A beautiful, somber new poster has arrived for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The new poster pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who passed away at the age of 43 in August of 2020, cutting off a spectacularly bright career. Boseman, of course, was Black Panther, playing T’Challa in Ryan Coogler’s game-changing 2018 smash hit Black Panther. The new poster reveals T’Challa’s iconic Black Panther mask and claw necklace, set against a dark black background, in an understated yet sublime tribute to the fallen hero.
Check out the full poster here:
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. New theatrical poster. Courtesy Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will find the remaining heroes of Wakanda, including his mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett), his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), and M’Baku (Winston Duke) facing an uncertain future now that their king and leader is gone. We learned about the threat they’ll face in that first trailer, revealing Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and his people, the Atlanteans, moving in on a wounded, grieving nation. A new image released by Marvel Studios reveals a few of Namor’s allies, but before we get to it, a brief bit of background on who this new threat is.
While Namor might not be a household name—yet—the character is one of the most storied antiheroes in the Marvel canon, first appearing on the pages of a comic back in 1941. In the comics, Namor the Submariner is a half-human, half-Atlantean ruler of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis. Possessing superhuman strength, Namor can fly through both the ocean and the air, he can speak telepathically to marine animals, and has a history of being both friend and foe of nearly every major Marvel hero, from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four to the Avengers, as well as some pretty ferocious battles with Black Panther and the Wakandans. He might sound like Aquaman to you, but Namor predates Aquaman by three years. He’s a force to be reckoned, and in his new MCU iteration, his backstory and culture will be richer and more specific. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Namor’s influences will include Mayan and Aztec cultures, and Huerta, who broke out in Narcos, is of Aztec and Purépecha origin.
The new image shows us a few of Namor’s Atlantean warriors, led by Attuma (Alex Livinalli) and Namora (Mabel Cadena). The MCU version of Namor and his fellow Atlanteans will focus not only on what separates them and makes them antagonists of the Wakandans but also on how their own rich cultural heritage informs their decisions. As Huerta said at Disney’s D23 expo, Namor and the Atlanteans have much in common with the Wakandans.
“You will see them in a light of … confrontation. We don’t get along. But, it’s funny, in the end, they have too much in common,” Huerta said. “It portrays what is happening here in the States, from my perspective, between the minorities of this country. I think at some point we need to join together and create that different thing.”
Needless to say, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is one of the most eagerly-anticipated films of the year, and it’s right around the corner—it hits theaters on November 11.
For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out these stories:
Being pegged as the main suspect in a murder may sound worrisome, but some cinematic shooting, scenic locales, and Jon Hamm’s charm can make such a predicament seem seductive, and Confess, Fletch both resurrects and modernizes the classic crime caper. Pulled from the pages of Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s novels, Fletch now carries a smartphone, but still inhabits an atmospheric world of suspense and adventure.
Cinematographer Sam Levy strikes a noir tone with contemporary clarity. He cites filmmaking techniques from Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, and The Godfather cinematographer Gordon Willis’ work as inspiration.“We used a set of lenses that were manufactured in the late 70s, but we captured the movie with a very modern 4K digital camera. It was sort of making a cinematic collage of a lot of these concepts, just trying to render Greg [Mottola]’s script in a simple and elegant way.”
Pairing a cutting-edge Alexa LF camera with retro Canon K35 lenses gives the movie its moody sensibility. Modern audiences accustomed to hyper-sharp HD will register the softer edges as vintage, but at one time, the lenses Levy used were the height of technology.
“They’re very old. They’re very soft. When they’re in focus, they are not as highly resolved as lenses that are manufactured today,” Levy acknowledged. “Actually, the lenses we used were used for the original Alien movie. The funny thing is, at that time, these were very what they called high-performing lenses. Very sharp. Very vivid. Used with film and the photochemical process, which can really soften images up, especially if you’re watching it big in a drive-thru. These were sort of standard for sharp lenses. Now, they’re popular because they’re very soft and round, and they work in concert really well with these high-resolution cameras.”
Confess, Fletch drops in on investigative reporter Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher probing an art theft that takes a deadly turn. Hamm’s performance has the suave and humorous sensibility of Cary Grant in similar comedy suspense roles. The project appealed to Levy when creative conversations made it clear that the jokes wouldn’t be too heavy-handed.
“It was very much [Greg Mottola] and Jon Hamm who just didn’t want something broad or bright or too high key,” Levy said. “So, that really got my attention. That plus the fact that there’s a significant thriller and mystery aspect to the story. At the end of the day, it’s also a comedy, but they really didn’t want me to think about it being a comedy too much in terms of how it looks. Or ‘lighting a joke’ as some people will say.”
Despite the script’s levity and comedic beats, Levy grounds the film in subdued, moody tones. Dealing in the criminal underworld, Fletch often finds himself moving through shadowy spaces. Levy recalls working with The Black Phone second unit cinematographer David Feeney-Mosier on previous projects and discovering a lensing phenomenon that helped them sharpen up dark scenes.
“We were shooting a different movie, and we were testing some lenses and were playing with underexposure. [Feeney-Mosier’s] comment about the lenses, which he did not like, was, ‘These have no teeth to them.’” Levy remembered. “What he meant was they’re not grabbing silhouettes. They’re not grabbing faces and edges and lines in the shadow area. I immediately knew what he meant. When the lenses were technically in focus and sharp, they were just a little murky and blurry and just not very present.”
With trouble trailing him and marked with suspicion, Fletch is driven into dark corners to try to clear his name. Although he must do some of his most critical snooping after sundown, the audience couldn’t stare at a black screen for the bulk of the film. Clarity in low lighting was critical.
“I think I’m very drawn to a really strong silhouetted image. There’s a good amount of that in this movie. Usually, it occurs when the subject, like Jon Hamm, is very deeply in shadow, but there’s light behind him and maybe a brightly lit wall behind. Then the silhouette is really sharply carved out. You can see someone’s profile or just even their body moving.”
The movie’s climax had one unplanned element to contend with – a driving rainstorm. Rather than lose a day of filming, the crew capitalized on the atmosphere that ultimately added to the mood of the scene. Rain is notoriously elusive to capture on screen, but professional experience and a little luck made it an asset. The action was captured by an intricate steady cam shot following Hamm sneaking around at night.
“The rain scene was completely real,” Levy noted. “Usually, when real rain falls, it doesn’t read on camera, but it was so dense that it absolutely read. It looks like we planned it and had a million rain towers, but the fact is, we didn’t. We just shot this whole sequence very quickly before the sun came up, and it just never stopped raining. It’s just one of those brutal nights for the entire crew. By the time the sun came up, we had just gotten done. It rained pretty consistently throughout, so it cuts together. The rain was not planned, but the mapping out to shoot the sequence was very carefully planned over months.”
The production team shot in both Levy’s hometown of Boston, where inclement weather is routine, and sunny Rome with help from local crews. Filming is popular in Boston, Levy noted, but the book was actually set there. The spirit of each city is well represented. Production designer Alex DiGerlando helped parse out the vibe that they both exude. Although usually on location, Boston did stand in for Rome in some interior scenes.
DP Sam Levy on the set of “Confess, Fletch.” Courtesy Paramount Pictures.
“It was fascinating to listen to Alex discuss the anthropology of Rome and what needed to happen for us to be able to capture just like a bedroom that we were shooting in Boston and what it had to have in it, what it had to look like for it to believably play for Rome,” Levy said. “The truth is when you go to Rome, and you work with an amazing crew like we did, Rome is Rome. It’s amazing. It has an effervescence.”
Not every day was a freewheeling romp around the city. The crew still had to maneuver in tight, restrictive spaces and work through challenges.
“There’s a significant part of the movie that takes place in a yacht club, inside a sailboat. A rich person’s sailboat, but a sailboat is only so big when you’re in the bowels shooting inside of it. Just figuring out the logistics of that stuff presented itself on screen in a subdued way,” Levy noted. “Rome had the electricity and giddiness of a bunch of outsiders gallivanting around and shooting Jon Hamm riding a Vespa. It’s at the beginning of the movie, and his character has lightness and levity. The murder hasn’t yet happened when he’s in Rome. You’re not burdened with all that weight yet in the Roman part of the movie.”
Don’t settle too comfortably into the beautiful European scenery and captivating art world. There’s an adventure about to unfold, and it hits quickly.
Levy has one piece of advice for audiences. “Try and see it in the theater if you can.”
Confess, Fletch is now open in theaters and on demand.
Featured image: Jon Hamm in “Confess, Fletch.” Courtesy of Showtime.
The upcoming 6th episode of House of the Dragon will propel us a few years into the future after the grim wedding between Princess Rhaenrya Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and Ser Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate) that anchored episode 5. That episode also hinted at the growing discord between the princess and her lifelong friend, Queen Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), and now a new trailer for episode 6 introduces the adult versions of these two powerful young women. The roles now belong to Emma D’Arcy, playing the adult Rhaenrya, and Olivia Cooke, as the adult Queen Alicent, and reveals just how dangerous things are about to get for both women as King Viserys (Paddy Considine) tries, in failing health, to hold the realm together.
Let’s pause for a moment to appreciate the work that Milly Alcock and Emily Carey did in the first five episodes of House of the Dragon. The series, the first Game of Thrones prequel, was always going to draw a ton of critical attention, as well as millions of viewers, and Alcock and Carey were asked to do a lot of work in the first five episodes. These two young performers were being tasked with not only carrying a large percentage of the narrative focus, representing the potential future of House Targaryen and the hopes of House Hightower, but they sharing the screen with some very seasoned performers, including the aforementioned Paddy Considine, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, and Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon. They succeeded. The strength of House of the Dragon thus far has been its tighter focus on the intrigue within House Targaryen and the succession battle over the Iron Throne rather than the more sprawling, realm-traversing drama of its predecessor, and Alcock and Carey have been critical to its success thus far. You cared about their friendship, about Princess Rhaenrya’s ambitions, to Queen Alicent’s initial restraint and, later, her decision to pick a side (it wasn’t, alas, Rhaenrya’s).
Emily Carey, Milly Alcock. Photograph by Ollie Upton/HBO.
The bloody banner will now be carried by D’Arcy and Cooke, two very talented actresses who will no doubt meet the challenge. These two former friends will have to make some very tough decisions in the five episodes remaining in the season, as King Viserys’ health continues to decline and the fight for who sits next on the Iron Throne becomes more pitched. That the series has drawn so many viewers is not surprising considering what a cultural juggernaut Game of Thrones was, but the fact that it’s been satisfying thus far is due, in large part, to Milly Alcock and Emily Carey’s performances.
Check out the trailer for episode 6 below.
For more on House of the Dragon, check out these stories:
Talk about reading the room: actress-producer Maria Bello pitched The Woman King directly to Viola Davis in 2015 while standing at the podium to present her with a Women Making History Award. Davis immediately embraced the fact-based story about General Nanisca, who, in the 1820s, led an army of fierce 19th-century women warriors from the West African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin). On September 16, The Woman King opened with Davis in the title role alongside co-stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, and Sheila Atim as machete-wielding “Agojie” soldiers. The movie features rip-roaring fight sequences courtesy of director Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), stunt/fight coordinator Daniel Hernandez, and lead cast trainer/nutritionist Gabriela Mclain.
“Everything is real,” says Mclain, who started working as Davis’ personal trainer about four years ago and now organizes her operations through her website. “It’s not CGI. We’re not trying to trick anybody. The actors put in so much dedication and heart and soul. To me, that makes them real superheroes.”
Speaking from her studio in Los Angeles, Mclain talks about DNA testing, on-set “pump-up” sessions, and the five-meal-a-day regimen that got The Woman King cast into fighting shape.
Gabriela Mclain and Viola Davis training during “The Woman King.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
It’s startling to see Viola Davis in The Woman King as this muscular action hero not long after she portrayed blues singer Ma Rainey in a 300-pound fat suit. Now here she is swinging machetes in the jungles of West Africa. First of all, how did you help Viola with Ma Rainey, and secondly, how did you prepare her for The Woman King?
Well, I didn’t have to help Viola with Ma Rainey. It was just telling her to eat eat eat, let’s not work out too hard, let’s not burn too many calories. But after Ma Rainey, we wanted to get her body back to shape and lose that weight because she was about 40 pounds over.
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM(2020) Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. Cr. David Lee/NETFLIXViola Davis stars in THE WOMAN KING. Courtesy Sony Pictures.
How did you do that?
Six days a week, it was morning sprints for an hour and a half. Then she’d go to martial arts with Danny Hernandez, who created the choreography. Then she’d come back to me for two hours of strength training with heavy weights.
Viola Davis in “The Woman King.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
You’re a nutritionist as well as a trainer. What kind of diet did you create for Viola?
I designed a plan, five meals a day. For breakfast, an egg, maybe sausage. Then she’d have a snack: vegetables or little chicken strips. Then lunch: quinoa and salmon. Then another snack like the previous one, or a protein shake to protect her muscles. And then dinner was similar to lunch. Also, Viola was forced to drink one gallon of water a day.
Forced?
[Laughing]. She was forced. I’d go, “Viola, did you drink your water?” [impersonating weary-voiced Davis]: “Yes Gabi, I did.” You have to flush the body and keep it balanced! I also did DNA testing with Viola to get the blueprint of her body. I found out she has more fat-rich muscles, meaning doing cardio would be a waste of time, and I learned how long it takes for her to process carbs and fats.
Viola Davis stars in THE WOMAN KING. Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Back up a minute: you say you got Viola Davis’ DNA profile?
Yes, I got her DNA test, which lets you find out how to get the best out of an athlete. I’m a big fan of DNA [profiles] because we’re all unique. Each body functions differently, so you want to know: what are the triggers, like, for bloating out? DNA helps you figure out those triggers.
You initially worked just with Viola Davis, but then the filmmakers expanded your responsibilities?
Yes, I signed up only to take care of Viola. A week later, they asked me to take Thuso, and then I got assigned Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and Adrienne Warren as well. When Viola first talked to me about The Woman King four years ago, it was so close to my heart and something I needed to be part of. Little did I know I’d be training the whole cast!
Like Viola, Thuso Mbedu made a dramatic transformation. Coming from The Underground Railroad, she did a great job playing a runaway slave but didn’t get to do much fighting.
Thuso could barely pick up two and a half pounds, and she didn’t like to work out. We had to turn that mindset.
Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in The Woman King.
There’s a real contrast in body types when you see Thuso and Viola in scenes together.
Well, that was the goal, to make each character different. Viola’s actually small, but since she’s the Woman King, I tried to make her look mighty. Thuso’s tiny, and because her character Nawi has just joined the army, she can’t be in super-awesome shape at the beginning. Sheila’s long and skinny, so she has a different body structure from Lashana, who’s this powerhouse. I did DNA tests for all the actors assigned to me as well as Gina, the director. I told her, “You need to hold it together because you’re the pillar.”
You traveled to South Africa with the entire cast to film The Woman King. Was that always part of the plan?
Originally I wasn’t supposed to go to Africa, but once I got the actors into shape, then it was “Who’s going to keep them in shape?”
You supervised the meals on set. How did that go?
The meal structure was pretty much the same as before, five meals a day. The actors ate every three hours, even if they didn’t want to. You can’t power through the movie twelve hours a day doing fight scenes on just 1300 calories. You’d collapse or have a tantrum. We needed to keep the calorie intake high to keep their energy up.
How did you sustain the training once shooting began?
We called it “The pump-up.” Before every take, I’d show up with light weights on my shoulders, and we’d say, “It’s pump-up time!” We’d do these pump-ups to bring the blood to the actor’s body for two reasons. You can see it when the veins pop up in the body, and also, you feel it. The energy changes. It’s like if you do ten pushups, you’re going to carry yourself differently. We wanted to bring the blood up and change the actor’s mindset: “You are a badass, and you’re going to kill it.”
Lashana Lynch stars in THE WOMAN KING.
Before working on The Woman King, you went through quite a journey yourself: Sports school in The Czech Republic, dancing, moving to L.A. at age 22, starting your career as a personal trainer…but then you hit a hurdle?
I found out I had an auto-immune problem. For a year after my daughter was born, I could barely get off the couch. It was frustrating when you feel so tired you can barely hold your child or walk from the kitchen to the living room. But I saw this rheumatologist, and he said, “Drink water, don’t eat anything with more than three ingredients, meditate, and try to be happy.” I’m able to keep it at bay now. And having gone through this struggle, the auto-immune issue has helped make me the trainer I am.
You trained The Woman King stars for three months in L.A. and another month during pre-production in South Africa. How did it feel to finally see all that preparation pay off?
We all got teary-eyed. We’ve been talking about this story for so long, and at this point, Viola Davis is like a big sister to me. When I saw her in action, knowing what she went through and all the pain and hard work, it was extremely emotional. I’m proud of all the actors who worked so hard to push this forward. To me, The Woman King is not just a movie; I think it’s a movement. It’s going to shift things. I have a daughter. She’s bi-racial. It means a lot to see these heroes, these women of color, doing all this without men having to be their saviors. It’s very empowering. In fact, I have a new program on my website called “How to Train Like a Woman King.”
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The only thing more dangerous than a war during an episode of Game of Thrones? A wedding. In last night’s fifth episode of House of the Dragon, the first GoT prequel kept up its end of the bargain with yet another bloody celebration, and while the body count wasn’t as high as GoT‘s infamous “Red Wedding,” the results were still gruesome and grim.
“Every Game of Thrones season needs its wedding that doesn’t quite go right in the end,” says showrunner and executive producer Ryan Condal in a new “Inside the Episode” video for episode 5. The wedding in question was between Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne, and Ser Laenor Velaryon. The mood was already fraught, thanks to a late arrival by the uninvited Prince Daemon (fresh from killing his wife, Lady Rhea, in the Vale) and an even later one by Queen Alicent, both unnerving the ailing, failing King Viserys.
As Milly Alcock, who plays the young Princess Rhaenrya, says in the new video, this is to be a marriage of convenience. Princess Rhaenyra wants to keep cavorting with her sworn protector Ser Criston Cole, while Ser Laenor will get to stay romantically committed to Joffrey (a bad name to have for a Game of Thrones character). Yet Joffrey makes a fatal mistake, mentioning the arrangement to Sir Criston at the rehearsal dinner. This leads to one of the most gruesome scenes yet in the new series, with Ser Criston literally beating Joffrey to death in a fit of rage.
L-r: Theo Nate, Solly McLeod. Photograph by Ollie Upton/HBO.
All of this misery was predicted by the banished former hand, Otto Hightower, who warned his daughter, Queen Alicent, that the only possible outcome from the wedding and Princess Rhaenyra remaining her father’s heir was bloodshed. Otto told his daughter that her friend Rhaenrya would have no choice but to murder Alicent’s child, Aegon Targaryen, and any other of her offspring to prove herself the sole and worthy heir to the Iron Throne.
Alicent’s thunderstruck by these words, but it’s not until Larys Strong whispers into her ear in the royal garden that the queen’s transformation begins. Larys Strong tells the Queen that Rhaenrya was visited by the Grand Maester himself with some special tea, and at last Alicent starts seeing the forest for the trees. This clues her into the fact that Rhaenrya lied to her—she had, in fact, coupled with someone on that infamous night she slipped away with Prince Daemon to Old Town—and then Ser Criston reveals to her that he slept with the Princess that very night, and begs for her to simply have him killed. She declines, but she’s no longer the meek Queen and hopeful friend we’ve seen up until now. Episode 5 saw the birth of a new Queen Alicent, one who will make her allegiances known as she looks to a future without King Viserys by her side.
“Sometimes that’s what it takes, anger and betrayal, and then people rise out of the ashes of that and know who they are,” says the episode’s director, Clare Kilner. “Alicent doesn’t like to be observed. She’s the observer. But she comes in, and she holds the room. For once, she looks like the queen,”
“She doesn’t need to come in and shout and scream at Rhaenrya. Because of the dress that’s she wearing, that says enough,” says Emily Carey, Queen Alicent herself. “She’s a Hightower through and through, she’s representing her father, and this is her saying, ‘screw all of you, I know the truth, and I know where I stand.”
Emily Carey. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
The grand wedding that King Viserys had planned comes undone right before his eyes. His Queen is now in rebellion against his daughter and heir. Ser Crispon has murdered a member of the Velaryon party, and his brother, Prince Daemon, has openly flouted his command to stay away from King’s Landing and is once again stirring up trouble. All the King can do is call for a shotgun wedding to get his daughter married quickly before things get worse.
Then they do. The King collapses. The wedding is over. Another royal wedding has been soaked in blood, and House Targaryen teeters on the edge.
Check out the “Inside the Episode” video below.
For more on House of the Dragon, check out these stories:
Featured image: Matt Smith, Gavin Spokes, Emily Carey, Paddy Considine, Milly Alcock, Theo Nate, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Wil Johnson, Savannah Steyn. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
Intensity and discipline were trademarks of the Agojie warriors who defended the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Their caliber of combat was so unmatched that one of their most unexpected traits often went undetected by their enemies.
“They fought with male warriors, so they would disguise themselves and look like men,” costume designer Gersha Phillipsshared from her research. “There are several accounts of people who said when they came through their camp, they couldn’t tell that they were fighting a woman until they captured the person.”
The all-female Agojie army was highly skilled and fought to defend their homeland from invading colonizers. That conflict was a defining moment in their storied history and is memorialized in director Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s astonishing The Woman King.
Phillips implemented a blend of authentic and practical techniques to bring these incredible women to the screen. To achieve that androgynous aesthetic, she relied on binding style tops and a clever interpretation of original Agojie uniforms.
“They would just go topless, but what they would do is put these cross straps on to carry their weapons,” Phillips explained. “That’s when both [director] Gina [Prince-Bythewood] and I were like, well that could be a halter top. We could say it’s a close enough resemblance to something that they actually did. So, the two tops that we did was the binding and then the halter.”
Lashana Lynch in “The Woman King.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Finding reference material proved to be an incredible challenge. Phillips’ discovered that her first impression of the Agojie uniforms was a false one. Accurate accounts proved to be scarce.
“When you look up Agojie or Dahomey or any of those types of words, you get some very specific pictures. They are pictures that we realized, later on, are from the World’s Fair,” Phillips realized. “They actually put the Agojie on display as exhibits. So this whole idea of the plumes and the cowrie breastplate – all of that stuff was actually something that was a Europeanized version of the Agojie that was used as an attraction and exhibit at the World’s Fair.”
A historian with familial ties to the Agojie eventually came on board and helped delineate truth from fiction. Phillips’ research immersed her in the fascinating culture where each consultant to the reigning monarch, King Ghezo (John Boyega), had both a male and a female counterpart – the Migan and Miganon. Viola Davis leads the warriors as General Nanisca, the Miganon. Her status called for Phillips to design a standout style that denoted her position of power.
“The reason we went with the breastplate for Viola, we just wanted something that elevated her costume and gave her that general rank,” Phillips said. “I knew that the breastplate existed already, I figured that there must have been some version of it that existed. We actually put one on Viola, and then we put one on the Migan, on Siv [Ngesi]. They’re both the Generals of their leagues of their armies.”
Viola Davis stars in THE WOMAN KING. Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Like most combat units, there’s an imposing consistency in the Agojie’s uniforms that emphasizes their strength and unity. Yet, Phillips gifted each soldier with individuality that reflected their accomplishments in battle. The cast was directly involved with shaping their character’s style and the meanings that each embellishment signified.
“We made these two really cool tablets and put all the different symbols on them with meanings for each thing. Then each actress, when they came in, they were allowed to pick symbols for their belt and their different things,” Phillips recalled. “It was a really cool thing. It was interesting to watch what everybody picked. Also, for their necklaces, we put little charms on their necklaces. We just did different ways of trying to give everybody a little individual feel and also to create those ranks. Obviously, Nanisca has the highest rank, and then Izogie (Lashana Lynch) was second.”
Lashana Lynch stars in THE WOMAN KING.
By the 19th century, the western world was flush with firearms in warfare, but the Agojie were still dominating battles in hand-to-hand combat. All of the actors were subjected to rigorous diets and training to prepare for the extremely physical roles and strikingly exposed costumes. The fighters were not inhibited by layers of armor, but that also meant that there was very little material for Phillips’ designs to hide behind. The outfits she created were required to endure extreme stunts.
“Right away, we would get them to do those in the fitting so that we would have an idea of what their movements would be like when they were in the costumes. One of the things we ended up doing was we made the top of the shorts into a spandex brief so they could fight. That would give them much more movement. That really helped a lot. I hope there’s nowhere on camera that we actually see those,” Phillips laughed. “That was our little trick.”
To create thousands of costumes, Phillips’ team obviously couldn’t dedicate time to handmade techniques for construction, but they did source and produce their fabrics with traditional methods as often as possible. The beautiful prints on many of the vibrant cloths were the result of employing customary African techniques.
“In the uniforms, we dyed all the tops. That burgundy was something we created. The blues for the men’s wraps that they wore in battle – we had that fabric woven,” Phillips revealed. “It’s called strip weave, so it was woven in a ten-centimeter-wide strip, and then you layer all the fabrics together to create the dress or the tunics. We had the men’s ones done in South Africa. Then we had the women’s ones done in northern Ghana. So that was another little crazy journey.
“Our skirt fabric was also authentic. It’s called a ‘drum print.’ That was made by a gentleman in Gambia who printed that. Even though we may not have used authentic fabric, per se, we used authentic methods as much as we could. So, we did a lot of that indigo wax method of printing and things like that as well.”
Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in THE WOMAN KING
Despite advancements in technology since the Agojie were in their fighting prime, Phillips worked to ensure that the designs reflected the era. She creatively assessed what would have been feasible and accessible methods for assembling their clothing.
“We do try to make it look as hand and hide our stitching as much as possible,” Phillips noted. “When we did the shorts, we had to do blind hemming and things like that because they probably would have even been raw. Because their fabric was so much narrower, you probably would have ended up with a raw edge that you wouldn’t have to worry about. That’s probably the reality of their fabric.”
Phillips’ experience as a costume designer for the futuristic Star Trek: Discoverymay seem far removed from The Woman King, but the two projects actually have a common creative element. None of the characters would have utilized a sewing machine. For the space saga, Phillips imagined where technology would take us beyond seams and zippers.
“It’s kind of the reverse of Star Trek, because with Star Trek, you’re also trying to hide all your techniques and your sewing construction because the idea is that things would be printed,” Phillips explained. “I don’t really know what printed clothing would look like. I’ve seen some things, especially Iris van Herpen’s pieces. You know, trying to envision that was something I was doing on Star Trek, and now I was doing a different version of it. Similar but different because you’re trying to make it look unconstructed and as simple as possible.”
Viola Davis and Lashana Lynch with young recruits in THE WOMAN KING.
Phillips credits an “army” of her own in the costume department who worked tirelessly across a holiday season to fill the massive demands of The Woman King.
“I was just very honored and humbled. As a Black woman especially, getting an opportunity to tell this story about female warriors in pre-colonial Africa. There’s just so many amazing parts of that story to tell that I was just really, really overwhelmed and excited.”
The Woman King is in theaters now.
For more on The Woman King, check out these stories:
When director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s most recent film, The Old Guard, premiered on Netflix in July of 2020, the critically acclaimed action drama became one of the top 10 original launches in the platform’s history. Prince-Bythewood is following that with one of the most anticipated films of 2022, the historical epic The Woman King, the story of the Agojie, an elite all-female warrior unit charged with protecting the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. Inspired by true events, The Woman King stars Viola Davis, who also executive produced the project and had a significant impact on getting the film made.
The Woman King follows Davis as General Nanisca, who is preparing a new group of young recruits and readying them for battle under the direction of King Ghezo (John Boyega). She is aided by fierce fighter and Agojie lieutenant Izogie (Lashana Lynch) and Nanisca’s second-in-command Amenza (Sheila Atim), who presides over rituals of initiation and preparation for battle. Recruits are made up of those rejected by their family, such as Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), and captives who choose to join the sisterhood of warriors, like Ode (Adrienne Warren).
There have been no previous films like The Woman King. The release of an action film starring a nearly all Black and female cast, and led by Davis, an actor over 50, is a rarity indeed, but if the advanced buzz and its 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating is any indication, it may offer proof that audiences want what The Woman King has to offer.
The Credits spoke to Gina Prince-Bythewood about the casting and filming of a project that further shows her as a director talented at integrating action with character development and storytelling.
The performances in The Woman King are so compelling. Casting is one of your superpowers. Viola was already attached to the film when you signed on, and she’s spectacular. Can you take us through the casting of Lashana, and in what ways she surprised you with her performance?
Absolutely. When I read the script, I knew immediately that I wanted Lashana Lynch in the film. I had seen the speech she gave at Essence Black Women in Hollywood, and that was also at the time when the trailers for No Time To Die had started coming out, and she just looked so badass. I believed her in those trailers, and of course, she was in Captain Marvel, but it was what she said about the type of films she wanted to do and the type of work she wanted to put in the world. I was just so inspired and felt like I wanted to work with her. Then we met, and it was such an immediate connection. What we wanted to do with the character of Izogie is so specific, and I love the character on the page, but Lashana inspired me to give her more, not only in dialogue, humor, story, and backstory but also in action. She was one that Danny [Hernandez] and I, our fight and stunt coordinator, could trust implicitly. We knew if we designed it, she could do it.
Lashana Lynch in “The Woman King.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Viola was 56 when production began, and a starring role for a Black woman in film, especially one over 50, is exceedingly rare, but she does some of her best work in The Woman King. Can you talk about some of the aspects of your collaboration with her and how the character was built and delivered through the production?
I am so grateful to her. Viola, along with [producers] Julius Tennon and Cathy Schulman, fought so hard for this film, and part of it was fighting for her to have an opportunity to play a character like this, which she’s never been offered. Nothing has ever been written like this. She’s a genius and deserves all the choices, and the reality of our industry is that you don’t get them as a Black artist, so she created her own. It was really beautiful to build her character Nanisca with the back story that Viola created. That’s a movie in itself. She goes deep into character so that she knows who she is on a molecular level. A lot of our interaction after that was building a relationship between her and Thuso. That was me having them train together to connect, to get to know each other, to rely on each other, and to push each other. And it was getting her comfortable being able to do her own fighting and stunts.
Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in The Woman King.
Fighting in the way that was required as Nanisca had to be new to her.
She had some fear in terms of doing that. She hadn’t done anything like that before. She wanted to know and trust that we would make her look good, and we did. We weren’t going to put her in our box. We were going to let her build her box and build our action and fighting around it. What is Viola really good at? Well, she is hella strong, so let’s put that into Nanisca and her style of fighting. It’s going to be different than Thuso, who is small in stature, but uses speed, or Lashana as Izogie, who’s just feral and will decimate you. That was the fun part of the specificity, me being an athlete, having kickboxed for a couple of years, being able to impart that into Viola and that character and let her know what it feels like when you’re about to fight and what it feels like to be in a fight. On the acting side, she’s brilliant. It was certainly in the fighting and stunts that I was able, I think, to provide the most direction.
Viola Davis and director Gina Prince-Bythewood on the set of The Woman King.
The battle dance is incredibly complicated. What was involved in the training and the filming of it?
It was very funny to tell the actors, “Hey, on top of everything else you’re doing, we have a couple of dances that you have to learn.” And then they watched the choreography, and you’d see their eyes glaze over like, “Oh my God, we’re gonna do that?” But we had incredible choreographers. I told them, “They are not dancers. They all have rhythm and the passion to learn, but you are teaching them really intricate, choreographed sequences and some of them involve singing in another language at the same time.” It was a lot. I went to as many rehearsals as I could because it’s inspiring to watch the progression and to see them getting better and better. I told them on set when it came time, they’d been rehearsing in private. The choreography is only half of it. What really makes the battle dance is the aggression that you bring. All these moves like neck slashing and stabbing, that’s what they really did. And so I told them, “To bring that, you have to start on volume 10.” I remember the first time on the day we shot it, the entire crew was watching to see what it looked like. They went through the dance and went at, I would say, 80 percent, and the entire crew erupted into applause because it was so beautiful and powerful.
There’s a sense of joy and ownership among those involved in this movie. The experience must have been very positive.
So many of us knew what we were doing was special because it was different and we hadn’t seen it before. When you have collaborators like I had on this, all of whom were women and people of color, all my HODs, everyone brought such a level of passion to be able to tell the story, and everybody was empowered. They had a voice in rooms where they weren’t the only ones for the first time, amongst their own, and feeling valued. That brings out even more in people, and it was such an inspiring environment. When you believe, when it’s more than a job, you just get really great work out of people.
The Woman King is in theaters now.
For more on The Woman King, check out these stories:
Amazon has officially ordered a Blade Runner 2049 sequel series. This is huge news for the legion of Blade Runner fans, sci-fi fans, and Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve fans. The new series, Blade Runner 2099, will be set (as the title makes clear) 50 years after Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, although plot details will be a tightly held secret—for now.
The series has been in the works for a little while now. Ridley Scott first announced that he was working on a sequel series back in November 2021. The showrunner will be Silka Luisa (Shining Girls, Halo), with Scott executive producing. Blade Runner 2049 co-writer Michael Green will also executive produce and will be joined by, among others, writer Tom Spezialy (Watchmen, The Leftovers), who will be joining the writer’s room.
“The original Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is considered one of the greatest and most influential science-fiction movies of all time, and we’re excited to introduce Blade Runner 2099 to our global Prime Video customers,” said Vernon Sanders, head of global television for Amazon Studios, in a statement. “We are honored to be able to present this continuation of the Blade Runner franchise and are confident that by teaming up with Ridley, Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, and the remarkably talented Silka Luisa, Blade Runner 2099 will uphold the intellect, themes, and spirit of its film predecessors.”
The original Blade Runner, based on Philip D. Dick’s 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” has become one of the most influential sci-fi films of all time. Harrison Ford played Rick Deckard, an exhausted cop tasked with hunting down replicants gone rogue (the job comes with the unimprovable title of “Blade Runner.”) Scott’s vision of a soaking, cyberpunk, hologram-haunted Los Angeles has inspired generations of filmmakers ever since. (A major hat tip to the film’s production designer, the late Lawrence Paull, who helped Scott realize his vision.) The look and feel of the original Blade Runner, along with its iconic score by Vangelis, has become so seeped into the broader cultural imagination it’s hard to imagine that when it debuted, the critical reception was mixed. Over time, however, the film has taken its place as one of the greatest in the sci-fi genre.
This is what made Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 so remarkable—it worked as both a sequel to Scott’s groundbreaking film and on its own terms. Ryan Gosling played K, a replicant working for the LAPD as a Blade Runner hunting down the world’s remaining replicants, most of whom had gone into hiding long ago. Set 3o years after the events depicted in Blade Runner, Villeneuve’s sequel played with not only the themes of the original but wove Deckard’s story, and the love he had for Rachel (Sean Young), into 2049‘s action, with Ford returning as the grizzled, hunted former Blade Runner.
Blade Runner 2099 will no doubt continue these storylines, but considering it’s set a full 50 years after Villeneuve’s film, you can expect entirely new characters, plot points, and environments. Amazon has now proven itself successful working on a massively scaled genre series with the current success of its most ambitious project to date, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Blade Runner 2099 will provide the streamer with another major opportunity to continue the story of an already hugely popular franchise, with a fan base no less fervent than those who love Lord of the Rings.
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Talk about big shoes to fill and an unmatchable voice to attempt. In fact, Whitney Houston’s singing chops were so out-of-this-world that she was also known as The Voice. Rising star Naomie Ackie accepted the colossal challenge of playing Houston in director Kasi Lemmons’ I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and Sony Pictures has just released the first trailer. Folks? It passes the “induces chills test” the second we get to the first tune.
That first tune, the one that puts Houston on the path to superstardom, came when she was stepping in for her mother Cissy Houston, a talented soul and gospel singer in her own right. That night, as the trailer reveals, legendary record producer Clive Davis (Stanely Tucci) was in attendance. Houston’s almost unimaginably potent voice is captured in its full force. Chille ensue. ,
“She’s been elevated in my life for so long that it felt like an impossible thing to achieve at times,” Ackie told People. “But so many people told me the same thing: If I wasn’t scared and nervous, they’d think something was wrong with me. … The biggest challenge was letting my fear of the magnitude of this task take a back seat. Nothing good comes from sitting in fear for too long.”
Ackie’s performance, at least from this brief glimpse, looks to be on the fearless side of the equation. She’s got a fellow rising star in director Kasi Lemmons running the show, working from a script by Bohemian Rhapsody writer Anthony McCarten. The film aims to capture the Whitney we didn’t know and promises to be a “no-holds-barred portrait” of the cosmically talented, complicated superstar. It’s a challenge, to say the least, to reveal something new about a woman who was in the spotlight for so long, both at her peak and in her darkest moments, but the talent behind I Wanna Dance With Somebody is considerable. If anyone could pull this off, it would be this crew.
Check out the trailer below. I Wanna Dance With Somebody hits theaters on December 21.
Here’s the official synopsis for I Wanna Dance With Somebody:
I Wanna Dance with Somebody is a powerful and triumphant celebration of the incomparable Whitney Houston. Directed by Kasi Lemmons, written by Academy Award® nominee Anthony McCarten, produced by legendary music executive Clive Davis and starring BAFTA Award® winner Naomi Ackie, the film is a no-holds-barred portrait of the complex and multifaceted woman behind The Voice. From New Jersey choir girl to one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time, audiences are taken on an inspirational, poignant—and so emotional—journey through Houston’s trailblazing life and career, with show-stopping performances and a soundtrack of the icon’s most beloved hits as you’ve never heard them before. Don’t you wanna dance?
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A sweeping historical epic that blends intimacy and adventure is the kind of movie that The Woman King cinematographer Polly Morgan dreamed about making while growing up in West Sussex, England.
“My earliest memories were Close Encounters and Empire of the Sun. Spielberg captured my imagination like many of my generation,” said Morgan over the phone from the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Woman King had its world premiere. “I knew I wanted to go to Hollywood. I didn’t even know what that meant; I just knew I wanted to go to the place where they make movies.”
That’s just what Morgan has done. She’s worked nonstop for two decades in television and movies; earned an MFA from the American Film Institute; became the only woman member of both the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) and the American Society of Cinematographers. Over the past two years, she shot A Quiet Place: Part II, Where the Crawdads Sing, and now The Woman King, director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic set in 1823 in the real West African kingdom of Dahomey with Viola Davis as Nanisca, the leader of an army of women warriors called the Agojie, and John Boyega and King Ghezo who allows his own people and those of neighboring countries to be trafficked as slaves.
Viola Davis and John Boyega star in THE WOMAN KING.
Morgan says although her recent films spam different genres, they share commonalities. “Even though A Quiet Place: Part II is a thriller-horror movie, it’s an intimate story of this family and their relationships with each other and dealing with the loss of their father. The Crawdads movie is really about a young woman abandoned by her family and the resilience she needed to survive. And [The Woman King] is a story of sisterhood and a mother and daughter. I’m drawn to something when I can feel a deep emotional core to a story. I like things to have some depth to them.”
Polly Morgan and Gina Prince Bythewood on the set of THE WOMAN KING
She cites Nope cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema as an inspiration. “When he came on the scene, I was amazed at what a chameleon he was, how he could float between genres and be a storyteller in films like Let The Right One In, The Fighter and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and it didn’t matter what types of movies he was doing. He was a storyteller.”
When she and Prince-Bythewood discussed the visual language for The Woman King, the director used the term “intimately epic,” recalled Morgan. “How can we show this West African nation in a way that’s going to surprise people who think that Africa is just a dry and dusty continent? This country was rich and lush and gorgeous and full of color. It was an incredible environment. Also, how can we show the beauty of these women, their vulnerability, and how to capture the gloriousness that is black skin?
We wanted [the film] to look gorgeous but authentic and real and not overly commercial and glossy. We wanted to be true to the genre of historical epics like Braveheart and Gladiator — visceral and with textures — but also true to the [time] period.”
Shooting in North and South Africa was difficult for many reasons, Morgan said. “It was challenging logistically with the weather, either rainy and muddy in the North or hot and windy in the South.” Then “a couple of weeks into production, suddenly sixty-five percent of the crew tested positive for Covid. We shut down for a couple of weeks, and some of us were terrified it would never get back up and running. But we did get back and finished in March 2022.”
Viola Davis and Lashana Lynch with young recruits in THE WOMAN KING.
Morgan admits she was concerned about shooting “huge sequences outside in the African sun. How was I going to control the light; how was I going to take care of these women and highlight the beauty of their skin and make them look good, especially with such a tight schedule? I had to be clever and lucky. And Gina supported what I needed.”
Besides epic adventure movies, Morgan studied classical paintings for inspiration. “I looked at artists like Rembrandt and Caravaggio who used firelight, and I looked at how the light plays on the faces and [creates] shadows. I also studied Flemish painters like van Dyck whose images show natural light through a window,” she said. Morgan and Prince-Bythewood wanted to use light to show the contrast of a beautiful place rendered ugly by the slave trade. “We wanted the audience to feel a difference between that environment and the beauty of Dahomey,” Morgan said.
Viola Davis stars in THE WOMAN KING.Lashana Lynch stars in THE WOMAN KING.
The creative team, led by production designer Akin McKenzie, did “massive amounts of research,” said Morgan. “Our phenomenal production head Akin McKenzie dug deep to find documents written by European traders who had actually visited the place at that time. They’d come home and write accounts about seeing the Agojie women, about meeting Ghezo, and how Dahomey was a kingdom full of riches like gold. There’s photographic evidence as well, [such as] King Ghezo wearing a top hat and shiny black shoes that had been a gift to him as a trade for human life. We wanted the movie to be authentic, so we soaked up this information. Everything is based on real research.”
Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu star in THE WOMAN KING
Throughout the production, Morgan was motivated to combine historical epic with rousing entertainment and “set a relatable story within those moments to educate about what life was like. It’s refreshing these days to have a movie like this in contrast to the superhero movies being made,” she said. “This is a true, authentic environment and an amazing cinematic story, but what makes it memorable and so strong is that we all get to learn a little history that we didn’t know before. It’s a story that needed to be told.”
The Woman King hits theaters on theaters September 16.
Featured image: Viola Davis in “The Woman King.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
The first new Avengers film since Endgame has its writer.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Marvel Studios has named Jeff Loveness its writer for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. We only just learned the title and the director of the fifth Avengers film back in July, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con that Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) would be the centerpiece of the film and that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton would be helming the epic.
Loveness comes to the project with a special Kang connection—he’s the writer behind the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which features Kang as its main villain. It turns out that, like Thanos before him, Kang is the type of bad guy that will cross multiple MCU projects (he first appeared in Loki, the Disney+ series starring Tom Hiddleston’s Asgardian trickster, only then, he was going by the name He Who Remains) and will require multiple superheroes across multiple storylines to try and take him down. Quantumania is due in theaters on February 17, 2023.
Loveness is part of a growing list of Marvel scribes who cut their teeth on Adult Swim’s beloved, gleefully insane animated series Rick & Morty. As THR points out, Loveness followed She-Hulk head writer Jessica Gao and Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron from that show. Considering Rick & Morty plunges its characters into adventures across multiple dimensions and timelines, it’s turned out to be a perfect incubator for Marvel writers.
We’ve got a while, and a slew of MCU films, before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty hits theaters—it’s due on May 2, 2025. The wild thing that Kevin Feige revealed at Comic-Con was that it will be followed only a few months later by the next Avengers film, Avengers: Secret Wars, which is currently slated for a November 7, 2025 release.
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We’ve finally got a peek at Apple TV+’s new series Shantaram, based on the international bestselling novel by Gregory David Roberts. That sprawling novel, some 900+ pages of intrigue, was fertile ground for showrunner Steve Lightfoot (Hannibal) and executive producer/co-writer Eric Warren Singer (co-writer of Top Gun: Maverick). Charlie Hunnam takes on the role of Lin Ford, a fugitive who escapes to Bombay in the 1980s trying in an attempt to find a new path forward and, if possible, make amends for his past transgressions. When you’re a fugitive, agenda item number one is staying below the radar, but this proves difficult for Lin when he falls in love with a woman named Karla (Antonia Desplat), who may or may not be his undoing.
Staying hidden is difficult to do, even in a vibrant, distant city on foreign soil. The series is leaning into the novel’s thriller aspects, with Lin describing himself in the trailer “as a wanted man with a price on his head.” Lin chooses to try his luck in Bombay because he viewed it as a place where “everyone started new,” which is precisely what’s required for a man who escaped prison. A near miss with a passing bus (he’s saved by, you guessed it, Karla) sets Lin on the path of both romance and mystery, as he’s enveloped in the rich, opaque world behind the bustling city life. Eventually, trouble finds Lin as he comes into contact with a variety of characters who aren’t keen on helping a foreigner keep his secrets unless he can do something for them in return.
Shantaram looks like an ambitious, intriguing potential new hit for Apple TV, and with a 12-episode season, it has plenty of room to operate. Check out the trailer below. Shantaram debuts on Apple TV on October 14.
Here’s the official synopsis for Shantaram:
Based on the internationally bestselling novel by Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram follows a fugitive named Lin Ford (Charlie Hunnam) looking to get lost in vibrant and chaotic 1980s Bombay. Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new place. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin must choose between freedom or love and the complications that come with it.
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Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, which means that reactions and reviews have already flooded online. Johnson has asked that those who saw the film (and those who reviewed it) to please, please, please keep its many secrets hidden until audiences far and wide get a chance to see it on December 23 on Netflix (it’s getting a theatrical release in select theaters, too, making it eligible for Oscar consideration). While this request has been met (so far, fingers crossed!), we can happily report that the folks who caught Johnson’s sequel to his 2019 smash hit Knives Out say that Glass Onion isn’t just a worthy sequel, for quite a few critics, it surpasses the original.
Daniel Craig returns, of course, as Benoit Blanc, the dapper gentleman detective who so nimbly and effectively juggled the jagged pieces in Knives Out and solved the mystery. In Glass Onion, Blanc has to bring his best summer suits—the action takes place in Greece—as he sets out to solve a mystery involving another wacky cast of characters. That cast is phenomenal and includes Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista. This list doesn’t include the cameos, but those folks, like the film’s many twists and turns, are part of the secrets Johnson and the rest of us want to stay hidden.
So, without further ado, here’s a brief tour of the reactions, all spoiler-free, of course:
Yes, #GlassOnion is as good as #KnivesOut, if not better – another very funny, supremely well written murder-mystery w/ twists & turns galore. I could watch Daniel Craig play Benoit Blanc forever. Also BIG shout out to Janelle Monáe, the film’s all-star without a doubt pic.twitter.com/MXWX7DGdEJ
Mystery solved! #GlassOnion outdoes its predecessor in almost every way. Fun, style and a Mona Lisa level performance from Janelle Monae and Edward Norton showcase Rian Johnson’s knack for telling killer stories. Production and costumes forever! #TIFF22pic.twitter.com/JS5S52tXQZ
#GlassOnion is STELLAR. Another masterful murder mystery from Rian Johnson. More Steve Yedlin brilliance. Another A+ ensemble. Cannot wait to watch this over and over and soak in the WILD amount of precision and passion that went into this movie … just like the first film.
If #KnivesOut is a case study of the dry rot of old money/classism, #GlassOnion is an examination of the moral decay of new money/influencer culture. A hilarious new Benoit Blanc mystery, Rian Johnson does it again! Also, can confirm, Daniel Craig’s eyes ARE that blue. #TIFF22
#GlassOnion is yet another hysterical and razor-sharp benoit blanc mystery from rian johnson. miles funnier than the original, the ensemble cast is beautifully controlled chaos- kate hudson is a scene stealer and janelle monâe is the beating heart. johnson’s done it again! pic.twitter.com/549J0iZ1p9
A recap of #TIFF22’s big Saturday night double bill: Steven Spielberg’s THE FABELMANS and Rian Johnson’s GLASS ONION, two dazzling magic tricks from two filmmakers who don’t want cinema to disappear. https://t.co/y1AOj1nlol
Is #GlassOnionAKnivesOutMystery a better movie than the first “Knives Out”? Not necessarily. But it’s a bigger, showier, even more elaborately multi-faceted shell-game mystery. And #DanielCraig, once again, rules. My review from Toronto. https://t.co/O3rgGOqTlb
It goes without saying that when Ryan Coogler assembled the squad to start filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it was going to be an emotional shoot. The sequel to Coogler’s cultural and commercial juggernaut, 2018’s Black Panther, was forging ahead without its lead, Chadwick Boseman, who tragically passed away at 43 on August 28, 2020. The script had to be rewritten, and although the process has been kept largely under wraps, the entire spirit of the film had to be changed. Black Panther had lost its Black Panther, and the world had lost not only a star in Boseman but a warm, thoughtful human being who was only just getting started.
Coogler and his talented cast and crew found their way. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is slated for a November 11 release date and is one of the year’s most eagerly-anticipated films. Two major players in the sequel, Winston Duke, who reprises his role of M’Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe and one of the heroes of the original film, and Tenoch Huerta, a new face in the film, playing Namor, the leader of the Kingdom of Atlantis and the film’s villain, spoke briefly with Collider about the bittersweet excitement of making the film. We suggest you read the whole interview there, but here are a few takeaways that caught our attention.
The feelings on the first day on set without Chadwick Boseman:
Duke: There was a lot of melancholy. In one way, it was very joyous to be back with people you love and care about and who are open to just play and experiment and create. And then, it was really sad, not having our guy and our friend, who was someone we looked up to, and was someone who expressed that they looked up to you. It was just really sad not to have that someone we knew as a person, and not just this artifice on a screen. He was a real person, and we really missed him. It was something that we dealt with, every day, and something that we got to understand, every day, that we’re not the only people grieving. Not only the people who are in front of the camera are grieving, it’s everybody. So, it was a lot of melancholy.
On M’Baku’s expanded role in Wakanda Forever:
Duke: You’re gonna see more. In some ways, he’s the same old M’Baku, where he’s very honest, very direct, and unapologetic. He’s so cool. But we also get an expansion of who he is. His role has grown. He’s survived so many of the current events of their world. He survived the Infinity War and End Game, and the great snap. He’s gone through that, and now he’s a part of the tribal council, and he’s more forward-facing in the world. You really get to see him grow in his role, and you see how everyone utilizes his presence. It just grows, so you’re gonna see a lot more. If you liked him, you’re getting more.
On stepping into the role of the villain as Namor:
Huerta: It was a process. The first day, when I was hanging on the wires, at some point, I could feel everything in my shoulders, in a good way, and I realized what I was doing, at that moment. It was like, “Okay, this is big.” And then, with time, you keep going, and you discover pieces of the character. When you have this director, all the sets, and these people around you, it’s easier. They give you time, and they create an atmosphere where you can create. That’s beautiful. I’d never imagined that, in this big machinery and in this big industry, there was room for creation, but Ryan [Coogler] always created that atmosphere.
One of the big reveals to come from Disney’s D23 Expo was the first trailer for The Mandalorian season 3, which revealed that Mando and Grogu would be heading back to Mandalore, where Mando has made a few enemies. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to spend quality time with Din Djarin/the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne) and the Child, considering The Mandalorian season 2 capped off in December of 2020 when the pair were saved at the last second by a young Jedi master named Luke Skywalker. During that season, Din Djarin made the cardinal sin of removing his mask. For that breach of protocol, he was booted from the Mandalorian tribe by the Armorer (Emily Swallow). In season 3, Din Djarin will try to find a way back into her good graces, but it’s going to be tough considering how fast and loose he’s played with their rules. (Consider his paternal care for Grogu, not typically what Mandalorians do with their bounty.)
The images include the featured shot of Din Djarin surrounded by his fellow—or former—Mandalorians, a fresh look at Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), the woman Din took the Darksaber from (she still seems upset); Grogu, looking adorable as ever; and Mando’s friend and fix-it woman, Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), as ever on hand to help Mando out of a jam.
Check out the new images below. Season three begins in February of 2023:
Writer/director Damien Chazelle is one of the best in the business at threading music through his films, whether in brutal (but astonishing) fashion as he did in Whiplash or of the more elegiac, bittersweet variety as he did in La La Land. In his new, star-studded feature Babylon, Chazelle seems to have found a middle ground between the two, focusing on the depraved, debauched, and delirious times, good and bad, being had in 1920s Los Angeles. While it’s movies, not music, that is the featured medium in Babylon, the first trailer still relies on a big band to blast us through the decadence on display as Chazelle’s cast, led by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, try to make their mark on a nascent Hollywood.
The 1920s were a volatile time in Los Angeles, as the movie industry transitioned from silent films to the talkies, and Babylon will dive into those turbulent waters as old stars and up-and-comers alike tried to make sense of the changing landscape. The trailer opens with Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy and Diego Calva’s Manny Tores doing cocaine, waxing energetic about the lives they would lead if they were rich. Nellie makes it clear that if she had money, shed only spend money on fun things, like partying (not boring things, like taxes), and the trailer takes her advice. We find a Hollywood scene in which it seems like everyone’s in agreement that partying is the solution—and making movies is an extension of that—as Brad Pitt’s Jack Conrad, a man who claims he made acting a respectable profession, is no more sober than Nellie is.
The cast is incredible—joining Robbie, Tores, and Pitt are the likes of Tobey Maguire, Jean Smart, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Max Minghella, Flea, Lukas Haas, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Samara Weaving.
Chazelle told Vanity Fairthat he’s been mulling over the idea of Babylon since he first moved to LA around 15 years ago. “The basic idea was just to do a big, epic, multicharacter movie, set in these early days of Los Angeles and Hollywood, when both of these things were coming into what we now think of them as,” he said. That movie is now a reality.
Check out the trailer below. Babylon hits select theaters on December 25.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
Here are the first images from the film:
Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Jovan Adepo plays Sidney Palmer in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Brad Pitt plays Jack Conrad in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Li Jun Li plays Lady Fay Zhu in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Tobey Maguire plays James McKay in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Lukas Haas plays George Munn and Diego Calva plays Manny Torres in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.Diego Calva plays Manny Torres and Jean Smart plays Elinor St. John in Babylon from Paramount Pictures.
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James Cameron is already in production on Avatar 4 (and Avatar 3, mind you), while the world awaits Avatar: The Way of Water, the second film in his epic, decades-in-the-making franchise. The planning alone for Cameron’s three-film follow-up to his 2009 smash hit is astonishing.
Cameron made the announcement at Disney’s D23 Expo, beaming in from New Zealand to give an update on the sweeping production of his Avatar films. Avatar: The Way of Water is currently in post-production, and Cameron told the D23 crowd it was going well and that the digital effects powerhouse Weta was doing “spectacular” work on the film. “I’m super excited to be finally finishing up movie two. I know everyone’s been waiting a long time. Hopefully, we’ll show something today, and you can decide if it’s been worth it.”
The director screened some 3D scenes for Avatar: The Way of Water, which revealed the Na’vi swimming on their majestic, perpetually in peril home planet of Pandora. The footage wasn’t all liquid tranquility, however. Cameron screened some battle scenes in the woods of Pandora, and the footage centered on the film’s theme of protecting one’s family and one’s home.
Meanwhile, Cameron said that Avatar 3 was currently filming.
Avatar: The Way of Water is set for release on December 16, 2022. Avatar 3 is slated for a December 20, 2024 release, while Avatar 4, now officially in production, is set to hit theaters on the far-off date of December 18, 2026.
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Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor ever to win an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama, marking one of the telecast’s highlights. Lee became only the fourth Asian actor to ever win an Emmy in any of the performance categories.
“Thank you to the Television Academy, thank you to Netflix, and thank you to the director for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen with a great script. Thank you, Squid Game team. Thank you to everyone watching in Korea,” he said after accepting his award.
Meanwhile, Zendaya became the youngest person to ever win two Emmys (she’s a mere 26) and the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Emmy twice, nabbing the award for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance in Euphoria.
“My greatest wish for Euphoria was that it could help heal people, and I just want to say thank you to everyone who shared their story with me,” Zendaya said. “I want you to know that anyone who has loved a Rue or feels like you are a Rue, I’m so grateful for your stories, and I carry them with me and carry them with her. Thank you so much.”
The night’s other big winners included the three series that took home the top awards—Succession (HBO) for Best Drama, Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) for Best Comedy, and The White Lotus (HBO) for Best Limited Series.
The stars who joined Lee Jung-jae and Zendaya as Emmy winners in the lead performance categories includedJean Smart, taking home another Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy for her work in Hacks, Jason Sudeikis nabbed another Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy, Amanda Seyfriend won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie for her starring turn in The Dropout, and Michael Keaton won the Emmy for Best Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie for his role in Dopesick.
The supporting actors and actresses who took home Emmys included, in the Drama category, Julia Garner for Ozark, Matthew Macfayden for Succession, and in Comedy, it was Brett Goldstein for Ted Lasso and Sherly Lee Ralph for Abbot Elementary. The White Lotus actress Jennifer Coolidge and actor Murray Bartlett each won an Emmy for their support work in a Limited Series or Movie.
Meanwhile, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver snagged the Emmy for Variety Talk Series, Saturday Night Live won for Variety Sketch Series, and Lizzo’s Watch Out For the Big Grrrls won for Reality Competition Program.
Featured image: L-r: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 12: Lee Jung-jae, winner of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for “Squid Game”, poses in the press room during the 74th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images). LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 12: Zendaya, winner of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “Euphoria,” poses in the press room during the 74th Primetime Emmys at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images).
Eric K. Thomas was about to go to law school when an internship at a radio station gave him his first taste of the entertainment industry.
“I was like, before I cut this check [for law school] in terms of student loans, let me see if this is something that I actually wanted to do.”
What Thomas actually wanted to do, he found out, was create a space for Black men he didn’t see anywhere else online or on the magazine racks. After graduating college and spending four years in Miami, where Thomas did a radio internship, he moved to Atlanta, where he interned with a celebrity publicist. It turned out to be a fortuitous time and place for him. Thomas saw Black men and women succeeding firsthand, but he wasn’t seeing that reflected as much in the media landscape. “Atlanta really showed me that Black people could own businesses and excel, so I feel like the entrepreneurial part really exploded when I was in there.”
Thomas unleashed his entrepreneurial spirit after he moved to New York, creating The Quintessential Gentleman, an outlet that would provide a space unlike any other on the media landscape. Beginning as a blog in 2016, QG has grown into a media platform with a quarterly magazine, a vibrant website, merchandise, and partnerships. It has also profiled some leading lights in the entertainment industry, including Judas and the Black Messiah producer Charles D. King.
Today, Thomas is on hand at the New York Latino Film Festival, with QG producing the fest’s Futuro Digital Conference. Before the festival kicked off, we got a chance to speak with him about creating the platform, the changing media landscape, and why he feels hopeful about the conversations Black men are having today.
Eric K. Thomas. Photo by J. Monroe/Monroe Media.
What was the initial incarnation of the QG like?
It started as a blog. I wanted to create a place where Black men were being celebrated. There were other publications and media platforms that would dabble a little bit in that area. They’d do a profile, they’d highlight a business, but I didn’t see anything that just really spoke to Black men that was outside of the fashion perspective. It was really about us creating this space of community.
You eventually created not only a vibrant website but a quarterly magazine at a time when many magazines were folding or shrinking. Can you talk to me a bit about that?
For me, I just felt like there were not many magazines that I saw with people I identified with. We work really hard on the design and look of it, so it could really be like a coffee table book. The conversations we have can be topical, things happening at that moment, but they’re also evergreen. Conversations that you could read ten years from now and will still make sense. So we have the print magazine aspect, and we also have the digital version. A lot of people really just want to flip through the pages.The magazine is also promotional for us. We’re a media platform, and the magazine is a component of that. It’s print to order, so if you want the magazine, you can order it right there, and we’ll ship it to your house. These are like books, you can always keep them on the table where they look great.
How do you channel your interests and your team’s interests when you’re deciding who to profile?
We’ve broken down the foundational pillars of the magazine and the site. We have four magazines a year, and our content is broken down into four subsets; power, culture, style, and family. Normally, when we’re having conversations, getting pitches, or reaching out to people to be included in our magazine or featured on the site, it’s always with one of those categories in mind. So we had Judas and the Black Messiahproducer Charles D. King on the cover of our Power Issue. We want to have a conversation like, ‘What’s it like to be in a writer’s room?’ I’m a big film buff and TV lover, but I want to know, ‘What’s it like to be a producer?’ Everyone understands the talent, but there are so many components that happen before that person gets on the set, and the conversations that go onfrom a business perspective for TV and film aren’t promoted enough. Yes, we get the celebrities who get all the glory, but I want to know the person who was in the writing room for Insecureand now has his own show. We like to focus on the people who don’t get as much attention. There are more people like Charles D. King than there are going to be like Michael B. Jordan.
“The Quintessential Gentleman” Charles D. King Cover. Courtesy QG.
Your Culture, Style, and Family pillars also show Black men in a different light.
When we talk about our Culture issue, we’re talking about our culture as Black men. What are the things that we like? The lifestyle we choose? Who’s moving the culture forward? For our Style Issue, of course, it’s about making sure we look good. The Family Issue is a really big pillar for me because when I created QG, one of my biggest focuses was showing Black fathers. There’s been a depiction in the media that Black fathers are not in their child’s life, and that’s not the case. My mother and father just had their wedding anniversary in June, so making sure we depict that, having articles about Black fathers, showing images of them with their children, loving their children, that’s so important to us.
Eric K. Thomas. Photo by J. Monroe/Monroe Media.
You’re also fostering conversations on QG that we weren’t seeing when you started the blog, which was only six years ago. Can you talk about that?
Another big piece for us is this new idea of a man. I think the world has changed, and I think Black men have been able to live as themselves, to live authentically, whatever that means to them. Maybe that’s them being emotional, vulnerable, or just excited. Or maybe that means to be with another man if they choose to. We’re more progressive, and we’re trying to produce content that speaks to a wide variety of Black men. Back in the day, it was, ‘This is who the Black man is.’ I wanted to cut through that and show there are many different kinds of Black men.
Do you feel like there’s been a significant change in the way Black men are covered in the media now?
Yeah, there’s been a huge change. For Black men, what I love, love, love is the conversations around mental health. The conversations around vulnerability. The conversations you wouldn’t even have with your best friend back in the day. I’m blessed to have such good friends, and they’ve helped me grow as a man because there are conversations I now have with them that I wouldn’t have had with anyone before. Now, I’m not afraid of being judged, and I don’t feel like I’m the only one going through this.
You’ve seen this with professional athletes now, too, talking about mental health, their struggles with pressure, expectations, racism, and more.
That’s ultimately the space I want to create; a safe space for Black men for them to feel like their authentic selves. I don’t feel like Black men in the past have been able to be authentic or themselves.In order to survive, you had to have this exterior, not show any weakness, because of the things that we’ve been through. Not that everything’s roses now, but there are components of our lives that have changed that allow us to get the help that we need, even conversations about therapy. Therapy is really a person helping you figure out your own issues and asking you the questions that allow you to dive deeper. And to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I go to therapy,’ and it’s not taboo. Now, we have the issue that there are not enough therapists that look like us, so we want to make sure there are enough people to help those seeking it. I think QG has a lot of things we want to do, like not only talking about mental health but to provide the resources to help people. Look at the younger demographic. They’re dying at an alarming rate from suicide, and I don’t think we talk about that enough. Specifically young Black boys who, back in my day, couldn’t express themselves and be kids and figure it out later.
What’s been the toughest part thus far in getting QG to this point?
The pandemic, and covering the Black Lives Matter movement that was happening during the pandemic. People could just turn off the news and put their social media away, but my team and I felt a responsibility to share the things that were happening as they were happening and be informative. It took a toll. We constantly had to see people getting shot, these videos coming in, the protests, the injustice.It was tough, but it was our job to see all that. I’d say it was the hardest time for QG.
What’s next for you and The Quintessential Gentleman?
I’ve been given the opportunity to be the producer of this year’s New York Latino Film Festival. It is one of the biggest Latino film festivals in the country, and it’s been an amazing experience. QG is producing the Futuro Digital Conference for the third year in a row, so we are excited to get influencers under one roof to share their expertise and learn from each other how to be better content creators. QG is also going to focus on brand partnerships and our community initiatives. Now that we are no longer living in a pandemic, it’s time for us to get back to the basics and hit the market grassroots style.
Featured image: Eric K. Thomas. Photo by J. Monroe/Monroe Media.
As part of the Star Destroyer’s worth of news coming out of Disney’s D23 this past weekend was The Mandalorian season 3 trailer, revealing that everybody’s favorite bounty hunter (all due respect to Boba Fett fans) is back. Din Djarin/the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne) and his charge, Grogu (also known as The Child), are returning to Mandalore, only they won’t be welcomed by everybody on the planet. The two have made a few enemies along the way.
The last time The Mandalorian aired was way back in December 2020 when season 2 ended in epic fashion, with Luke Skywalker coming to the rescue to help Mando and Grogu out of a jam. Yet we did see the pair in The Book of Boba Fett when they helped out Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). It’s a very pay it forward culture among the Jedis and bounty hunters.
Season 3 of The Mandalorian will see Mando reunite with the Armorer (Emily Swallow) as he tries to figure out a way to get back into the Mandalorian fold after doing the unthinkable in season 2—taking off his helmet. Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) is none too pleased about losing the Darksaber to Mando back in season 2, either. The new trailer also showcased how season 3 will have Mandalorians aplenty—this season looks bigger, busier, and more action-packed than the previous two.
The Mandalorian season 3 includes Carl Weathers, Amy Sedaris, Paul Sun-Huyng Lee, and Omid Abtahi, all returning. It’s been reported that Christopher Lloyd has a mysterious role this season, and we imagine we’ll be seeing Rosario Dawson’s Ashoka Tano, who has her own series coming up later.
Check out the trailer below. The Mandalorian season 3 arrives in February 2023, on Disney+.
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