Rufus Sewell on Playing ‘The Good Guy’s Bad Guy’ in Netflix’s “The Diplomat”

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A proper English thespian who originated a role in Tom Stoppard’s Laurence Olivier Award-winning play Arcadia fresh out of acting school, Rufus Sewell has since excelled as a character actor with leading man looks. Over the past few years he’s played a sadistic aristocrat (The Illusionist); a Nazi (The Man in the High Castle); an astrophysicist (Eleventh Hour); and a drunken artist (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), for which he earned an Emmy nomination. Now, Sewell’s co-starring in The Diplomat as Hal Wyler, the savvy American husband of Keri Russell’s title character.

Created by former The West Wing writer-producer Debora Cahn, the Netflix political thriller follows Kate Wyler, U.S. Ambassador to the UK. Hal protects her interests amid a treacherous thicket of suspect politicians, bombings, treason, and state secrets. In his character’s defense, Sewell tells The Credits, “I would describe Hal as the good guy’s bad guy in that he will be underhanded and cutthroat in his machinations to do something he truly believes is for the good of mankind. In that regard, he’s not a careerist.”

Speaking from the garage of his home in Los Angeles, Sewell extols the virtues of French movies, screwball comedies, and that unquantifiable thing called chemistry.

 

How did you make your brash American character so convincing?

It’s lovely to hear that I bring out “brash American” – something that is almost jarring because that is so not me. The trick [of being an actor] is to do enough work that nobody notices that you’re doing any acting when in fact you’re working your little socks off!

You start Season 2 flat on your back in the hospital after being blown up in a car bomb attack in the Season 1 finale, presumably traumatized but loath to show it?

Initially, he’s not traumatized at all. As Kate says, people have tried to kill Hal many times. He’s, you might say, bulletproof to the point of exasperation in that he seems to come out of these things relatively unscathed. So I think Hal’s assumption, based on experience, is that he’s absolutely fine—until suddenly he isn’t. When they’re attending the fireworks and he has that panic attack episode, it’s not as if he’s been trying to conceal it all that time. Unless I was doing such subtle acting that nobody noticed, not even me. [laughing]. The idea in the writing and my conception of it was that the fireworks took Hal — and Kate — completely by surprise.

You play the supportive spouse in The Diplomat even though you’ve established a formidable State Department career of your own. Surely Hal must be ambitious in his own right?

Well, he’s incredibly ambitious for her. too. When people see Hal wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, the assumption is he’s doing it for his advantage or her eventual disadvantage, but that is not the case. The whole set-up of the show is that Hal manipulated Kate into a position so that she can be where she belongs, right at the top. On set, this is something we often talked about with Keri and Deb, the writer and showrunner. If the door had nudged open for Hal, you can best believe he would take that door, but the door that is opening is for Kate to be vice president, so that’s the play — that’s where we point our guns.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 204 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

Did you have any references in mind that shaped the way you thought about Hal’s role in The Diplomat?

There’s a fantastic scene in Primary Colors, where there’s a question about whether it’s moral to take advantage of a rival’s [secret] past in order to win. John Travolta, as the Bill Clinton—inspired character, says, “Yes. If you don’t know when to kill, then you’re not in the right job.” So what I’m saying is, when you have an opportunity to win, for all of the right reasons, you have to take it. Hal is one of these people. And in that sense, Kate too is a killer.

 

It’s fascinating to witness the domestic dimension of the story, when Hal and Kate retire from public view and go to bed. The pajamas, the banter, the sex all seem to be part of the same flow?

That was there when I read the first couple of scripts, and I was immediately smitten. It reminded me of being a bit like a French movie: people would be arguing, the lady, or the gent, would go into the bathroom, take a pee, and carry on. It wasn’t a thing. Or it’s like early Woody Allen, where the comedy is not some pasted-on thing but came out of how these characters thought and spoke. These are not people who eat a croissant, talk about politics, and then have sex. Mentally enough, [laughing] for Kate and Hal, talking about the nitty gritty – the kill – is part of the sex.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler, Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in episode 205 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2024

Very adult.

The writing also reminded me of movies like The Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday. It’s that screwball thing where two people are apart but together, and it has that [snapping fingers]. It’s very difficult to get that right.

 

You two have chemistry, full stop.

You can see people trying for it, which I find more excruciating than Dullard’s comedy, to tell you the truth.

Because it feels forced?

The fancy talk. I find it grating when people play that style too knowingly. The sh*t that people describe as “chemistry” in reviews I find ridiculous – “finishing each other’s sentences at the same time” — basically the kind of stuff that makes executive producers high five each other in screening rooms.

Did you do a “chemistry read” with Keri to land the role?

No, it was just Deb’s gut feeling. I’d seen Keri’s stuff, I thought she was great, but we’d never met. I accepted the job. I was flown to England, where I go to work now that I live in Hollywood [laughing] — and on my first day on set, I popped into the makeup room. Keri was there, I think I made a joke, she laughed, we had a very brief chat about nothing in particular, and I came out of the trailer thinking “Oh, it’ll be fine.”

The Diplomat. (L to R) Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler, Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in episode 206 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

It sounds like you two did not need to plan things too much in advance.

We were just on the same page instinctively. We both have our process that we don’t make anybody else’s business, and my take on a scene will complement her take. We could have completely different conceptions of the scene, but we’re able to use our own thoughts and change and respond to each other as we’re listening. We just get each other. And I just have to say, we also have a lot of fun.

No overthinking required?

If it’s not there, then thinking about it won’t make any difference. In fact, you’re better off not trying. Because when I talk about what makes my skin crawl, it is the trying.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 203 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

So for you…

I’m like “She’ll be fine,” and she’s like “He’ll be fine.”

The entire cast of mostly British actors in The Diplomat is unusually strong across the board. What do you make of that?

Because of the writing, because of the writing, because of the writing. Good actors will come, even for very small parts. And Team Deb is watching. If an actor comes in just for a couple of days for a few lines and they nail it and they’re not a dick and they’re fun, then there’s always the possibility that they will [be asked to] come back.

 

Part of what makes The Diplomat pop visually is the sense of spectacle. Do you enjoy filming in grandiose settings like St. James Cathedral and Inveraray Castle in Scotland?

As long as we don’t let the set play us. There’s an expression, “The least interesting thing about a person is the uniform.” For me, it’s about the scrappy little human fidgeting underneath, plus the exterior. And it’s the same with beautiful houses, grand doorways, and staircases. If you’re not careful, the staircase will make you walk a certain way. Sometimes it’s appropriate, but I think it’s interesting when people trip up. This show is about the reality versus the presentation.

The Diplomat. Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 204 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

Hal’s plan to promote Kate backfires horribly at the end of Season 2. For people catching up with The Diplomat now, it’s reassuring to know that the show’s been renewed for a third Season.

It’s already in the can, and you have no idea what’s coming.

 

 

 Featured image: The Diplomat. Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 103 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2023

No Escaping Success: “Final Destination Bloodlines” Resurrects Franchise With Scary Good Opening Weekend

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Final Destination: Bloodlines has scared up a historic box office this past weekend, reinvigorating the franchise and once against dispatching characters in a series of increasingly ludicrous, brilliantly conceived set pieces.

Following its extremely strong reception from critics, audiences flocked to the theater to see the revival of the horror franchise from directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, fueling a $51 million box office domestically and another $51 million overseas, settling at a $102 million total. Bloodlines, the sixth installment, has officially infused new blood into a franchise that began 25 years ago, but has been dormant since 2011’s Final Destination 5. 

The film stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana as Stefani Reyes, a college student who finds out her grandmother managed to cheat death and save lives, but the consequences for doing so were, ah, troubling. Grandma’s powers are introduced in the film’s vividly intense opening sequence set in the 1950s, when Iris (Brec Bassinger), then a young woman, is on a date in a tall glass tower with her boyfriend when she has an intensely specific vision of their coming, horrific deaths in a massive inferno. Iris is able to escape her fate and save everyone around her in the process, but this upsets the franchise’s longstanding antagonist–Death itself.

The cast includes Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Tony Todd, Gabrielle Rose, Brec Bassinger, and Max Lloyd-Jones.

“There’s not much more a Final Destination fan could ask for, but Bloodlines, which at times feels more like a dark satire than a straightforward horror movie, reminds us we’re powerless against the world’s morbid whims. Best we can do is laugh about it,” writes The New York Times’ Beatrice Loayza.

“You may watch Final Destination Bloodlines through fingers covering your face. But chances are high you’ll be smiling, too,” writes the AP’s Jocelyn Noveck.

“While a canonically satisfying sendoff to the late Tony Todd’s William Bludworth bolsters the series’ morbid gravitas, a cast of playful, mostly likable 20-somethings keep proceedings light in juxtaposition to the filmmakers’ fiendishly inventive kills,” adds Variety’s Todd Chilchrist.

Final Destination Bloodlines is in theaters now. 

For more on Warner Bros., DC Studios, Max, and more, check out these stories:

“Mountainhead” Trailer Reveals “Succession” Creator Jesse Armstrong’s Film Debut

Man of Tomorrow, Today: Official “Superman” Trailer Reveals James Gunn’s Bold Vision for Man of Steel

Speed, Redemption, and Star Power: Brad Pitt Shifts Gears in High-Octane “F1” Trailer

Featured image: Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Designing Dance: Production Designer Bill Groom’s Meticulous Ballet World-Building in “Étoile”

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In the world of ballet as dramatized in Étoile, prickly personalities throw tantrums one minute and dance with exquisite grace the next. Created by former dancer Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Dan Palladino, the Amazon Prime series (now streaming) follows imagines a contentious talent swap between New York and Parisian dance companies desperate to create buzz about their new seasons.   

It doesn’t go well.

The quarrelsome characters include Cheyanne (Lou De Laâge) the world’s best ballet dancer and eco-activist who publicly denounces the company’s billionaire arms-dealer benefactor; the seemingly autistic choreographer Tobias (Gideon Glick), who jumps up on stage in the middle of a performance and insists on changing steps; plus, the perpetually stressed-out company directors Jack (Luke Kirby) and Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), tasked with riding herd over their unruly charges.

Étoile, filmed in New York, New Jersey, and Paris, features sumptuous backdrops from Brooklyn-based designer Bill Groom, who earned three Production Design Emmy nominations for his work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel after winning two for Boardwalk Empire. He spent six months last year in Paris designing sets and securing locations for the show. “Amy and Dan were careful not to rely on tourist icons, Groom explains. “We wanted the audience to see Paris like the locals would. And by the way, Paris is a great place to work if you have to be away from home.”

During a visit to Los Angeles, Groom talks about finding inspiration in Lincoln Center, taking cues from a 19th-century Parisian theater, protecting Étoile‘s actors and dancers with “sprung floors”, and repurposing a ballet set that originated in wartime Ukraine.

 

The ballet productions look so elegant. Did you design them?  

For production reasons, budget reasons, and most importantly, creative reasons, we decided to use existing ballet sets because I thought it would be more interesting to get productions designed by different hands. The first one scheduled to shoot was La Bayadere, so one day, I just sat down and googled “La Bayadere productions for rent,” and something popped up.

What did you find?

A ballet company in Tokyo had the backdrops, side wings—everything was available to rent. The production arrived in boxes in Paris. Then we discovered that it was actually a production from Ukraine that had been sent to this company in Tokyo for safekeeping.

Choreographer Marguerite Derricks on the set of ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

The art survives. What else did you import?

We got Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake from the Birmingham Royal Ballet. They arrived by airplane in two large containers.

A lot of drama happens in the dancers’ rehearsal spaces, which look quite elegant but in completely different ways. In New York, the rehearsal studio is minimalistic, while in Paris, it seems ornate. Did you build those spaces from scratch?

The New York and Paris rehearsal studios were both built. It’s interesting to hear about the contrast between the two because Amy and Dan’s goal was to make New York look very modern while Paris had a classical look. There’s a rehearsal studio in Paris that Amy loved at the Garnier Theater. She wanted to shoot there, but it wasn’t available, so we ended up basically building what looks like a rehearsal studio at the Garnier, but a little bit larger.

The construction of the Paris studio must have been challenging, given the huge columns and the level of detail.

It was quite an undertaking because every inch is sculpted and cast in plaster. The painters and plastering teams were wonderfully talented, and they don’t often get a chance to do this kind of work.

Choreographer Marguerite Derricks on the set of ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

The Paris dance studio is inspired by Palais Garnier, built in 1875 during Napoleon III’s reign. How did you create the sleek New York space?

So many dance rehearsal studios in New York are basically big white boxes with a wall of mirrors, so one of the issues for me was that I didn’t want to build a boring white box. While researching inside Lincoln Center, I found rooms in the basement originally built as rehearsal spaces for the orchestra, which had a kind of accordion-shaped ceiling, resilient to the acoustics. One of them had been converted into a dance rehearsal space. When I saw that room, I said, “Bingo, this is what we can do.” It was large and beautiful to look at.

And those windows! They’re very tall and very narrow, with the horizontal bleachers stretching horizontally across the space.

That’s all based on the Metropolitan Opera building at Lincoln Center, down to the size of the windows, which are very narrow. The bleachers I saw in some spaces there are often used by backers and patrons to watch rehearsals. We also had to build the correct floors for every dance situation. Whether it was rehearsal or on a stage, we were very careful about having sprung dance floors.

Mishi (Taïs Vinolo) in ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

Sprung floors?

Meaning the floor has bounce. Sprung floors originally were built of oak, woven like a basket under the surface so that when a dancer comes down with a massive amount of force, the shock doesn’t go through their legs and cause an injury but goes into the floor. For the New York performances, we used the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. It’s sprung only for Broadway dancing but not for ballet, so we had to install a more resilient floor.

Tobias (Gideon Glick) in ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

Was it logistically tricky to design a production split between Paris and New York?

I tried not to go back and forth too much. We shot Paris episodes one through six in the spring. We weren’t allowed to shoot during the Olympics, so we did all the New York episodes one through eight over the summer, and then came back to Paris to finish.

You made The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and half of Étoile in New York and New Jersey. As someone who lives in Brooklyn, is it heartening to take part in productions that impact the local economy?

Absolutely. The money goes to lumber yards, paint companies, florists, caterers, and individuals [in the crew]. People who are not in the business may not realize how many moving parts there are, but the money trickles down to all the different crafts as well as to people who are only peripherally involved with the movie business. There are so many looks and experiences you can get in New York, and now there are a lot of second and third generation craftspeople here as well.

ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

Lincoln Center is not mentioned by name in the show, but it provides some gorgeous exterior shots. How much access did you have?

We shot in the Lincoln Center lobby, so when you see scenes in lobbies, they are filmed at the Metropolitan Opera House. The other interiors, it was impossible for Lincoln Center to accommodate our schedule, so we made it work at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is about the same size proscenium, about the same balcony and orchestra seating.

And the New York rehearsal space—where did you build that?

Steiner Studios in Brooklyn.

You arrived in New York City in 1978 to launch your career as a production designer. Where did you come from?

I was born in Missouri, an only child. My parents and I moved to Oklahoma when I was eleven. My dad ran a construction and trucking company. A couple of engineers at his company wanted to pay for my college and train me to be an engineer so I could move into the road construction industry. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to design sets.

Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge) in ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

So you studied stage design at Tulane University. What sparked your interest in movies and TV?

I didn’t see a movie until I was in college because I grew up with a fundamentalist Christian background, and going to movies was considered a sin. When I saw my first movie, Bullitt, there was blood everywhere in one scene. I had to get out of my seat and go into the lobby to get some air because I’d never seen anything like that before on a 40-foot screen. That’s when I realized the kind of impact an image can have.

Amy Palladino initially gained acclaim for her witty Gilmore Girls scripts before she and her husband Dan moved into directing as well on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Étoile. What are they like to work with?

They’re both great. Amy has expectations or ideas that are not always the easy way out, but are often the best way out. Amy and Dan are collaborative and allow everybody to bring their own ideas. They’re very good at figuring out when those ideas are good.

Featured image: ÉTOILE Photo: PHILIPPE ANTONELLO © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

Lighting Love in LA: How “Nobody Wants This” DP Adrian Peng Correia Lit Netflix’s Coziest Rom-Com

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The moment Nobody Wants This became one of Netflix’s most beloved romantic comedies comes at the end of the second episode. Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) have been glancing off one another in an uneasy will-they-or-won’t-they start to their relationship that finally ends in a kiss over ice cream. But it’s not just any kiss, Joanne later tells her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), but the greatest kiss of her life. And we believe her.

 

Created by Erin Foster and loosely based on her own relationship, the unlikely pairing of a rabbi and a shiksa podcaster seems like a budding romance that could only happen in Los Angeles, a city the show makes feel tangible. That first kiss happens at night, on the street, beneath lights from a movie theater marquee twinkling overhead. The scene feels arrestingly real, which is just what the show’s cinematographer, Adrian Peng Correia (The Walking Dead, Quiz Lady), wanted. The romance between Joanne and Noah builds despite meddling siblings, his aghast parents, and their own misgivings (plus Joanne’s bottomless pool of hang-ups and idiosyncrasies). However, despite their setbacks, they are still beautiful people living beautiful lives. For Correia, that meant two things: he wanted the actors to appear a bit larger than life, while giving the show overall a deeper look than its genre usually suggests.

We spoke with the cinematographer about making limited lighting work, shooting to take advantage of serendipitous moments, and approaching the series’ lead actors differently to best bring the audience along on their romance.

 

Was it planned from the outset to make this show look more cinematic than we typically expect from romantic comedies?

From a lighting perspective, for Greg [Mottola, one of the show’s directors], and for me, too, it was important that we had a show that had real guts for the look of it. It’s not a soft or shallow-looking show, even though it’s supposed to be about beautiful people and beautiful spaces. There’s an idea that I latched onto about this kind of messy elegance that the show should have. It didn’t have to have that incredibly polished sheen that sometimes comes with romantic comedies. We wanted it to have a little bit more of an edge, so sometimes the highlights were a little too hot, the contrast is a little heavy, the skin tones have real guts and information in them, and there’s a lot of color in those faces. From the get-go with Greg, the intention was to craft a look that was specific.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Adam Brody as Noah, Kristen Bell as Joanne in episode 110 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. © 2024

Did you choose locations where you could use lighting really strategically, like with the kiss everyone talks about at the end of episode 2?

The mandate from the show was that they wanted to try to go into these spots and just shoot them straightaway. So it was like, no dollies, no lights bigger than what you could plug into a wall. It was very contained in terms of the ability to run and gun, but it still gave it this crafted look. In that kissing scene, when we walked up, being underneath those hot top lights in the theater, we weren’t allowed to touch them at all. We couldn’t even put any softening agents on them, any kind of diffusion to make it more palatable. We just had to expose for what the street was, and then strategically hide some lights to work.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Kristen Bell as Joanne, Adam Brody as Noah in episode 102 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

How did you do that?

It’s all motivated by the practical environment. The lighting around that theater is a mix of warm tones and this really pretty vibrant purple neon. That’s why there are still these highlights and these blooms, which we tried to create artificially to give a world around them. When he tells her to put down her ice cream, there was this sense that they’re walking through this natural nightscape in Los Angeles that doesn’t feel heavily crafted, but they just happen to stop at this spot that gives them this kind of cocooning of light that works to the romanticism of that moment. We just enhanced it with our lighting when we went to close-ups. So it was strategic, opportunistic, and a happy accident all at once.

Earlier in the episode, how did you build up to that moment?

It literally says “the best kiss in the world” in the script. You really have to have the moment sing, so you have to build that relationship in 102 pretty quickly. Cinematically, I think we did a really good job of giving that episode balance, so that when that kiss does come, the audience feels a connection between the two of them. Part of that is allowing those two performances between Adam and Kristen to share the spotlight. The one thing I really love that not everybody talks about is Noah’s quiet confidence. We didn’t get too close to him, because he had a certain gravity that radiated this ease of energy. We gave him a little bit more space in his frames, and we were a little bit more immediate with Kristen’s close-ups. Adam’s choice to hold her face, that was in the moment. I remember at the first rehearsal, Kristen specifically saying, “Yes, hold the face.” You could see it in her close-up, how she opens up just a bit more to the camera. It was an electric episode.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Adam Brody as Noah, Executive Producer Erin Foster, Kristen Bell as Joanne, Director Greg Mottola in episode 102 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Hopper Stone/Netflix © 2024

How did you light the dinner scene where Joanne and Noah first meet?

It looks like it’s night, but it’s actually afternoon. We had to heavily bring down all the lights and tent the front of the house to make it feel like nighttime. That was a pretty extensive amount of grip and lighting and hiding sources. When they had their meet-cute and he broke the cork in the bottle, that was the last take. They just kept improvising. It’s so naturalistic, funny, and beautiful because they made it work within the context of what happens in the take. And if you don’t cross-shoot that, you’re never gonna get those same matching reactions at the same time. When they go to the actual dinner party outside, we knew we would get tons of light play in the background from the city behind them. There were some practical lights and some heat lamps around them, and then it’s basically one four-foot tube light lighting that whole table and one four-foot little light box. So it’s two lights lighting that entire scene, basically.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Executive Producer Erin Foster, Director Greg Mottola, Adam Brody as Noah in episode 101 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Hopper Stone/Netflix © 2024

What were you shooting on?

We shot with anamorphic lenses, and that was specifically a note from Greg Mottola. He had just shot a pilot that he used them on, and he thought it would really aid in giving a bigger look to a romantic comedy. The lensing with the choice of this heavy kind of cinematic look gave it this real weight and and scope, even in the close-ups. When we found a particular set of lenses from Panavision that we thought encapsulated that, it was really a eureka moment.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Kristen Bell as Joanne, Adam Brody as Noah in episode 103 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Hopper Stone/Netflix © 2024

The characters’ faces are really beautifully lit, particularly in evening settings. How did you do that?

That’s the thing with comedies. Obviously, you want the settings to look wonderful, but you really want the audience to connect to people’s faces. There’s a tendency sometimes with digital cinematography in particular to allow this sheen of softness and beauty to come around a face, and we didn’t want that to be our show. We wanted it to have this heavier contrast with more color over the face, from highlights to shadow. I’m a big fan of classic screwball comedies from the 1930s and 1940s. There’s a reason why people like Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, and Claudette Colbert are lit a little bit brighter in space. Is it strictly a reflection of reality? No, but it does reflect a kind of classic Hollywood tenet I believe in, which is stars should look like stars. When people look like they’re in a movie, I think that actually helps the audience translate that kind of whimsical, romantic, stylized nature of what a romantic comedy is supposed to be. I don’t think reality helps romantic comedies. I think they need to feel bigger, and they need to look bigger.

Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Kristen Bell as Joanne, Adam Brody as Noah in episode 108 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Adam Rose/Netflix © 2024

Were you limited by the genre at all?

It all starts with how you look at the material. If you’re looking down on a show or if you’re looking down on a genre, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. There’s a reason why they’re successful, and just because something is popular doesn’t mean it doesn’t have artistic intent. When that scene happened between Adam and Kristen with the bottle and the cork, I remember turning back to Craig [DiGregorio], the showrunner, and saying, ”I feel like we have a show.” There’s a certain energy and lightness that happens that you see and feel immediately, and I really love that about comedies.

 

 

 

For more big titles on Netflix, check these out:

The Gauls Go Global: Inside Director Fabrice Joubert’s Vision for Netflix’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight”

Director Alex Graves on Keri Russell’s Balletic Excellence in Netflix’s Hit Series “The Diplomat”

Behind Netflix’s “The Four Seasons”: How “30 Rock” Veterans Lang Fisher & Tracey Wigfield Reimagined a Classic With Tina Fey

 

 

 Featured image: Nobody Wants This. (L to R) Kristen Bell as Joanne, Adam Brody as Noah in episode 105 of Nobody Wants This. Cr. Adam Rose/Netflix © 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mountainhead” Trailer Reveals “Succession” Creator Jesse Armstrong’s Film Debut

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There’s no shortage of rich people acting terribly in the actual world, but for those of you who deeply miss the vile, venal shenanigans of Succession‘s Roy family—and we count ourselves among your number—the arrival of Mountainhead is going to do wonders for your soul.

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is back with this new feature film, which finds four billionaire friends reuniting in a palatial mountain retreat to kick back and enjoy the orchards (upon orchards) of their “labor.” Yet their mountaintop idyll is ruined by a pesky little problem having to do with one of their creations, a generative artificial intelligence, that starts sewing havoc and chaos throughout the world.

Our four billionaires are Randall (Steve Carell), Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), Jeff (Ramy Youssef), and Venis (Cory Michael Smith), the latter of whom is the creator of the AI that’s turning the world into a nightmarescape. The foursome need to deal (or deny) any culpability in the horrors happening the world over, and like any billionaire worth his yacht, they start to believe that the four of them have the power to set everything right. One way to do this is to potentially buy entire countries. Hijinx, acrimony, and bro-tastically bad behavior ensue.

Mountainhead is Armstrong’s feature film directing debut. After his Emmy-laden run on Succession, there’s a lot of excitement around this latest look at the foibles of the grotesquely rich. The film also stars Hadley Robinson, Andy Daly, Ali Kinkade, Daniel Oreskes, David Thompson, Amie MacKenzie, and Ava Kostia 

Check out the trailer below. Mountainhead arrives on HBO Max on May 31.

For more on Warner Bros., DC Studios, Max, and more, check out these stories:

Man of Tomorrow, Today: Official “Superman” Trailer Reveals James Gunn’s Bold Vision for Man of Steel

Speed, Redemption, and Star Power: Brad Pitt Shifts Gears in High-Octane “F1” Trailer

Precision and Passion: How Director Amanda Marsalis Choreographed the Chaos of “The Pitt”

“Sinners” Production Designer Hannah Beachler on Conjuring Ryan Coogler’s Supernatural Stunner

Featured image: Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, Jason Schwartzman. Mountainhead. Photograph by Fred Hayes/HBO

How Co-Creator & Showrunner Aeysha Carr Transformed “Government Cheese” into a Series of Indie Film Experiences

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If Wes Anderson and David Lynch partnered on a story set in 1969 about a Black family living in the San Fernando Valley, you might approximate the vibe of the new Apple TV+ show Government Cheese. The surrealist comedy is inspired by co-creator Paul Hunter’s childhood, and stars David Oyelowo as eternal optimist Hampton Chambers, a man chasing the American dream after being released from prison. 

Hampton aims to repair the relationship with his wife Astoria (Simone Missick), sons Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), and best friend Bootsy (Bokeem Woodbine), but they’ve all built new lives while he’s been away. Paul Hunter, who is known as one of the country’s most prominent music video directors and who directed several episodes, grew up with a dad who was always coming up with grand ideas and schemes to better their lives. As Hampton, Oyelowo embodies the idea that nothing is impossible, regardless of harsh realities. In fact, circumstances are constantly conspiring to drag down his dreams. Hampton is looking for guidance from God, and messages are all around him, but he finds them either confusing or not to his liking, which leads to trouble. 

Hunter and co-executive producer/writer Aeysha Carr (Woke, Uncoupled, Brooklyn 99) use themes from diverse spiritual belief systems to build story and develop character, and the results are bizarre, funny, and poignant. Each half-hour episode is like its own little independent movie that leverages elements of magical realism while staying grounded in the real world.

We chat with Carr, who says Apple TV+ gave her free rein to create a truly unique series. She talks about her experience in conversation with The Credits. 

 

Each episode is its own little indie film. How did you make that decision?

We did the pilot, and we did it with this take on a Coen Brothers movie, and then I remember I had to write episode 2, and I thought we should just make a short film. We had to create all this back story and I wanted to present it in a way that didn’t feel unwieldy. So I thought we could create what felt like a PBS film, with a narrator. Every time we came to a place where we asked how we could impart the information, we used that device. We were really taken away from TV norms, and both Paul and I love independent films, so once we made that first decision, we realized we could do pretty much whatever we wanted. It freed us up. I remember I was so scared when we showed Apple the opening, but they loved it, so I knew we’d be fine. 

Episode 7 is focused on Astoria. That’s important as part of a show about a family patriarch. 

That episode is where we delve more into the story of the mom. We had an amazing female director, Stacey Passon, and the whole episode came together so beautifully. It’s such a male-heavy show that it’s so much fun when you have a very strong and independent woman centered in an episode with completely weird elements. And again, Apple was all in. It was a joy to give Simone Missick the episode where it’s just her because she’s amazing, and Astoria has a great story. For me, Astoria wanting to have a life outside her home, where she found this awakening while Hampton was away, was essential for me to showcase. I came from my aunts and my mother, and they can all literally make a dress in one day. They have so many skill sets and are all highly creative, and I wanted to lean into that truth with Astoria. 

 

Cinematographer Matthew J Lloyd and costume designer Nancy Steiner are very important to the show’s look and tone.

The look was very specific. Paul, coming from directing these amazing videos, was into having really striking images. Matt Lloyd was so good. He has all these weird camera angles, or tilts the camera to get a different perspective. It was really everyone coming together to tell the story we wanted to tell consistently. Nancy is truly amazing in how she gets her period pieces, but I also think they don’t look like costumes; they look like something we might wear today, and I think that gave it another level of realism. 

Evan Ellison in “Government Cheese,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Government Cheese was filmed in the San Fernando Valley. What were some of the challenges and benefits of capturing a place that was true to Paul’s childhood and the original basis for the show?

It was all benefits. The reason people don’t shoot in LA is financial reasons. David was the one who was championing us filming in LA, and since the whole story takes place in The Valley and David lives there, they made it a priority. We lost some of the budget for other elements, because the budget was the same, but shooting there made a huge difference to the authenticity of what you see onscreen. We found places that hadn’t been touched, streets that were exactly the same as they were in 1969. There’s beautiful neon and storefronts, and it all offers such a depth visually. We were in Chatsworth and in Lake Piru. Shooting the real places for what’s in the script is just beautiful. I drove to places in LA I’d never been before. Those locations are just very true to where Paul grew up. They’re very LA, and they read very LA., and so it adds a depth to the script and to the story.

ahi Di’Allo Winston and David Oyelowo in “Government Cheese,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

What was your experience of collaborating with David Oyelowo, who also acted as executive producer on the project? 

David thinks about every word he says. It has to ring true and be true to his character. He brings as much as you can write on the page, and plans for how it’s going to go. David came to the set and brought a different depth to Hampton, and elevated him in a way far beyond what Paul and I could see, with this bright-eyed, bushy-tailed hyper-optimism. For him, Hampton’s truth was that he loved Astoria. We tend to write these male characters who cheat or are unfaithful, but as much as he did wrong, his love for Astoria was his driving force. By honing in on that, the audience can actually forgive some of the stuff he does or has done, because of his undying commitment to and love for Astoria. 

 

The characters of the show, including the guest stars, have some very strong spiritual elements. A great example is Sunita Mani as Edith in Episode 3. How much did you lean on world religion in creating the characters that help guide Hampton? 

That was important. I think Bootsy has a little bit of a Buddhist in him that rounds out the religiosity of the show. We find ways to reference multiple religions because there’s truth in all of them, and they’re all correct. Sunita was a counterpoint to Hampton’s Catholicism and Christianity, more earthy and spiritual, but she was giving him the same information. The idea was that it was coming from many different places, God speaking through many different channels. Sunita was supposed to be the weird, hippie, Mother Earth, universal girl, as an acknowledgement of all the different dualities, or the many paths to one truth. Hampton’s relationship with God, even though it is based on the bible, is very different. In the first episode, we refer to“The Gospel of Kenny Sharp,” which is the idea that anyone can be an apostle. Anyone can be a prophet, it’s just how you look at them. 

Sunita Mani and David Oyelowo in “Government Cheese,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

There is an element of magical realism in the show. How is that achieved technically?

Paul, as a director, doesn’t use a lot of VFX or CGI. There’s very little of that in Government Cheese. For us, it was about shooting things that are really happening, or at least attempting that. A lot of people lean into what they can magically do with CGI, and watching it, the audience knows that could never really happen, and that takes the stakes out. Really leaning into reality in those moments of magical realism, even with Sunita and how she moves through the world, we used camera tricks, which makes it so much more impactful. The scene that is shot underwater is done with practical effects. All that was really important to Paul, and I think it reads really well onscreen. 

David Oyelowo in “Government Cheese,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

What are you hoping audiences will get from the show?

My talking point is this idea that anything is possible. I think TV has gotten really dark. Much of it is beautifully done but just gut-wrenching. Paul and I wanted to write something that had a lot of joy in it, something that went down easy and was beautiful and artistic, and I think we stayed committed to that. 

 

Government Cheese is streaming now on Apple TV+. 

 

 

 

Featured image: Evan Ellison, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Oyelowo and Simone Missick in “Government Cheese,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

From Shadow to Spotlight: How Elizabeth Dulau’s Kleya Became the Hidden Heartbeat of “Andor”

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Tony Gilroy‘s masterful Andor has come to an end. The two-season prequel to Gilroy’s 2016 film Rogue One just delivered arguably the finest storytelling in the Star Wars universe since The Empire Strikes Back. That’s a bold and possibly needless assertion, but if you watched the series (and if you’re reading this, you likely did), my guess is you’d agree. While season one fleshed out Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) fitful, often brutal entrance into the rebel cause and populated the resistance movement with compelling characters as crucial to the nascent rebel alliance as the eventual saviors Luke or Leia ever were, season 2 tracked Cassian’s evolution into a bruised, battered, oft-resistant but nevertheless crucial leader of the rebel cause. Yet the second and final season was far more than a hero’s journey for Cassian. True to Gilroy’s vision of a rebel alliance that’s fueled by lesser-known figures without any Jedi powers, many more critical figures stepped out of the shadows and stepped up to become heroes, and have now stitched their names in the firmament of Star Wars lore. At the top of that list is Elizabeth Dulua’s Kleya.

Gilroy and his cast and crew’s masterclass in storytelling was predicated on the fact that while Cassian gets top-billing, the rebel cause would have been strangled in its cradle were it not for the countless people who resisted the Empire in ways minor and major without getting a Royal Award Ceremony on Yavin 4 to celebrate their heorics, figures whose sacrifice is done in the shadows. These are people who “will never have a mirror, or an audience, or the light of gratitude” as Lutheen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) so iconically put it in season one. Kleya was one of those figures. In season two, her sacrifices are revealed, as is her origin story and the depths of her commitment to the rebel cause.

Andor paid such considerate and narratively satisfying attention to characters like Kleya by also successfully bringing Star Wars down into the streets, revealing the cruelty and sadism of the Empire in ways far more evocative than blowing up Alderaan ever did, despite the death toll of that latter act of genocide being so much greater. The massacre in Ghorman, the pivotal catastrophe that season 2 was built around, is all the more horrifying for how personal it is, how bloody, how measurable. Here we are in the city of Palmo watching the Empire lure innocent civilians into the central square only to murder them in broad daylight while selling the slaughter to the rest of the galaxy as entirely the Ghorman’s fault. The Empire’s cruelty was multiplied tenfold by controlling the narrative, but thanks to resistance tacticians like Kleya and the courage of truth-tellers like Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), and Karis Nemix (Alex Lawther), the Empire starts to lose control of the message.

Andor season 2 released its 12 episodes in three-episode arcs, allowing different characters to move into the lead role as the rebellion started to cohere into something approaching a cosmos-wide awakening. And while viewers might have assumed the final three-episode arc would undoubtedly focus on Luna’s Andor, in a surprising and deeply satisfying twist, they mostly belonged to Dulua’s Kleya, Lutheen Rael’s tireless, tactically brilliant assistant. It’s Kleya who runs the whisper machines in the back of their antiquities shop and keeps Lutheen’s work well hidden in the shadows. It’s Kleya who sacrifices the only family she’s had for years to keep the rebel cause running.

(L-R) Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) and Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård)in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Without Kleya, there is a good chance Lutheen is caught, tortured, and the rebel movement is snuffed out years ago, let alone during his increasingly hectic final days. Her role as his communications expert, his memory bank, and his indefatigable and unflappable number two, was clear throughout the first 21 episodes, but it was in the final three episodes of the series that we learn precisely who Kleya is, where she came from, and why her bond with Lutheen is so unbreakable. Gilroy cast Dulua shortly after she graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and as he told The Hollywood Reporter, once they had wrapped season one, “everyone on our whole show was just in awe. We don’t have a moment of bad film on her.”

(L-R): Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) and Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Yet Dulua was to get a major narrative promotion in season 2, especially in episode 10, “Make it Stop,” when her tragic backstory is revealed. Lutheen didn’t start out fighting the Empire; in fact, he was an Imperial Sergeant involved in a genocidal raid on Kleya’s home planet when she was just a child. In a moment of self-doubt, Lutheen struggles with his assignment to burn Kleya’s village to the ground, and as he begs the godless galaxy above to “make it stop,” he finds Kleya hiding aboard his ship, and it’s there their bond begins. He names her Kleya, and they leave his life on the Imperialist side to forge their fledgling personal rebellion together, often posing as father and daughter as they make their way across the galaxy, selling one antiquity at a time as they begin to build out their network and their tactics.

It’s in episode 10 that Kleya goes from being Lutheen’s apprentice to a kind of heir apparent, giving the old man the noble death he wanted and the rebel alliance absolutely had to have. She sneaks into the hospital where the Empire is trying to coax him back to consciousness, after he attempted to take his own life before Dedra (Denise Gough) could torture information out of him. But Kleya won’t have it, so she steals a nurse’s uniform, blows up a spacesport to distract most of the forces inside, and dispatches the remaining Stormtroopers guarding him so that she can make it to Lutheen….and then take him off life support. It is perhaps the most important clandestine mission in the entire series, given how much Lutheen knows and how much the rebels stand to lose if the Empire keeps him alive long enough to torture him. She kills her adoptive father to save the rebel cause, fulfilling his own prophecy that he’d never live to see the sun rise on a free galaxy; he would have been immensely proud.

Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Luthen’s monologue of sacrifice in season 1 was one of the defining and most memorable bits of dialogue in any Star Wars installment since “No, I am your father” (not “Luke, I am your father,” a common misconception). It explained not only Luthen’s sacrifice but, we realize by the series’ end, Kleya’s as well. But her fate wouldn’t be as grim as Luthen’s, a fact he made sure of when he chose to burn their communications equipment rather than have her do it.

“[That monologue] has always been there in the background,” Dulau told The Hollywood Reporter. “I was super nervous because it felt like the entire filming process was leading up to that day. I always had it in the back of my mind, and I deliberately tried not to overthink it. When I looked at Stellan lying there on this hospital bed, I really felt heartbroken for what Kleya was about to do.”

Before he was captured, Lutheen gave Kleya the most important information of their entire careers in espionage, relaying key words that spoke to the Empire’s secret creation of the Death Star, information that she ultimately passes on to Cassian, setting into motion the events that will eventually be depicted in Rogue One, which in turn lead to the Death Star’s destruction in George Lucas’s 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope (the end of which includes the aforementioned Royal Award Ceremony on Yavin 4, where Luke, Han Solo, and Chewbacca receive medals.) This makes Kleya an absolutely crucial figure in the history of Star Wars, connecting her directly to the major figures we have known for decades.

“It’s not lost on me that Tony Gilroy has literally written me into Star Wars history that dates back to the ‘70s,” Dulua told THR. “My mom and dad queued up at midnight to watch A New Hope. And knowing that they’re going to see my small part in that chain of events that leads to those stories, I’m just so grateful that Tony would hand me that domino. I really didn’t want to f**k it up. I really wanted to do justice to this opportunity that he’s given me.”

Justice was served. What Dulua recalls about those nervous initial auditions for the role, and the years of work that followed leading up to her ascendance into the Star Wars canon of crucial characters, was the grace and ease of working with Stellan Skarsgård.

“The feedback from the recall was that they really liked you. They thought you were great. The only note was that you seemed a little bit nervous. So they want to see you again, and they just want to make sure that you’ll be able to handle yourself. So walk in that room with as much confidence as you can; walk in that room like you are the dog’s bollocks,” she told THR. “Also, you’ll be reading at Pinewood Studios opposite Stellan Skarsgård, but don’t let that make you nervous. (Laughs.) I think I just burst out laughing because that’s insane. It was just an unbelievable thing to hear.”

So Dulua prepped as hard as she could, learning her lines front and back, and then finally, she met her counterpart ten minutes before her final audition.

“We chatted over coffee. Stellan has this wonderful magic about him. You just forget that he’s the legend Stellan Skarsgård. He really makes you feel at ease, and after just those ten minutes with him, I really felt like I was walking in the room with a friend, with someone who had my back and was there for me. And he was that way, continuously, throughout the next three years. I was intimidated by the scale of this production and how new it all felt, but I’ve never felt intimidated by Stellan. He always felt like my pal who’s got my back.”

Andor is streaming in its entirety on Disney+.

Featured image: Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

The Gauls Go Global: Inside Director Fabrice Joubert’s Vision for Netflix’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight”

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It was in 1959 that Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo published their first comic strip about a village of Gauls resisting occupation by the Roman Empire.

In the nearly 70 years since, Asterix & Obelix have placated the Romans and conquered the entire world. It has become one of France’s most successful franchises, leading to 40 volumes of comics, 10 animated films, 5 live-action movies, games, merchandise, and a theme park.

Now, they return to Netflix’s screen with a 6-episode limited series, Asterix & Obelix – The Big Fight, an adaptation of one of the original comic books by the French pair. France and Belgium boast a rich tradition of comics and animation, having given rise to the influential bande dessinée style that has shaped generations of artists. The country is also home to one of the world’s premier animation festivals in Annecy, underscoring its status as a global hub for the art form. Fabrice Joubert, co-director of the new series, is a prime example of this creative legacy.

“I had the opportunity to study at the Gobelins school in Paris, which was one of the first to offer a program in animation. They created the degree thanks to Goscinny, who was making one of his feature film adaptations in Paris, and asked them to launch an animation department to support the production. So, in a way, I ended up working in animation partly thanks to Goscinny. The circle has come full,” he told The Credits at a special screening of the series in Brussels.

 

Joubert started out as an animator, bringing characters to life in productions such as Despicable Me and The Prince of Egypt. His first short film as a director, French Roast, was nominated for an Oscar in 2010. His illustrious career led him to the opportunity of co-directing the latest Asterix adventures with Alain Chabat, who wrote and directed the live-action film Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra.

“These characters are such an integral part of popular culture, we felt a real sense of responsibility towards them and their universe,” he says. Read more below about how this latest instalment of the world’s most famous Gauls came to life.

L-r: Fabrice Joubert, Alain Chabat. Courtesy Netflix.

How was your experience co-leading such a big production team? Can you describe a typical day at work?

Over nearly three years of production, over 300 people were involved. Alain and his co-writers, Benoît Oullion and Piano, began writing five years ago, so it’s been a long journey.

Animation is a notoriously complex and detailed process, right?

Animation is a slow and complex process. It works like a production chain, where each department depends on the one before it, so having a shared vision is key. My collaboration with Alain was very smooth and full of creative energy. We worked closely together throughout the entire production, from the animatic stage (which is the storyboard edited with temporary sound and voice) to the actual design and creation process.

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight – Behind The Scenes Photo. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

The characters and sets were developed in collaboration with our art director, Aurélien Predal, before moving into production with the TAT studio teams in Toulouse (France). Everyone involved worked toward a common goal: bringing Alain’s vision to life while remaining as respectful as possible of the original work by Goscinny and Uderzo.

What led you to choose to animate using CGI?

We quickly decided to go with CGI, partly for practical reasons, but also because it had already been used successfully in the two previous Astérix films by Alexandre Astier and Louis Clichy. It felt natural to continue in that direction. Initially, Alain considered stop motion because of the tactile quality it brings, and that definitely influenced the look and feel of the series. Working closely with our art director, Aurélien Predal, we focused on adding rich textures to the characters and environments. We wanted everything to feel tangible, almost handcrafted. We were looking for a balance between realistic elements and preserving the iconic graphic style of Uderzo’s illustrations. We were very committed to staying true to his visual legacy, so the challenge was finding just the right mix of stylization and realism. And I think we succeeded.

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight – Behind The Scenes Photo. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

How did you manage to retell their adventures for 2025 audiences while keeping the original essence of the comic books?

These characters are such an integral part of popular culture that we felt a real sense of responsibility towards them and their universe. At the same time, what made the project so exciting was the opportunity to inject a touch of modernity and relevance for today’s audience. We really wanted to honor the comic books, so we allowed ourselves some visual experimentation — for example, integrating onomatopoeias directly into the animation. Uderzo used to sometimes strip away the background and leave just a flat color for effect. We decided to reintroduce that in certain sequences where it felt appropriate.

Still image from the film. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

We selected songs that could bring a contemporary feel while still serving the story. It was fascinating to mix modern music with a more traditional score. We recorded the music in London with the London Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Mathieu Alvado, and the result is an epic, absolutely fabulous soundtrack that really gives the series a powerful energy.

Fabrice Joubert, Alain Chabat. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

And why did you choose to adapt The Big Fight, specifically?

The choice to adapt The Big Fight came from Alain. It’s a volume that’s especially close to his heart, and honestly, it’s one of the best in the series. For the first time, the Gauls are left without their superhuman strength, and they have to face a fight where they could lose everything. That narrative setup created the perfect dramatic stakes for a series. It gave us the kind of tension and momentum that really holds a modern audience’s attention. On top of that, we were able to expand on the story and add new characters. The series format gave us space to explore the characters in greater depth — especially the friendship between Astérix and Obélix, which was something we really wanted to highlight.

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

How was the collaboration with  Netflix?

Working with Netflix felt like a natural choice. It also gave us the opportunity to reach an extraordinary global audience. Having that reach pushed us to achieve the highest possible quality — to create the best series we could, both technically and artistically, because we knew we were speaking to viewers all over the world. It was truly an incredible opportunity, and they backed our vision from the beginning.

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight is streaming on Netflix now.

Featured image: Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight. 2025 Les éditions Albert René / Goscinny – Uderzo / NETFLIX

Man of Tomorrow, Today: Official “Superman” Trailer Reveals James Gunn’s Bold Vision for Man of Steel

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The official trailer for James Gunn’s Superman has arrived, offering a bevy of new footage of the hotly anticipated feature film that will officially kickstart Gunn’s new-look DC Studios.

The trailer opens with a close-up of David Corenswet’s Clark Kent/Superman and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane. As Brosnahan teased recently, the film begins with Clark and Lois already in a relationship, and Clark has given Lois the most unbeatable scoop—she can interview him as his alter ego, Superman. Lois, being a crack journalist for The Daily Planet, is, of course, game for the assignment, and the interview begins. It doesn’t go as Clark imagines it will, given his relationship with the reporter.

It’s a clever set-up, as the interview allows Lois to paint us a picture of what’s been going on in Metropolis and the world, and how much fire Superman has been under, including from the Secretary of Defense, who is officially looking into Superman’s actions. This elicits a smile from Clark, as he doesn’t understand how “his actions” require suspicion, given that they include him stopping a war. How could such bravery possibly be something the Secretary of Defense, or anyone else of sound judgment and moral fiber, could call into question?

Such is the tone and tenor of Gunn’s vision for Superman, which re-centers the Man of Steel as a singular force for good in a world that has forgotten, at least a little bit, what good looks like. Gunn, who made his name centering offbeat misfits and oddballs in The Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, has been unabashed in his quest to tell a story about Superman that recalls the iconic hero’s original bearing and purpose, someone who was good, who wanted to do good, and who believed in the goodness in others even if he was cast as an outsider, a threat, an alien.

The case Lois puts to Superman in the new trailer is that others might not see it that way. Playing the hardened reporter, Lois points out that technically, Superman did illegally enter a country without consulting with the President of the United States, and she asks Superman the tough questions the rest of the world is asking—under whose authority was he acting? To Superman, however, the case is much more transparent and more straightforward—he acted because, if he hadn’t, people would die.

The new trailer is chock-a-block with action and allows some of the other meta-humans and villains their moment to shine (or destroy), including Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho, Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, and María Gabriela’s The Engineer.

It’s a terrific trailer, and there’s little doubt Gunn’s Superman reboot is going to be one of the summer’s biggest films. It augers in a fresh start for a united DC Universe, and sets the stage for Corenswet’s Superman to stake his claim as the new Man of Steel.

Check out the new trailer below. Superman soars into theaters on July 11.

 

Featured image: Caption: (L to r) RACHEL BROSNAHAN as Lois Lane and DAVID CORENSWET as Superman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SUPERMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio

The Renaissance Executive: How Jason Harvey’s Multifaceted Background Powers BET+’s Streaming Success

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There are many things Jason Harvey is. Currently, he’s the EVP and General Manager of BET+, a subscriber-based streaming service cultivated around Black entertainment. With that title, he oversees the programming strategy, business operations, and revenue growth, among other responsibilities. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer, worked with Google to expand its digital advertising in Latin America, and authored a children’s book about entrepreneurship. Oh, and he’s fluent in Spanish and Portuguese – all this while being a husband and a father of four. It’s safe to assume he’s an intelligent and motivated individual, and my assumptions were more than confirmed once I caught up with him following his attendance at the BSO Symposium.

Harvey shares with me that he has always had a passion for the digital tech space, but he’s a creative at heart. “I come from a pretty humble background, and when I went to undergrad, I had a lot of student loans. So, when I came out and started looking at entertainment jobs, the pay was not great. I needed to make some money fairly quickly, so I had to look for other opportunities outside of entertainment, but I always had this desire to get back. I guess serendipitously, it came full circle.”

Since his time at BET+, the platform has seen measurable success in a crowded streaming space. So, I wanted to ask about what’s led to their growth, how they leverage data to better the viewing experience, and most importantly, what’s up with price increases.  

 

I have to ask for the consumers out there—can you speak to what can drive a monthly price increase for BET+?

That’s a great question and one we take seriously. For over three years, BET+ maintained a static price point, even as we expanded our content library and invested heavily in platform improvements. In 2023, we made a deliberate decision to implement a modest $1 price increase, roughly a 10% adjustment, reflecting the value we’ve added while remaining competitive in the market. At the same time, we launched BET+ Essential, our ad-supported tier, to ensure affordability and choice. It’s priced at slightly more than half of our premium subscription and provides a flexible entry point for new viewers, especially in a more cost-conscious environment.

What are the price changes driven by?

Ultimately, price changes are driven by our commitment to deliver more value, whether that’s through premium original content, improved user experience, or expanded access via ad-supported options. Our goal is to scale smartly while ensuring that our audience always has a choice that fits their needs and budget.

In a way, does it all come back to profitability?

Absolutely, it all ties back to profitability, but not in isolation. Profitability allows us to keep delivering the culturally resonant, high-quality storytelling our audience expects. Growing our subscriber base is essential, but so is ensuring that the business is sustainable. That’s the balance every streamer is now navigating, which is why you’re seeing broader industry moves like price adjustments, password-sharing enforcement, and a focus on monetization strategies that prioritize long-term viability.

The streaming world seems like it’s as high-pressure and competitive as the feature film world.

At BET+, we face the same pressures: premium content creation is expensive, marketing to cut through the noise is essential, and maintaining a seamless product experience requires continuous investment. Every decision, whether it’s pricing, bundling, or content cadence, is about managing that balance: providing consistent value to our audience while making smart, strategic investments that drive growth and profitability. That’s what allows us to keep elevating Black stories, year after year.

 

All valid points. Creating and supporting content costs money. How does the team balance those two ideas?

It’s a constant balancing act, and we approach it through what we call the “Three Vs”: Volume, Velocity, and Variety. Volume ensures there’s enough content to keep subscribers engaged. Velocity speaks to how efficiently we can bring new content to market. And Variety ensures we’re offering a rich mix of genres, perspectives, and talent that reflect the diversity of our audience.  Our goal is to deliver the best version of those Three Vs without compromising financial discipline. That means being highly strategic about where we invest, how we license, and how we produce. It also means being relentlessly efficient in our marketing, using data to target the right viewers at the right time with the right message. Profitability doesn’t come at the expense of creativity; it comes from building a smart, data-informed ecosystem that allows us to scale great storytelling sustainably.

Can you expand on the types of data that’s being used?

We rely on a robust mix of first-party data, behavioral analytics, and qualitative insights to inform how we program, market, and operate BET+. Our first-party data gives us a granular view into viewer behavior, what they’re watching, how often, when they disengage, what drives repeat viewing, and more. But we don’t stop there.

How so?

Every month, we conduct subscriber surveys to measure satisfaction and surface unmet content needs. We also run focus groups and cultural panels to stay in step with emerging trends and evolving audience preferences. On top of that, we partner with top-tier third-party research firms to complement our internal insights with broader industry benchmarks. All of this intelligence feeds into our “decision engine,” which shapes content decisions, optimizes marketing efforts, and guides operational investments. It’s how we ensure that BET+ remains culturally resonant and commercially sound.

 

You publicly mentioned that data from AI software companies Snowflake and DataBricks helps BET+ understand consumer engagement. Can you point to specific data that enables scale and improves consumer experience?

Yes, we’ve used it to build a robust subscriber health scoring system, ranging from A to E, that gives us a real-time, predictive view of audience engagement and loyalty. ‘A’ subscribers are highly engaged and likely to stay long-term. On the other hand, lower-tier scores indicate a rising propensity to churn, which triggers automated workflows within our CRM. These insights fuel targeted retention strategies, from personalized content recommendations to proactive messaging designed to re-engage at-risk users before they disengage.

Do you utilize these companies in other ways?

Beyond that, we use AI-powered models across our ecosystem: a recommendation engine to drive discovery, and a portfolio optimization model that evaluates whether our content mix is aligned with audience demand by genre, talent, and format. This kind of data-driven orchestration is only possible because we invested early in scalable infrastructure and partnered with world-class data scientists to ensure every user signal is captured, interpreted, and actioned in ways that meaningfully improve the BET+ experience.

 

That’s a tremendous amount of finite data. Can you elaborate more on subscriber health data and how it influences the platform experience?

We have grades for our subscribers, such as A, B, C, D, and E. The A subscribers are healthy. The model is telling us that they will be long-term subscribers. Then there’s what we call the propensity to churn, which means a customer may no longer use the platform. Folks who have a higher propensity to churn tell us we need to act. Then we start leveraging these models, pushing them into our CRM (customer relationship management), which then triggers specific communications to keep them on the platform. That’s a direct example of how we use this data and use machine learning to ultimately improve retention for BET+. We have a recommendation engine. That’s a model that helps with discovery. We have a portfolio analysis model that examines factors such as whether we have the right balance of content in a specific genre. We talk about the need for variety. This is all because early on, we had the opportunity to work with some data scientists who are super smart and built this data infrastructure to allow us to take advantage of all of these various events.

Are there data points that indicate whether a show can be successful before it is greenlit, or are decisions more creative-based?  

It’s still about the creative!  At the end of the day, success in content is still rooted in creativity, vision, execution, and talent. AI gives us powerful predictive signals, not certainties. It can identify favorable patterns say, a BET+ original thriller featuring specific talent combinations that have historically performed well with our audience, but it can’t read a script’s nuance or capture the cultural moment.

Our models inform us about optimal genre-talent pairings, audience demand curves, and even seasonality whether a title is better positioned for Q4’s high engagement window or a quieter release period. But greenlighting is a multidimensional decision. We consider content saturation, marketing alignment, and competing releases, and then layer in the human element: exceptional writers, visionary directors, strong performances, and post-production that delivers. So yes, data helps us reduce risk and increase the probability of success, but the creative execution is what ultimately makes a show break through.

 

Over the last few years, streamers have started offering consumers bundles. Subscriptions to multiple platforms at a reduced cost. This statement might be a stretch, but we could eventually get to a point where all streamers are packaged into a single bundle, which seems like cable TV all over again. Is that your feeling, or do you consider it an entirely different revenue stream than cable?

I see streaming bundles as a fundamentally different revenue model from traditional cable. While the structure may appear similar on the surface, multiple networks under one subscription, the behavior, audience segmentation, and content strategy are entirely distinct. For example, BET+ serves a younger, more digitally native audience compared to linear BET, with notable differences across age, income, geography, and gender. That diversity gives us the flexibility to program more boldly and take creative risks that wouldn’t always be possible in traditional cable environments.

Our recent bundle with Starz on Amazon Channels is a great example. Starz has compelling, culturally resonant programming that aligns with the BET+ audience. By bundling, we’re not just offering a discount, we’re curating a richer, more relevant content experience for the Black consumer. These partnerships are about strategic alignment and audience synergy, not retrofitting old models. Bundles in streaming aren’t a step backward to cable they’re a forward-looking tool to drive smarter discovery, engagement, and value.

You previously mentioned the possibility of BET+ including programmatic advertising or pause ads (ads that appear when a user presses pause). Any updates to either initiative?

We’re still in the early stages, but the momentum is strong. Our recent launch of the ad-supported tier on Amazon Channels was a major milestone because it gave us access to a highly engaged, primarily connected TV audience which significantly expanded our monetization capabilities. Now, we’re focused on optimizing ad inventory performance and deepening our understanding of viewer behavior within this environment.

As for innovations like pause ads, clickable overlays, and bumper formats those are actively on our roadmap. We see them as high-potential tools for non-intrusive, context-aware engagement. While not all of them haven’t been deployed at scale yet, we’re carefully testing and evaluating to ensure they enhance both the viewer experience and advertiser value. We’re committed to building an ad experience that’s premium, culturally relevant, and additive not disruptive.

[Connected TV (CTV) refers to streaming content on internet-enabled TVs. It differs slightly from over-the-top (OTT) services, which encompass all devices, not just smart TVs. CTV advertising is a form of digital advertising where ads can run alongside shows, be interactive, or be shown instream.]

Are there any considerations for international growth?

International expansion is absolutely on our strategic horizon as it represents a significant growth opportunity for BET+. Markets like the UK, Canada, Brazil, and the Caribbean have sizable diasporic audiences with strong cultural alignment to our content, and we believe there’s real revenue potential in those regions.

That said, our immediate focus remains on maximizing the momentum we’ve built domestically. The launch of our ad-supported tier has unlocked new scale in the U.S., and we’re just beginning to tap into that opportunity. We’re also closely analyzing the performance of our recent bundling initiatives to inform how we might replicate that model in international markets.

With the right partnerships and a phased approach, global expansion is not a question of “if,” but “when” and we’re being deliberate to ensure we scale both sustainably and strategically.

BET+ has a very successful original content pact with Tyler Perry. Can you speak on finding new talent you want to invest in?

Tyler Perry continues to be a cornerstone partner for BET+. His ability to consistently deliver high-performing content across acquisition, engagement, and retention is unparalleled and that engine continues to drive real value for our business. But equally important is our commitment to cultivating the next generation of visionary Black storytellers.

At BET+, we’ve been intentional about building a platform that not only celebrates established icons like Tyler and Kenya Barris but also provides meaningful opportunity for rising voices like Diarra Kilpatrick, whose Diarra from Detroit is sharp, bold, and fresh, and Jordan Cooper, who’s redefined sitcoms with The Ms. Pat Show.

What makes BET+ unique is our dual mandate to champion both proven talent and emerging creatives who are pushing boundaries. That’s where we find the most energy and promise: enabling authentic stories to be told that might otherwise struggle to find a home in an increasingly risk-averse industry. It’s not just a differentiator; it’s our mission.

 

What do you see as the potential hurdle in the industry for Black content?

There’s no question that strong Black-led content exists like Dope Thief on Apple TV+, Paradise on Hulu, and Survival of the Thickest on Netflix are great examples. But the broader challenge lies in the systemic shifts we’re seeing across the industry. As streamers tighten their content spend, dollars are increasingly directed toward projects perceived to have broad, mass-market appeal. That often comes at the expense of content designed for more culturally specific audiences.

One of the biggest hurdles is the lack of well-established success proxies for Black content. Too often, projects led by Black creators are seen as niche rather than essential, despite their impact and reach. The industry still struggles to measure the true value of culturally resonant storytelling beyond just traditional metrics.

How so?

Commercial success starts with clear, platform-specific KPIs but too often, those benchmarks aren’t calibrated to reflect the dynamics of Black content. What does success look like for culturally specific storytelling on a given platform? Without a defined framework, it becomes easy to undervalue or misjudge performance.

Discovery is another major barrier. Studies, including a notable McKinsey report, have highlighted algorithmic bias in recommendation systems, which can deprioritize Black-led content in user feeds. If audiences can’t easily find the content, it limits viewership and in turn, limits the data that proves its value. So even when the creative is strong and the audience exists, structural issues in how content is surfaced and evaluated can hinder its commercial potential from the start. Until that changes, the pipeline for Black-led content will continue to face headwinds, not due to lack of talent or audience demand, but because of outdated frameworks for evaluating success.

That’s similar to the algorithms used on social media. If you click on a cat once, you’re seeing cats for the next few days.

Hahaha, that’s right. So, there are a few things that make it more difficult for some of the broader mainstream streamers, which is why it’s so important for us to continue to operate and give these creators a platform.

 

 Featured image: Jason Harvey. 

From Wakanda to Chicago: “Ironheart” Trailer Unveils Riri Williams’ High-Stakes Journey in Marvel’s Latest

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We first met Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) on screen in Ryan Coogler‘s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Riri is a genius student inventor who the Wakandans tapped in a significant time of need—they’d just lost their Black Panther (the late, great Chadwick Boseman) and were facing a seriously uncertain future thanks to threats from Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and his vast army of ocean-dwelling Atlanteans. Thanks in part to Riri’s Tony Stark-level technical prowess, the Wakandans were able to hold Namor and his armies off. Now, in a brand new trailer for the Coogler-produced new series Ironheart, Riri is front-and-center and more determined than ever to make her mark. She returns to her hometown of Chicago to continue building her insanely brilliant, wildly ambitious iron suits. Her time with the Wakandas has fired her up to do something real, something good in the world. Yet Riri finds trouble in the former of Parker Robbins, aka “The Hood” (Anthony Ramos), who makes his introduction in the trailer by trapping her in an elevator and promising her that in less than three minutes the air will become unbreathable and she’ll die, unless she can figure out a solution. This is, it turns out, Riri’s interview. Welcome to the clandestine world of genius inventors, Riri.

The trailer reveals that Riri’s ambition is huge—her “internship abroad,” as she puts her time with the Wakandas, inspired her to want to build something iconic. Parker Robbins promises her that he’ll give her the tools to carry out her vision, but like all seemingly too-good-to-be-true deals, this offer comes with a cost. Parker admits that in order to pull off something iconic, you likely have to do some “pretty questionable things.”

Those close to Riri are concerned that she’s going down the wrong path and it seems inevitable that Riri and The Hood will eventually collide.

Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam, and Anji White join Thorne and Ramos in the cast. Chinaka Hodge is the head writer, and Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes direct the episodes.

Check out the trailer below. Ironheart premieres on Disney+ on June 24 with a 3-episode launch at 9 pm ET.

For more on all things Marvel Studios, check out these stories:

Marvel’s Next Move: “Thunderbolts*” Director Jake Schreier Eyed for “X-Men” Reboot

From “Thunderbolts*” to “The New Avengers”: Inside the Sudden Superhero Title Swap

Marvel’s Misfits Have Mainstream Appeal: “Thunderbolts*” Strikes Box Office Gold

Marvel’s Misfits Hit Big: Florence Pugh-Led “Thunderbolts*” Strikes a Chord With Critics

Featured image: Ironheart/Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART. Photo by Jalen Marlowe. © 2024 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

Director Alex Graves on Keri Russell’s Balletic Excellence in Netflix’s Hit Series “The Diplomat”

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Keri Russell plays blunt but brilliant U.S. Ambassador Kate Wyler in The Diplomat. She’s often anything but diplomatic in the taut political thriller, loath to dress in fancy clothes or brush her hair, but Kate exhibits invaluable tenacity as she tracks down the perpetrators of a horrendous ship explosion and car bomb attack. The Emmy-nominated Netflix series, which aired its second season last fall, co-stars Rufus Sewell as Kate’s ambitious husband Hal, with David Gyasi as the British Foreign Secretary, Ato Essandoh as her deputy chief of mission, and Rory Kinnear as England’s fiery prime minister. Kate Wyler meets her match at the end of the season when Allison Janney shows up as the wily, tactically brilliant, and ruthless American Vice President Grace Penn.

The show’s mix of witty dialogue and political chicanery brings to mind Aaron Sorkin’s now-iconic political drama The West Wing, which is where Diplomat creator/showrunner Deborah Cahn and executive producer/director Alex Graves met early in their careers. Graves, a Kansas City native, later worked with Cahn on Homeland and, more recently, directed episodes of HBO’s juggernaut Game of Thrones and Apple TV+’s Foundation.

Graves, speaking from his part-time home in Las Vegas, talks to The Credits about why he likes to keep the camera rolling and how grandiose public settings bolster the stakes for its privately anguished characters.

 

In The Diplomat, you have actors of a very high caliber showing up on set, ready to go. What does that leave you to do as the director when it comes to their performances?

What I spend time doing with the actors is watching. Because a lot of what you do with actors, and certainly on The Diplomat, is, you’re watching what they’re doing, number one, and two, you want to make sure you’re getting the psychological and emotional story. “Is there anything I’m not seeing?” Someone like Rufus Sewell, who’s just brilliant to watch, has already worked out the performance, or he’s riffing off Keri or whatever, and he has a very strong opinion about Hal. [After a take] You might say, “I’m seeing this or I’m not seeing that, let’s go again.” You want to see the insecurities, the pettiness, the little performance details that go right into the lens. It’s a funny experience for me because I’ve done a lot of very large things, science fiction and otherwise, and this show is really about the microscope.

The Diplomat. Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 103 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2023

The range of Keri Russell’s performance as Kate is something to behold. She can do funny, heartbroken, fierce, and everything in between. What’s your directing relationship with her?

Keri’s full of energy, thank God, and she comes in totally ready, so we spend a lot of time trying to keep up with her. The thing about Keri is that she gives Kate enormous humanity and the clumsiness and the flaws and the bluntness of the character.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Ato Essandoh as Stuart Hayford in episode 202 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

Do you do a lot of takes?

It could be two takes, it could be ten takes. With Keri, a lot of times I won’t cut because whenever you cut, the magic that goes on—and it is a sort of magic—that stops. Keri is a dancer; she has been her whole life, so if you cut, she stops and the whole energy stops. There’s a real value to not cutting. If you say okay, “We’re still rolling,” Keri returns to her number one position, everyone re-sets in the background, and you say “go,” and she rolls right into the scene and maybe goes to another level.

You want to maintain momentum. Can you give an example of shooting multiple takes to achieve a better result?

Season one, episode seven, Keri’s just come back from a humiliating meeting at the White House, her old friend has filled her in on [casualties in] Afghanistan, so when Hal comes in to check on her day, Kate’s kind of a wreck. On take four, Keri just took it to another level, as if she’d never done the scene before. She was really having the experience. Early on, I realized what a great actor she is. She’d hate hearing me say that because Keri doesn’t like compliments, but her mind and her imagination for the character are just a blast to watch.

The Diplomat. Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in episode 103 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2023

Keri meshes so well with the mostly British cast members like David Gyasi and Rory Kinnear, who really deliver the goods.

Well, Rory and David are simply two of the best actors out there. In the Season 2 premiere at 10 Downing Street, Rory has a six-page scene doing most of the dialogue [dealing] with the story and the psychology and the plot and I think he did that like 50 times that day because I had to shoot [coverage of] everybody, so he was running the scene. Each take was just as good as the next one.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, David Gyasi as Austin Dennison in episode 206 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

It’s interesting because Rory Kinnear looks like a regular guy, yet he brings so much intensity to his performance that he almost steals every scene.

I remember the first day I visited the Diplomat set, I was just hypnotized watching Rory act in rehearsals and takes. He’s a titan.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Rory Kinnear as Nicol Trowbridge in episode 202 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

Years ago, you and Deborah Cahn worked together on The West Wing, which gained instant acclaim as one of television’s best political dramas. Like The Diplomat, The West Wing excelled in fast-paced dialogue between brainy characters. What did you learn about directing from that show?

Getting to direct Aaron Sorkin’s work was pure joy and also very intimidating, so there was a lot of learning about how to work with fear! [laughing]. But another big thing I learned, which became very important on both Game of Thrones and Homeland, was learning to communicate the emotional and psychological aspects of what the characters are going through as they throw out all this beautiful technical dialogue about policy and politics and foreign affairs and whatever. On The West Wing, we used to call it, “The script behind the script.” You’d get Aaron’s dialogue and then you’d rehearse with very smart actors and have conversations about what is going on [with their characters]. In a way, The West Wing was kind of like my post-grad film school, and I think it was for Deborah as well.

The Diplomat. (L to R) Director/Executive Producer Alex Graves, Showrunner/Executive Producer Debora Cahn in episode 202 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2024

Each character in The Diplomat is expected to conceal secrets and put on a happy face when they appear in public at grandiose spaces.

The Diplomat is a combination of very intimate moments on a very large scale, set in a very broad landscape.

 

You’ve filmed at Inveraray Castle in Scotland, Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire, the real U.S. Embassy in London, and the Louvre in Paris. Do you have a favorite set piece involving one of these landmark locations?

The most special setting for me in Season 2 was St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Deborah gave me a Christmas present, a ten-page sequence with almost no dialogue, which is a filmmaker’s dream. For me, it was about breaking down the intimate story going on with about eight characters in the middle of one of the greatest cathedrals in the world. That represented the huge scope of what was going on in the story.

The Diplomat. Episode 202 of The Diplomat. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

For more big titles on Netflix, check these out:

Director Alex Graves on Keri Russell’s Balletic Excellence in Netflix’s Hit Series “The Diplomat”

Behind Netflix’s “The Four Seasons”: How “30 Rock” Veterans Lang Fisher & Tracey Wigfield Reimagined a Classic With Tina Fey

End Game: “Squid Game” Season 3 Trailer Teases Final Reckoning

Featured image: The Diplomat. Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in episode 108 of The Diplomat. Cr. Alex Bailey/Netflix © 2023

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” First Reactions: A Pure Cinematic Adrenaline Rush 30 Years in the Making

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The first reactions to Tom Cruise’s eighth and potentially final mission as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning have arrived following a screening for critics and members of the press. The verdict? Cruise and his capable comrades Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), and newcomer Grace (Hayley Atwell) have pulled off a sustained adrenaline rush of pure cinematic spectacle. In short, Cruise and co. have done it again.

If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is indeed Cruise’s last go-round as the unkillable Ethan Hunt, it will cap a remarkable run for both Cruise and the franchise that began on May 22, 1996 with the very first Mission: Impossible, beginning with the set-piece that started it all, that sensational break-in at the CIA’s Black Vault, which The Final Reckoning hat-tipped in a recent trailer. The Final Reckoning promises to thread all of Hunt’s work over the past nearly three decades into a cohesive narrative, while capping the franchise with one final stunt to rule them all. It appears that Cruise and co. have pulled it off. 

Early reactions are calling The Final Reckoning the kind of big-screen spectacle that the movie theater was born for. Cruise somehow tops his previous stunts, which have included hanging off the side of an Airbus A400m in Rogue Nation, a record-breaking HALO skydive, and his mastery of helicopter piloting in Fallout, with a fresh stunt for the ages. 

Cruise, director Christopher McQuarrie, and longtime stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood have cooked up a fresh course of lunacy for The Final Reckoning, which finds Ethan and his longtime IMF partners, Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, trying to save the world from imminent disaster a few months after the conclusion of the last installment, Dead Reckoning. The IMF team is struggling to stop the remorseless Gabriel (Esai Morales) from gaining control of the rogue artificial intelligence The Entity. The cast includes Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, Pom Klementieff as Paris, Vanessa Kirby as the White Widow, and Hannah Waddingham, Katy O’Brian, and Tramell Tillman.

Let’s take a quick look at the first reactions below. Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning will premiere on May 23, 2025.

Featured image: Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Speed, Redemption, and Star Power: Brad Pitt Shifts Gears in High-Octane “F1” Trailer

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Brad Pitt has got the pedal to the metal in the first look at F1, the upcoming racing epic from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. 

Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a coulda-been Formula 1 legend who was on the cusp of greatness in the 1990s before an accident derailed his career. Thirty years later, Sonny’s a has-been, a racer-for-hire speeding off into the sunset of an unremarkable career, when he’s tapped by his former teammate, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), to come race for him and his struggling Formula 1 team APXGP. There are several problems, the first and most pressing being that Sonny is considered a dinosaur (at best) by the members of Ruben’s team, especially by Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a young driver on Ruben’s team who is not about to bend the knee to some old man. Another problem is the pressure involved—APXGP team is on the verge of collapse, and unless they can pull off a major upset, and unless Sonny and Joshua can learn to be teammates rather than competitors, all of their futures are at risk.

Joining Pitt, Bardem, and Idris are Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, and Kim Bodina. Kosinski worked from a script by Ethan Kruger, his collaborator on Maverick. 

Speaking with Vanity Fair last year, Idris talked about how incredible it was to be involved in a film with such cinematic heavyweights: “I look to my left, it’s Brad Pitt. I look to my right, it’s Javier Bardem. I look at my hands, they’re shaking. And we shoot all of this epic stuff, and all the amazing drivers are there, from Lewis [Hamilton] to [Max] Verstappen to everyone.”

Idris also told VF that Pitt is a legitimate racecar driver. “Talk about a superstar. His humility is second to none. I don’t know if people know this, but he is really good behind that car. Really good. Too good, almost. He makes me nervous how good he is.”

F1 races into theaters on June 27. Check out the trailer below.

For more on Warner Bros., DC Studios, Max, and more, check out these stories:

Precision and Passion: How Director Amanda Marsalis Choreographed the Chaos of “The Pitt”

“Sinners” Production Designer Hannah Beachler on Conjuring Ryan Coogler’s Supernatural Stunner

How Precious: “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” Will Hit Theaters in December 2027

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) DAMSON IDRIS as Joshua Pearce and BRAD PITT as Sonny Hayes in Apple Original Films’ “F1®,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Precision and Passion: How Director Amanda Marsalis Choreographed the Chaos of “The Pitt”

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There are few careers that could fill an entire season of TV with a single day’s work, but The Pitt proves that the emergency room is a source of endless inspiration. Drama and trauma pump into a Pittsburgh hospital led by attending Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) over fifteen hours.

Medical dramas aren’t new to the screen – in fact, Wyle is well known for his role as Dr. John Carter on ER. Yet, from the jump, The Pitt refreshes the genre with its real-time approach and compassionate portrayal of the most pressing contemporary health crises. Director Amanda Marsalis (Ozark, Ransom Canyon) wasn’t sure if she was right for the project, but the script quickly won her over.

“I was like, ‘Medical drama? That’s not really my thing.’ I like prestige television. I like Ozark. I like a long dolly shot,” she reasoned. “But I really, really love and respect [executive producer] John Wells. When I read episode 1, I was like, this is awesome, and then when I talked to John and [creator R.] Scott [Gemmill] about how they wanted to make the show, I was just like, ‘Great. I’m on board.”

Each episode depicts one hour in the medical staff’s shift starting at 7:00 A.M. Marsalis helmed four of the season’s most gripping episodes. She and her team choreographed multiple patients and moving parts, establishing the way the E.R. operates.

 

“Our wonderful production designer, Nina [Ruscio], had built a model of the set. I blocked everything out,” Marsalis explained. “We had the model so that I would place all the beds, and then I would put the scene number on the set, and we would photograph it. We made a book, basically, and passed it out to the ADs so everyone knew where everything should be in every scene. I need to make sure that technically everything is in its place so that we see it and we understand the devastation and heartbreak and pain or horror of something like this.”

Marsalis thrives in planning. She comes in early, ready for the long, fast-paced days.

“I really, really enjoy the mathematical side of directing, which is all of the prep,” she said. “I really think that episodes are made in prep, so that when you get there on a day, most people have the information that they need, and you can all move forward together, making something that you want to make and telling the story that you want to tell.”

Alexandra Metz, Patrick Ball. Photograph by Warrick Page/Max

Although coordinating The Pitt scenes was extremely complex, Marsalis ultimately prioritizes the human interaction. As a photographer for two decades, she finds beauty in everything, even a windowless emergency room. Although The Pitt is unlike any project she’s directed before, she always sets the same standards for her own work.

“My consistency is quality. Ozark and The Pitt are nothing like each other, but I do think if you watch my episodes, you can tell they’re mine,” she noted. “I really believe in intimacy and that kind of storytelling that you feel very connected.”

12. Noah Wyle, Shawn Hatosy. Photograph by Warrick Page/Max

The Pitt takes place in a teaching hospital where interns and residents are eager for their shot at the most interesting cases. Marsalis’ episodes highlight a wide range of emergencies, such as accidental fentanyl overdose, drowning, and sickle cell crisis. The team did as much research as possible, and consultants were on set to ensure the accuracy of the medical procedures.

“We have Dr. Joe Sachs, who is like our main doctor. He was also on ER,” Marsalis shared. “We had three other doctors with us who helped prep each episode and gave all our medical notes. Plus, we had nurses on set, so our nurses would be like, ‘That’s not how you would do that.’ They have the right to be like, ‘That’s not right. We need to fix it.’”

 

The doctors engage in occasional flirtation with one another, but they are focused on the medicine. There are no steamy scenes, however, that doesn’t mean that the streamer is without cable-level nudity. Marsalis felt that the realistic, clinical depiction of the human body helped to give weight to the plot.

“One of my favorite things is that we have some nudity in the show,” she noted. “Nonsexual, realistic nudity of what happens to your body whenever you come into the E.R. These people just need to cut your clothes off, or they just need to do whatever, and that just doesn’t matter. It’s medically necessary nudity, and that is just how we show that it’s real. I think it really just helps our understanding of how vulnerable people are when you come there and how much you’re in the hands of these doctors.”

Garcia and Santos start a forearm fasciotomies. (Warrick Page/MAX)

Any realistic depiction of a hospital will also involve a lot of bodily fluids, as the kind country boy Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) discovers. He has the unfortunate luck of seeing multiple patients who soil his scrubs, but every doctor gets messy at some point. One of the most utilized effects was fake blood, and Marsalis said there was no shortage in volume or variety.

“There’s floor blood, there’s mouth blood, there’s dark blood, there’s arterial blood, there’s clothing blood. The amount of different departments involved in blood is just wildly entertaining,” Marsalis laughed. “There was a lot of resetting. You’re like, okay, that was great. Let’s do it again. Let’s start over.”

14. Noah Wyle, Ayesha Harris. Photograph by Warrick Page/Max

An emergency suddenly changes everything during episode 12, “6:00 P.M.,” directed by Marsalis. It’s one of the most stunning hours of TV of the year, giving a terrifying glimpse into the dangerous and difficult conditions surrounding first responders.

The show empathetically portrays the extreme conditions doctors face every day to save lives. Dr. Robby and his team battle normal physical limitations like hunger, exhaustion, and even needing to use the bathroom. They also endure the mental strain of know-it-all parents referring to Google, the grief of losing a patient, or the pressure of mass events like COVID or a deadly shooting. Marsalis has been heartened by the response the show has received from real-life medical professionals.

“We got a really wonderful message from a doctor who was at the shooting in Vegas,” she relayed. “She basically was like, ‘Hey, the PTSD – you did this so, so well.’ The amount of people reaching out – it’s really moving because it’s like a whole population of people who feel seen. Man, I’m grateful for that.”

 

Marsalis’ episodes explore the emotional and psychological toll on caretakers as they navigate difficult decisions like end-of-life, DNR orders, and organ donation. The Pitt cast and crew faced their own emergency when wildfires in L.A. shut down production for a few days. Marsalis had also recently lost her own father before filming a scene in which adult children come to terms with their parents’ final hours. She recalled wiping away tears between takes of the moving moment. That human connection in a setting that can seem clinical is where the magic happens.

“The Pitt is entertaining and it’s really good storytelling,” Marsalis reflected. “I think the thing that’s really, really lovely about The Pitt is that it’s a show about a bunch of good people who are trying to do right. I love watching The Pitt. I love watching everyone’s episodes. It’s really great and I love Scott, John, and Noah. I think that’s just something that’s really fun about it. It’s just a bunch of people that care, and I think in this day and age it feels really nice to see people that care.”

The Pitt season one is streaming now on MAX.

For more on The Pitt, check out these stories:

Emergency Realism: Production Designer Nina Ruscio’s Blueprint for “The Pitt’s” Immersive Medical World

Featured image:  Robby and team work to pinpoint Nick’s condition. (Warrick Page/MAX)

“Sinners” Production Designer Hannah Beachler on Conjuring Ryan Coogler’s Supernatural Stunner

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Warning: Contains spoilers

Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners, made history with a second-weekend box office tally only six percent lower than its opening weekend. Just past its fourth weekend, it crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office. Both audiences and critics adore this Southern Gothic vampire thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan as identical twins Smoke and Stack. The pair has just returned to the Mississippi Delta after fighting in World War I and then getting involved with the Chicago mob, the details of which are mostly left to other characters’ conjecture. Looking to open a juke joint for the community that raised them, they sign on their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a pastor’s son and blues guitar virtuoso, and buy an old saw mill off a local landowner Hogwood (David Maldonado), who lies to the twins about his Klan membership, but Smoke and Stack learn this vital piece of information anyway, but from a different well of trouble: Remmick (Jack O’Connell), a vampire who comes knocking during the juke joint’s opening night.

Sinners is a horror movie, but it’s also so much more—a moody, atmospheric fantasy and period piece in one, which plumbs the history of the blues, hoodoo, and the Jim Crow South. The twins are inseparable, but distinct. Stack is a swaggering troublemaker with a pissed-off white-passing ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) hot on his tail, but a melancholy hangs over Smoke. We begin to understand why when he visits his estranged wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), at her little shop and abode in the woods. Outside, a fresh bottle of milk is set next to a tiny grave for the couple’s baby daughter.

As Smoke and Stack make their way through the Delta, culminating in the juke joint’s grand opening, production designer Hannah Beachler’s (Black Panther, Creed) exceptional structures, built from the ground up, define each location. At first glance, the spare, light church from whence the twins pluck Sammie couldn’t be more different from Bo (Yao) and Grace Chow’s (Li Jun Li) bustling grocery, but an aesthetic through line connects each of the locations for a historic, coherent sense of the Delta imbued with the fantastical. Beachler, who has worked with Coogler for twelve years on five of his films, has a shorthand with the director, but nevertheless, every project has its own challenges.

We got to speak with Beachler about her historic references, visual guidelines, and working Easter eggs into the sets for Sinners.

 

The settings are so integral to this story. How did you approach them as a whole?

They were all built entirely from scratch on location, so that was an awesome feat. The first three sets I designed were Annie’s, the church, and the saw mill. I assigned them colors of red, white, and blue. Ryan loves to assign colors to characters, which I run with. Jedediah [Saul Williams] was black, Smoke and Stack were red and blue, and you’ll notice that Mary and Annie have colors. On the outside of Annie’s, there’s a haint blue. I think ultimately, my favorites were the church, the farmhouse, and Annie’s. They each have their own personality, inspired by Dennis Gassner and Tim Burton’s Big Fish, which is very much about these small silhouettes of buildings, leaning and exaggerated in form.

Ryan had talked about Sergio Leone, and these big vistas, Stagecoach and Searchers. It was really about wanting to put these structures on these big horizons so they could stand out, because nothing was big. We didn’t have huge mansions outside of plantations, so the world was very small, and I wanted to keep it that way, but I wanted to exaggerate the shapes.

Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke and as Stack, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

There’s a very strong coherence from location to location.

Sometimes I put a piece of a set into another set, trying to draw a line between church, spirituality which is Annie and the haint blue, and then red, which is blood and the capitalism of the juke joint and the free spirit there, and how all of those live in juxtaposition to one another. The farmhouse also has a lot of juxtaposition. You’ll notice things around Mary and Stack and Joan and Burt that are all sort of the same things, playing with lines. It was all intentional.

Caption: HAILEE STEINFELD as Mary in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Annie’s abode is really special. What was your inspiration there?

When I started doing my research and digging into the photography of Eudora Welty, I saw a photograph of a woman from a sharecropper family standing outside her house. Her house is just leaning. And it struck me, there’s a huge pile of cotton on her porch. Cotton was king, and that’s what our story was about. [We put] piles of cotton everywhere. We wanted it on the road. You could see it as if it dripped out of the carriages. When Sammie walked through his neighborhood on the plantation, you saw people with it on their porch. There were images from the Library of Congress and the FSA, the Farm Services Administration, in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana during the 1920s and 1930s that I used for inspiration as well. I went to Clarksdale and talked to older people about the town and what they remembered from their relatives and ancestors. All of those things were really important in building what was a truth that feels like fantasy.

Caption: WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

How did you create the barn-turned-juke joint? Was the lighting practical?

I knew I wanted to make it two stories, to tell the story that people lived there at one point. Of course, the kerosene lanterns were practical lighting, and then we had that moment when they jacked the electricity. Autumn [Durald Arkapaw, the cinematographer] really used that as a point of reference for the lighting she put in there. I love working with her. I can be as bold and crazy as I want, and she turns it into a beautiful piece of art. I was listening to a lot of Howlin’ Wolf and Smokestack Lightning, and we stopped where the equalizers stopped in the middle of the chorus. Then, we painted the levels of the equalizer of the song in rust on the back wall. We wanted to bring in the feeling that music is surrounding them. The big light Mary and Stack are in front of looks like a moon, and foreshadows what they become. And the juke joint is where everybody’s world collides, so I brought a little bit of everything [from other sets] into the structure.

Caption: (L to r) MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke, WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie, HAILEE STEINFELD as Mary, MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Stack, MILES CATON as Sammie and OMAR BENSON MILLER as Cornbread in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Did the doubling for Smoke and Stack affect your process at all?

Ryan always said, Don’t let that dictate what you’re doing. The twinning affected us just a little bit when we had to make sure backgrounds matched, but otherwise, we just went for it without worrying too much about that. One place we really did dive into the IMAX of it all was the church. When you’re at the doors of the church and Sammie walks in, I wanted to see rafters, and I wanted them to disappear at a certain point. So we had Autumn’s people out in Los Angeles measuring the height of the bottom of where our rafters sat, with where the IMAX would fall, and how far in we would lose that.

Ryan Coogler and Autumn Durald Arkapaw on the set of “Sinners.” CPhoto Credit: Eli Adé. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

So much of the key action takes place at night. What did that mean for your process?

Put light on it so we can see it! It was wonderful because the way Autumn lit everything, we could utilize the atmosphere and really layer the forest on the location where we built the juke joint. I knew the way we shot it was going to be about capturing silhouettes, the dirt road, and considering how to bring the fog in. Concentrating on shapes and creating a mood in the background was fun.

Caption: (L-r) JAYME LAWSON as Pearline, WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie, MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke, MILES CATON as Sammie Moore, and LI JUN LI as Grace Chow, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

How was shooting in Louisiana?

I’ve been in New Orleans for about 22 years. I knew a lot of the crew and had worked with a lot of them in my early career. We’re right next to Mississippi, and certainly our weather is the same as the Delta. Northern Louisiana is cotton, and southern Louisiana is sugarcane. We were able to use the sugarcane fields when they were low to plant an acre here or there of cotton, and the rest would be tilled in. That was one of the reasons we needed New Orleans; outside of it lay those big landscapes you’re going to get in the Delta, the big sky, and that land forever. That was something Ryan really needed to tell the story of the wealth of that land and the poverty of the people who worked that land. I knew that we could get that [landscape] in Louisiana more so than in any other place.

L to r) MICHAEL B. JORDAN and director RYAN COOGLER in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS a Warner Bros. Pictures release.© 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What were the locations outside New Orleans like?

We shot in Donaldsonville, which was hit hard by economic times, so it was pretty empty. We augmented and filled all of those buildings. Those grocery stores were from the ground up. Our set decorating department made labels for every can. We also had a lot of stuff in there that really spoke to that story of Mississippi and Bo and Grace and the Asian community, how they were able to serve both the white community and the Black community, and dealt with their own hardships as well. There are a lot of little tells on the windows of the grocery stores as to what that world meant. I was so proud we were able to put catfish frying on 70mm IMAX—you don’t see that every day.

The town’s main street had an incredible amount of detail.

I hope people keep seeing things every time they watch it. It’s both a thriller and a commentary on the time and what was happening in Mississippi during Prohibition and Jim Crow. After all these years, I’ve learned to trust how Ryan’s going to tell the story. Really, the best part was the collaboration and working outside of the big studio system we’d worked in previously. It was still a studio, but it was Ryan’s, and that made us free to stretch our own creativity. That’s one of the great things about working with an auteur like Ryan.

Sinners is in theaters now.

For more on Sinners, check out these stories:

Pinstripes and Blood Spatter: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Making Dark Magic in “Sinners”

Soul Transcendent: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Captured Black Music’s Timeless Continuum in “Sinners”

Blues, Blood, & Big Formats: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Brought “Sinners”‘ to Epic, IMAX-Sized Life

Featured image: Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Marvel’s Next Move: “Thunderbolts*” Director Jake Schreier Eyed for “X-Men” Reboot

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Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is coming off one of the most successful premieres for a Marvel movie in quite a while. His antihero team-up epic, led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (Pugh is starting to feel like the new face of the MCU going forward), has been a critical and commercial hit for the studio. Now, Schreier is in talks to helm Marvel’s X-Men reboot, returning these beloved mutants to the fold after years in the superhero wilderness. Deadline reports that while the dealmaking is still early, Schreier appears to be the top choice to take on the reboot, which already boasts a script by Michael Lesslie.

Thunderbolts* was that rare thing, a superhero movie without any bonafide superheroes that’s centered on the characters’ myriad mental health issues. Pugh’s Black Widow, along with some of Marvel’s most maladjusted misfits, including Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), all have major issues they’re trying to sort through. And that’s to say nothing about Bob (Lewis Pullman), who might have them all beat in the troubles department. The point is, Schreier and his team of indie world creators made something unique in the MCU, and he does feel like a fine fit to take on an X-Men movie, considering they’ve always been outsiders who have tried to do their best despite heaps of troubles, both internal and external. 

It’s not only the critical and commercial success of Thunderbolts* that’s working in Schreier’s favor—he’s also a very big X-Men comics fan—and the experience of working on Thunderbolts* was positive for both filmmaker and studio. Now, Deadline reports that Schreier has begun turning down other jobs, a sign that it looks like he’s about to land one of the biggest directing gigs in town.

Marvel has long preferred letting directors who have swung and connected on MCU films and series have another crack at even bigger titles. This was how the Russo Brothers went from Captain America: The Winter Soldier to Captain America: Civil War and eventually Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Matt Shakman successfully steered Marvel’s first Disney+ series, WandaVision, and landed the coveted job directing The Fantastic Four: First Steps. 

Getting a fresh X-Men film onto the big screen is a major priority for both Marvel and the fanbase. The X-Men franchise was Fox’s most marquee Marvel IP, resulting in its most critical and commercially successful superhero films—ten in all if you include the Wolverine spinoff movies. Marvel has already restarted its X-Men phase, with the animated X-Men ’97 on Disney+ and, of course, the massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. What the studio needs now is a proper X-Men movie to get the gang back together.

Schreier and the X-Men sound like a match made in mutant heaven.

Featured image: Florence Pugh and Jake Schreier on the set of Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2025 MARVEL.

How Precious: “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” Will Hit Theaters in December 2027

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Gollum is coming back to the big screen.

The iconic former Hobbit turned ring-lusting crucial figure in The Lord of the Rings films will be the star of his own movie, with Andy Serkis, the man who portrayed Gollum, returning to direct and star. Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will open in theatres on December 17, 2027. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema revealed the release date, which boasts Oscar-winners Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, the trio who brought The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies to the big screen, as producers on the film.

“It is an honor and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that stinker — Gollum!” Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh said in a statement when the film was announced last May. “As lifelong fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with [WBD film chiefs] Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy, and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”

Serkis will star and direct the film, which is based on a script by Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou. Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens are producing a second LOTR film, but no director has been named for that project yet.

Gollum isn’t the only one returning to theaters—New Line also announced that the Evil Dead franchise was getting a fresh installment after the success of Evil Dead Rise. Souheila Yacoub is set to star in the joint New Line/Sony Pictures project, which will get a summer release on July 24, 2026.

Finally, Warner Bros. announced that M. Night Shyamalan’s Remain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Phoebe Dynevor, and Ashley Waters, will hit theaters on October 23, 2026. The original film is a co-creation between Shyamalan and novelist Nicholas Sparks. The intriguing set-up is that Shyamalan and Sparks are both penning a screenplay and a novel based on the same original love story. Sparks’s novel version, “Remain,” will come out on October 7, 2025.

Featured image: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – APRIL 11: Actor Andy Serkis during C2E2 on the main stage for the “There and Back Again: A Lord of the Rings Cast Reunion” at McCormick Place on April 11, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/WireImage)

Pinstripes and Blood Spatter: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Making Dark Magic in “Sinners”

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There’s a burning passion brimming in every frame of Ryan Coogler’s action-packed, thematically rich horror film Sinners. Coogler’s gangbusters original film celebrates Black art from the past, present, and future, which spoke deeply to Academy Award–winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, now a longtime collaborator with Coogler, winning two Oscars for her sensational work on Coogler’s Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, creating a masterclass in Afrofuturism, weaving together traditional African aesthetics with Wakanda’s bleeding-edge technology.

For Sinners, Carter was tasked with designing an entirely different world—the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s—as she helped Coogler tell the story of twins Smoke and Stack (played by Michael B. Jordan), who return home to Clarksdale (the iconic location where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so he could master his guitar) to open up a juke joint that serves and celebrates the Black community, a proper home for the blues. The twins’ cousin, Preacher Boy (a breakout performance from Miles Caton) is an astonishingly gifted young blues musician, and when his ecstatic music pierces the veil between the past, present, and future, his call is heard by a trio of white minstrel players who also happen to be vampires.  

“The whole reason why I am a costume designer is that I feel those same emotions,” Carter told The Credits. “I look at history and look at the pictures of all of these blues greats, look at their vests, cotton shirts, two-tone shoes, and pinstripes and how they traveled around the South and sang their stories. With this setting, how could you not be influenced by all that richness?”

It’s a richness Carter recently spoke to The Credits about when discussing the film’s dynamic ensemble.

 

When Sammie/Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) plays at the juke joint, we see the past, present, and future dance together in a beautiful sequence. When you read that scene, where did your imagination go?

Thank God we could honor the written word with a visual story, to express it. I learned long ago that my role as a costume designer is an opportunity for visual storytelling. We have a big bonfire where people are just wildly dancing around. Even the movements in that scene are a mystical presence, so the costumes couldn’t just be costumes from African tradition and then hip-hop. It also had to have a layer of synergy to the story and draw you in even further to the mystical elements of this storytelling.

Caption: MILES CATON as Sammie Moore in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

That single transcendent sequence involves Sammie on his 1932 Dobro Cyclops guitar, surrounded by a West African Griot playing a proto banjo, a ’70s guitarist with Jimi Hendrix vibes [played by blues guitarist Eric Gales], a 1980s DJ creating a hip hop beat, West Coast R&B, an African drummer and ancestral dancer, and a modern hip hop dancer—how did you make sure it all fit together? 

I worried at first about this dancer and that dancer – how is that going to work together thematically? You know what it means, but you don’t know – in terms of the journey and the editing – how all of that emotion would reach the audience. Even for me, looking at the final edit, it all emerged. And that had to do with color choices, that had to do with actually going out on a limb and being expressive. You see people moving through their clothing, the way it bellows and has a sway, wearing these mysterious masks and these big headdresses…

Your work meshes unbelievably well with how cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw captured that sequence. Most costume designers don’t get to see their work on film anymore, given how often films are shot in digital, especially this size format. What do you think the scope of 70mm and IMAX brings to the costumes?

I have always been a film costume designer. Digital flattened things out. It was a strange perspective, not having the contrast, not having the sultry colors that film can give you. I never really wanted to immerse myself in what digital was able to do; I just wanted to continue to bring in as much detail as I could. And so, when I have the opportunity to work with someone like Autumn – and have film stock and IMAX – it’s revisiting what you always wanted to do and learn the most about, which was how your textures can tell the story and how the cinematographer can capture that richness. So I know I drove my costumers crazy with sweat. Every character has to be sweaty and have some age and weariness because it would be another layer and another character with this film stock.

Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Eli Adé

Let’s talk about your costumers in New Orleans. Anyone whose work you want to spotlight?

Oh my God, Mustapha [Mimis], who took care of Michael B. Jordan. We changed him from Smoke to Stack four times a day, and he had to keep track of all of that. Also, the continuity – it was deconstructing a character who started fully dressed and ended up in a tank top, or ended up fully bloodied. Hats off to Mustapha. Melissa [Swidzinski] ran the whole bloody truck, like walking into a plastic wonderland, because she had to keep the continuity of all the blood. It was a splatter that grew and grew as the story went on, so she had to keep a file of what blood happened when and at what transitional point. 

Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

A lot of tracking and multiples on a movie like Sinners, right?

There was a lot of tracking. Sammy and all that he went through – he was dunked in the water. And so, hats off to every set costumer. Caroline Errington was back there sewing all those multiples we needed for all the characters. We had a ton of multiples. Oh my God, I have never done a horror film, and I never knew that this much tracking went on with them. 

L to r) MICHAEL B. JORDAN and director RYAN COOGLER in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS a Warner Bros. Pictures release.© 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Michael B. Jordan and Robert Perry Bierman in “Sinners.” Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

You all did a beautiful job with Smoke and Stack’s suits. What were the subtle differences between their style?

Everybody loves a gangster for some reason. Smoke was this salt-of-the-earth guy who will come out of the grocery store and shoot you in the butt. He’s no frills. No tie. His clothes are a little bit bigger than Stack’s, who is tailored. They both are wearing wool because they’re coming from Chicago, from the North to the South. My hat’s off to [Michael B.] Jordan for wearing that wool all summer long and never complaining once. It was a blessing because it told the story once they got down South and were newly reunited with their Southern brethren, who were in denim and very Norman Rockwell, kind of Southern cotton. Sammy and Delroy [Lindo], their costumes were basically all they had. There were patches, and they were sweaty and lived-in. But Smoke and Stack – fresh as a daisy.

Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke and as Stack, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Caption: (L to r) MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke, WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie, HAILEE STEINFELD as Mary, MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Stack, MILES CATON as Sammie and OMAR BENSON MILLER as Cornbread in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

How did you envision Annie (Wunmi Mosaku)? What authentic qualities did you want to bring to her costume?

The issue of spirituality was strong in this film. Annie is the spiritual leader of the community – and it is a small sharecroppers’ community – but she has her little place. The Haint Blue that she wears is an old Southern traditional blue that is supposed to ward off spirits. We kept her in those tones. When we first meet her, she has multiple layers you’re wondering about. You see a fringe, you see a mojo bag. You see she’s got a chatelaine. She’s carrying the things to work her magic.

Caption: WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

How’d that first fitting with Wunmi go?

It was really nice to have Wunmi come to the fitting with knowledge of how she’s going to play the character. She was interested in seeing all the images we had on the walls, of hoodoo worshipers, women who played these roles in cinema, and other mysterious characters with great-looking costumes. We did the spiritual beads – the prayer beads, we called them. She wore a feather headband and a little feather in her hair. She brought them to life with her wonderful portrayal of the character. 

What you and Ryan Coogler do so well here is that every character in that juke joint has a story. How did you approach costuming not only the main characters, but all the folks who come to the Juke Joint for a good time, and end up dealing with vampires?

I fall in love with everybody’s costume. It’s not just the actors – it’s background people too. They’re as much a part of this story as our main actors. I give out things like toothpicks. I’m like, “Brother, I think you would be standing here with a toothpick in your mouth. That’s a player’s look.” I go to props and get a whole bunch of toothpicks. And then the next day he’s like, “Hey, can I get a toothpick?” For me, it’s bringing things to life. I work with a strong team, am hands-on, and always watch what’s happening in my group. Pictures are shared – folders that I check all the time – and I tell them what we are going to add and take away. It was important to be authentic. Authenticity is what drives me.

Caption: HAILEE STEINFELD as Mary in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Caption: (L-r) JAYME LAWSON as Pearline, WUNMI MOSAKU as Annie, MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke, MILES CATON as Sammie Moore, and LI JUN LI as Grace Chow, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Sinners is in theaters now.

For more on Sinners, check out these stories:

Soul Transcendent: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Captured Black Music’s Timeless Continuum in “Sinners”

Blues, Blood, & Big Formats: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Brought “Sinners”‘ to Epic, IMAX-Sized Life

Featured image: Caption: MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Smoke and as Stack, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

“Dark Winds” Showrunner John Wirth on Building a Peabody-Winning Thriller with Native Voices at its Core

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Robert Redford, back in 1988, became so obsessed with the late Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novels about Native American cops that he later teamed with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, a New Mexico resident, to champion adaptations of the stories. Three years ago, AMC+ + came on board and launched Dark Winds. The show, set in the early seventies, follows tribal cops Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) as they solve crimes on their Navajo Nation turf.

Season 3, which concluded Sunday, April 28, co-stars A Martinez, Jenna Elfman, and Christopher Heyerdahl and follows cases that encompass human trafficking at the border, ketamine-fueled head trips, and corrupt archaeologists. The Peabody Award-winning series, filmed entirely in New Mexico, has already begun work on a new slate of episodes.

Dark Winds showrunner John Wirth, whose resume includes network classics Remington Steele and Nash Bridges, checks in from the series’ writers’ room to unpack how he and his team have built one of TV’s most consistently compelling crime dramas.

 

Can you describe the Dark Winds writers’ room?

We have six writers, four of whom are native. We also have two Navajo consultants who are in the room all the time, so we are telling a detective story, but we run everything through the Native lens.

In the past, Native Americans have rarely enjoyed that level of participation within the TV industry. Are you aiming to make the stories more authentic?

There’s a sense in Indian country that White people have been appropriating their stories for years. To the extent that anyone feels that way about the Tony Hillerman novels, I would just say that it’s important to honor the source material to a degree, but it’s also important to re-appropriate these stories through the eyes of our Navajo characters. Having Indigenous writers in the room really helps us do that.

BTS, Executive Producer Chris Eyre and Jessica Matten as Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito – Dark Winds _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

Can you give an example?

We were talking about the relationship between Chee and Bernadette, and I went on a whole spree about when I was a younger guy and had a girlfriend and how things worked in that situation. One of our female native writers said, “Well, that’s a good story, but that’s not the way it works in Navajo Nation, which is a matrilineal society. Men and women have different attitudes from people in the White world.” So, that was a case in which my experience as a human being was valid but not quite appropriate for the story we were trying to tell about these two native Navajo characters.

 

From the start, Dark Winds has explored White justice versus “Indian justice.” How does that framework affect the plot lines?

Our characters are really straddling two worlds. Some Natives call the White world the Over World, so our law enforcement officers are upholding the White man’s law, but since they’re on the Navajo reservation, there’s also Navajo justice. The trick for us is to make the show feel like a cop show but still ground our characters in all things Navajo. As they interact with suspects, relatives of crime victims, and so forth, all of that comes from a Navajo perspective.

Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 3 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

SPOILER ALERT

This season, a White archaeologist becomes a suspect in the disappearance of two Navajo boys. How does that case play into the White/Native conflict?

Going back to Season 2, B.J. Vines engineered the death of [Navajo] workers at his well to further his scheme to mine uranium, and one of those workers was Joe Leaphorn’s son. B.J. Vines says to his face, “They’re just six dead Indians. What does it matter?” Same thing here.

Carly Roland as Teddi Isaacs, Christopher Heyerdahl as Dr. Reynolds and Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 3, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

It’s a real gut punch when Leaphorn finds a dead boy in the desert with an arrowhead in his mouth, which ultimately connects to an arrogant archaeologist.

I love archaeology and I read Archaeology Magazine, but the truth is, in our show, archaeologists are intruders and interlopers who go into a land, dig up, and, in many cases, take away artifacts and sacred objects that belong to the culture.

Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 3 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

The show takes place in the early 1970s, but aside from the old cars and the absence of smartphones and computers, the stories feel quite contemporary. Bernadette, for example, investigates smuggling at the Mexican border.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, as we go back in history and develop stories based on things that actually happened. In Dark Winds, we have a chance to do episodes about what’s going on today through our characters, and that gives the show some of its power, I think. It’s not just a cop show with a plot.

Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito and Bruce Greenwood as Tom Spencer – Dark Winds _ Season 3, Episode 3 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

Before Dark Winds, you worked on network shows when TV production was centered in California. Were you conscious of the industry’s impact on the local economy then?

I’ve been involved in television for 43 years now, and at least half of that time was in Los Angeles. We didn’t really think back then about what kind of impact our shows had on the economy. But now we’re seeing the city [of Los Angeles] in debt, and a large part of that is because the entertainment industry is going away.

You later worked outside of California in Atlanta, New York, and Canada. What was that like?

I remember running a show in Alberta, Canada, and I always had trouble getting across the border. The immigration officers would take me into the backroom, and one time, this guy was really messing with me. Then his supervisor came in, looked at my passport, and realized I was the showrunner for Hell on Wheels. He turned to the guy and said, “Do you have any idea how much money this man is responsible for bringing into the city? Let him in!”

Does Dark Winds have a similar impact on Santa Fe?

We’ve been shooting there consistently for four years, and it’s a big deal. We hire a lot of people there. Our cast and crew who travel to Santa Fe stay in hotels and rent cars, go out to restaurants, and buy things in stores. All of that has a big impact on the community.

BTS, Crew Executive Producer Chris Eyre and Executive Producer Tina Snow – Dark Winds _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

Do you feel like you’re getting your money’s worth in terms of locations?

Oh yeah. It’s like you set the camera down, and any way you look is a beautiful vista. We shoot a lot of stuff on our own studio backlot, about 15 acres, and we do travel out to the Navajo Nation to shoot some stuff, too. The scenery is spectacular, the sky is amazing, the light is amazing, the ground, the desert, the flora and fauna. For the fourth season, we’re capturing some beautiful wind events. It’s a whole world, and there’s no other show on TV that gives you the Navajo Nation. It’s very scenic.

Carly Roland as Teddi Isaacs – Dark Winds _ Season 3, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

Where is your base of operations for Dark Winds?

Near Santa Fe, we’re in an old casino building [Camel Rock Studios]. The Tesuque Pueblo reservation built a fancier, more modern casino a mile and a half from this place. It’s not really built to make movies, but we’ve adapted it, so we’re doing fine there.

You have worked on series like Nash Bridges, Remington Steele, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the past. What’s the biggest difference between those shows and Dark Winds?

We make eight episodes of Dark Winds in the same amount of time that we used to make 22 or 26 episodes. We spend so much more time developing each script in the writer’s room, and then making it with the crew and the actors, and then more time in post-production. I worked on some network shows for five, six seasons. When I come across them on TV, I’ll think, “This must have been before my time,” then the credits come up and it says “Written by John Wirth.” Oh my God, I have no memory of this thing at all, just because we were moving so fast trying to get episodes out the door.

BTS, Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

Does the Dark Winds production schedule give you more room to breathe compared to old-school network series?

Yeah, we get to live with each episode longer, which is both more pleasurable and also a more torturous experience because these stories are very hard to figure out. We’re walking the line between the White world, the Native world, White justice, and Indian justice, with all the human frailties and excesses and joys and pleasures to deal with. And then there’s the Navajo overlay, so it can get pretty complicated.

 

 

 Featured image: BTS, Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC