“The White Lotus” Season 2 Trailer Brings Mike White’s Biting Social Satire to Italy

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Mike White’s Emmy-slathered comedy The White Lotus was one of 2021’s most deliciously deranged comedies, and now HBO has shared the trailer for season two, which moves the scourges of the privileged vacationers from Hawaii to Italy.

How do you come off a season that garnered 20 Emmy nominations across 13 categories and 10 wins (the most for any show this year), including Oustanding Limited or Anthology Series? One way is to bring back one of season one’s standouts, the unimprovable Jennifer Coolidge, who returns as the tipsy, sweet-natured Tayna McQuoid. Coolidge joins another stellar cast, including F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco, Beatrice Grannò, Meghann Fahy, Jon Gries, Tom Hollander, Sabrina Impacciatore, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Aubrey Plaza, Haley Lu Richardson, Will Sharpe, Simona Tabasco, and Leo Woodall.

Season two’s action takes place in the titular White Lotus resort in Sicily, where family squabbles (amongst the Italian American guests), marital squabbles, hard partying, and poor choices will once again be under a microscope. As was the case in the first season, the White Lotus Sicily staff will find themselves plunged into the pathologies of their moneyed guests. Let’s see if season two can top the fate of Murray Bartlett’s Armond from season one.

The trailer offers an apertivo of what’s to come. White hit a grand slam with the first season of his biting social satire, and there’s little doubt he won’t make the most of the Sicilian setting and comedic chops of his cast.

Check out the trailer here. The White Lotus returns to HBO on Sunday, October 30, at 9 pm ET/PT.

F. Murray Abraham as BERT DI GRASSO – Visiting Sicily with his son, Dominic (Michael Imperioli), and grandson, Albie (Adam DiMarco), Bert is getting frail, yet still sees himself as virile and capable.

Jennifer Coolidge as TANYA MCQUOID-HUNT – A wealthy, unstable woman, traveling with her husband, Greg (Jon Gries), and assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson).

Adam DiMarco as ALBIE DI GRASSO – Dominic’s (Michael Imperioli) son and Bert’s  (F. Murray Abraham) grandson, Albie is a sweet and observant college grad, who often serves as his family’s peacekeeper.

Meghann Fahy as DAPHNE BABCOCK – A stay-at-home mom visiting Italy with her husband, Cameron (Theo James), and another couple, Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza).

Jon Gries as GREG – Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) husband, who is less than pleased to find her assistant invited on their romantic getaway. 

Beatrice Grannò as MIA – A Sicilian local, Mia is a talented singer in search of her big break.

Tom Hollander as QUENTIN – an English expat, vacationing with his friends and his nephew, Jack (Leo Woodall).

Sabrina Impacciatore as VALENTINA – The passionate, dedicated manager in charge of the White Lotus resort in Taormina, who expects perfection from her staff. 

Michael Imperioli as DOMINIC DI GRASSO – A Hollywood producer visiting Sicily with his elderly father, Bert (F. Murray Abraham), and post-college son, Albie (Adam DiMarco), to explore their ancestral roots. 

Theo James as CAMERON BABCOCK – A wildly successful businessman from a wealthy family, Cameron is vacationing with his wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy), his college roommate, Ethan (Will Sharpe), and Ethan’s wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza).

Aubrey Plaza as HARPER SPILLER – Newly wealthy after her husband finds professional success, Harper and Ethan (Will Sharpe) are visiting Italy with Ethan’s college roommate, Cameron (Theo James), and Cameron’s wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahy).

Haley Lu Richardson as PORTIA – A small-town girl and recent college graduate, Portia is traveling with her boss, Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), hoping for adventure.

Will Sharpe as ETHAN SPILLER – After recently striking professional success, Ethan and his wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza), are invited to vacation in Italy with his college roommate, Cameron (Theo James), and Cameron’s wife, Daphne (Meghann Fahy). 

Simona Tabasco as LUCIA– a Sicilian local who frequents the White Lotus resort in search of work and opportunity amongst the wealthy clientele.

Leo Woodall as JACK – a magnetic guest staying at The White Lotus with his uncle, Quentin (Tom Hollander).

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Featured image: Francesco Zecca as Matteo, Leo Woodall as Jack, Tom Hollander as Quentin, Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, Haley Lu Richardson as Portia. Photo courtesy HBO.

Jamie Foxx’s “Spawn” Movie Gets Three Big Time Superhero Writers

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You know a great way to hatch the long-gestating superhero project? Get three big-time superhero writers to team up on the script.

That’s precisely what’s happened for Blumhouse’s Spawn, based on Todd McFarlane’s comic book character, with none other than Jamie Foxx attached. The potential film now has three major stars collaborating on the script—The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s scribe Malcolm Spellman (he’s also co-writer on the upcoming Captain America: New World Order), Joker writer Scott Silver (co-writer on the upcoming Joker 2), and rising star Matt Mixon.

Foxx has been attached to the project for a while, which has been in development at Blumhouse since 2017. The antihero made his first appearance in McFarlane’s comic book in 1992 and has been beloved ever since. In the comics, Spawn is a former black-ops agent who makes a very dark bargain with a demon after he’s betrayed and killed. The deal is that the demon allows Spawn to return to Earth, but when he does, he finds that the place isn’t like he left it. His wife has moved on, and he’s doomed to roam the planet in his disfigured form, a literal spawn of hell.

McFarlane, one of the film’s producers, wrote a previous draft and has hoped that he’d end up in the director’s chair. Yet what he’s most passionate about, as he made clear, is that the film gets the best possible people on board. Nabbing Spellman, Silver, and Mixon is a good start.

“If we’ve got an A-list actor, A-list producers, A-list writers, then do you want to shoot for A-list directors, A-list cinematographers?” McFarlane told The Hollywood Reporter. “The answer is, ‘Of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.”

Spellman, meanwhile, explained in a statement why he was so excited to be working on the film.

“I grew up in Berkeley, which is a comic book city. Todd McFarlane’s Spawn character was always one of my favorites — a Black superhero that was no bullshit; he was cool and dealt with modern issues. Myself, Matt Mixon, and Scott Silver are pledged to honoring what Todd started and what Spawn is at its core, delivering something that’s relevant and edgy and unlike any other superhero movie out there.”

Spawn was made into a movie back in 1997 from director Mark A.Z. Dippé and starring Michael Jai White. For the new iteration, MacFarlane said he was inspired to reach out to Joker‘s Scott Silver after seeing the film, a surprisingly dark, R-rated story that was nonetheless a massive success.

“Why not just go for the guy who wrote the movie?” MacFarlane said to THR. To his surprise, Silver said he was interested. “It was a complete Hail Mary. Sometimes timing is everything.”

Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 13: Jamie Foxx attends Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: No Way Home” Los Angeles Premiere on December 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

“Avatar 2” Producer Jon Landau Shows Off 15 Minutes Of James Cameron’s Mega Sequel

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It was a good day to be an attendee at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea. Select audience members at the fest paid $5 for a pair of 3-D glasses for a chance to see 15 minutes of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. 

It goes without saying at this point that Cameron’s been working long and hard, along with his cast and crew, to bring off a sequel that won’t only match his 2009 epic but exceed it in all ways. Cameron isn’t just making Avatar: The Way of Water, but two more films in the franchise, too. In fact, Avatar producer Jon Landau revealed to the festivalgoers that Avatar 4‘s first act is almost completed.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For Avatar: The Way of Water, those select audience members at the Busan Film Festival got a crash course in what Cameron and his team have been doing in order to make the sequel a one-of-a-kind filmgoing experience. The throughline of the presentation and screening was that The Way of Water utilized revolutionary technology to create something we’ve never quite seen before, much the same way Avatar did 13 years ago.

The events in The Way of Water take place more than a decade after the battle for Pandora that ended the original film. In the sneak peek that the Busan crowd saw, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are in the oceanic wonderland that is Pandora, the home planet of Neytiri’s people, the Na’vi. As the title suggests, Cameron’s sequel will be set both above and below the water, utilizing the aforementioned bespoke technology to capture novel shots, with creatures both familiar, like the majestic flying Toruks from the first film, and brand-new aquatic animals. Landau told the crowd that the filmmaking technology used in The Way of Water far exceeds what was on hand for the original Avatar, and that included a team of specialized VFX artists who created a brand new kind of underwater motion capture technology. Landau said that if Avatar was after creating effects that look photographic, the sequel is after photorealism.

Cameron is a longtime environmentalist and an oceanic explorer himself. During the footage reveal, he appeared via video link to talk about the sequel’s inspirations, which come from the increasingly dire threats to our besieged marine ecosystems. This follows Avatar‘s example, which showed the ruthless pursuit of profit as humans decimated Pandora’s forests. Cameron’s passion for conservation is the engine that has fueled this mega-franchise.

Returning alongside Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington from the original film are Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine and Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch. Two of the big-name newcomers include Vin Diesel and Kate Winslet.

Avatar: The Way of Water is due in theaters on December 16.

For more on all things Avatar, check out these stories:

“Avatar 4” Has Begun Filming

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The “Avatar: The Way of Water” Teaser Trailer Made a Huge Splash

Featured image: Zoe Saldana is Neytiri in “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Courtesy 20th Century Studios.

The Next James Bond Will Be in his 30s

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Now that Daniel Craig has finished his run as James Bond with 2021’s emotional sendoff No Time To Die, attention has naturally turned to who will become the next 007. This past June, franchise producer Barbara Broccoli said that a new Bond film was at least two years away and that casting was going to take time because they were doing a complete “reinvention of Bond.”

“Nobody’s in the running,” Broccoli said to Deadline at the time. “We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script, and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is, and that takes time. I’d say that filming is at least two years away.”

Now, at a British Film Institute panel celebrating the 60th anniversary of the deathless spy franchise (h/t Deadline), producer Michael G. Wilson revealed a few very key details about the next Bond. The biggest detail? The new Bond won’t be some young whippersnapper, but, crucially, he won’t be in his 40s, either, which means a lot of the older fan favorites, like Idris Elba, who seemed to take himself out of the running anyway, and Tom Hardy wouldn’t meet the age requirement.

“We’ve tried looking at younger people in the past,” Wilson said during the panel. “But trying to visualize it doesn’t work. Remember, Bond’s already a veteran. He’s had some experience. He’s a person who has been through the wars, so to speak. He’s probably been in the SAS or something. He isn’t some kid out of high school that you can bring in and start off. That’s why it works for a 30-something.”

So you can cross off the younger potential Bonds from your list, too—names like Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi. But, a Bond in his 30s does make it possible for somebody like Henry Cavill or Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page to serve His Majesty’s Secret Service (it’s weird writing that, but it’s our new reality after Queen Elizabeth’s passing).

Not only does the next Bond require a few miles on his speedometer to account for having served with some distinction before the first film for the new character begins, but he needs to be young enough to absorb the decade (at minimum) of playing the character requires. The youngest Bond ever cast was George Lazenby, at 29, while Daniel Craig was 38 for his first rilm, Casino Royale. Roger Moore was the oldest first-time Bond, at a healthy 45 when he first appeared in The Man With the Golden Gone, while the original Bond, Sean Connery, was 32 when he appeared in the first film in the franchise, Dr. No.

If you’re jonesing for some Bond now, good news—you can now stream all 25 Bond films on Prime Video.

For more on all things James Bond, check out these stories:

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Featured image: Daniel Craig stars as James Bond in NO TIME TO DIE, an EON Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios film. Credit: Nicola Dove. © 2021 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Jonás Cuarón Will Direct Bad Bunny in Sony’s Marvel Film “El Muerto”

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Sony Pictures is putting together quite a collaboration. The studio has tapped Jonás Cuarón to direct their upcoming Marvel Studios film El Muerto, starring Bad Bunny (aka Benito A Martínez Ocasio), Deadline reports. Bad Bunny is coming off his first big movie role in Sony’s Bullet Train, co-starring with a little-known actor named [checking notes] Brad Pitt.

Cuarón, the director of the 2015 thriller Desierto, is the son of Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and knows a thing or two about filmmaking. He’ll be working off a script by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. El Muerto is in the early stages of development, so much can still change, but with a writer, director, and star in place, things are moving in the right direction.

This is another joint project between Sony and Marvel, with the character of El Muerto hailing from the Spider-Man universe. El Muerto will be a big deal when it bows, marking the first time a Marvel film has been led by a Latino actor.

So who exactly is El Muerto? Well, like his other pals in the Spider-Man universe, Venom and Morbius, he’s an antihero. In the comics, El Muerto’s name is Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez, a wrestler whose powers are sourced from his mask. That mask is a part of his ancestral heritage, passed down through the generations, endowing its wearer with superhuman strength. For the film, Sony has intimated Bad Bunny’s character will be on the cusp of inheriting the El Muerto mask from his father.

Bad Bunny’s recent role in Bullet Train hasn’t been his only screen time. The Grammy-winning musician has also appeared in Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico. Yet El Muerto will be, by far, his biggest role yet, and could be launching him into the ever-expanding world of Marvel.

El Muerto is slated for a January 12, 2024 release.

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“The Woman King” Director Gina Prince-Bythewood on Her Singular, Sweeping Historical Epic

Featured image: Brad Pitt and Bad Bunny star in Bullet Train. Courtesy Sony Pictures.

“Los Espookys” Co-Creator/Writer/Director/Star Ana Fabrega Does it All (Literally)

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Los Espookys, the surreal HBO comedy, has returned for a second season. Unlike anything currently on television, the series, created by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen, follows four horror-loving friends who run Los Espookys — a business that stages supernatural scenes and tricks people into thinking they are real. 

Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco), Los Espookys’ leader, is also its heart and soul. Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) is its makeup master. Andrés (Torres), the gay, adopted heir to a chocolate empire, dreams up the stunts. Tati (Fabrega), Ursula’s simpleminded sister, volunteers as a guinea pig to see if they’ll work. Set in a mythical Latin American country, most scenes are in Spanish. As Renaldo’s uncle Tio and Southern California’s most resolute parking valet, Armisen does the bulk of his scenes in English. 

If all this sounds more kooky than spooky, that’s just as Torres and Fabrega, who write the scripts, intended. Elevating absurdity to new heights, little escapes their satirical sights — horror film tropes, telenovelas, politics, sex, education, religion — to name a few. 

As the second season premiere neared, The Credits caught up with Fabrega, who, if she weren’t busy enough writing and playing Tati, is also directing two of the episodes.

 

What was your approach to this season?  

I think that after shooting the first season, we knew our characters so much better. At the start, those other two characters (Renaldo and Ursula) were still a bit of a mystery to us. Once we saw what our actors brought to them, that really helped inform our writing going into season two.  I feel like the writing process for season two wound up being so much more character-driven because we really knew our core characters. It feels a little less plotty than season one.

And… how spooky will season two be?

Over the course of writing season one, the show found itself being less spooky and a little more absurd. Season two feels much more surreal and abstract.

Ana Fabrega and Cassandra Ciangherotti. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

Where do you find your Los Espooky inspiration? Do you watch horror? 

Neither Julio nor I am a huge horror fan. When I was a kid, I would watch a lot of horror movies. And then, when I got older, I realized that I don’t have such a high tolerance for being scared. I think we’re both drawn to things that are more absurd — something more in the world of a Twin Peaks rather than a Halloween.

Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, Cassandra. Ciangherotti, Bernardo Velasco. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO
Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, Cassandra. Ciangherotti, Bernardo Velasco. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

Talk about how the season two storyline came about. 

We spent the first few weeks just throwing out ideas. “What if this happened?” “Wouldn’t it be funny if my character did this?” And then we slowly pieced things together. Once we had our idea of what it looked like, we brought in two writers to consult and structure things so that we could make the best version of the stories that we wanted to tell. And then Julio and I write the scripts together. We definitely write the bulk of the characters that we play. I drive Tati. He drives Andrés. But we still contribute to each other’s characters. It’s a very non-traditional writer’s room in that way.

And then how does Fred figure in the mix?

We share drafts or ideas with Fred. He’ll come into town sometimes, or we’ll Zoom with him when we’re brainstorming ideas. And then we’ll send him things as we’re writing and see what he thinks. 

 

Does the comedy evolve during filming?

We wind up shooting predominantly everything we have scripted. Obviously, there’s room to improvise. We allow people to play around with their characters whenever they want, as long as the purpose of the scene is achieved. The jokes and the gags may evolve a little bit, but not in a huge way once the scripts are done.

Los Espookys has such a great look. Do Jorge Zambrano’s production design and Muriel Parra’s costumes influence your writing?

Yeah, in a sense. They are so talented and so good at executing things. We don’t have to worry when we’re writing. If we write a lighthouse, production is not going to tell us you can’t shoot in a lighthouse. We feel there are no limitations in what we can do. It’s very freeing in that way. They really understand the show and its sense of humor. They’re very playful and funny. They always bring more to what’s on the page.

Can you give me an example?

In the second season, for example, there’s a scene where Andrés is modeling staircases. We had our idea of what this looks like, and then we saw Jorge’s designs — rotating platforms with stairs. Muriel had this idea of a little hat with the staircase on it. That wasn’t in the script per se. Once we saw them, we thought, “It’s great, and it’s so funny.”

Julio Torres. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

Rumor has it that you’re doing some directing this season.

Yeah, I directed the last two episodes. It was my first time. I think that I felt comfortable doing it because I know the show so well. I’m involved in every aspect. That felt like new territory, but not like I was thrown into the deep end and didn’t know how to swim. I knew my crew so well and felt very supported along the way.

L-r: Greta Titelman, Kim Petras, and Ana Fabrega. Credit: HBO/Diego Araya Corvalán
L-r: Greta Titelman, Kim Petras, and Ana Fabrega. Credit: HBO/Diego Araya Corvalán

What made you want to direct?

After we finished shooting season one, Julio and I both thought, “Oh, we should direct some of these shows.” We realized that it wasn’t going to be such a big leap for either of us because of how involved we are. We can decide where the camera goes and things like that.”

What were the most challenging aspects of directing?

When we were pressed for time. The morning started out, and a truck went to the wrong location. And then suddenly it’s, “Okay, we have less time than we’d like, and I have to act and be behind the camera. I want to watch playback. But I don’t want to waste time watching playback because we’ve got to keep moving.” There were some days when I wished I was just acting or just directing.  But I definitely walked away feeling like I want to direct more of the things that I write. And I am curious to see what it would be like to direct something that I didn’t write — to help someone else execute their vision.

Ana Fabrega directing "Los Espookys." Credit: HBO/Diego Araya Corvalán.
Ana Fabrega directing “Los Espookys.” Credit: HBO/Diego Araya Corvalán.

And just between you and me, who was the most difficult to direct and get to be funny?

There’s a dog in season two that was not trained. We were told the dog was trained. The dog gets on set and could not sit still. We were like, “We just need the dog to sit and not move.” And the dog could not do that. That was our most difficult actor.  

That’s a good answer. Not the one I was expecting.

Well, our cast is great. Our friends play a lot of the characters and there’s such a great pool of talent in Santiago, Chile, where we shoot. I can’t think of an incident where I thought, “Oh my gosh, I can’t get this person to say the line the way I want them to say it or something like that.”

Does that impact your writing? 

Yeah. For example, in the first season, Carmen Gloria Bresky, the actress who plays the mayor of the beach town, was so funny and she totally gets this character. So when we started writing season two, we said we wanted to see more of her. We wrote her a storyline. Yeah, there were definitely things like that where someone will really blow us away, and we’ve got to see more of them. 

Carmen Gloria Bresky. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO
Carmen Gloria Bresky. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

 Los Espookys airs on HBO every Friday night.

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Featured image: Ana Fabrega. Photograph by Pablo Arellano Spataro/HBO

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Co-writer/Director Ryan Coogler on Losing Chadwick Boseman & Carrying On

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Now that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a mere month and change from its release, the excitement for the sequel is palpable. This week we’ve seen the release of the film’s official trailer, a gorgeous, somber, and riveting sneak peek at co-writer/director Ryan Coogler’s follow-up to his 2018 global juggernaut. Yet, unlike any movie in Marvel Studios’ vaunted MCU, and frankly, unlike most movies, period, Wakanda Forever arrives with an equal amount of grief.

The loss of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, at the age of 43, in 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer, shocked the world. Perhaps none of Boseman’s colleagues were as floored as his collaborator and friend, Coogler. The two of them had worked hand in glove to bring Black Panther to such vivid, game-changing life. In a moving interview with Entertainment Weekly, Coogler admits that after Boseman’s death, he seriously considered walking away not just from the world of Black Panther but from filmmaking altogether. How could he carry on living in and expanding the world of Wakanda without the man who had been such a massive part of the vision?

“I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,'” Coogler told EW. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?'”

Coogler eventually found his way back into the story by replaying memories of Boseman in his head and watching footage of his friend and colleague talking about the character of T’Challa and what Wakanda meant to him. “I was poring over a lot of our conversations that we had, towards what I realized was the end of his life,” Coogler told EW. It was through this meditation on his time with Boseman and Boseman’s own advocacy for the character and the world they’d built that led Coogler to believe he could carry on. “I decided that it made more sense to keep going.”

Coogler was, of course, not alone on this journey. The returning cast were all carrying the tragic loss of Boseman alongside him, including Angela Bassett (Queen Ramonda), Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Danai Gurira (Okoye), and Winston Duke (M’Baku). So, too, were the returning members of the crew, including his co-writer Joe Robert Cole, production designer Hannah Beachler, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will face the loss of its namesake superhero head-on. The trailer and previous teaser revealed that Wakanda will be in mourning over the loss of T’Challa, while they face an uncertain future filled with new threats (including Tenoch Huerta’s Namor). Coogler and his team carried on with an eye toward the past and the loss they suffered, and an eye towards the future, towards the rich world of Wakanda they’ve brought into the cinematic world. With the future in mind, the trailer revealed a new Black Panther—a woman—taking up the mantle for the fallen T’Challa. Whether that turns out to be T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, as it was in the comics, or someone else, it seems safe to say that Boseman would be proud that his collaborators have continued telling a story he had helped bring into the world.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives on November 11.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Official Trailer Reveals a new Black Panther

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“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”: A Closer Look at the New Black Panther

Featured image: Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER..L to R: Director (Ryan Coogler) and Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa/Black Panther). Photo: Matt Kennedy. ©Marvel Studios 2018

“Coco” and “Encanto” Composer Germaine Franco on Finding Musical Inspiration at its Source

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In 2016, composer and multi-instrumentalist Germaine Franco was the first Latina and first woman of color invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences music branch. With 2021’s Encanto, she was the first woman to score a Disney animated feature and the first Latina to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. In a world where female composers still make up only a fraction of those hired for studio projects, Franco stands as an inspiration for women in music and a model of Latina excellence. 

Franco was raised in El Paso, Texas, where her family landed after they fled the Mexican Revolution. She has always felt a strong connection to not only her own Mexican heritage but all Latin cultures. For her Annie-award-winning work on Pixar’s animated feature Coco, she did a deep dive into the instruments and music of Mexico. She did the same for her work on Encanto. As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, The Credits spoke to Franco about the many inspirations she drew from for both films and why she feels a responsibility to honor Latinas in her work. 

Germaine Franco conducts the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra in { } during second annual The Future Is Female concert, presented by KCRW, at The Wiltern on September 4, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Germaine Franco conducts the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra in { } during second annual The Future Is Female concert, presented by KCRW, at The Wiltern on September 4, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

For Coco and Encanto, you studied and used instruments unique to Mexico and Colombia. Can you talk about the musical anthropology that you dive into in your research and in crafting these scores?

When I went to school at Rice University, one of my favorite classes was anthropology, with a professor named Stephen Tyler. When I started to think about societies and the use of music and how many instruments have evolved over thousands of years, I was intrigued by it. I spent a lot of time before I ever worked on Coco traveling in Mexico, learning about Latin music and instruments, and then studying other Latin American music, especially Cuban music. I was drawn to it because I find it fascinating. When I work on a score, especially when I’m asked to give it to the sound of a particular culture, I want to dive deep and not just skim the surface.

 

What are some of the unique elements and sounds that you brought to Coco? 

For Coco, I was lucky to go to Mexico and record 50 musicians, and we recorded songs and a bit of score, mostly source music, but the different ensembles and musicians we used were amazing. Of course, we used the mariachi, but there’s so much more to Mexican music. We had trío romántico, which is three guitarists singing with harmonies. And then also lots of amazing drums, percussion, and singers. There’s this one instrument, the jawbone, which is in the song “Un Poco Loco.” You can hear it when you see the skeleton dancing. The dances are inspired by when I took some boots my mother bought me in Mexico, put them on a wooden plank, and recorded it. I threw that into the demo, and the animators and directors Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina decided they should animate the scene to be a dance scene and not just a singing competition. The elements that come from the culture inspired me and the filmmakers. 

 

And Encanto?

On Encanto, I wound up not being able to go to Colombia because the whole movie was made during the pandemic. Everybody was remote. So I actually decided to have a bunch of Colombian instruments made and shipped to me. I had a special marimba called a marimba de chonta. I had guitars sent, some bandolas, and cuatros. Of course, we used the accordion, which is an important instrument in Columbia. You’ll hear that as well. Also, I added a Colombian harp called the arpa llanera. Those were sounds that I wanted to weave into the score because sometimes hearing instrument takes you to a certain place. There are flutes called gaitas, which create an ethereal sound, and drums called tamboras. All of those together were tools that I use to create the textures of the sound for Encanto.

 

And you had an accordion player from Colombia named Christian Camilo Peña.

Yes. He and I still keep in touch. He is famous. They call him “El Rey de vallenato.” He’s a champion accordion player, and he plays with Carlos Vives, so when I heard that they were coming to the Hollywood Bowl, I asked if we could get him. Christian came with eight or nine accordions. He had never played on a film score before, and his music is aural, but he has a great ear. I invited a musician I’ve worked with for years who played on Coco, an Uruguayan guitarist named Federico Ramos, to come to the session. He would play the music that I had written out on guitar, and then Christian learned it by ear from Freddy sitting next to him. Christian was an amazing voice in the soundtrack, It was wonderful having those layers, which included Justo Almario, who is an amazing clarinetist and saxophonist here in LA, and another Colombian musician named JD Perez, who is a percussionist. There are Colombian musicians, and Colombian instruments, and there’s also a Colombian choir that are all part of the score. 

This film is very female-centric in terms of its feminine energy, and having the cantadoras and soloist Isa Mosquera as part of the score, especially in the cue “Antonio’s Voice,” adds so much. Why was it important to you to include them? 

My goal was to include this feminine voice in the story because obviously, the protagonist is female, as is the grandmother, the Abuela, which is this amazing character, not to mention the sisters. I also happen to be Latina, and I have lots of very strong aunts and my own mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and lots of Latina friends. Whether it’s Latina, Italian, or German, it’s that feminine energy of a woman who decides to take control of her destiny and figure out her place in the world. I wanted to have the cantadoras because when I was doing my research, I fell in love with their sound. If you see them, the energy of it is just incredible. I knew I wanted to put that sound in the score. I looked for a place to do it, and it’s such a unique sound, I wound up choosing that for when Antonio gets his voice because it’s such a joyous scene. He opens his room, and it’s actually bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside, and you see the tree of life, and he’s talking to the animals, and to me, that feminine voice related to nature as well.

 

Encanto is specific to Colombia, but many aspects resonate with the larger Latin community, with its representation of strong, complex Latina characters and their challenges of living with the expectations of family. How did you find ways to express that in the music of the film?

We’ve talked about having the female voices in “Antonio’s Voice,” but there are also other bits where there are primarily feminine voices underneath the score and sometimes woven in with the orchestra, like one important moment when Mirabel stands up to her abuela. Underneath the orchestra, there’s some chanting and a women’s chorus, and I just really wanted to put that texture in, using the sound of the feminine voice. I was also thinking of it as a symbol of all the hard work that women in Latin America and other places have done, raising their families, working hard, just doing so much hard work to keep food on the table sometimes, and that, to me, was a symbol of that struggle.

 

Featured image: Germaine Franco attends the 33rd Annual ASCAP Screen Music Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on May 23, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

 

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”: A Closer Look at the New Black Panther

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At the end of the official trailer for co-writer/director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, there’s a jaw-dropping moment when a new Black Panther arrives on the scene. While her identity remains a mystery, it is clear that this new person in a uniquely stylized Black Panther super-suit is a woman, and now, thanks to the character’s reveal, one of the pressing questions going into a film with a bunch of them will be, “who is she?”

Marvel Studios has given us this much closer glimpse, pictured above, of the mysterious protector in question. A closer look at the super-suit reveals a richly detailed, updated take on both the iconic suit worn by T’Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman) and the gold-inlaid version worn by his nemesis, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in the original Black Panther  Let’s do a little side-by-side-by-side comparison, shall we?

Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa in Black Panther. Courtesy Marvel Studios.
Black Panther
Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER. L to R: Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) Ph: Film Frame©Marvel Studios 2018
A scene from Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
A scene from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

There are a few striking departures in the new Black Panther super-suit for Wakanda Forever. The most notable are the more pronounced patterns on the mask (especially the beading on the forehead), the plating on the chest and along the ribcage, and the raised plating on the shoulders. Then there’s the color scheme, with our new mysterious Black Panther appearing to adopt both T’Challa (Boseman)’s blue undertones and some of Killmonger’s gold inlay. The new suit is, in fact, stunning, and we’re guessing it has some seriously upgraded technology considering it’s been a few years, and the creator of the original suit, T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), has only grown more determined to make the suit even more powerful.

Is Shuri the new Black Panther? After her central positioning on the new poster Marvel revealed, it feels like Marvel might want us to think so. And considering her abundant gifts in the science and technology realms, it would make a tremendous amount of sense. The two other most obvious choices would be Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, a gifted spy and fighter, and Danai Gurira’s Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje and arguably the best fighter in Wakanda next to the fallen T’Challa. There’s also the possibility the wearer of the suit changes, or that there are more than one suit and more than one Black Panther. It’s the type of solution a gifted filmmaker like Coogler might find appealing—the notion that all of Wakanda is, in essence, Black Panther.

Whoever the new Black Panther is, Wakanda needs her. Namor (Tenoch Huerta) will be a formidable foe, an almost god-like superhero with tremendous powers, including flight, the ability to breathe underwater (and speak to aquatic life), and colossal strength. As the ruler of Atlantis and the leader of a ferocious army, Namor will present a huge challenge to a nation in mourning over the loss of their king.

Tenoch Huerta as Namor in Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Tenoch Huerta as Namor in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

Yet Namor is not your typical villain. He doesn’t appear to seek to ruin Wakanda for territorial gain or a sadistic, Thanos-like desire to make the world submit to his notions of justice. He’s been a villain, hero, and anti-hero in the comics, one who has both fought with and against T’Challa. He’s steeped in specific traditions and history (based largely on Mayan culture) and is a King of his own people. And the man who plays Namor, Tenoch Huerta, has hinted in the past that he’s not the real villain of Wakanda Forever.

Add all of this to the fact that Wakanda Forever will be a film that looks squarely at loss after the death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 and how loss shapes individuals, people, and a nation. Namor says in the new trailer, “Only the most broken people can be great leaders,” a message that Ramonda (Angela Bassett) must take to heart, considering she’s just lost her son.

With a mysterious woman—or women—taking on the Black Panther mantle, a supposed villain in Namor who is a more complex, richer character with a deep history in both Marvel comics and in the way he was conceived by Coogler, his co-writer Joe Cole, and the Wakanda Forever creative team, and a story taking place in the shadow of the tragic loss of Boseman, it’s safe to say this won’t be quite like any MCU film before it. What it will be, without question, is one of the biggest films of the year.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Official Trailer Reveals a new Black Panther

New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Images Reveal Villain Namor & More

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Why They Didn’t Recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Featured image: A scene from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

Will Smith’s “Emancipation” Reveals Trailer & Surprise Release Date

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Apple TV has revealed the first trailer for the Will Smith-led, Antonie Fuqua-directed Emancipation, which will be landing in 2022 after all. This is a bit of surprise, considering that Apple wasn’t quite sure how they would handle the film’s release after Smith slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony.

The first trailer gives us a sustained look at the film, which was a hot commodity after it debuted in the Cannes virtual market in 2020. Apple eventually secured the rights to Emancipation after a bidding war. The movie, based on a true story, stars Smith as Peter, a runaway slave who heads north, eluding vicious slave catchers while he plunges through the swamps of Louisiana, heading, as the trailer reveals, towards the sound of President Lincoln’s cannons. Eventually, Peter makes it far enough where he can join up with the Union Army. During a medical examination, he shows his back and the horrific scars from a near-fatal whipping he endured from an overseer on a plantation he was enslaved at. This image was published in The Independent (the photo was known as The Scouraged Back) in May of 1863 and then appeared in Harper’s Weekly on July 4 of that same year. It made plain the horrific savagery of slavery and would have a lasting impact on the perception of America’s most vile institution.

Joining Smith are Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, Mustafa Shakir, Steven Ogg, Grant Harvey, Ronnie Gene Bivens, Jayson Warner Smith, Jabbar Lewis, Michael Luwoye, Aaron Moten, and Imani Pullum.

Check out the trailer below. Emancipation arrives on December 2.

For more on Apple TV, check out these stories:

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“Shantaram” Trailer Finds Charlie Hunnam as a Fugitive in 1980s Bombay

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New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Images Reveal Villain Namor & More

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Today has given us a bounty of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever news. First, the official trailer dropped, revealing a Wakanda mourning the loss of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) after the star’s tragic passing in August of 2020. The trailer not only showed us how Wakanda grieves a fallen hero and king but also the new faces that will be both welcome in Wakanda, like Dominque Thorne’s Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, and unwelcome, which is certainly the case with Tenoch Huerta’s villain Namor. And then, at the trailer’s end, we got a glimpse of a new Black Panther, clearly a woman, but her identity will remain a mystery until the film hits theaters.

Now, Marvel Studios has released a crop of new images that give us a closer look at the battle to come. As a bonus, they also released a new poster, which evocatively lays out the coming trouble. On the top half of the poster, you’ve got the surviving heroes of Wakanda. Note their position—Shuri (Letitia Wright) is front and center, undoubtedly adding to speculation that she might be the new Black Panter. On Shuri’s right are Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and M’Baku (Winston Duke), and to her left are her mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett)and Okoye (Danai Gurira). On the bottom half of the poster, representing the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, are Namor and two of his captains; to his left is Attuma (Alex Livinalli) and to his right is Namora (Mabel Cadena).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. © 2022 MARVEL.

With T’Challa gone and Wakanda appearing vulnerable, Namor and his warriors will become a potentially existential threat to Wakanda. The trailer gave us a few moments of Ramonda rallying her people to show Namor and the Atlanteans who the Wakandans really were and how they fight. We also got a peek at Riri Williams in full Ironheart gear and that mysterious new Black Panther. It will take all of them to defeat Namor, whose powers make even Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) from the original Black Panther seem manageable.

The new images show Okoye showing why she’s the leader of the Dora Milaje, Shuri in a burning throne room, Namor in all his underwater glory, and what the mourning ceremony in Wakanda looks like.

Check out the new images below. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.

Tenoch Huerta as Namor in Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Tenoch Huerta as Namor in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Letitia Wright as Shuri in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
A scene from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
(Center): Danai Gurira as Okoye in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Official Trailer Reveals a new Black Panther

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Why They Didn’t Recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Reveals New Poster & New Image of the Atlanteans

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Stars Winston Duke & Tenoch Huerta on the Emotional Sequel

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“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Official Trailer Reveals a new Black Panther

Posted on by babrams

We open with an image of the iconic Black Panther mask being carried by Shuri (Letitia Wright) during a funeral procession for the fallen hero. We know, of course, that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is carrying on without star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away at 43 in August of 2020. The somber notes and mournful tone of the official trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever feels that much more heartrending when you consider the performers, and everyone involved with making the movie, were feeling it in real life.

While Wakanda is in mourning, a new threat rises, threatening to strike at the nation in its moment of grief. The official trailer introduces us to that threat, in the form of Tenoch Huerta’s Namor, right away. The surviving leaders of Wakanda, along with Shuri, include her mother, Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and M’Baku (Winston Duke), and it is on them to figure out a way to handle the incredibly powerful Namor and his warriors. While Erik Killmonger was a beast of an opponent, Namor has abilities that outstrip even his. The man can fly, for starters.

Ramonda seems poised to take on a much larger leadership role now that her son, T’Challa (Boseman), is gone. In fact, she gets the most stirring moments in the official trailer, rallying her proud but grieving countrymen and women to the cause to show Namor and his people just how powerful Wakandans are. She’ll also have some new help.

One major new addition to their struggle will be Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), better known as Ironheart—a brilliant young scientist who invents a super suit equal to Tony Stark’s Iron Man iterations. Then comes the trailer’s most thrilling moment yet, the reveal, at the very end, of a new Black Panther. While Marvel isn’t going to reveal who, exactly, it is, it is clear that the person wearing this suit is a woman, and she’s not playing around.

Is it Shuri? Okoye? Nakia? We won’t know until the film opens, but it’s a sensational way to cap a trailer that’s about to be seen by many, many millions of people.

Check out the thrilling new trailer here. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Why They Didn’t Recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Reveals New Poster & New Image of the Atlanteans

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Stars Winston Duke & Tenoch Huerta on the Emotional Sequel

Featured image: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Courtesy Marvel Studios.

An Eye For an Eye: Inside “House of the Dragon” Episode 7

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An eye for an eye. It’s one of the oldest, coldest, cruelest forms of justice, the type of punishment that would, of course, fit perfectly in House of the Dragon. And so it was what Queen Alicent called for after her son, the clearly troubled, dragon-obsessed Prince Aemond (Leo Ashton), lost an eye in a post-dragon-ride scuffle with his half-nephews.

Episode 7 began in mourning, with the funeral, held on the island of Driftmark, for Lady Laena after last week’s death by dragon. All the major players were there—the late Laena’s husband, Prince Daemon, not exactly grieving himself, their children Baela and Rhaena, King Viserys, Queen Alicent, their children Aegon, Aemond, and Helaena, Princess Rhaenyra, Prince Laenor, “their” children Jayce and Luke. Otto Hightower, Ser Criston Cole, the entire House Velaryon.

While the Targaryeans deal with their dead through dragon fire, the Velaryons commit their dead to the sea. While Lady Laena was being laid to her final rest beneath the waves, the mood on land wasn’t just somber, it was downright awkward. The scene is filmed and performed with an admirable eye towards isolation—even gathered all together, the members of House Velaryon and House Targaryen are estranged from each other and amongst their own families. A lot of loaded looks, a lot of whispering.

“The multitude of conversations are really about a family that has been somewhat blown apart, trying to find solace in each other, trying to forgive each other for all their past wrongdoings,” says episode director Miguel Sapochnik in this week’s “Inside the Episode” video. Spoiler alert: they do not.

After the ceremony, Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon continued where they left off ten years ago at the brothel in Old Town, but this time, on the beach, they consummate their relationship. “Rhaenyra and Daemon are made of the same stuff. They’re a terrible match,” says Emma D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra, in the video. “I think there’s a dangerous chemistry.”

While the pairing of Daemon and Rhaneyra will have huge implications for everyone gathered at Driftmark, there’s an even more pressing situation courtesy of the littlest royals. Once the funeral was done, the petulant Prince Aemond, tired of being mocked for not having his own dragon, went off and filched the late Lady Laena’s dragon Vhagar, the biggest of them all. It took a lot of pluck for Aemond to mount the beast, who for a moment looked like he was going to turn Aemond into a charred pile of bones. Yet Aemond pulled it off, and in so doing, he claimed Vhagar for himself and House Targaryen, a huge coup with implications to come. Yet he’d pay the price, as we mentioned up to.

Upon returning victorious after his joy ride atop his new dragon, Aemond had to face Lady Laena’s grieving daughters, Baela and Rhaena, the latter furious because Vhagar, she believed, was to be passed to her after her mother’s death. The fight that breaks out is surprisingly brutal, considering these are children, and at one point, it looks like Aemond is going to kill one of his accusers with a rock, but it’s Princess Rhaenyra’s son Jayce who manages to slice through Aemond’s left eye with a dagger.

In the aftermath of Aemond’s maiming, there’s one of those classic Family Meetings that most members of a big brood have experienced at one time or another. Only this one, in pure Game of Thrones fashion, devolves into bloodshed. King Viserys is apocalyptic at the quarreling within his own family. The man cannot get his head around why people can’t just get along, despite the fact it’s his own failing health, the scrabbling for the throne, and the growing chasm between his wife, Queen Alicent, and his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, that feeds the fires of his family’s discontent. Queen Alicent finally breaks free from her usually calm, cool demeanor and demands justice—an eye for an eye. When King Viserys refuses to allow it, she takes Viserys’ Valyrian-steel dagger and goes straight for Rhaenyra, intending to take her child’s eye as a proper recompense for her son losing his.

That dagger, mind you, once belonged to Aegon the Conquerer and is inscribed with the prophecy “The Prince That Was Promised.” Hundreds of years later, that dagger will be wielded by one of Littlefinger’s assassins in an attempt to kill Bran Stark; it will then be used—twice—by the actual Prince That Was Promised, only it turns out the prince was a princess (not that she’d approve of the title), and her name is Arya Stark. Arya uses it to kill Littlefinger and then, at the very end of Game of Thrones, to take out the Night King.

Alas, in House of the Dragon, this mystical weapon merely slices open Rhaenyra’s arm. The wound will heal, but a scar will remain. The relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent has now spilled blood and appears broken beyond repair. House Targaryen, House Velaryon, House Hightower (of which Alicent and Otto belong), and House Strong (led by the viperish Larys) are all more or less at war, even if, at this point, the war looks more like a dangerous game amongst scheming elites.

There was more intrigue in this meaty, slow-burn of episode, including the marriage, at long last, between Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon. The only way the wedding could proceed was that Rhaenyra’s current husband, Prince Laenor, had to die. Enter Ser Qarl.

Arty Froushan, John MacMillan. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
Arty Froushan, John MacMillan. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO

Rhaenyra and Daemon hatched a clever plan for the small detail of Laenor’s death, arranging to have Ser Qarl Correy challenge Laenor to a duel in the throne room. As Laenor’s page runs off to alert the guards, the duel commences. The guards return, along with Lord Corlys and Lady Rhaenys, to find a body wearing Laenor’s clothes burned beyond recognition in the fireplace. Ser Qarl is gone.

Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO

The episode ends with the final twist—Laenor is still alive, his head freshly shaven, and on a boat with Ser Qarl. The body in the fireplace? A poor page, having done nothing wrong save be close to power in the ever dangerous, degenerate world of Westeros. So it goes. So it went. So it will go long into the future.

Check out the “Inside the Episode” below.

For more on House of the Dragon, check out these stories:

Inside “House of the Dragon” Episode 6

“House of the Dragon” Episode 6 Trailer Introduces Older Princess Rhaenyra & Queen Alicent

Inside the Cursed Wedding in “House of the Dragon” Episode 5

“House of the Dragon” Episode 4: Sex, Lies, & High Treason

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The Official Trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” is a Creepfest

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“Picture your mind…as a cabinet. Where you lock up your darkest thoughts and deepest fears. What would happen if you opened that cabinet for the world to see? We are about to find out.” So says visionary Guillermo del Toro in the opening seconds of the official trailer for his upcoming Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, and never have we felt more enthused about our minds becoming furniture. The man behind some of the great visual splendors of the modern filmmaking era, including his masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth, is bringing his love for practical effects and monster magic to the small screen. What’s more, he’s enlisted a slew of great filmmakers to aid him in this effort, including Jennifer Kent (The Nightengale, The Babadook), David Prior (The Empty Man), Guillermo Navarro (the cinematographer on Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Cronos), Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), and Catherine Hardwick (Twilight, Thirteen).

Cabinet of Curiosities contains 8 different nightmare scenarios told over 8 episodes. Del Toro has curated these stories (and contributed two of his own) with the aforementioned talented directors, a team of writers, and a sensational cast. He also serves as the host of the series. The cast includes Geena Davis, Rupert Grint, Sofia Boutella, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Andrew Lincoln, Crispin Glover, DJ Qualls, Tim Blake Nelson, F. Murray Abraham, Nia Vardalos, and more.

The official trailer reveals that del Toro’s preference for practical effects, especially when it comes to his beloved creatures, will be on full display in Cabinet of Curiosities. “With Cabinet of Curiosities, what I’m trying to say is, ‘Look: The world is beautiful and horrible at exactly the same time,’” Del Toro said in a previous video for the series. This neatly sums up his creative vision.

Check out the trailer below. Cabinet of Curiosities hits Netflix on October 25.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, acclaimed Academy Award-winning filmmaker and creator, executive producer and co-showrunner Guillermo del Toro has curated a collection of unprecedented and genre-defining stories meant to challenge our traditional notions of horror. From macabre to magical, gothic to grotesque or classically creepy, these eight equally sophisticated and sinister tales (including two original stories by del Toro) are brought to life by a team of writers and directors personally chosen by del Toro.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES is created and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro; executive produced by Academy Award winner J. Miles Dale (The Shape of Water; Sex/Life), who also serves as co-showrunner; and executive produced by Gary Ungar. Regina Corrado serves as co-executive producer. Del Toro also serves as host.

Featured image: Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities. David Hewlett as Masson in episode “Graveyard Rats” of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2022

Marvel’s “Armor Wars” With Don Cheadle Switching From a Series to a Movie

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Marvel Studios’ Armor Wars is making a major shift. The project from writer Yassir Lester was initially conceived as a series for Disney+, but now, Marvel Studios has decided it makes more sense as a feature film, so it will be redeveloped with Lester staying on as screenwriter.

Armor Wars will feature Don Cheadle’s Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, who, of course, becomes War Machine when he suits up. Cheadle’s War Machine, a souped-up, bulkier, heavily weaponized version of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits, has played an important part in the MCU, beginning with Iron Man 2 and carrying on through Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. 

The initial incarnation of Armor Wars was slated to begin filming in 2023, but now that it’s being reconceived as a feature film, that date could change. Phase 4 is about to end in November with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with Phase 5 beginning in 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s unclear when and where Armor Wars fits into Marvel’s Phased release schedule, but first thing’s first—they need to find a director for the project.

Marvel has done this before, by the way, just the other way around. Their Disney+ series Hawkeye was originally supposed to be a feature film, but once they got to work on it, they felt it was better suited as a series.

So what will Armor Wars be about, other than centering on Cheadle’s War Machine? No one at Marvel is saying, but there are clues available. Cheadle joined Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on stage at Disney’s D23 Expo to reveal the film’s logo, but that was to promote the upcoming six-episode series. The title Armor Wars comes from a beloved storyline in the “Iron Man” comics from 1987 and 1988, written by Bob Layton and David Michelinie, with art from Mark Bright. In that storyline, Iron Man’s bleeding-edge technology fell into the wrong hands, with understandably dire results.

We’ll next see Cheadle in another MCU series on Disney+, Secret Invasion, which stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as his alien buddy Talos as they try to uncover a nefarious plot at the highest levels of the government. The series kicks off in 2023. Cheadle also had a brief appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but soon (we just don’t know quite when), we’ll be getting a whole lot more of his War Machine when he’s headlining his own film.

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

“She-Hulk” Composer Amie Doherty on Blending Megan Thee Stallion With Marvel’s Orchestral Bombast

Ryan Reynolds Explains How Wolverine is Alive for “Deadpool 3” After Dying in “Logan”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Hugh Jackman Returning as Wolverine in “Deadpool 3”

Featured image: Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME..L to R: War Machine/James Rhodey (Don Cheadle) and Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner)..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2019

First Trailer for “Barbarians” Season 2 Reveals Return of Netflix’s Underrated Epic

Posted on by babrams

Season one of Barbarians was a visual feast of the bloody sort and a balm for the spirit for those of us still pining for another season of HBO’s short-lived, lavishly produced Rome. Barbarians also happens to be one of the better historical epics to grace the small screen in years, the equal of Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla. That first season took us back to the battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD when Germanic tribes desperately try to stop the spread of the Roman Empire. The series was centered on the conflict within Gaius Julius Arminius (Laurence Rupp), the son of Reik Segimer of the Germanic Cherusci tribe, but given to and raised by the mighty Roman empire since he was just a child. Those two halves of Ari (how he was referred to in the show) were pitted against each other as his original people began resisting Rome’s spread, with his former friends and family on one side and his surrogate family (also his employers) on the other. Eventually, Ari had to choose, and after a political marriage with his former friend Thusnelda (a terrific Jeanne Goursaud), Ari lead three Roman legions into the Teutoburg Forest in what was supposed to be a romp for the Roman army. Instead, Ari had sold out his surrogates and, along with Thusnelda, helped the tribes rout the Romans. In just six episodes, Barbarians season one established itself as arguably the best historical epic on TV that no one seemed to be talking much about.

Which brings us to the trailer for season two—we’re now a year after the Teutoburg Forest battle, and the Roman troops have returned to Germania. Once again, Ari is confronted with his Roman history when his brother, now on Rome’s side, aims to punish him for his betrayal of the empire. Ari and Thusnelda will join forces and try to unite the tribes for a battle against Rome, while the man they both spurned, Folkwin (David Schütter), turns to the gods for help along his bloody path.

Check out the trailer for season 2 below. Barbarians returns to Netflix on October 21.

For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:

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“Bardo” Trailer Unveils Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s First Film Since “The Revenant”

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Featured image: Jeanne Goursaud in “Barbarians” season 2. Photo courtesy Netflix.

“She-Hulk” Composer Amie Doherty on Blending Megan Thee Stallion With Marvel’s Orchestral Bombast

Posted on by babrams

With 2021’s Spirit Untamed, composer Amie Doherty became the first woman to score a DreamWorks animated feature film. Known for her work on The High Note and Happiest Season, she has also made a name for herself as an orchestrator. Her most recent project is as the composer for the Marvel series She-Hulk, where she has combined the bombastic, orchestral Marvel style with a very modern and beat-driven aesthetic that gives the show its unique sound. 

The Credits chatted with Doherty about achieving her dream of scoring for Marvel and how she built the blend of drama and quirk that keeps the She-Hulk score within the spectrum of the studio’s projects while evoking beloved female-led legal dramas like Ally McBeal and The Good Wife.

 

What do you see as milestones that led you to creating the score for Marvel on She-Hulk? 

First of all, it was a huge dream. So in a funny way, I still can’t even believe I did it, so to think about how I got there is still kind of mind-blowing. I’ve been here in LA for about 8 or 9 years now, just working my way up, or working my way through. I started out on student films, and then slowly graduated to independent features and festival-type films, and then while I was building my credits as a composer, from very small stuff all the way up, I was also working as an orchestrator for the composer Jeff Russo. He’s fantastic. 

He won an Emmy for Fargo, and scored For All Mankind, Star Trek: Discovery and Picard.

I got very lucky that I got to orchestrate and conduct on Star Trek: Discovery and Picard, and we had done Fargo, which was an amazing series. The Umbrella Academy is another one. So I had worked for Jeff, I think for 4 or 5 years orchestrating all of his stuff, and I really got to cut my teeth there. I’m so grateful for the experience, in a lot of ways, because we got to work with an orchestra week in week out and got to become very comfortable with the orchestra and learn what to ask for, how to communicate with them, and how to lead a session or how to get the sound that you want. I feel like all that experience was really invaluable. I was also working to score as many projects as I could by myself, and I got into a couple of workshops and programs that promote composers who maybe wouldn’t otherwise have their chance to get music in front of studios.

What were the programs?

I did the Sundance Music and Sound Design Lab in 2016, and that was huge, and introduced me to a lot of people. Then in 2018, I was in the Universal Composers Initiatives, which is the first of its kind, there to help composers like me, women, people of color, and people from different backgrounds who haven’t really historically had the chance to just get their music in front of the likes of Mike Knobloch, the head of film music at Universal. His whole team really put their money where their mouth was, and I was hired to score a short film, which was the first task we had when I joined the program. After that, I got to know DreamWorks a little bit, and I ended up scoring Spirit Untamed. So it’s a kind of direct path. Once I finished Spirit Untamed, She-Hulk came up, which was getting to work in that orchestral sphere, which I love. 

 

How did you go about building the She-Hulk theme? 

When I was writing the theme, I really wanted it to be one that could be applied to the two sides of her life. There’s Jen’s life, where she’s a normal person in her 30s with a fairly normal job and a normal life. She’s dating. She’s a lawyer. I needed this to be able to work in the courtroom, but when it transitions, to work in this big superhero world. It was really fun to work within the Marvel Cinematic Universe because it has this very well-established sound, so on the superhero side of things, I knew what to do. It’s big and bombastic. She’s a Hulk. The challenge was how to score the Jen side of things and bring that into the MCU, so we create our own unique sound for the show. I actually went back and watched a bunch of legal dramas like Ally McBeal, The Good Wife, and The Good Fight.  

 

There are different themes for the characters introduced throughout the series.

Yes. The main, obviously, is the She-Hulk theme, and I used that as an anchor to ground everything, and so you hear that throughout the season, but in every new episode, there are new themes and stories. That gets added to the palette. I’d write a new theme for each character and treat each of the 9 episodes like a mini-movie.  As an example, there’s the Donny Blaze theme in episode 4. Blaze is a magician, and I had so much fun writing that one, which was very separate from the theme for She-Hulk, but then when they are interacting, like when there’s a big fight scene at the end of that episode, I combined the She-Hulk and Donny Blaze themes together.

How did you go about balancing the bombastic and orchestral with the synthetic or electronic elements that are used in the score? 

When we first started talking about the sound of the show, a word that kept coming up was ‘modern.’ We definitely wanted it to be modern and reflect the fact that she is a woman in her early 30s, living in the modern, normal world. What would that sound like in the music that she listens to? Megan Thee Stallion shows up in episode 3, so that was part of it. We considered Megan Thee Stallion, some Billy Eilish beats, and whatever was top of the charts that week we were talking about. We thought, ‘What if we combine this with that big orchestral score? That would be fun.’ One musical thing I did is I left the woodwinds out of the orchestra pretty intentionally.  We only recorded brass and strings and used the synths in the place of, frequency-wise, where the woodwinds would go, so the synths are often used similarly to how the woodwinds might flourish. 

Megan Thee Stallion in Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.
Megan Thee Stallion in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.

How did writing She-Hulk for Marvel change you as a composer? 

It definitely made me write quicker, and it made me just trust my instincts. The whole process on any project is just figuring out what the filmmaker intends for every scene, and by the time I got to the end of the season, I felt like I had it fairly locked in, and we were on the same page. That always happens right at the end of the season, so fingers crossed for season 2, as I’ll be good to go!

A new episode of She-Hulk premieres every Thursday on Disney+.

 

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

Ryan Reynolds Explains How Wolverine is Alive for “Deadpool 3” After Dying in “Logan”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Hugh Jackman Returning as Wolverine in “Deadpool 3”

 

Ryan Reynolds Explains How Wolverine is Alive for “Deadpool 3” After Dying in “Logan”

Posted on by babrams

Last night, Ryan Reynolds revealed to the world that Hugh Jackman was reprising his star-making role as Wolverine in Deadpool 3. People were enthused. People were also confused. The confusion was over the fact that Wolverine definitely, without a doubt, dies at the end of Logan, director James Mangold’s brutal, beautifully executed film about Wolverine’s final, heroic act.

Sure, this is the MCU, so if Marvel wanted, they could simply have the Deadpool 3 version of Wolverine exist in a different universe than the Logan Wolverine. Or, and much less confusingly, Deadpool 3 can (and most certainly will) be set before the events of Logan, which takes place in 2029. That seems like the most obvious solution, right? But why speculate when Reynolds is right here to tell you, in clear and concise terms, exactly how Jackman can suit up again as Wolverine:

You didn’t expect Reynolds to play this straight, did you? Part of the appeal of Jackman returning to a role that he really couldn’t have left in better fashion than he did with Logan is that he and Reynolds have been doing this type of bit for years now, and clearly enjoy it. As we wrote earlier today, this feels like it’s been coming for a very long time, ever since Reynolds infamously appeared in an earlier, much-mocked iteration of Deadpool in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, the Merc With the Mouth couldn’t speak because his mouth was sewn shut, which is hilarious in retrospect when you consider that Reynolds rebooted the character in his 2016 smash hit Deadpool on the strength of his antihero’s indefatigable yammering and wise-cracking.

After years of joking about their brief previous collaboration and the possibilities for a future one, the dynamic duo of Reynolds and Jackman will finally share the screen together again. Deadpool 3 is due in theaters on September 6, 2024.

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

Hugh Jackman Returning as Wolverine in “Deadpool 3”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Why They Didn’t Recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Featured image:

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Will Be One of the MCU’s Longest Films

Posted on by babrams

It seems very fitting to hear that Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be one of the longest MCU films ever, considering the emotional heft of the film in the wake of the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman in 2020. This news comes courtesy of AMC Theaters (h/t Collider), which has Wakanda Forever clocking in at a healthy 2 hours and 41 minutes long.

There’s a tremendous amount to cover in Wakanda Forever, Coogler’s sequel to his 2018 game-changer Black Panther, so a long runtime isn’t surprising. The first and most difficult task for Coogler and his creative team is dealing with the loss of Boseman, who was, of course, Black Panther himself. As Kevin Feige recently revealed, there was never a plan to recast Boseman’s character, T’Challa, for the sequel, which means that Wakanda Forever will be directly dealing with the loss of T’Challa in some way, shape, or form, and that will take time. How Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Danai Gurira’s Okoye, Angela Bassett’s Ramonda, and Letitia Wright’s Shuri handle T’Challa’s loss is not something Coogler, his co-writer Joe Cole, or anyone else involved in the film was ever going to rush. Then there’s the new villain, Tenoch Huerta’s Namor, who will be making things difficult for Wakandans. Add to all this the fact that Wakanda Forever will also introduce a new Marvel superhero, Dominique Throne’s Ironheart, who will be starring in her own Disney+ series later. That’s a lot of narrative heavy lifting.

So where does this place Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on the list of longest MCU films? Right up at the top, in second place behind only Avengers: Endgame, which remains the longest MCU film at 3 hours and 1 minute, and ahead of the now third longest film, Avengers: Infinity War, which clocked in at 2 hours and 29 minutes. Wakanda Forever will be 27 minutes longer than the original Black Panther.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:

Marvel’s Kevin Feige on Why They Didn’t Recast T’Challa for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Reveals New Poster & New Image of the Atlanteans

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Stars Winston Duke & Tenoch Huerta on the Emotional Sequel

New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Images + Synopsis Reveal Villain Namor

Featured image: Danai Gurira as Okoye in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

“Blonde” Director Andrew Dominik on Painting a Different Kind of Portrait of Marilyn Monroe

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Visually, writer-director Andrew Dominik wanted to surface the iconic imagery of Marilyn Monroe for his fictional adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde (now streaming on Netflix.) What found its way to the screen is a nearly three-hour collection of novellas that poetically paint Norma Jean’s life from childhood to stardom.

“The big visual idea of the movie was to have it almost look like a Google search of Marilyn Monroe,” Dominik shares with The Credits. “We’re not doing that so much for reasons of authenticity but to begin with familiar images and then change the meaning of them according to her own internal drama that she’s projecting outwards.” 

Blonde. L to R: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe with Director Andrew Dominik. Cr. Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022
Blonde. L to R: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe with director Andrew Dominik. Cr. Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022

Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time to Die) immerses herself in the role, which explores more than the pinups and performances of Monroe’s time. Yes, we get to sit front row for glimpses into Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, but Dominik funnels the story through Monroe’s point of view. A case in point is the iconic scene of Marilyn’s dress blowing in the updraft of a subway passing beneath her during The Seven Year Itch. The moment is treated not as glamorous for the star but rather likens her to a piece of meat as hundreds of men fawn over her from behind the camera. The motif of Marilyn being treated as an object is a throughline in the film.

Blonde. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, Cr.Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022
Blonde. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, Cr.Matt Kennedy / Netflix © 2022

Another instance is a scene that has Marilyn and her then-husband, Joe DiMaggio, sitting in front of a window that was pulled from an Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph. Instead of this romantic moment in the vein of the still image, it’s reimagined as DiMaggio snuffing out her sensitivity. “We were always taking this imagery and flipping it on its head,” says Dominik. “It’s sort of to do it for psychological reasons, and there’s also an emotional strategy behind it.” 

Blonde. L to R: Bobby Cannavale as The Ex-Athlete & Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Cr. Netflix © 2022

The director explored rarely seen sides of Norma Jean as well. One of them is her love for theater and landing a role in Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Arthur Miller‘s (Adrien Brody) play (who she later marries). 

The sequence is set up with the clumsy writer spilling pages walking from the New York subway on his way to the reading. When he arrives, he’s taken back to see Marilyn sitting in for the part of Magda, who we find out was also his first love, as well as a character in the play. By the end, Miller is in tears. After, the two discuss the play inside a restaurant, where she makes a connection to Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” and suggests Magda is likely illiterate and is only pretending to read the writing of the character Isaac. The note is a revelation for Miller.

Blonde. L to R: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe & Adrien Brody as The Playwright. Cr. Netflix © 2022

“That scene [inside the restaurant] is based on a series of photographs. Her side of the frame is framed exactly like them,” says Dominik. “The thing about that sequence is it’s quite complex. You have to understand that he loves someone called Magda, and he’s written a play about her because he can’t let go of the feeling that he had for her, and the central event was this poem that he read to her, but that didn’t have the desired effect.”

“But Marilyn understands Magda couldn’t read. So this great American playwright is insecure about being compared to Chekov, and here’s some actress that turns up with ideas. She says this one thing, and he ultimately realizes she’s smarter than he is and that she’s solved a thirty-year-old mystery for him. He’s forced to look at her completely differently, but at the same time, what he wants from her is for her to not be herself, but his Magda.” 

BLONDE (2022) Ana de Armas and Director Andrew Dominik Cr: Matt Kennedy/NETFLIX
BLONDE (2022): Ana de Armas and director Andrew Dominik. Cr: Matt Kennedy/NETFLIX

For the director, he feels the primary relationship in the film is between the viewer and Marilyn Monroe. “I think that we are the ones that understand she does what she does and the other characters in the story don’t. I think it creates a kind of intimacy. The idea of the film is you fall in love with her and watch helplessly as she destroys herself. You understand why she’s doing it, and you’re looking at everyone around her going, help. It’s a film about what Marilyn Monroe means to us. She’s a figure that people want to protect, but perhaps, what she needs protecting from is us.” 

 

For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:

“Bardo” Trailer Unveils Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s First Film Since “The Revenant”

Mike Flanagan’s Netflix Horror Series “The Midnight Club” Trailer Revealed

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Reactions: Rian Johnson Delivers Another Delicious Whodunnit to Unpeel

Featured image: Blonde. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Cr. Netflix © 2022