house, but their isolation is interrupted by a masked killer.

Production Designer Jenny Möller rolled back the clock to an eerie experience we all shared –

By Kelle Long  |  February 17, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

“Babylon” Production Designer Florencia Martin Conjures Hollywood’s Decadent Early Days

She designed Paul Thomas Anderson’s flashback to 1970s-era L.A. in Licorice Pizza and shaped the fifties look inhabited by Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Now, production designer Florencia Martin takes viewers back to 1920s Hollywood in Oscar-winning writer/director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, which immerses Margot Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy and Brad Pitt’s Jack Conrad in the gloriously decadent early days of silent film. Chazelle, a stickler for authenticity, shot at Old Hollywood locations,

By Hugh Hart  |  January 3, 2023

Interview

Production Designer

Best of 2022: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Production Designer Hannah Beachler Reveals Her Guide to Talokan

It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.

When Chadwick Boseman died unexpectedly after leading the cast as the title character in 2018’s Black Panther, it shocked and saddened the world. There was, understandably, some doubt as to whether a sequel could succeed without him. What director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler did with Wakanda Forever,

By Leslie Combemale  |  December 28, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

Best of 2022: Getting Sea Sick With “Triangle of Sadness” Production Designer Josefin Åsberg

It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.

Satirical black comedy Triangle of Sadness, writer/director Ruben Östlund’s first English-language feature, debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. The Swedish auteur is known for 2014’s Force Majeure and The Square, which in 2017 also won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. 

By Leslie Combemale  |  December 23, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

Best of 2022: How “Nope” Production Designer Ruth De Jong Built & Bloodied the Haywood Ranch

It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.

There was a moment when writer/director Jordan Peele and production designer Ruth De Jong realized they were going to shoot Nope practically. Tucked in the Agua Dulce area of California’s Santa Clarita Valley is the Firestone Ranch, which would become the setting for the Haywood home where OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) discover an unexpected visitor living in the sky above them.

By Daron James  |  December 23, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

Getting Sea Sick With “Triangle of Sadness” Production Designer Josefin Åsberg

Satirical black comedy Triangle of Sadness, writer/director Ruben Östlund’s first English-language feature, debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. The Swedish auteur is known for 2014’s Force Majeure and The Square, which in 2017 also won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. 

Triangle of Sadness, like Östlund’s previous films,

By Leslie Combemale  |  December 1, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Production Designer Hannah Beachler Reveals Her Guide to Talokan

When Chadwick Boseman died unexpectedly after leading the cast as the title character in 2018’s Black Panther, it shocked and saddened the world. There was, understandably, some doubt as to whether a sequel could succeed without him. What director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler did with Wakanda Forever, however, honored the actor’s legacy while balancing the excitement of a Marvel superhero-driven adventure with a story centered on resilience in the face of loss. 

By Leslie Combemale  |  November 22, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

How Three-Star Dominique Crenn Chef & Production Designer Ethan Tobman Served Up “The Menu”

Ralph Fiennes stars as a brilliantly deranged chef Julian Slowik in The Menu, but he’s periodically upstaged by gorgeous close-ups of his culinary co-stars, beginning with compressed and pickled cucumber melon, milk snow, and charred lace. That’s the “amuse bouche” served to unsuspecting foodies (including Anya Taylor-Joy, John Leguizamo, and Nicholas Hoult) who gradually find themselves trapped in Chef Julian Slowik’s restaurant from hell.

Inspired by co-writer Will Tracy’s visit to a secluded island restaurant off the coast of Norway a few years ago,

By Hugh Hart  |  November 21, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities” Production Designer Tamara Deverell’s Twisted World

As the afternoon light waned in Toronto, production designer Tamara Deverell recently found herself sitting on the floor of an abandoned psychiatric hospital on break from the new Sofia Coppola movie she’s working on. With dusk approaching, she joked, “I’m getting scared because it looks like I’m in this spooky Guillermo del Toro room right now!”

If anybody would know about spooky spaces, it’s Deverell. She earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for designing Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and recently completed work on Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

By Hugh Hart  |  November 16, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“Shantaram” Production Designer Chris Kennedy on Building the Bustling World of India—in Thailand

“It was a total restart,” production designer Chris Kennedy tells us of the Apple TV series Shantaram, which follows the daring life of an Australian prison escapee named Lin (Charlie Hunnam) as he hopscotches his way to Bombay to avoid being captured. While filming portions of the first two episodes in Bhopal, India, production halted due to pandemic restrictions. Those scenes were eventually scrapped and the entire crew picked up and left for Bangkok,

By Daron James  |  November 11, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

“The Midnight Club” Production Designer Laurin Kelsey on Creating a Haunting Hospice

Facing the end is not always the scariest part of a person’s story. The terminally ill teenagers in The Midnight Club meet to entertain each other with spooky tales, but the stories may actually be clues to a secret cure or even a glimpse at life after death. The Victorian mansion serving as a hospice facility for young people even harbors secrets of its own. Production designer Laurin Kelsey developed the dynamic location that serves as the core of the series. 

By Kelle Long  |  October 31, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

Let “Hellraiser” Production Designer Kathrin Eder Take You To Hell With The Cenobites

The Cenobites are back and seeking new victims for their blood-letting games. This time, they have the perfect playground for their sadistic mission. Hellraiser production designer Kathrin Eder created a lavish and indulgent new environment for the inter-dimensional pain-seekers to explore.

Time doesn’t bind The Priest (Jamie Clayton), more commonly known as Pinhead, and their mutilated crew. Thirty-five years after Frank played around with the puzzle box, new mega-worshiper Roland Voight (Goran Visnjic) has dedicated his life and fortune to calling the creatures back to Earth.

By Kelle Long  |  October 31, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

How “Nope” Production Designer Ruth De Jong Built & Bloodied the Haywood Ranch

There was a moment when writer/director Jordan Peele and production designer Ruth De Jong realized they were going to shoot Nope practically. Tucked in the Agua Dulce area of California’s Santa Clarita Valley is the Firestone Ranch, which would become the setting for the Haywood home where OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) discover an unexpected visitor living in the sky above them.

“The property is this huge basin surrounded by these hills,

By Daron James  |  July 28, 2022