If you saw No Time To Die, you saw just how phenomenal Ana de Armas was as the young CIA agent Paloma. In arguably the film’s most boisterous, giddy sequence, Armas’s Paloma, so nervous about her first mission she downs her entire martini in a single gulp, ends up being such a stellar agent even James Bond’s impressed. Paloma takes down a dozen (two dozen?) bad guys all on her own, in a thrilling action sequence that she seemed to delight in. This makes the news that Armas is in talks to star in the lead role in the upcoming John Wick spinoff film Ballerina so exciting.
Deadlinereports that Armas is circling Ballerina, which has been in the works for a few years and will be centered on a young female assassin seeking revenge against the people who killed her family. Underworld director Len Wiseman is set to helm the film, based on John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum writer Shay Hatten’s script. Hatten is also writing the franchise’s Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, so the man is steeped in all things Wick.
Armas would be a stellar choice. She even pulled off some balletic moves in her splashy, all-too-brief sequence in No Time To Die, dispatching a slew of bad guys with twirling grace and some serious skill. She’ll next be seen in the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, which is due in 2022.
Check out some b-roll from the Cuba portion of No Time To Die where Armas practically stole the show from Daniel Craig’s James Bond:
For more on No Time To Die, check out these stories:
In a new peek at Hawkeye, Marvel Studios has revealed just how excited Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) is to be teaming up with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), better known within the Marvel Cinematic Universe—which now also extends television via Marvel’s expanding Disney+ series—as Hawkeye. “I’m working with an Avenger” Bishop tells a dapper older gentleman she’s sharing an elevator with. He looks a little confused, like maybe he hadn’t asked her a question. You’d be excited, too, however, if you were an ace archer and were picked as a protegé to the world’s most incredible marksmen, a man who, with his bow and bespoke arrows, is able to hang with godlike Avengers Thor, Scarlett Witch, and more.
The new peek at Hawkeye delivers more of the exuberant charm we’ve seen in previous trailers. The series, which is partly based on the Matt Fraction and Alexandra Aja’s “Hawkeye” comics, has a decidedly fun, buddy-cop vibe. Part of what has made these Marvel series on Disney+ so interesting is no two have been alike. WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki shared the Marvel DNA and are all set within the MCU, but they are wholly different in tone and tenor. Hawkeye promises to be unlike the previous three series, leaning into the banter between our two leads and the giddy action of a holiday caper.
The rest of the cast is aces, too, and includes Vera Farmiga, Fra Free, Tony Dalton, Bryan d’Arcy James, and Alaqua Cox. While plot specifics have been scarce, it seems Barton’s plans to finally spend quality time with his family post Avengers: Endgame get spoiled by all the people who want him dead. That’s how he ends up teaming up with Bishop, and the duo is plunged into some holiday-themed madness.
Check out the new peek below. Hawkeye hits Disney+ on November 24.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye stars Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, who teams up with another well-known archer from the Marvel comics, Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld. The cast also includes Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. Hawkeye is helmed by Rhys Thomas and directing duo Bert and Bertie. “Hawkeye” debuts on Disney+ on Nov. 24, 2021.
Now, move things a peg or three, from the King of Wakanda to Planet Superfan, where one fanboy, the subject of our story, grows up with such a deep and transcendental love of movies, he knows that, somehow, they are part of his destiny.
Gimme two actors, he tells his family on road trips or at the beach. They name two actors and he proceeds to connect them through their films in six movies or less. The only movie that brought Brando and Nicholson together (1976’s The Missouri Breaks)? Every role Steve Buscemi’s ever had, major and minor? Every actor lining up for the group mugshot in Usual Suspects? He knows it all!
Our superfan hero isCory Everett, now 39, an art director living in L.A. with his wife Dina Sankari, and two sons, Julian, 4, and Noah, 1. His origin story took place one night in Brooklyn in 2014 when he was invited to fill for a friend at a weekly movie trivia night contest in a place called Videology, a combination bar and video rental store, with six and four-top tables, a bar, and a projection screen.
If the mythical Arthur realized his destiny by pulling a sword from the stone, Cory got the same woo-woo buzz pulling answers from his mind.
“The most fun,” he recalls, “was when they asked a question about a movie you had never seen or maybe you’d only heard of, or you remembered the VHS cover, and you’re pulling something out of your subconscious and you’re going ‘I don’t know why I think this is the answer, but I think this is the answer.’ And when those would be right, that was the most fun, finding the thing you didn’t even know you had buried, that you were carrying around in there.”
This roto-testing of his nerd muscles, he says, “scratched an itch I didn’t know I had.”
Cory came back to those trivia nights every week. And when the weekly meet eventually came to a close, he searched for new ways to satisfy that burning passion. The problem was, existing movie board games weren’t enough. After you answered all the questions, you couldn’t use the game anymore. The trick was to come up with something more renewable. Sitting with his own muse and a small stack of post-it notes, he came up with the central defining idea: to create a deck of cards that served as an open source to prompt any variety of movie trivia game that players wanted. They could test their knowledge of films, or actors, or connections between actors. Heck, they could play charades with it.
Cory came up with Cinephile: A Card Game. One deck of beautifully designed cards which, in Cory’s mind, he hoped would be “the Criterion Collection of card games.” There would be 150 cards, with multiple ways to play. After enlisting the help of a friend, illustrator Steve Isaacs, they launched a Kickstarter campaign in April 2018, which met its funding goal in the first five days, eventually raising over $20,000. This prompted a letter from Penguin Random House offering to partner to publish and distribute the game through their own Clarkson Potter company.
Courtesy Cory Everett
In the middle of the creative process, Cory’s wife Dina came up with the idea of creating different levels of difficulty to widen the game’s appeal. They ran with that idea so that – voilà! – players could play at five different levels of skill and difficulty, from Movie Geek (easy level) to Six Degrees (toughest), where the nerderati could take on challenges like finding the fewest of degrees to connect two names. For example: Joaquin Phoenix and Winona Ryder. Phoenix was in The Village with Sigourney Weaver. Weaver was in Alien: Resurrection with Winona. Two play score! Geddit?
“I wanted to design a game specifically aimed at cinephiles and the people I played trivia with at Videology,” says Cory. “But I also wanted to make sure if my mom picked up the game, she wouldn’t immediately throw it across the room if she couldn’t play any of the games.”
All superheroes have a soft side for mere mortals. Same with Superfans.
There are other stories that Cory tells, including how during the Year of Covid, he teamed up with three of his former trivia teammates Jordan Raup, Dan Mecca, and Conor O’Donnell to create Cinephile Game Night, a twice-weekly Livestream series that pitted some of filmdom’s most titanic nerd-versus-nerd contests, featuring podcasters, film critics, and filmmakers like Alex Ross Perry, David Lowery, and Isabel Sandoval, all raising money for charitable groups.
But possibly the most engaging of Cory’s stories is the chance encounter he had last June with Spike Lee.
After creating Cinephile, Cory and Steve came up with A is for Auteur, an illustrated alphabet book for cinephiles of all ages, featuring cinema’s greatest filmmakers, from A to Z. While Penguin distributed the card game, Cory took over the selling and distribution of the book through his ‘lil cinephile label. While on a tour of the various gift shops and bookstores in LA who might be interested in carrying the book, he went to his last stop for the day, a boutique store called Kitson Los Angeles.
At that moment, a black SUV pulled up and Spike Lee walked out. Cory couldn’t help himself. He walked up to Lee and handed him a copy of his book, which includes an ‘X is for Spike Lee’ page, with an illustration of the filmmaker wearing the cap from the movie Malcolm X. Intrigued, Lee flipped through the book and, upon learning Cory was trying to sell the book inside, led him to the back of the store to talk to the owner – whom Lee knew.
Photo courtesy Cory Everett
When an employee informed them that the owner was in the store’s other location down the street, Lee led Cory to Kitson Kids, where the buyer proceeded to place an order for the book.
“I thought, at any moment, he could just disappear,” recalls Cory. “And I would have been thrilled to have just handed the book to him, but he spent 15 minutes out of his day to help me out for no reason. It was just amazing and so gratifying.”
A magical run with Spike Lee. Courtesy Cory Everett
When they said goodbye, Cory gave the director a copy of Cinephile from his bag. Lee wasn’t pictured in the card game, he told the film director, but Denzel Washington was, pictured in Lee’s movie He Got Game. Lee laughed, thanked him for the game, and the two went on their way.
It has been a deeply fulfilling journey so far for Cory, whose website cinephilegame.com now features several expansion packs including Splat Pack (cult and classic horror movies), LA Stories (movies set in Los Angeles), and Action Pack, (you can probably guess). You can buy enamel pins for Nora Ephron or Stanley Kubrick. You can buy a ‘lil cinephile kids t-shirt. And Cory has more kids’ books on the way. Next year ‘lil cinephile will release a brand-new series called My First Movie, featuring tongue-in-cheek titles like My First French New Wave, My First Giallo Horror, and My First Film Noir.
“When I started Cinephile, it was a fun thing, and I think as the years have gone on, I feel a little bit more of a mission to help keep film culture alive, and making a game that is fun and social and helps to keep movies as a central part of the culture, that isn’t just something that’s on in the background or interchangeable with other kinds of entertainment. And with a kid’s book, you can pass film culture on to the next generation. So, I think I feel a little more responsibility than just kind of making these products that are fun and funny. They do also serve a purpose that I do believe in, so yeah ….”
American Crime Story: Impeachment is the third limited series in what has become one of TV’s most ambitious franchises. The first season, subtitled The People v. O.J. Simpson, dealt with the most sensational criminal trial in American history, and managed, in ten episodes, to make millions of viewers take a fresh look at the main players involved, especially prosecutor Marcia Clark (played by Sarah Paulson). Season two, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, chronicled the murder of the titular titan of fashion design by spree-killer Andrew Cunanan. Season three, Impeachment, moves from murder to political intrigue and into one of the most infamous episodes in American political history.
Impeachment examines the crisis and media circus that led to the first impeachment of an American president in a century. Only in American Crime Story fashion, the tale is told not from the perspective of the most powerful person involved, President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen), but from the women at the very center of the storm: Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein), Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson), and Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford). Many viewers will vividly remember (or think they remember) the lunacy of those late 90s days. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” President Clinton said in a now deathless statement during a White House press conference on January 26, 1998. We all now know that wasn’t true, and Impeachment aims to tell the story through the lens of the women who were ultimately bulldozed by the Clinton White House and a rapacious, often sexist media.
We spoke with editor Chris A. Peterson, ACE, a longtime collaborator with executive producer Ryan Murphy and his team, about marshaling the many competing storylines and famous, or infamous, figures at the heart of Impeachment. Peterson edited episode 4, “The Telephone Hour,” detailing the relationship between Monica and Linda Tripp, and episode 7, “The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky,” which covers the early days of 1998 when the world first became aware of Monica’s existence in the worst possible way.
How did you get involved initially in the Ryan Murphy television family?
The first season I’d ever watched of Ryan Murphy’s was the O.J. Simpson season. It’s one of the reasons I worked for him because I saw it and was so blown away, I was like, I need to work for Ryan Murphy. One of the things I loved about it was the ability to take an event you experienced in the past, whether it’s the O.J. Simpson story, the Versace story, or the Monica Lewinsky story, and put a different lens on how you originally experienced the event. You learn that things are maybe a little more complicated than you’d remembered them. That’s what I love about this. You start working on it and you realize how complicated these things were. One tiny little thing happens and the complications multiply, and you get to chase these different routes.
As The People v. O.J. Simpson really humanized Marcia Clark through Sarah Paulson’s tremendous performance, Impeachment gives us a much deeper portrait of Linda Tripp, played by Paulson again. What was it like working with that material?
Probably one of my most favorite things about Impeachment is Linda Tripp’s journey. Almost everyone walked into this season thinking she’s the villain. Bill Clinton is a different kind of villain in this story, but Linda was viewed as the one who started the path to destruction for Monica. What comes to play especially in episode 7 is that you really get a sense of her humanity. A great example of that is the scene where she sees John Goodman play her on SNL. I think I was able to heighten the emotional impact when she went from seeing herself as a hero in this story to the butt of the joke. To watch her reacting to John Goodman really having at her, and watching her face fall at that moment, I think we as an audience gain a certain amount of humanity for her. I started to feel for her. Whether or not I understand everything she did, I feel for her. You see it in the scene that follows when her daughter comes in and asks if she’s okay, and you see her hurt, but then you watch her regain the facade and be tough as she always does, you can now understand her predicament.
Do you ever find yourself forgetting that’s Sarah Paulson beneath all the prosthetics?
She does this really great thing where she builds these characters around a certain set of physicality and mannerisms, and she really connects to those parts. I remember in American Horror Story she said, “this character is all about how I click the nails together,” and I was like wow, I never really thought about that. Then I noticed she did it everywhere and it made me think that every time I’ve edited an episode with her since I’ve seen those details and I can start to piece together how she’s handling the character.
So in Impeachment, she’s so masterful at picking these details. She does these mannerisms of voice and the dialect, she dives so deeply into the character that I do start to forget it’s her as an actress, she really just becomes that character. I think she creates the vibe so much with her acting that the makeup and prosthetics are just secondary aspects that I don’t pay attention to. She could have done it with or without that.
You cut episodes 4 and 7, can you tell us what it was like editing those two pieces of this larger, ten-part puzzle?
Episode four, “The Telephone Hour,” and episode 7, “The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky,” are kind of bottle episodes. Episode four is very honed in on the relationship between Monica and Linda Tripp. And episode seven is the moment of destruction that happens when it all goes public and the two of them are coming to grips independently of the fallout of this whole thing. My episodes were easier to find that emotional thread. Yes, both episodes dipped into the Clinton’s side of the story, to the reporter’s side of the story, and had all these different characters, but those moments were to move the plot or establish the thriller tone of the episodes. But it was always easy to hang my hat on the emotional aspects of Linda and Monica. I just had to concentrate on them emotionally.
When things start to really fall apart for Monica and Linda in episode 7, are you leaning more into techniques you use on straight-up thrillers?
Michael Uppendahl, the director of this episode, got so much amazing coverage. Every day I’d get so many dailies because he shoots a lot of different angles and choices, so you have everything you need. One of the things that Ryan Murphy wanted us to lean into was looking at camera angles in this particular season. He wanted us to concentrate a bit on using angles that create mystery. A lot of shots are from three quarters back, or entirely on the back, so you get this sense of tension and mystery because you’re not seeing their lips move, or their eyes, so you’re wondering, do I trust this person? You’ll notice that in a lot of thrillers, it’s a subtle technique. Instead of being straight on their face all the time, it helps draw attention to the mystery of it all. In terms of grabbing techniques from other genres, I think when creating tension using rhythm in the edits, lengthening things out is very horror thing to do. You make a shot last longer than you normally would, and that really helped create not just the emotionality by just sitting on somebody’s face for a while, but sometimes it helps create the tension we needed.
Beanie Feldstein is Monica Lewinsky in “American Crime Story: Impeachment.” Courtesy FX
Beanie Feldstein’s performance as Monica is really moving. How did you find the dailies you were getting back from her work in your two episodes?
What I loved about her when I saw the first dailies is that she didn’t try to copy Monica as we all know her. She brought her own sense to the character. She embodied Monica’s emotional journey but she just brought her own style to it. She didn’t have to look exactly like her, sound exactly like her, she got to play with it in her own way without trying to copy reality.
Monica Lewinsky is one of the producers of the show, and it remains a remarkable thing to see how incredibly well adjusted, and funny, is she is after all this.
Monica’s humor is part of her growth, to have been the butt of hundreds of millions of jokes and still come out of it as a good human? It’s awesome.
American Crime Story: Impeachment is currently playing on FX on Tuesdays at 10 pm ET.
Featured image: Sarah Paulson is Linda Tripp and Beanie Feldstein is Monica Lewinsky in “American Crime Story: Impeachment.” Courtesy FX
If Bill Murray gets to play a wacky villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, all will be right in the world. Okay, not all, but you have to love this revelation. While speaking to the German language Fazabout Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Bill Murray casually revealed he’s in Peyton Reed’s upcoming Marvel film. This is the type of news we can use.
Thanks to a translation from Variety, we know that Murray told Faz that while he’s “not interested in these huge comic book adaptations,” he felt differently about the upcoming Ant-Man film because of director Peyton Reed. “I got to know the director — and really liked him very much. He was funny, humble, everything you want from a director.” Murray then added: “The director is a good guy, and now I’ve at least tried out what it’s like to shoot a Marvel movie. But I don’t think I need that experience a second time.”
So who might Murray be playing? There’s a reason to think he could be an old colleague, ally, friend, frenemy, or competitor of Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym. One fun bit of speculation is that Murray could be playing the villain Egghead, the father of Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), the misunderstood villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Granted, Egghead is supposedly dead, but, perhaps it’s a flashback, or, Egghead turns out to be alive after all. Considering Murray’s colossal comedic chops, he could be any number of the weirdo villains from the “Ant-Man” comics, such as Porcupine, who created a battle armor based on the porcupine and, well, just imagine Murray in a suit studded with giant quills.
Whoever Murray is playing, it doesn’t take much to imagine how fun it would be to see him sparring with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang. The cast for Quantumania includes the franchise’s major stars—Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne. We know the film’s major villain is Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, first introduced in Marvel’s Disney+ series Loki.
Whoever Murray ends up playing, his involvement in Quantumania is the best news since Dune 2 was greenlit.
For more on Marvel films and series, check out these stories:
With the reviews in and only a week and change to go to before the premiere of Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, there’s little left to do but wait. Well, there is one bit of business you could attend to—getting background on the MCU’s newest crop of superheroes and what Eternals is all about. In a new video released from Marvel, all ten of the Eternals are on hand to explain who they are and where they come from. The whole cast is here, including Gemma Chan (Sersi), Angelina Jolie (Thena), Richard Madden (Ikaris), Salma Hayek (Ajak), and Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos) are on hand. If you’re the type of moviegoer who likes to know as much as possible going in, this is the video for you. If you’d rather be surprised by everything, we’d suggest skipping this video entirely.
Still here? Good. The new video details the long history of the Eternals on Earth. While these superheroes are brand new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they are the oldest of all the superheroes, having arrived here in 5000 B.C. to help protect the planet and its people from the Deviants. The Eternals and Deviants were both created by the Celestials, powerful beings who roam the universe. The Deviants’ plan, very Thanos-like, is to destroy all life in existence. Therefore, the Eternals are sent to Earth aboard a massive spaceship named the Domo to save humanity from extinction. Once the Eternals defeat the last of the Deviants, the band breaks up and the superheroes scatter across the globe. For hundreds of years, the Eternals remain separated from each other as life goes on. Then Thanos shows up and obliterates half of life in existence, only for the Avengers to bring everybody back. Boom. This massive power surge lures the Deviants back to the planet, and the Eternals must reunite to save humanity. Again.
Check out the video below. Eternals hits theaters on November 5.
Writer/director Denis Villeneuve will get to finish the entirety of his vision for Dune. Legendary Entertainment announced the good news via tweet on Tuesday, booking our ticket back to the desert planet of Arrakis so we can see how Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani (Zendaya) navigate the coming war with both House Harkonnen and the mysterious Emperor. After Villeneuve scored the best opening of his career last weekend and Dune proved to be Warner Bros. strongest box office draw under its temporary model of releasing films in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously, Legendary, the primary financier of the film and the owner of the film rights and book series, let the world know it wanted the spice to keep flowing. Warner Bros. will distribute the film and help to finance as well. Dune 2 is expected to get an exclusive theatrical run and is currently been slated to open on October 20, 2023.
Here was the tweet from Legendary:
This is only the beginning…
Thank you to those who have experienced @dunemovie so far, and those who are going in the days and weeks ahead. We’re excited to continue the journey! pic.twitter.com/mZj68Hnm0A
Dune earned a very solid $41 million in ticket sales domestically in its first weekend, the best opening of the year for Warner Bros. and proof that audiences were eager to see this sweeping, made-for-the-big-screen epic in theaters. High-concept, cerebral sci-fi films are not nearly as reliable at the box office as, say, a superhero movie, yet Dune managed to meet the expectations Warner Bros. had set for it before the pandemic changed everything. The fact that Dune performed so well in our current pandemic-exhausted climate speaks to the film’s pull on audiences. Globally, Dune has gobbled up $225 million thus far.
Villeneuve always intended Dune to be a two-parter—it’s right there in the opening title sequence, Dune: Part 1. The writer/director explained to director Christopher Nolan during their conversation on the DGA’s The Director’s Cut podcast that he had hoped to shoot the two parts back-to-back, but that wasn’t in the cards. He eventually felt it was a blessing, as just filming Dune‘s massive first part was a Herculean effort. Now, he and his talented cast and crew will get to return to Arrakis to finish the job.
And there’s a lot of job left to finish. Dune ends at the middle point of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, with Chalamet’s Paul Atreides seeking out the Fremen’s help, the native inhabitants of Arrakis and the only people that might help Paul avenge his father (played Oscar Isaac) and the many other members of House Atreides who were slaughtered by House Harkonnen and their alliance with the Emperor. Dune 2 will follow Paul, Zendaya’s Chani, and the rest of the Fremen as they retreat to the desert and hope to resist, and eventually defeat, the would-be colonizers. It’s important to note that House Atreides, while the noblest of the intergalactic families, were seen as colonizers by the Fremen, too. Villeneuve has said that Dune 2 will focus much more on Chani. In the first part, she is mostly seen in dream sequences.
“We are thrilled to continue on this journey with Denis and his cast and crew, and our partners at Legendary, and can’t wait to bring the next chapter of this epic tale to theaters in October 2023,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said.
“It was a dream of mine to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune and I have the fans, the cast, and crew, Legendary and Warner Bros. to thank for supporting this dream,” Villeneuve said in a statement. Then, using a line directly from the very end of Dune, the director quoted Zendaya’s Chani: “This is only the beginning.”
Featured image: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo: Chiabella James
Although this moment is referenced in a trailer and does not shape the plot, please consider this a spoiler warning all the same.
There’s a brief moment in a recent Eternals featurette where a little boy named Jack (Esai Daniel Cross) excitedly tells his father, an Eternal named Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) that fellow Eternal Ikaris (Richard Madden) is Superman. Jack’s not silly for thinking such a thing, Ikaris and Superman have some things in common, like the ability to fly and shoot lasers from their eyes. Yet Ikaris points out one crucial difference between him and the most famous superhero of them all—unlike Superman, he doesn’t wear a cape. It’s a cute moment, and for most folks, you might not think too deeply about the reference.
For comics fans, however, specifically for those steeped in both the Marvel and DC Comics canon, this crossover mention was a big deal. As Varietyreports, not only did the moment launch a slew of “deep-dive reaction videos” and tweets, but director Chloé Zhao herself has even weighed in to set the record straight. Here’s the moment in question:
So why is a little boy mentioning Superman in a Marvel movie so wild? For starters, Superman exists in the DC Comics world, the biggest competitor to Marvel, and the guiding principle between the two massively popular comic worlds is never the twain shall meet. Marvel’s universe has Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, Black Widow, etcetera. DC’s universe has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and more. So how and why was Zhao able to drop a Superman reference into the middle of her Marvel epic?
The Oscar-winning director told Variety that she takes full responsibility for this bold melding of the two major comic houses. The script, which she co-wrote with Ryan Firpo, Kaz Firpo, and Patrick Burleigh included the Superman reference, and it didn’t get any pushback from Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige.
“You write it on the page, show it to Kevin, if he doesn’t say anything, that’s a go,” Zhao told Variety. “I don’t think there was a conversation. Not really, except, he goes, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”
The reason Superman was written into the script, however, is much more thoughtful than simply getting away with a bit of superhero mischief. The main characters in Eternals are positioned as the oldest superheroes of them all, having been embedded on Earth since the beginning of human civilization. The Eternals have been quietly shaping human advancement, and, intriguingly, inspiring humanity’s oldest myths. Therefore, Eternals like Angelina Jolie’s Thena inspired the Greek goddess Athena and Don Lee’s Gilgamesh inspired one of the most ancient stories of all, the “Epic of Gilgamesh.” While Richard Madden’s Ikaris must have inspired the Greek god Icarus, his abilities also could have inspired the creation of Superman himself.
“We’re playing on a genre that draws so much from mythology, and Superman, for example, was created in the comics and also by these brilliant filmmakers along the way — they’re modern reinterpretations of mythical characters that exist in different cultures,” Zhao told Variety. “Ikaris is our interpretation of it. It doesn’t mean we can’t pay tribute to the really iconic version that we’ve all grown to love and has influenced us.”
There’s another iconic DC character who gets a shout-out later in the film, but, we’ll leave that one be. For now, just enjoy this brief moment of Zen, when those two competitors, Marvel and DC, can coexist in the same universe.
Writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was one of the most eagerly-anticipated films of the year and for good reason. Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary 1965 sci-fi novel was always going to be a big swing from one of our most ambitious filmmakers, and arguably one of the greatest living directors of sci-fi. Villeneuve had proven with Blade Runner: 2049 and Arrival that he had the chops to take on Herbert’s notoriously dense, detailed source material. The results spoke for themselves this past weekend. In Villeneuve’s hands, Dune became a sweeping, sumptuous epic that is also that rare thing—a massive tentpole movie that also feels like the singular work of an auteur.
So who better to discuss what Villeneuve accomplished than Christopher Nolan, another filmmaker who is no stranger to turning huge sci-fi epics into deeply personal, irrefutably personal films. Nolan and Villeneuve sat down over the weekend to discuss their craft for an episode of the Director’s Cut Podcast, which was recorded after a screening of Dune at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles.
Nolan, the man behind Tenet, The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, and Inception knows a thing or two about blending CGI and practical effects, about marrying spectacle to human drama. “It’s one of the most seamless marriages of live-action photography and computer-generated visual effects that I’ve seen,” Nolan said of Dune. “It’s very, very compelling at every turn. I think this film is going to introduce a whole new generation of fans to Dune who have never read the book and perhaps will go and read it now. I think it’s an extraordinary piece of work. I’ve had the luxury of seeing it a couple of times now, and each time I watch it I discover new things, new details to the world. The way in which it’s made is absolutely for the big screen. It’s a real pleasure and a real gift to film fans everywhere — and thank you very much for that, Denis.”
When Nolan asked Villeneuve how he tackled blending the necessary computer effects with cinematographer Greig Fraser‘s work, Villeneuve said “The same way that you do it, I think.” He went on: “I think you shoot as much as possible in real locations and you try to embrace reality. There are some shots in truth that are pure CGI, but I tried to avoid those as much as possible.”
Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
Villeneuve explained that much of Dune was filmed in real environments. “It’s all about light at the end of the day. I had a masterclass on how to light a shot on doing Blade Runner with Roger Deakins. Because Roger supervised all of the VFX with me, so I spent a year listening to him on every shot. I learned so much on how to work with VFX with Roger, and that helped me tremendously on how to direct the team here.”
A still from Blade Runner: 2049. Courtesy Warner Bros.Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
Nolan recognized one of Dune‘s primary locations, the desert that represents the arid, spice-rich planet Arrakis in the film. “One of the most spectacular locations you used in the film is Wadi Rum in Jordan, which some of you may know from Lawrence of Arabia. A lot of films have been shot in Wadi Rum since Lawrence, but for my money, this is the first time I’ve seen it used in as expressive a way. The sense of place is extraordinary.”
Villeneuve said that filming in the Wadi Rum was, as Nolan had alluded to earlier, something he and cinematographer Greig Fraser had discussed as almost a gift for lovers of the big screen.
“When [my DP] Greig Fraser and I were brainstorming the film, for us it was like a kind of love letter to the big screen theatrical experience,” Villeneuve said. “The book was calling for that — the landscape and the story of a boy who will slowly remove the burden of all his heritage and make peace with a side of his identity as he goes deeper and deeper into the landscape.”
Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
Featured image: Caption: (L-r) ZENDAYA as Chani and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
When it comes to a Wes Anderson film what unequivocally stands out is the whimsical aesthetics. A potpourri of artistic detail perfectly placed as if each shot was its own painting. The French Dispatch, which chronicles the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional French city, is no different. But what immerses us in this uniquely French allegory is the soundscape, led by production sound mixer Jean-Paul Mugel and supervising sound editors/re-recording mixers Wayne Lemmer and Christopher Scarabosio.
Anderson invites us into the inner workings of The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, and those who contribute to its pages. The journey is split into four chapters each detailing a single story of the magazine: “The Concrete Masterpiece” follows an imprisoned artist whose work is sold for millions, “Revisions to a Manifesto” romanticizes a political uprising among the youth, “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner” is an exposé of a legendary chef and writer Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) takes us on a tour of the city, reminiscing about its peculiar past.
Each novella flourishes its own visual language, some scenes are shot in color while others are filmed in black and white. Grounding the layered imagery is a French-inspired sound treatment that serves as the subliminal glue.
Creating the tapestry of aural tracks started on set with Jean-Paul Mugel. “Wes’s projects are so well-written,” says the production sound mixer whose work includes Pablo Larraín’s Jackie, starring Natalie Portman. “For this movie, he had animated storyboards, even with voices, that were laid out beforehand so when we came to set we knew exactly what we had to shoot. It makes things easier with very little surprises.”
With this knowledge, Mugel was able to focus on the dialog recording each actor individually using a wireless mic and additional boom microphones to capture the authenticity of scenes. When it came to larger set pieces, like a sequence in “The Concrete Masterpiece” where the prisoners break free, the production mixer used an m/s stereo mic to record the unnerving vigor of the chaos.
Mugel also worked closely with costume designer Milena Canonero in order to find the right placement for the barrage of wireless microphones that would be placed on actors. “With Wes, he wants minimum crew on set, so it was important for us to use radio mics on the actors while we boomed overhead,” says Mugel. “Milena had a big crew and we were able to work out any issues with noisy fabrics or anything else that was not good for the microphones.”
His biggest challenges arose from unforeseen noise inside the studio which was a makeshift factory found in the southwestern region of France production converted for the film. After shooting, Mugel provided post a mix down of each scene along with the isolated tracks for them to further manipulate.
In post, the team has grown to understand Anderson’s approach to sound having worked on a number of his films. “His style is a lot different than others,” says Lemmer. “Wes likes to keep it very specific and what we try to focus on is the sonic intent for each event. Instead of looking for a lot of layers of sound, we look for the right sounds. It’s about analyzing each moment and really deciding what’s most important to hear.”
Though subtle, the acoustic atmosphere is rich in the dynamics of French cinema. “Wes wanted us to watch Jacques Tati movies to understand more of French cinema and try to capture some of that sound quality for this film. It’s a little different though because we’re trying to capture being in France and the period of time rather than capturing a French style,” notes Lemmer.
As each chapter plays out the audio landscape rhythmically dances between the dialog, sound effects, and music. The post sound team focused on each location to find the right timing and placement of sounds while connecting the overall arc of the story. “We didn’t try to approach each chapter in a different way,” explains Lemmer. “We went with what was appropriate for each scene, but with each story, the sounds naturally changed along with them.”
In a scene for “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” there’s a shootout between a cast of characters led by The Chauffeur (Edward Norton) who’s kidnapped the Commissioner’s son Gigi (Winsen Ait Hellal) and threatens to kill him unless his accountant (Willem Dafoe) is released from jail. It’s in this sequence where we hear the authenticity of the aural landscape. Instead of the gunshots having an echoing Hollywood bang, they accentuate the style of the film more reminiscent of the French New Wave era–quiet, yet piecing.
The small post team also considered the changing aspect ratios of the film which was shot by cinematographer Robert Yeoman with production design from Adam Stockhausen, both long-time collaborators of Anderson. When scenes switched from a wider screen to a squarer ratio, it informed sound how they might approach the moment–even on a subconscious level. “There’s a tone to the movie that’s somewhat light-hearted and fun and irreverent. I think part of it is finding those little moments that add to the joyousness of it all,” shares Scarabosio.
That joyousness is now available for all to see. The French Dispatch is in theaters now.
Dune delivered in more ways than one. Co-writer and director Denis Villeneuve enjoyed the best opening weekend of his career as Dune finally hit theaters—and HBO Max—this past weekend. Dune pulled in $40 million at the box office and had the best three-day opening for a Warner Bros. film that was also playing on the same day on HBO Max. Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel also hauled in a pandemic-era best $9 million on IMAX. All of this points to a strong showing for one of the year’s most hotly anticipated films, and, one hopes, will mean that Villeneuve will get to complete his vision with Dune 2.
If you saw the film this weekend, or if you’re even just a casual fan of this website, you know Villeneuve told only half of the story in Dune. The film ends (spoiler alert) with Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides finally meeting Zendaya’s Chani, a member of the Fremen, with Chani telling the young prince “this is only the beginning.” The second part of the story—which Villeneuve said he’s already written—will focus on Chani’s role within the Fremen, the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis where Paul’s family, House Atreides, were sent to control the country’s vast mineral resources of spice. The first half of the movie revealed (again, spoiler alert) that House Atreides had been set up, and with only Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson) surviving, the second half will deal with their battle, with the Fremen’s help, to defeat the evil House Harkonnen and bring peace to the planet.
Dune has done well internationally, too, collecting another $47.4 million, with a total gross of $220 million globally so far. As Variety points out, while most cerebral sci-fi films don’t always perform well at the box office, Dune has performed at the higher end of expectations. “I’m smiling,” Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein told Variety. “Exhibitors are thrilled. The best part is, fans are loving what they’re seeing. They’re loving the big-screen experience. It’s been a winner of a weekend for movie-lovers.”
As for the potential sequel, WarnerMedia chair Ann Sarnoff told Variety that Dune 2 decisions will be made based on “the entirety of what ‘Dune’ can do for the company, including HBO Max. The story in itself sets up for a sequel. The production is so amazing and the storytelling is so compelling that it’s not going to be judged on box office alone.”
Here’s hoping that sequel is greenlit and we can all head back to Arrakis for the final half of this sweeping story.
Featured image: Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
By now you know that in Jon Watts’ upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) will be taking a trip down memory lane. Only they aren’t really his memories, but those of Spider-men from across the multiverse, which is why our current Spidey will be facing off against villains from the past. Those include Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin from Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire, Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock from Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, and Jamie Foxx’s Electro from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, when Andrew Garfield was Spidey.
So how is this possible? In a word—Strange. Spider-Man: No Way Home will find Peter Parker enlisting the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in an attempt to clean up the mess created by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. In that film, Mysterio framed Spider-Man as a cold-blooded killer, exposing Peter Parker’s identity to the world. When the events of No Way Home begin, Parker will go to Strange to see if there’s a way for him to reverse Mysterio’s frame job with a little of the good doctor’s potent time-travel spells. It’s the collaboration between Doctor Strange and Peter Parker that ends up unleashing the multiverse, and the villains from past films begin bursting into Peter’s reality.
Now, courtesy of Empire Magazine, we have a couple of new images from Spider-Man: No Way Home, which director Jon Watts has said is Spider-Man: Endgame. The new images reveal one shot of Molina’s Doc Ock in pursuit of Holland’s Spider-Man.
Tom Holland is Spider-Man and Alfred Molina is Doc Ock in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Courtesy of Empire Magazine/Sony Pictures.
The Empire Magazine photo spread and interview include some pretty choice quotes from those involved. Holland himself said he never imagined No Way Home would actually come together. “When I was first pitched the idea, I was like, ‘Wow, that would be awesome if we could pull it off. But there’s just no way it’s going to work,” He told Empire. “You’re just not going to be able to get everyone to do what they need to do. It’s just not going to happen.’ But it did happen. And it’s crazy.”
Joining Holland, Molina, Dafoe, and Foxx are Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and Jon Favreau. Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to hit theaters on December 17, 2021.
Here’s the official synopsis for Spider-Man: No Way Home:
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
For more on Spider-Man: No Way Home, check out these stories.
For Joe Walker, editing Dune was finding a resonating balance between the epic nature of the story and the intimacy of the characters’ journey.
In director Denis Villeneuve’s adaption of the iconic science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert, viewers are taken on a coming of age story set thousands of years in the future where a natural resource called “Spice” is currency and those who oversee its production own the keys to space travel and commerce. When House Atreides is appointed to take over harvesting duties on the desert-like remote planet of Arrakis, House Harkonnen, who has been in control for generations, goes to war. It’s here our young protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) realizes he’s destined for something greater and embarks on a mission to fight back.
Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
On the sandy surface Dune is a classic tale of good versus evil where evil is a malevolent monster named Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and hope lies within the hands of Paul. Underneath, Villeneuve layers a complex allegory of oppression and greed wrapped in the emotional underbelly of a child becoming a man. It was up to Walker to thread the needle of each story arc in a clear and compelling way.
“Denis approached me about Dune in the middle of Blade Runner 2049, and he really wanted to do right by the book. It’s amazingly loyal. There are things the author writes about that may not be necessary to go deep into, like how wearing Stillsuits in the desert retain water, but Denis was always insistent, especially the environmental message which was really important as the book was so ahead of its time,” says Walker, who’s worked on four films with the director.
Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
Unpacking the story started in prep with storyboards and previs work. The latter was further groomed by Walker adding in dialog using voice-overs made from artificial intelligence which provided a realistic way to time scenes, especially larger set pieces.
In a sequence where Paul and his father Duke (Oscar Isaac) fly out to the desert to watch a spice harvester mine the coveted grain, it turns into a fight for survival as a looming sandworm threatens their livelihood. Before principal photography, previs for the scene was brought into the cutting room. “With previs, it normally doesn’t have a relationship with the finished duration, so you have to get that right to shoot the correct visual effects plates,” says Walker. “It’s also massively important to get the timing right and adding in everyone’s dialog helped Denis a lot. We were able to cut some dialog and order the shots to really finesse the scene. This way when they shoot principal photography they only go to what they need and we know it works.”
Caption: (L-r) JOSH BROLIN as Gurney Halleck and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
Though complex action scenes benefited from well-executed plans in prep, others developed in the cutting room. One scene, in particular, was between Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) who sit inside a tent in the desert as Paul discovers something his father has left him. “That scene was critical to get the emotion right,” says Walker. “We did some intercutting that wasn’t planned initially and found the scene by fiddling with different takes or cutting away from the scene. It took us a long time to figure it out.”
Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
Another story device that took effort creating was the Voice, a powerful weapon used by the Sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit that allows them to command others through speech. Paul’s mother, who is part of the Sisterhood, has been teaching him to find the power since he was a boy. Bringing it to life was a combination of picture and sound techniques through collaboration with supervising sound editors Mark Mangini and Theo Green.
Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and CHARLOTTE RAMPLING as Reverend Mother Mohiam in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
“In discussing it with Denis, the people using the Voice would mine their ancestry so Theo recorded all this amazing stuff with Jean Gilpin, Ellen Dubin, and Maryanne Faithful. It was a scattergun of these witchy voices. We could have left it at that but we experimented with it by putting it slightly out of sync,” explains Walker. “The idea makes it become super-hypnotic. It conveys the world in which the Voice is working and allows the viewer to be hypnotized in a strange trance while they hear it.”Adding to the sonic treatment Walker visually manipulated the images on screen with a subtle shake which added to the veracity of the moment.
In finding the pace, the editor leaned into the rhythmic nature of each scene and embraced the depth of Hans Zimmer’s score. “We work with temp tracks to get us through the timing of scenes but Hans will take what we have and go in his own direction. His instinct is so strong,” says Walker. “In the scene with the spice harvester, he wrote this kind of meeting with God. It was so different from what we planned but I got to say it’s amazingly strong. I love the score so much. It’s so bombastic and so individual. It can go from the smallest intimate thing to something massive.”
Asking what makes working with Villeneuve so inimitable, Walker says, “For me, something worth talking about Denis’s films is how there’s a base emotion that’s simulated in his films. I can remember on Sicario, it was the use of the shot from behind when you’re looking at the vulnerability of someone’s neck. We dwell on it a little longer and make you feel that massive vulnerability. It’s something that’s deeply charged in Denis’s imagery. With Dune, there are a lot of hands. It works on a majestic level that stimulates something inside us that’s purely cinematic. There’s a hallucinogenic quality to his films that’s in the design. It’s one of the very special qualities he brings to moviemaking.”
Featured image: Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and CHARLOTTE RAMPLING as Reverend Mother Mohiam in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
With the highly anticipated release of Dune in theaters and on HBO Max here at a long last, fans will finally see director Denis Villeneuve’s vision of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel come to life. Dune is about the intergalactic power struggle between House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and the Fremen. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are asked to travel across the galaxy to govern from Arrakis, the desolate, dangerous planet its indigenous population the Fremen call Dune. Arrakis is rich in Spice, the most valuable commodity in the universe. Members of vicious, violent House Harkonnen, led by The Baron (Stellan Skarsgård) have plans to get control of Arrakis, killing anyone in their way.
The world-building of Dune is extraordinary, requiring all below-the-line departments to bring their best, from production design to costuming and hair and makeup. The Credits spoke to Donald Mowat, a longtime collaborator with Denis Villeneuve who headed the hair and makeup department for the new film, about his experience designing these sometimes naturalistic, sometimes terrifying, and otherworldly looks.
DP Greig Fraser shot Dune on a large format digital camera, then Villeneuve transferred the image onto 35MM film, which was scanned back into digital. Fraser called it ‘a beautiful melding of digital and analog’. How did that impact the choices you made when creating the naturalistic makeup used for Rebecca Ferguson and Timothée Chalamet?
Well, let’s just preface it by saying Greig made us all look really good. He is a wonderful director of photography. I’m very privileged to work with a lot of people who are using the newest and latest technology, and I learned a lot about digital with Roger Deakins, who is a good friend, on Skyfall. He introduced me to Denis Villeneuve. I think the naturalistic look for Rebecca was really important to me and for Denis. Rebecca is extraordinarily beautiful. That’s not even a discussion. We’ve seen her in Mission Impossible, but it’s a manufactured look. Here she needs to be Timmy’s mom, but also the concubine, and noble, and a superhuman intellectual. She’s everything rolled into one. For me, I kept thinking of Ingrid Bergman crossed with Grace Kelly. She could look too young, so we gave her, I’m not going to say severe, but a more neutral, very simple hairstyle. That helped bring her age up a little bit, not so girlish, and made a parallel between her look and Miss Charlotte Rampling. The colors and tones of the foundations are neutral and very pale, because of where they live. Timmy and Rebecca also have to work visually together. I mean, he’s her son. He’s also his father’s son, so his hair is a tamed version of Oscar’s hair, which one day in the future he’ll have. There was a lot of thinking it through and thinking ahead. On Dune, it was the one film I worked on where I had to think a lot into the future of how the story ends and what happens later.
Donald Mowat working on Rebecca Ferguson on the set of “Dune.” Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.Caption: (L-r) REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
You said a major inspiration for the look of the Baron was Marlon Brando in The Island of Dr. Moreau. How were the concepts translated through your collaboration with prosthetic makeup designer Love Larson and key prosthetic makeup artist Eva von Bahr in Sweden?
When I started working on the project, there were a lot of unanswered questions. Denis had not made any decisions yet. Stellan Skarsgård hadn’t been cast. It would maybe be a visual effects CG character or a combination. I came in thinking not just of Apocalypse Now with Marlon Brando, but also The Island of Dr. Moreau. Apocalypse Now is pretty easy because of the size, but he needed a kind of menace and eccentricity, which can often go hand in hand. With Moreau, there’s something deceiving or insidious about him, and I thought that was interesting. There were a lot of aspects in the design that were gorilla-like. It started where Denis and I said it’s a menacing, vicious gorilla. Then it became apparent it would be Stellan, and my mind was racing, because I’d worked with Stellan, and Love Larsen and Eva worked with me many times, Love particularly. I bring him on most of my jobs to create prosthetics. They are all in Sweden. I was in Budapest, two hours away, in the same time zone. I thought it was meant to be, and I really sold it to the studio. They weren’t the most obvious choice. There was a lot of sweat, blood, and tears. I mean, it could have gone incredibly wrong. What was on our side was that I knew we had a lot of time because, at the start of the film, they’d shoot with Timmy, Rebecca, Josh, and Oscar. The Baron wouldn’t come in until the very end. To Denis, this was an experiment. There were a lot of cold feet, even down to the production meeting, when somebody from the studio asked about The Baron. Denis trusted me, and I can never repay him for that.
Caption: STELLAN SKARSGÅRD As Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary PicturesCaption: STELLAN SKARSGÅRD as Baron Harkonnen in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
The most memorable moment is when he comes up from the black oil.
With Love and Ava, we had five people doing The Baron. When they say ‘it takes a village’, it really does. Stellan worked seven days and was only meant to work five. The bathtub scene was a real white knuckle moment. With Stellan, you don’t get a more willing, enthusiastic actor. He’s naked and in makeup for five hours. The bathtub posed an issue, because somebody said, ‘We’re going to put him in a black oil’. I’m like, ‘What the hell is the black oil going to be?’ Wasn’t that going to take a lot of the makeup off? A release agent in the oil would take most prosthetic makeups off. Also, the suit is buoyant. It’s a foam fat suit. We had to destroy a suit by poking holes in it to make it sink. That was a moment that was not my favorite, but of course, we got through it.
Stellan Skarsgård as the Baron in “Dune.” Courtesy Warner Bros.
You partnered with Javier Bardem to create Fremen leader Stilgar’s look that included faded tattoos and eye makeup. Can you describe a little bit of the process of working with him to come up with this finished look?
Javier Bardem is just so good. He’s been a favorite actor of mine for many years. His makeup was so much fun because that was traditional character makeup. He expressed interest in working on the character together. He’s deeply collaborative and was so happy to be there. I found a couple of things in the Middle East. I saw this kohl eyeliner, and thought, ‘He’s got to have that. He’s tribal, he’s nomadic, but he’s still regal, isn’t he, and he’s in charge. So we borrowed a little Middle Eastern influence, some North African Bedouin, and a little Lawrence of Arabia. There are a lot of influences there. I loved the back and forth of working with him. He would send me these pictures, and I’d add ideas and send him something back. He does this thing on WhatsApp where he just leaves you messages instead of writing them, and I quite liked listening to it. It was a new way of working for me, and just a joy.
Caption: (Front) JAVIER BARDEM as Stilgar in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
Dune is in theaters nationwide and is streaming on HBO Max.
If you’re going to bring out a big, bold new caper that’s meant to be both funny and thrilling, who better to enlist as your three leads than Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot? Writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber already has a rich history with Johnson, having directed him in the dizzy action-adventure Skyscraper and the espionage comedy Central Intelligence. In Red Notice, Thurber has crafted an original caper starring Johnson as an FBI profiler named John Hartley who’s trying to clear his name—he’s been given a dreaded Red Notice by Interpol—by enlisting the help of the world’s second most famous art thief, Reynold’s Nolan Booth.
In order to clear his name, Hartley needs Booth to help him track down the world’s number one art thief, Gadot’s Sarah Black, known as “The Bishop.” It was The Bishop who set Hartley up for a crime he didn’t commit, earning him the Interpol’s aforementioned “Red Notice” alert, which means agents from all over the world are trying to track him down. The only way to clear his name is if he and Booth can capture The Bishop. It’s a fun conceit for a caper, and with three megawatt stars leading the way it has the potential to be a hit for Netflix. The film was a hot commodity when it was first pitched back in 2018 and was the subject of an intense bidding war. Now, at long last, Thurber’s A-list comedy/adventure is ready for its debut.
Check out the official trailer below. Red Notice will be served up on Netflix on November 12.
For more on big titles on Netflix, check these out:
Last week in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, UK-raised editor Joe Walker had just finished cutting a TV commercial down to thirty seconds when he took a break to discuss Dune (opening Oct. 22), which clocks in at two hours and thirty-five minutes. “But come on,” Walker laughs. “It feels like thirty seconds.” In 1984, David Lynch’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel failed to translate on the big screen—Villeneuve has solved the Dune riddle and delivered something astonishing. This is in no small part thanks to Walker, more Oscar-winning department heads, and an intriguing cast led by Timothée Chalamet, who plays prince Paul Atreides of planet Caladan.
[Mild Spoilers] Opposed by the evil Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and his minions from rival planet Giedi Prime, Paul explores the desolate Arrakis planet, home to hallucinogenic fuel known as “spice,” freight train-sized sandworms, and the indigenous Fremen. Costarring Oscar Isaacs, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Zendaya, Dune covers a lot of interstellar ground on its way to telling a story rich with prescient ecological themes.
In a video call from his home, two-time Oscar winner Walker (Arrival,12 Years a Slave) talked about cutting Dune, collaborating with director Villeneuve, and leaving room for small character moments amid all the spectacle.
Denis Villeneuve gives the scenes room to breathe. I imagine by now you’ve grown accustomed to his pacing and sense of rhythm?
It’s our fourth movie back to back, after Sicario, Arrival, and Bladerunner 2049, so I’ve spent a large amount of the last six years with Denis less than five feet away. And when we’re not together, we’re on each other’s minds. Working on the Dune script, Denis said he kept hearing my voice in his head: “You don’t need that. Come into the scene later. Drop this.” He was already tightening the scenes before they got to me. To your point about pace, it’s about trying to keep this balance between the spectacle and the intimate stories. You could cut and curtail material, but I feel you’d be less invested in the characters if you did that. It took us a while to get it right. The pandemic helped, by giving us a bit more time for editing than one might normally have.
You spent about twenty months collaborating with Denis Villeneuve and dozens of other artisans. That sounds intense.
It’s like being in a really well-rehearsed band. Denis and I have worked together so many times, and I’ve worked with the production designer Patrice Vermette, the VFX editor Javier Marcheselli, Mary Lukasiewicz has been my first assistant since Arrival, VFX Paul Lambert from Blade Runner, and composer Hans Zimmer. I first worked with Hans in 1988! The density of the sound he developed for this film is incredible. In Frank Zappa’s touring band, he would stand there like a magician, and with a raised eyebrow or hand signal, the whole band would turn on a sixpence. It was like that on Dune. We were very quick and responsive when it came to changing things.
Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and CHARLOTTE RAMPLING as Reverend Mother Mohiam in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
When did you join “the band” for this one?
I came on board a couple of weeks before filming started in Budapest. I’d help advise for second unit things, visual effects, little pickup shots so that they could strike a set knowing that they had everything they needed for the scene. But frankly, I’m a bit phobic about going on set. Rather than walking around the sets, beautiful as they are, I have to see what they’ve shot rather than what I’ve imagined they shot. In a way, the cameraman and I are kind of the first audience. We’re trying to develop a feel for the imaginary audience.
You’re like a second pair of eyes for Denis?
It makes me the scourge of his life really (laughing), that I’m the person who has to come in and say “I know you thought it was great, but…” However, it’s rarely like that because Denis’ extremely well prepared and the craft level is so high in all departments. It’s just that the cut evolves as you go along. It might be something about: “Are we going wide enough? Are we getting in close enough?” But Denis doesn’t need much in the way of guidance.
Caption: (L-r) ZENDAYA as Chani and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
But you help him shape the arc of each scene to fine-tune the characters and their emotions?
Coming from a music background—I trained as a classical composer—one big difference in editing film is that instead of using instrumentalists, you’re manipulating and playing with actors’ performances. At some point, Denis might say, “I wish we could bring the temperature down a little bit, is there anything we can use that’s slightly less edgy?” And I go, “Sure let’s use this take” until you get it pitch-perfect. One example —sorry to change the subject—but one example that you’re living and breathing with the actors is that when I edited Paul’s big knife fight, my arms at the end of that day were super tense. With repeat viewings, you become somehow connected bodily, as if you’re breathing with the actors even though they may not know it.
Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
From the comfort of your chair, you’re leaning into the action.
That’s the idea.
How important is sound design in shaping your cuts?
It’s huge. Working with Theo Greene in Budapest we’d start folding sounds into the cut and developing sounds that don’t exist. [Mild spoiler] You can’t get the sound of an ornithopter off the peg. And we experimented with timing. I found a way of putting sound out of sync where you go into a kind of hypnotic realm.
With so many options to pick from in terms of shots, how do you go about shaping a given sequence?
[Mild spoiler] You’d think that the action sequences, like the ornithopter chase or the knife fight, would take a lot of finessing. Maybe it does for sound and effects, but as far as editing those scenes, I don’t think there was a single change [from the original cut]. [mild spoiler] Whereas the scene with Paul and his mother in the tent—we spent months trying to even things out. [Mile spoiler] This take or that take? This shot or that shot? It took forever because showing the interior journey of our main character is so important. Not saying the action sequences aren’t important but they seemed to take care of themselves much more quickly.
Caption: (L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and CHARLOTTE RAMPLING as Reverend Mother Mohiam in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
The entire cast is terrific but it’s Timothée Chalamet who carries the movie on his slender shoulders. What’s your take on this 24-year old actor?
Timothy Chalamet is the real deal. [Mild spoiler] I remember getting the dailies for the tent scene where he has a vision of his future but also feels like he’s been turned into a freak, as he puts it. There’s some pretty wild stuff he has to do.
There’s also this element Denis captured where it almost feels like Timothée’s just gone through a growth spurt! He reminds me of my kid a little bit where suddenly his trousers feel too short. He comes across long-limbed and walks in a way that’s very Paul Atreides, which is not the same Timothée we’ve seen in other films. He has great range. Standing aside from the story for a moment, just seeing him in a room with this pantheon of [acting] gods—Oscar Isaacs, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem—Timothée looks like a pig among the acorns.
Caption: (L-r) JOSH BROLIN as Gurney Halleck, OSCAR ISAAC as Duke Leto Atreides and STEPHEN MCKINLEY HENDERSON as Thufir Hawat in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
The audience learns a lot about Paul’s interior life through his dreams and visions. How did you separate those bits from the main narrative?
In Dune Denis did a pick-up shot that had a lens flare at the top of an image that comes from a particular camera and its position against the sun. Normally it’s the kind of thing people try to avoid, but Denis asked the VFX team to make a whole day’s worth of [lens flare] patterns that they gave to me. The flares remind me of being a young man in the summer with your eyes half-closed, so all the visions and dreams Paul experiences are modulated with these very rhythmic flares. Those little flutters of the eyelashes, if you like. And to show how ridiculously controlling I am as an editor, I spent days getting sound effects to merge with that lens flare imagery, which was very useful in moving across the story without losing the sense of a dream.
You talked earlier about striking a balance between spectacle and intimate moments. Can you give an example of a quiet interlude?
There’s this shot of Rebecca Ferguson, looking super vulnerable as she flees her home facing tremendous danger. And then Oscar Isaac’s hand enters the frame and touches her neck rather beautifully. It’s very sensory and so evocative of the love they have for each other. Just one shot! Editing is about platforming those shots and giving them the time to co-exist alongside action and dialogue.
Caption: (L-r) REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
Your edit of Dune helps clarify a complex storyline by letting the audience know in very dramatic terms when we go from one place to the next. Is it important for you to make those transitions pop?
Most of that was actually done for me because the world-building is phenomenal. But yes, there are some sharp cuts. [Mild spoiler] For example, we took our time showing Paul look out to the final sunset on Caladan, and then you crash into blistering sunlight when they step off the transporter onto the desert planet Arraken cowed by the intensity of the heat and the light. That kind of gear-change is enormously important. It’s a musical thing, a sound thing, a pictorial thing, and also thank God, for me, it’s an editing thing.
Featured image: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
Now that some critics have gotten a chance to see Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao’s Eternals during this week’s premiere at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, we’ve heard just how sweeping, sumptuous, and unique this particular MCU film is. But you’re still probably not quite sure just who these new Marvel superheroes are, even if you’re aware of the people playing them. A new featurette from Marvel is here to help on that front, giving us a brief description of just what each of the Eternals are capable of.
The new video will introduce you to all ten of the MCU’s newest (and yet oldest, in terms of age) superheroes. They include Sersi (Gemma Chan), who is able to manipulate matter, and who has had a long-running on-again, off-again relationship with Ikaris (Richard Madden). Ikaris, meanwhile, is described by Madden himself as the “loyal soldier,” able to shoot laser beams out of his eyes. Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) can assemble anything out of any type of technology. Thena (Angelina Jolie) is the Goddess of War and can manifest nearly any type of weapon. Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok) has an extremely strong punch. Don’t laugh, it looks like the guy punches the Eternals out of a lot of tricky situations.
The list goes on, including Makari (Lauren Ridloff), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Druig (Barry Keoghan), and Ajak (Salma Hayek). It is, without a doubt, the most diverse cast in MCU history, and each of these new superheroes will get a chance to shine.
Check out the new featurette below. Eternals arrives in theaters on November 5.
When Hocus Pocus was released in 1993, few people probably imagined that years later, as if by occult magic, the Disney film would become a cult classic and a beloved Halloween film. The original movie was directed by Kenny Ortega and starred three very game performers in Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as the long-dead Sanderson sisters, a trio who also happened to be witches. The Sanderson Sisters were killed during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, yet in Hocus Pocus, they’re accidentally summoned back to life by youngster Max (Omri Katz) on Halloween. Thus begins a spooky, kooky, and downright giddy Halloween tale.
The original Hocus Pocus was overlooked in its time, but thanks to a wave of 90s nostalgia (how peaceful and innocent that era seems now) and a reappreciation for the wonderful performances, the talking cats and flying vacuums, and delicious period wardrobe that includes turtlenecks and tie-dye, Hocus Pocus has become a Halloween staple. Airing on the Disney Channel and Freeform in October, and on Disney+ year-round, Hocus Pocus has been rediscovered by delighted audiences. Now, a sequel, written by Jen D’Angelo (Solar Opposites, Workaholics) and directed by Anne Fletcher (Dumplin’), has begun filming in Rhode Island. The Sanderson Sisters are coming to the Ocean State.
Hocus Pocus 2 will be a Disney+ film and is set to premiere in 2022 (we’re going to go out on a limb and assume it’ll be released in October). Midler, Parker, and Najimy are returning as the wicked Sanderson sisters, and the film will focus on their accidental resurrection, yet again, this time at the hands of three young women. These young women will be plunged into a delightfully dastardly Halloween adventure where they’ll find themselves tasked with keeping the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc all over again.
“Now more than ever, people need to laugh,” director Anne Fletcher said in a statement. “We should be laughing every day, and there is so much fun to be had with these three unbelievable women playing delicious characters from such a beloved film. I am so grateful to be able to play a part in bringing these witches back to life, and to be working with my friends at Disney again makes it all the more special. This is a movie for everyone, from the fans who grew up with the first film to the next generation of viewers, and I can’t wait to get started in the beautiful state of Rhode Island.”
Rhode Island has a rich cinematic history thanks to the variety of its natural splendor and the strong local filmmaking talent on hand. It’s also been home to some beloved family-friendly films like Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and Anne Fletcher’s very own 27 Dresses. The Ocean State’s Governor, Daniel J. McKee, had this to say in a statement: “On behalf of Rhode Island, I am proud and honored that again our beautiful state, with its unique scenery, landscapes, and local talent, will be the backdrop for a major motion picture. Film and TV productions such as Hocus Pocus 2 have positive impacts on our businesses and move our economy in the right direction.”
Major film productions like Hocus Pocus 2 have a big effect on the local economy of the states they film in. In fact, according to the Motion Picture Association, when a major motion picture films on location, it adds $250,000 every day on average to the local economy. A single production of this size involves not only the local crew members but ancillary businesses that make filming possible, from construction to dry cleaning, from catering to transportation. “Rhode Island is fortunate because we have superb partners in both the public and private sectors, and we enjoy working together to build a positive environment for the creative economy to shine,” said Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Film & TV Office, in a statement. “We are particularly grateful to Walt Disney Productions for providing good-paying jobs for many local artists and hard-working technicians from across Rhode Island.”
Striking an appropriate note on what it takes to make a major motion picture, Rhode Island’s Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said that creating a film like Hocus Pocus 2 “isn’t accomplished lickety-split via a magic trick — instead, it requires the hard and innovative work of professionals at splendid studios such as Disney and public partners such as our state’s Film & Television Office.”
Considering the original Hocus Pocus has become a beloved Halloween classic, it doesn’t take a witch to see the production of Hocus Pocus 2 as a good omen for audiences and Rhode Island alike.
Featured image: L-r: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 31: Kathy Najimy attends Bette Midler’s 2019 Hulaween at New York Hilton Midtown on October 31, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images); MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – OCTOBER 23: Sarah Jessica Parker attends Highpoint Shopping Centre on October 23, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images);NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 06: Bette Midler attends the WSJ. Magazine 2019 Innovator Awards sponsored by Harry Winston and Rémy Martin at MOMA on November 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Lars Niki/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards).
“What’s black and blue and dead all over?” asks the Riddler. We have a guess. This riddle is how this excellent TV spot for The Batman begins, teasing the showdown between Batman (Robert Pattinson) and the Riddler (Paul Dano). Writer/director Matt Reeves has promised a noir detective story for his first Batman film, and who better to pit Batman against than arguably the most clever arch-nemesis in the entire rogue’s gallery of Batman villains? That’s another riddle with an easy answer. The spot boasts a lot of the same footage from that gangbusters new trailer released during the DC FanDome event, but it tightens its focus around Batman’s antagonists and a potential new ally in Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman.
We’ve been saying since way back in 2019 that Paul Dano will make a great Riddler. Anyone who can hold their own (and then some) with Daniel Day-Lewis in one of the best movies of the century, There Will Be Blood, has serious chops. And in Reeves’ hands, the brief glimpses we’ve seen of Dano’s Edward Nashton reveal a completely different incarnation of the character than we’ve seen before. Dano’s the Riddler is not the cackling, hyper-verbal lunatic showman like Jim Carrey’s iteration of the character in 1995’s Batman Forever. In Reeves’s script and in Dano’s hands, again going off the little we’ve seen (mostly heard), the Riddler will be a methodical, murderous villain and therefore much more terrifying.
Joining Pattison, Dano, and Kravitz are Collin Farrell as the Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffery Wright as Jim Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham DA Gil Colson.
Check out the TV spot below. The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022.
Star-Lord has reported for duty. Or at least that was what we thought. Chris Pratt revealed via Team Coco that filming has begun on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The third film in James Gunn’s intergalactic MCU trilogy is set to land in theaters in 2023. It was exciting news—while it lasted.
Here was Pratt’s original message, where he teased both the start of Vol. 3 filming and a new Parks and Recreation podcast. He also showed off his muttonchops, a Star-Lord facial hair staple.
We got some other confirmed news recently about Vol. 3 that was pretty big indeed—Will Poulter will be playing the long-awaited superhero Adam Warlock, the genetically engineered superbeing that was teased at the end of Vol. 2 as the man (sort of) who was going to bring down the Guardians for once and for all. The scene in Vol. 2 showed Elizabeth Debicki’s Ayesha creating Warlock and making that dire promise, but it wasn’t until the recent news that it was confirmed he was going to be the film’s big bad (or at least, a major character).
Joining Pratt and Poulter are longtime Guardians Karen Gillan as Nebula and Dave Bautista as Drax, along with the agile voice work of Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is due in theaters on May 5, 2023.
