With the early reactions to James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water coming in so overwhelmingly positive (the common theme was, essentially, “never bet against James Cameron“), the prospects for Cameron completing his entire Avatar saga (he has three more films planned) seems more possible than ever. Cameron already shot Avatar 3 and parts of Avatar 4 — they filmed The Way of Water and 3 concurrently — so they’ve already got that footage in the can. If all goes to plan, Avatar 3 would bow in 2024, Avatar 4 in 2026, and Avatar 5 in 2028.
In an interview with Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff, Cameron spoke about writing his Avatar sequels (he had every script finished before they began production on The Way of Water) and why Avatar 4‘s script is possibly the wildest of the bunch. Cameron wrote The Way of Water with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.
Cameron told Nemiroff that his model for his epic saga was, appropriately, what Peter Jackson pulled off his The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Cameron was impressed with how Jackson launched all three films at once. “He had the books mapped out, so he could always show the actors what they needed to know about their character arc,” Cameron told Nemiroff. “So I felt I had to do the same thing. I had to play this as if the books already existed. So the only way for us to do that was to write all the scripts and let the actors read all the scripts and see where their characters were going and what it all meant.”
Cameron pointed out that for the world to ever see what he and his team cooked up for Avatar 4 and 5, things will need to go well at the box office for The Way of Water and Avatar 3. “By the time we get down to 4 and 5, if we’re so lucky, knock wood, to get that far, which is obviously driven by market forces, we have to be successful,” he told Nemiroff. But about Avatar 4…
“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” he told Nemiroff. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films, wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f*ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”
He also added this nugget about people who, after seeing Avatar: The Way of Water, might be able to guess how Avatar 4 could play out: “If you think you know what it’s about, and then, oh no, you don’t,” he said. “I hope I get to make that film, is what I’m saying.”
Considering Avatar: The Way of Water is being hailed as a visual masterpiece and another masterclass in creating a sequel from the man who brought you Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the chance of us all seeing Avatar 4 seems more likely by the day.
Avatar: The Way of Water comes to theaters on December 16.
For more on Avatar: The Way of Water, check out these stories:
As with all films written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, the auteur’s new release Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is difficult to define or categorize. He himself has said it is his most personal work, but viewers who love it have felt their own powerful connection to elements of the story. Without question, it is a cinematic experience that goes beyond suspension of disbelief and calls for surrender from its audience. This is no surprise, given the name of the film, Bardo, is based on a word in Tibetan Buddhism for the state of existence between death and rebirth.
The movie follows acclaimed Mexican journalist and filmmaker Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho) in a series of experiences with his family, his environment, and his memories, that blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Iñárritu asked his performers to pull from the depths of themselves in bringing the roles they play to life, so much so that members of the cast have said it is hard to draw the line between where their characters end and their own identities begin.
The Credits spoke to Daniel Giménez Cacho and Ximena Lamadrid, who plays Silverio’s daughter Camila, about what aspects of the film have continued to resonate for them, that spectacular crowd scene in a Mexican dance hall, and, basically, the meaning of life.
The word bardo references a sort of in-between place. Many experience the immediate feeling of loss or grief as being in a world in between life and death. Sounds and colors are experienced differently. Everything slows down. Both Silverio and Camila are in between worlds. How did you both experience that?
Lamadrid: Bardo is that transition between life and death. It’s something being born, something dying. It’s really more that journey that everyone’s experiencing, and it’s shown in a very poetic and metaphorical way. I think for my character, she begins grieving her past, the past that never happened, in the pool scene with Silverio. She’s very nostalgic for something that never was, and begins in a quite melancholic place. At that moment, she’s grieving that past, she’s grieving the loss of her brother Matteo, who didn’t get to see life as she did. She’s also excited for a future. She’s thinking to move to Mexico and continue her journey, and maybe reconnect with her past and her roots. Then personally, me as Ximena, I lived that grief and that journey with her, because I have a similar experience in my life. I grew up away from home, and I didn’t get to Mexico until I was 22 years old, so I really related to that.
Giménez Cacho: I think that many, many interesting reflections come from the fact of facing that. If you are at that moment, then, of course, you reconsider all you’ve done. What were your deepest desires? Have you accomplished everything you wanted? Why did you have such a desire? Was it really yours, or was it a social construction, and then you started to desire that, and that’s not really you? It’s not who you really are. For me, I’m becoming anxious now that you realize all this mostly when it’s too late, only just when you’re about to die. That’s the case with this character, I think. Maybe he has a lot of revelations, but it’s too late.
Daniel, the scene at the dance hall contains moments of transcendence, and it’s captured in the poster, where Silverio is surrounded by family and friends. Could you talk about your experience of that scene and filming it?
Giménez Cacho: The first thing that I want to say is that the place where I’m dancing, it was such a huge construction of technique and Alejandro’s dream. You are aware that you’re dancing, and I have the image like I’m on an aircraft carrier, and they say, “Do your thing. Dance here.” But of course, you have to realize you are supported by an enormous structure. In that way, it’s also very familiar for me because I’ve been rehearsing that all my life. That kind of party I’ve done plenty of times.
Giménez Cacho: Yeah, me, as Daniel, in that place with the same people because all the extras were the people that used to dance in that place.
Lamadrid: It’s not a set. It’s an actual dance club that he would go to.
Giménez Cacho: It’s almost dead or closed now, so this was a bit of a temporary resuscitation. They reopened it for this. So it was very familiar. That you’re dancing suddenly by yourself, that’s something I also do very naturally.
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022). Daniel Giménez Cacho as Silverio. Cr. Limbo Films, S. De R.L. de C.V. Courtesy of Netflix
This scene is at once community, family, and the individual, all celebrating simultaneously.
Lamadrid: I think Alejandro was a genius in planning it that way. Every family member has this moment with Silverio in that scene. We each have a moment with him and his friend, Martin, played by Andres Almeida. We’re all there with him, and every one of us has a different connection with him. So that’s beautiful, and then surrounding us is the community, and it’s a mixture of people, and everyone’s wearing different colors, which was done so well by the costume department. It’s just a little bit of everything, and I think that’s what the world is.
Giménez Cacho: It’s a very natural way that we learn in Mexico to dance at parties with family. It’s how we relate.
Lamadrid: It doesn’t matter who you are. The producer might be there, and the guy who picks up garbage in the morning is there, and the taxi drivers, and the actors, it’s just this mix of people.
It also feels like a suspended moment of memory.
Giménez Cacho: Maybe it is also like a dream. That’s the trick with this movie. You don’t know exactly if this is happening in real-time or in Silverio’s memory. It doesn’t matter. That’s what I love about the movie, that it’s very free to reconsider this or to erase a little bit of the border or the lines between what’s real and what’s unreal. It allows us to reconsider what is real. That’s very liberating.
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022). Daniel GimÈnez Cacho as Silverio. Cr. Limbo Films, S. De R.L. de C.V. Courtesy of Netflix
Bardo is very much an in-the-present-moment film as a cinematic experience, but parts stay with you, which are very individual to each viewer. What over time has stayed with you as you have watched the film again?
Giménez Cacho: For me, I think it’s the fragility, the vulnerability of our souls, like we’re lost in an infinite ocean of mystery. We don’t know where we’re going, we just know we have to swim like a little baby turtle in the ocean. There is an intuition that we have to swim, swim, swim, but we don’t know where we’re going. We don’t know if a big shark is coming, and it’s going to eat us, and we’re going to disappear. We don’t know. There’s this sense of vulnerability.
Lamadrid: For me, I’ve definitely taken away something I had never really questioned in my life, which was a lot about identity. I’m Mexican, I grew up in Dubai, then moved to New York, then went back to Mexico a few years ago. I had never considered that I never belonged here or I never belonged there. But then, watching the film, there’s a sense of maybe not belonging, or going into a country and feeling excluded, or feeling looked down upon because of your color or your language or even just your financial situation. It still happens. I hope that watching this movie really reflects that you can be from everywhere, and belong everywhere, and have a part of everywhere with you. I was recently in New York staying in a hotel room, and right in front of it, outside, there was a poster that said, “We are all on our way home.” There was an image of a house with legs. That’s us. That’s what the movie is. We are that, and inside the house, it’s lit up with lights. Home, for us, is our family. It’s what we love to do. It’s the details of life that really light up our day. It’s recognizing your own soul, asking those questions, and diving internally. That’s home. That’s what I take with me.
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is currently playing in theaters nationwide and streams on Netflix beginning on December 16th.
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
Featured image: Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022). (L-R) Daniel Gim»nez Cacho as Silverio and Ximena Lamadrid as Camila. Cr. Limbo Films, S. De R.L. de C.V. Courtesy of Netflix
During the previews before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, there was a trailer that made people squirm a little in their seats—director Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN. Now, a second trailer for the Universal Pictures horror flick is here, capturing what gave people an enjoyable jolt in the theater that night. M3GAN is, you’ll see, a robot built by a brilliant robotics engineer working at a toy company. This being a film from horror maestro James Wan (he wrote the story and produces, alongside his fellow horror maestro Jason Blum, Michael Clear, and Couper Samuelson), you can rest assured that M3GAN is not just some average, friendly robot toy. Naturally, she will have to kill some people.
The trailer sets up the stakes swiftly. Our robotics engineer is Gemma (Allison Williams), who designed the toy robot to help her recently orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), from feeling lonely. Gemma shows Cady how to press on the robot’s palm to “pair with her,” then instructs the irrefutably creepy robot, who definitely pushes us deep into the uncanny valley, to “protect Cady from harm, both physical and emotional.” The robot takes this command extremely seriously.
The creative team behind M3GAN knows what they’re doing. This was a robot was designed to make us feel ill at ease, lifelike but certainly not alive. The trailer reveals some beautiful, creepy touches, such as when the girls dance together at the 19-second mark or when Gemma shuts her laptop only to find the robot standing there, staring at her. With hints of Chucky and memories of every robot gone berserk by carrying out commands far too literally (think HAL in 2001: A Space Odyessy, only in the form of a doll), M3GAN toys with our expectations and memories of both horror and sci-films about badly behaving machines. Considering the talent involved, especially Wan, M3GAN will likely subvert our expectations or expand upon them in the creepiest way possible.
M3GAN also stars Ronny Chieng (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace), Jen Van Epps (Cowboy Bebop), Lori Dungey (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition) and Stephane Garneau-Monten (Straight Forward).
Check out the trailer below. M3GAN creeps into theaters on January 6, 2023:
For more on Universal Pictures and Focus Features projects, check out these stories:
The first trailer for season two of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is here, and our favorite clone mercenaries are in a bit of trouble. The crazy part? They’re not being hunted or attacked by any galactic goons, stormtroopers, or Sith Lords, but rather, some very large, very angry extraterrestrial crabs.
Such is life for a member of the Bad Batch, and it’s a life that Star Wars fans have loved to get to know. The second season picks up months after the events on Kamino in season one, with our rogue clones on the run from an increasingly powerful Empire after the fall of the Republic. As the Empire grows stronger and more ruthless, for the Bad Batch to survive, let alone thrive, they’re going to have to grow and change with it. Season two promises more adventure, bigger heists, and greater stakes as the Empire looks to strengthen its hand and crush anyone stepping out of line. And that’s precisely what the Bad Batch were born—er cloned—not to do. Yet what makes them special is the very fact that they’re fighting back.
Check out the trailer for season two of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The series returns to Disney+ on January 4.
Here’s the official synopsis for season two:
When the new season opens, months have passed since the events on Kamino, and the Bad Batch continue their journey navigating the Empire after the fall of the Republic. They will cross paths with friends and foes, both new and familiar, as they take on a variety of thrilling mercenary missions that will take them to unexpected and dangerous new places. “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” season 2 stars Emmy Award® nominee Dee Bradley Baker (“American Dad!”) as the voice of the Bad Batch and Emmy Award® nominee Michelle Ang (“Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462”) as the voice of Omega. Emmy Award® winner Rhea Perlman (“The Mindy Project,” “Cheers”) returns to guest star as Cid, Noshir Dalal (“It’s Pony,” “The Owl House”) returns to guest star as Vice Admiral Rampart and Emmy Award® winner Wanda Sykes (“The Upshaws,” “Black-ish”) makes her guest starring debut in the series as as Phee Genoa.
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” is executive produced by Dave Filoni (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”), Athena Portillo (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels”), Brad Rau (“Star Wars Rebels,” “Star Wars Resistance”), Jennifer Corbett (“Star Wars Resistance,” “NCIS”) and Carrie Beck (“The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars Rebels”) with Josh Rimes (“Star Wars Resistance,” “Star Wars: Visions”) and Alex Spotswood (“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” “Star Wars Rebels”) as producers. Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer and Matt Michnovetz as story editor.
For more stories on Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to Disney+, check these out:
Never bet against James Cameron. This seems to be the overriding theme of the first reactions to his long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, which arrives 13 years after his groundbreaking Avatar arrived in 2009.
The initial reactions are more or less uniformly positive, with critics and viewers alike marveling at how, once again, Cameron has seemingly reinvented what’s possible on screen. The staggering visuals, especially the scenes set underwater, come in for major praise, but so too do the emotional stakes. Cameron is a master world builder, and here he has built out the alien planet of Pandora, and its native inhabitants, the Na’vi, to incredible effect. The Way of Water is being hailed as a superior effort to the original Avatar in every way, which is, of course, the highest-grossing movie of all time.
We’ll need to wait until December 13 for the full reviews from critics once the review embargo is lifted, but here is a glimpse at the first social media reactions from critics who saw advanced screenings and the folks who attended the premiere on Tuesday in London. If you were only mildly interested in seeing Avatar: The Way of Water when it hits a theater near you on December 16, you mind find your mind about to change:
So, #AvatarTheWayOfWater is one of the most visually stunning films I have seen. Incredible on an almost obscene level. Crucially, it also manages an engaging story with new & returning characters. Yes, it is long at 3+ hours, but James Cameron’s only gone and bloody delivered… pic.twitter.com/oBjoWwiGaF
James Cameron is that dying breed of filmmaker who can package the most accessible of human emotions & a beautifully coherent story inside a spectacular & innovative Hollywood package. Earns every minute of its running time & all your feelings. Loved it. 1/2 #AvatarTheWayofWater
Avatar The Way of Water: lol imagine being dumb enough to bet against James Cameron. or teen alien Sigourney Weaver. or giant whales subtitled in papyrus.
light years better than the first & easily one of the best theatrical experiences in ages. streaming found dead in a ditch.
Happy to say #AvatarTheWayOfWater is phenomenal! Bigger, better & more emotional than #Avatar, the film is visually breathtaking, visceral & incredibly engrossing. The story, the spectacle, the spirituality, the beauty – this is moviemaking & storytelling at its absolute finest. pic.twitter.com/RicnpDghrx
#AvatarTheWayOfWater is pretty incredible. I had faith James Cameron would raise the bar w/ the effects but these visuals are mind-blowing. One stunning frame after the next. But the thing I dug most is how the technical feats always feel in service of character & world-building. pic.twitter.com/MXeN3z8BnP
James Cameron & Co. deliver yet another riveting, awe-inducing masterclass in world-building with #AvatarTheWayOfWater . Immersive, emotionally engaging & epically entertaining, it’s a thrilling ride. CG artifice melts away where we’re just watching the characters’ humanity steer pic.twitter.com/6CksGpEumJ
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER absolutely owns bones. I was slapping my seat, hooting, screaming for the Na’vi to take out every last one of those dang sky people
James Cameron’s #AvatarTheWayOfWater is a monumental filmmaking achievement striking a great balance between technical & emotional. The 48fps 3D experience features some of the most jaw-dropping immersion I’ve ever seen. Felt like a kid again watching T2 for 1st time. Astounding. pic.twitter.com/cfiMADJzU4
Some real thoughts on #AvatarTheWayOfWater: Yeah, incredible. It’s a James Cameron limit break where even intimate feelings slam with seismic force. Jaw-dropping design make a mostly CG world and cast (miraculously emotive) feel impossibly alive. Even the water’s hypnotizing. pic.twitter.com/E6JyLEa1gM
#AvatarTheWayOfWater is “more is more” writ large. It’s more beautiful, more in awe of Pandora; more vocal in its environmentalism, more damning of humans. It’s an adrenaline shot to 3D filmmaking and an uncompromising doubling down. You’d expect nothing less from Cameron.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a never-ending visual spectacle.
It’s a better, more complex story than the first with solid emotion but the characters could grow a bit more. It’s definitely long, running on incredible visuals & techniques which are 3D’s best.#AvatarTheWayOfWaterpic.twitter.com/ezySHunXOe
Listen, I wasn’t excited about #AvatarTheWayofWater but it blew me away. It’s so beautiful it’s hard to put into words. Say what you will about Cameron but… he knows what he’s doing.
Avatar: The Way of Water is an EPIC, STUNNING, CINEMATIC ADVENTURE. It delivers on both action & heart while giving fans an intriguing story that feels earned & warranted. Never doubt James Cameron. Biggest issue: feels like a stepping stone for what’s next.#AvatarTheWayofWaterpic.twitter.com/dQBEfBkN7z
One would think grammar school teachers and drag queen wigmasters have little in common. But having been both, Abdiel Urcullu can see the similarities.
For the past two years, Urcullu, who previously taught math to 4th and 5th graders, has served as the key hairstylist for the HBO series We’re Here. Debuting in 2020, the reality series follows drag queens Eureka O’Hara, Shangela, and Bob the Drag Queen as they travel to small-town America to encourage a community to get in touch with its inner drag.
The hosts (dubbed “drag moms”) meet with locals (“drag daughters”) and help them create a drag performance that takes place at the end of the episode. As the daughters are put through their paces, their stories unfold — a sexagenarian lesbian couple who wed during their performance; a Tunisian refugee who comes to terms with the sexuality that would have imprisoned him in his home country; a good old boy from South Carolina who dons high heels and a dress to better understand and support his gay brother who is a drag queen; and a New Mexico mother coping with her gay daughter’s suicide.
We’re Here – Season 2, episode 6: Eureka, Pastor Craig, and Abdiel – Photograph by Jakes Giles Netter: HBO
Though it doesn’t hold back on the campiness, the overall goal of the Emmy-winning series is to promote positivity, love, and understanding for the LGBTQ community. And that’s what particularly drew Urcullu to We’re Here. As much as he wanted to follow his creative passion, he missed the feeling he got in the classroom.
“What I loved about teaching is that I felt I was making a positive impact and helping people,” Urcullu said during a recent Zoom call. “Doing wigs for drag queens, even though it’s rewarding on a personal level, doesn’t necessarily feel like I’m making much of an impact. We’re Here is giving me a bridge between personal success and helping and educating the community — providing a brighter future for queer youth.”
As an added bonus, Urcullu realized his math skills came in handy in the world of hairstyling. “There is actually quite a bit in haircutting,” he continues. “There’s a surprising amount of geometry involved. And when you’re coloring, there’s quite a bit of ratios. After the show got picked up, I went back to school for cosmetology. It was really interesting to see a lot of the math things that I had been teaching. It was like, ‘Yeah, this is what we do.’”
Urcullu, who also goes by the stage name “Gloria Divina,” estimates that he takes between 40 and 50 wigs with him for each episode. Typically, only a fraction of those get used over the 12 shoot days. The tight schedule doesn’t allow for much building, so instead, he draws from his arsenal of hair to create the desired look.
We’re Here – Season 2, episode 3: Abdiel, Esael – Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
The opening shot is the biggest challenge. The “moms” wear wigs during the entrance segment when they descend on the location in all their fabulous glory. Location plays a big role in the choices. For example, season 2’s Del Rio, Texas episode saw the drag moms decked out in football-inspired, shoulder-padded ensembles. Extending down to his ankles, Bob’s braided coif included the message, “Go Rams,” to cheer on the local high school team. The Selma, Alabama opener took big Southern hair to new heights.
Shangela in “We’re Here.” Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
“Probably 50% of our time is spent on those entrance wigs,” explains Urculla. “And they’re seen for like a minute and a half. But it’s supposed to be a very high-impact moment.”
The wigs are also crucial to the show-stopping finales. Urcullu creates the hairpieces for all three sets of drag moms and daughters. The process starts even before the cast and crew leave for a location. It seems that before he can unpack his bags from the last shoot, Urcullu is receiving details about the next one.
“It has a bit of information about the town and a profile of the people that have been cast,” Urcullu says. “It has their pictures, their gender identities, their ages, and a very brief summary of what we think their stories might be.”
Next comes a meeting with the producers, the drag moms, and the other designers to brainstorm. Music themes are volleyed about. From these ideas, designers come up with sketch options.
“The wig design is heavily dependent on the costume designers,” continues Urcullu. “Once they submit something, I’ll call or text the drag queen mom and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m thinking. Do you have any ideas?’ We try to collaborate and merge it all together.”
We’re Here – Season 2, episode 1: Bob The Drag Queen, Leila Mcqueen, Abdiel Gloria Urcullu, Domino, Faith Photograph by Courtesy of HBO.
But Urcullu also keeps it flexible until he arrives at the location and meets the daughters. “That’s when we pick the color. A lot of times, we’re like, ‘Okay, we think she’s gonna want to be a brunette. We think she’s gonna be a blonde,’ he says. “But there are many shades of brunette, many shades of blonde. And we want to make sure that it’s gonna work for them.”
Urcullu also realizes he will encounter varying degrees of attitude towards doing drag and is prepared to adjust accordingly. He’ll dial it down for a straight cisgender man who’s never worn a wig and take it up a notch if he feels someone is willing to go full queen.
Visiting all these small towns also provides a reality check. Urcullu is a Houston native, and most of the cast and crew are from New York or Los Angeles. They’ve used to having their lifestyle choices accepted, or at the very least, tolerated. We’re Here has shown him that not all of America is ready to greet the LGBTQ community with open arms.
Such was the case for season 3’s opening episode in Granbury, Texas. Some in town didn’t take kindly to what the show was doing. And for a reason Urcullu can’t explain, they focused on the costume shop.
“They took pictures of the inside of the workroom and spread the word about these horrible things we were doing,” Ursula remembers. “There was absolutely nothing particularly graphic about it. It was a few mannequins, a couple of wigs, and pieces of fabric. As soon as we found out, the designers, myself, and my assistant were like, “We’re gonna go back to our hotel. Let us know when security gets here.”
Season 3, episode 1 in Granbury, Texas. Shangela. Photograph by Greg Endries/HBO
Overall, Urcullu finds his We’re Here experience inspiring. The season 3 Kissimmee, Florida episode holds special meaning. One of its daughters is a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. The episode also features a preteen trans girl. “I believe she’s 11 or 12 years old,” says Urcullu. “Her parents are just so supportive. And we know what’s going on in Florida with not only book banning but with trans medical care for children. So having someone that is an advocate at home has to be very impactful for them.”
Urcullu hopes that he and the show can build on that feeling.
“To me, what’s important is those teenage kids that are watching at home — possibly hiding that they’re watching this,” he says. “I do think this show’s impact is enormous to them. I know it is because I hear about it all the time. I know that if I had had a resource like this, I would have been able to get past my personal challenges and my traumas would not have been as deep.”
For more on Warner Bros., HBO, and HBO Max, check out these stories:
Director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash will race into theaters a week earlier than expected, Warner Bros. has announced. The studio revealed on Monday that the stand-alone film starring Ezra Miller as the supersonic speedster Barry Allen will now head into theaters on June 16, 2023, up a week from its previous spot on June 23, 2023. This will give the film a little more distance from Disney’s big release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the last go-round for Harrison Ford in the iconic role.
The Flash features not one but two iterations of Batman. One will be played by Michael Keaton, reprising the role for the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns, and the second by Ben Affleck, playing the version of Batman he embodied in the Zack Snyder films. The Flash also makes one very big introduction—Sasha Calle as Supergirl—as it weaves all these storylines together thanks to the multiversal mayhem Barry creates as he tries to race back in time to save his mother’s life.
The Flash was scripted by Christina Hodson and was inspired by the “Flashpoint” comic book series in which Barry speeds across the multiverse in a desperate effort to reverse his mother’s fate. In doing so, he comes into contact with both Keaton and Affleck’s Batman, Calle’s Supergirl, and more. The film also stars Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen, and Ron Livingston as Barry’s imprisoned father, Henry Allen (replacing Billy Crudup).
For more on Warner Bros., HBO, and HBO Max, check out these stories:
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho’s first film since his masterpiece Parasite swept the Academy Awards has revealed a brief, tantalizing sneak peek. Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson, is the latest from the South Korean master, returning him to the sci-fi genre in which he’s made some of his most ambitious films, from 2006’s The Host to 2013’s Snowpiercer and his 2017 Netflix film Okja. A new teaser reveals a glimpse at Pattinson in the lead role and reveals that the film will arrive on February 29, 2024. (Leap day, no less).
The film is based on the novel “Mickey7” by writer Edward Ashton, published this past February, about the titular protagonist who works as a “disposable employee” on a dangerous mission. In Ashton’s novel, Mickey7 works on a human expedition setting out to colonize the frozen planet of Niflheim, and his role is to step in on any mission that’s deemed too dangerous or borderline suicidal for a human being and sacrifice his body for the cause. The genius of the “disposable employee” design is that while they can regenerate an entirely new body, most of their memories will remain intact. That is, until after six deaths when a replacement clone takes over. The key inflection point in Ashton’s book is when Mickey7 refuses to let Mickey8 take over his job.
As you’ll see from the brief first look, Pattinson plays Mickey17, and he’s joined in the cast by Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. How closely Bong has stuck to the details of Ashton’s novel is unclear (he changed Mickey’s number, for starters), but with Bong’s immense skills, such dark, potentially funny source material, and this stellar cast, Mickey 17 will be one of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2024.
Check out the teaser below:
For more on Warner Bros., HBO, and HBO Max, check out these stories:
Featured image: MILL VALLEY, CA – OCTOBER 05: Robert Pattinson appears at the 42nd Mill Valley Film Festival – Special Screenings Of “The Lighthouse” And “Harriet” on October 5, 2019 in Mill Valley, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images)
Based on the novel by Miriam Toews, writer/director Sarah Polley’s new narrative Women Talking considers how a group of women can move forward after the shocking betrayal and abuse by men in their isolated religious community. The backstory of the novel and subsequent film, which is set in 2010, mirrors horrific true events that took place at a Mennonite colony in Bolivia. For over four years, nine men secretly sedated over a hundred girls and women, raping them while they were unconscious. The film is not a violent one, however. Polley wanted the violence to only be reflected in short glimpses of the aftermath, focusing instead on the community of women coming together to build a better world for their children, each other, and themselves. Toews’ book raised questions within her about faith, forgiveness, community, and self-determination, she said. “I wanted to feel in every frame the endless potential and possibility contained in a conversation about how to remake a broken world.” Bringing this conversation to life is an exceptional ensemble cast that includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivy, and Frances McDormand.
The mood and tone in Women Talking are enhanced with the contribution of an organic, hopeful score by Academy-award-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Guðnadóttir has had a very successful 2022, with her scores for Todd Field’s Tárand Sarah Polley’s film both currently in Oscar contention. The Credits spoke to the composer about her deeply personal score for Women Talking, a film that offered her the first opportunity to work with a female director.
In Women Talking, it seems the central questions are about if community and unity can help individuals heal from evil, all told from a feminine perspective. It’s impossible not to come from a really personal place for this as an artist.
Yeah, well, I think you’re absolutely right; I think it’s really impossible not to be personal about this subject because, as a woman, I have come across, not obviously and thankfully the same type of things that these women go through in the film, but I have experienced some things in that direction. So, just personally, you feel a sense of connection to what they go through, and you feel a large amount of empathy, I think, with what they go through. They actually had trauma specialists there for the actors because it’s a hugely sensitive and difficult and emotional subject to examine and dive into. For this narrative, the music needed to really be a vehicle of hope and forward movement, to give us the courage to keep on moving, and to bring everyone together into these discussions and this decision-making of what to do. The music needed to draw us to them and give us a connection and a sense of community.
How did you find that within yourself?
I really had to just do a lot of self-work, and I had to examine not only how I feel and how I want to react to this story in particular but also just everything that’s happening to women in reality all around us. We’re seeing such huge waves of movement for women’s rights, just for women in general. There’s this huge shift that’s been going on for the better and for the worse. With #MeToo, we saw great energy and lots of positivity from women coming together, not being silent, and pushing things forward. Then we see these huge backward movements like Roe v Wade being overturned. It’s just a huge backward step for women’s basic fundamental rights and the right to health care. It was intense to be in this story and experience all these things simultaneously in reality. I really had to ask myself, “Am I going to allow myself to be paralyzed by anger and therefore do nothing? Or will I need to cultivate the sense of hope and connection to community in order to move forward personally, and therefore also in the story of this film?” It was a really interesting process for me, personally and musically.
Well, I think you can hear it instantly when you’re faking something in music. Specifically, when you’re dealing with true events, I think it’s important to try to be as honest as you possibly can, because there are people that have actually lived these events, and you don’t want to over-dramatize them, like waltz in with a string orchestra and taiko drums. I felt that the only way to bring this hope and love and community was to to actually do that in how the music was recorded and performed, so I leaned into my community and my friends who I’ve been playing with for over two decades. I have a deep love and friendship with the main performer, Skuli Sverrisson, who plays on the guitar. He’s one of my best friends, and because we’ve played so much music together over the last two decades, we’ve developed a sense of telepathy when we’re working together. We access really deep places within both of us when we work together because we don’t have to explain anything, we just know. Our recording sessions were equally recording music, and just laughing together and talking about our hopes or dreams or hard things we might be going through. So we just poured as much love into this music as as we could, which really spoke to the depth of our friendship.
You used the guitar as the main instrument, and there are a lot of cues with bells. Can you give us a sense of your overall thought about building the score?
I wanted the sounds to be very down-to-earth and simple, not highbrow. I didn’t want any fancy, upper-class instruments, like a harp, that will be completely out of reach for the environment that these women lived in. I imagined that the guitar would be in the nearest vicinity of their environment. Traditionally, it’s considered a very humble instrument. I wanted the score to feel almost tangible or visceral, so I used the guitar as a percussive instrument for the more tension-driven scenes. I wanted it to sound like something you could touch in its natural texture, like touching dirt. That was my overall imagination for the score. I worked intuitively. In the flashback scenes where we see what actually happened to these women, I experienced that as somehow both a doomsday and a call to prayer, so I just felt that bells were a really good connection to both of those feelings, because bells can sound an alarm or be heard at prayer time, so I thought it was fitting.
In the cues “Work of Ghosts,” “Doomsday,” and “Teeth,” the way you use the guitar and bells, it almost feels like being trapped inside a cavern or even trapped inside an abandoned church. It feels primordial.
My first instinct for these cues was the bells, and it’s exactly as you described it and a great observation because these women are trapped in this situation, in an almost unimaginable way, with their family in a horrifically violent environment. I wanted to create a sense of claustrophobia, a lack of movement. They are stuck, trapped in this place without any power. I can’t imagine how terrifying and inhuman that must be.
You’ve spoken about how this score required you to go very deep into yourself about your own experience. What are you left with, having created the score, that you feel is permanent in you?
I feel very energized from having worked on this film. I feel a huge amount of connection to Sarah and the women that were on this film, and a huge amount of energy to move forward and to not be silent. I want to do my best in whatever way I can to inch us forward and closer to justice and equality, because I think we still have a long way to go, and it’s very easy to lose hope or give up. The process of working on this film gave me a lot of hope and energy to not shy away from it and to stay present. It’s the first project that I’ve done with a female director, for example, which was a wonderful one, to experience that difference in working in a feminine environment. It also gave me a huge amount of energy and positivity for what’s to come.
Women Talking is releasing in theaters nationwide on December 23rd.
Netflix is taking you inside the Duke and Dutchess of Sussex’s love story in a documentary event that will likely draw many, many eyeballs. Two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy-winning documentarian Liz Garbus was given unprecedented access to the prince and princess for Harry & Meghan, a six-episode series that will explore the relationship, from their point of view as well as those of friends and family members, from their secret courtship through their epochal move to California.
“It’s really hard to look back on it now and go, ‘What on earth happened?'” This is how Harry frames it at the top of the first official trailer for Harry & Meghan, as we see the royal couple driving through California, their sunny new home many thousands of miles away from England. Harry & Meghan will spend some time on those heady first few months when their relationship became public, and Meghan became, overnight, one of the most famous women in the world. “There was a war against Meghan to suit other people’s agendas,” says one interview subject. Another puts it more bluntly; “It’s about hatred. It’s about race.” Or, as Harry succinctly says, “It’s a dirty game. The pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution, it’s a feeding frenzy.” Harry says these words as we see images of his mother, the late Princess Diana, on the screen. “I realized, ‘They’re never gonna protect you,” Meghan says. “I was terrified,” Harry says. “I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”
Harry & Meghan will offer the Duke and Duchess the chance to explain what happened on their own terms, and, presumably, reveal the truth about why, exactly, they felt they had to get out of England and chart a new course for themselves out from under royal decree. “No one knows the full truth,” Harry says at the end of the trailer. “We know the full truth.” And so, the trailer suggests, shall we all in just a few days.
Harry & Megan Vol. 1 arrives on December 8, while Vol. 2 arrives a week later on December 15. Check out the official trailer below:
Here’s the official synopsis:
In an unprecedented and in-depth documentary series, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex share the other side of their high-profile love story. Across six episodes, the series explores the clandestine days of their early courtship and the challenges that led to them feeling forced to step back from their full-time roles in the institution. With commentary from friends and family, most of whom have never spoken publicly before about what they witnessed, and historians who discuss the state of the British Commonwealth today and the royal family’s relationship with the press, the series does more than illuminate one couple’s love story, it paints a picture of our world and how we treat each other. From the critically-acclaimed, two-time Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus, Harry & Meghan is a never-before-seen look at one of the most-discussed couples in history.
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
The great Michelle Yeoh centers our first look at The Witcher: Blood Origin, the new prequel series set in an elven world 1200 years before the events in The Witcher. Blood Origin takes place during the Elven Golden Era, before the arrival of humans or monsters (some might claim they’re one and the same?), yet all is not well even in this, non-monstrous realm. The first trailer for The Witcher: Blood Origin introduces us to seven warriors, led by Scian (Michelle Yeoh), who come together to fight the ruthless empire that has taken control of the entire Elven world. These warriors are strangers, outcasts, misfits even—they also might be the Elven race’s last hope, especially as the worlds of elves, men, and monsters are about to be conjoined forever.
Blood Origin is a four-part special event within The Witcher universe, giving us a glimpse of the dire circumstances that led to the creation of the very first Witcher. Joining Yeoh in the cast are Nathaniel Curtis as Brian, Lenny Henry as Balor, Dylan Moran as Uthrok One-Nut, Jacob Collins-Levy as Eredin, Sophia Brown as Eile, Minnie Driver as Seanchai, Laurence O’Fuarain as Fjall, Zach Wyatt as Syndril, Francesca Mills as Meldof, and, wait for it…Joey Batey reprises his role from TheWitcher as Jaskier.
Check out the trailer below. The Witcher: Blood Origin arrives on Netflix on December 25, 2022:
And here’s the official synopsis:
Every story has a beginning. Witness the untold history of the Continent with The Witcher: Blood Origin, a new prequel series set in an elven world 1200 years before the events of The Witcher. Blood Origin will tell a story lost to time – exploring the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal “Conjunction of the Spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one. The Witcher: Blood Origin will release in 2022, only on Netflix.
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania officially kicks off Marvel’s Phase 5. Now, thanks to a special look at the legacy of Ant-Man revealed at Brazil’s Comic-Con, we’ve got fresh footage of the microscopic mayhem coming our way in Quantumania.
Quantumania will find Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) all heading into the Quantum Realm. It’s a dangerous journey made even more so by the presence of Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors), arguably the biggest, most consequential new villain in the Marvel pantheon. A version of Kang was introduced in Loki when the Sacred Timeline was fractured into the multiverse of possibilities we’re now living in. In that Marvel series, Kang was playful but all-powerful. In Phase 5, he’ll be the gravest threat the varied superheroes have faced since Thanos.
How important is Kang? As the first villain introduced in Phase 5, he’s going to be such a force that the fifth Avengers movie has his name in the title—Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. What’s more, both Quantumania and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty are written by screenwriter Jeff Loveness, so the connection between the two films, and Kang’s importance, can’t be overstated.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also features Randall Park returning to the MCU as Jimmy Woo and newcomers to the universe William Jackson Harper and Bill Murray. Peyton Reed returns to direct.
Check out the special look below at Ant-Man’s legacy, which includes glimpses of what’s to come. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives on February 17, 2023.
For more on all things Marvel Studios, check out these stories:
At long last, we have our first look at Indiana Jones 5. What’s more, we’ve got the official title—Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Indy (Harris Ford, naturally) is back for one last adventure, and he’s in good hands in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with ace director James Mangold. The first trailer opens with Indy’s old pal Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) talking about how much he misses the magic and adventure of the old days. Unfortunately, Indy believes the days are over, but Sallah isn’t quite so sure.
Although Indy states at the top of the first trailer that he doesn’t believe in magic, he has seen things in his life that he can’t explain. (Melting Nazis, for one.) “I’ve come to believe it’s not so much what you believe…it’s how hard you believe it.”
Ford returns alongside some excellent fresh faces to the franchise, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena, Mads Mikkelsen as Voller, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and Boyd Holbrook (so effective in Mangold’s Logan) as Klaber. The trailer reveals that Mangold and his team used de-aging technology for at least one scene, reportedly set in 1944, roughly 8 years after the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The rest of the story takes place in 1969, with Ford at his current age.
The Dial of Destiny is the first Indy film directed by somebody other than Steven Spielberg. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989), and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) were all Spielberg, but now he hands off what will be Ford’s last turn as Indy to Mangold.
Check out the trailer below. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30, 2023.
For more stories on Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to Disney+, check these out:
Everyone’s favorite band of galactic misfits is back.
The trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been revealed—Marvel Studios presented it at the Comic-Con Experience 2022 in São Paulo, Brazil, where Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige presented the trailer alongside Zoe Saldana (Gamora, of course). The trailer opens in perfect Guardians fashion, with our cosmos-hopping pals arriving on an Earth-like planet (folks, it’s not Earth) and Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) letting the awed planetary inhabitants know that the Guardians come in peace. Cue Drax (Dave Bautista) throws a ball at a little girl (with a goat’s face, of course) so hard he knocks her over. This does not go over well. The whole shebang is set to Spacehog’s “In the Meantime,” a perfect song for the tone of the trailer, which suggests that Vol. 3 will be about the Guardians facing their pasts, including how Rocket (Bradley Cooper) came to be, well, Rocket.
The trailer offers a few big reveals. One is that Gamora (Saldana) is now working with the Ravagers and claims she’s no longer the woman that Quill loves. (In fact, she’s an entirely different Gamora—the one Quill loves was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.) Vol. 3 will also introduce Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), as well as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). Also returning is Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who, it was revealed in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, is actually Quill’s sister. Also, Groot (Vin Diesel) has had a growth spurt.
Here’s the official synopsis:
In Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, our beloved band of misfits are looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Check out the trailer below. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5, 2023.
For more on all things Marvel Studios, check out these stories:
The seventh installment of the Transformers franchise arrives with a trailer that boasts snippets of a Biggie Smalls classic, the reveal of some beastly Transformers like a massive metallic giant ape, and the reveal of the most terrifying alien robots of them all. The film, inspired by the ’90s Beast Wars cartoon, also boasts a fresh new cast, led by stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, with new transformers voiced by none other than Michelle Yeoh (!!) and Pete Davidson.
Rise of the Beasts comes from director Steven Caple Jr., who has takes this Transformers story from the streets of Brooklyn to Machu Picchu, Peru. The action is set after 2018’s spinoff Bumblebee, with the story introducing the Maximals and Predacons, who, you’ve probably guessed, take the form of colossal metal animals. The film will explore not only these new factions in the larger war between the Autobots and Decepticons but the origins of the Autobots’ connection to Earth. Rise of the Beasts also includes the introduction of the Terrorcons, a sub-group of the Decepticons that transform into metallic monsters.
If the above isn’t enough to draw non-Transformers fans, one element of Rise of the Beasts might; because it’s set before the action of all of Michael Bay’s Transformers films, you don’t need to know the history of these warring metal aliens to enjoy the spectacle.
The cast also includes Peter Cullen, returning as Optimus Prime, Tobe Nwigwe, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Liza Koshy, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Cristo Fernández.
Check out the first trailer below. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts roars into theaters on June 9, 2023.
For more films and series from Paramount and Paramount+, check out these stories:
Satirical black comedy Triangle of Sadness, writer/director Ruben Östlund’s first English-language feature, debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. The Swedish auteur is known for 2014’s Force Majeure and The Square, which in 2017 also won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Triangle of Sadness, like Östlund’s previous films, examines classism and the decadence of the famous and the ultra-rich. It is broken into three segments. The first centers on high fashion models Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), and how their relationship is impacted by Carl’s dimming value as a male model and Yaya’s greater financial success. The second follows Carl and Yaya’s travels on a super yacht helmed by a Marxist captain (Woody Harrelson). The night of the captain’s haute cuisine dinner, a dangerous storm wreaks havoc on the stomachs of the yacht guests and the yacht itself. The third and last segment takes place on a remote island, where survivors from the yacht find themselves in a new class hierarchy, in which the yacht’s domestic manager Abigail (Dolly de Leon), the only one among them who knows how to fish or start a fire, reigns supreme.
Production designer Josefin Åsberg, Östlund’s longtime collaborator, had a lot to consider in her job of designing the look and feel of the film. Not least was how to realistically present a yacht with environments befitting the elite and ultra-rich. She also had to make the copious amount of vomit and sewage flowing at the crescendo of the yacht scenes as believable as they were gross. Of course, The Credits, just like you, wanted to know all about that.
There are three distinct sections to the film. The first one has stark contrasts in parts, which seems to be very intentional. It’s very white, but at one point the characters are splashed with bright paint, so it’s a bit of an introduction and preparing you for the second segment.
It partly took place in the fashion world. It’s quite limited in the sense that it’s a hotel, a catwalk, and auditions. We wanted to make it visually of a piece with the rest of the film. We didn’t want it to look totally different from the rest. Other than the bright splashes, it’s very discreet, color-wise. It’s very subdued.
In terms of the yacht in section two, Ruben Östlund is quoted as saying that you had incredible detail in your production design. What considerations did you have, both in terms of how super yachts look and how their opulence relates to the story?
We knew we were looking for a quite classic yacht. I took the measurements for the windows from the actual yacht for the set in the studio, but then I was quite free to design the interiors. We made the dining room with the area outside, the corridors with the cabins with the toilets and bathrooms. We also wanted to control the movement because the bad weather increases during the captain’s dinner, so it was also a lot of fun to plan and think about ideas. We tested different angles on a small gimbal. When does it start to get difficult to walk? When do things start to slide? We build the set two meters up on a hydraulic platform; then, we could control having slight movement in the beginning, and then as the chaos comes closer and closer, we can make it more and more intense.
Dining room set – courtesy Tobias Henriksson.
Let’s talk about the captain’s dinner. How did you decide what kind of foods to use and how that would relate to the seasickness that takes over the diners?
Regarding the food, we knew it should, at first, not look disgusting. For example, with oysters, if you’re not seasick, they’re great. Then we wanted to add some green syrup or something that looked a little bit odd. If you’re seasick, you’re so sensitive. We also had this huge octopus arm with big suckers.
That’s when it starts going off the rails.
Yeah. That octopus looks almost like a burnt arm. Octopus is tasty if you’re on land, but when you’re seasick, it’s the worst food you could have. At the same time, we didn’t want to make it too much like a joke. We had a fine dining chef. We discussed with him how food might look in a very high-caliber restaurant. Maybe put some flowers on it so it looks elegant and tasty. Actually, we originally planned for three dishes, but on the morning of the shoot, I met with Ruben, we stayed in the same hotel and had breakfast, and he said it would be fun if we could add five more dishes.
When things are about to go off the rails in “Triangle of Sadness.” Courtesy of Neon.
Did you have to consider, as a production designer, what food would create the most interesting or artistic vomit?
You could see the looks whenever the next dish is arriving. They’re presenting them, like, “da da da dah!” taking away the cloche, and the diners can’t stand it. We made a lot of tests of the puke, depending on the character. This is a character that loves red wine, which would make the puke a little bit pink. With another who loves champagne, it’s more frothy. Then maybe we put some pieces of an octopus or some shrimp or something. There were some fun discussions regarding this whole scene. When we made a test, at first, we didn’t have any carpet in the dining room, but then all the furniture came sliding when the rocking was starting to get really bad and crescendo. We decided it would be too much. It’s intense as it is, with the food and the puke. If everyone is also sliding, then it would be too much. I said, “Let’s have a white carpet.” That’s much more painful if someone pukes on a white carpet. We also looked at the different colors for the sh*t when the toilets explode.
When things go off the rails in “Triangle of Sadness.” Courtesy of Neon.
It’s certainly a very particular look, where there can be no question of what is covering the floors of the yacht.
We did a test with a toilet in the studio. At first, they made it a little bit too orange, so it looked a little bit too much like the puke. Then it was a little bit too dark brown, so we had to work on it a while. It also was like whole systems are in collapse, so then it needs to have water mixing in because it’s raw sewage and ocean water. At first, somebody scheduled that scene on the second shooting week. I said, “That’s not possible; of course, an exploding toilet system needs to be the last day of the shoot.”
The bathroom set in “The Triangle of Sadness.” Courtesy Neon.
What’s great about that scene is the metaphor about everything breaking down. It has to be that intense and over the top.
It was like the end of the human being. Everything is breaking down. At the same time as all the puking and sewage, the captain is repeating, “The ship is going under. The ship is going under.” Everything visually and in the script is combined into a catastrophe.
The third segment is on an island with the elite as castaways. How did you approach that?
We found this beach in Greece. It was a nudist beach at the end of a small beach town. We were there after all the tourists had left. We cleaned the beach and added a lot of greenery. W discussed how clean the beach needed to be and how many big tree branches we needed. We wanted to have plastic chairs or things that look like they came on the yacht and floated onto the beach. It’s never clear where they are. Are they in Europe? Are they on a Pacific coast island? We wanted it to be unspecific. We didn’t need to add tropical greenery. It was not a jungle, but we needed to make it feel like it was someplace a luxury yacht would go, like a quite nice island.
As the production designer on the film, what are you most proud of that viewers might not notice but you know really works?
I’d say the fact that a lot of the scenes on the yacht are filmed in a studio. The goal is for audiences not to notice and just feel it is part of the story, not set apart. There’s the platform two meters up that allows for the rocking in the storm at sea, all in the studio, and when I tell people, they can’t imagine that. That makes me very proud.
The yacht set with blue screen. Courtesy Neon.
Triangle of Sadness is in select theaters and available for rent or purchase on Vudu and Prime Video.
Featured image: L-r: Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson in “Triangle of Sadness.” Courtesy Neon.
We’ve got our first look at the trailer for Netflix’s upcoming docu-series Harry & Meghan, which promises viewers access to the life of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that you simply cannot get anywhere else. Two-time Oscar nominee Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?) has been given unprecedented access to the royal couple, and the result is a six-part series that promises to give us their story in their own words, from their secretive early romance to the headiest and most public days of their marriage, including their decision to leave England and the trappings of their royal life (well, mostly) for California.
“No one sees what’s happening behind closed doors,” Harry says at the top of the trailer. “I had to do everything I could to protect my family.” Meghan makes the case for the documentary series even plainer; “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?”
Netflix’s official synopsis for the series notes that it includes commentary “from friends and family, most of whom have never spoken publicly before about what they witnessed, and historians who discuss the state of the British Commonwealth today and the royal family’s relationship with the press.” What’s more, “the series does more than illuminate one couple’s love story, it paints a picture of our world and how we treat each other.”
The first trailer is brief, offering just these words from Harry and Meghan and a slew of images, some intimate and clearly provided by the royal couple, others more familiar, that highlight the pressure of what it was like to live their lives under constant scrutiny. While brief, it’s likely more than enough to whet the appetite of committed royals watchers and those who enjoy a good peek behind the curtain of any hallowed, harried, secretive institution.
Check out the trailer below:
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
Featured image: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 09: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (L) and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
“The first film was a discovery of the forest, a discovery of Pandora on your banshee,” says Avatar: The Way of Water star Zoe Saldana in this new IMAX featurette. “It was unlike anything any of us had ever seen. And now it’s The Way of Water, and it’s a world all on its own, and I felt like I was rediscovering Pandora all over again.”
We are now just two weeks and change away from James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his 2009 record-breaker Avatar, and we’ll finally get to see what Cameron, his cast, and his crew have been working on all these years. Now 13 years after the original, Cameron and his crew have deployed brand-new underwater motion capture technology, to say nothing of the years of scripting, filming, and post-production, to bring us the first sequel in what could be, should things go well, the second installment of a five-part franchise.
The main cast is the focus of this IMAX featurette, touching upon not just how The Way of Water will reveal what’s beneath the surface of the waves on Pandora but how the sequel also broadens the Na’vi community we were introduced to in the first film. In the original Avatar, the Na’vi, the native inhabitants of Pandora, had to fight off a mercenary mining conglomerate (run by humans, of course) to save their forests. In The Way of Water, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have children together, and when the human invaders return, they’ll be fighting for more than just the natural underwater splendor of Pandora but their family, too.
Returning alongside Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington from the original film are Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch. Big-name newcomers include Vin Diesel, Kate Winslet as Ronal, Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore, and Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Gavin.
Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters—including IMAX venues—on December 16. Check out the new featurette below:
For more on Avatar: The Way of Water, check out these stories:
Netflix has released the trailer for season 3 of Emily in Paris, where our titular heroine (played by Lily Collins) is still in the City of Lights. Emily arrived in Paris back in season one with a plum new job, and the trials and tribulations of trying to succeed at work were the primary focus. In season two, Emily’s romantic life took center stage, and now, appropriately, season three will find Emily trying to figure out a way to juggle her career, her romantic life, and life in general. It’s everyone’s goal, is it not, to find that coveted work/life balance that leads to a happy, healthy existence? Let us know if you figure it out, Em.
Emily’s life in Paris is a study in imbalance, although the kind of imbalance most people would dream about. She’s got a great job and another potential gig to boot—she can stay with Savior Marketing or risk the security and join a new venture. She’s got romantic prospects—on the one hand, there’s Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), the chef she met back in season one; on the other, there’s Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), a British classmate she’s just started seeing. So what decisions will Emily make? How about no decisions, which, the trailer reminds us, is a decision itself. Two jobs, two fellas, zero choices. This is a recipe that is ripe for drama.
Joining Collins are returning co-stars Ashley Park as Mindy Chen, Camille Razat as Camille, Samuel Arnold as Julien, Bruno Gouery as Luc, and William Abadie as Antoine Lambert. Newcomers include Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, and the aforementioned Lucas Bravo and Lucien Laviscount
Season 3 of Emily in Paris arrives on Netflix on December 21, 2022. Check out the trailer below:
Here’s the official synopsis from Netflix:
One year after moving from Chicago to Paris for her dream job, Emily finds herself at a crucial crossroads in every aspect of her life. Faced with two very different paths, Emily will have to decide exactly where her loyalties lie — at work and in her romantic life — and what those decisions mean for her future in France, all while continuing to immerse herself in the adventures and surprising twists and turns that life in Paris provides.
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
The reviews for Disney+’s Willow are arriving, and for fans of Ron Howard’s original 1988 film and intrigued newbies who love the fantasy genre, you’ll be pleased. Three decades after Howard’s film, Willow is “back as a series and better than ever,” writes the Los Angeles Times‘s Robert Lloyd. Howard’s film found an aspiring sorcerer and farmer named Willow (Warwick Davis) setting off on an epic quest to deliver a human baby found by his people to the care of the bigger people. Yet Willow’s journey was only just beginning, and he would become part of a major effort to protect the baby empress Elora Danan (yes, it was an infant as crucial as The Child in The Mandalorian) from the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh).
In the new series, set nearly two decades after the events of the film, Willow returns, yet the action is led by a princess, Kit (Ruby Cruz), who assembles a group to go on a quest to rescue her twin brother. Joining Davis in the cast are Tony Revolori, Amer Chadha-Patel, Ellie Bamber, Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, and, crucially, Talisa Garcia, the first trans actor ever cast by Lucasfilm for one of its productions. Sadly, Val Kilmer, who played Madmartigan in the original and was slated to appear in the series, couldn’t on account of his health. Happily, according to the critics, the game cast does their level best to step into the void, with up-and-coming stars like Cruz, Kellyman, and Garcia adding fresh faces to care about. And unlike Howard’s original film, the series boasts the cutting-edge technology that’s made The Mandalorian and other Disney+ series so ravishing. “There are a lot of opinions among genre fans as to how best to execute such stories,” writes Lloyd of the LA Times, “but the series is fantasy as I like it best — funny, fun, and just a little frightening, sometimes serious but never self-serious. If my year-end favorites piece were not already filed, Willow would have been a contender.”
“The saga’s greatest triumphs, though, are its young characters’ personal discoveries,” writes The San Francisco Chronicle‘s Bob Strauss. “As they roam fantastic settings, their true quests become existential. The aging, iconic wizard learns much about himself, too, making for a gratifyingly relatable mystic adventure.”
“That perfect balance of reverence and irreverence is what immediately catapults Willow to the upper echelon of Disney+ series,” writes Variety‘s Joshua Alston. Alston pays special notice to the way Willow doesn’t shy away from amplifying romance as well as the fantastical requirements of a series set in a magical world. “[Creator Jonathan] Kasdan keeps the romantic entanglements going like spinning plates constantly threatening to shatter as love connections become love triangles and trapezoids. The most noteworthy of those relationships is between Kit and Jade, who are being touted as Disney’s first proper queer love story. And it’s written beautifully and in such a way that transcends gender and explores how hard it is to figure yourself and someone else out simultaneously.”
The Telegraph‘s Ed Power writes that “Disney’s follow-up to the 1988 Warwick Davis movie is a ribald romp with plucky heroes, ghastly villains, and whip-cracking dialogue.”
“This is an unapologetically traditional fantasy, with no pretensions to Game Of Thrones-style grimness or Lord Of The Rings cultural depth,” writes Empire Magazine‘s Helen O’Hara. “But it also has vivid characters, scary moments, and fun obstacles, and they carry it briskly along. In the end, it relies far less on nostalgia and more on expanding the world of the original film to encompass new complexity and new identities among all these daikinis, and that’s a real treat.”
Willow’s first two episodes are streaming now on Disney+.
For more stories on Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to Disney+, check these out:
