Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is now available for digital download and on DVD. This means the mysteries at the heart of his time-inverting spy epic will begin to be unpuzzled. In a new “Anatomy of a Scene” video from the New York Times, it’s Nolan himself doing the unpuzzling.
First, some due diligence—let’s provide a brief synopsis of what Tenet‘s about. Tenet stars John David Washington as a member of an elite team that seems capable of literally inverting time in order to try and stop armageddon before it happens. You can think of Tenet as a spy movie, but it’s a Christopher Nolan spy movie. This means Tenet will take the tropes of the genre and explode them (or invert them), sort of like he did with the heist genre in his 2010 mind-melter Inception.
In this scene breakdown, Nolan discusses a sequence in which Washington and his comrade Neil (Robert Pattinson) need to launch themselves up the side of a high-rise mansion via a rope-and-pulley system they’ve devised. This being a Nolan stunt, there’s a whole lot of practical effects happening here. We’re talking about actual stunt performers actually launching up the side of the building. Nolan also talks about working with Bollywood film star Dimple Kapadia, how the aerials they shot on location in Mumbai were crucial (and historic), and more. It’s good stuff.
Check out the video below. Joining Washington, Pattinson, and Kapadia are Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, and Clémence Poésy. Tenet is available now for your viewing pleasure:
Featured image: Caption: (L-r) Director/writer/producer CHRISTOPHER NOLAN and JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon
At long last, the time has just about come to see Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) in action once again—director Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 is just about here. While you’ll need to wait until Christmas Day to see the long-awaited sequel, the critics already have. To that end, we’ve put together a spoiler-free review round-up to give you a sense of what they’re saying.
Let’s get you caught up on where we are in the franchise, first. The opening scene is already available (you can check it out below), and it takes us back to Diana’s mystical home island of Themyscira, where her fellow Amazon tribeswomen are about to start the Amazon Games. By the time Wonder Woman 1984‘s action moves back to Diana’s present day, we’re in Washington D.C. in 1984. That means we’re in the era of Reaganism, shoulder pads, parachute pants, corporate greed, and rampant consumerism (in some ways, not that much has changed.) That makes it some 66-years since Diana left her home island in the first Wonder Woman. In that film, all she did was help the allies win World War I, fall in love with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), lose Steve Trevor, and remind us all why people had so passionately wanted her to have her own film franchise. Thanks to Gal Gadot’s performance and Patty Jenkins’ direction, Wonder Woman was the kind of optimistic, tough, tender-hearted, and the resilient superhero the DCEU needed and we all wanted.
So now we come to 1984—by now you already know Steve’s back (somehow) and will no doubt play a big role in helping Diana face new foes, chiefly Pedro Pascal’s fatuous billionaire bad guy Max Lord, and Kristen Wiig’s apex predator, Cheetah. The equally great Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen return as Amazonian General Antiope and Queen Hippolyta respectively.
So that’s the barebones synopsis, let’s check out those reviews:
Peter Debruge, Variety: “Jenkins is an enormously talented filmmaker on whom the studio took a chance – one that’s seldom questioned when conferred upon men – and she proves her worth by never letting the spectacle drown out the performances.”
Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly: “Maybe Wonder Woman will be the one to save us, after all.”
Angie Han, Mashable: “If WW84 can’t quite reach the heights of the first film, it still soars beautifully when it matters most.”
Nicholas Barber, BBC.com: “In its old-fashioned, uncynical way, WW84 is one of the most enjoyable blockbusters to be released since 1984.”
Kate Erbland, indieWire: “It’s also brimming with the same wonder and joy as the first film, the rare movie – of any stripe – that doesn’t just want to believe in the goodness of people, but is willing to make them truly work for it. That’s superheroic.”
Wendy Ide, Financial Times: “This dayglo romp, with its thrilling set pieces and optimistic depiction of a humanity which is able to accept personal sacrifice for the greater good, is exactly the kind of heady escapism we need right now.”
Ben Travis, Empire Magazine: “A vibrant and virtuous adventure packed with all the heart and heroism we’ve come to expect from DC’s shining light. Wonder Woman 1984 really is the hero 2020 needed all along.”
Charlotte O’Sullivan, London Evening Standard: “Jenkins is an expert at weaving emotion into set-pieces.”
Kevin Maher, Times UK: “The screenplay from Jenkins and co-writers Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham does a remarkable thing – it doubles down on the premise and treats the material with the utmost gravitas. And, somehow, it works.”
Here’s that opening scene:
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Let’s go back to Themyscira, shall we? Warner Bros. and HBO Max have made Wonder Woman 1984‘s opening scene available a little more than a week before director Patty Jenkins’ film hits theaters and streams on HBO Max on Christmas Day. Now if you’re the type that would rather watch the opening minutes when you can, you know, watch the rest of the film immediately after, we get that. However, if you want to whet your appetite just before you can settle in for the full meal, this will do the trick. In fact, this 3-and-a-half minute opening scene is less an appetizer than it is an adrenalin shot.
The opening scene takes us back to Diana Prince (Gal Gadot)’s home island of Themyscira, where her mighty tribe of Amazonian warriors is taking part in their dangerous, thrilling Amazon Games. As we’ve discussed in a previous post (linked below in our Wonder Woman 1984 round-up), Jenkins, her cast, and crew pulled out all the stops to capture the Amazon Games with all the sweep and grandeur these women warriors deserve. Many of these sequences were shot with IMAX cameras, so the action is massive in scale and scope.
By the time Wonder Woman 1984‘s action moves back to Diana’s present day, in Washington D.C. in 1984, it’ll have been 66-years since she left her mystical home island, helped the allies win World War I, and (we saw it with our own eyes!) lost Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Yet we know they’ll be reunited here, and will face Pedro Pascal as the film’s villain, Max Lord, and Kristen Wiig as a new apex predator, Cheetah. The equally great Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen return as Antiope and Hippolyta respectively.
Check out the opening scene here. Wonder Woman 1984 hits theaters and HBO Max on December 25.
For more on Wonder Woman 1984, check out these stories:
If there were one movie that best encapsulated this awful year, at least in terms of the entertainment world, it was Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. In a normal year, a Nolan film is a major cinematic event. His ambitious, often mind-melting epics are designed and shot to be seen in the theater. Their release dates are something movie lovers mark on their calendars, and tickets are snapped up the moment they become available online. In short, a Nolan film like Tenet is a rare treat—a big budget, high concept spectacle that’s not married to some preexisting source material. It’s old-school moviemaking married to 21st-century technology, drawing massive audiences who want to be both entertained and surprised.
Alas, we know how 2020 has gone, and we know that Tenet, while it did get a theatrical run and did quite well, all things considered, was curtailed by the pandemic and its deleterious effect on theaters. So now, for those of us—and we are legion—who were eager to see Tenet but unwilling to do so in a theater—Nolan’s latest has finally come home. Tenet is available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & Digital today. And, just in case there are a few non-Nolan-heads out there curious but still unsure whether they’re interested, Warner Bros. has made the first 6-minutes or so available. We’ve embedded that below.
Tenet stars John David Washington as a member of an elite team that seems capable of literally inverting time in order to try and stop armageddon before it happens. “I grew up loving spy movies, but to make it sing to today’s audiences, I sort of felt like I wanted it to have bigger possibilities,” Nolan said in a behind-the-scenes featurette. Tenet is a spy movie in the way Inception was a heist movie—Nolan uses genre as a launching pad for flights of technically mind-blowing fancy.
Joining Washington are Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh. Check out the opening scene here:
Featured image: Caption: (L-r) Director/writer/producer CHRISTOPHER NOLAN and JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon
You couldn’t ask for a better filmmaker to untangle the lies, distortions, and heartbreak of the crack epidemic of the 1980s than Stanley Nelson. The award-winning filmmaker behind Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Freedom Riders, and The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords is the director of Netflix’s new Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy. A new trailer gives us our first glimpse at Nelson’s latest deep-dive, this time into the lies at the heart of the crack epidemic, one that gave the authorities, from congress to courthouses to police precincts, free reign to devastate Black and Brown communities. We are still feeling the repercussions today.
If you’re looking for a modern-day parallel to the crack epidemic from the 80s, look no further than today’s opioid crisis. Already you can see the difference in the language—the former was an “epidemic” that had perpetrators (Black and Brown people) and which lead to a “war” on drugs. The latter is a “crisis” that requires seeing those afflicted as actual human beings struggling with addiction, which of course they are. Had the surge of crack cocaine use in the 1980s (to say nothing of the rampant use of cocaine itself by white and prosperous individuals throughout the country) been treated as a health issue rather than a crime spree, America might look quite different today.
Nelson and his team set out to tell the story of what really happened during America’s doomed, deceitful “War on Drugs.” Our government turned a blind eye to cocaine smuggling, with the country focused on defeating Communism in Central America rather than keeping drugs from flooding into the country. “It was kind of like chemical warfare on Black communities,” one woman says towards the end of the trailer.
This is potent stuff, and there’s no one better than Stanley Nelson to take us through it.
Check out the trailer below. Crack: Cocaine, Corruption, & Conspiracy streams on Netflix on January 11, 2021.
Here’s the official synopsis from Netflix:
In the early 1980s, the crack epidemic tore through America’s inner cities like a tsunami, ravaging all in its wake. Decades later, the destructive effects on people’s lives, families and communities are still deeply felt. Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy examines not only the personal devastation caused by the drug, but also the shadowy origins of the crisis and the resultant, ongoing marginalization of Black and Brown people trapped by the U.S. prison and healthcare systems.
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Director Julie Hart’s new thriller, I’m Your Woman, turns its attention to a figure usually overlooked in 1970s crime dramas: the housewife. Jean (Rachel Brosnahan) seems incapable and alone, dispassionately aware but otherwise innocent of her husband Eddie’s (Bill Heck) nebulous involvement in some kind of organized crime. When Eddie heads out for the night and doesn’t come back, leaving Jean with a mysterious baby boy she’s mutely accepted as their own, she finds herself threatened and resourceless. Cal (Arinzé Kene), Eddie’s former accomplice, shows up to help Jean and her new child to flee, and so begins a slow migration between diners, motels, and safe houses.
ARINZE KENE and RACHEL BROSNAHAN star in I’M YOUR WOMAN Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios Courtesy of Amazon Studios
When the situation hits dire straits, Cal hides the pair in his family’s cabin, and his wife, Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), takes over. With Teri, Jean starts to emerge from her perhaps lifelong stupor, and as they try to work out who’s pursuing her and what became of Eddie, who also used to be Terri’s husband, the action moves (via boat-sized vehicles) from the isolation of the cabin to the bright energy of a disco and gritty downtown.
While clearly set in the 1970s, I’m Your Woman director Hart and her cinematographer, Bryce Fortner, steered clear of a cinematographic period recreation. “It’s always important to me and to Julia that we never do anything that gets in the way of the story,” said Fortner. In this case, that started with testing a variety of vintage and modern lenses before landing on Cooke Anamorphics, which were neither too 1970s-style soft nor overly crisp. “They were kind of right in the sweet spot. They didn’t call a lot of attention to themselves.” The attention thus stays on Jean, alone in motel rooms and unfamiliar houses, trying to figure out what the hell is happening to her and how to cook. While you try to predict whether her current hideout will hold, Fortner’s photography lets you quietly observe Jean as she nervously wonders the same. “We didn’t on paper say we want to put her in a frame within a frame, but we definitely framed Jean looking through a doorway, blocking the way a little bit so that she felt isolated yet squeezed in at the same time,” said Fortner.
RACHEL BROSNAHAN stars in I’M YOUR WOMAN Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios Courtesy of Amazon Studios
But whoever is after Eddie is just as determined to find his wife, and one hideout falls after another. “We didn’t want it to be too inviting and warm,” said Fortner of the intentionally sterile yet still pretty lighting in these environments. “We wanted to have a sense of doom, but there’s still some comfort there, too.”
When Terri takes Jean to a club in pursuit of Eddie’s colleagues, Jean starts to come to life, even as she winds up sheltering in a phone booth. “After being in the cabin for so long, which was two notes of color— cool white during the day and then warm orange light during the night — we realized that it would feel very important that when we get to the disco, there’s this nice pop of color that would be overwhelming to the senses, but also refreshing in a way,” said Fortner. The club starts out relaxed and groovy, but when a shootout moves through the space off-camera, the DP had his crew manually moving and panning the lighting over the dance floor, in order to “bolster the excitement, to kind of put you in there with Jean,” who is now literally on the run. Luckily, she now better understands Terri and Cal, just in time for the three of them to get into a car chase.
MARSHA STEPHANIE BLAKE and JAMES MCMENAMIN star in I’M YOUR WOMAN. Photo: Wilson Webb/Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Without added grain, these scenes shot at night in gigantic cars and over nine blocks in Pittsburgh, feel very much of the era in which they’re set. Fortner’s first after-dark scouting revealed a neighborhood that was practically pitch black, but the city replaced broken street lamps with sodium vapor lights, more suitable to the era than modern LEDs, and the crew got local businesses to stay open and keep their lights on. A full wet down of the location’s streets added a crucial 1970s-style element and allowed Fortner to work with textures and reflections on the ground. For the views outside the car, he and his team shot with a wide lens and a pursuit vehicle, avoiding long lenses and camera mounts to keep viewers closer to the action. (The scenes inside the car were filmed with handheld cameras, on a stage against LED screens, which Fortner pointed out is becoming more common. “That typically would have been an entire night’s worth of work. We got it done in like a third of the day.”)
In what the DP joked was a little hat tip to the 1970s, “a zoom aesthetic definitely eeked its way into the film,” starting with that quiet opening scene. “Julie and I just kind of love 70s aesthetics,” he said, but I’m Your Woman doesn’t overtly rely on them, with cinematography that nods to the era, through a camera that moves only when it needs to, thoughtful blocking, and those strategic zooms. The movie’s violence is sparing and mostly off-camera, letting viewers focus on Jean’s point of view instead. As she gets closer to Cal and Terri and discovering what abruptly set her life in motion, Jean’s antiheroine mantle falls away and she becomes a character to fully root for.
I’m Your Woman is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Featured image: MARSHA STEPHANIE BLAKE and RACHEL BROSNAHAN star in I’M YOUR WOMAN. Photo: Wilson Webb/Courtesy of Amazon Studios
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson, better known as Falcon, a heroic soldier endowed with superhuman ability thanks to technology—including, of course, a pair of wings. So Mackie is well-suited to continue the process of man melding with machine in Netflix’s upcoming Outside the Wire. In the first trailer, you’ll see that Mackie is a straight-up android with a very serious skill set. One can’t help but wonder how Outside the Wire‘s android might stack up against Mackie’s titular superhero in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Director Mikael Håfström’s film sees Mackie co-star alongside Damon Idris, who plays a disgraced drone pilot Leo. Leo’s tasked with helping Mackie’s Harp, the aforementioned droid, help locate a doomsday device that’s “outside the wire.” That is, the device is somewhere in a hyper-dangerous demilitarized zone filled with deadly robots and all sorts of traps, explosives, and explosive traps.
While Mackie’s a well-known star at this point, you might recognize Idris from The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. He’s clearly very comfortable working within the sci-fi genre. Joining Mackie and Idris are Emily Beecham, Michael Kelly, and Game of Thrones bad boy Pilou Asbæk.
Check out the trailer here. Outside the Wire premieres on Netflix in January.
Here’s the synopsis from Netflix:
Set in the future, a drone pilot (Damson Idris) is sent into a deadly militarized zone where he finds himself working for an android officer (Anthony Mackie) tasked to locate a doomsday device before the insurgents do.
Director: Mikael Håfström
PRODUCED BY: Ben Pugh, Erica Steinberg, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Anthony Mackie, Jason Spire
KEY CAST: Anthony Mackie “Leo”, Damson Idris “Harp”, Enzo Cilenti “Miller”, Emily Beecham “Sofiya”, Michael Kelly “Eckhart”, and Pilou Asbæk “Trask”
Two very good actors have joined HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. Matt Smith, so excellent as Prince Phillip on The Crown and the Doctor in Doctor Who joins Ready Player One‘s Olivia Cooke as the newest cast members. The prequel will explore the fall of the Targaryen empire long before Daenerys arrived on the scene to (briefly) restore it. Smith and Cooke join The Outsider‘s Paddy Considine and Truth Seeker’s Emma D’Arcy on this trip back to Westeros.
OLIVIA COOKE as Samantha in Warner Bros. Pictures’, Amblin Entertainment’s and Village Roadshow Pictures’ action adventure “READY PLAYER ONE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
These folks aren’t just joining the ensemble—they’re set to have big roles. Here’s who’s who via a press release from HBO:
Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen. Viserys was chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, but as we’ve learned from Game of Thrones, good men do not necessarily make for great kings.
Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower. She’s the daughter of Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, and the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms. She was raised in the Red Keep, close to the king and his innermost circle; she possesses both a courtly grace and a keen political acumen.
Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. The king’s first-born child. She is of pure Valyrian blood, and she is a dragonrider. Many would say that Rhaenyra was born with everything…but she was not born a man.
Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen. The younger brother of King Viserys and heir to the throne, Daemon is a peerless warrior and a dragonrider who possesses the true blood of the dragon. But it is said that whenever a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air…
Disney’s Investor Day presentation was probably the biggest reveal of exciting projects since 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con. There was just an absolute deluge of news, and so much of it was thrilling. On the Marvel side of the coin, we got our first look at Loki, our first look at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the bittersweet news that Marvel will not recast Chadwick Boseman’s role in Black Panther II. Over in a galaxy far, far, away, we got a sneak peek at the upcoming Disney+ series Andor, and a slew of reveals on massive projects and the folks behind them. Gang, this was just a drop in the bucket.
To help you better get a grasp on everything coming out of Disney and Marvel, we’ve highlighted some of the key upcoming movies and shows.
All things Star Wars
Disney’s Investor Day could have been called Disney’s Galaxy Far, Far Away Day (yeah, this pun didn’t work, but whatever). The number of Star Wars shows and films in the works is staggering. To our mind, the biggest news was that Wonder Woman 1984 co-writer and director Patty Jenkins will be helming a brand new film called Rogue Squadron. Jenkins will be the first female director of a Star Wars film in the franchise’s history. Rogue Squadron will focus on X-Wing pilots and is due to hit theaters on December 22, 2023. There’s also Oscar-winner and world builder extraordinaire Taika Waititi’s upcoming Star Wars film, which is expected to be released sometime after Rogue Squadron hits screens.
Yet there’s so much more. There will be two spin-offs from Disney+’s juggernaut success that is The Mandalorian. One of those will be Ahsoka (played by Rosario Dawson), following one of the most intriguing Jedis in the business. The second series is titled Rangers of the New Republic, and everyone hopes Timothy Olyphant’s brief turn as a sheriff of sorts in The Mandalorian was an appetizer for his appearing as one of Rangers of the New Republic’s stars. These series will join Andor, starring Diego Luna reprising his Rogue One role as the rebel spy Cassian Andor; and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the new series tracking Ewan McGregor’s turn as Obi-Wan. The biggest news surrounding Obi-Wan Kenobi the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, who we last saw getting fitted for his iconic helmet at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
There’s more! One of the series we’re most excited for is Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland’s female-centered series, which will be set in the “High Republic.” Hold on, there’s another really exciting new series coming from a great creator—Lando, following everybody’s favorite rogue Lando Calrissian, from Dear White People creator Justin Simien. It’s not yet clear if Donald Glover will reprise his role as Lando.
On the animated front, you’ve got The Bad Batch, a spin-off from The Clone Wars from Dave Filoni, and A Droid Story, which will reveal a new droid protagonist alongside old-timers R2-D2 and C-3P0. Here’s a glimpse at The Bad Batch:
The Mighty Marvel Universe
Along with the aforementioned The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March) and Loki (May), the first Marvel series out of the gates for Marvel will be WandaVision, coming to Disney+ on January 15. It’s now confirmed that Hailee Steinfeld is playing Kate Bishop in Hawkeye (due later in 2021). Then there’s Ironheart, starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, an up-and-coming Tony Stark-like character, and Amor Wars, with Don Cheadle returning to his role as War Machine and dealing with Tony Stark’s technology winding up in the wrong hands.
Or how about Secret Invasion, which features the dream team of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s shape-shifting Kree alien Talos (!). Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn will introduce a series of shorts called I Am Groot, about, yes, Groot. That’ll drop before Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 arrives in 2023. There’s also Moon Knight (starring Oscar Isaac), She-Hulk (with Tatiana Maslany in the title role, with Tim Roth and the Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, co-starring), and Ms. Marvel (starring Iman Vellani). Here’s the second trailer for WandaVision and a brief glimpse at Ms. Marvel:
Of course, these projects were just some of the titles highlighted during Investor Day. We haven’t even mentioned the rest of Marvel’s Phase 4 slate, which includes Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2, Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2, Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
One Series That Has Nothing To Do With Star Wars or Marvel
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Fargo and Legion mastermind Noah Hawley’s upcoming series based on Ridley Scott’s game-changing Alien (Scott is set to work on the show with him.) All that we know thus far is that the series will take place on Earth. This sounds awesome.
So there you have it! And that was really just a skim of all the news that came out of Disney’s Investor Day, but we think we covered some of the most exciting upcoming titles. As always, we’ll share more when we know more.
In this post, we’re turning our attention to all things Star Wars. The presentation revealed not only our first look at Andor, the latest live-action Star Wars series to head to Disney+, but the fact that Disney’s got another 10 Star Wars projects on the way.
Before we get to Andor, a bit more on those 10 Star Wars projects. Two of them will be spinoffs from The Mandalorian, Disney’s proof of concept series that proved folks have a huge appetite for a well-done live-action Star Wars series. Then you’ll have a new series focused on C-3P0 and R2-D2, and, in huge news, Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984director Patty Jenkins will become the first woman to direct a Star Wars film when she helms Rogue Squadron. And as previously reported, there’s another Star Wars film coming from Oscar-winning writer/director Taika Waititi.
As for Andor, you’ll recall that Luna’s character paid the ultimate fate—along with pretty much everyone else—to steal the Death Star plans in Rogue One. Andor is of course set before those events, and this sizzle reel is led by Luna as he takes us on a tour of the set, with snippets of the actual series threaded throughout. Andor will have 12-episodes and includes some of the best in the business behind-the-scenes, including costume designer Michael Wilkinson and FX creative supervisor and all-around Star Wars hall of famer Neal Scanlan, the man behind many of the creatures and droids we’ve come to know and love.
Luna is joined by Fiona Shaw, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller. Check out the sizzle reel below:
Featured image: The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and the Child in The Mandalorian, season two. Courtesy Lucasfilm.
There’s just so much news that came out of Disney’s investor presentation yesterday, and one of the most intriguing bits was this first look at Loki. We finally get a peek at what Marvel’s most maladaptive supervillain/sometimes hero—so wonderfully played by Tom Hiddleston—has been up to since we saw him sneak away with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame.
Loki comes from Michael Waldron, a Rick and Morty producer and one of the writers on Sam Raimi’s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The first look is bonkers, with a wonderful appearance from Owen Wilson, who has a big role to play here—just don’t ask us exactly what it is. Loki is once again captive, yet since he managed to escape punishment for his deeds in the original Avengers, he’s ended up in another timeline yet no freer. For now.
Joining Hiddleston and Wilson are Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Sasha Lane. The six-episode limited series was directed by Kate Herron. Check out the teaser here:
Here’s the Marvel portion of yesterday’s event, via a press release from Disney:
Marvel Studios shared plans for the expansion and future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revealing details about upcoming content for both Disney+ and theaters. Among dozens of upcoming projects, three new series for Disney+ were revealed, including the Samuel L. Jackson- starrer “Secret Invasion,” “Ironheart” with Dominique Thorne as a genius inventor, and “Armor Wars,” starring Don Cheadle as James Rhodes aka War Machine who faces Tony Stark’s worst fears.
These will join the studios robust lineup of Disney+ titles including “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” and “Loki”; the animated series “What If…?”; “Ms. Marvel”; “Hawkeye,” with Hailee Steinfeld joining Jeremy Renner in the series; “She-Hulk,” starring Tatiana Maslany in the title role alongside co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth; “Moon Knight”; “Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”; and a series of original shorts, “I Am Groot,” featuring everyone’s favorite baby tree.
Included in a host of new feature film reveals were “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the third feature in the “Ant-Man” franchise, and “Fantastic Four,” which introduces Marvel’s most iconic family. Marvel Studios’ upcoming feature films also include “Black Widow,” “Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings,” “Eternals,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Black Panther 2,” “Blade,” “Captain Marvel 2,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
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Yesterday was Disney’s big investor presentation, which revealed a huge bounty of entertainment news, including all things Marvel Studios-related. One of the most bittersweet things to come from the presentation was that T’Challa, better known as Black Panther, will not be recast in Black Panther II in the wake of the late, great Chadwick Boseman’s death. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige shared the news, which makes perfect sense and is not terribly surprising, yet it’s still heartening in the most bittersweet of ways. Boseman embodied the role of T’Challa so fully, with such commitment and grace and excellence, it’s really impossible to imagine someone else stepping in at this point. Here’s what Feige had to say:
“Chadwick Boseman was an immensely talented actor and an inspirational individual who affected all of our lives professionally and personally. His portrayal of T’Challa the Black Panther is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel’s past. And it’s for that reason that we will not recast the character. However, to honor the legacy that Chad helped us build through his portrayal of the king of Wakanda, we want to continue to explore the world and all the rich and varied characters introduced in the first film.”
Those characters will be brought back by writer/director Ryan Coogler, who’s already working on Black Panther II. How Coogler handles Boseman’s passing within the script will be, we imagine, the most difficult part of his creative process. Yet there is little doubt that Coogler and the rest of his creative team won’t come up with a fitting tribute to Boseman’s embodiment of T’Challa and find a way to honor the character and the man who so ably played him. Black Panther II is set to arrive in theaters on July 8, 2022.
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Yesterday, December 10, was the Walt Disney Company’s Investor Day. This is the reason, folks, that you woke up this morning with a sudden bounty of first looks at some of the most hotly anticipated titles coming to Disney+. We begin with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which reunites Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes in the new Disney+ series.
“The legacy of that shield is…complicated.” This is the first line from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s teaser, coming from Sam Wilson—better known as the Falcon. And he knows of what he speaks. Avengers: Endgame came to a close with the original owner of that shield, Captain America (Chris Evans) an old man, handing off the vibranium symbol of all that is good and just in the world to his buddy and compatriot Sam. The new series will reunite old frenemies Sam and Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier, natch) to take on new enemies in a post-Captain America and Iron Man world.
Check out the first look below. The series hits Disney+ in March 2021.
Here’s the Marvel portion of yesterday’s event, via a press release from Disney:
Marvel Studios shared plans for the expansion and future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revealing details about upcoming content for both Disney+ and theaters. Among dozens of upcoming projects, three new series for Disney+ were revealed, including the Samuel L. Jackson- starrer “Secret Invasion,” “Ironheart” with Dominique Thorne as a genius inventor, and “Armor Wars,” starring Don Cheadle as James Rhodes aka War Machine who faces Tony Stark’s worst fears.
These will join the studios robust lineup of Disney+ titles including “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” and “Loki”; the animated series “What If…?”; “Ms. Marvel”; “Hawkeye,” with Hailee Steinfeld joining Jeremy Renner in the series; “She-Hulk,” starring Tatiana Maslany in the title role alongside co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth; “Moon Knight”; “Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”; and a series of original shorts, “I Am Groot,” featuring everyone’s favorite baby tree.
Included in a host of new feature film reveals were “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the third feature in the “Ant-Man” franchise, and “Fantastic Four,” which introduces Marvel’s most iconic family. Marvel Studios’ upcoming feature films also include “Black Widow,” “Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings,” “Eternals,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Black Panther 2,” “Blade,” “Captain Marvel 2,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
For more stories on what’s streaming or coming to Disney+, check these out:
Redesigned Batwoman suit? Check. Brand new Batwoman, period? Double check. The CW has just revealed our first extended look at Javicia Leslie as Batwoman, and it probably goes without saying that Leslie not only rocks the new Batwoman suit with ease, her taking up the cape and cowl augers an exciting new phase for Caroline Dries’ show.
Speaking of that cowl, the new suit boasts a new one that lets Leslie’s natural, curly hair shine. You’ll also notice shorter boots and the red gauntlets over her forearms. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of the new suit is the stronger silhouette, which both Dries and Leslie discussed during a DC FanDome event. “I love the fact that Ryan is becoming her own Batwoman — it’s her style, her swag, and her moment! It was an honor to be able to collaborate with Caroline and Maya,” Leslie said. “I felt it was important that viewers could tell by the silhouette that Batwoman was a Black girl. With the form-fitting suit and beautiful Afro, we definitely nailed it!”
Dries added: “Ryan’s journey starts from a place of ‘What can this Batsuit do for me?’ But it’s not long before she realizes the power of its symbol and what it can do for everyone else in Gotham City. As Ryan embraces everything that makes her special, she adjusts the suit to fit her physically and figuratively.”
Leslie becomes the first Black woman to ever land the role. Here’s what she said in a statement at the time her casting was revealed:
“I am extremely proud to be the first Black actress to play the iconic role of Batwoman on television, and as a bisexual woman, I am honored to join this groundbreaking show which has been such a trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community.”
When we spoke to Batwoman composer Sherri Chung, this was before a new Batwoman had been cast after the exit of Ruby Rose. Yet Chung was confident in the show’s approach to finding a new lead. “What I think is great is that it sounds like they’re going to treat this as Kate Kane leaving Gotham, and a new character comes in to carry the torch as Batwoman,” Chung told us. “I’m excited to meet the new Batwoman, whoever she’ll be, and discuss whether we’ll have new sounds for her.”
The wait is over. Ryan Wilder is here. Check out the season 2 trailer below:
Featured image: Javicia Leslie is Batwoman. Courtesy The CW.
There are few actors as reliably likable, no matter what kind of lowlife they might be playing, then Bob Odenkirk. In Breaking Bad, a series that was not only one of the best of the century but was bursting with great performances, Odenkirk still stood out as the scruples-free lawyer Saul Goodman. The performance was so good that AMC and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan spun the character off for his own, also excellent series, Better Call Saul. This brings us to director Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody, which takes Odenkirk’s lovable persona and marries that to a John Wick-style story. (The film’s screenwriter, Derek Kolstad, wrote all three John Wick films.) What makes Nobody a touch different is that Odenkirk is obviously a much different screen presence than Keanu Reeves. Both are beloved, but only one of them previously played Neo.
The Wick-ian conceit of Nobody is that Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, a friendly, feckless dad who fails to defend himself, or his family, during a robbery. He’s mocked by his neighbor, he’s disappointed his son, and in general, Hutch is just the kind of guy who gets walked over. Or is he?
By now you’ve discerned that Odenkirk’s Hutch is not who he seems to be, and the first trailer reveals that Nobody is looking very much to be a kind of everyman John Wick. Not that Hutch is remotely an everyman, but with Odenkirk in the role, he’s still more relatable than Reeves’s winning turn as an ex-hitman pulled back into the game because someone killed his dog.
Check out the trailer below. Nobody hits theaters on February 26, 2021.
Here’s the full synopsis from Universal:
When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe, The Shack), is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen, Wonder Woman), seems to pull only further away.
The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch’s long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary (famed Russian actor Aleksey Serebryakov, Amazon’s McMafia)—and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again.
Nobody is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry), from a script by Derek Kolstad, the narrative architect of the John Wick franchise, and co-stars legendary Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father and multi-hyphenate musician-actor RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance.
Featured image: (from left) Bob Odenkirk, producer David Leitch, director Ilya Naishuller and producer Kelly McCormick on the set of Nobody. Photo Credit: Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures
Helmed by Ryan Murphy, the ebullient musical dramedy The Prom is bringing some much-needed holiday cheer to our December. Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells play four fading Broadway performers who reach for relevance again by championing a newsworthy cause in small-town Indiana. Queer teen Emma (newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman) wants to take her girlfriend Alyssa Greene (Ariana DeBose) to the high school prom, but she’s been shut down by narrow-minded conservatives, especially the head of the PTA, Alyssa’s mom, Mrs. Greene (Kerry Washington). As delightful as it is watching these A-list stars, it’s Pellman and DeBose as the star-crossed couple that shines most brightly.
We spoke to Jo Ellen and Ariana about becoming the stars of the project, the power of their friendship, and the important messages behind all the ‘zazz’.
What is it about the character that you most connected with for your portrayal?
Jo Ellen: I think what’s so remarkable about the character of Emma is the optimism that she has in the face of all of this inequality. I really have Ryan Murphy to thank for that. He was the one who helped me, especially in the song “Just Breathe,” which was one of the first songs that we shot. He helped me find that sense of determination, that silver lining that Emma always looks for, no matter how bad things get. She always believes that things will be ok. I just tried to bring as much of my own optimism to the character and bring that out, because for me is the heart of who this version of Emma is.
You and Ariana have amazing chemistry, and now you are very close friends. What was your first meeting like?
Jo Ellen: When I got the call back for The Prom, I still didn’t know who was auditioning for Alyssa Greene. When I walked into the waiting room to see Ariana DeBose’s name on the signup sheet, and it felt like a dream come true. I have literally looked up to her for so much of my career, and here we were, making small talk about to have a chemistry read and forming that first connection that would thrive and grow throughout the film. It was so wonderful that she went from being an icon in my eyes to becoming a dear friend. We FaceTime sometimes upwards of five times daily now.
Ariana, you had already been filming Spielberg’s West Side Story, where you play Anita, when The Prom came along. What about this film drew you to it specifically as an actor?
Ariana: When you hear a list of names that includes Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, and Andrew Rannells, that’s just not a job you’d ever say no to. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I’d seen the show on Broadway three different times. I loved it so much. The audience was not only laughing, but crying and being moved, having these realizations and revelations about themselves whether as a young person who identifies and LGBTQ or as a parent. It was a beautiful rainbow spectrum of sexualities and ethnicities in the audience. This plays to so many people, and that’s exciting.
There are some very powerful women of color represented in The Prom, and it’s a real treat to see Kerry Washington performing in a musical.
Ariana: Alyssa is a beautiful woman of color. It’s not often a queer BIPOC girl gets to tell her coming out story. We’ve done a great job with normalizing the coming out stories of our white brothers and sisters, and our Black brothers, but I don’t believe that Black and Brown women have really gotten our due in this particular area. For that reason, I was excited when I heard Ryan was championing this show being made into a film, hoping he’d hold fast to Alyssa being a girl of color. Then when I heard Kerry Washington was playing Mrs. Greene, I thought, ‘What an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with an actress of her caliber.’ She runs the gamut. She’s not just one thing. She portrays so many different types of characters and never does the same thing twice. I have prided myself in the Broadway community on versatility, and that’s what I see reflected back at me in Kerry Washington.
Ariana, how did the chemistry and growing friendship between you and Jo Ellen influence the experience of the production for you personally?
Ariana: Look at Jo Ellen’s face. She walks into a room and you think, ‘Who is this beam of sunshine?’ She is just the brightest light. We are very curious individuals. We question each other and support each other. We’ve built a beautiful friendship, and I was really grateful personally because while I was auditioning for the show, I was in the process of doing West Side Story. When The Prom audition happened, I’d never been to Los Angeles or California to make a film before. I felt very new. Having Jo Ellen as a partner to rely on made all the difference in making The Prom production a successful and joyful experience. Friendship and support are everything when you’re the new kid on the block. We were both very lucky to have such a community within the cast. They were so warm with us. They made space for us, and we never felt we didn’t belong. But for me, Jo Ellen was my rock.
In a lot of ways, The Prom is aspirational, because good things happen and there isn’t the darkness we often get in LGBTQ stories. What do you hope for, in terms of this film’s impact?
Jo Ellen: What’s is so special about this film is that everything does work out in the end. There is a big, joyful, happy ending, and no one’s story is left untied. It’s a testament to Ryan Murphy, and how he has championed LGBTQ stories for decades. Now we are at a place where we can have this big, joyful movie musical. If there’s one thing that young audiences especially walk away from this, which cannot be understated, it’s the importance of a chosen family. That’s the reason that Emma is able to find the courage to speak her truth authentically. It’s because of the support of this troupe of Broadway actors, and the support of Alyssa Greene. It doesn’t matter that her chosen family isn’t related to her by blood, they love her just the same, and so for all the young audiences out there, your chosen family is out there too. Your people are out there. Don’t ever stop looking, because there are people out there who cannot wait to love you and support you.
Ariana: Our film is a beautiful celebration of our humanity, and it does champion acceptance, so my greatest hope for young people and family units is we do see the courage displayed in our young people to have these tough conversations. You get to see the blueprints, especially in Alyssa and Mrs. Greene, and while it is not cupcakes and sprinkles all the time, it is something. A happy ending is possible, and if we can believe in that possibility, then maybe we can move forward to the day where young people don’t necessarily come out anymore. We can just love and accept each other for exactly who we are and as we are. That’s my hope.
As mentioned in Part I of our interview with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, a good many of The Undoing’s settings were shot on location in Manhattan, while the main interiors were built at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. Many of the locations were found in the Upper West Side, something that took some getting used to for Mantle.“We were very true to the Upper West Side, which I actually found hard to embrace because it’s not a world I’m drawn to,” he says, having spent most of his time in the city in the Lower East Side, The Bowery, and the West Village. “So I had to learn to embrace and break down the DNA of what the Upper West Side was, to understand how to affectionately deal with the streets and neighborhood and the vibe.”
Nicole Kidman. Photograph by Niko Tavernise/HBO
Much of the show takes place at the home of Grace’s (Nicole Kidman) father, Franklin (Donald Sutherland), a powerful, wealthy man. While director Susanne Bier had originally fallen in love with a beautiful condo with a balcony overlooking Central Park, the Central Park West neighborhood didn’t exactly welcome movie trucks and lights, so another location was found, which had some exterior space which would allow Mantle to set his lights with gaffer Bill O’Leary. “A lot of stuff was shot on those balconies, at the right time of day or night,” Mantle says.
Nicole Kidman. Photograph by Niko Tavernise/HBO
The interior “big room,” in which many scenes take place, was a set at Kaufman Astoria Studios, and its look is “all money,” Mantle states. “It’s quite melancholy, because he’s a somber animal, and had particular status as the patriarch. It’s actually sad —the old money and the privacy of these incredibly privileged people, living in these tombs. But they’re amazing places. And down on the street is the humdrum and the bustle and the fret.”
He and O’Leary lit the room as naturalistically as possible, with strong light and painted backgrounds on the outside, but held back by massive curtains, “to get me out of hell, when the camera focus goes too close, and it suddenly looks like a studio.” They would place mirrors outside the set’s windows, to allow the reflections that are common in New York from neighboring buildings appear to be coming into the room.
Photo by David Giesbrecht/HBO
The two would also make use of occasional practical lighting, such as when Franklin and Grace are playing chess. “I always look for a naturalistic explanation for light,” Mantle says, “so that I could gently highlight Donald, with a glow of the blue hour night behind him. Or if it’s by the fire, I’d have a flicker board to simulate that, and put something hidden in the rear, just the make the background come up.”
The set also had a ceiling, something which held great appeal to the cameraman. “It’s a bit like Orson Welles or Hitchcock films. Very early on, I showed Susanne images I had in my Look Book from Rear Window and Vertigo. Hitchcock was a visual master, and he knew how to use space, the format, and ceilings.”
Franklin can also be found sitting in an art gallery, contemplating a painting by Joseph Mallard William Turner. Those scenes were shot at The Frick Collection on the Upper East Side. “That was a late addition,” says Mantle, Bier having come up with the idea about 2/3 of the way through the shoot. “It was restrictive for us to shoot in there, with just a minimum crew. I think we were allowed just 10 or 15 people at a time and very little gear. And it had this beautiful dome lighting, and very little else,” which he supplemented with a very low key light and reflector boards from the grip department.
Donald Sutherland, Nicole Kidman. Photograph by David Giesbrecht/HBO
The prison scenes, both the visiting room and courtyard, were filmed at the Queens House of Detention, which is partially still in use, making a suitably uncomfortable environment for both cast and crew. “It’s pretty horrific,” says Mantle. “But I was inclined to want to dirty down that prison a lot. And putting Hugh Grant’s high-end oncologist in there, I find extremely relevant. The texture and the dust and dirt, not just the noise and dialogue, were very, very important. The darker and rougher it got for Hugh, the better.” There were limited hours and space, with parking allocated to special personnel, not film crews. “They wouldn’t let us put a truck or a crane in there. It was a hard place to work in.”
Nicole Kidman, Noah Jupe and Hugh Grant inside the visiting room, shot on location at Queens House of Detention. Photograph by Niko Tavernise/HBO
While the exteriors of the courtroom scenes were indeed filmed at the New York County Criminal Court building near the Financial District, the spacious courtroom itself was a set built by production designer Lester Cohen. The crew filmed there for about two weeks, with Mantle increasing his usual two-camera crew to sometimes five cameras, bringing in additional day-player camera operators just to enable the team to work through the many pages of dialogue each day and achieve coverage. “On my last several films, I just shot one camera, and usually myself operating. But here, Susanne really needed not just quality but quantity. The way she shoots, it’s about timing and dialogue. The way she cuts is a force in her films, really gets to the meat of the scene, and that requires a lot of coverage.”
Courtroom set at Kaufman Astoria Studios (Niko Tavernise/HBO)
Elsewhere, Mantle did take advantage of his A Camera operator Roberto de Angelis’s fabled Steadicam skills, including one particularly masterful shot following a crowd across a street and turning a corner as passersby part and picking up Grace as she emerges from within the crowd. “Nicole does a lot of walking, and Roberto is especially good at capturing that. There’s so much dialogue in the series that when the camera moves, he really has to move, and the audience needs to get out in the air,” Mantle notes. And moving with him is experienced 1st AC Nino Neuboeck (Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Panther), who not only could support de Angelis’s complex moves, but also take into account the complexities introduced by Mantle’s vintage lenses. “There are a lot of Steadicam guys that don’t tap in emotionally to what a scene is about. They’re capable of it, but they’re stuck in technique. And, to Roberto’s credit, he’s a very emotional person. And he taps into the emotional content, which is really key to any of these scenes.”
A 50 ft. Technocrane at work at a location in Central Park, in the show’s second episode (Niko Tavernise/HBO)
Another trademark of TheUndoing‘s look are establishing shots that begin with a high-in-the-air skyline view and continue down to follow Grace as she crosses a street on one of her many walks, meeting her close up in a single, skillfully executed crane move by key grip Tommy Prate and his team. “We had both a 50 ft. and a 30 ft. Technocrane,” Mantle explains. “Those shots are there to give you that space, but to try to link it to a real iconic person, not a double, in the space with people around.” Each such scene was always managed with great care by 1st AD Richard Styles and 2nd AD Josh Muzaffer, who would bury themselves within the crowd, directing with walkie talkies, and camouflaging themselves as newspaper vendors, guiding people in and out of shots, as needed.
DP Anthony Dod Mantle (seated on dolly) talking with director Susanne Bier, with 1st AC Nino Nueboeck at right. Photo courtesy HBO.
While the show itself might be focused on what a single person can do to multiple families, it took a village to create The Undoing.
Two days ago we shared this big batch of new Wonder Woman 1984 photos that Warner Bros. released. In this haul were a bunch of shots of the Amazon Games, the highly competitive—and incredibly dangerous—triathlon held on Wonder Woman’s mystical home island of Themyscira. Now IMAX has revealed a new featurette that puts the focus on director Patty Jenkins’ commitment to capturing some of the film’s action set pieces, including those Amazon Games sequences, using their cameras.
“It was very important for me to shoot this on film, I believe in it tremendously,” Jenkins says at the outset of the new featurette. “It still has a quality that nothing else can duplicate. I actually got the opportunity to shoot on IMAX, which was mind-blowing. The footage that you get back from it is stunning. It’s like nothing else.” Jenkins goes on to praise the “quality of emulsive print filmmaking” that IMAX film provides. “It’s like the highest quality of oil painting for an artist.”
Granted, many of us will be watching Wonder Woman 1984 from home when it premieres on December 25 on HBO Max. Yet if you’ve got an IMAX theater near you, this featurette makes the case for the experience you’ll have.
“If you get to see this film projected in film, on a full-size IMAX screen, you’ll never forget it,” says Scott Smith, an IMAX tech.
“Patty’s vision for this movie is so ambitious,” star Gal Gadot says. “The stories are so personal and beautiful and intimate, but at the same time, they’re huge and big and mind-blowing.”
By the time Wonder Woman 1984 opens, it’ll have been 66-years since Diana left her home of Themyscira, helped the allies win World War I, and, apparently, lost Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Yet we know they’ll be reunited here, and will face Pedro Pascal as the film’s villain, Max Lord, and Kristen Wiig as a new apex predator, Cheetah. The equally great Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen return as Antiope and Hippolyta respectively.
Wonder Woman 1984 streams on HBO Max on December 25, the same day it hits select theaters. Check out the featurette here:
For more on HBO and HBO Max, check out these stories:
If we had to choose the absolute best villain from any Spider-Man movie, it might just have to be Alfred Molina’s portrayal of Doctor Octopus in Sam Raimi’s excellent Spider-Man 2 from 2004. Now The Hollywood Reporterhas learned that Molina will be reprising the role—alongside Jamie Foxx’s return as Electro from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from 2014—in Jon Watts third film in his Spider-Man trilogy.
Molina’s turn as Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2 was tremendously compelling. Octavius was not only a brilliant scientist, he was someone you had a hard time rooting against, even once it was clear he’d lost his mind. As the rumpled, hard-charging scientist, Molina’s performance was unusual for a supervillain in that he was a fairly warm presence at the start. Yet a failed experiment that kills his wife and leaves him neurologically fused to mechanical tentacles turns him into an increasingly lunatic supervillain hellbent on repeating his experiment, no matter what it costs or who (Spider-Man included) gets in his way.
Spider-Man 2 was a game-changer for the superhero genre. It’s widely considered one of the most influential films in the genre, and Molina was a big reason why. With his involvement, THR points out that now the upcoming film will boast three generations of Spider-Man movies, spanning villains from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield era (Doc Oc and Electro respectively) and no doubt involving a new villain to continue the Tom Holland era.
Molina’s Doctor Octopus won’t be the only brainiac with a Dr. in his title in the film—he’ll be joining Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange. The still-untitled third installment in Jon Watts’ trilogy is building up to be quite the ensemble flick. Sony currently has Spider-Man 3 slated for a December 17, 2021 release. Expect current Spider-Man co-stars Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, and Tony Revolori to return.
For more on Spider-Man and the Spidey universe, check out these stories:
When Nicole Kidman first began reading scripts for HBO’s hugely popular limited series from David E. Kelley, The Undoing, among the first things she noticed was intense scenes in which her very interior character said little, and gives away even less. When she wondered aloud about how best to handle such performances for the camera, director Susanne Bier simply replied, “I’ve got ideas.”
The limited series follows Grace (Kidman) and Jonathan Fraser (Grant), a psychiatrist and pediatric oncologist living the good life in New York. That life begins to unravel after a violent death implicates Jonathan, ultimately rippling outward to, well, undo their entire lives.
Those ideas included imagery suggested and created by her director of photography and longtime friend, Anthony Dod Mantle, known best for his work with director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later). The two had known each other from their days together at the National Film School of Denmark in the late 1980s. “She was one of my first friends when I came to Copenhagen,” the DP notes. While they’d occasionally done commercials together, they never had an opportunity to collaborate on a dramatic project—until The Undoing came along.
The series was shot over a continuous 90 day period, beginning in February 2019, and filmed like a six-hour movie, rather than episodically. “There tends to be a lot of factory production out there,” Mantle explains. “When a series is directed by the same director and crew, it really holds everything together well. And when Susanne went into this project, she wanted to direct them all, and I wanted to shoot them all.”
Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantle (Niko Tavernise/HBO)
Bier and her production team spent about eight weeks in prep, prior to filming in New York, which took place both at Kaufman Astoria Studios (the historic former Paramount Astoria Studios, and home to Orange is the New Blackand Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story) and at a number of locations in the city. To develop the look of the series, the director worked closely not only with Mantle but with production designer Lester Cohen and costume designer Signe Seilund, another old friend/collaborator of Bier’s, creating a color Look Book comprising the looks for the characters.
Hugh Grant, Noma Dumezweni, Nicole Kidman, Noah Jupe, Donald Sutherland. Photograph by Niko Tavernise/HBO
“We designed with Lester and Signe, developing color palettes that infiltrate into the way both the Art Dept. and Costume Dept. works,” he explains.“And the way Susanne works, the whole color palette develops around the different characters, and then she spreads it out to the different departments. Those are the first flagstones of the pavement that were laid down.”
A large part of the show’s production crew had recently completed work on Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, including key grip Tommy Prate and gaffer Bill O’Leary, who were welcome support to the cinematographer. “They’ve worked with DPs like Roger Deakins and with directors who I grew up respecting and learning from and have always looked up to. So it certainly was really good to have them on board, and it was good for Susanne.”
A Camera/Steadicam operator Roberto de Angelis (Niko Tavernise/HBO)
A Camera operator Robert de Angelis (The Jungle Book), known for his keen Steadicam work, was brought in by Biers, and B Camera operator Oliver Cary was invited by Mantle. And while the DP more typically operates himself on projects, he welcomed the change here, though it took a bit of getting used to. “I have to go through a phase of getting to know operators and understand whether they are really close to me. But they were fantastic. It allowed me to step back and concentrate on looking after Nicole and Hugh and Donald, in these sensitive moments.” In addition, Mantle found Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) Abby Levine indispensable, working with the DP on color management on set.
Part of the look of The Undoing is its clear inclusion of the experience of New York City as a character itself, often seen in cutaway details of various elements of NYC life that New Yorkers would certainly connect with. Most of those were filmed by Valdemar Winge Leisner, again suggested to Mantle by the director.
“I didn’t want an abrupt thump into some abstract shot of a tree blowing in the wind,” Mantle explains. “I wanted to try to include that link to Central Park and to the potential nature and space of New York. So Valdemar worked from our Look Book, and I would give him feedback, and then he’d go out and look for great moody cutaway stuff for us: nature shots, but also the smoke, the grime, the traffic, the humdrum—the overworld and the underworld—things that could be symbolic, and of which our editor made great use. And it was fabulous to have him. When you’re doing a film with Susanne, 85 to 95% of the work is the meat of the film, especially with artists like Nicole, Hugh, and Donald. Without somebody as talented as Valdemar there to capture, which he did over the course of three trips, you’d have to stay at the end and do it all yourself.”
Mantle shot on ARRI LFs, occasionally getting a hold of an early prototype Mini LF from his friend, Roger Deakins, who was using it elsewhere. His lens choices added much to the look of the show. The main group was 50-year old rehoused vintage Canon K35s, used on the original Alien. “I adore them. They’re very, very gentle on faces, and very gentle on the edge of the frame. And the falloff on the focus is beautiful.” Another set regularly used on the show was Leica Thalias, as well as another Leica, a vintage 90mm Thambar, “a particularly odd lens that also creates this extraordinary halo around a face.” His choice for any given day depended on whatever his well-seasoned instincts told him. “I choose, every day, the palette for what I think is right for the scene and for the moment.”
Another grouping of specialty lenses was put to work by Mantle on the series which were key to giving a look into the emotional experience of characters, mostly Kidman’s.Early on, while developing the visual alphabet for the show in prep, Mantle created a few still images using Swing/Shift and Lensbaby lenses. “They move the focal plane of the sensor, so you can actually push the picture either on a vertical or horizontal line, in and out of focus, and keep part of the picture in focus.”
Screen image of Hugh Grant with actress Matilda de Angelis captured using a Swing/Shift lens. The device allows part of the image to be out of focus, while another part is kept sharp (Courtesy HBO)
He showed the images to Bier, who instantly fell in love with their look, and knew where she wanted to use them. “There are points in the scripts where these might be called for, or, on the day, she might say, ‘Hey, why don’t we put a Lensbaby or the Swing/Shift in?’ It’s whenever the shot is about distorting the truth, or when somebody doesn’t seem to be telling the truth, or the audience needs to be led to believe that maybe not everything is what it seems. And you can’t just use it for no reason—it has to be in the story, or else it’s just a big slap of paint on the wall. It needs to come from a feeling of doubt or a feeling of fear. It gives the audience space and time to rethink the situation.”
They often appear, for example, while capturing extreme closeups of Kidman’s eyes or face as she hears about or thinks about such matters. “A lot of actresses might have questioned doing that. But Nicole is committed to the story, so she was on board with it. She’s a team player when it comes to storytelling.”
