A trio of excellent directors—David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller—a canoe full of beloved animated characters, led by stars Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, and incredible animators, storyboard artists, sound designers, visual effects artists, musicians, all collaborated to bring Moana 2 to the screen. Now, their efforts have paid off in the biggest five-day opening of all time. It was an incredible act of cinematic history wayfinding that Johnson’s demigod Maui would appreciate.
Moana (Cravalho) and her demigod bestie Maui (Johnson) set sail on Thanksgiving eve, and since then, coasted to a stunning $221 million over its first five days, proving audiences were eager to rejoin Moana and Maui on their first adventure since the
Like its predecessor, Moana 2 was led by a predominantly Polynesian cast—joining the first film’s breakout star Auli’i Cravalho and international superstar Dwayne Johnson are Temuera Morrison, Rachel House, Nicole Scherzinger, Rose Matafeo, and Hualalai Chung. It’s another example of the multinational family that is the film industry, with one of the mightiest American studios joining forces with an international cast, filming on location in Polynesia, and conjuring up the incredible animation in Disney’s studios in Burbank, California.
Moana 2 joined two films that were already massive hits over the Thanksgiving weekend—Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II—to pull off the biggest Thanksgiving holiday haul of all time at $420 million combined. What’s even more astonishing is that Moana 2 was originally slated to be a series on Disney+ but was shifted to become a feature film. That decision seems wise, especially considering the original is the most-streamed movie across all platforms.
Moana 2 bested the previous five-day record holder of all time, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 2023), which leaped to $203 million and nearly doubled the total of the previous Thanksgiving weekend winner, Frozen II (2019), which pulled in $125 million.
The sequel is set three years after the events in the original. Moana has grown up since we last saw her as our irrepressible heroine, and she sets off on an adventure to answer a call from her ancestors on a dangerous voyage. She’s always been a courageous spirit, but now she’s a leader. It’s her responsibility to make life better for her people and to protect her island.
“Moana 2 has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that Moana has become,” Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement. “We’re fortunate to have an incredibly talented and hard-working creative team at Disney Animation who brought this new adventure to life, alongside our wonderful stars Auli’i and Dwayne and great new music. This is a moment to celebrate, and we’re thankful to all the moviegoers and fans who’ve helped make this a record-breaking debut.”
For more stories on 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to
If you’re in the mood for a visually stunning film with gladiators battling to the death in a flooded Colosseum and a very ripped Paul Mescal going head-to-head with a rhinoceros and a baboon, Ridley Scott’s pulse-pounding period actioner is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Twenty-three years after his first Oscar nomination for the original Gladiator, British cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, Mary Queen of Scots) is back with the long-anticipated sequel, Paramount Pictures’ Gladiator II.
The events in the sequel are set 15 years after Russell Crowe’s Roman general, Maximus, was killed. Mescal’s Lucius lost his wife when the Roman army, led by General Acacius (Pedro Pascal), invaded his hometown of Numidia. An epic tale of destiny, revenge, love, and honor, the story follows Lucius’ quest to be free again, while he vows to avenge his wife’s death by killing Acacius. As the Machiavellian slave owner and businessman Macrinus (Denzel Washington) advises him early on: “Rage is your gift. Never let it go. It will carry you to greatness.”
We chat with Mathieson about framing this colossal sequel from the streets of Rome to the sands of the Colosseum.
With 24 years between the two films, what were some major differences in your process?
Honestly, not that much. You’ve still gotta capture real people in-camera with real, practical sets. I don’t think film language has really changed. Ridley wanted real physical stuff, so [production designer] Arthur Maxbuilt enormous sets. The actors loved it because they walked into Rome and the Colosseum, down the street into the Forum, the palaces, and temples. The scale was enormous! The Kingdom of Heaven set, which was re-used for this movie, was huge. It’s like old-style Hollywood films with real sets and a large number of extras. Some days, we had 50 horses on set. Not many people do this anymore, and I’m not sure who will again.
Pedro Pascal, Director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Can you compare shooting on film in Gladiator versus digital for this film?
When shooting on film, you spend a lot of time checking to see what the cameras actually captured. With digital, Ridley’s watching the 4K images on six monitors. So, he sees everything in real time. The speed of using zoom lenses with digital is great—we could get the whole sequence going with all the actors and extras, which takes a while to reset if you have to do close-ups. You don’t want to stop to change lenses in the middle of a big sequence like that. It’s more important to get the volume of shots when everyone’s there and the energy is up.
Several shots from Gladiator are included in this one to bridge the two films’ narratives. How were those handled?
We used several crowd scenes and flashbacks from Gladiator, which was shot on 235, not in a huge format. Even though we’re now in large format, the two cut together amazingly well. The images from Gladiator really held up well.
In the opening sequence, General Acacius leads the Roman navy’s invasion of Lucius’ hometown, Numidia. What was it like to film a water sequence in the desert of Morocco?
[Special effects supervisor] Neil [Corbould] brought in huge multi-wheel vehicles, the SPMTs [Self-propelled modular transporter], with jumbo jet wheels on which you can move ships and oil rigs. The boats were mounted onto them and steered in all directions and rammed into the city wall. That was all shot dry in the Sahara in June without a drop of water.
Did you use drones for some of the aerial shots?
We did a few with local drone crews. Drones are smaller format—when you’re so far away, large format doesn’t really matter. The drones can shoot 4k now. Onboard the ships, we had handheld cameras. Neil brought a lot of water with us so they could splash the decks as the artillery blasted in. As long as you’re underneath the digital water line, you could put the cameras wherever. Anything below it would be removed in post once the water was added digitally. It’s so much easier to shoot dry. When you shoot on water, even the slightest breeze will move a huge boat just enough to mess up the shot. By shooting it dry, we could get the ships to stop or move exactly where you want.
Were some of the close-ups filmed in real water?
Yes, they built a beach outside the Kingdom of Heaven set in the middle of the desert, for when Lucius falls off the edge and slams into the water. We built 200-300 feet of shoreline with water 4-5 feet deep. A wave machine pumps the waves in when he goes out to recover his wife’s body before the two centurions grab him.
When Lucius first fights in Rome, Macrinus notices him before adding him to his stable of gladiators. Where was that filmed?
That was a local, smaller arena in Morocco, at a World Heritage site, where Lucius fights the baboon. It’s the same spot where Proximo (Oliver Reed) first noticed Russell’s Maximus in the original when he was tied to Djimon Hounsou in that chain fight. There are a lot of similarities between the two films. In this one, they throw Lucius into the arena to fight these terrifying-looking, hairless baboons.
Lucius is forced to fight in the Colosseum arena against a rhinoceros! How was that shot?
We started wide with the crane sweeping in on the spectators. It’s similar to shooting a rock ‘n’ roll concert: you’re watching the spectacle unfold with everybody else. We went to close-ups when someone’s swinging at another guy or taking out the fighter on the rhino with an axe. Ridley wants to shoot it like a live concert. So, you capture everyone doing everything all at once. With these powerful zooms, we can get real action with real backgrounds all at once. When you do close-ups separately, you’ve gotta get the energy going again and put the background in. You may have to shoot close-ups for a sequence that had 50 horses when we shot the wides, but now you only have six. So, if you can get it all at the same time, it has the same level of energy.
Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Was the rhino added in with CGI?
It was actually a robotic rhino, he was real down to his knees, his legs were added in later. He could do everything—his shoulders moved, he could blink, turn his ears around, stare at you, blow his lips, snort. There’s a guy with a remote control; it was fast and could turn on a dime. You didn’t want to be near it when it was going full speed. We captured so much that was real, with a real Colosseum, real background, and a real [robotic] Rhino. Blue screens would have been very expensive. Also, when you see what’s happening, you can be bolder with the camera, which makes it more exciting.
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
What were some of your favorite sequences?
I really love the mock naval battle in the arena. It’s beautiful, like a [Jean-Léon] Gérôme painting, and very romantic. He saw the Pyramids, the Acropolis, and the fall of the Roman Empire on the Grand Tour and brought all these paintings and architecture back. Lawrence Alma-Tadema also painted in that style. That sequence has all that decadence; it’s the Victorian spin on what happened in ancient Rome. The girls wearing beautiful, diaphanous linen dresses, people sitting around drinking wine, with peacocks around. They’re all having a fine time watching this disgusting slaughter. The opulence and excessiveness are great.
Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
That was the entertainment of their day.
Right now, you’ve got boxing and MMA. I think it’s got a link back to this period of violence.
Which sequence(s) gave you the most headache?
I really don’t enjoy night shoots. When you have so many cameras at night, you need lights on the floor, which is difficult. There are a couple of night sequences when the rebellion starts at the end and some scenes between Connie (Lady Lucilla) and Pedro. The reenactment of the naval battle was difficult because we shot it dry with boats in Fort Ricasoli, then went into the water tank, where Arthur’s team built part of the Colosseum replica. You had to know what you did on the dry set and move all the action weeks later into the water set due to the strikes. It was logistically difficult, not so much for me but for the visual effects and special effects teams. It was our way of tipping our hat to those painters who imagined the scale of what went on in the Colosseum in their gorgeous artwork. There were people blowing trumpets, decadent people drinking wine and eating grapes. And in the middle of it all, sharks are eating the gladiators who fall into the water. I just think that was a fantastic sequence. I enjoyed watching it as an audience, and it’s nice to be part of it.
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Gladiator II is in theaters nationwide.
For more on Gladiator II, check out these stories:
Before Wicked, British production designer Nathan Crowley worked on eight Christopher Nolan movies, earning six Oscar nominations along the way. Now he’s made the unlikely pivot from dark Gotham City to effervescent Emerald City as world builder-in-chief for Universal Pictures’ Wizard of Oz prequel. Based on the Broadway musical, Wicked topped the box office this past weekend with $114 million, making it Hollywood’s most popular movie musical to date. Crowley, who also designed Wonka and The Greatest Showman, marvels at the recent turn of events. “If someone said to me twenty years ago when I was working on The Dark Knight that I was going to do four movie musicals, I would have said, ‘No, I’m not.’ But it’s been a great road to go down.”
Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as the green-skinned Elphaba and glitzily popular Glinda, respectively, who form an unlikely friendship at Shiz University before traveling to the Emerald City ruled by Jeff Goldblum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Directed by Jon M. Chu (In the Heights), Wicked was shot mainly at Sky Studios Elstree in England, where Crowley oversaw a crew of up to 1,000 people
Speaking to The Credits, Crowley describes a Wicked worldthat includes nine million tulips, the 58-ton Emerald City Express, and an homage to Fred Astaire’s gravity-defying dance moves.
The movie basically opens on this gorgeous field of colorful flowers, leading to Munchkinland, which seems to stretch for miles and miles. How did you pull that off?
[Director] Jon [Chu] wanted Munchkinland to be practical, whimsical, and joyous, and he wanted the Munchkins to farm something, so I said, “I’m going to plant millions of tulips and give you all the colors of the rainbow.” With the help of location manager Adam Richards and a great farmer, Mark Eves, in Norfolk, to the east of England, we grew nine million tulips, going from blues to white to reds to orange. I didn’t want greens because that steps on Elphaba, and not too much yellow because then you’re stepping on. . . something else. It’s selective rainbow color choices [Laughing]. I pointed a lot, and Mark planted them.
Glinda makes a grand entrance by floating down to Munchkinland inside a translucent pink bubble. What am I looking at there?
I can’t tell you because that reveals something from the second film. but it’s more than just a bubble.
Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Is it physical?
The bubble is CGI. We built the machine that lowered the platform, and then the crane was removed digitally.
Munchkinland looks charming with all the little houses and their thatched roofs.
The house design was very difficult because you can fall into the traps of Middle Earth or the trap of Swiss-French villages. You wanted to build an architectural language that is familiar and something you haven’t seen before. I think the roofs do that. We were bored with the thatch, so we started spraying it different colors. It’s a blue house? Spray the thatch blue. After it soaked in, there was a sort of tint to it.
Glinda and Elphaba meet at Shiz University after arriving by boat. What influenced the look of this grand campus?
Going through that giant white arch into the lagoon, I wanted to evoke the glorious Italianesque essence of Venice mixed with Moorish architecture. And then we had onion domes for the doors.
Shiz University in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
What are onion domes?
The tops of the archways are Slavic onion domes mixed with Moorish arches. Historians would be appalled [laughing]. And lastly, Wicked is an American fairy tale, so the big arch at Shiz University comes from the [Louis Sullivan] Chicago School [of architecture], decorated in this kind of Mayan way.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) with Director Jon M. Chu on the set of WICKED.L to R: Marissa Bode is Nessarose and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
At Shiz, Glinda’s pink dorm room looks like a teenager’s fantasy suite!
I have to credit our set decorator Lee Sandales and his team who focused on every single item. We put the room on a special effects rig to get all the mirrors and dresses popping out. The amount of hydraulics under that set were phenomenal.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Everything in Glinda’s room is curved. Why?
The shape of the room was determined by the onion dome above it, which allowed me to make a much more interesting non-square shape with alcoves and windows that are [like] teardrops. We were able to create pockets for the beds and for the story. The onion dome allows you to break out circles within circles.
Midway through Wicked, Jonathan Bailey, as Fiyero, performs “Dance For Your Life” on curved, rotating bookshelves. Where did this wild “library” concept come from?
I loved [1951 MGM musical] Royal Wedding, where Fred Astaire dances [on the walls] in the room, proving that he can dance through the awkwardness of two [square] angles. So I said, “How about if we have wheels that move when Jonathan Bailey turns on this machine?” But I didn’t really have a decent reason for why the wheels were spinning, so Jon said, “Make them into bookshelves.”
Jonathan Bailey is Prince Fiyero in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Did you build the contraption on a soundstage?
Yeah. We had circular steel drums driven by giant belts with huge mechanical wheels turning all the bookshelves and ladders. There are like six systems in there, programmed by the techs at the back. The brilliant special effects team led by Paul Corbould built the library and made the wheels work. They also built the puppeteer’s Wizard’s head with all the real expressions — no CGI there. Very few mechanical special effects teams can build rigs like that. They’re remarkable.
WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Glinda and Elphaba travel to Oz headquarters in the sleek Emerald City Express train. What did you have in mind as inspirations?
The Wizard’s train is like the old [train] carriage that [President Franklin] Roosevelt used to go around on, but the Wizard does it mechanically. It’s like a wind-up train.
What was involved in developing that sequence?
Two things: We had to build the train for real and put it in an Americana landscape, a field, like you’d see in an Andrew Wyeth painting.
The Emerald City in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
The train itself weighs 58 tons. That must have been challenging to make.
The train itself was round. We had the engine on it and we did the big wheels to move the train. Visual effects added all the little cogs, which I think is a beautiful use of VFX. We built the train sixteen feet high, the size of America’s biggest steam engine.
Emerald City looks magnificent. Inspiration?
I used the White City they built in Chicago for the 1893 [World’s Fair] Exposition because that was like a dream, and everybody went to see it.
Filming “Wicked.” Courtesy Alice Brooks/Universal Pictures.
How long did the Wicked sets take to build?
I started six or seven months before we began shooting. I have to take my hat off to this army of un-thanked people — carpenters, plasterers, painters, scenic, graphics, metalworkers, sculptors, riggers — because without them, you don’t get any of this.
The impact on the local filmmaking economy must be considerable.
Absolutely. I run a core crew of about 300 people that I’ve known since The Dark Knightand who also worked with me on Wonka. On this film, we increased to 500 and then up to 1000 people because we had to get work done across three giant backlots.
With Wicked: Part Two still to come, have you been enjoying your time in the Land of Oz?
I love it. As you get older as a designer, you need to be challenged with world-building, and there’s no better place than Oz to do that.
In the first installment of our conversation with Gladiator II production designer Arthur Max, he talked about making Ridley Scott’s sequel on an even bigger scale than the original film and staging a naval battle sequence in the desert of Morocco for the opening sequence. Now, let’s find out what it took to flood the Colosseum to recreate the mock naval battle in the third act.
Did you use mostly local crew on the sequel?
We had many countries represented on the crew. The English art department did the construction and set decorating; the graphics department built the ships in pieces to be shipped to Morocco and Malta. We also constructed molds for the architecture and shipped those to Malta. We had the Maltese crew in Malta, an Italian crew in Malta and Morocco, a Croatian crew in Croatia and Morocco, an Australian supervising art director, a concept artist, and some art directors are Germans, and some Spanish sculptors and construction as well. One of the concept artists and I are American. So, it was pretty much the United Nations on the set.
Pedro Pascal, Director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
So many ornate chariots were on display throughout this film. Can you talk about some of them?
We had the imperial chariot for the Emperors, the war chariots, Lucilla’s (Connie Nielsen) carriage, and Macrinus’ was all in gold. The special chariots were built in Morocco, and some were shipped to Malta. Acacius was the great hero when he returned victorious from Numidia, so he had his own chariot and two escort chariots. The army chariots were modified from rentals. One was actually Commodus’ chariot, which we modified from the first movie. Somebody bought that and kept it, and we recycled it. The slave wagons were like cages on wheels for the gladiators. We also made half a dozen Sedan chairs for the slaves to carry people around, as they did back then. For the street traffic, we had supply wagons and carts to busy up what was one of the biggest cities, if not the biggest city in the world at the time. In some of the water and aerial shots, you can see how densely populated the streets are in the practical shots, with lots of wagons and chariots zipping around. They used the chariots like taxis back then.
Denzel Washington plays Macrinus and Lior Raz plays Viggo in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Did you really flood the Colosseum set for the mock naval battle, where the gladiators were equally likely to be killed by sharks (yes, sharks!) in the water, arrows, or swords?
They really did the mock naval battles in ancient Rome, flooding the Colosseum to stage famous historical sea battles. We built two more boats for this sequence, which weren’t as big as the warships: those were over 100 feet long, but these were about 65 feet. One was the Athenian boat and the other, the Persian boat, to recreate the Battle of Salamis [in 480 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars]. We used the same mechanism in Morocco to move these boats into the Colosseum. Because of their size, the height of the sails, and mass, I had to raise the Coliseum five feet higher than it was in the first movie to accommodate the digital water line. Due to the height of the sail, the main entry arch had to go up 20 feet. We only had chariots and people coming through in the first movie, but now, we had enormous ships coming through the archway. So, it was a bit of an engineering upgrade.
Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Can you elaborate on raising the platform to work with the digital water line?
We raised the whole Colosseum five feet off the ground, so when the ships came in, they were on wheels on hydraulic platforms, which were up five feet, so you don’t see any of that. The Colosseum was plus five feet, plus the height of increase on the arch to get the boats in. The velarium had to go up to accommodate all that and leave enough room for the cameras. Otherwise, you’d hit your head on the velarium when you were at the top of the arch. Everything was raised vertically, but the footprint stayed pretty much the same as in the first movie because of the space available. It’s like shoehorning all the elements into a confined space.
What was the second partial replica of the Colosseum used for?
We needed water for all the stunt work, with people falling off the ships and crashing into the water, and we had cameras in the water at a low level for visual effects references. As luck would have it, down the road from Fort Ricasoli is one of the biggest water tank studios in the world [Malta Film Studio]. The tank is a bit bigger than a football field and 8-12 feet deep. We built a piece of the Colosseum, particularly the Empress box and the surrounding tiered seating, not the 60% scale we discussed earlier, but just a small area to replicate the crowd’s reactions. We actually had the water in that one to do all the stunt work, build some islands, and add scenery. We also did the interiors of the Roman slave ships that brought Lucius and the slaves from Numidia back to Rome. It was quite a puzzle figuring out where we would work in the water, where we would be in the dry, and how all this fit together with the visual effects in post. We didn’t have this consideration on the first movie. The engineering specifications were more demanding on this film.
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius and Connie Nielsen plays Lucilla in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
49 days of filming sounds pretty short for this scale and scope!
On the big days, we had 12 cameras plus a couple of drones. Ridley is one of the great choreographers of multiple cameras. Not many directors can just do a couple of takes with 12 cameras and move on. That’s how we were able to shoot it in 49 days, which is a great achievement from a pure production point of view.
Gladiator II is playing in theaters nationwide.
For more on Gladiator II, check out these stories:
Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max has worked on 16 of Ridley Scott’s films. These include some of American cinema’s most indelible cinematic spectacles, such as the original Gladiator (for which Max scored his first Oscar nod), Black Hawk Down, and The Martian. Despite the impressive body of work between them, Max thinks that the Roman epic actioner, Gladiator II, is their most ambitious yet. For instance, his crew built not one—but two—replicas of the Colosseum, where the numerous gladiatorial battles were staged.
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Sharp-eyed viewers may experience déjà vu. In the opening sequence, Pedro Pascal’s General Acacius leads the Roman navy in a savage invasion of Lucius’ (Paul Mescal) adopted hometown of Numidia. The naval battle and ensuing siege were filmed in Morocco after Max’s team repurposed the set from Kingdom of Heaven, another film he had worked on with Scott almost two decades ago. “It was in the spirit of recycling in the best possible way. It survived very well, which is a testament to how it was built and maintained,” says Max.
Taking place 15 years after Russell Crowe’s Maximus died in the original film, combat in the Colosseum is now even more sadistic and cruel. After the Roman navy defeats the Numidians—killing many villagers, including Lucius’ wife in the process—he and his fellow slaves are brought to Rome. There, Machiavellian businessman Macrinus (Denzel Washington) adds him to his stable of gladiators, who are forced to fight to the death against some ghastly beasts— a rhinoceros, tigers, and baboons—merely to entertain the royal court and the masses.
More than two decades after Gladiator won Best Picture in 2001, Max reflects on how much technology has changed. “Since we didn’t have the same technology on the first film, prep, building, and shooting took much longer even though the scale was proportionally smaller [on Gladiator], and we shot both in the same locations. This time, we made a bigger movie in a shorter period of time, thanks to the evolution of technology,” he reveals.
What are some of the major differences in your work when comparing the two films?
On the first one, we didn’t have all the tools to truly celebrate the glory of ancient Rome. But now, technology allows us to amplify the physical set and the architecture. It’s much quicker and you can go bigger. The scale was big on Gladiator, but it wasn’t as big compared to the ruins of ancient Rome. We were really struck by the immensity of their architecture. So, I tried to do it justice in this movie.
Lucius’ hometown, Numidia, was filmed in the desert of Morocco on the former set of Kingdom of Heaven. What was it like to revisit that set after almost twenty years?
It was in the spirit of recycling in the best possible way, but it wasn’t big enough. The front wall on Kingdom of Heaven was 500 feet long. We wanted to celebrate the scale of the Roman Empire and Lucius’ world. So, we added a couple hundred feet to the length and width and created a port as well since we had ships in this naval attack. It seems anomalous to have Roman warships in the desert, but our visual effects director thought it was easier to put the water in digitally rather than filming on water.
Director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
There was actually no water in that naval invasion sequence?
We had a small tank for close-ups in the water. But that was minor compared to the size of the wall, and it was only used for close-ups where the actors were physically in the water and then extended digitally. The post software for water now is very sophisticated. It’s much easier to work in the dry when you’re doing elaborate camera work, stunt work, and explosions with 12 cameras and trying to meet a schedule. We did the water work in Malta in a beautiful tank facility. But in Morocco, we had blue screens attached to hydraulic vehicles, which creates a big cyclorama wherever you need it.
Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
What about the ships? How did you get those into the middle of the desert?
We built two full-sized Roman warships: the ramming ship and the siege tower ship for the attack. To build General Acacius’ fleet, we redressed those several times with different sails, paintwork, and flags to get a fleet of hundreds of ships with great variety. How did we move them around with no water would be your question, right? Our special effects supervisor, Neil Corbould, found a really brilliant solution with a remote-controlled hydraulic all-wheel drive that was electric battery operated. It was like an enormous e-vehicle that moved industrial objects, and we built our ships on those. The ships could pitch, yaw, and roll just like a real one on water. But it was a lot more practical to load the crew and equipment, dress it, do stunt work, and manipulate in the dry. Technology came to our rescue.
For the gladiatorial battles, you returned to Fort Ricasoli in Malta, where you built one of the two replicas of the Colosseum at 60% scale.
In Gladiator, I think we only used two-thirds of the fort due to time and money. But this time, we used the whole fort. It’s an archeological historical site, so we had to get government permission to work there. It was quite difficult, and we took a lot of care in handling the rubble. In fact, they found some new ruins that they didn’t know were there, so they were quite happy about that.
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
It’s extraordinary that you were filming and working at an archeological site!
The fort dates back to the 18th century and has been used as a fortress. We were allowed to work within certain limits to clear away some of the rubble. They were nervous about it, understandably. We were very careful about it; we had engineers and supervisors from the archeological department monitoring everything. So that’s why we could build larger sets this time. Some of it had to be done by hand, like an archeological dig, and we discovered cisterns under the arena that we didn’t know about the first time. On Gladiator, there were some temporary modern walls in the interiors going up to the roofs of the fort. I got an old plan from the building department and noticed there were spaces behind the wall, so I asked the government if we could dismantle the wall, which was very modern; it wasn’t an old original wall. We were curious about what was behind it, and perhaps we could see it in the film, which we did.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius and Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Were you near where you built the Colosseum replica for the original Gladiator?
Absolutely the same footprint. John Mathieson, our DP, was very keen to be exactly where it was because of the light—the sunlight doesn’t change over 25 years. So, he wanted the sun to move around the set exactly as before. The only thing was, the existing walls of buildings constrained the size, so we weren’t able to build the whole thing. We extended it digitally with blue screens and plates. With technology advancements, it was much easier and quicker this time around.
Check out part two of our conversation with Arthur Max about creating the mock naval battle in the Colosseum and more.
For more on Gladiator II, check out these stories:
Embracing Old Hollywood and a plethora of source material, cinematographer Alice Brooks knew her Wicked vision for Oz would be rich and luxurious.
Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned woman. She finds an unusual kinship with Ariana Grande’s popular girl, Glinda. When their paths lead them to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship is severely tested, and what’s to come when Dorothy eventually arrives in Oz is just hinted at.
Alice Brooks on the set of “Wicked.” Courtesy Universal Pictures.
Here Brooks, a longtime collaborator with director Jon M. Chu, lays out how she plays with light and scale to ensure the epic love story dazzles and never loses any of the intricate details.
You’re a frequent collaborator with Jon M Chu. How do you complement and challenge each other?
Jon and I have known each other for 25 years. We met in film school and were just two kids who wanted to grow up and make musicals. Jon has always believed in me; having a champion and someone you can trust in this business is so important. We do challenge each other. When I say, ‘We really should be doing it this way,’ he listens. Sometimes, he goes, ‘No, we should be doing it this way, and this is why.’ There’s a scene after the OzDust Ball where Elphaba and Glinda sit on Elphaba’s bed. During prep, we discussed that we’d shoot toward the window. I’m standing behind them as they’re sitting in the bed, looking out with the deep space of the room, and he looks at me and keeps walking the scene, then he’s like, ‘Okay, and the camera is going to go where Alice is.’ He knows when I’m standing somewhere, it’s because I’m suggesting something. We have this silent communication.
L to R: Ariana Granda is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
What were the first parts of this massive adaptation to the hugely popular musical you wanted to tackle?
The heart of the movie is the OzDust. When Jon and I first talked, he asked me what my goal was, and I said it would be the greatest love story ever told between these two women, two best friends, and the OzDust is where Glenda and Elphaba fall in love. They really see each other for the first time, and kindness happens. If we got that right, the whole movie would work. There’s a theme throughout the film: ‘What does it feel like to be looked at?’ In one scene, Elphaba comes down the stairs, and everyone’s looking at her. Jon wanted to bring her down the stairs, have everyone laughing at her, and then do a 360 Steadicam shot all in one. It was ten minutes long, but he wanted her to feel everything. It ends with this one tear dripping down Elphaba’s face. We needed to be in the space with the camera and have the right lighting for that moment to happen.
Alice Brooks and Jon M. Chu on the set of “Wicked.”Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba, Ariana Grande is Glinda and Director Jon M. Chu on the set of WICKED, from Universal Pictures
Jon has referred to Wicked as paying homage to Old Hollywood, but it also has to be authentic and contemporary. How did you find the balance?
The lighting was a big part. We wanted an Old Hollywood feel, including building massive sets that don’t often exist in Hollywood. There were 17 sound stages, and the sets were built wall to wall and floor to ceiling. I had tangible spaces to light instead of relying on visual effects. We used contemporary lighting cues to draw emotion. We have thousands and thousands of lighting cues in Wicked that are all very subtle, but from a camera standpoint, that was one thing we had to do to make it feel contemporary.
Filming “Wicked.” Courtesy Alice Brooks/Universal Pictures.
You draw from the stage show and The Wizard of Oz. What other things did you look to for inspiration?
I read L. Frank Baum’s original Wizard of Oz books; every paragraph has a very rich color description. I realized we had the opportunity to create our own 2024 version of what Technicolor was. We lit the movie with all the colors of the rainbow. You can see little moments where we lit red or blue or orange and yellow, and it’s subtle, but it’s there. In the book, there’s all this nature, and that became this inspiration for production design, costume design, and lighting, and that’s where I realized the sun could become our spotlight. I had this revelation and asked Jon, ‘Can I propose all these different time of day changes for the script? I have this idea where the sun rises for Glinda and sets for Elphaba.’ Because of that, you’ve got these long sequences, starting in the early morning and going dark, and the sun rises until Glinda walks up. There’s a huge pink sunrise behind her, so the sun becomes her spotlight. In Defying Gravity, it’s the opposite. It’s a 40-minute-long sunset, which starts in Wizomania. It goes through the Throne Room, the Balloon Room, and the Darkened Room in the lower attic, all the way up, and as she finds her power, Elphaba jumps off the building and descends into darkness. It gets darker and darker from there until she flies off as the sun finally sets.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
You filmed this in London. How did you bring local vendors into what you were doing with Wicked?
The craftspeople in the UK are phenomenal. We had a Camera Operator called Karsten Jacobsen. He picked up a Steadicam when he was 18 years old because he was working as a PA on a dance show in Denmark. The Steadicam operator hurt himself, so Karsten just picked the camera up, and he understood dance in a fantastic way. He was on our movie during prep for ten weeks before we started shooting, so he learned all the choreography. He was at every dance rehearsal, coming up with ideas, but also feeling and understanding them. Ariana and Cynthia were there the whole time rehearsing, so he could feel their emotion and how they would start playing the scene. Our Gaffer, David Smith, was brilliant. On day one, he pulled me straight into the Art Department and said, ‘These sets are massive. We’ve got to get to work.’ I started a movie club with the two of them, the Key Grip and my assistant, and we would meet on Wednesday evenings. It was a time when we didn’t talk about Wicked; we’d just watched movies and talked to each other as artists and storytellers. I could get a sense of their esthetics, they could get a sense of mine, and we talked about ideas that had nothing to do with Wicked.
On the set of “Wicked.” Courtesy Alice Brooks/Universal Pictures.
Wicked is a big movie, but some parts rely on the minutia. How did you manage that?
When Jon and I break down a script, we talk about emotional beats, and I usually ask him for one-word descriptions. I was a child actor, so in the same way you would give an actor a beat to play, I want to know the emotional intention in a moment. Sometimes, it changes through the scene, so we have a couple of different beats. It’s a vast, epic movie, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about these two women, and everything’s in their close-ups. Sometimes, we’d start shooting a scene with their close-ups because that was important. We wanted it to be raw and honest and have all that feeling right there in their close-ups, and then you pull wide. Sometimes, you don’t need to pull as wide as you think you do. We wanted to delight in the world’s scale, but it is all about these two women.
In Wicked, we see the spectacular scale of the world in breadth and depth. How did you use those effectively and not overuse them so that it continues to wow?
Our Shiz and Emerald City sets are each the size of four American football fields, so we had this incredible depth to play with. We also wanted a very shallow depth of field, meaning the background goes out of focus, so you’re just focused on your actors. We made a conscious decision that even though we have all this deep space to shoot, it’s sometimes very soft, and that focuses you in.
On the set of “Wicked.” Courtesy Universal Pictures.
Green is a huge color in this movie. There’s so much green; there’s a specific skill to shooting it, not making it feel flat. How fun was it to utilize and play with that?
It was so much fun. We started camera tests on Elphaba’s green makeup on week two of prep. I started working with our Hair and Makeup Designer, Frances Hannon, doing green tests on a stand-in. Some of my favorite shots of Elphaba are the first time you see her against green, which is in the forest, and the green on green looks fantastic. Then you go to Emerald City, and there’s nothing but green around her. We realized it was a play with color temperature, so if we lit her cooler, then we’d light the environment green warmer to separate her. If we let her in with warm light, then the green in the background, we’d go cooler because it’s painting. We had to paint these sets and the green skin with light. I wanted to see every detail of the fabric on Elphaba’s dress because it’s beautiful, but it’s black, and that can very easily get lost in a movie. I wanted to ensure all that richness, texture, and detail was there, but it was an incredible amount of testing to figure it out.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
It’s been a long time coming, but the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, opens in theaters nationwide on November 22. Starring Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), the iconic Denzel Washington, and original cast member Connie Nielsen, Gladiator II finally came to fruition thanks to the script from David Scarpa, who’d previously penned Scott movies All the Money in the World and Napoleon.
Filmed mainly in Malta and Morocco, Gladiator II harnessed a crew of 1,200 craftspeople to tell the story of Mescal’s Lucius. Captured in North Africa and brought to Rome, Lucius proves his mettle in the arena, fighting as a gladiator for the amusement of deranged twin-rulers portrayed by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger. Political chicanery and bloodshed ensue.
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Scarpa talks about devising action sequences, collaborating with master filmmaker Scott and cracking the sequel code with his core idea for Gladiator II. Fair warning, gladiators—spoilers below.
They’ve been trying to make a Gladiator sequel practically since the first one came out in 2000. Why did it take so long?
The challenge has always been: How do you make a sequel to a movie where the main character [Russell Crowe’s Maximus] and the antagonist [Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus] are both dead?
The answer apparently came when you got a call from Ridley Scott. How did that conversation go?
He said, “We want to talk to you about G2.” What’s G2? Oh, Gladiator 2! So, of course, I jumped in. The only real mandate was that they wanted the story to focus on Maximus’ son, Lucius.
Director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Where did you go from there?
The first movie starts with Maximus as a Roman general fighting against barbarians, so let’s start this movie with his mirror image, his opposite number, Lucius, as a barbarian fighting against Romans. Lucius has rejected all the values of his father. What is the story that brings Lucius back to a place where he’s able to embrace his father and embrace Roman virtues? That’s the core question that the rest of the movie is built around.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Obviously your pitch went over well.
I wrote an email about a page long: “Here’s my take.” I presented it to Ridley, the producers, and the studio, and they liked it.
Then what happened?
Then I went off and did my first draft.
And then they made the movie?
My first conversation happened before the COVID pandemic, which tells you how long this process was because it’s not like you present the pitch, then you go write it, and then they shoot it. The story changed considerably. My early version started in Londinium—the Roman version of London. Does Lucius have a wife and a kid? Blah, blah, blah—there were all kinds of alternate versions.
So, a lot of back and forth?
Exactly. The question is not whether you can write a movie, but can you write a movie, have people come in and blow it up, and rebuild it, blow it up again, and rebuild it? The real question is, can you do it 15 times in a row instead of just doing it once?
Pedro Pascal, Director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
SPOILER ALERT
Lucius is captured by Pedro Pascal’s General Acacius and sold to Denzel Washington’s Emperor Macrinus, who turns out to be a fascinating adversary. How did you come up with his character?
It took us a long time to realize that Macrinus is the embodiment of cynicism. He’s embraced nihilism, whispering into Lucius’s ear that it’s all a fraud—and he has a point.
The movie kicks off with an epic battle sequence set on the shores of North Africa—ships, swordfights, catapults, arrows, and carnage—and that sets the bar for many more fantastic action sequences.
But what’s crucial is that each spectacle is never just a set piece; it also has to advance the conflict between characters. I think that’s where a lot of movies go wrong: If you have set pieces just for the sake of having set pieces, it winds up feeling empty. The visual stuff for me was really secondary to the question of how to cook up an action scene that will drive home the drama, whether it’s character, theme, or emotion. That’s really the main job.
SPOILER ALERT
Gladiator II features a jaw-dropping set piece in which the coliseum is flooded with water and battleships are surrounded by sharks. Sharks circle the ships and eat men unlucky enough to fall into the water. Is that sequence rooted in historical fact?
Oh yeah, in terms of filling the coliseum with water and staging naval battles, they did do that.
What about the sharks?
Originally I think I wrote eels, of all things, but I also wrote in some sharks. Ridley took out the eels but he liked the sharks. In the coliseum, they had every conceivable kind of animal, which is what made ancient Rome so barbaric. All day long, they had animals killing animals, everything you can imagine for the sake of entertainment. So all that stuff [in the movie] is totally within the realm of what they actually did.
Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
There’s a revealing moment in Gladiator II when Lucius quotes a poem by Virgil, the great Roman poet. What’s that about?
Lucius is viewed as a barbarian, but in fact, he’s been educated in the Roman classics. His masters treat him like an animal and he comes back at them with poetry that they don’t even know. It shows that Lucius is the real noble, the real sophisticate and they are not. There’s also the idea that Lucius invokes this poetry almost like a curse.
Do you know your Virgil?
I do not [laughing]. The crucial thing is to make sure that your writing reflects the mindset of people living at the time. Today, there’s therapy talk, trauma talk, and that simply was not the framework then. Romans lived in the world of gods and virtue and destiny, and also vulgarity. It was important to make sure the lexicon of the movie came out of the way they saw things.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Ridley Scott sometimes presents himself as a kind of gruff fellow. Is he intimidating to work with?
Ridley does not suffer fool gladly, and if you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’ll get in trouble quickly. Sometimes, having conversations with Ridley Scott is like walking into the arena yourself and fighting against a great Roman warrior [laughing]. You do have to have confidence but if you have a strong case to make, at least you’ll get a hearing. Ridley has great taste, and that’s what you’re appealing to: his taste.
Ancient Rome was run by rulers who distracted their citizens with mean-spirited spectacles. In writing Gladiator II, did you see any parallels to contemporary America?
In the last couple of years, there has been, I think, a generational questioning of America itself as a society. Is it foundationally corrupt? If Ancient Rome is a proxy for America, and in Gladiator II, a young person views his world through the lens of imperialism or corrupt leaders or bread and circuses, then the question becomes: “What is the thing that’s worth preserving?” That’s the parallel for me. Our movie follows Lucius, who has renounced this fallen world and finds his way back to it in order to save it.
Gladiator II is in theaters on November 22.
Featured image: Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Few films this year showcase intricate detail and epic scale like director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked does. The breathtaking costuming created by acclaimed costume designer Paul Tazewell is a vital element of the filmmaker’s captivating vision.
Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, is inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 titular novel. Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned woman opposite Ariana Grande’s popular girl, Glinda. The pair become friends at Oz’s Shiz University, but when their paths lead them to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship is tested. The ensemble cast includes Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum. Wicked lands in theaters on Friday, November 22, 2024.
Here, Tazewell, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, breaks down the sartorial storytelling journey he embarked on and how artisans in the UK, where Wicked was filmed, helped take it to a fantastical new level.
L to R: Ariana Granda is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
What were the first conversations that you had with Jon, the director?
The Wicked Broadway musical has a huge fan base, but it was important for Jon to tell the story with a new vision and have an original idea about what this world is and how it operates. We also looked at the overall meta culture of The Wizard of Oz, at the illustrations from the bound book, and the 1930s film. I went to nature as a major design influence, including things such as the Fibonacci spiral and how nature creates patterns that can be very kaleidoscopic. Some of the investigations took me to the world of fungus and mushrooms, dried leaves and bark, and that was exciting because nature is periodless. The original Oz book was written at the turn of the century, and there are qualities that are reflected in the design that hearken to that but then explode in a different way. If you think about the 1930s film, it does that in a similar fashion. When you’re in Munchkinland, you’re in this folky 19th-century fantasy land, and you understand the silhouettes, but it’s also made up. I thought that would also be true for how we were going to see the world of Oz.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
A lot of that comes across in the texture of the fabrics as much as the colors. Is it easier to get that across in film than with stage costuming?
You can’t do it as directly on stage. The benefit of film is you can get up close and see all of what we put in and the beauty the artisans in the UK were able to create. It’s also my love and point of view. That’s how I see creating clothing, whether it’s period detail or detail that is represented by embroidery and imagery that speaks to the character. The textures on Elphaba reflect the idea of mushrooms that audiences subconsciously see, and they can put together that connection to the Earth and animals. I wanted everything she wore to be beautiful, seen as very thoughtful of who she was, and a woman of style, but it just happens that black is her chosen color palette.
The mushroom-like patterning and texture for Elphaba’s dress design. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.
Wicked was filmed in the UK, which has a rich costuming heritage. What was your experience working with local vendors and talent?
One of the benefits of filming in London was that there are makers who still exist and are doing hand work; they are weavers, shoemakers, and embroiderers for both the entertainment industry and the maker industry overall. Some of the artisans in the UK are more privately owned, and they’re smaller shops. I’d say there is more intimacy around how things are created. In the States, there are Broadway costume shops that do fantastic work, and I use them all the time, but it’s a different experience.
You mentioned shoes, and Cynthia wanted her heel size to increase throughout Elphaba’s journey. You have worked with her before, and she loves participating in the creative process.
We collaborate really beautifully together. That was one thing Cynthia brought into the development of who Elphaba was going to be. I can sit down and draw how I imagine Elphaba, show that to the director and the producers, and we can all agree it’s the right way to go, but until I’m folding in the actor and their input, it doesn’t have the same kind of life. Cynthia was always thinking about how she would create this character and make her real for audiences, which is exciting for me. Getting it right for her is super important because I’m relying on her to bring my work to life.
Elphaba’s increasing heel-size was part of Cynthia Erivo’s creative input. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.
The dresses have to be practical, create a silhouette, and look incredible. I imagine structure is key.
Absolutely. One of my strengths as a costume designer is knowing and understanding how to build costumes. What excites me is collaborating with the tailor to actively make that happen. I tend to be hands-on in the research and development of things like the Bubble dress. I compare that one to a Charles James or Christian Dior dress from the 40s or 50s. When you look at the understructure, there are all kinds of engineering going on that you never see arriving at the shape that is the heart of the garment. It’s like the girdering that you have in a building. I am also aware of how this will feel on the actor, how they will wear it, and what we need to give them support-wise for it to be as comfortable as possible. We had ten or sometimes 16-hour days of shooting, and you can’t exhaust them by creating something too heavy to wear. I am also always mindful of how it will move through space. I’m very aware of how it becomes an extension of the body and being in control of how I want it to move. That informs what the pattern pieces will look like, allowing a skirt to swirl a certain way or what wool I want to use for a suit. I wanted those to fit more like a 19th-century uniform than a modern suit on the street.
Tazewell’s sketches for Glinda also emphasized natural patterns and the plant and animal worlds. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.Tazewell’s sketches for Glinda also emphasized natural patterns and the plant and animal worlds. Courtesy Paul Tazewell/Universal Pictures.Ariana Granda is Glinda in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Ariana Grande is a pop icon with serenity and presence; Michelle Yeoh is this incredibly experienced actress with grace; then you’ve got Jeff Goldblum, who has an eccentricity, and Jonathan Bailey, who has that background in the stage world as well. What did they bring to the table?
It was a close and intimate experience for each of them. It was filmed over so much time, so we were constantly in fittings, especially with Arianna and Cynthia. As well as being on set, we averaged three to four fittings a week so that we could prepare for the next month of filming. Michelle, Jonathan, and Jeff all brought a sense of style that they walk through life with. They wear clothes beautifully, and clothing is important for each of them, so it was important to acknowledge that, as well as interpret who these characters are. They know designers and what looks good on them, and that’s golden for me. I want somebody to value what I bring and have the conversations so I can make it the best that it can be.
This is the first of two Wicked films. How did you balance not putting everything into the costuming in the first movie so that you had somewhere fresh to go?
When we were conceiving this world and how we wanted to tell the story, I had to figure out what the whole journey would be. I am always thinking about the emotional arc for each character and where we end up. I had a good sense of where we were going, and I had already slotted in the looks all the way through to the end of the second film. That’s not to say that things didn’t shift and change as we moved through them, but certain things stayed exactly the same because they needed to hit certain marks within the story. We were shooting scenes from the first film in the same week as we were shooting scenes from the second film. There was no choice but to make all those decisions at the front end.
How many costumes did you have to make, and how did you scale that?
I had an amazing team and partner in crime who oversaw, approved, and budgeted everything, ensuring we had enough people on our team and money in our coffers to do what we wanted and needed to do. She was instrumental in pulling together all the artisans I talked about under one roof. Some she had worked with before, others she had heard about, and collectively, we were this Santa’s factory creating this film for a year and a half. We also had the pre-production months, but it was a magical and active space during that whole time. I would say we created 25 looks for Glinda, about the same for Elphaba, and multiples of those. We then had to create multiples for stunts and covers. Hundreds and hundreds of costumes were created for our main cast and day players. There were also background people so we could fill the huge spaces that production designer Nathan Crowley created for Emerald City, all of Shiz and Munchkinland, and all of the guests at the wedding, which you’ll see in the second film. It was full-on. I stepped off the plane in London and was constantly running, but I was in my blissful space.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Wicked lands in theaters on Friday, November 22, 2024.
The reviews for director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked have finally arrived, confirming what was first reported around Halloween—the first big-screen adaptation of the Broadway phenomenon is a dazzling smash. In case you’ve been kept in a chamber deep within the bowels of Emerald City, we’ll lay out the broad strokes—Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande star as Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the future Glinda the Good, respectively, in this adaptation of the musical, which itself was an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel of the same name. Maguire imagined Oz before Dorothy arrived and started mucking about, and he didn’t just give the Wicked Witch of the West a name—she didn’t have one in the film The Wizard of Oz or the book it was based on, L. Frank Baum’s novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (her name sounds out the initials of L. Frank Baum)—but he fleshed out a moving backstory for her and connected her to Glinda in a moving epic.
Adapting the mega-popular musical juggernaut for the big screen was simultaneously a no-brainer and a major risk. Some 65 million people saw the show on Broadway, finding resonance and empowerment in Elphaba’s story. It’s been 21 years since “Wicked” first landed on the Great White Way, and the wait appears to have been worth it. Not to make too much of a meal of the timing of Wicked‘s release, but a film about fighting against fascism and female empowerment in the wake of the latest American election hits differently.
Regarding the earworm songs that mesmerized audiences on Broadway, Chu, his crew, and his incredible cast “nails what matters most,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney writes. “That would be the shifting affections between two young witches. One is a bubbly blonde princess, vain and entitled and yet to discover her tender heart, and the other a defensive outsider, regarded as a freak because she was born with bright green skin but possessed of formidable powers.”
“Wicked” the musical was big—when Idina Menzel, as Elphaba, belted out the show’s most iconic song, “Defying Gravity,” audiences in the theater were overpowered by the power of the production’s theatrics. Chu delivers that and then some in the adaptation. Variety‘s Peter Debruge writes that Chu “finds the model for the sweeping, CGI-enabled pageant “Wicked” was destined to be. As expanded by the show’s original author, Winnie Holzman (with “Cruella” co-writer Dana Fox also credited), the film is still garishly overstuffed, but gloriously so, as Chu embraces the maximalist style that thrills the younger generation in “live-action” Disney remakes like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. It’s a great big wedding cake of a movie, garnished with sparklers and tinsel.”
With Wicked arriving in theaters on November 22, the time has come. Let’s have a peek at what the critics are saying.
Jon M. Chu’s #Wicked flips the script on one of the most beloved films of all time, offering a timeless critique of division, fascism and fear of the other that’s especially poignant in the wake of the presidential election.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande give “lively, soulful performances” in ‘Wicked,’ writes @rilaws. “The Ozdust Ballroom sequence is especially effective, a scene of communion and apology that resonates.”
Ariana Grande is perfection. Cynthia Erivo will break your heart. Jonathan Bailey will make you swoon a dozen times. The “Wicked” movie defies gravity in almost every way.https://t.co/HT5BqDPW25
Raised in a working-class Chinese family in Singapore, Janice Chua says, “Like every Asian person, I grew up with Hong Kong martial arts movies that inspired so much of my imagination. There was a sense of excitement and pride in those action-heavy films with crazy sound effects.”
But her world changed when she encountered Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which “just came across as very poetic…and the way women were portrayed was very different. They were nuanced and had agency. It was also a very non-Hong Kong movie in the sense that it wasn’t in Cantonese or dubbed.”
Chua immediately began searching for film schools in Singapore, and discovered there was only one at the time, giving her a straightforward decision on the first step toward fulfilling her dream.
“Watching that movie gave me an awareness whereby you never see things the same way again,” she said. “I thought, how does one go about producing something like that that can have an impact on other people? I just decided that whatever thatjob is, I want to be that person.”
Chua did what lots of filmmakers must when they start their careers: she improvised. “I know how to hustle,” she said, and she worked as a freelance editor while taking her filmmaking diploma. The experience she had gathered by the time she graduated meant she was trusted with working as an assistant on hour-long TV programs soon afterward.
Janice Chua on the set of “Crazy Rich Asians.” Courtesy Warner Bros.
Deciding she wanted to complete a full degree, Chua expanded her education. “Singaporeans are overachievers,” Chua said, and she took a bachelor of fine arts in creative producing at Chapman University (Singapore), again editing on the side to pay the bills. She finished her course in 2011, just as China’s box office takings were surpassing $2 billion and attracting more and more attention from Hollywood.
Singapore is a melting pot of cultural and linguistic influences (it has four official languages: English, Malay, Singaporean Mandarin, and Tamil). Chua was schooled in English but “grew up speaking Chinese; my parents made sure that I kept my mother tongue intact throughout my education.”
A booming film industry with global ambitions and an ambitious bilingual and bicultural filmmaker was the perfect match, so Chua decided to head to Beijing in 2012. Despite her Chinese roots, there were some stark differences from what she had experienced growing up.
“In Singapore, everything was very designed and engineered; we have a plan for everything. In China, it was like, let’s go and see where things fall. It was stressful in the sense that the industry was so new,” Chua says. “So, I felt like we were defining the standards in the industry as we went along. It was also refreshing because it meant the room to grow was just exponential. It was the best thing for a person to experience in their 20s.”
An early major project was Legend of Kung Fu Rabbit, the first Chinese animation to get a wide international release.
Moving to Beijing Galloping Horse in 2016, Chua had the “once in a lifetime experience” of working with “the godfather of action movies” John Woo, handling international assignments such as accompanying him to the Russian premier of The Crossing. Woo and long-time collaborator Terence Chang acted as something akin to mentors to Chua, “very nurturing, very kind.”
During her time there, an offer came in from Ivanhoe Pictures, but Chua had reservations about leaving Beijing and moving to LA. “Terence told me that as exciting as China was in terms of opportunities, I ought to learn how a mature system functions. He said, you know that that system is in America.”
Arriving in Hollywood, Chua faced multiple preconceptions. While few would argue East Asia is a gender equality Utopia, female executives are common in the entertainment business across most of the region.
“In China, my direct boss, meaning the CEO of the film division, was female. Then, the CFO of the film studio was also female. And you see women producers; there is a bit of a lack of representation among directors, but you do see female business leaders.”
She felt women were less visible in LA; then, some assumptions came with her ethnicity.
“Moving to the States, I never thought one bit about me being a woman and certainly never thought about me being Asian because I grew up in and worked in Asian-majority countries.”
Chua credits her boss at the time for changing perceptions by introducing her at meetings as someone who had worked at a big Beijing studio, worked with John Woo, and whom he had hired to ramp up his Asian business. Then, she had to adjust to the idea that stories about non-white characters were still seen as something of a niche business.
“To me, telling Asian stories felt natural because I grew up with Asian stories.”
Chua says that she had to learn about Asian American culture, which was partly born from different experiences to her own. All of this came together in her work on Crazy Rich Asians.
“I really saw that as a privilege,” Chua says. “We needed it to be a commercial success and make people understand that minority stories aren’t always about immigrant stories. You can have a love story, too; we can fall in love and be crazy and be rich, too.”
Deciding to take a career break after the film’s success and reflect on where she was headed, Chua was approached by a few companies, including Imagine, which was looking to create more international content. This was not an opportunity Chua felt she could pass up, joining at the beginning of 2019. Highlights included executive producing the award-winning Taiwan Crime Stories, Imagine’s first Asian series. Utilizing up-and-coming writers and directors, the series benefited from local production subsidies, allowing it “to take bets on young talent,” says Chua.
At the beginning of this year, Chua decided to strike out as an independent producer, though she still has a producing arrangement with Imagine, which is not going to waste.
Projects announced already include the Hong Kong-Taiwan-Malaysia co-production Mrs. Killer, about a retired assassin-housewife who goes back to work; the Taiwan-South Korea co-production Oppa, I Hate You; and Boy From Andaman, a film set in India that will also feature a cross-border production team.
Chua was recently in Tokyo exploring a potential Hong Kong-Japan-US co-production that would use the expanded incentives announced last year for international shoots in Japan. Unsurprisingly, she has more up her sleeve, including a new independent production company with like-minded folk.
She will be on the lookout for the kinds of stories that have always inspired her. “A small story with a big heart because those are the kind of stories that allow me to take a chance on new talent.”
For more interviews with filmmakers and producers taking big swings in Asia, check these out:
Featured image: Caption: A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’, SK Global Entertainment’s and Starlight Culture’s contemporary romantic comedy “CRAZY RICH ASIANS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Universal will offer roughly 1,000 chances for Wicked fans to sing along during the film in special interactive screenings across North America on December 25, Variety reports. This gives all those with the pipes to sing—and the rest of us who are just excited to see the film and could use the catharsis of a public sing-along—a month to train our vocal cords as director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation lands in theaters on November 22. While there are very, very few of us who will be able to match the vocals of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda (to say nothing of Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero), the opportunity to sing along to “Defying Gravity,” “Popular,” “The Wizard and I,” “Dancing Through Life,” and more will be impossible to resist.
Chu’s Wicked is the hotly-anticipated adaptation of the long-running Broadway juggernaut, itself based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. Erivo’s Elphaba, a green-skinned, misunderstood woman (and future Wicked Witch of the West), crosses paths with Grande’s impossibly popular Glinda (the future Glinda the Good) at Shiz University, where they become friends. Yet, as all fans of the book and the musical could tell you, their friendship is tested when they head to Emerald City and meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).
Joining Erivo, Grande, and Jonathan Bailey in the cast are Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond, Ethan Slater as Boq, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, and Bowen Yang as Pfannee.
The exact details of the sing-along screenings haven’t been finalized yet, but the time to start getting your singing voice prepared is now.
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Yellowstone rides again, six years after creator Taylor Sheridan defied Hollywood expectations by creating the country’s most-watched cable series. The show’s fifth season, part two, streaming weekly through December 15 on the Paramount Network, continues to follow the dysfunctional family of Montana ranchers formerly ruled by Kevin Costner’s grumpy patriarch, John Dutton. Now he’s gone, but his fierce daughter Beth (British actress Kelly Reilly), rivalrous sons Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Kayce (Luke Grimes), and ranch foreman Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) keep fighting to control the fate of their picturesque property, which, the show duly notes, was stolen decades earlier from Indigenous people.
Costume designer Johnetta Boone took over in season two after her mentor, Oscar winner Ruth E. Carter, departed Yellowstone for other projects. Over the years, Boone has developed a western “look” so popular that she now curates the Ariat X Yellowstone collection, one of several merchandise hubs catering to fans of the show.
Speaking to The Credits, Boone recalls riding horses occasionally during her youth, singles out the dress she considers to be Beth Dutton’s “hall of fame” look, and explains why Rip Wheeler’s Man In Black image is not quite as simple as it seems.
Is Yellowstone your first western?
I had not done a western before, but I did ride horses in high school.
Wow! Where?
I grew up in Washington, D.C., which is surrounded by horse farms in northern Virginia and southern Maryland, so there’s a huge equine community. I didn’t live on a farm, but every weekend, a group of my friends and I would go horseback riding, so that paid off. Not that I’m an expert, but just having some history with the culture of horse riding gave me a little bit of comfort.
Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, and Kevin Costner. Photo courtesy of Paramount Network.
So you felt somewhat at home in Montana’s horse country where the Yellowstone characters live, including Kelly Reilly’s breakthrough character Beth Dutton.
She’s a rock star.
Rock star, exactly. Over the years, how have you developed the Beth Dutton look?
From seasons two to three, Beth wore a man’s shirt and a pencil skirt, which is her version of power dressing. Once things started to shift within her family, we started doing suits on Beth as well.
Does Beth’s clothes express a different vibe when she’s hanging out with her now-husband, Rip Wheeler?
Beath wears dresses when she’s around Ri[p], the love of her life, which works great because it softens her character to a certain degree. However, sometimes, she’s just as aggressive in a dress as when she’s wearing a suit!
What was it like brainstorming costume ideas with Kelly Reilly?
Kelly’s amazing. We spent lots of time in her fittings going through every sentence in the scene to make sure we presented Beth Dutton as Taylor Sheridan intended. And because we went over the script together, the clothes translated well on camera for Beth Dutton and Kelly.
What would you consider a hall of fame look for her?
I would say hall of fame—and I don’t want to give too much away for audiences who haven’t seen the show—but in one scene, Beth wears a gold-colored dress.
The metallic, low-cut party dress.
It’s very dramatic, very specific to the environment she was going into, very specific to what happened afterward, and separate from anything she wore before or afterward. That gold dress has become iconic. And of course, Beth Dutton’s micro-florals, her prairie dresses—that’s where you get to see Beth’s softness.
Theromance between Beth and Rip resonates in a big way with Yellowstone fans. She has such an explosive personality whereas he’s much more reined in. How did you fit Rip Wheeler’s clothes to his temperament?
When he was young, Rip was a very damaged boy, almost like a drifter, so we transitioned that element into the man he has become — still very damaged, dark, protected, and guarded. He keeps a barrier around himself, almost like a moat, an invisible line that no one crosses. There’s no better color to create that line for you than black.
L-R: Finn Little as Carter and Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler on episode 509 of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone.
The man in black.
But it’s important to know that Rip does not always wear all black. Although it looks like he does, his jacket, for example, is actually a very dark, bittersweet chocolate brown.
Luke Grimes and Kevin Costner in “Yellowstone” season 5. Courtesy Paramount Network.
And the shirts?
There are only so many black western shirts you can get, so I would overdye them in a rich dark green or brown, a blue or a steel gray to change the tone while still keeping it a saturated dark color.
How do you use these subtle variations on black to reflect Rip’s state of mind?
The difference is that brown and green blacks are warm, while steel grey or blue-black are cold tones, so I introduce those colors to help with the moment. If Rip is going to be with Beth at the end of the day, I would change his shirt to a warmer tone of brown so it feels a bit more romantic rather than cold, hard, and unquestionably stern.
So, by understanding the subliminal effect of color on emotions, you and your team can match the tone of the clothing to the mood of the scene. What about Rip’s jeans?
Rip wears Levi’s the entire show, nothing else. Someone sent me a DM saying, “You almost got it right, but cowboys don’t wear Levi’s.” I beg to differ. Levi’s were the first dungarees. In Texas, cowboys wear Levi’s, but in Montana, cowboys don’t typically wear them, so it depends on the region.
Cole Hauser as Rip Wheeler on episode 509 of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone.
Rip has worn the same black cowboy hat for decades; he’s taped up his worn-out boots because he doesn’t want new ones. I guess he doesn’t like change.
In one scene, Rip tells Beth “I have five shirts and three pairs of jeans” and that’s what we maintained for the entire show.
The Dutton brothers couldn’t be more different. Kacey’s a somewhat down-to-earth family man, while Jamie’s more of a city slicker with a law degree and Attorney General job title. How did you dress Wes Bentley’s Jaimie to contrast with the rest of the Dutton clan?
Jamie’s such a polished politician that I made sure all his points were sharp. He’s always wearing a double Windsor [knotted tie] and a crisp shirt, and his suits always have a strong angle in the shoulder and the lapel.
L-R: Wes Bentley as Jamie Dutton and Wendy Moniz as Governor Perry on episode 509 of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone
Where would you source his outfits?
I went to SUITSUPPLY a lot. It’s something Jamie could afford, and he’s very mindful of finances.
For each season of Yellowstone, you and your team set up shop in and around Montana’s Bitterroot Valley for months at a time. How did your work in this production impact the local economy?
I love the [wardrobe] rental houses [in Los Angeles and New York], but because [production on] the show runs for so long, I did my due diligence to make sure I gave back to the community. I purchased from local stores and local artisans. In one town, the population is 600 people. Hamilton, where we shot for a month, was 3500 at the time, so it’s a huge benefit [for them] for us to be there, even more so when we work with locals directly. I love shopping at the vintage stores. And often times I would travel up to the reservation to get pieces for [native American character] Mo Brings Plenty to make sure I included the indigenous community as well. I really like to keep the money at home.
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Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II burst into the international arena this past weekend with a very strong start. Scott’s sequel to his 2000 Best Picture Winner opened across 63 markets, earning a massive thumbs up from audiences and boasting an $87 million dollar start. This makes Gladiator II Scott’s overseas debut in his long, illustrious career.
Gladiator II also conquered $7 million on IMAX across 453 screens, another formidable opening salvo.
In recent weeks, as Scott’s epic’s release date has neared both internationally and in the United States, press screenings and a publicity push have shed light on the scope of the understanding and the winning results. The production’s scale was probably best captured by star Paul Mescal: “If you can run a set the size of Gladiator II, I think you could give it a good go to run the Roman Empire.”
Gladiator II tells the tale of Paul Mescal’s Lucius, a young man who witnessed the death of the beloved hero Maximus (played by Russell Crowe in the original) at the hands of his twisted uncle, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Lucious is eventually forced to fight in the Colosseum after his home is conquered, and he’s sold into slavery and eventually becomes a gladiator. Denzel Washington’s Macrinus now owns Lucius, and while he might not be able to free him, he can offer something possibly sweeter—the head of the man who wronged him.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Mescal and Washington are joined by Pedro Pascal as the former Roman general Marcus Acacius, Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, reprising her role from the original, Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta, and Rory McCann as Tegula.
Denzel Washington plays Macrinus, Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius and Connie Nielsen plays Lucilla in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
The sequel successfully launched in the U.K. with 722 locations, France with 729 locations, Spain with 411 locations, Australia with 353 locations, and Mexico with 922 locations.
Gladiator II opens in the United States on November 22.
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Eddie Redmayne stars as an unrivaled, anonymous assassin in The Day of the Jackal, a new Peacock series inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel. Reimagined in a contemporary setting, the Jackal is an English hitman pursued across Europe by Bianca (Lashana Lynch), a British intelligence officer determined to apprehend her target before he gets to his next hit.
Written by Top Boy’s Ronan Bennett and lensed for the first three of ten episodes by cinematographer Christopher Ross, BSC (Shogun, Terminal), The Day of the Jackal is big, cinematic television. Pushed on by the Jackal’s prowess, Bianca, an arms specialist, goes to unexpected lengths to hunt her prey, and the story turns into a twisting, cat-and-mouse thriller shot across London, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, and the Croatian coast. The hitman has an extraordinary talent for his work, but so does the MI6 operative, and as they each dig into their assignments, Ross creates a visual complement between their two worlds.
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — — Pictured: Lashana Lynch as Bianca — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/PEACOCK)
Both are living double lives necessary for their work and when they clock out, their visual environments change completely. We spoke with Ross about the inspiration he found in vintage spy thrillers, the complicated sets that gave the show its cinematic quality, and how he brought the audience into the Jackal’s world with a view down the same rifle site used by the assassin.
Did you know going in how cinematic the show would turn out?
I’ve worked with Brian Kirk, the director, a couple of times before, and with Ronan Bennett, the writer, and so when I first read the script, I could see that it had an interior style to the characterization, and then there was the potential to expand that to a big exterior style. The one thing I know about Brian is that he loves to make bold statements, so that’s what we were trying to do.
Given the range of filming locations across Europe, was there one location that was particularly memorable or difficult?
Austria had its two challenges. One of the first main assassination attempts in the opening half an hour was on a rooftop in Vienna. The big challenge was to do the cable cam drop down the side of the building. We had a decelerator rigged, and it was constructed for the stunt performer to do the cable maneuver. We had to build a special rig off a construction crane off the side of the building to repeat the move. With shots like that, it’s always really simple to have the idea. I go, Oh, wouldn’t it be fun if we just jumped off the side of the building with the character? That idea then involves a thousand emails to various building contractors, architects, and engineering companies to sign off on our ability to do it. And then, at the Austro-Hungarian border, we had to reignite the scene at the border crossing between Germany and France in the first episode. That border crossing was closed down about 25 years ago when Hungary joined the European Union. We had to rebuild the derelict buildings and re-fire up all of the power. The challenge was to bring it to life back from the dead. It’s one of my favorite sequences. It’s the first time you get a really tense moment of cat and mouse in the Jackal storyline.
There’s also a real sense of intimacy as the Jackal plies his trade. How did you develop that?
One of the big references for anyone who wants to make any form of espionage thriller are the films of Alan Pakula, such as The Parallax View. One of the things we wanted to play with was the concept of being watched and not being watched, of being inside someone’s universe and outside their universe. The Jackal, because he’s such a lone wolf, has basically no one tracking him. When he’s carrying out his assassinations, we’re very much in his sphere of influence, inside his mind. And then, at times, we feel he’s on the cusp of being spotted; that’s when we transition into a more voyeuristic perspective. That was a very conscious choice of lens design. We wanted the audience to feel they were in each protagonist’s shoes. That first-person visceral narrative was a conscious choice so we could jump into a more espionage-style technique. Another reference we used a lot, although we didn’t use zooms anywhere near as much as they did, was the Spielberg film Munich. That film has a beautiful, casual espionage business to personal life transition, and we wanted to echo that. The Jackal’s quite a conundrum of a character. He’s an exceptional liar who’s almost permanently playing some kind of pantomime. We wanted to blur the lines for that character as to what is the real truth and does he even believe his real truth.
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — — Pictured: Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited)
How did you create the visual contrast between the Jackal’s work and personal life?
One of the tricky elements of the Jackal is to try, without throwing up a huge chyron that says Spain or Munich, [was to make it so] that you immediately know that the blue and the blacks are Munich, the golden highlight and bronze in the mid-tones is Spain. The idea was to delineate the spaces in a geographical sense and also delineate the two sides of Jackal’s life. The scene where that is most prevalent is in a FaceTime phone call between Nuria and the Jackal. He’s framed in an idiosyncratic way; she’s framed more conventionally. It’s a way to press some psychological buttons that allow an audience into his twisted mind.
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — Episode 104 — Pictured: Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited)
There’s a parallel between the Jackal’s work and Bianca’s. Was that intentional?
Absolutely—the idea being that if you are a hired assassin and execute people for business reasons, or you work for MI6 or the CIA, then your business is fabrication, your business is lies. The work-life balance you have will always be off-kilter because if you’re undercover as an MI6 operative, your family will never know that half of your life. He’s the hunted, she’s the hunter, and they switch and flip, and that was the idea behind creating that duality.
How do you approach the shots we see through the gun site?
I get really nerdy about these sorts of things. In episode one, the Jackal takes the longest shot that’s ever been taken, which, from memory, is 3.8 kilometers, I think. At that sort of distance, there are so many things that affect the shot. Eddie and I geeked out over some old textbooks about rifle sites and riflery from the First World War. Ultimately, all those things are about trying to match the focal length of the rifle site and then composite the graticule that we like the most over the imagery. For that hit, it was a 1200mm lens on a stabilized head that we rigged on the roof of a building. I think we were only 400 meters away, so nowhere near the actual distance the shot was supposed to be, but that’s the idea, trying to channel, as I’m operating the camera, my inner sniper. You get to play a little character all of your own.
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — Episode 101 — Pictured: Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited)THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — — Pictured: Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/PEACOCK)
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Featured image: THE DAY OF THE JACKAL — Episode 105 — Pictured: Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal — (Photo by: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited)
The Penguin capped its remarkable eight-part run this past Sunday night and accomplished a rare feat—it’s a series set in a comic book world, boasting characters well known to the genre’s most read-in fans, that delivered a profoundly satisfying drama for a person unfamiliar with DC Comics or unenthused by Gotham’s most iconic resident, Bruce Wayne. The Penguin doesn’t even whisper Batman’s name nor allude to his presence until the very last shot in the series (a bat-signal, naturally), instead focusing on a rivalry between two remarkably coherent, tragically flawed villains.
Developed by Lauren LeFranc and starring a once again unrecognizable Colin Farrell in the title role, reprising his turn as Oz Cobb from Matt Reeves’ film The Batman, The Penguin burst out of the gate with critical comparisons to HBO’s deathless The Sopranos. After a deeply satisfying conclusion to its eight-episode arc, those comparisons don’t seem as far-fetched as they might have on first blush. Oz’s uncomfortably close relationship with his domineering, fragile mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), bears some common pathology with Tony Soprano’s (the late, great James Gandolfini) tortured relationship with his mother, Livia (the late, great Nancy Marchand.) Oz’s paternal, paristic relationship with his surrogate son, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) could be compared, with a straight face, to Tony’s mentoring and eventual murder of Christopher (Michael Imperioli). In fact, both Tony and Oz strangle their surrogates in twin acts of heartless calculation.
Deirdre O’Connell, Colin Farrell, Rhenzy Feliz. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
Yet while The Sopranos and other mob classics, from Goodfellas to The Godfather, had memorable female roles, you’d also be forgiven for arguing that The Penguin might have delivered one of the most unforgettable thanks to the sizzling, kinetic performance by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, a crime boss’s daughter turned brutalized scapegoat and eventual avenging dark angel. It turns out you can tell a story about Gotham that includes neither the story of Bruce Wayne’s tragic childhood, a piece of Americana as deeply baked into our collective consciousness as anything that happened in our actual history, or the Joker, the perpetually unstable, cackling sociopath in clown paint, and keep people riveted and DC Comics fans happy. That’s quite a feat.
“I think everybody involved, from the producers on down, made [this series] the adult version,” says hair department head Brian Badie. “This particular DC world comes from The Batman and Matt Reeves and [executive producer] Dylan Clark. Matt was the genius behind this world, so I knew the bar was set high, and I did not want to disappoint him. I worked closely with Dylan, who was on set daily throughout the design process. He was my go-to when it came down to design approval anytime I knew I was entering The Batman side of this show, and he was amazing to work with.”
Colin Farrell. Photograph by Courtesy of Max
The Penguin was filmed in New York (The Batman duped London for Gotham), and Badie took advantage of this fact by hiring local talent to round out his team, bringing in key hairstylist Jenn Vasilopoulos and additional hairstylist Mariko Miyagi. “I wanted to see what newer talent was out there in NYC. They both turned out to be amazing! I’m so happy to have met them, so now I have even more amazing talent to work with.”
Badie was integral in keeping the peace between the adult crime drama that was The Penguin’s dark heart and the DC Comics-inspired world of Gotham embedded in The Penguin‘s soul. Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb isn’t so much a departure from the Batman foil created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane but a roughed-up, pathologically insecure, mother-obsessed gangster. He’s no longer named Oswald Cobblepot as he was in the comics and previous cinematic iterations, and he no longer comes from a rich family, like Bruce Wayne, but instead was raised in the rough and tumble Crown Point, on Gotham’s east side, destroyed at the end of The Batman. Farrell’s transformation into the scar-faced, barrel-chested, savagely canny brute began in The Batman, but that scene-stealing performance in the film was also brief—he was only in the movie for a handful of minutes. Leading his own series required him to be on set savagely early, and for Badie and The Penguin‘s creative team, including makeup designer Mike Marino, to work for hours every day to ensure he remained perfectly unrecognizable until he became utterly unforgettable.
Colin Farrell. Photograph by Courtesy of Max
“Colin had a three-hour pre-process before my pre-call,” Badie says. “So, let’s say the crew call is at seven in the morning, my crew call might be at five, and Colin’s call time might be three or four in the morning. I loved bringing the Penguin to life and working with Mike Marino and his team because he’s a genius.”
Marino had worked out the look for the Penguin in The Batman, but the requirements to do that day after day for eight months were different and far more arduous. “They shaved his head into a halo, and he was completely bald because they shot him for less time in the film,” Badie says. “But we shot for eight months in the series, so Colin didn’t want to shave his head. So now we had to figure out a way to plaster down this circular halo shape of his own hair using glue, spirit gum, and things like that. Once we plastered it down to a bald cap, Diana Choi made the wig”
Colin Farrell. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
For the first month of filming The Penguin, Badie helped apply Farrell’s wig and secure it, and then razor cut it to ensure it blended in on the sides and the color match was perfect. Then came the hairspray. “That was a daily chore, and it took some time to match it with the length of Colin’s hair and that topper piece we put on him,” Badie says. “It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, especially with the Penguin’s movements and elements like the wind, which could all be obstacles. The challenge was to get rid of his hair in a perfect, smooth formation as if he were bald. Then, once it’s gelled down, special effects get involved, and I step back.”
Colin Farrell in “The Penguin.” Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
With Farrell’s performance, Oz Cobb’s relentless pursuit of more power, seeded by an impoverished childhood and a homicidal need for approval from his mother, would have made for a fine series, but The Penguin thrives because his chief rival, Milioti’s Sofia Falcone, exposes him in a way no other character can. Oz began his climb up the underworld ladder as Sofia’s driver and is the reason she eventually ended up in Gotham’s seventh circle of hell, Arkham Asylum. This betrayal was the accelerant that lit The Penguin from within.
As The Penguin got going, there appeared to be a fragile partnership between Oz and Sofia, but considering the series’ cold opening revealed Oz killing her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen), it was a partnership built to explode. It was in episode 4, “Cent’Anni,” that revealed Oz’s complicity in Sofia’s banishment to Arkham, where she spent a miserable decade of confinement.
Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO.
“I love storytelling through the art of hairstyling. It’s not just beauty and looks—I love getting my hands dirty with the character and telling the story, and Sofia’s arc has so many moods and moments throughout the series,” Badie says. “She starts as this innocent, daddy’s girl type of thing before being thrown in Arkham. You have this whole psychotic world she has to go through, and then goes into the aftermath of Arkham when she’s plotting and presenting herself in a certain way.”
Cristin Milioti, Mark Strong. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
When we meet Sofia in flashbacks as her father’s chosen successor to his empire, Badie gave her hair an innocence, including a ponytail, “as if she just threw half her hair up, half down, which reads as a younger style.” But it’s Sofia’s clandestine meeting with Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf), a Gotham Gazette reporter who reveals that the serial suicides at her father’s club aren’t suicides at all—they’re murders. Sofia eventually pieces together that Carmine is the killer, and her mother might have been his first victim. When Oz reports Sofia’s meeting back to Carmine, her father frames her for the killings. Arkham awaits.
L-r: Marié Botha, Cristin Milioti. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
“In Arkham, she’s being deconstructed as they’re breaking her down,” Badie says. “It might seem like her hair’s just messy, but it really tells the story of her mood. In Cristin’s moods, I tried to match the hair with the energy she was feeling in the moment. It wasn’t so much of a hairstyle for me; it’s almost like her hair was its own conversation, its own story, that helps the audience understand what she’s feeling.”
Cristin Milioti. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Once out of Arkham, Sofia’s mission is revenge and capture; revenge on everyone who put her in Arkham and capture the family crime business by any means necessary. Badie gives her post-asylum look more structure as she tries to project to her family (betrayers, all) and Gotham at large that’s put together. “She has the classic up-do chignon. Her costumes were very elegant but a little conservative and unassuming, unthreatening,” he says. “But the whole time she’s plotting—her bangs are there for a reason; she’s a little bit hidden, the bangs are like claws, showing a little bit of that evilness that Oz doesn’t know, but the audience can clearly tell she’s calculating.”
Cristin Milioti. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
Sofia is the Penguin’s equal, and that is put on full display at the end of “Cent’Anni,” when she calmly takes her niece, Gia (Kenzie Grey), outside of the expansive mansion where the extended Falcone family lives so that she can return inside, in a stunning yellow dress and a gas mask, and confirm all the adults (save for Johnny Viti, played by Michael Kelly, whose window was left open as he will be useful to her later) have been gassed to death.
“I upped the energy of hair when her craziness is completely unleashed,” Badie says. “You saw that in episode four when she’s wearing the yellow dress, and we have the big reveal. I had somebody on Facebook send me a message saying, ‘When Sofia came down in that yellow dress, I knew what mood she was in by her hair.’ They knew she was about to do some crazy sh*t, and to me that’s success. It wasn’t, ‘Oh my God, I love her hairstyle.’ No, they saw her change from the previous scene to that scene and knew she was about to blow some sh*t up.”
Cristin Milioti. Courtesy Brian Badie/HBO.Cristin Milioti. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
But Badie was careful not to turn Sofia into Carmela Soprano.
“You can just tell from the set design and the cinematography that it has a very dark underground feeling,” Badie says. “Clearly, Sofia’s Italian, and that factors in, but if I were doing a Sopranos-type show, something quintessential mob, I would have made the hair more polished because those girls believed that every hair must be in place. But Sofia’s hair never looks over-stylized, and Cristin was on board with this because she has an acute eye for fashion and and hair. Gotham looks like a tragedy. So I felt like that’s how the hair should be. I feel like Oz should be one of the most polished people in the whole story.”
As The Penguin progressed and Oz and Sofia’s partnership disintegrated into all-out war, Badie helped emphasize Sofia’s metamorphosis into a crime boss with a heaping helping of rage by taking out any hint of salon-cut hair. “She’s starting to cut her own hair; she’s going into this jaggedness because she’s a bit manic and crazy, so the hair can’t be absolutely perfect,” he says.
Cristin Milioti. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
For Oz’s surrogate son Victor, Badie made sure it looked like he had zero time to style his hair, given all the work he does for Oz. Victor starts the series trying to boost the rims of Oz’s fancy purple sports car and ends the series, having become Oz’s most dependable ally and someone Oz fears he might love, being strangled to death for his service and love for Oz.
Rhenzy Feliz. Courtesy Brian Badie/HBO
“For Victor, he’s a New York guy. He’d have his hair really faded, always perfect with sharp edges and lines, but I gave him a fade, and his hair was always a little unkempt,” Badie says. “It had a silhouette and angles, but at the same time, the texture was there, and it didn’t look like he styled it. He’s running behind Oz; when does he even go home and shower? We don’t even know that. So we’re not going to overstyle his hair like he’s Puerto Rican or Dominican in Washington Heights and is in a barber shop every two or three days. That’s how I kept the series less New York City and more Gotham.”
Colin Farrell and Rhenzy Feliz. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
Featured image: Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell. Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO.
Cameron Diaz is literally Back in Action for the first time after an 11-year hiatus from acting and makes a quick case for how much a weary nation needs her comedic chops. Netflix has dropped the first trailer for the spy action comedy starring Diaz and Jamie Foxx as two of the most surprising parents of all time—they used to be spies for the CIA, and their kids are really confused at how this could be possible considering they’re not cool enough. “Like Jason Bourne,” one of their kids asks. “Yeah, but we remember stuff,” Foxx’s Matt replies.
It’s what they remember and the work they used to do that gets Diaz’s Emily and Foxx’s Matt into trouble. They’ve comfortably retired from their clandestine work to live a family life in the suburbs when their cover is blown, and they’re forced to fulfill the title’s promise and get back into their old line of work. The trailer packs plenty of punch—flame throwers, car chases, parachute escapes—and is a good reminder of what made Diaz such a star in the first place.
Diaz and Foxx are joined by Kyle Chandler, Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, McKenna Roberts, and Rylan Jackson. Seth Gordon directs from a script he co-wrote with Brendan O’Brien, one of the co-writers of Gordon’s Neighbors.
Diaz has kept very busy since she took a step back from acting and announced her retirement in 2014 so she could raise her children. She still appeared in episodes of The Drew Barrymore Show and RuPaul’s Drag Race and launched her successful wine brand Avaline. She’ll also be heard voicing Princess Fiona again in the upcoming Shrek 5.
It’ll be especially nice to see Diaz and Foxx together, considering this marks Foxx’s return after a medical emergency last year, one he’ll address in his Netflix comedy special “What Happened Was.”
Check out the trailer for Back in Action, which arrives on January 17.
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With HBO’s fantastic eight-part miniseries The Penguin drawing to a close this past Sunday, we got a fresh update on when one of HBO’s other fantastic series returns, the Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey-led The Last of Us. We’ve known for a while HBO’s first big swing out of the gate in 2025 is the expansion of the world of Dune, recently reinvigorated by Denis Villeneuve’s two films in the upcoming series Dune: Prophecy, which arrives on November 17. As for The Last Us, we won’t have to wait too long—the killer zombie show returns in Spring of next year.
IGN reported that the release window news came directly from HBO and Max Content CEO and Chairman Casey Bloys during a 2025 programming slate presentation to journalists.
The last look we got at what was in store for us in season two of The Last of Uswas in a trailer released on September 26. The date was not randomly selected. In the terrifying world of The Last of Us, September 26 was the day when the cordyceps virus outbreak first exploded in the original game by Naughty Dog.
The trailer revealed Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller and newcomer Catherine O’Hara sitting for a therapy session. If anyone needed therapy in the demolished world of The Last of Us, it was Joel—the last time we saw him, he was seeing red in a brutal, vengeful bloodbath at the hospital where his charge, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), was moments away from being dissected to retrieve the precious antidote to the killer virus she is, for some reason, immune.
Bella Ramsey is Ellie in “The Last of Us.” Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
The season two trailer also revealed that Ellie has found what appears to be a new, safe home in the mountains, paid for in blood during Joel’s rampage to free her. While Joel and Bella look to be in a much better position than they were at any point during season one’s arduous journey across a devastated America, no one is ever truly safe in The Last of Us. The new trailer revealed one of the infected at one of the later, more monstrous stages of mutation, crawling toward a fresh kill.
The trailer is set to a haunting version of Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” and reveals that season two picks up five years after the first season’s events. If that means that Joel and Ellie have found relative stability and peace for five years, it will be that much more difficult to see it ripped away again. Given that this is a drama series, a thriller at heart, we know that season two will not be a profile of how two death-haunted survivors handle prosperity and comfort. HBO’s official description for season two reads, “Joel and Ellie’s collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than they left behind.” Cheery times ahead.
Season two features several talented newcomers: Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Danny Ramirez as Manny, and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac.
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In our last conversation about Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, sound designers Craig Henighan and Ryan Cole discussed the hilarious opening sequence where Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool uses Wolverine’s adamantium claws and bones to take down some Time Variance Authority goons, all set to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye,” and some sound tricks to make the adamantium hits stand out. Today, they break down the savage Honda Odyssey brawl and the stunning cameo extravaganza.
Since you both serve as Supervising Sound Editors, how did you split up the responsibilities?
Ryan Cole: I got the first cut in January 2024 and handled dialog and ADR [automated dialogue replacement] while Craig did all the temp mixes. We give each other notes and pass sequences back and forth.
Craig Henighan: I started in June 2023 while they were shooting in London and worked on the early assemblies of the opening title and the Void fight, but then we had the strikes. I handled sound effects, sound design, and re-recording mixing, and [dialogue and re-recording mixer] Lora Hirschberg also came in during the final mix. But the core team starts with Ryan and me. We’ve worked with Shawn and [editor] Dean [Zimmerman] for a long time, so we have a shorthand. If they have issues while shooting, they lean on us to see if it’s working. It’s a pretty well-oiled machine between picture and sound at this point. Some sounds that I did riffing off the cuff last June made it into the final. With the amount of music and details that go into this movie, sound and dialogue have to be the best that it can be right out of the gate.
The ultra-violent yet hilarious fight inside a real Honda Odyssey minivan is a twisted heart-to-heart between the two unlikely buddies. How did you build out that sequence?
Ryan Cole: That’s my favorite fight in the movie. It’s so clever, silly, and intense! The sound effects are practical because the fight is very choreographed, which lends itself to the nasty hits, blood, and guts. We tried to cut it as sharply and precisely as possible to syncopate the sound effects with the music, Grease’s “You’re the One That I Want.” You want to hear every line, but the song is what makes it silly and fun. That’s the last song you would put a fight scene to, but that’s why it’s perfect for Deadpool. There are a couple of The Greatest Showman Easter eggs too, while he’s slamming his head on the dash, which is pretty funny.
How did you make sure the dialogue and ADR weren’t lost in that messy brawl?
Ryan Cole: Production mixer Colin Nicholson miked up the car, so we had a nice base for sound and recorded ADR. Deadpool doesn’t grunt as much as Wolverine, who is the angry one and who does a lot of the stabbing. So Deadpool’s sounds are a lot more painful, whereas Wolverine does more “Grrr”s. We tried to be precise, like Craig put in seat noises for when the seat flies back. We also had a nice library of sounds from Hugh and Ryan. Hugh did a whole pass on it in ADR, even though he didn’t have to. Then, our dialogue editor, Emma Present, tightened everything up to let the effects and music sing through.
The loop group on this must have been hilarious!
Ryan Cole: Yep! I prefer to get a first cut of the entire movie before I cue anything for ADR. It was really fun because in some scenes, there are 50 cues just for all the Deadpools getting murdered. [ADR voice cast] Ashley Lambert and Ranjani Brow were a great loop group team. We had two days with 18 people on the Disney ADR stage. In the “Like a Prayer” fight against Deadpool Corps, we tried to get as many unique sounds as possible with every death on-screen and the other Deadpools running by. It sounds morbid and messed up, but it’s pretty fun to do here since it’s so cartoony and comic book. But you don’t want to hear every one, or it’d just be a scream fest. So, we took out all the loop groups and kept Ryan and Hugh, and then found the moments where your eyes are drawn to the screen for a particular death and added a sound there.
How did you maintain the humor and momentum in the Deadpool Corps “oner” so it doesn’t feel dragged out? Was Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” always intended for this sequence?
Craig Henighan: That sequence is basically a comic strip that comes to life—they get into the bus, and then blood splatters on the windows before they jump out of the bus, all shot as one continuing shot. We covered all the vocalizations with Cowboypool’s gunshots, Wolverine stabs, and Deadpool’s sword fighting. But at some point, all that became cacophonous, so we started taking stuff to get to the core of what the story was about. What do we need sonically to support everything we see on screen while still giving room for the song? The sound effects sat ever so slightly underneath the music so that you would catch the things you needed but not miss the beats that have a sound attached to them. You cover every single thing first, and then have to be disciplined enough to get rid of stuff where needed to make it fun and flow well.
The wild cameos really thrilled fans. What went into the fights with Gambit, Blade, Elektra, and X-23 as they battled in the Void?
Ryan Cole: Each of them had a good 30 seconds doing their solo fights, so it’s about giving them their hero moment. There wasn’t a lot of dialog and ADR, but there’s a little animal call designed for each character. It’s about getting out of the way and not sounding too repetitive. You want to feel the impact when a guy goes flying by. When Blade stabs a guy, you want to feel the blade, but you also want to hear him die, which sounds morbid and messed up, but it helps to sell it. With Craig’s sound design and Rob Simonsen’s music, we gave each hero their moment.
What were some of the things that you did to accentuate Blade or Elektra’s hero moments?
Craig Henighan: Rob built a lot of space into the track, allowing the sound effects to play out, compared to if the orchestra was sort of pounding away. What’s Blade’s boomerang supposed to sound like versus Electra’s weapons? We looked at frequencies with the impacts and metallic nature of Blade’s Boomerang and Electra’s weapons, which are higher frequency compared to Deadpool’s swords or Wolverine’s claws. You only need to hear certain things at a certain time versus 100 layers of the same thing, so it’s about being selective. Since we’re mixing and editing as soon the scenes come together, we have a good roadmap of the rhythm and what they will sound like.
One of the fan favorites was Gambit, who has never been in a live-action film. What was it like to design his sonic topography?
Craig Henighan: I did a deep dive on card tricks to see what core sounds we could record. Sound designer Samson Neslund recorded more playing cards, and our Foley team, including Steve Baine, recorded other card sounds, too. Then, I put them all together to match what Gambit did as he threw and unfurled the cards.
Channing Tatum is Gambit in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Courtesy Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios
Channing Tatum’s take on Gambit is now iconic, especially with his Cajun accent. Was there a lot of ADR work on that?
Ryan Cole: There wasn’t a single line of ADR from Channing. From everything I heard and what I can tell listening to the production dailies, he came to the set as prepared as you could possibly be. I think they had more of a problem with people laughing so hard while he was doing it than they had with the accent. You can’t understand what he’s saying, but that’s kind of the joke. Overall, there wasn’t a lot of technical ADR on this film since the production recordings were good.
Craig Henighan: I’m just forever grateful to everyone on this project; everybody brought their A-game every single day. During the final mix, every little bit matters. When Ryan Reynolds was on the mix stage with us, he shot a tremendous amount of last-minute ADR with Ryan [Cole] just looking for any tweaks that could move the movie forward. All these little things come together to make a film great.
Adorned with copious amounts of bonus material, Deadpool & Wolverine is available now in 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, and DVD formats, and via digital streaming.
Lupita Nyong’o is the newest star to join Christopher Nolan’s mysterious new film for Universal Pictures.
The Hollywood Reporterscoops that Nyong’o is the latest big name to board Nolan’s next film, joining Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, and Zendaya. Of course, Nolan will direct his own script, and Universal has slated the film for a July 17, 2026, release.
Speculating what Nolan’s new film will be is part of the fun every time the writer/director starts populating his new project. Oppenheimer, his Oscar-winning juggernaut from 2023, was the rare Nolan film where the subject was well-known thanks to Nolan adapting the story from Kai Bird’s book on Robert J. Oppenheimer “American Prometheus,” but there’s no such source material as far as any insiders know at this point. There’s been thought that Nolan’s latest will be a spy thriller, a sci-fi spy thriller, or an out-and-out action thriller, but THR reports that insiders insist none of these guesses have come close to Nolan’s actual idea.
Nolan loves reuniting with former performers like Damon (in Oppenheimer and Interstellar) and Hathaway (Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises), but this will mark his first collaboration with Nyong’o. The Oscar-winning actress recently appeared in a winning Universal film, Chris Sanders‘ gorgeous animated film The Wild Robot, in which Nyong’o played the titular robot, Roz. Nyong’o also starred in Jordan Peele’s Us, in a performance that deserved an Oscar nomination, another Universal film. She won her Oscar for her performance in Steven McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and had a large part in Ryan Coogler’s two Black Panther films.
Once again, Nolan produces alongside his wife, Emma Thomas, for their Syncopy banner. Nolan and Universal’s partnership on Oppenheimer resulted in the remarkable feat of a three-hour biopic about a historical figure, a scientist at that, into a nearly billion-dollar film. Nolan earned himself the Best Director Oscar in the process, Oppenheimer won Best Picture, and the film formed half of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon when Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was released on the same day as Nolan’s Oppenheimer, on July 21, 2023.
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Featured image: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: Lupita Nyong’o poses in the IMDboat Exclusive Portrait Studio at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 at The IMDb Yacht on July 27, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for IMDb)
Three months after debuting in theaters this summer, Deadpool & Wolverine’s winning streak still wasn’t over. It eventually surpassed Barbie’s domestic gross in its 13th weekend, with director Shawn Levy’s R-rated box office juggernaut ranking as the 12th highest-grossing movie of all time, with a domestic haul of over $636M.
It has been a hectic year for Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning sound designer Craig Henighan, who not only worked on 2024’s second biggest film but also delivered Apple TV+’s two-hander dark comedy, Wolfs and Cate Blanchett’s limited series, Disclaimer. A frequent collaborator of Levy’s, he previously worked on The Adam Project, Stranger Things, and Free Guy. “I have a long history with Shawn, so I know what he likes and his approach to the action. I understand what he needs from sound at certain points but also know when to leave him alone to find a cut,” Henighan shares.
“I don’t think we could have done it so quickly without that shorthand. Knowing what they want ahead of time really helps,” concurs co-supervising sound editor Ryan Cole, who also worked with Levy and Henighan on The Adam Project and Stranger Things, winning multiple Emmys for the latter along with Henighan. Focusing on dialogue and ADR, Cole had a great time overseeing the loop groups, particularly on the “Deadpool Corps” sequence in the third act.
Henighan and Cole recently spoke with The Credits about what went into the complicated sonic landscape for one of Marvel’s most successful films.
How do you design the soundscape for such a stunt-centric film steeped in comedy?
Craig Henighan: This was a great opportunity to merge comedy and action. We needed high action and high-energy sounds, so the cutting had to be tight and precise, but we also had to get out of the way for the jokes. With all the sound elements that go into the stunts, it still needs to be funny, especially with Deadpool’s dialogue. Kudos to our [picture] editors, Dean Zimmerman and Shane Reid, who worked so hard with Ryan [Reynolds] and Shawn in post to make sure everything worked rhythmically and musically. Temp sound usually provides a good roadmap, so we knew where the beats will be. Then, Ryan [Cole] and I flesh out those sounds to make them rock a little more. Almost every action scene has a music cue that the audience needs to hear, so sound has to be there without dominating every moment.
The opening sequence is one of the most deliriously entertaining and absorbing that I can remember—Deadpool finds and fights with Wolverine’s bones against a platoon of masked Time Variance Authority assassins, all set to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.”
Craig Henighan: With NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” as the driving force, you want to feel the sounds but not necessarily hear them all the time. Sometimes the music would lead for a bit, and then the sound would take over, then music would come back.
Ryan Cole: It plays more like a music video. Especially with the stunts being so visceral and R-rated, you don’t want to hear each guy screaming when he gets stabbed, but you want to hear a couple of them because they’re jokey ones. Shane and Dean were great at creating those spaces for us to throw something in. In the Void fight, Deadpool delivers quips in the middle of all the swords, guns, and claws while people are being thrown around, but you still want to hear the “Eew!” grunts from Deadpool.
Speaking of R-rated, congratulations on the movie surpassing Joker to become the #1 R-rated movie worldwide!
Craig Henighan: We all knew it was a really good film when we were working on it, and we laughed all the time with our great crew. But to get to the top spot in less than a month after release, it’s insane. Shawn, Ryan, and Marvel worked tirelessly, and everybody put their heart and soul into this. So, for the world to react in such a positive way has been unbelievable. It’s such an enjoyable, fun movie to experience in the theater; we want everyone to laugh and enjoy something together.
Ryan Cole: It’s also a positive film about two guys becoming friends, with Deadpool finding his family by the end. Being R-rated loses a huge demographic, but people obviously went back to see it over and over again. They connected to it on so many levels.
Back to the opening sequence, was “Bye Bye Bye” always meant to be the song?
Craig Henighan: We had a lot of time to live with these sequences and understand the dynamics and rhythm of the title sequence. We’d work on something else and come back to it to make sure it still felt right. The initial version didn’t have Deadpool dancing. But once they locked in to “Bye Bye Bye,” someone came up with the idea of inserting cutaways of Deadpool doing the dance moves from NSYNC’s music video.
Ryan Cole: When you leave and come back to something, it’ll often inform you of what changes are needed that you hadn’t thought of on the first pass.
How did you mix the music with the sounds of guys getting mauled by Wolverine’s adamantium bones?
Craig Henighan: Our job was to stay out of the way but support the narrative of that song and how fun it is. That opening was the first chance—and maybe only chance—to get the audience along for the ride. So, it had to be fun because the audience needed to know they were going to enjoy this movie. Sonically, we had hits, stabs, gore, and blood, but every stab also had a musical boom to it. If you really get forensic about the hits, some are a little out of sync with the picture but match the song’s beats instead. It was more important to lock sound in with what the music was doing. From an editorial standpoint, it’s a little counterintuitive. Normally, you’re focused on synching perfectly to picture, but this was more about the feel of the music. Some of it was to make sure people hear the TVA soldiers getting killed because 20 minutes later, we call back to that fight.
Ryan Cole: You don’t want to hear everything, but you want to hear the adamantium bones going into body parts in that comedic way or the primal screams as if someone was getting killed that way. [Dialogue and re-recording mixer] Lora Hirschberg set a great stage with the music and set where we needed to go in and out of.
How did you make the adamantium hits sound different from the swords and blades?
Craig Henighan: The adamantium hits sounded cool but didn’t have an edge to it. We were looking for a different ring and tonality since you’re looking at adamantium claws versus an adamantium katana sword. With sound designers Eric Norris and Addison Teague, we recorded different types of metal hitting metal, anything from steel rebar hitting other things around the Foley studio that would ring a certain way to get a set of distorted rings and metallic hits. The tremolo technique gave it a flutter effect to some of the ringing. That’s one of the tricks to give a static sound a sense of movement.
What other fun, unusual techniques were used to create these sound effects?
Craig Henighan: For the stabs, we used the standard stuff like watermelons, fruit, raw meat. One of my tricks for stabs is to mix a pile of dirt, flour, and mud to make it feel and sound thicker than stuffing your hand into a watermelon would. Squeezing that mixture between your fingertips can add another layer and make it sound like blood is oozing out. When Deadpool twists his baby knife into Wolverine’s thigh, we could use the normal bone-breaking stuff with celery. Or, freeze some wet tea towels overnight, and when you twist them while frozen, that gives you the impression of bones breaking, too, which is a fun layer to add. For instance, I’ve turned a squeaky old hinge on a rolling door into bat squeaks. Us “soundies” always have our ears open and hopefully a microphone/recorder close by. Sometimes, the best way is to use your own voice. If you’re working on a monster sequence, you can map it out with your voice to get the rhythm of the scene and then replace your vocalizations with that of animals or inanimate objects. That’s the fun with sound design.
Check out part two, which puts you inside the hilarious and intense Honda Odyssey brawl and the wild cameos in the third act.
