HBO’s hit series is trading Thailand’s beaches for France.
The White Lotusis reportedly headed to the European continent for its fourth season, Deadline reports. HBO has not yet confirmed the news, but if the reporting holds, one of the best bets for where season four would be shot is at the Four Seasons at the iconic Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, located at the tip of the Cap-Ferrat peninsula on the French Riviera, southeast of Nice. This location makes perfect sense considering Mike White‘s Emmy-winning murder mystery has utilized HBO’s marketing partnership with the Four Seasons hotel chain each of its first three seasons.
Yet it’s not definitely a done deal that the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat will be the central location for season four. White and his team utilized the Four Seasons Koh Samui as the primary setting for season three in Thailand, but also shot at three other hotels, none of which were part of the Four Seasons family.
What the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat has going for it—and this might actually be a point against it—is that it’s more similar to the locations of the first three seasons, which were shot at deluxe beach resorts in Maui for season one, Taormina and Cefalú, Sicily, for season 2, and Koh Samui, Thailand, for season 3. Other Four Seasons options in France could make as much sense, including the Megève in the French Alps, which would offer White and his cast and crew their first mountain setting. White has previously stated that for season four, he wanted to get “out of the crashing waves on rocks vernacular,” and the French Alps would certainly offer that opportunity. Or, they could opt for the Hotel George V, located in central Paris, which would be the first city setting for the series (and what a city at that).
The production schedule will likely dictate where White and his team can film, given that Megève is a popular ski resort, and filming during the ski season may be challenging or impossible. There’s also the fact that White has reportedly told his cast members that he’ll never film in the cold because he hates it (he lives full-time in Hawaii), so for those of us dreaming of a White Lotus in the snow, we might have to settle for Lotus in the city, which would have its own charms—and filming difficulties.
The good news overall for all White Lotus fans is that White and HBO are locked in for season 4. No doubt many performers are already angling for a spot in the series, which has become a career game-changer for many.
Featured image: Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
With Wicked: For Good set to complete the story that began with 2024’s blockbuster, director Jon M. Chu, the Motion Picture Association’s Creator Award recipient for 2025, continues our conversation about his evolution as a filmmaker and the power of culturally specific storytelling to reach universal audiences.
Chu also opens up about his own fears, what he learned on the set of Now You See Me 2, and the thrill of being so close to sharing the entire two-part vision for his Wicked adaptation with the world.
Did working with this incredible cast and crew on Wicked and Wicked: For Good have a liberating effect on everyone, at least a little bit, from being daunted by the size and scale of what you were trying to achieve?
All fear of mistakes was off the table. We were so confident in trusting our instincts and knowing that we could always go back if it were a mistake, but we were able to stretch the boundaries of what this story could be. And because we had a camera, we could be precise about how we told it. That includes in post-production, when we’re cutting it together, knowing that we can hold on a shot that long, or we can have silence and understand that the audience doesn’t need music to feel a moment in the Oz dust. There are a couple of moments in movie two where we just sit on the acting to allow it to play out. We trusted each other that if someone had a crazy idea, we could “Yes, and” it and not worry, “What if people think this? What if people think that?” We were all the Fab Five, clutched together, arm-in-arm, walking down the road and not knowing what we were going to encounter next.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
And yet, you’re shooting these two massive films back-to-back, so as you were saying before, there were tough days.
It was a year-and-a-half process of shooting, and there were no easy days. It’s cold, Ari has to wear a dress that literally has nothing on top, and she has to power through, and she’s miserable. And Cynthia has to do this scene over and over again, and she’s miserable because it’s putting her into a dark headspace. But when we’re done? At the end of the night, we’re texting each other. Because I edit on my phone on the way home, and I’ll cut some stuff and send it to them, and write, ‘This moment is everything.’ And that makes it worth it. Even before the audience saw Wicked, we felt a lot of pride. Then, when the audience saw it, accepted it, and took it as their own, that brought our joy to another level.
You’ve created these cultural watershed moments with Crazy Rich Asiansand now Wicked, which is truly rare. You’ve had faith in viewers that these culturally specific movies you’ve chosen would be interesting to everyone. Is this faith in what audiences want something that you’ve had to grow into, or is this something you’ve always thought about?
I think I had that instinct when I was a lot younger, when I was making videos in high school. When I’d make wedding videos, I didn’t really care what the bride and groom wanted; I made what I thought they’d want that was nontraditional. I just had a reunion with high school friends I hadn’t seen in 26 years, and we went back and looked at the films I made with them, which I had forced them to be in as my actors. And they were crazy, but what I loved about seeing that kid make those movies was that kid didn’t have any fear. He was just making stuff that he wanted to see on screen. I think as I got into the movie business, the pressure is so high of just feeling like you belong there, that you deserve to be there. I was very young when I made my first movie in the studio world. I had seen a lot of my film school friends not get that opportunity, who were way smarter than I was and way more creative than I was, so when I was making my movies, I was trying to earn a position and get to the next spot. I learned a lot, I loved every one of those movies, but because I didn’t have the confidence, I couldn’t show the audience what I thought they wanted to see. I could sneak some moments in, like in Step Up 2 or with Bieber, when people thought, ‘Oh, that’s just a concert movie,’ I thought, no, it’s a beautiful fairy tale of the internet picking their star and watching his journey, and you’re going to root for him like Rocky. But I’d never put my actual self out there. I wasn’t ready to be judged by who I was yet.
When did you feel ready?
It wasn’t until after Now You See Me 2, and working with those great actors—Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman—and they know who they are, and they’re unapologetic about it. It was contagious. I thought, ‘Okay, I can hang with those people; I think I am a filmmaker.’ So what do I want to say, and what can I do that no one else can do?
What was your next move?
I literally cleared my slate—I was supposed to do GI Joe 3 and another Now You See Me, and I cut myself off from all of that and said, I need to actually find out who I am now that I know what I’m doing. That’s where I found Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights at the same time. It spoke to the scariest part of my being, which is identifying as the son of immigrants, as a Chinese American. I had always tried not to have that on the table because the industry judges you so quickly and sends you those kinds of scripts. At that point, I was like, f**k it, this is who I am. And I think I have the right to show who I am. With Crazy Rich Asians, even though it was a book that existed, the story of Rachel Chu going to Asia for the first time — to me, that was so personal. I didn’t think anyone would see it. I didn’t necessarily have the confidence that people would show up, but I knew that I could make it so my friends who aren’t Asian would say, ‘Oh, that’s like your family. That’s you in there.’
Caption: (L-R) AWKWAFINA and director JON M. CHU on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ and SK Global Entertainment’s and Starlight Culture’s contemporary romantic comedy “CRAZY RICH ASIANS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Sanja Bucko
But the audiences did show up—in a major way.
Once I did that, I think the audience responded. The cultural response to that woke my brain up to say, ‘You have more to offer, and what does not exist that you think should exist — that is your calling.’ Maybe that was always the point of movies, and I didn’t get it, and I was playing pretend to be a filmmaker. But at that point, to get that taste of what it feels like to be yourself and put that out there, and people respond so positively, or even negatively, to me, that life.That was worth everything. And then, two weeks after we finished filming Crazy Rich Asians, I had my first child. You grow up, which is very much like Wicked: For Good, it’s about growing up, looking at your childhood self, and seeing the parts you love about that person, and bringing that and pulling the thread all the way to the present. That’s what I feel now: the responsibility and the privilege of making movies is to tell stories that people don’t expect but need deep down, the way I need them.
Is this how you explain your work to your kids?
I tell my kids all the time. A couple of days ago, I said to my daughter, ‘I’m really scared about this movie coming out because I don’t know what people will think.’ Because she was scared to go to the first day of school, I said, ‘But I’m going just to power through, and if people don’t like it, then that will change me, and I’ll take that in. But that won’t change who I am. Then I told her, ‘I think going to school will be great for you, and you’ll find new friends, and the things we learned about are too valuable to give up and not become.’
Caption: (L-r) DP ALICE BROOKS (foreground), director JON M. CHU, STEPHANIE BEATRIZ and DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ “IN THE HEIGHTS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Macall Polay
With Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, and Wicked, these films delight in cultural specificity and center on outsiders or people navigating different worlds, but they resonate with broad swaths of the public.
I fully feel that. I look at my other friends who are activists and are speaking out, and I’m in awe of their courage to do that. But what I have also accepted is that my voice is through my movies. I can go on interviews and talk all I want about representation, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s showing people — look how beautiful this Asian family can be. Look how beautiful it is—it’s reflective of my own family. Mahjong is not your game, but you guys play Crazy Eights or whatever it may be, so you know that feeling. Let me show you that you will love Cynthia Erivo. When she sings those words that you’ve heard a hundred times, they will land in ways they have never landed before. When you see Ariana Grande going through her life and trying to find her escape from her own life and finding her authentic self and you see that in her performance as Glinda, then you can see that it also takes courage for someone with privilege to live in their bubble, to pop their privilege, to come down and see what’s actually happening.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
Wicked: For Good is the kind of movie that needs to be seen on the big screen—how do you make that case to people who might wait for it to stream?
I always say it’s supposed to be seen big and felt deep. Those are the movies that stay with me for my life — The Sound of Music,Singin’ in the Rain,E.T., and Back to the Future. What movies do is they’re rocket ships to another planet, but they always take you home. And the ones that are timeless are the ones that you can share forever. You could pick any frame in Wicked or Wicked: For Good, and I could do a one-hour lecture about that one frame — about why the button in the costume, the arguments about the lighting, about why that specific color, or in the mix of why we’re playing the sound of the restaurant more than the score. Every detail is touched by a human being debating about why. When a person sees it, they won’t see any of that. Maybe the 10th time they see it. The real validation is that people feel it, and that’s all that matters. Timeless stories are the most human. This story was written 20-something years ago about totally different circumstances, but we all go through the same struggle. We’re both good and wicked. We try to create enemies so that we have some sort of clarity. We try to make sense of things that don’t make sense.
L to R: Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
The more culturally specific your films are, the more universal they are.
You said it better than I can. Whatever your thing is, it’s not mine, but you have something like it. It might not be dumplings, but you have something like it. Movies are one of the last art forms that take all the distractions away. You have to make space for that. You have to drive to the theater, you have to park your car, you have to gather your friends, and you have to spend money. You have to walk in, sit down, and make space for someone else’s story. All my non-Asian friends have other cultures too, and it’s always in front of me in movies and TV shows, but I feel connected to those things, even though my mom never made pancakes for me. She made rice for me. I think certain filmmakers already know what it feels like because we have to live it every day. I think it’s a beautiful exchange, actually, saying, ‘Hey, don’t worry, you’re not going to be scared. We’re actually going to love it.’
Wicked: For Good is in theaters on November 21.
Featured image: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba, Ariana Grande is Glinda and Director Jon M. Chu on the set of WICKED, from Universal Pictures
As director Jon M. Chu puts the finishing touches on Wicked: For Good, he’ll be swinging through Washington, D.C. to receive the Motion Picture Association’s Creator Award on Monday, September 8. It’s a heady time for Chu, who, when we spoke, was en route to LAX to fly to New York (for one night) while shepherding his highly anticipated sequel through a final flurry of crucial post-production. That included recording extra score in London, working with visual effects artists worldwide on For Good‘s wizardry and witchery, and polishing the edit with his team in Los Angeles.
As the world awaits the final part of his blockbuster musical adaptation, Chu took some time before boarding his flight to reflect on the moment he was in, poised to deliver on his ambitious two-part adaptation of a cultural phenomenon that itself has become a cultural phenomenon. Chu has built a career on movement, music, and joy—from his early work, such as Step Up 2: The Streets, to his world-conquering films like Crazy Rich Asians and last year’s Wicked, he’s the rare young filmmaker who can say he has created not one but two cultural watershed moments.
In this candid two-part conversation, Chu discusses the final stages of post-production on Wicked: For Good, his evolution as a filmmaker, and what it’s been like to work with superstars, both in front and behind the camera, and why that’s enabled them all to feel a sense of play, even while working on this massive, high-stakes production.
I know we can’t talk too much about it, but how are things going on For Good?
It’s going great. It’s the mad finishing rush now, but I’m really excited about it. Right now, I’m remote to London, remote to all our artists all around the world for VFX, and in LA for our editorial and our mix. We have so many elements—it’s not just the cut—once you start to see flying monkeys, once you start to hear what that score is doing, once you start to hear the flapping of the monkey’s wings or Elphaba’s [Cynthia Erivo] cape, it just keeps plussing each other. You’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s storytelling. The way her cape moves is storytelling, the way her cape sounds is storytelling, and the way Glinda’s [Ariana Grande] bubble pops is storytelling.’ When the bubble pops a certain way, every detail is a part of the sort of musical fabric. That’s been really fun. There’s no stone unturned. Every part of it is telling a story.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
I was reading in the production notes this lovely story that you saw “Wicked” before it was on Broadway, at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. How does it feel now, where you’re just right on the doorstep of finishing For Good, having been that young person in the theater in San Francisco to becoming the person who brought this beloved musical to screens and pulled it off, not one, but two films?
It’s actually overwhelming when I think about it. I haven’t had a lot of chance to take it all in. Even after movie one, when people started to watch it and appreciate it, we had to focus on the master plan, the second story that actually completes it. We’ve always said that it’s our childhood dreams meeting the reality of our adult selves. And now, after finishing this movie, I look back on four-plus years of work, literally during the pandemic, which was three children ago [Chu and his wife Kristen have five kids now], and I didn’t know if we could figure it out. I didn’t know if I was capable, and I didn’t know if the audience would accept us. So, looking back, I’m really proud. I’m really proud that we stuck to our process, that we trusted in each other, that we gathered a group that cared about it as much as I do, as much as [composer Stephen] Schwartz does, as much as [producer Marc] Platt does, that we found these two women—well, we didn’t find them, but they fell from the heavens—and they could speak this story through their own personal lives and the transformations each of them were going through personally as well. I’m pulling on the thread now, as I look back, and it’s beautiful, and I feel proud and excited that audiences get to catch up with us and what we’ve experienced. Because I think that when they finish movie two, it will feel like one big journey instead of two separate journeys, and, I would say to that kid in high school, or even the kid in college who saw “Wicked” in San Francisco before it was on Broadway, who was in awe of this story, who thought, ‘Wow, someone’s going to make something great out of this, but I would never be capable of it: you’re capable and you can do it.’
L to R: Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) with Director Jon M. Chu on the set of WICKED FOR GOOD.
You were working with so many insanely talented people — obviously, Cynthia and Ariana, but also people like costume designer Paul Tazewell, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and production designer Nathan Crowley. What is it like when you’ve got this level of talent, in front and behind the camera, on a Jon Chu set?
Alice Brooks, I’ve worked with her since college. We had never done a musical, but we did a short musical together. Chris Scott, our choreographer, was a dancer-actor in Step Up 2, my very first movie. He auditioned for us in Baltimore. He was like a kid with a beanie on, a backpack, and long hair. Eventually, we would become friends, and he would decide to switch into choreography. And after being a working dancer, that switch is tough. He became my roommate at one point because he had no place to live. You have to risk saying no to a lot of jobs, so watching him become who he’s become, and watching Alice find all these little independent movies and find her voice, and for us all to be able to meet up again…
And then to find Ariana, who obviously was already a star, but to have the dreams and hopes of something that no one thought she could do, myself included, to be honest — to have Cynthia, who is clearly a gift from God, who has a talent that is meant to be heard, to know that people around the world hadn’t heard her as much as they should, that was incredible to me.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
When you’re working with such high stakes, you get access to more people. People like Nathan Crowley and Paul Tazewell. I met Paul Tazewell at an awards show for the Princess Grace Foundation, where I received a student award back in the day, which really helped me make my first short film. So to pair with him after he’d just done Hamilton, West Side Story, and to come together around Wicked…
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 02: Paul Tazewell, winner of the Best Costume Design award for “Wicked”, poses in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars at Ovation Hollywood on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images)
Everyone has a different entry point to Oz, whether it’s the original book by L. Frank Baum, the original movie, or the “Wicked” musical itself. Everybody came to it revering this story that is bigger than any of us, and using the talents that we had grown over all these years to contribute to that story for another generation. It was a privilege and a responsibility we all felt — this is the story of our lives. This will live beyond ourselves, no matter how much stress it might cause or how difficult it might be on the day. When you have those people at the top of their game, what it actually allows you to do on set is to play. It allows you to trust the random thing that gets in the way, the obstacle, or the struggle to understand a line, or something that was coming organically from a character, whether it was Bowen Yang or Ari or Cynthia or Michelle [Yeoh] or the Wizard himself—Jeff [Goldblum], he was coming up with stuff all the time, because everyone was an expert at their job, we were able to go to those places and not be scared that we could make a mistake.
I can only imagine that you manage this giant operation with the same kind of enthusiasm and passion you’re showing right now. Because when you’re watching the movie, it feels like it was made with joy.
Honestly, it’s a selfish thing because I think you get the best work from people when they’re playing, when they aren’t thinking about ramifications. Personally, I love challenges and obstacles. I love it when people say no because that’s just the beginning of the yes. Joy on set isn’t about being happy on set — there were tough days. There were days when we were arguing with each other because we had different views on how a scene should play out. But, I find so much joy in making something that we don’t know the answer to. I find so much joy in the stress of working it out and relying on craft to get there. So, it’s not about happiness on set, and it’s not about ease of shooting. In fact, I think ease of shooting may be a bad thing. It is about the joy of the craft and the work that we’ve poured our whole lives into doing. This was the movie that tested every boundary — this wasn’t easy. This was going to define who we are, what we stood for, and what these properties that existed before us stood for.
Center L to R: Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba), Director Jon M. Chu, and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) on the set of WICKED
Featured image: L to R: Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) with Director Jon M. Chu on the set of WICKED.
The first trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has arrived, the upcoming second entry in the new trilogy kick-started by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland last year. The Bone Temple, directed by Candyman helmer Nia DaCosta, centers on returning characters from Boyle’s 2025 film, including Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Kelson, the loneliest man in a rage virus-ravaged England, and showcases a coming showdown between the good doctor and the colossal zombie, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).
28 Years Later ended with Spike (Alfie Williams) choosing not to return to his relatively safe tidal island, where his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), was waiting. Spike had ventured onto the mainland with his sick mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), in a desperate attempt to get her well. When they found Dr. Kelson, all he could offer was a painless and quick death for the dying Isla. Spike, devastated and disillusioned by his father’s lies and lifestyle, decides to stay out on the dangerous mainland. There, he’s met and saved by the Jimmys, a band of blonde hooligans, led by Jimmy Jimmy (Robert Rhodes). Jimmy is a grown man now, but a boy in the previous film when his family was attacked by the infected.
The new trailer shows the expanded universe that producer Boyle, director DaCosta, and writer Garland are preparing for us. Spike appears to be in the middle of a coming war, with Jimmy’s gang, the infected, the colossal Samson, and the reclusive Dr. Kelson all set to collide.
Check out the trailer below. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple arrives in theaters on January 16, 2026.
For more on 28 Years Later, check out these stories:
One of the many pleasures of attending the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is the moments when festival CEO Cameron Bailey strides onto the stage to introduce a premiere or talk with a filmmaker. It’s during those screenings that this festival’s unique blend of art, accessibility, and audience engagement comes fully into focus.
“I never think that people who know movies and love movies should ever be snobby about it. There’s no reason to do that, no matter how high the artistic achievement,” said Bailey in a telephone interview. “Movies began as a democratic art form for everybody, and so I never want to present a film like I’m presenting a lecture or university seminar. This is something to appreciate together and feel whatever people feel when they congregate in the dark to watch a movie.”
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 09: (L-R) Zoe Saldana and Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF speak onstage at In Conversation With… Zoe Saldana during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Lightbox on September 09, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
This sense of community celebration will be especially true as TIFF this year marks its 50th anniversary. There will be special screenings and commemorative events in the months leading up to the festival, which takes place from September 4 to 14. Over the summer, TIFF presented 50 films that screened in the festival over the past five decades. During TIFF, there will be ongoing recognition of the “thousands of people who created it, select films, put the event together and maintain its consistency every year to make it accessible to the public,” Bailey said.
TIFF is now a major stop on the festival circuit with a long track record of showcasing eventual awards contenders. But the festival had modest beginnings. Originally called the “Festival of Festivals” when it was founded in 1976 by William Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk, and Dusty Cohl, the inaugural event drew 35,000 attendees, compared with 700,000 last year. The name “Festival of Festivals” was dropped in 1994, and it was officially renamed in 2009.
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 10: (L-R) Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF and the Toronto International Film Festival and Denis Villeneuve attend A Conversation with Denis Villeneuve About “DUNE 1 + 2” during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Scotiabank Theatre on September 10, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Jeremy Chan/Getty Images)
“We started from a place of wanting it to be the people’s festival. There is no jury prize; the top award is the people’s choice, so that’s built into the fabric of our festival,” said Bailey, who grew up in England and Barbados before migrating to Canada and beginning his career as a film critic. The festival’s legacy loomed large even before Bailey joined TIFF as a programmer. He was named artistic director of the festival in 2012 and in 2021 became its executive director and then CEO.
“I never forget what a luxury it is to be in this job and [be] a part of film history,” he said, citing memorable premieres that unspooled before his tenure, such as Boogie Nights, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Big Chill or when “a young Christopher Nolan” attended TIFF to present his 1998 debut feature Following.
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 08: (L-R) Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF and Cate Blanchett speak onstage at In Conversation With… Cate Blanchett during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Royal Alexandra Theatre on September 08, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for ABA)
“I try to hold onto that. I remember the first time we introduced films like Moonlight to our audiences. That was a special moment.” TIFF has championed filmmakers, including many Canadian artists, and these also remain important milestones for Bailey.
“There are filmmakers whose work I just love,” he said, citing French actress and director Julie Delpy, star of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013). “Last year was the third film [of hers] I’ve presented,” Bailey said of the Delpy-directed Meet the Barbarians. “There is so much emotion in [those moments] because you never know when a film or filmmaker is going to take a prominent place.”
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 09: (L-R) Julie Delpy and Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF and the Toronto International Film Festival, speak onstage during the premiere of “Meet the Barbarians” during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 09, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
As TIFF has grown in size, stature and influence, it has also faced “momentous things over fifty years and we want to take time to recognize them,” said Bailey. “September 11 [2001] happened during our festival.” The COVID-19 pandemic forced TIFF in 2020 to pivot to a mix of virtual and in-person events for two years, followed by the challenges posed by the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023.
“It feels like, just in the last five years, we’ve had to reinvent what film festivals were,” he said. “During COVID, we had drive-ins and online platforms. Then the actors’ strike shifted what we could and would be, and we had to adjust to that. Now, streaming platforms are influential all over the world, and there is constant volatility, and we have to adjust to that and to changes in audience habits. Gen Z and millennials are coming at us with different [screen watching] traits. We want to present a collective communal experience in movie theaters to audiences who have lots of other choices. We must be highly adaptable all the time. That switch never gets turned off. At the same time, our financial stability is in question, too. A philanthropic donor base has supported the festival for years. It’s been complicated; I’m not gonna lie. But we are gratified that every year, people continue to turn up. We had the highest number of attendees last year — 700,000 — between cinemas and street events.”
Despite these challenges and shifts, Bailey is confident that as long as there are movies and audiences who crave the festival experience, TIFF will continue to play an important role on both industry-wide and personal levels.
“This past Sunday, I interrupted my family weekend and went to see a film proposed for this year’s festival by a great filmmaker. It was not fully completed, so I was in an editing suite with the film not fully done. To see a film when it’s still kind of vulnerable, when the filmmaker hasn’t quite put down the paintbrush, is something I hope I never take for granted,” said Bailey. “Then knowing you will present this film to many people like a secret you’ve been keeping — that never gets old.”
Cameron Bailey, Barry Jenkins and Chaz Ebert present the TIFF Ebert Director Award to Spike Lee
Featured image: TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 20: Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF speaks onstage during the TIFF 50 Canadian Press Conference at TIFF Lightbox on August 20, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Brian de Rivera Simon/Getty Images)
Dwayne Johnson might have entered the Oscars ring.
The star got a very Oscar-friendly reception at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, where he was on hand for the world premiere of Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine. Johnson stars as MMA legend Mark Kerr, sporting a prosthetic and an accent, marking an intriguing career pivot into prestige films. The result? A 15-minute standing ovation from the audience, leaving the 53-year-old performer in tears as he soaked in one of the most prolonged, sustained applause at the festival this year.
VENICE, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 01: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt attend “The Smashing Machine” red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 01, 2025 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images)
Johnson, formerly a WWE wrestler known and beloved as The Rock, has taken a turn for the serious in Safdie’s film after leading tentpole fare like Black Adam and Jungle Cruise, which starred Johnson and his The Smashing Machine co-star, Emily Blunt. This is a decisive career pivot for Johnson, who is not likely to stop flexing his performing muscles now that he’s gotten to stretch as the tormented fighter Kerr, one of the seminal early stars of the UFC, a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion who was the central figure in a 2002 HBO doc (also titled The Smashing Machine) which centered on his legendary career and his significant troubles, specifically an addiction to the painkillers he took to endure his chosen profession. This taste of a prestige film project is just the start for Johnson, who is part of a potential all-star cast for a projected Martin Scorsese-directed gangster film set in Hawaii.
The first trailer showcased a partially changed Johnson, who, despite needing no help in the physique department to depict an MMA fighter, is sporting facial prosthetics and a flatter Ohio accent, creating just enough of a modification that the global superstar does start to get lost inside the character of Kerr. Set to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” the trailer not only highlights Johnson’s transformation into Kerr but also Emily Blunt’s performance as his wife, Dawn.
Blunt is the person who connected Safdie and Johnson after co-starring with Safdie in Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer.
The Smashing Machine is Benny Safdie’s first solo directorial effort. Until now, he has co-directed his previous A24 films, Good Time and Uncut Gems, with his brother Josh.
Speaking with Variety, Johnson has explained what drew him to explore this film with Safdie: “Benny wants to create, and continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real, characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting. I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past. I’m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”
The Venice crowd certainly appreciated Johnson’s performance in the film.
The Smashing Machine hits theaters on October 3.
Featured image: Dwayne Johnson in “The Smashing Machine.” Courtesy A24
When The Pitt started streaming on HBO Max in January, the influx of intense young actors just kept coming. ER star Noah Wyle anchors the medical drama as the cracked tower of strength, Doctor Michael “Robby” Rabinovitch; nearly all the other characters on his fractious emergency room team are portrayed by relatively unknown talents delivering performances that are, by turns, wrenching and highly technical.
Robby flashes back to the mayhem of COVID. (Warrick Page/MAX)
The Pitt, which earned 13 Emmy nominations, filled its ranks with actors picked by casting directors Cathy Sandrich Gelfond and Erica Berger. After working together on Mayor of Kingstown, they combed the country for actors unburdened by celebrity baggage. “We were trying pretty hard not to have well-known faces because we didn’t want anyone to be taken out of where we are in the story,” Gelfond explains. “We wanted the audience to feel like we’re in the grit and the grime and the blood.”
Speaking from Los Angeles, where The Pitt is filmed, Gelfond and Berger unpack the vetting process that led to the stacked cast of newcomers, as well as the veteran actress, Emmy nominee Katherine LaNasa, whose audition reduced the casting directors to tears.
The sheer scale of The Pitt—more than 300 speaking parts plus the core ensemble surrounding Noah Wyle—must have been daunting for you.
Cathy: The pilot was really mind-boggling. I barely knew which way was up.
How did you go about matching all these relatively unknown actors to roles that seem tailor-made for them?
Cathy: When Erica and I read the script, it was beautifully written and the parts were really well defined, which clued us in on the vision of who we were trying to find. And everyone—network, studio, producers—all agreed that we didn’t need names. We had Noah. We were going to cast the show like a play. It was really exciting to find these untouched gems and give them parts.
Isa Briones. Courtesy HBO Max.
Focusing on the young doctors, Isa Briones seems like she was born to play the super-opinionated Dr. Santos. Where did you find her?
Cathy: Isa lives in L.A., but she happened to be on Broadway doing [Tony-winning musical] Hadestown with her father [Jon Briones].
Erica: We had to snag her in between performances, but sometimes magic happens, and you go, “There she is!”
Cathy: One of the things was that was great is that we got to hire a lot of theater actors and kids out of training programs. But it took a lot of searching. A lot
Gerran Howell. Courtesy HBO Max.
Dr. Whittaker from Nebraska is portrayed very convincingly by the Welsh actor Gerron Howell. How did he get on your radar?
Cathy: I saw him in [2019 miniseries] Catch 22 and really loved him. A lot of people we know saw him on the British detective series Ludwig.
Erica: He sent us a self-tape, and something clicked.
Cathy: We were stunned at how good his [American] accent was. It was flawless. But we had to make sure we could deal with visas. That can be complicated because of timing, so we weren’t really concentrating much on people in England, but Gerran was just so good.
Noah Wyle, Fiona Dourif. Robby is rolling in Vince, patient#3, past Dana into T2. “Missed one.” (Warrick Page/HBOMAX)
Fiona Dourif as Cassie McKay has a complicated personal life – she’s forced to wear an ankle monitor at work. Had you worked with her before?
Erica: I’ve been a big Fiona fan for years, just from reading her for various things, bringing her in to guest star here and there. Butwhen you love someone, you just keep trying until you find the right part for them, so for me, casting Fiona was really exciting.
Taylor Dearden. As Mel meditates, Alex is dumped with a gunshot wound. (Warrick Page/MAX)
Taylor Dearden, in the role of Dr. Melissa King, embodies empathy. How did you spot her?
Erica: Our amazing associate, Seth Caskey, saw her tape first and brought Taylor to our attention.
Cathy: And I enjoyed her performance in American Vandal, where she played someone completely different from Taylor. I did not know she was Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden’s daughter until after we sent her to the [producer] guys. We just liked her.
Patrick Ball. Langdon greets Lupe, then encounters Louie the alcoholic. (Warrick Page/MAX)
Patrick Ball plays troubled Dr. Langdon. People might think of him as being the George-Clooney-in-ER equivalent for The Pitt. Surely Patrick Ball appeared in many shows before The Pitt?
Cathy: He hasn’t, actually. Patrick came out of Yale [Drama School], kicked around in New York for quite a while, and did one guest star in Law & Order. We were both surprised that he hadn’t worked a lot more.
What struck you about his self-tape audition?
Erica: I remember watching it in my office, pausing the tape, peeking my head into Cathy’s office, and saying, “You’ve got to have a look at this guy.”
Cathy: Then Patrick came in and read with Noah. We just felt there was something deeper…
Erica: A deeper connection to the material and a deeper understanding of what his character’s probably going through. I think that came across in his performance.
Cathy: Then you find out his father’s a paramedic and his mother’s an ER nurse.
Cathy: Some of our actors, like Fiona, Taylor, and Supriya [Ganesh], were all [cast] in our first sessions, but we didn’t find Patrick until the very end.
Why is that?
Erica: We saw so many actors who were immensely talented and handsome and could handle the dialogue, but even though you can’t quite put your finger on it, something wasn’t 100 percent correct until he walked through the door, and it’s this woo woo thing: “That’s what was missing.”
Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Sepideh Moafi. Mel tells Santos about the lawsuit. Dana tells Robby & Al-Hashimi about the baby. (Warrick Page/MAX)
Then you have a veteran performer in Katherine LaNasa, who earned an Emmy nomination for playing the wise nurse, Dana.
Cathy: I met Kathy a million years ago when she first came to town. It’s always fun to take someone you know and see them just knock it out of the park.
Erica: Katherine’s audition scene was mainly about being this powerful confident person in charge of the nurses. But then, as we were narrowing down, [showrunner R.] Scott [Gemmill] added this scene where Dana gets punched by an angry patient, so we reached back out to Katherine’s team: “Would you mind maybe doing one more?” And when we saw her do that scene, we all cried. If I’m being honest, that one really got me.
You guys spent several months putting together the ensemble with the producers. Did you get to attend that initial table read when all The Pitt cast members gathered for the first time?
Cathy: We were there, as was the studio, as was the network. It was done in a little theater space at Warner Brothers, and all of us on the casting team were knocked out. You could see relationships already forming, because they had been to this bootcamp run by [writer/executive producer] Doctor Joe Sachs. They were proud of being able to intubate. So cute!
Was it useful to have Noah Wyle on board from the beginning?
Erica: A plus, because then we had a starting point. We know him, we know his energy, and as an executive producer, he was giving us input.
Cathy: Noah’s a remarkable leader. Just as Doctor Robby in The Pitt welcomes all the young doctors in the pilot episode, he did that for every member of the cast, showing them tricks he learned along the way and shepherding them through the process.
Cathy: It’s a special experience for all our actors, even the one-day guest stars and background players. Everything comes out of Noah’s mission statement, which is that on The Pitt, everybody is important, top to bottom. This is a team.
As the season progresses, the “team” expands exponentially with dozens of guest actors appearing in one or two episodes to play patients facing dramatic emergencies. Was it challenging to find so many strong actors for these smaller roles?
Cathy: We spread a wide net for the series regulars, don’t get me wrong, but there’s such a deep well of talent in L.A. when you look at the caliber of the guest stars and smaller parts that form the fabric and texture of the show. I’m a Los Angeles native, but I rarely get to work in L.A. We need to bring production back to Los Angeles.
Featured image: Medic Harley brings in Roxiae; Medic Bashir brings in badly beaten Gus Varney. (Warrick Page/HBOMAX)
The film franchise that turned Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson into global stars is returning to theaters, and now we know when.
Lionsgate has announced that all five Twilight films will return to theaters from October 29 to November 2. Twilight (2008) will kick off the series on October 29, followed byNew Moon (2009) on October 30, Eclipse (2010) on October 31, Breaking Dawn – Part I (2011) on November 1, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012) on November 2.
“Twilight fans are some of the most passionate anywhere, making this iconic movie franchise the epitome of a modern-day classic which Fathom Entertainment is thrilled to help bring back to the big screen in this special cinematic engagement,” said Ray Nutt, chief executive officer, Fathom Entertainment. “With our partners at Lionsgate, we celebrate 20 years since Stephenie Meyer’s first Twilight book was published and encourage fans to relish The Twilight Saga.”
The Twilight franchise began with director Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 film, which followed Bella Swan (Stewart) moving to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, where she meets and falls in love with Edward Cullen (Pattinson). Their love story has a major complication—Edward is, of course, a vampire, and he’s not the only supernatural being in town. There are other vampires who don’t take so kindly to their relationship, and Bella’s friendship with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) proves an issue when it’s revealed that Jacob is a werewolf. Their love story and the complications that arise from it fueled the five-film saga.
The franchise was a blockbuster, launching the careers of Stewart, Pattinson, and Lautner. (A young Anna Kendrick was also in the franchise.) The cast also included Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Justin Chon, Michael Welch, Christian Serratos, and Sarah Clarke.
Warner Music Group will also rerelease the soundtracks from Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse on October 31. Before all this begins, on September 12, the Twilight in Concert tour will be traveling to 60 cities across the U.S., lasting until November 30.
There are still legions of Twilight fans, so much so that there’s still more to come—there’s currently an animated TV reboot being worked on.
Featured image: ROME – OCTOBER 31: (EDITORS NOTE: THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ENHANCED) Actors Kristen Stewart (R) and Robert Pattinson pose for the ‘Twilight’ Portrait Session at the ‘De Russie’ hotel, during the 3rd Rome International Film Festival held at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on October 31, 2008 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco S. Origlia/Getty Images)
We’ve got our first look from the set of Star Wars: Starfighter, and it comes with a major update—Amy Adams and rising star Aaron Pierre have joined Ryan Gosling in the upcoming film from Deadpool & Wolverinedirector Shawn Levy.
“I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter,” Levy said in a statement as production kicks off in the United Kingdom. “From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally. Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.”
Adams and Pierre are joined by Flynn Gray, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, and Daniel Ings as the cast’s new additions. It was previously announced that Mia Goth and Matt Smith are on board as villains.
Starfighter is not a part the Skywalker Saga, which began with George Lucas’s 1977 original and carried on through that trilogy, his prequel trilogy, and the most recent Star Wars films directed by J.J. Abrams (The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker) and Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi, the middle film in the latest trilogy). Starfighter exists, of course, in the larger universe, and is set five years after Abrams’ trilogy-capping The Rise of Skywalker, which revealed that Rey (Daisy Ridley) was Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter.
In the first image from the set, we’ve got Gosling’s character and Flynn Gray, presumably the youngster that Gosling’s character must protect. The script comes from Jonathan Tropper—details are, cue the age-old Star Wars reference—being kept in carbonite. Gray’s casting reveal is a major one, considering Levy and his team conducted an extensive search for the right person for the role—ditto for the role of his mother, presumably being played by Amy Adams.
Star Wars: Starfighter is due in theaters on May 28, 2027.
You might not recognize the name The MBS Group right away, but if you ever wandered through legendary studio lots like Radford Studio Center, Culver Studios, Raleigh Studios, or Symmetry Park Studios London, you’ve stepped onto one of the nearly 50 studio campuses they operate globally. The company is the world’s largest studio operator, running top-tier campuses in iconic entertainment hubs like Los Angeles, New York, and London. But they’re not just renting out space — they’re the behind-the-scenes powerhouse designing studios, planning productions, and delivering the technical backbone of the entertainment industry.
At its core, MBS Group is a creative industry problem solver, building a complete ecosystem for content creators. Over the years, they’ve grown into a full-service juggernaut, tackling every phase of the production pipeline. For instance, MBS Equipment Company operates an equipment rental division, supplying lighting, grip, and more to over 650 soundstages worldwide. MBS Innovations (MBSi) serves as their think tank, inventing cutting-edge technology and enhancing production workflows. Studio Art & Technology is their custom manufacturing arm, and ISS Props has the goods to dress any set. But the crown jewel? That would be The MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach, a cutting-edge lot featuring over a dozen soundstages and a full-on New York backlot. It’s not just impressive; it is home to James Cameron’s Lightstorm Studios.
As a member of theCalifornia Production Coalition, we reached out to Jason Hariton, Chief Studio and Real Estate Officer of The MBS Group, to inquire about the business helping power James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, how the streaming age has impacted the way studios operate, the time Netflix’s Ted Sarandos challenged him to envision the future, and more.
Do you have a defining moment in your career that helped shape your leadership style or business philosophy?
While it’s tough to pick a singular moment that helped shape my philosophy, one story immediately comes to mind. Just a couple of days in at Netflix, I sat down for my first formal meeting with Ted Sarandos. I asked what he needed from me in my new role leading global studio and production operations. I was then a department of one. Ted matter-of-factly explained that Netflix would soon be producing over 1,000 productions per year throughout the 190 countries that it serves, and he tasked me with ensuring that we had the necessary infrastructure, equipment, and crew required to execute that mission. I remember thinking it was pure insanity—1,000 productions? Impossible. But I could see that he believed it, and that was inspiring. He calmly asked me to come back with a plan. I did just that – I came back with a phased multiyear plan to create the largest infrastructure footprint in the content industry. To establish new resources where they’d never existed, and to ring-fence the rest. I wrote it up in a Netflix-style memo and sent it out for his review.
What was Ted’s reaction?
When I sat down with him, I could tell that he’d read the memo thoroughly. He asked educated questions, and I did my best to answer. I figured this was all just a market research exercise. As the meeting ended, he told me to go for it. To make it happen. “Which part?” I asked. I wondered which of the many recommended elements of Phase 1 he was greenlighting. “All of it,” he said, as if surprised I didn’t already know. My department of one would soon be staffed with hundreds, and the initial plan would be accomplished within the first 24 months. Ted’s support never wavered. And, he was right: Within a couple of years, we were producing more than 1,000 productions per year.
What is the long-term vision for The MBS Group?
It is difficult to have a crystal ball when we are in the midst of such interesting times for the industry, but the hope is to see MBS grow alongside existing and new content studio clients. To stay nimble, to innovate, and to adapt as they adapt. In practical terms, I see MBS expanding into new regions, servicing both English and local language content production at scale.
How has the evolving landscape of television and streaming content changed the way studios’ facilities want to streamline operations or support productions?
The evolution of streaming content has turned what was once a disparate mix of local and regional content producers into a truly global and interconnected industry. Before streamers, there was local-for-local content and then we had global English language content. Those lines are now blurred and eroding rapidly. We see more local-for-global content that’s elevating new stories and voices, with advancements in dubbing and subtitling that remove language barriers, such as shows like Netflix’s La Casa De Papel (aka Money Heist) or Squid Game.
These successes are leading to more regional and localized content spending, including higher budgets, increased title volume, and better production values, while proving that local stories can and do play well to a worldwide audience. That, in turn, drives demand for larger and more advanced regional infrastructure and equipment. And, reciprocally, we are seeing more tentpole global-for-local content that incorporates culturally diverse talent, stories, and locations that not only appeal to the mass market but also speak directly to local audiences.
What trends will define studio facilities in the next 5 years?
Over the next five years, we anticipate that technology, largely driven by advances in artificial intelligence, will precipitate a significant leap forward in production methodologies. While the unknown can be intimidating and may bring challenges, some initial indications are exciting. As more work can now be done in-camera – take virtual production as an example – the increasingly large LED volume screens require larger, taller soundstages, with an abundance of electrical power and robust roof structures to hang screens.
“Brain bars” need to be developed at facilities to handle the computing required to power tomorrow’s productions. As larger and more technologically advanced set pieces replace traditional practical locations, there’s a need for more advanced 3D printing, automation, and tools for world creation. As these elements enter the soundstage, we require larger doors, advanced MEP systems, and new lighting solutions that communicate directly with the camera’s sensors in real-time.
MBS MENA Limited is a newly formed division of The MBS Group with an operating presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It manages and operates AIUIa Studios in Saudi Arabia. With films like Kandahar and F1 being shot in areas of Saudi Arabia, how has the region influenced the MBS Group’s footprint in the country?
To quote Abeer M. AlAkel, CEO of The Royal Commission for AlUla: “…In just five years the RCU has welcomed more than 440 international, regional, and local productions, including 85 in the past year alone. And behind each of these productions is a growing community of Saudi creatives, many from AlUla itself, who are finding their voice and their place in this global industry. Through hands-on training, real-world experience, and mentorship, we’re opening new pathways for the next generation of storytellers.” We had looked at many exciting MENA opportunities over the past few years, but none presented the right fit for our first regional footprint; not until we learned about AlUla and the vision of the RCU.
How is The MBS Group adapting to the rise of virtual production and other emerging technologies?
MBS has leaned in to virtual production (VP) and LED technology. Most recently, we acquired the UK/Europe’s foremost provider of virtual production solutions, VSS, also known as Video Screen Service. In line with our solutions-centered ethos, we are not exclusive to any one software or hardware solution. We’ve provided unique VP solutions for tentpole projects at Warner Bros. Leavesden, Amazon’s Fallout in NYC, Apple TV’s Masters of the Air in London, Warner Bros./Legendary’s Dune in Budapest, among others. TheMBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach is also home to Avatar, as well as The Mandalorian and its spin-offs.
The MBS Media Campus has been around since 1999. What would you say makes it different from the other major studios?
The MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach – our company’s namesake – is special in that it is relatively new infrastructure for the greater L.A. market. Massive state-of-the-art 25,000 sqft soundstages with 45’ clearance. Since 1999, the Media Campus’ design and specs have served as a model for many of the newer soundstages built around the world. The scale of the project has enabled it to serve as the home of James Cameron’s Lightstorm Studios and his Avatar franchise for the last decade.
MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles.
MBS Equipment Company provides services to numerous studios worldwide. Let’s say a production is shooting in multiple locations, and plans to use MBS Equipment Services across different studios serviced by MBS. Is there an incentive or deal there for a production to make?
Absolutely. We have enterprise deals with many of the major content studios and production companies, and we incentivize productions to utilize our services on and off the lot, across multiple studio facilities and locations, and across various service lines, including lighting, VFX, props, armory, production planning, and more.
A grip working for MBS Services.
Before we let you go, how important was the passing of California’s Film & Tax Incentive Program 4.0?
It was incredibly important! Hollywood is hurting. The labor strikes and the fires have exacerbated a crisis that has been affecting friends and family for a long time. Unemployment for California’s motion picture workers is at a record high. It’s dire, with many people losing homes and being forced to find new careers – often out of state. This new legislation is critical. I was proud to help start the California Production Coalition, and I thank all those involved in this monumental effort, including the MPA. I pray we see some positive effects over the coming months.
This article is part of an ongoing series that raises awareness among businesses and individuals in the film and television community. The MBS Group is a member of the California Production Collation. You can find more about themhere.
Cinematographer Matthew Libatique grew up in Queens. He knows New York City, which is a good thing because his knowing eye lends luster to a pair of urban thrillers hitting screens this month courtesy of directors Spike Lee and Darren Aronofsky. Libatique, Oscar-nominated for Black Swan, A Star Is Born, and Maestro, shot four previous movies for Lee before helping the iconic New Yorker in his latest, the Denzel Washington-led thriller The Highest 2 Lowest (limited in theaters, streaming on Apple TV+ starting September 6). And he collaborated on six acclaimed arthouse features with Aronofsky before taking on the auteur’s East Village action comedy Caught Stealing (in theaters August 27), featuring Austin Butler and ZoëKravitz.
Libatique, who filmed the movies back-to-back, says, “Spike is very fluid. Darren is extremely precise. For me, as a spectator of sorts, it was fun to see how these two great filmmakers interpret an amazing city.”
Speaking from his Brooklyn home, Libatique discusses his “languid camera” strategy for filming Denzel Washington and recounts the time he crouched down behind a rolling cart to follow Austin Butler as they both raced through a New York City grocery store.
How did Spike Lee ground you in his vision for Highest 2 Lowest, which is inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic High and Low.
From the beginning, Spike said this is not a remake, it’s a re-interpretation. That gave me a little bit of a paved road for how to approach the cinematography. In Kurosawa’s original, for example, one of the things I found stunning was this view at the beginning where they set up the relationship between the have-nots at the bottom of the hill and the haves — [actor Toshiro] Mifune — standing inside this room looking out the window.
Highest 2 Lowest echoes that relationship with this epic opening shot of the city’s skyline that lands on Denzel Washington, as music mogul David King, standing on the balcony of his Dumbo penthouse in Brooklyn overlooking Manhattan.
We’re getting the lay of the land of the story, and in every frame, we’re getting a sense of the character because of how opulent and luxurious and playful everything is.
The camera even moves differently, it seems, in the first act.
We pretty much did static shots and dolly moves, trying to keep it a little more traditional—a little more of a languid camera.
“Languid” can work when you have Denzel Washington in focus.
With Denzel or any performer of that magnitude, that talent, that skill, that celebrity, that magic, as a cameraman, you’re dealing with less is more. You’re just trying to stand in front of him and capture the performance. Then, when conflict ensues, all of a sudden, there are detectives in the penthouse, so there are more cameras involved, and the camera language starts to get a little messier.
Denzel Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera. Credit: Courtesy of A24
SPOILER ALERT
Circumstances force “David King” to leave his luxurious world and get on the subway crammed with rowdy baseball fans traveling north through Manhattan to Yankee Stadium. How did you film Denzel Washington, one of the biggest stars in the world, in a public subway?
With a lot of help from the New York Film Commission and the MTA. We’re trying to travel from Borough Hall [in southern Manhattan] all the way up to 161st Street, but in New York, there are only a few platforms you’re allowed to shoot. We got maybe two stops. We’d travel one way and then flip everybody to the other side and do it again. The platforms were tricky, too, because when we went from, say, Union Square to 42nd Street, they’d have to change all the signs and use different extras. [First Assistant Director] Joe Reidy and production designer Mark Friedberg did a fantastic job.
Denzel Washington. Credit: David Lee
Intercut with the subway ride is this wonderfully chaotic set piece in the South Bronx centered on the Puerto Rican Day Parade, where Eddie Palmieri and his band are driving the crowd wild.
The late, great Eddie Palmieri, R.I.P.
Eddie Palmieri. Credit: Courtesy of A24
How did you capture all this mad vitality?
We started by doing about eight takes with Eddie. None of the music was pre-recorded. I couldn’t believe he could give that performance eight times in a row! So, we covered that first, recorded the music, played some back, and then cut to the crowd for their reaction. We spent three straight days photographing this event because that was the mandate from Spike. We wanted to capture every last detail, down to the people crushing sugar cane, shaving ice, and playing dominoes, to show something that’s quintessentially New York.
Credit: Courtesy of A24
The look of the film shifts throughout the course of David King’s journey. Did you use different kinds of cameras along the way?
At the beginning, we wanted a more austere approach, so we shot with a more studio-type camera – the Alexa Mini LF.
And then the subway?
We introduced 16 millimeter and also started shooting multiple film stocks, reversal film stock as well as positive. As we got closer to the Puerto Rican Parade, we used Kodak Super 8 cameras. The idea behind it was to create as much different perspective as we could. There’s a line that Asap$ Rocky says to Denzel in their first phone call, “You’re not in control anymore.” That’s what we’re trying to convey.
You shot High 2 Low in New York, then went straight into Caught Stealing. What kind of economic impact do projects of this scale have on the local filmmaking community?
For those of us who are fortunate enough to have work, I feel like it’s incumbent upon me to employ as many people as possible. The lifeblood of the filmmaking industry is the working class, and coming off Covid and the writers’ strike, that created some pretty bad situations. For me to be able to employ people, it goes beyond feeling good — it feels like a responsibility. I just hope we find a way for this country to be able to hold some of the filmmaking inside its borders.
You’ve been collaborating with Darren Aronofsky since the early nineties, when you guys met as students at the American Film Institute’s AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. How did this project differ from the previous movies you’ve made together?
Usually, with Darren, if you look at The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Noah, The Whale, everything stems from the subjectivity of the main character. For Caught Stealing, Darren sort of set aside the obsessions of his past to make a fun popcorn movie, for lack of a better term. In this film, you don’t get that same sense of subjectivity because there are so many characters who all have to share space in the frame.
Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and Hank (Austin Butler) connect back at Hanks apartment in Columbia Pictures CAUGHT STEALING. photo by: Niko Tavernise
And one of those characters seems to be the city itself?
Location scouting is kind of how Darren and I developed the movie. Just walking through the East Village, you see something that inspires you, sparks a conversation, and then you circle back to what we’re doing in the story.
Each neighborhood has a distinctive personality, starting with the East Village, where Austin Butler’s bartender character, Hank, resides.
Then he goes to Chinatown, then we go over the Manhattan Bridge and to a Greenpoint storage facility in Brooklyn, then to Flushing Meadows, and eventually the film takes us to Brighton Beach. The story takes you to all these iconic neighborhoods. It’s a different kind of love letter to the city from Highest 2 Lowest, but they’re both New York.
Russ (Matt Smith) and Hank (Austin Butler) on the move in Columbia Pictures CAUGHT STEALING. photo by: Niko Tavernise
What kind of cameras did you use for Caught Stealing?
For the majority of the film, I used the Sony Venice 2 in combination with old Bausch and Lomb Baltar lenses [designed in the 1930s] that I bought from [four-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer] Ed Lachman. I also used the DJI Ronin 4D-8 K, because we shot almost everything except Hank’s apartment inside actual locations, and needed to move the camera freely within these small spaces. It’s an internally stabilized camera that has a stabilizing neck on it that allows us to shoot more like a Steadicam rather than handheld.
In one wild chase sequence, Hank’s racing through a grocery store at top speed with Vincent D’Onofrio’s character in hot pursuit. How did you capture that chase on camera?
I sort of hunched over on a sandbag cart, getting pushed by two people as I held the camera really low while Austin goes sliding under this forklift. We were just trying to move the camera as fast as possible.
And you’re right in the thick of it.
[laughing] Going as fast as they can push me.
In both of these movies, New York City adds so much texture to the storytelling. It’s not Anywhere USA.
Not at all. Nobody ever comes here to make it look like somewhere else. There’s only a few cities where you don’t do that. London. Paris. Tokyo. And you don’t do that in New York.
Featured image: L-r: Denzel Washington. Credit: David Lee. Hank (Austin Butler) with Bud (“Tonic” the cat) on Coney Island gains confidence in plotting his next move in Columbia Pictures CAUGHT STEALING. photo by: Niko Tavernise
Director and producer Jay Roach, known for making some of the most iconic comedies of the last 25 years, is now helming a reimagining of another classic with The Roses. Written by two-time Oscar-nominee Tony McNamara, The Roses is a fresh take on Danny DeVito’s classic 1989 movie The War of the Roses.
While the original boasted the iconic pairing of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, the Meet the Parents and Austin Powers filmmaker has Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as a picture-perfect couple pitted against each other, as one’s career rises and the other’s crashes and burns. The Roses ensemble cast also includes two SNL legends in Kate McKinnon and Andy Samberg, as well as Ncuti Gatwa and Allison Janney.
Here, Roach and McNamara explain the power of language, the effectiveness of a well-placed curse word, and more.
The Roses is the first time Benedict and Olivia have appeared on screen together. That must have been fun to pair them for this.
Jay Roach: I couldn’t believe they hadn’t worked together. This came to me with them attached, so I didn’t have to think too hard about it. I jumped in because I imagined that their chemistry might be fantastic. I knew Benedict a little bit. He’s so fast, so funny, and he doesn’t get to do as much comedy as I think he could. I’ve known how hilarious Olivia is since Peep Show, so imagining them doing Tony’s dialogue seemed inevitable. It was even better than I expected.
Tony, you’ve written for Olivia before in Yorgos Lanthimos’s scathing, hilarious The Favourite. Did you write this with her in mind?
Tony McNamara: I similarly came in knowing it was Olivia and Benedict, and it was Searchlight and they that brought it to me. I love both of them, and I wanted to work with her again because she’s so brilliant and fun. They asked, ‘Do you want to do a remake?’ and I said, ‘No, but I’ll do a reimagining.’ Because of those two, I went, ‘We’ve got these incredibly verbally brilliant actors. We’ll just make it more of a verbal, character-driven black comedy, and that will suit their style.’ Because they’re such great dramatic and comic actors, I knew they had this great range, and I’d be able to throw a lot of tone through it.
Was there a particular moment when you knew this was working?
Roach: The first thing we shot with them together was in the Crab Shack, and I could see how they connected and cared so much about each other. Another was after his fortunes had collapsed, she was trying to cheer him up and mentioned that they could focus on the kids now. It’s such a beautifully warm scene, but it’s also really funny. Even in the read-through, they were amazing.
McNamara: They read it for us on Zoom, and it was so good. We couldn’t believe it.
Roach: Everyone was laughing so hard, and the other actors were losing it. That was when it became clear we’d made a good decision to get involved.
Tony, your writing showcases the power of a really well-placed curse word, and you’re not afraid to use the C word. You’re from Australia, and this was shot in the UK, and both places have different cultural attitudes towards its usage compared to the US.
McNamara: I remember we did it in The Favorite, and there was a sense of wondering how the American audience would go with it. In Australia and England, it’s an affectionate term, and it’s a curse. In America, we were worried, but I think because it was placed truthfully, it made sense, and if it lands the right way, maybe we get away with it. We don’t always get away with it. I’m sure my mother would walk out of the cinema. I never try to use it to shock; it’s always used rhythmically or coming from a certain place.
Roach: It’s a big moment since it’s used in the first scene of the movie. Olivia’s character, Ivy, is listing off the ten things she hates about Benedict’s character, Theo, and then lands it with the C word. I was saying, ‘Okay, it’s real. That’s how she would talk.’ They each find it hilarious that they’ve gone that far, which is also part of the scene’s beauty. American audiences often do gasp and howl at the same time. It’s almost an education in language.
What made you decide to film The Roses in the UK?
Roach: It was more to do with the actors’ schedules and availability than anything. I enjoy the movie magic of doing that. I shot in New Orleans for 1940s LA with Trumbo. We never got to shoot Austin Powers in England; that was always on studio back lots. I embraced it, but it was occasionally challenging. South Devon is so beautiful, and they let us take over this amazing restaurant, called The Winking Prawn, but we built the house and everything else on stage at Pinewood. I got to work with an all-English crew, other than our production designer, who is American. I felt like Ted Lasso because I wasn’t grasping the language as much as I wanted to.
Do you have any examples of the language barrier between the Queen’s English and your own?
Roach: They say we are two countries divided by a common language. I remember Tony wrote a scene that we called “sex on the bonnet,” and I thought the bonnet was the top of the car. I kept looking for a car with a roof strong enough to have sex on, and he was like, ‘No, you idiot, the bonnet is the hood. It’s the thing over the engine.’ There were multiple times like that when some translation was necessary.
In the restaurant scenes, the food is a star in its own right. Did you bring someone in for that?
Roach: We had a food designer, Dorothy Barrick, who was incredible. We also had a consultant, Ollie Dabbous, who’s a great chef from Hide. We really wanted it to feel like it was a manifestation of Ivy’s taste and her creative capability. I love the way it looks.
Did you have to make many adjustments to make the UK look like the US?
McNamara: When we went to Devon, we weren’t sure that it would look like Northern California, but we were stunned that it did. I don’t think I had to do any rewriting to make that work.
Roach: The only thing that was challenging was the museum. Trying to find the right place that was American enough meant we ended up doing that with visual effects, and cooking up the idea that it was a Maritime Museum in the East Bay.
The weather in the UK can be unpredictable. Did that cause any issues?
Roach: There was one bad night at the Crab Shack in Devon, when it was raining so hard, and there was no place to stand and no place for the crew. It was during the actual storm that we were recreating that there was a giant storm, and I was crazy. Most of the time we got lucky. We didn’t always have cover sets, so we would have been in trouble if there had been a serious amount of storms.
The industry has been debating the importance of comedies getting theatrical releases. What are your thoughts?
Roach: The pandemic took some steam out of the comedy momentum. I got to be part of so many really enjoyable comedies, and I got to see a bunch of comedies when I was starting out in the film business. I hope people are reminded how fun it is to sit in the dark and laugh with strangers. Also, I don’t want too many more of those high-back seats where you can’t hear everybody. I like those old-fashioned, crappy seats where you can feel everybody laughing next to you. We need to remind people how enjoyable and important it is as a community thing to just laugh your ass off altogether in waves.
McNamara: I came up in theater, and that was all about sitting with an audience and hearing them laugh and stuff. It has been lost a lot. When I was growing up, you went to comedies all the time with your friends, and that was part of your culture and how you understood each other. It has gone out of fashion, but when we did a test screening for The Roses with 250 people, it was funny because we had that experience. We were like, ‘Oh my God, I forgot what it was like to sit in a cinema for 100 minutes and have people laugh all the time and feel like you had an experience together’. There was something quite special about it.
The Roses is in theaters from Friday, August 29, 2025.
There’s a very healthy cross-section of book and movie lovers who are eager, dare I say thrilled, that writer/director Chloé Zhao’s upcoming feature is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s moving novel, “Hamnet.” In that piece of brilliant historical fiction, O’Farrell treated us to the tortured origin story, if you will, of William Shakespeare’s deathless work “Hamlet,” which, we learn, was inspired by his wife’s struggle to overcome the loss of their only son, Hamnet. Hamnet was taken from them by the Black Death, and O’Farrell brought readers into the 16th-century life of Agnes, her husband Will, and the grief that infused their often hectic, yet intermittently happy home.
In Zhao, Hamnet might have its ideal filmmaker to explore the creation of a masterpiece and the very human loss that centered it. The film centers on Jessie Buckley’s Agnes and Paul Mescal’s Shakespeare, with Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn starring as Mary and Bartholomew, siblings close to Agnes and William and their family. Chao’s working with Cold War and The Zone of Interest cinematographer Lukasz Zal, veteran production designer Fiona Crombie (who knows from Shakespeare—she designed Justin Kurzel’s moody Macbeth in 2015), and her Nomadland composer Max Richter. It’s a starry ensemble of creatives working to enhance a starry ensemble cast, with Mescal and Buckley leading the way, two of the most accomplished performers of their generation.
In short, Hamnet is one of this season’s potential Oscar darlings—its December 12 release date puts it squarely in the award season mix—the first trailer is a sumptuous glimpse, and moving, too.
The first trailer for The Savant offers a chilling statistic—between 1994 and 2020, there were 893 extremist attacks in America. The people committed to doing their best to protect us from even more of them aren’t often the ones who might think of it. In fact, we mostly don’t know they exist. Jessica Chastain’s character in Savant is one such person—a suburban mom by day, a tireless hunter by night. Chastain, who was excellent in Kathryn Bigelow’s masterpiece Zero Dark Thirty, is not new to ripped-from-the-headlines thrillers that deal in serious political and legal gray areas, and she’s once again back in these murky waters for Apple TV+’s new series.
“My job is pretending to think like them,” Chastain’s character tells one of her children, “to stop those people from doing really bad things.” She’s so good at it, she’s earned herself a nickname—yup, the Savant—on beginning on September 26, we’ll see Chastain pitted against snipers, bombers, ambushers, and homegrown terrorists of all stripes. One case in particular has been front and center of her work, with a massive potential plot underway that, Chastain later tells us, is the “kind that history refers to with a month and a date.”
Eventually, Chastain’s Savant keeps pushing deeper into this larger plot, and in doing so, puts her family in harm’s way. With her job and her family life now terribly intertwined, The Savant promises to show us what happens when the best at what she does faces an enemy just as cunning but even more ruthless.
Check out the trailer below. The Savant arrives on September 26.
For more stories on Apple TV+ series and films, check these out:
All aboard the first trailer for director Simon Stone’s The Woman in Cabin 10, starring Keira Knightley as a travel writer who boards a luxury cruise ship that looks just a little too good to be true. Knightley plays Laura Blacklock, an award-winning journalist who finds herself at the center of a dangerous mystery once the yacht sets sail. A passenger is thrown overboard—Laura sees it happen—only to find that her fellow passengers, a wealthy lot who themselves all seem suspicious, insist Laura was seeing things. Gaslighting at sea, a tale as old as sea travel itself.
The film is based on Ruth Ware’s best-selling novel of the same name, and is clearly intended to be a proper thriller that centers on Laura’s desire to reveal the truth while everyone around her treats her as if she’s losing her mind. But Laura is no shrinking violet, and nor was she intended to be.
“Lead female characters have had a bit of a bad rap. It’s always the woman whose sanity we’re doubting,” Stone told Colliderlast year. “I wanted Lo to feel more like the lead characters from ‘70s paranoid thrillers — Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman in The Conversation. You never question them. You just believe they’re right. That’s what I wanted for Keira.”
Knightley is surrounded by an excellent cast, including Guy Pearce, Hannah Waddingham, David Ajala, Art Malik, Kaya Scodelario, David Morrissey, Daniel Ings, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Check out the trailer below. The Woman in Cabin 10 arrives on Netflix on October 10.
Here’s the official synopsis from Netflix: While on board a luxury yacht for a travel assignment, a journalist witnesses a passenger thrown overboard late at night, only to be told that it didn’t happen, as all passengers and crew are accounted for. Despite no one believing her, she continues to look for answers, putting her own life in danger. Based on the bestselling novel The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.
Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard knows that Eden isn’t the kind of movie you’d expect him to make, which is one of the reasons he made it.
Based on real events, it tells the story of a group of outsiders who settle on a remote island in the Galapagos but quickly find out that the biggest danger they face isn’t the environment or the wildlife, but each other. Eden boasts an ensemble cast including Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney.
Here, Howard, who co-wrote and directed the film, discusses his favorite scene, reveals why the period piece has parallels with the world today, and shares his thoughts on the industry in 2025.
When people think about a Ron Howard movie, they perceive different things. What is a Ron Howard movie in 2025?
I guess it’s Eden, but I’m always looking for movies that can transport an audience, whether that’s through laughter, fantasy, human interactions, where they’re happening, and who they are. Eden is a movie that surprises some people because it’s coming from me. It’s a cautionary tale, a true crime thriller, and the first time I’ve tackled that narrative framework. It’s an interesting collision of characters that happened, making it one of those stranger-than-fiction stories. It was the perfect mix of personalities, motivations, hopes, twists, and turns. It’s like a season of reality television, and a producer couldn’t have cast it better.
Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby on the set of ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
Eden is a period piece, but it has parallels with the world today.
I stumbled upon this story in a museum in the Galápagos Islands. It is an infamous story there, and they had a room dedicated to it. At the time, I didn’t see it as immediately relevant. I saw it as an interesting drama. I was fascinated and intrigued, but I wasn’t ready to make it as a movie, and didn’t necessarily believe audiences would engage with it. As time went on, unfortunately, I began to feel it was more immediately relevant.
You filmed Eden in Australia. Was that decision based on logistics and practicality? Were incentives a factor?
Incentives are a big deal, but I also had a fantastic experience the previous year making Thirteen Lives. That was set in Thailand but shot in Australia for efficiency, financial, and production reasons. I did scout the Galápagos, but we couldn’t film there because it’s a nature reserve. It’s tremendously limited, and it would be wildly expensive. One of the producers, Bill Connor, and I started saying, ‘Didn’t we see this terrain in Australia?’ so we were like, ‘Let’s go check out Queensland.’ We also visited the Canary Islands and scouted Puerto Rico. However, it was in Queensland that we immediately found the kind of desert island foliage. With a bit of set dressing and some set extensions achievable through shooting plates in the Galápagos, it looked right. Combine that with a great tax incentive and an infrastructure of talented people, and we could make our movie there efficiently and effectively.
(from left) Daniel Brühl and Jude Law in ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
I assume you had a good network of local creative talent.
Oh, yeah. They have a great infrastructure. We transported very few people. The cinematographer, Mathias Herndl, is German, but lives in Vancouver. I worked with him on Genius and liked him very much. I thought he could bring an aesthetic and cultural authenticity. Getting Daniel Bruhl to join us also meant a lot in terms of just the subtleties of German culture.
What is it about Mathias’s eye that made you feel he could capture a contemporary feel with a period hue?
He did a fantastic job. Mathias, Daniel, and composer Hans Zimmer, the three Germans who are close to all of this, kept talking about the psychological pressure people were feeling at that time. You feel it when you visit Floriana. One thing we had to do was find ways to make Queensland less beautiful. We began experimenting and doing camera tests to try to take some of that out of the landscape. Whether it was in a camera movement or the light, because there is very little artificial light in this film, we had to convey that sense of place, but also the psychological element.
(from left) Felix Kammerer, Ana de Armas and Toby Wallace in ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
Did you shoot on digital or film? Capturing period colors and tones on digital with natural light can be challenging.
You’re right from a technical standpoint, but we shot digital. It did create a challenge in the Digital Intermediate, but it was something we started on in prep. Matthias was working with the colorist before we ever shot anything for the movie.
That’s not the normal process, right?
No, that’s pretty unusual. We did it because we had to convey changes in the environment. There were storms and a drought, so we needed to transport the audience visually.
Vanessa Kirby in ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
Do you have a favorite scene? I love the scene on the cliff where everybody is in silhouette. It’s reminiscent of 1930s monster movies.
It’s definitely a very gothic moment, and that’s where the story begins to be almost Shakespearean or Greek. It becomes very tragic in powerful ways. My favorite scene was the luncheon. We bring everyone together for a symbolic burying of the hatchet, honoring Ana de Armas’ character. She is larger than life, dreams of being a hostess to the elite through this hotel she’s going to build, and is trying to show herself off. They are all together, simmering, checking each other out, and trying to position for a little more power or leverage. We shot it very quickly, over one day, and there were eight, nine, or ten pages for this confrontation. The psychology of it, what the actors brought to the scene, and the way we had to approach it visually, made it one of my favorites to stage and shoot.
Felix Kammerer, Ana de Armas and Toby Wallace in ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
G. Allen Hancock, an incredible character, is dropped into this. He’s a huge part of LA and Hollywood history whose life story would make a great movie.
I couldn’t believe this was the same Hancock of Hancock Park and La Brea Tar Pits fame, but in his era, he was very important to the growth of Los Angeles. At that time, if you were the wealthiest of the wealthy, you couldn’t think about going to space or diving deeply under the ocean, but you could outfit a yacht and go on expeditions, and that’s what some of these guys did. Hancock was dedicated to that. You can go online and see so much about the island of Floreana and these people, because he had a camera team with him, and he shot extensively. He even made a tongue-in-cheek silent movie starring the Baroness, Ana de Armas’ character. All of that informed our film and gave the actors a lot to build upon.
Ana de Armas as the Duchess in ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
What is the Ron Howard sniff test of the industry right now?
It’s definitely in a period of upheaval and transformation, but there are great creative opportunities out there. It’s a struggle to get things made, but if you’re determined, you can find a way to make almost anything. The new tools and technology are presenting a lot of questions, but also a lot of opportunities for filmmakers to think about ways to get their ideas onto screens. When it comes to distribution systems, it’s anyone’s guess as to how that’s going to continue to evolve, so it’s a difficult time to figure out what to invest in. However, it’s a great time to be making cinema. Long form, short form, big screen, small screen, it’s all cinema. It’s all using that language. It’s more meaningful than ever. It’s part of everyone’s regular life. So, as a career storyteller and filmmaker, that’s encouraging to me, even though the industrial part of it remains a question mark, and is going to be a challenge.
2025 is the 40th anniversary of Cocoon. Would you revisit it?
Cocoon is caught up in some sort of legal quagmire, so it’s hard to get. You can’t find it anywhere, and it’s very frustrating. I’ve consulted with various business affairs executives, but I still don’t fully understand why it’s so difficult to find and why it’s tied up. Friends of mine are constantly asking me about it and saying, ‘I want to show my kids Cocoon, but I can’t find it.’ I think the best you can do is go on eBay and buy an old DVD. If someone came to me with an idea of how we could further explore those characters, or characters like them, I’d be open to it. It was a turning point for my career. It was my first big-screen movie that demanded special effects and had to be cinematically potent. I’m very proud of it, and it’s one of my favorites in my filmography. This year is also the 30th anniversary of Apollo 13, and we’re going to have an IMAX rerelease, which is thrilling.
Eden is in theaters now.
Featured image: Director Ron Howard on the set of ‘Eden.’ (Courtesy of Vertical/Jasin Boland)
It feels like a piece of casting that has to happen. Nicolas Cage is in talks to star in season 5 of HBO’s moody, character-driven crime drama True Detective, a series in which the lead detectives get plum, multifaceted roles that feel tailor-made for a performer who loves nothing more than to disappear into a role.
The last season of the anthology series, True Detective: Night Country, took us into the frozen climes of Alaska in the fictional town of Ennis, and followed Chief of Police Elizabeth Danvers (Jodie Foster) and her former partner, Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), on an investigation into horrors discovered at a research facility that might be connected to the unsolved murder of an indigenous woman in the community. Night Country was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, the most-nominated season in the series’ history, which included Jodie Foster winning for Lead Actress. Previously, standout seasons included, of course, the first, which thrilled viewers with a gothic, gruesome, southern-fried noir with stellar lead performances by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Rustin Cohle and Marty Hart, respectively, two Louisiana State Police detectives investigating the ritualistic murder of a prostitute named Dora Lange. Season one also raked in the accolades, with 12 Emmy nominations, including for both McConaughey and Harrelson.
This history of excellence makes for a hearty meal for an actor of Cage’s abilities and sensibilities. Night Country‘s showrunner, Issa López, is likely returning for season five, which HBO revealed earlier this year would be set in Jamaica Bay, New York. Cage is in talks to snag the lead role of Henry Logan, a New York detective pulled into the case that will be at the center of the new season.
Cage is coming off a run of acclaimed films, including Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dream Scenario, and the recent, utterly bananas The Surfer.
Deadlinefirst reported on Cage’s potential involvement.
Featured image: US actor Nicolas Cage poses during a photocall for the film “The Surfer” at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 17, 2024. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP)
HBO Max has just dropped the first trailer for season two of The Pitt, and it manages, in just over a minute, to remind you what made the first season such a thrill ride. The 15-episode first run, nominated for 13 Emmys, covered one 15-hour shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center (inspired by the Allegheny General Hospital, which was used in filming for the entrance, helipad, and rooftop). The shift, usually 12 hours, went over 3 hours due to a shooting at the Pitt Fest, a concert where Jake (Taj Speights), the son of Dr. Robby (Noah Wylie)’s former romantic partner, is hanging out with his girlfriend. In what had already been a thrilling high-wire act of a medical drama, the best in years in our humble opinion, the final episodes flirted with unbearable tension, with friendly faces from earlier in the season returning, either to aid in an overloaded trauma center, or because someone they loved had been shot. It was a devastating, engrossing final few hours in one of the best dramas of the year.
The season two glimpse gives us a lot of the familiar faces—joining Dr. Robby, we have season one stalwarts Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), who appears not have made good, quite yet, on her promise to retire, young doctors-in-training like Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) and Dr. Santos (Isa Briones), and the troubled but brilliant Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), who was exposed at the tail end of last season to be struggling with addiction to pain meds. The new season begins on the Fourth of July, with Dr. Langdon returning from a stint in an inpatient rehab program.
Wylie’s Dr. Robby is the pater familias of this sprawling medical team, and while he’s gangbusters at his job, he’s far from trauma-free himself, as we learned in season one. (Wylie will also direct an episode this season.) In fact, one of the primary lessons the younger doctors learned during their first shift was the heavy toll their chosen profession can take on a person.
The intrapersonal dramas, the mile-a-minute medical jargon that never felt heavy-handed (due not only to superb performances, but the fact that real doctors and medical experts consulted with the writers and producers), the relentless pacing, and respect the production had that they audience wouldn’t only keep up, but care, made The Pitt season one a phenomenon. There’s no doubt that we’ll be clocking in for our second shift when the series returns in January.
Mr. Milchick is about to go from Lumon Industries to New York City.
Tramell Tillman, one of the breakout stars from Apple TV+’s Emmy-darling Severance, has been cast in director Destin Daniel Cretton’s upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Variety reports. Tillman will join Tom Holland, returning for his fourth swing as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Jon Bernthal, playing Frank Castle/Punisher, Mark Ruffalo, returning to the MCU fold as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and Zendaya, reprising her longtime Spidey role of MJ. Tillman’s not the only one whose character hasn’t been revealed; he joins Sadie Sink and Liza Colón-Zayas in undisclosed roles (the speculation on Sink is that she’s playing a young Jean Grey, a powerful member of the X-Men). The cast is rounded out with Jacob Batalon, returning as Ned, and Michael Mando, playing Mac Gargan/Scorpion.
The fourth film in the Holland-led Spider-Man franchise has already begun shooting, with the first day on set bringing a first for Holland’s Spider-Man tenure—fans flocking to the location. The details of who, precisely, Tillman will be playing are being kept under wraps and webs, but the quickly rising star is coming off a banner year already, having played an even larger role in Severance season 2 and playing a key role opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning as Captain Jack Bledsoe, the commanding officer of a submarine that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt catches a ride from during one of the movie’s most thrilling set pieces.
Tillman’s role as Seth Milchick, a middle manager at Lumon Industries responsible for running the severed floor, earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, the first openly Black gay man to receive the nomination. He also nabbed SAG and Independent Spirit Award Nominations. Tillman’s currently working on the Amazon MGM Studios’ film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, as well as Lena Dunham’s Netflix film Good Sex.
Tillman’s also a longtime star of the stage, having made his Broadway debut alongside Brian Cox in “The Great Society.” Speaking earlier to Variety for a cover story, Tillman reflected on making history with his Emmy nomination: “I’m not playing small for nobody. I’m not dimming my light for anybody. I have spent years doing that, and those days are done. Myself, stepping into that level of thinking and embodying, that is my own form of revolution.”
Featured image: CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 14: Tramell Tillman during the “Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning” photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at on May 14, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Leading this year’s Emmys pack with 27 nominations, the sophomore season of Severance goes deeper into the cult-like and twisted Lumon Industries, where a group of employees chose a surgical procedure that permanently bifurcates their work memories (“innies”) from their true selves (“outies”). Created by Dan Erickson, the slow-burn workplace thriller follows severed employee, Mark (Adam Scott), and his colleagues who work on the labyrinthine severed floor under the supervision of Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman). One of the emotional bedrocks this season centers around what really happened to Mark’s allegedly deceased wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman). Shot in the Tri-State area, the series received $39.6 million in New York tax credits for its first season and an estimated $9.2 million in New Jersey tax credits across both seasons.
Dichen Lachman and Adam Scott in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Nominated for an Emmy, set decorator David Schlesinger (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Knives Out) worked closely with production designer Jeremy Hindle (who is also nominated) to expand the singular aesthetic of Lumon, which required fabricating substantial amounts of set dressing locally and importing items from Europe to create the distinct look. “About 30% to 40% of our set dressing was designed and fabricated mostly in the area. We wanted everything to be a little off and not recognizable because, in theory, most of the things on the severed work floor would have been made by Lumon. So that’s why we fabricated so much in-house.”
Dichen Lachman in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
What was it like to jump right into the second season?
Jeremy Hindle and I are old friends; we did True Story together. He offered me season one, but I was on hold for another project. But I wasn’t sure that I could do it at first, and jumped in with some research and conversations with Jeremy. So, season two was not brand new to me.
What were some of the changes in season two from a visual aesthetic perspective?
There wasn’t really a change, except that we spent more time in the outie’s world and explored other areas of Lumon, like the testing floor, where we found many new sets. I expanded on season one—I wanted more of a corporate feeling in the furniture. So, we repeated things—you have the same folding chairs from Cappellini everywhere like the break room and the Mammalians Nurturable room, or the goat room. I brought in a drafting table from [Italian office equipment manufacturer] Olivetti, which we used in the Mammalians and the management office and closet to convey that sense of sameness.
“Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
How did you settle on that style from Olivetti?
Olivetti made typewriters and business equipment in the ’60s, a line of office furniture which I don’t think was imported into the United States, so it was pretty unusual to find here. I wanted to find things that people didn’t recognize. I thought it was amazing, so I just started buying them up.
What were some of the main locations where Severance was shot?
Our stages were in the Bronx, and we had many locations upstate in Minnewaska State Park, in Kingston, New York. Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, is where the Lumon building is. And we shot in Newfoundland for Episode 8, that’s set in [the fictional town of] Salt’s Neck.
Lumon Industries headquarters Photo: Apple TV+
How big was your team?
My core team included two assistant set decorators and two buyers, plus a coordinator. The set dressing crew could be up to 50 on some days.
Was the style of Severance too unique to rent a lot from prop houses?
We bought a lot because of our schedule and we go back to a lot of sets. So, rentals are a little difficult. We do some but for the most part, we bought items.
How much of the furniture and decorations were sourced on location?
I source all over—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and we also shipped things in from Europe. Wherever we could find things, we went far and wide. We also fabricated a large amount of the set dressing.
Robby Benson and Dichen Lachman in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
What was the design and fabrication process like on a show this extensive?
I’d come up with a concept, discuss it with Jeremy, and then work with an illustrator or the set designer. We’d make it in-house or have an outside fabricator, depending on the complexity. We have an in-house sculptor who made the duck rabbit sculpture in Milchick’s office and the bust of Lumon’s founder, Eagan. Our shop space was in the Bronx at our stages.
A jarring piece of art greets the innies as they exit the lobby elevator—the “Kier Pardons His Betrayers” mural—where four people are buried up to their necks in sand.
That was something that Jeremy worked on with our in-house illustrator to develop the concept. Once Ben approves it, our scenic department created it.
Sarah Bock in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Are most of the art pieces created in-house?
For the art on the “severed” floor, we worked with graphic designer Tansy Michaud to come up with a concept to present to Ben and Dan [Erickson], the writer. Those were based on WPA [Work Projects Administration] posters. There’s only one piece of art on that floor that we did not create in-house, the painting of the iceberg in Milchick’s office, which was by local artist Lisa Lebofsky. There’s so much you don’t see in an iceberg under the surface, much like what’s happening at Lumon.
Sydney Cole Alexander in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
How did that idea come about?
We had a conversation with Trammell about his office, which was a redo of Cobel’s office, and he mentioned the idea of an iceberg.
What were some of your favorite furniture or art pieces this season?
There’s so much! Fans of design often mention the furniture on the testing floor and Gemma’s suite. But one thing that people may miss is the new desk in Milchick’s office. It’s a pretty amazing piece, circa 1965 for Lehigh Leopold, designed by renowned architect Warren Platner. He worked with architects Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche in the ’60s, who designed Bell Labs, which is our HQ for Lumon. So, it’s very likely that the desk would have been in the executive’s offices. I think we bought that from an antique store, Merit, in Los Angeles. We designed and fabricated the sofa, bed, and chair in Gemma’s suite. The idea is it’s a modular system that would’ve been maybe 3D printed by Lumon. So, we ended up 3D printing pieces of it.
Dichen Lachman in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
What was behind the white and purple chairs in the break room, where the innies are forced to watch that uprising reform video?
Those are the Nimrod chairs by Marc Newsom. We revamped the break room for the new and improved Lumon because they wanted to be “fun.” The projector was straight out of the ’60s. When we use an actual object, we often have to make some alterations. We painted it and created a control panel to make it feel like something Lumon would’ve created. We also fabricated the screen. The crazy balloon lamps, I just stumbled upon those and I was like, ‘These are fun! In the corners, there are some lava lamps from Ukraine. We bought quite a bit from Ukraine, like some of the toys in Dylan’s house, because I wanted things that felt a little foreign.
Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Where did you get those 1990s desktops in the cubicles?
Those were fabricated for season one, including the keyboards, I think, based on research at the Rhode Island Computer Museum, which was one of the things I’d suggested to Jeremy.
Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, John Turturro, Britt Lower and Adam Scott in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
What were some of your favorite items or scenes from this season?
Episode Seven is probably my favorite because we covered so much; the testing floor is entirely new. We have flashbacks to Mark and Gemma’s house, Ganz College, and Gemma’s office, which are traditional sets, but they’re still packed with character—we’re trying to identify who these people are and where they come from. The Salt’s Neck episode in Newfoundland, Canada, was totally different from the rest of the show. The Drippy Pot Café at first glance feels like a regular café, but if you dig deeper, it’s very bizarre. Everything is monochromatic—there may be three colors in that whole place, which is something we do a lot with Lumon. The new visitation room is all one color. We wanted to show that Lumon has their hands in everything, even the café in this little town.
James Le Gros in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
How did you decide on thecolor palette?
We have a pretty strict palette and camera-test a lot of our materials to maintain that palette. For instance, red is very rarely used. And if it is, it’s loaded with meaning. Blues, greens, and grays are our world.
Britt Lower in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
The show has such a distinct look that really sets it apart.
This is such a unique project, and I’m really proud of the work we’ve done. We have an amazing team. The ability to fabricate so many items and create this bizarre, but not over-the-top, world that only exists in Lumon has been a great project.
Severance is streaming on Apple TV+.
Featured image: Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower in “Severance,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
