Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-creator and showrunner Francesca Sloane is on board for season 3 and will write the first episode as well as executive produce alongside creator David E. Kelley, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon, Variety reports. Kidman and Witherspoon will once again lead the cast.
Sloane’s hit Amazon Prime series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, has been delayed indefinitely, and the news that she’s boarded Big Little Lies follows her two-year overall deal that she signed with HBO.
Fans have been waiting for season three for a while—season two’s finale aired on July 21, 2019—and we left the Monterey Five at the moment they’d decided to confess to Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder. The five are made up of Celeste Wright (Kidman), Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Witherspoon), Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley), Renata Klein (Laura Dern), and Bonnie Carlson (Zoe Kravitz). Season two also ended with Celeste winning her custody battle against Perry’s mother, Mary Louise (Meryl Streep). Needless to say, there was plenty of narrative meat left on the bone, with the Monterey Five’s decision to reveal Bonnie’s complicity (she’s the one who pushed Perry to his death) and all of their lying and evasion about his murder to the police.
The show was an instant hit when it debuted in 2017, and its Emmy wins included Best Limited Series, Best Actress in a Limited Series (Kidman), and Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series (Dern). The first season was based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, while the second season was based on original material by the author. She’s set to deliver a sequel novel in 2026.
For more on Warner Bros., DC Studios, Max, and more, check out these stories:
Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 11: Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon attend the HBO “Big Little Lies” FYC at the Hammer Museum on November 11, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO )
Sydney Sweeney steps into the ring in the first trailer for Christy, where she stars as the International Boxing Hall of Fame legend Christy Martin. Sweeney and Christy earned rave reviews after the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Sweeney revealed she’d packed on 30 pounds in order to play Martin, as well as weight training and, of course, boxing lessons.
Speaking to Varietyat TIFF, Sweeney revealed the extent of her preparation: “I had a nutritionist work with me as well as a weight trainer and a boxing trainer,” Sweeney explained, “We upped my calorie intake and I started taking a lot of protein shakes and supplements and eating everything. I ate a lot of Smuckers, a lot of PB and J sandwiches, milkshakes, kind of just constantly always eating because we were so active. I was constantly burning it all off at the same time. So keeping it all up was quite a challenge.”
Christy was co-written and directed by David Michôd—he worked with screenwriter Mirrah Foulkes—and in Sweeney, cast a rising star more than ready to take a big swing at a meatier role. The reviews coming out of TIFF have been very strong, IndieWire’s Kate Erbland writes, “Sweeney disappears into the role, not just changing her hair color, eye color, accent, and way of moving, but her general air, her overall mien, the space she takes up in a room.” Variety’s Owen Gleiberman says, “Boxing movies have a way of feeling mythological, but what’s so effective about Christy is that it simply tells her story, allowing the heroism to rise up out of it.”
Sweeney didn’t just put on weight and muscle for the role, she also took on some serious shots during filming.
“I was getting pummeled,” Sweeney told Variety. “They were holding ice packs to my face in between takes. I was getting knocked around. I had some gnarly bruises after that.” The film depicts a famous battle between Martin and Laila Ali that Sweeney says left her with a “crazy black eye.”
All her hard work seems to have paid off. Check out the trailer below. Christy hits theaters on November 7.
Featured image: Sydney Sweeney is Christy Martin in “Christy.” Courtesy Black Bear Pictures.
James Gunn has made it clear he has no plans to make fans wait very long between his hit DC Studios feature debut, Superman, and the sequel. Gunn recently revealed that the second part of what he’s calling the Superman Saga is titled Superman: Man of Tomorrow, and now, Gunn has teased a very crucial detail about the upcoming sequel.
Gunn appeared on The Howard Stern Showand delivered a tasty morsel about Superman: Man of Tomorrow, which he’d previously teased in a cryptic tweet. As you can see below, the illustration shows Lex Luthor suited up in some serious battle armor, standing shoulder to shoulder with a satisfied-looking Superman, wrench in hand.
As fans speculated, Man of Tomorrow will find the two archenemies teaming up.
“It is a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat,” Gunn told Stern. “And it’s more complicated than that. It’s as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie. I relate to the character of Lex, sadly.”
Gunn has been, to put it mildly, a very busy man. As the co-chief of DC Studios with Peter Safran, he’s charged with steering the massive slate of films, television series, and more coming out of DC, all of which he and Safran have retooled to create a more cohesive, narratively coherent DC Universe. That includes all the work Gunn did in writing Peacemaker, his HBO Max series starring John Cena as the titular, twisted—but trying to be better—antihero who is battling his way back to some version of humanity. Gunn told Stern that he’s been trying to slow down, despite his huge mandate, and that at least some of the work on Superman: Man of Tomorrow is already complete.
“That was at the beginning when I took on DC and I promised myself I’m slowing down at least a tiny bit,” he told Stern. “Although I am creating the Superman sequel that we’re starting to shoot in April or so.… I’m done writing that for the most part.”
Gunn had already revealed that he’d finished the treatment for Man of Tomorrow, and now it sounds like he’s nearly done the script. The sequel is slated to hit theaters on July 9, 2027, which would be just about two years exactly after Superman flew onto the big screen. Before Man of Tomorrow arrives, however, DC Studios has two big film releases on the docket—Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl will arrive on June 26, 2026, followed by James Watkins’ Clayface on September 11, 2026.
Featured image: Caption: (L to r) NICHOLAS HOULT as Lex Luthor, DAVID CORENSWET as Superman and Director JAMES GUNN in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SUPERMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are back at it again, this time in a distinctly different kind of film from their last collaboration, Affleck’s delightful look at Nike’s formation of what would become an iconic partnership with Michael Jordan in Air. In their new film, The Rip, Affleck and Damon play two Miami police officers who are leading a squad that works “the dope game,” which means they deal with drugs and guns, but their job primarily revolves around seizing money. When they get a tip that a stash house is holding $300,000 in drug money, they go investigate. What they find instead is $20 million —the kind of money that can change lives—or destroy them.
The film comes from writer/director Joe Carnahan, a seasoned helmer of crime capers, and the cast surrounding Affleck and Damon is appropriately stacked—Kyle Chandler, Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, and Scott Adkins are among the supporting players. The Rip is based on true events, and the trailer, true to the film’s title, indeed rips. Damon appears to be playing a possible antihero, or at least a character whose defining characteristic isn’t nobility or genius, but greed. Once the officers find the cash and take it, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins, and whatever trust they had among themselves starts to dissolve.
Check out the trailer for The Rip, which arrives on Netflix on January 16.
Born into a family steeped in Indonesian filmmaking, Reza Servia was perhaps destined to find his way into the business one way or another. Along the way, his journey took him through the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, via New Zealand and software engineering, with a side quest into competitive e-sports.
When Servia was five, his mother took him and his two siblings to the US after she separated from his father, accomplished producer and Indonesian film industry stalwart Chand Parwez Servia. His father had become involved in the business when he was a child, helping his brothers import Indian films into Indonesia. By the time he was a teenager, he was running theaters. Later, he established one of the country’s largest production companies.
From an upbringing in the house of a successful Indonesian movie business exec, Servia junior’s life took a sharp turn to being an immigrant raised by a single mother holding down two jobs to make ends meet.
“We couldn’t afford much growing up there, but we were able to afford the Monday afternoon matinee show. So that’s how we got our movie fix,” recalls Servia.
Feeling like he didn’t really belong because he looked different from other kids, his discomfort was compounded during middle school when his mom came to work there as one of the lunch ladies. After Servia graduated from high school in 2002, he returned to Indonesia, reconnecting with the large extended family on his father’s side. That led to an introduction to family in New Zealand, with whom he stayed while studying software development and project management.
After working as a software engineer for a couple of years in Jakarta, Indonesia’s sprawling capital, Servia’s father asked him to join Kharisma Starvision Plus. In this family company, cousins and uncles remain the primary producers to this day.
Starvision began life as Kharisma Jabar Film, focused purely on movie production, before expanding into television as the sector flourished in Indonesia. However, with local television now struggling with declining ad revenues and the resulting impact on production, streaming services have expanded their presence.
A still from “Petaka Gunung Gede” or “Haunting of Mount Gede.” Courtesy StarVision Plus.
Having grown up bilingual and bicultural, Servia is the point person for Starvision’s cross-border collaborations with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Korea’s CJ Entertainment.
“Our first Netflix original, A Perfect Fit, did really well, especially in South America. Now we’re working on another Netflix series that’s their biggest yet in Indonesia, though I can’t share details at this point.”
He notes that while Disney+ and Prime have scaled back local production, Netflix remains committed, set to commission four or five Indonesian projects this year.
“Netflix positions itself as the premium choice for Indonesian content with titles like Gadis Kretek or Cigarette Girl. Local platforms like Vidio tend to focus on Asian dramas. Each has its audience.”
In addition to OTT growth, Indonesia is also enjoying a box office boom, driven by an expanding middle class and a growing network of cinemas, particularly outside Jakarta, notes Servia. Competing for this growing market are the two or three local films released every week, alongside a similar number of imports.
With around 600 ethnic groups speaking a multitude of languages across thousands of islands, Indonesia is a proverbial melting pot of a nation. This diversity creates both challenges and opportunities, along with making it hard for Indonesia to develop the kind of cinematic cultural identity that Korea has, suggests Servia.
“If you look at our box office, the number one film changes every year, animation one year, horror the next, then a romance or a comedy. We’re still figuring ourselves out. For now, the only constant is that good stories work.”
Behind the scenes of “Sihir Pelakor” or “The Curse from a Homewrecker.” Courtesy StarVision Plus.
While the official language is Bahasa Indonesia, Starvision has found box office success with films in Javanese and Sundanese.
“Outside the big cities…reading subtitles can be a barrier. That’s why relatable, local stories in familiar dialects work so well. Sometimes we subtitle them in Indonesian, sometimes not, it depends on the audience. For example, a joke in a local dialect doesn’t always work if you translate it. We can mix dialects, Bahasa, even bits of English or Korean slang, but it has to feel authentic.”
Protecting both local and international IP remains an issue, despite some piracy prosecutions and ongoing attempts at education: “People don’t always realize that even posting a five-second clip from a cinema is piracy. We need to make it clear that it’s theft, just like stealing from a store,” Servia says. “As soon as a film hits streaming, it’s going to be pirated. Anti-piracy groups, government agencies, and platforms work to block sites, but pirates just reopen new ones. The real defense is creating a FOMO moment: making people want to see a film in theaters, now, in the best quality.”
Servia has found that the techniques he learned in project management have stood him in good stead as a producer: “It’s like running a 200-person project team for months. Some days you’re the shoulder to cry on, other days you have to make the tough calls.”
That same skill set came in handy when another of his passions – competitive online gaming – led to him becoming head coach for the Indonesian National Esports Team in 2019 for Hearthstone, an offshoot of the popular Warcraft game.
But his heart remains in film: “On release day, you’re checking every cinema app, counting tickets, doing the math in your head. Sometimes it’s gratifying, sometimes it hurts. But if you’re proud of the film, that’s what matters. That’s why we keep making movies.”
For more interviews with filmmakers, producers, and industry professionals taking big swings in Asia, check these out:
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is one of the most highly anticipated fall releases. The visionary director reteamed with some of his most trusted collaborators to bring to life the movie he had been dreaming of making for over two decades, including production designer Tamara Deverell, cinematographer Dan Laustsen, and composer Alexandre Desplat. Frankenstein has already electrified audiences, first at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a 13-minute standing ovation (one of the most sustained ovations in the festival’s history), and later at the Toronto Film Festival, where it prompted another lengthy ovation from the audience.
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney writes that it’s “One of del Toro’s finest, this is epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry.” Steve Pond at TheWrap says, “it’s a filmmaker returning to his roots at a time when he has the skills to make those roots grow into something huge and singular. And Slant Magazine’s Marshall Shaffer pinpoints del Toro’s decision to follow the impact of Frankenstein’s mad science on his monster, played by Jacob Elordi, writing, “As the perspective of Frankenstein shifts to that of the creature cast out by its maker, del Toro’s concerns evolve from the cerebral to the emotional.”
Now, del Toro’s soulful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic book is getting a book of its own—Insight Editions is set to publish “The Art & Making of Frankenstein: Written & Directed by Guillermo del Toro.” Written by Sheila O’Malley, “The Art & Making of Frankenstein” promises to give readers a deep-dive behind-the-scenes look at del Toro’s filmmaking process, along with the work of his cast and crew, which includes the aforementioned Elordi as, officially, the Creature, Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza, Christoph Waltz as Harlander (a new character created for the film), Christian Convery as a young Viktor Frankenstein, Ralph Ineson as Professor Krempe, and Charles Dance as Victor’s father, Leopold Frankenstein. The book will feature the work of the crew, including concept art, props, costumes designed by Kate Hawley, and more.
The book also features an introduction from del Toro and Isaac, and will go on sale on October 28. Further limited editions, “Frankenstein: Portfolio Edition,” and “Frankenstein: Artifact Edition” will go on sale later in the year.
Del Toro has made no secret of how long he’s wanted to make Frankenstein, and how many times he shied away. In fact, nearly a decade ago, he told Den of Geekthat adapting Shelley’s book was one of his abiding dreams:
“To this day, nobody has made the book, but the book became my bible, because what Mary Shelley wrote was the quintessential sense of isolation you have as a kid,” he told Den of Geek. “So, Frankenstein to me is the pinnacle of everything, and part of me wants to do a version of it, part of me has for more than 25 years chickened out of making it. I dream I can make the greatest Frankenstein ever, but then if you make it, you’ve made it. Whether it’s great or not, it’s done. You cannot dream about it anymore. That’s the tragedy of a filmmaker. You can dream of something, but once you’ve made it, you’ve made it.”
The dream has been had for del Toro, and now the rest of us get our shot at seeing what he and his cast and crew have conjured. Frankenstein will bow in a limited theatrical release on October 7 before streaming on Netflix on November 7.
For more on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, check out these stories:
“If These Woes Could Talk,” the fourth episode of Wednesday season two, is an hour of monster playtime from Tim Burton. The fourth episode wrapped up part one of the season and is built as a heist story with Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) seeking family secrets while Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen), a zombie, and a Hyde (aka a mutant) run amok in an institution. It’s exuberant chaos in the hands of Burton’s frequent editor, Jay Prychidny (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice).
On top of all the zombie action, Prychidny must unveil the hooded killer in a monologue. “The biggest challenge was laying out all the pieces,” Prychidny told The Credits. “How does Wednesday know Fester gets imprisoned in the institution? How does Wednesday get that information? What is her plan that comes out of this? What in the plan goes wrong?”
The editor discussed with The Credits refining and sharpening the episode, including Wednesday’s uncharacteristically cheerful reunion with her grandmother and pivotal death scenes.
Episode four is comfortably packed. What were your first impressions and instincts when you saw Tim Burton’s footage?
That episode – well, a lot of episodes – went through a lot of changes. It’s a heist story, so there’s a lot to set up. There were several additional scenes that we shot to pull it all together, and certain scenes we dropped. It was a journey. But even from the first cut, I loved it. The episode had so many great musical moments. You have Billie Piper playing [“Zombie”] on the piano and Wednesday breaking into Fester’s cell, which was very similar to my first cut. I added the song “Dreamweaver.” As an editor, the musical moments are just the most fun and creative thing to do.
What was re-shot in the episode?
In the original version, Wednesday freed [the zombie] Slurp from the cell, causing chaos throughout the institution. It was decided that maybe we didn’t want Wednesday responsible for all those deaths, so we did a little reshoot with a body double. Now, Wednesday leaves the cell, and Slurp escapes on his own.
Is that question often asked in the editing room — how sadistic can we have Wednesday act?
It’s tricky. Some people felt strongly that she shouldn’t free the zombie. So, her intention was to create chaos and escape from the institution, but some people thought, we don’t really want Wednesday murdering or being indirectly responsible for manslaughter. And for some people — for me — I didn’t even think about it until people pointed it out. I didn’t even consider that, but I totally understand that argument.
For Dr. Fairburn’s (Thandiwe Newton) death, how gory could you go?
There wasn’t anything more that was shot. I wanted more violence, more gore, but again, what is the level of the show? I was doing this after Scream VI, so I had those horror vibes in me. I asked the showrunner while I was cutting about how dark we can go. I said, “I’m just going to cut this as scary as I can.” He said, “Go for it.” Even though the footage itself wasn’t really graphic, I tried as much as I could to make it feel horrific and make the zombie as scary as I could. For adults, it’s probably not scary, but for younger viewers, it’s strong material.
Before Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci) dies, how’d you want to continue to define her and Tyler’s perverse relationship?
There’s an almost sexual tension in these scenes, just blurring the lines about their relationship. Seeing it go in this direction, I thought, this is just such an intriguing, unique take on what these scenes are that I kind of leaned into that. That was the most interesting thing that happened on a character or emotional level.
The episode is, first and foremost, a heist story. At any point, did Tim say, “Hey, how can we make this more like The Hot Rock or The Italian Job?”
I don’t think specifically, but what was a common note from him: “This should feel more heisty.” I think for him, what that meant was just the music, the fast-paced editing. Even until probably a month ago, we were still making changes to the episodes. The sequence when Agnes (Evie Templeton) is in the toilet putting the dynamite in and Wednesday is in the trunk of the car – that was his last note on the episode. Only a month or so ago, we made those changes to make it faster-paced, more cross-cutting, and more rapid.
A scene that breathes nicely is Wednesday reunited with her grandmother, Hester Frump (Joanna Lumley). It’s by far the most smiley we’ve seen Wednesday. Was there a debate about her beaming like that?
It’s definitely a question some people have. It’s like, “Why is Wednesday smiling?” I don’t know if it was discussed by Jenna or Tim, how much of it was conscious. I don’t know any of the backstory. The only other time I think we’ve seen Wednesday be that happy is in episode seven from season one, when Fester shows up. Jenna breaks into this huge smile. I think that’s an interesting choice, that she’s having that reaction to the extended members of her family, but not her immediate family.
When Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) reunites with her mother, what about Tim’s blocking and those performances did you want to preserve?
That scene between Wednesday and Catherine, when she throws the book in the fire, was a fabulously performed, wonderfully covered scene. That was one scene in particular where there was a lot of footage, because the room was shot from so many different angles. We had multiple levels of extreme close-ups for that scene. I used them only for very key moments: when Wednesday found out that her aunt Ophelia was in an institution and she had the black tears, I used a close-up for that. When Hester tells Morticia she’ll donate to the Nevermore Gala, there’s a close-up there, too.
What’s unique about cutting Fester’s comedic timing?
Tim had a particular way of shooting Fester. You don’t see him enter rooms or exit rooms. He’s always revealed either in a camera move or people step out of the way and he’s there.
Tim Burton is allergic to exposition. The more explanations, the more questions in his view. How much do you two tend to cut in more dialogue-driven scenes?
That was another big question we dealt with in the first scene of the first episode. It always gets discussed a lot – taking out as much as possible. Tim wants his characters and scenes to be in the moment. He doesn’t want characters standing around and talking, remembering what happened last season. Sometimes that exposition doesn’t get shot. Sometimes they’ll change the script on the day, or sometimes they’ll shoot it, and then in post, it’s a journey to take a lot of that stuff out so the audience can stay in the present.
Was that originally a lot of “previously on” in the season two premiere?
It had all this dialogue and voiceover about what Wednesday had been doing. You have to do some of that, but we want her in the moment – investigating the serial killer. There was more story detail there, but it didn’t matter. You need to launch into the present-day stories as efficiently as possible.
The official teaser for Rian Johnson‘s third Knives Out installment, Wake Up Dead Man, has arrived. Daniel Craig returns as the dandy detective Benoit Blanc to solve what the teaser promises will be his most dangerous case, which involves the seemingly impossible crime of a priest’s murder.
“To understand this case, you need to look at the myth that’s being constructed,” Craig’s Blanc says during the teaser. “A man gives a sermon. He then, in plain sight of everyone, walks into a sealed concrete box. Thirty seconds later, that man is lying dead. A classic, impossible crime.”
That man is Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), whose devoted flock are shocked by his murder, and local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) teams up with Blanc to try to solve a case that does something Blanc cannot abide—defies all logic.
Previous glimpses of Wake Up Dead Man have hinted at how Johnson’s third film will skew closer toward horror than the previous installments, the first of which, Knives Out, was set in a Gothic revival mansion and was a classic cozy whodunit, while the second, Glass Onion, was a sun-soaked murder mystery involving bizarro billionaires and ne’er do-wells on a Greek island. Wake Up Dead Man puts Blanc on a case steeped in religious myth and miracle, a rich vein for the brilliant, hyper-rational detective to tap.
As he did in the previous two films, Johnson has assembled a dream cast surrounding Craig, including the aforementioned Brolin and Kunis, along with Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Josh O’Connor, Jeremy Renner, Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, Daryl McCormack, Kerry Frances, Annie Hamilton, and Marcus Edward Bond.
Check out the teaser below. Wake Up Dead Man arrives in select theaters on November 26, before streaming on Netflix on December 12.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Benoit Blanc (Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. When young priest Jud Duplenticy (O’Connor) is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. Wicks’ modest-but-devoted flock includes devout church lady Martha Delacroix (Close), circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt (Church), tightly-wound lawyer Vera Draven, Esq. (Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Renner), best-selling author Lee Ross (Scott), and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Spaeny). After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to join forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic.”
Screenwriter Dana Fox made a pact with director Jon M. Chu. After working with Chu on her Apple TV+ series, Home Before Dark, she told him she would sign up for a project with him, no matter what, with no questions asked. She was as serious as a witch, if you’ll pardon the pun.
“I told him at the end of that previous job that I will drop anything, anytime for you,” she says. “I don’t care what it is, I want to do it.”
Chu took her up on that offer, calling her to discuss a project he was working on. A big project.
“I said, ‘Okay, yes, the answer is yes,'” Fox recalls. “He said, ‘Don’t you want to know what it is?’ And I was like, ‘No, the answer is yes.”
Fox enrolled in Shiz University, more or less, to adapt the Broadway juggernaut “Wicked” for Chu’s mega-ambitious two-part film. She didn’t just have a greater partner in Chu, but in the woman who first adapted Gregory Maguire’s novel for the stage, Winnie Holzman, who would prove to be an ideal collaborator, unfussy about answering any and all of Fox’s questions and further exploring the world of Oz and the lives, down to the smallest details, of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), Glinda (Ariana Grande), and the supporting cast of would-be suitors, nefarious wizards, flying monkeys and more.
We spoke to Fox ahead of her arrival in Washington D.C. for the MPA Awards, in which Chu is receiving this year’s Creator Award, about working with the director and her co-writer, how she approached expanding the world of Oz for the big screen, and more.
So, how did you feel when you realized the project Jon M. Chu was calling you aboutWicked?
When he told me it was Wicked, I felt a sense of challenge, which, at this point in my life, is the most exciting thing. When you feel a little nervous because you’re like, ‘Oh, this is going to be kind of an extraordinary challenge,’ it means I’m going to have to step up and up my game.
And you’re working on this with Winnie Holzman, who wrote the book for the musical. How did that collaboration work?
Working with Winnie felt a little bit like the best part of a group project. You know, where you go home and you work on your own stuff, but you’re excited to show the other person because you want to impress them, and they’re going to be excited. There was just this real sense of energy. What I felt was that one of my primary jobs was coming in with fresh eyes. Winnie had lived with these characters for 20-plus years and had created this incredible play. I was able to ask Winnie and composer Stephen Schwartz [a Wicked veteran who worked on the musical] questions that I don’t think they had answered in a very long time about this story and these characters.
What kind of questions?
It was stuff like, ‘Okay, so water kills her?’ and they’d be like, ‘Yeah, listen to the lyric.’ And I would be like, ‘But seriously, can it? Or do people just think it can?’ So it was these weird little nuances that helped me get much more inside the story. And then I spent a lot of time asking them what Elphaba’s magic actually was. Can she do anything besides levitate? Is it only spells? Does she need a spell to do something? Is her magic out of her control in the beginning because she isn’t emotionally in control? That’s the kind of worldbuilding you have to do when you make a really big movie that you don’t necessarily have to do on the stage.
How did Winnie and Stephen respond?
They could not have been nicer about it, and they could not have been more open to thinking about it in ways that they hadn’t thought about it before. They weren’t extraordinarily precious about it, even though they could have been. They were actually really open to having it be something different. A lot of times, that led us into these very long discussions about ‘What if, what if, what if,’ and usually what came out of that was: don’t mess with the stuff that fans care about. Deepen it by creating different avenues that you can take and go to different places and see more about these people than you’ve ever been able to see in the play.
The decision to split this into two films was a big risk. How did that feel?
That was a big swing we were aware of and very excited by. I don’t want to call it terrified, but there was a constant sense of excitement because we were like, ‘This has to work. There is no version of this not working because if the first movie doesn’t work, we have already shot the second one.’ That is a very intense sense of challenge, and I think all of us really enjoyed having to rise to that. I happened to see the second movie recently as a double feature after watching the first, because I wanted to see it that way. By the end of the day, I was like a shell of a person who had to be swept off the floor – makeup all over, mascara, sweating, weeping, joyful, happy, singing. It was all of the emotions.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
How is writing a musical screenplay different from writing a regular screenplay?
What was so interesting and fun was mining the lyrics, because the lyrics are never going to change. They’re your preexisting materials. You look at certain lyrics that hit you very deeply emotionally and ask yourself why. Then I would say to the rest of the team, ‘In that moment that lyric creates that explosive feeling inside us, have we seen enough evidence of that to believe that character is feeling that?’
Oh interesting. So you’re reverse-engineering a bit from the lyrics?
One of the things I learned about musical numbers is that the way you stage them—the dancing, where they’re located, what locations they pass through, does the song pass time or does it break linear time—those things are all really important. In a movie theater, every single time someone starts to sing a song, there’s the possibility that person goes to the bathroom because they’re thinking, ‘Nothing’s going to happen during the song, right?’ What I think Wicked did so extraordinarily was we were constantly thinking: how can we make this scene, this song, this number, this dance sequence actually tell a story and say things between characters that you can’t see anywhere else in the movie, and move the story forward in ways that you weren’t expecting?
Were you able to be on set much during production?
This took place in London. I have three kids and there was a large portion of it that took place during the writers’ strike, so I wasn’t allowed to be anywhere. That was a bit of a heartbreak, honestly, because I do think it would have been amazing if we could have been there on set. I was able to visit once and say hello to everybody. When you’re sitting at a computer and your posture when writing is sort of gargoyle-esque, you’re so inside your own head and usually alone. What keeps me going on difficult days is the thought that there’s a group of people who are going to make this real at some point. Stepping on set for Wicked and seeing they had built a town – there was a lake on this set – it was enormous and beautiful. Watching people bring something that was in your imagination to life, with so many people bringing their joy, their creativity, their love and their expertise to bring it to life in the most extraordinary way, was just awesome. That’s what keeps me going in the difficult times – thinking about the fact that I’m lucky enough that someday somebody is going to make this stuff real.
On the set of “Wicked.” Courtesy Alice Brooks/Universal Pictures.
You’ve been a successful screenwriter for years, but this must feel like a new, and very giant, step.
Musical theater was like my team sport growing up. I wasn’t amazing at team sports, so musical theater became my team sport. That’s where I learned that the biggest joy for me is working with other people to create something much better than any one of us could have done on our own. Wicked brought me back to musical theater and absolutely reignited my love of it, my passion for it. Now I can’t imagine a movie where someone doesn’t break into song and start dancing. For the little girl that wanted to do this when she was eight years old, this is like the most beautiful homecoming of all, especially with this particular musical, which is truly so beloved.
What’s it been like working on this with Jon and all your other collaborators?
This is a really difficult time in the business, and to be working and be allowed to work at this level is a real gift, and we know it. I think we try to be happy every day and grateful every day that we get to do this for a job. I cannot believe this is my job. Sometimes I say things like, ‘I would do this if I didn’t get paid,’ and my agent calls me and says, ‘Please don’t say that. Please stop saying that in the press.’ We do all really love each other. I’ve worked with several of the team members on other things, and they’re the people that I wish I could have come home to after school when I was a little kid and made plays with in my basement. The fact that we get to do it on this level is extraordinary.
Featured image: L-r: US screenwriter Dana Fox attends the Los Angeles premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillon, in Los Angeles, November 9, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP); L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.
During the second night of the Creative Arts Emmys, SNL 50 garnered seven wins for its massive, decades-spanning celebration, including wins for directing (Liz Patrick), production design, makeup, and hairstyling.
Love on the Spectrumwon for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Programming, while Queer Eye won for Structured Reality Programming. In a nice moment for a veteran director, Jim Hoskinson took home the Emmy—his first—for Directing for a Variety Series for helming The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Looking at both nights combined, there were a lot of big wins for beloved performers, too. The great Julianne Nicholson won for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in Hacks, while another great, Merritt Wever, won for Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work in Severance. Shawn Hatosy stitched together a win for Guest Actor in a Drama Series in HBO Max’s The Pitt, while The Pitt casting directors Cathy Sandrich Gelfond and Erica Berger won for putting together the stellar team on the series.
Noah Wyle, Shawn Hatosy. Photograph by Warrick Page/Max
If you want to catch these talented folks getting their due, you can stream the Creative Arts Emmys on Hulu until October 7, or watch on FXX on Saturday, September 13, at 8 p.m. ET and PT.
Here’s the full list of winners from nights one and two.
SHORT FORM COMEDY, DRAMA OR VARIETY SERIES The Daily Show, Desi Lydic, “Foxsplains”; Jennifer Flanz, Ramin Hedayati, Jocelyn Conn, Matt Negrin, Jason O. Gilbert
SHORT FORM NONFICTION OR REALITY SERIES Adolescence, The Making of Adolescence
PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL The Oscars, Misty Buckley, Alana Billingsley, John Zuiker, Margaux Lapresle
PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A VARIETY OR REALITY SERIES Saturday Night Live, Akira Yoshimura, Keith Raywood, Joe DeTullio, Andrea Purcigliotti, Patrick Lynch, Sara Parks CHOREOGRAPHY FOR VARIETY OR REALITY PROGRAMMING The Grammy Awards, Robbie Blue
MUSIC DIRECTION Kendrick Lamar, Tony Russell MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A DOCUMENTARY SERIES OR SPECIAL Chef’s Table, Duncan Thum, David Bertok
SOUND EDITING FOR A NONFICTION OR REALITY PROGRAM Music by John Williams, Dmitri Makarov, Tim Farrell, Richard Gould, Ramiro Belgardt SOUND MIXING FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM Beatles ’64, Josh Berger, Giles Martin
SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY SERIES OR SPECIAL SNL 50: The Anniversary Special, Robert Palladino, Ezra Matychak, Frank Duca, Doug Nightwine, Christopher Costello, Caroline Sanchez, Josiah Gluck, Jay Vicari, Tyler McDiarmid, Geoffrey Countryman, Devin Emke, Teng Chen SOUND MIXING FOR A REALITY PROGRAMMING Welcome to Wrexham, Mark Jensen
CASTING FOR A REALITY PROGRAM Love on the Spectrum, Cian O’Clery, Sean Bowman, Emma Choate EMERGING MEDIA PROGRAM SNL 50 Special: Immersive Experience, Lorne Michaels, Michael DeProspo, Michael Scogin, Rick Rey, Matthew Celia
INNOVATION IN EMERGING MEDIA PROGRAMMING White Rabbit
WRITING FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper
WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL SNL 50, James Anderson, Dan Bulla, Megan Callahan-Shah, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Mike DiCenzo, James Downey, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fowlie, Sudi Green, Jack Handey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Jake Nordwind, Ceara O’Sullivan, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Bryan H. Tucker, Auguste White
HOST FOR A GAME SHOW Jimmy Kimmel, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
GAME SHOW Jeopardy!
MAKEUP FOR A VARIETY, NONFICTION OR REALITY PROGRAMMING SNL 50, Louie Zakarian, Jason Milani, Amy Tagliamonti, Rachel Pagani, Young Bek, Stephen Kelley, Joanna Pisani
HAIRSTYLING FOR A VARIETY NONFICTION OR REALITY PROGRAM SNL 50, Jodi Mancuso, Cara Hannah, Inga Thrasher, Amanda Duffy Evans, Chad Harlow, Gina Ferrucci, Brittany Hartman, Katie Beatty
COSTUMES FOR VARIETY, NONFICTION OR REALITY PROGRAMMING Beyoncé Bowl
PICTURE EDITING FOR VARIETY PROGRAMMING (SEGMENT) SNL 50, Ryan Spears, Paul Del Gesso, Christopher Salerno, Daniel Garcia, Sean McIlraith, Rhyan McIlraith
PICTURE EDITING FOR VARIETY PROGRAMMING Cunk On Live, Damon Tai, Jason Boxall
PICTURE EDITING FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAMMING Pee-wee As Himself, Damian Rodriguez
PICTURE EDITING FOR A STRUCTURED REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM The Traitors, Patrick Owen, Seddon-Brown
PICTURE EDITING FOR AN UNSTRUCTURED REALITY PROGRAM Welcome to Wrexham, Sam Fricke, Jenny Krochmal, Mohamed El Manasterly, Michael Oliver, Tim Roche, Matt Wafaie, Steve Welch, Tim Wilsbach
CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A REALITY PROGRAM The Traitors, Siggi Rosen-Rawlings, Matt Wright, Jack Booth, Alex Bruno, Ned Ellis-Jones, Ollie Green, Quin Jessop, Guy Linton, Joshua Montague, Paul Rudge, James Spencer, Matt Thomson, Alex Took, Melvin Wright CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A NONFICTION PROGRAM 100 Foot Wave, Michael Darrigade, Vincent Kardasik, Alexandre Lesbats, Laurent Pujol, Karl Sandrock, Chris Smith
DOCUMENTARY OR NONFICTION SERIES 100 Foot Wave, Vince Kardasik, Ryan Heller, Michael Bloom, Maria Zuckerman, Zachary Rothfeld, Joe Lewis, Chris Smith, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Bentley Weiner
DOCUMENTARY OR NONFICTION SPECIAL Pee-wee As Himself, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Matt Wolf, Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Paul Reubens, Candace Tomarken
NARRATOR Barack Obama, Our Oceans
HOST FOR A REALITY OR REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM Alan Cumming, The Traitors
HOSTED NONFICTION SERIES OR SPECIAL Conan O’Brien Must Go, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross, Jose Arroyo, Jason Chillemi, Sarah Federowicz, Jessie Gaskell, Mike Sweeney, Aaron Bleyaert, Jordan Schlansky, Matthew Shaw
DIRECTING FOR A REALITY PROGRAM The Traitors, Ben Archard
DIRECTING FOR A DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION PROGRAM Pee-wee as Himself, Matt Wolf
COMMERCIAL Brian Cox Goes To College, Uber One for Students
LIGHTING DESIGN/LIGHTING DIRECTION FOR A SERIES SNL, Geoff Amoral, Rick McGuinness, William McGuinness, Trevor Brown, Tim Stasse, Frank Grisanti, Reginald Campbell
LIGHTING DESIGN/LIGHTING DIRECTION FOR A SPECIAL 67th Annual Grammy Awards, Noah Mitz, Andy O’Reilly, Patrick Boozer, Ryan Tanker, Erin Anderson, Madigan Stehly, Will Gossett, Bryan Klunder, Hannah Kerman, Matt Benson, Matthew Cotter, Guy Jones, Kevin Faust TECHNICAL DIRECTION AND CAMERA WORK FOR A SPECIAL SNL 50, Bill DiGiovanni, John Pinto, Paul Cangialosi, Anthony Tarantino, Dave Driscoll, Brian Phraner, Daniel Erbeck, Mike Knarre, Ansel Nunez, Rick Fox, Anthony Lenzo
TECHNICAL DIRECTION AND CAMERAWORK FOR A SERIES Saturday Night Live, Bill DiGiovanni, John Pinto, Paul Cangialosi, Anthony Tarantino, Dave Driscoll, Brian Phraner, Daniel Erbeck
STRUCTURED REALITY PROGRAM Queer Eye
UNSTRUCTURED REALITY PROGRAM Love on the Spectrum
EXCEPTIONAL MERIT IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING Patrice: The
Featured image: SNL50: THE ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL — Pictured: (l-r) Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Mike Myers as Linda Richman during the “Bronx Beat” sketch on February 16, 2025 — (Photo by: Theo Wargo/NBC)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is the recipient of the 2025 Motion Pictures Association’s Industry Champion Award, recognized for his efforts to strengthen copyright protections, spur innovation, and preserve free expression. As chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Issa has been at the forefront of legislative efforts to combat digital piracy and address emerging challenges posed by artificial intelligence to the entertainment industry.
As a California resident and representative, Issa is no stranger to the entertainment industry or its importance to the American economy, and as an engine of creativity, inspiration, and innovation. He also happens to live in the same district as a real-life Maverick, a man who actually lived the life of the character that made Tom Cruisea global superstar in 1986.
We spoke to Rep. Issa about site blocking, artificial intelligence, protecting creators, and why Top Gunisn’t nearly as unrealistic as you might think.
When do you expect to introduce your site-blocking legislation this congressional cycle?
We expect to launch our judicial site blocking legislation in late September or early October. We’ve done the due diligence. We’ve had both field hearings and, quite candidly, we’ve traveled all over the world to see how other countries are doing it.
Speaking of that, many other countries, including Mexico, Canada, Australia, the UK, Italy, Brazil, and South Korea, have site blocking, while the United States doesn’t. How would you explain that to people who don’t want their favorite films and TV shows pirated?
Nobody wants—no country, no legislature—to allow copyright violations. In almost every case, the violations come from outside the country. We are a land of many rights. Our constitutional rights, and particularly our Bill of Rights, tend to err toward not doing things without due diligence, without court oversight, without a decision by a judge and/or jury. The problem arises when someone pops up on the internet at a different ISP or, at the very least, a different IP address, evading the ability to reach a judge in real-time; you can’t use a slow system.
How do we quicken our ability to block piracy sites?
We must use our system, which ensures that there will be a full opportunity for the defendant to appear and a full opportunity for the judge to make a decision. The difference here is that once the decision is made, we want to be able to trace, follow, and enforce that without having to go through that process again. You can understand if you’re watching a mixed martial arts fight – it’s like that scene from Top Gun when the guy says, “I’ll be there in five minutes,” and the response is, “It’ll be over in two.” You can’t get to a judge, even on an emergency basis, in sufficient time to stop these live broadcasts from being destroyed.
How do you see AI intersecting with copyright law? Do you feel new legislation is needed?
I think there is a full answer. Whenever we introduce new laws, we must build upon existing laws, case law, and common law. When we look at copyright, we have a long tradition of rights, laws, and timelines. We also have very unique American fair use standards. When we get to AI, we need to build on it exactly that way, recognizing that there will be some fair use of information. But, when someone tries to monetize and is clearly building on your copyrighted material, we need to have the same recourse that you’ve had historically, either a compulsory license or a willing buyer, willing seller.
Can you give me an example?
I’ll give you one that actors and directors understand: For generations, lookalikes and recreations were almost never the real thing, and actors had to play themselves. With deep fakes that’s no longer out of bounds, you can actually recreate them. Some of our music people are recreating themselves. Billy Joel is recreating not just himself, but three versions of himself in a video album, each at a different age and playing on three different pianos. And none of them is Billy Joel.
Is this related to your work on the PADRE Act?
Yes. When we get to PADRE – people like Lainey Wilson, her voice is better known than her likeness, but her voice and likeness have been flat-out stolen and used commercially for things she has nothing to do with, wasn’t paid for, and wouldn’t approve. Yet people think they’re buying something promoted by one of the great rising music writers and performers. When you see these actual stories of the rip-off, you realize that AI isn’t coming – AI has already hurt and stolen in a way that we must protect, and we must do it in this Congress.
What about internet service providers’ reluctance to block piracy sites?
The way we’ve put together the bill and the way we’ve conducted the hearings have garnered buy-in from major cable companies. We don’t have them all and don’t expect to get them all, but we have enough to prove that it’s not overly burdensome. There will be a first round of judicial action. That action will give immunity to those providers for executing what is, in fact, a judge’s court order. Will there be times when, eventually, after a hundred or a thousand whack-a-moles of knocking down substantially the same person but changing and morphing, you might get a little bit of over-blocking? It can happen. However, on balance, we are giving the ISPs the absolute right to protect themselves and the ability to rectify if they are satisfied that the entity is not the one subject to the court order.
And this would limit piracy sites to the point where they’re no longer capable of causing large-scale damage to creators and the industry at large?
Don’t expect 100% success. What we’re going to do is make it so much more expensive. We’re going to eliminate 95-96% of the worst, the most frequent ones. Most of these blocks will be from foreign actors who will never appear in court, and we cannot obtain any compensation from them. Therefore, the blocking is the only remedy.
Let’s pivot from the law to the movies you’re trying to protect—do you have a favorite film?
There are two, and there’s a reason I’ll use two. One of the great all-time classics is The Godfather, one and two – not three, and Francis Ford Coppola would agree with me. The story, the depth of what it’s about, what it says about America—it’s tells so many stories and does it so well. It’s the real test of a movie – you could literally sit down and watch it again a year after you’ve watched it and enjoy it.
No argument here. Your second?
The second one is Top Gun, for a completely different reason. I love that movie, but I love it more now because in my district, I have a man named Captain Royce Williams. When he was a Navy Lieutenant, Royce Williams flew off the Oriskany on November 18th, 1952, and he and one wingman encountered seven MiG-15s. He smoked one, and his wingmen followed it down. Instead of staying with his wingmen, he was engaged in the longest over-territory dogfight of the Korean conflict for the next 35 minutes.
Incredible. That sounds very TopGun…
When he ran out of ammo, got into the clouds, and escaped what was left of the MIGs, he had 263 holes in his aircraft when he landed on the Oriskany, just like the later movie. His plane was shot to hell. He landed at twice the speed because he had no flaps, and just barely hit the cable, surviving. They then classified that mission, and he couldn’t tell anyone about it for decades because those were Russians out on a kill mission. He not only killed them, but only one made it home.
Every time I get to see Top Gun, I know that Captain Royce Williams was the real Top Gun. He was the real maverick. When people complain that Top Gun is unrealistic, it turns out that it’s not. There is real valor; those are real fights, and some of them really happened.
Featured image: ep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) speaks to the media during a news conference May 28, 2010 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Issa spoke on the allegation about the job offer by the White House to Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) in exchange his drop-out from the Democratic senate primary against Sen. Arlen Specter. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images).
Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) is the 2025 MPA Industry Champion Award recipient for his efforts to strengthen copyright protections, spur innovation, and preserve free expression. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Coons advocates for measures that support intellectual property laws and defend copyrighted works from piracy.
Online piracy is far from a victimless crime—in the U.S. alone, it costs the creative industry billions of dollars and thousands of jobs annually. Yet, unlike many other nations, the U.S. is still not at the forefront of anti-piracy laws. This is something Senator Coons aims to change.
We spoke with Senator Coons about his work protecting filmmakers and storytellers across the entertainment industry, why there’s no such thing as a “free” movie, and why a certain Nicolas Cage movie remains his favorite.
Can you tell us about the Block BEARD Act and why it’s important for film, TV, and sports enthusiasts to be aware of?
The Block BEARD Act is a bipartisan effort to bring the same kind of anti-piracy protections to the United States that a dozen of our closest allies and partners have already shown can be effective at protecting the work of the creative community. Whether it’s a live sports event, a film, or a TV show, the United States lacks effective legal protections for the creative community and their work products in combating piracy.
Who have you worked with on this bill?
I am grateful to two Republican senators, Senator Tillis and Senator Blackburn, as well as Democratic Senator Adam Schiff from California. These are my co-sponsors. Senator Tillis and I have worked really hard on this, and the Block BEARD anti-piracy bill is one of the pieces of intellectual property legislation I am proudest of for this Congress.
Many people are unaware of the dangers associated with visiting piracy sites, which extend beyond legal issues. Can you speak to that?
Millions of Americans inadvertently open their computers and expose their personal data and hardware to malware, risk having their data stolen, or experience operating problems with their laptop, computer, or phone after visiting one of these piracy websites. There’s a lot of work being done by the folks who are stealing our intellectual property to also then take advantage of Americans who think they’re getting a deal, but they aren’t. They’re opening a pathway for criminals to gain access to their computers.
Let’s imagine you order pizza for takeout and you’re expecting it in 20 minutes. Five minutes after you order it, this guy shows up at the front door and says, “Hey, here’s a fresh hot pizza.” And you say, “How much?” And he says, “It’s free. You just gotta leave your door open.” Would you take that pizza, go in, feed it to your family, and ignore the fact that you just let this complete stranger roam around your house and take anything he wants?
I can’t imagine that I would, no.
That’s what it’s like when you click download on a free piracy site. You might get to watch Wickedfor free, but you just let someone in the front door of your whole system who’s then going to take it over and steal your data. Then they’re going to send you junk texts and junk emails, and who might actually download ransomware onto your computer that will force you to pay many, many times more than it would’ve cost you to follow the law, to pay the creators, and to just use legal websites.
Why has it been so challenging to implement site blocking in the United States when so many other countries already have it?
More than a decade ago—I believe it was in 2012—a significant debate took place in the Senate over two bills known by the acronyms PIPA [Protect IP Act] and SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act]. There was a huge blowback because a number of pop stars and popular figures organized online against these bills. I was a co-sponsor of PIPA and SOPA, and I was proud to be one and thought we needed to protect American inventors and creators from online piracy. But it really pushed back the move to legislate in this space by years.
What’s happened since?
For better or worse, two things have happened. The volume and the value of online piracy have skyrocketed. It’s costing tens of billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs in the creative community here in the United States every year. And we have all those partners around the world who’ve demonstrated that, in a free market economy and a democracy, you can impose laws that impose obligations on streaming platforms and ISPs [Internet Service Providers]. They can comply, they can make it work, the technology works, and it stops or dramatically reduces online piracy.
We’re also in the midst of a watershed moment in technology, with the rapid spread in the use and capabilities of artificial intelligence. How do you think about AI, and what do you hope the NO FAKES Act will achieve?
Like a knife that can be used either for an armed robbery or to conduct life-saving surgery, artificial intelligence is a tool. AI is a technology that will permeate every aspect of our lives and will have enormous positive potential. It’ll unlock everything from cures for rare diseases to ways we can deal with climate change and improve energy efficiency, as well as new materials we have never imagined before.
It will also pose some real threats. In the creative space, AI now makes it possible to steal and copy someone’s voice, image, or likeness in a way that makes it hard to distinguish whether that’s the real artist or just an AI-generated likeness. For example, Drake and The Weekend had an AI-generated recording that was so similar to their style that if you listen to it for 30 seconds, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I know who that is.”
And this is where your bill comes in?
What we tried to do in NO FAKES was to come up with a nationwide right of publicity that protects the rights of singers, songwriters, and artists. The NO FAKES Act is broad. It doesn’t just protect those who make a great living from creativity. It doesn’t just protect celebrities. It can also be used to protect everyday Americans. It gives you the right to go sue to have your image or likeness taken down or removed, and it imposes that obligation on ISPs.
We did a lot of negotiating around what these rights look like and exactly how they will be enforced, because there also have to be First Amendment protections, so that users of platforms like YouTube or Meta can still create and post satire, parody, or historical commentary. Out of a great big group of bipartisan senators who spent most of two years studying AI, the NO FAKES Act was the first to be ready to go.
Pivoting to the creators you’re trying to protect, care to share your favorite film?
There are different answers to that question. Movies that I am currently rewatching a lot – partly because of what’s available as I travel around the world – I just rewatched National Treasure. I’m friends with the director, Jon Turteltaub, and I just think National Treasure is an amazing film. It’s fun, engaging, and action-oriented, but it also teaches lessons about history and some of our nation’s treasures.
Any others?
I also watch Gladiator, The Hangover, Guardians of the Galaxy, and We’re the Millers because these are all movies that I can drop in anywhere and watch 10 minutes or half an hour and be entertained, engaged, and distracted. There are deeper films like Schindler’s List and Gandhi that actually touched me, spoke to me, and moved me, and I still remember what it was like to watch them.
Featured image: WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 23: Senator Chris Coons, D-DE, questions FBI Director Christopher Wray during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing June 23, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The committee is hearing testimony regarding the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022 for the FBI. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images)
Director Ivan J. Arvelo is being honored with the 2025 Motion Picture Association Creative Protector Award for playing a crucial role in advancing our core mission of protecting intellectual property and bringing the magic of cinema to life.
As Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), Arvelo leads the federal government’s efforts to protect creativity and innovation by enforcing laws that combat intellectual property crimes.
In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Director Arvelo discusses the challenges of fighting digital piracy, the sophisticated methods used by criminal organizations, and why protecting IP rights is essential for safeguarding the future of storytelling. He also reveals his favorite film franchise, a fitting selection for someone whose work involves protecting creators—we’ll give you a hint, one of the franchise’s most iconic lines is “You shall not pass.”
Can you explain your job to film and TV lovers who may not be familiar with what you do and how it connects to the movie and television industry?
I serve as the director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. The IPR Center, as it’s commonly known, is a federal government center that leads the federal government’s efforts in protecting creativity and innovation, and enforces laws to combat intellectual property crimes.
We have jurisdiction across everything counterfeit and everything related to IPR crimes. We work closely with government agencies, industry, industry associations, and international partners to collaborate on the common goal of combating intellectual property crime. In the film industry, we collaborate with industry associations on content protection and digital piracy. It’s not only the MPA—it’s every industry that involves combating transnational criminal organizations seeking to profit through the theft of intellectual property. That way, we can protect creativity and innovation. We are focused on economic stability in the United States, prioritizing the protection of public health and safety, and maintaining national security across the board.
That’s a massive job with a very large remit. What are some of the biggest challenges that you face in protecting IP rights, specifically in the movie and TV industry?
I’m going to outline the top three challenges that I believe we encounter every day. Obviously, technology and its advancements must be at the top. I’ve been doing this long enough to remember the days when pirated DVDs were being sold on street corners. With the rapid advancement of technology, the methods of piracy evolve and change. Now everything is online, and you have illicit streaming services that can reach millions of people at any given time, and in real time. That makes it harder for enforcement agencies to be successful in countering that.
And it’s not as if there’s a roomful of people in a basement in Ohio responsible for pirating movies—most of these operations are based overseas.
If you add to that the fact that piracy is a borderless crime, but enforcement is not, the networks have moved beyond the United States; they’re outside our borders, which requires us to work with our international partners. Not every jurisdiction has the same understanding of intellectual property rights laws. They don’t have the same resources. They don’t have the same appetite to enforce these laws. Therefore, it requires constant collaboration and capacity building, as well as working with industry and our international partners, to have an impact.
What’s the third top challenge?
Number three is awareness. It has become socially acceptable to a certain extent. People tend to believe that streaming an illegal movie is a victimless crime. They underestimate the harm that piracy has on the creators, on the industry and to themselves, because sometimes when you log into one of these sites, you’re exposing yourself to malware, your information is being stolen, your financial information is being sold, plus you are supporting a transnational criminal organization that might be involved in other things like human trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism. Those are some of the things that we deal with on a daily basis.
In your career, is there a particular case that stands out to you involving a TV series or movie that would help explain this to regular movie and TV lovers?
I’m going to mention one that was recent and I think had an impact. It shows the extent to which piracy has reached. This case specifically involves piracy networks called Streameast, a large-scale illegal streaming network that distributed sporting events worldwide, reaching a level where famous people were using it. [Editor’s note: Streameast was a network of unauthorized domains that generated 1.6 billion combined visits over the past year. Streameast provided access to the world’s most popular sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and Europe’s top soccer leagues, including the Premier League and Champions League.]
Working in collaboration with our partners, such as the MPA, we were able to seize over 470 domains tied to these illegal streaming operations, which is a significant number. A case like this has an impact—it prevents financial damage to the industry because we’re taking it down, and people need to be directed to the legitimate sites. However, I believe it also sends a message across the piracy ecosystem that law enforcement is collaborating with industry, and we’re working together with technology platforms to ensure that we identify these networks and take them down. It’s all about collaboration. This is just one network. Just like that one, hundreds are operating around the globe, and we have hundreds of investigations. However, this recent one, due to the large number of domains we were able to seize, is a good example.
Pirates are getting increasingly sophisticated. How do they adapt to your measures?
Pirates are highly adaptive. For every measure that we put forth, they have a countermeasure. They start by moving their operations overseas. The advancement of technology gives them anonymity. When you move your operation overseas, it becomes more challenging for law enforcement to locate and apprehend those involved.
What kind of new technologies are they deploying?
They utilize every technology they can find for their operations—cryptocurrencies, bulletproof hosting providers, and encrypted communications networks—and continually add layers of complexity to their operations. Every time we take a pathway down, whether it’s through site takedown, domain seizure, or any other technical measure, something else resurfaces quickly. They use mirror sites, decentralized platforms, and peer-to-peer technologies like IPTV.
How do you combat that?
The best strategy for us is to continue to work together with industry and have a more multi-layered approach. It’s not only enforcement—it’s the disruption of revenue streams, because at the end of the day, the motivation for crime is financial. If we hit them where it hurts, we can get them to move away from this arena. We work with payment processors, ad networks, and hosting providers to cut off the financial incentive.
In collaboration with industry and industry organizations, such as the MPA, and working together with government organizations like the IPR Center, as well as technology platforms, we can reach a point where we can tip the scales of risk versus reward. Ultimately, if the risk outweighs the reward, we will be successful. Part of that is education—we need to continue educating people about the dangers of piracy and the value of supporting legitimate platforms. If you don’t have the consumer, then the money won’t be there, and the illegal operations will have to move on.
How do you make that case to consumers that the effect of piracy is real and not just a ledger loss for a big corporation?
One of the things that I’ve learned is that IPR affects everyone. When you consider our mission and the importance of protecting the industry and the economic stability of the United States, it’s essential to remember that there are real people behind it. It’s about protecting the creators. It’s about protecting the people who work behind the cameras. It’s about protecting consumers who enjoy going to the movies. For me, I find that the work we do here—the larger effect we’re trying to achieve—is to continue safeguarding the industry for the next generation. It’s not only about protecting the people who are doing it now. It’s about keeping the industry going for the next generation of creators and storytellers.
This is one of the points we’ve been making for years at The Credits: that the vast majority of the film and TV industry is comprised of hardworking individuals who aren’t earning millions and whose names aren’t featured on posters or ads.
I am a movie lover. I grew up loving watching movies, and it’s a big part of my life. So I take tremendous pride and satisfaction in knowing that the efforts that we put forth here at the IPR Center have some effect on that. What I do here is going to have an impact on the future of the industry. Hopefully, at some point, we will reach an environment where creativity can flourish and innovation is rewarded, not stolen. I don’t think we’re there yet, but that is our goal here at the IPR Center. We’ll continue to work towards that, knowing that, beyond everything we do, at a larger level, the impact we have is really helping a group of people behind the scenes who are not usually getting the attention they deserve for their work.
Okay, let’s pivot then to a movie you love—do you have a favorite movie that you love so much that you rewatch it?
I’m going to geek out now. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a movie that I rewatch—I try to go through all of them once a year. I can tell you, there are a hundred movies that I love, but for some reason, it’s that trilogy for me, and it’s not only me. I have my oldest son, who is now 30, and he’s also a movie lover. That’s one of the things that bonds us together. He doesn’t live near me—he’s in another city—but when he comes over, we try to sit down, and that’s our movie, our go-to movie. Peter Jackson—amazing work.
Featured image: Ivan J. Arvelo. Courtesy of the IPC Center.
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)
