The upcoming feature Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, part of the first batch of movies coming out of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new-look DC Studios, has nabbed its writer.
Playwright and actress Ana Nogueria will be scripting the upcoming film, which will be a standalone feature focused on Superman’s cousin, a fellow Kryptonian with immense powers all her own.
Nogueria has actually been circling a Supergirl project for a while now—she was previously tapped to write a Supergirl film back in 2022 when it was being developed as a spinoff from Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, which featured Sasha Calle in the role. That was under the previous DC Studios leadership, and the hope was that Supergirl would begin a new franchise.
When Gunn and Safran came on board at DC Studios, they brought with them a completely new vision for the studio, which included new superheroes and revamped and recast icons, including Superman and Batman. It was thought that Supergirl was done, but then they revealed that a different film focused on the young superhero was a part of their upcoming slate. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is based on a comic book mini-series by Tom King, published in 2021 and 2022, which gave Supergirl her own unique persona, rather than viewing her as a female Superman.
“Superman is a guy sent to Earth and raised by loving parents, where Supergirl in this story, she is a character raised on a chunk of Krypton,” Gunn explained on Twitter. “She watched everybody around her perish in some terrible way, so she’s a much more jaded character.”
In King’s comic, Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) and her trusty mutt Krypto (yes, he’s a superdog) find themselves involved in the revenge quest of a young alien girl. It’s unclear how much from King’s narrative Nogueira will be taking for her feature. Yet Gunn and Safran enjoyed her work on the previous Supergirl film, so she was brought back on to write the new film.
Nogueira’s play Which Way to the Stage debuted off-Broadway in 2022. She’s also working on an adaptation of author Alice Sola Kim’s short story Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters.
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Featured image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 27: Ana Nogueira attends the 66th Obie Awards Honoring Excellence In Off- And Off Off- Broadway at Terminal 5 on February 27, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jenny Anderson/Getty Images for American Theatre Wing)
The review embargo has been lifted for Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, the legendary director’s full-scale take on the life of one of history’s most infamous men. An epic of old-school filmmaking that boasts some of Napoleon’s most famous battles (including the Battle of Toulon and the Battle of Austerlitz), Scott’s film, from a script by David Scarpa, also pays close attention to the most crucial relationship in the French Emperor’s life—his lifelong love of Josephine—which was both a source of inspiration and comfort as well as torment.
Taking on the mantle of Napoleon is Joaquin Phoenix, and according to critics, he’s astonishing, at turns hilarious, haunting, scheming, and ice cold. His co-star, Vanessa Kirby, is coming in for equally lavish praise for her performance as Josephine. Their two performances are reason enough to see Scott’s latest.
“Phoenix, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and chilling in the same scene, is as compelling as he always is,” writes the London Evening Standard‘s Hamish Macbain, “…But it’s Vanessa Kirby who, much like Ryan Gosling in Barbie, upstages her title character.”
Meanwhile, the full impact of Scott’s film is that of watching a hugely ambitious director set his sights on a historical figure that seems larger than life and fashioning a movie big enough to capture him.
“Scott has created an outrageously enjoyable cavalry charge of a movie, a full-tilt biopic of two and a half hours in which Scott doesn’t allow his troops to get bogged down mid-gallop in the muddy terrain of either fact or metaphysical significance,” writes the Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw.
Napoleon is in theaters on November 22.
Let’s take a peek at what the critics are saying.
“Distinctively deadpan: a funny, idiosyncratic close-up of the man.”
Joaquin Phoenix stars as the legendary French emperor in Ridley Scott’s #Napoleon, in cinemas Friday.
Ridley Scott prints the legend in #Napoleon/ #NapoleonMovie & it absolutely rips. A compelling love story between a man & his country, military career, wife & ego. Battle sequences are visceral, gory & gorgeously expansive in scale & scope. Phoenix is great, but Kirby transcends. pic.twitter.com/wUad22ylNF
#Napoleon is an absolute joy, a scathing and frequently hilarious character study of a lil freak with a literal and figurative Napoleon complex. Some of the gnarliest battle scenes I’ve seen in a minute, incredible sound design, and that distinct, unique bitter taste of Sir Rid. pic.twitter.com/6nk3MxGpYg
Ridley Scott’s #Napoleon is a win. Phoenix’s portrayal of the French leader is a revelation. Together with Kirby’s pitch perfect Josephine they put the toxic in intoxicating. The ferocity of the brutal battle sequences come with sound design you few in your bones. #NapoleonMoviepic.twitter.com/L1Jwk4DqgI
#Napoleon is less a war epic and more a comedy about the absurdity of power and the delusional patheticness of a “great” man. An unexpected but welcome combo of tones that Ridley Scott shoots with appropriate grandness. I liked it! pic.twitter.com/bzw4Y3rGG4
Never doubt Ridley Scott. He delivers with #Napoleon. Incredible battle scenes, top to bottom brilliance in cratfs; cinematography, production design, sound and costume. Joaquin PHoenix’s and Vanessa Kirby’s love story is just beautifully executed. Loved it. pic.twitter.com/3HbLXd5Fni
NAPOLEON is FANTASTIC!! Director RIDLEY SCOTT is still at the top his game (at 85!) with a sweeping epic & JOAQUIN PHOENIX is magnificent! Incredible battle scenes that will blow you mind! Bound for OSCAR NOMS across the board, including BEST PICTURE! pic.twitter.com/vLcOr2dcsa
#NAPOLEON is an incredible feat of MASSIVE filmmaking and the type of historical epic that just isn’t made anymore. Joaquin Phoenix & Vanessa Kirby are pure alchemy together, but I wish it went deeper into the mind of the tyrannical leader.@TheMoviePodcast review out now. pic.twitter.com/1G9to2Blko
‘Napoleon’ Review: An impressive Joaquin Phoenix reteams with director Ridley Scott for this lavish biopic of the French military commander. @TimGrierson#Napoleonhttps://t.co/VZ4Ph7gZe3
Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix in “Napoleon,” premiering in theaters around the world on November 22, 2023.“Napoleon” premiering in theaters around the world on November 22, 2023.
Featured image: Napoleon (JOAQUIN PHOENIX, center) looks onto the battlefield in Apple Original Films and Columbia Pictures theatrical release of NAPOLEON. Photo by: Aidan Monaghan
Mike White’s brilliant The White Lotusis gearing up to bring a fresh group of cosseted tourists to a new resort location for season 3. After a gangbusters murder mystery in season two—set in the unimprovable location of Sicily—White is bringing the third season of his critically acclaimed series to Thailand, with production potentially beginning next February, Deadline reports. Meanwhile, casting has begun—there are few jobs more coveted in the TV world than landing a spot on The White Lotus roster—now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over.
White’s anthology series has depicted both the staff and the guests of the titular White Lotus resort in Hawaii and Sicily, utilizing those locations not only for their abundant beauty but also for unleashing the often rich, occasionally obnoxious guests on the staff and locals they interact with. From season one to two, only two characters, Jennifer Coolerdige‘s Tanya and Jon Gries’ Greg Hunt, carried over. For season three, word is that Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, an employee at the Hawaii location’s spa in season one, will be reappearing. The rest of the cast will presumably be new, and considering you don’t only get to star in one of the buzziest series in all of television but you also get to spend months in a beautiful location, the competition will be fierce. Deadline reports that thirteen roles are currently being cast, nine of them for series regulars, ranging in age from 18 to 80.
The White Lotus season two was nominated for 23 Emmys and was moved officially, and it particularly dominated the supporting actress in a drama series category, nabbing five of the eight slots—Jennifer Coolidge, Meghann Fahy, Sabrina Impacciatore, Aubrey Plaza, and Simona Tabasco.
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” White told Entertainment Weekly about season 3. “It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier. I don’t know what people will think, but I am super excited, so at least for my own barometer, that’s a good thing.”
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Featured image: Francesco Zecca as Matteo, Leo Woodall as Jack, Tom Hollander as Quentin, Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, Haley Lu Richardson as Portia. Photo courtesy HBO.
The Holdovers (in theaters now) has the potential to become a holiday classic. It’s a movie that delves into themes of depression, loneliness, loss, and regret. Yet this bittersweet concoction has a tremendous if subtle, undercurrent of tenderness. Friendship and love are given their due, adding a touch of sweetness to Alexander Payne’s new film.
Screenwriter David Hemingson tells the story of the embittered professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), who possesses the quick wit and quiet depression of a stand-up comedian. Set in the 1970s over the holidays, Hunham — along with a grieving mother and school employee, Mary Lamb (a wonderful Da’Vine Joy Randolph) — is tasked with looking after students left behind during the break. One of the students is Angus (Dominic Sessa), who matches the unloved professor in prickliness. Together, the three holdovers embrace one another over a bitterly cold Christmas season.
Hemingson has crafted a story that would have made the likes of Hal Ashby blush. It’s a true and thorough 1970s movie, with the patience and unspoken observations that define the greatest character-driven films of that period. It’s a remarkable story from Hemingson, who imbues the deeply personal tale with a clear-eyed warmth.
Not only that, the screenwriter got to pay tribute to his mother and uncle, two figures that continue to inspire him. Consider The Holdovers a love letter to family, both blood or chosen. In the case of The Holdovers, it’s the chosen family that saves the day.
As someone who’s written a lot on television, was it a relief to write at such a patient pace for The Holdovers?
Oh my God, man, I got to tell you, it’s hard. I love television, and I will continue to write television, but there’s a beauty in being able to write a movie where the four corners of the world and the universe are going to be contained in those two hours. But the key thing is to pace it in such a way that the reveals feel organic and unrushed. The imperative is different because you’ve got to create a world and sustain a world, so the idea of trying to accomplish all that and make it seem unhurried—that is the hardest thing.
There’s such a beautiful simplicity to the movie. Mostly, these three characters are in one location. How delicate was that simplicity?
There are two things that leap out of me. I knew I had wanted to get most of the kids [out of the school] pretty early. I wasn’t interested in writing a movie about five boys at school with this curmudgeonly professor. I saw Dead Poets Society. I don’t need to do that. Who wants to go up against Peter Weir? Once I got rid of the kids on the helicopter, I was like, okay, now I got my three characters, which is what I wanted to do. Alexander was like, “I love your impulse. I love that you did that.” But then I was like, “What am I going to do? I got these three people; what do I do for myself?”
So where’d you go from there?
I didn’t know until I initially broke Angus’s arm [in the gym accident] because I needed some way to drive them all together. How do I start to tell you, the audience, this movie’s a love story? It’s just a love story. So, how do I uncouple them from their respective preconceptions about themselves and each other and get them close? Well, it is always good if somebody gets hurt, but not too badly. Getting hurt in comedy is good as long as it’s not too serious, hence the dislocation.
So the other thing was Mary and the box. That was really hard but really necessary. I struggled to figure it out because I based her around my mother, who was just an extraordinary woman and such a loving, caring, ferociously strong woman. What would happen if my mother had lost me? She would’ve been devastated.
How’d you want to communicate loss with the box?
This is the tragedy, this is the reason behind the tragedy, but what is she trying to let go specifically? What is the particularity of her journey? Her son is gone. I realized that that’s not something you accept. That’s something you hold onto the ghost of that person for as long as you can. The grieving process is not a straight line. She’ll never lose Curtis. Curtis will always be with her. I think about finding the box; that idea honestly came from J.J. Abrams talking about mystery boxes he’d received from DC or Marvel or whatever it was, and his uncle once said to him, “You always open the box, and you’re always disappointed. What if you never opened the box?”
You crafted such a tender movie about depression, loneliness, and loss without sugarcoating those emotions. How’d you pull off that tone?
Just writing what I know, man. You just hope, and honestly, you rely on a genius filmmaker and brilliant actors. I tried to wire it up in the script as hard as I could. I tried to wire that up hard, and I didn’t know until I saw it. You can have a burst of genuine laughter, thank God, and then a burst of genuine emotion and have them especially accelerate from about the midpoint to the end of the film. Those bursts accelerate as story complications pile up, as well. I wrote it almost like an action movie. Honestly, I just want to keep the incident going. How many organic incidents can I put in here that don’t feel manufactured but feel organic to the world, that don’t seem convenient but push the characters?
Where’d you specifically want to push them?
Push the characters to confront their depression, confront their loneliness, examine it, because as anybody who’s been depressed or lonely knows, it doesn’t look like it looks like in the vast majority of television shows or movies, whatever. It’s a different thing. And I think it’s a testament to the genius of Alexander Payne that he was able to depict that with such utter clarity on screen. And I think it’s absolutely a testament to the genius of Divine and Paul and Dom that they were able to portray that.
Your mother inspired Mary, so who inspired Paul Hunham?
He’s my uncle. He is the guy who raised me, who was born in 1920; had to leave school to fight in Saipan and World War II, so he was the same age. Paul’s character would’ve been born in 1920. That kind of baroque profanity, that sort of incredible knowledge, but also this sort of dyspeptic, curmudgeonly toughness and the way of expressing love, that’s my uncle. “For most people, sex is 99% friction, 1% goodwill.” That’s my uncle. He would just say these things like this weird Dickensian character that stepped out of a time machine. He was just great. I mean, he polluted and destroyed my imagination in a fantastic way. I carry him around with me all day long every day, and I just let him out, and then I put him in Paul.
The Holdovers is in theaters now.
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The coldest assassin is the kind you don’t see coming. In a lineup of globe-trotting sharpshooters from the movies, The Killer (Michael Fassbender) may be the most difficult to identify. On a crowded city street, he could be anyone—and that is by design. Costume designer Cate Adams developed the style for director David Fincher’s vision of a dangerous character you would hardly ever notice.
“Basically, he wears clothes that he can just find anywhere. Find in an airport, find in a convenience store. He doesn’t want to have to think about it,” she noted. “[Fincher] wanted a bucket hat instead of an umbrella to be water resistant for any kind of weather he was going to be in. He wanted a ‘lazy people notion.’ So, zippers or velcros or something pullover. Dad chinos. Anything he could have bought from an airport.”
That mindset even extends to modern conveniences. Sometimes, the easiest way to shop today is with online delivery, and The Killer could plausibly wear pieces he purchased with the click of a button.
“One of the shirts he wears is a printed, short-sleeved Aloha shirt that was actually from Amazon. So, there are some pieces from Amazon,” Adams revealed. “It’s just very basic. Whatever he could find easily. He doesn’t take a lot of time to think about his clothes, which I really liked. He’s not in suits like James Bond. He just kind of looks weird, and you’re not really sure what he’s doing there. He just kind of looks normal and blends in.”
To focus on his mission, The Killer needed to remain incognito and keep people at a distance. Rather than present himself as intimidating or unapproachable to avoid interactions, he emitted a more effective aura – irritating.
“You want him to blend in, then we went for him just being kind of awkward and weird,” Adams explained. “There’s a reference in the script for that – just about German tourists. Like you don’t really want to hang around them, they’re ‘annoying.’ So, we did a whole ode to a German tourist, but also with layers. So, we had a rain jacket over top. He’s got another parka kind of jacket on, then he’s got the Aloha shirt underneath, and he’s got a sweater on, and he’s got the bucket hat, which is kind of a fisherman-style bucket hat.”
Great efforts were made to find the perfect shoe that would keep The Killer on the go and match his casual, everyday aesthetic. Adams and her team searched through a myriad of styles but settled on a silhouette that emphasizes comfort over style.
“We knew David had always wanted to do some kind of orthopedic, funky shoe, which then progressed into a Skecher. We tried about every Skecher known to mankind,” Adams laughed.
With a signature wardrobe in place, The Killer was ready to travel the world in pursuit of his target. From Paris to the Dominican Republic to the United States, he stays sporty for agility and casual to fly under the radar.
“He’s very track athletic, Lululemon-esque. Just light layers all the time so he can take things on and off. He can ditch things. He’s got a go-bag with him, so he’s got an extra set of clothes with him,” Adams explained. “It was just like taking layers off of what he was wearing flying there. He’s always very ready to go. He’s got sneakers on. He’s got track-y joggers on. He’s got an athletic zippy on from Lululemon. Kind of sleek athletic wear.”
A neutral palette was a natural choice for the movie in keeping with Fincher’s style. Adams calls his films “tonally muted,” with an emphasis on the dialogue and script rather than the clothing. Within that limitation, she then researched a palette that would complement the locations and allow The Killer to blend in.
“I had my team go out and take a bunch of pictures of what everyone was wearing in Paris,” Adams said. “Everybody is mostly in black and navy and jewel tones. I had thought maybe he’s in brown to fit in. That’s when I sent all the photos to David, and he said, ‘Actually, put him in something like cream, ecru, not khaki.’ He’s very particular about khaki turning pink or green on the color wheel spectrum. So, it had to be the perfect shade of ecru, eggshell, cement.”
Back at home in the Dominican Republic, earth tones prevail. “When he’s in the Dominican Republic and he’s out during the day, he sort of blends in with the background. Everybody there is very bright. We muted it a little bit. There were so many neon colors, but we kept them faded colors, island-y. No black. Browns, greens, khakis, blues, and teals—that was the color palette for the Dominican.”
The Killer spares no grisly details. Adams had to come extra prepared for rips and splatters that the costumes would endure. Fincher is notorious for doing multiple takes of a scene, Adams noted. That meant that when clothing was being destroyed, she had to be there with plenty of backups.
“We had a good amount of practical blood in different locations. We had stunt doubles, and we had lots of multiples,” Adams explained. “Most everything that got blood on it was a purchase, so it wasn’t so much a custom make, which was helpful. We were able to buy more and just have everything altered. We had lots of blood.”
Adams is particularly familiar with Fincher’s work, having served as assistant costume designer under costume designer Jennifer Starzyk on Fincher’s hit serial killer series Mindhunter.
“It was really hard, and everything was super specific, and we did a lot of fittings, and every fitting you had to be tailored exactly and 70s and tight,” she described of working on the show. “I learned so much, and I learned so much about David’s style working on that. That was such a blessing.”
A scene from “Mindhunter.” Courtesy Netflix.
Adams said she had very little direct interaction with Fincher on that project, but she did have a memorable experience on camera. “Actually, they used my legs for something,” she recalled. “They had me wear these pantyhose and pretend like I was a victim. I think that’s the most interaction I had with him.”
To prepare for The Killer, Adams watched much of Fincher’s catalog for inspiration, paying particular attention to The Game. However, she humorously admitted that she didn’t always have a discerning taste for his work. She was surprised to come across a hilarious remnant of a teenage critique.
“I found an old journal that I had. It was like me, a guy, and some other friends went to see Panic Room in high school, but I wrote like, ‘Ugh, it sucked,’” Adams admitted. “David has a very dry, funny sense of humor. I was thinking about ripping that and sending it to him. Now, I am where I am. I’ll spare him, but that was pretty funny. I’m such a fan of all of his work.”
Now, she holds not only esteem for Fincher’s work but also for the on-set environment he creates.
“He’s amazing. It’s like you’re going to film school when you work with him. He’s so smart. He knows everyone’s job,” Adams revealed. “You have to be prepared. Prep is so, so important. He just makes everybody work that much harder because he’s so good at his job. He knows what everyone is supposed to be doing, too. It’s very professional, which I love.”
The Killer is now available to stream on Netflix.
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So imagine you’re a damsel, only you’re not really about the whole distress bit. You marry a handsome prince, but it turns out you’ve been duped. The royal family has agreed to the marriage to repay an ancient debt, and you, the damsel, are how they plan to pay it. You’re marooned inside an icy cave with one other resident—a dragon—and your only chance for survival isn’t the prince or some white knight but your own wits.
This is the conceit of Damsel, a new film from Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, which stars Millie Bobby Brown as the damsel, Princess Elodie, who’s rudely used as dragon food. Brown is surrounded by a fantastic cast, which includes Robin Wright, Angela Bassett, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brooke Carter, Manon Stieglitz, and more.
The first trailer reveals the look and feel of Fresnadillo’s film (he directs from a script by Dan Mazeau), which only teases the dragon as we find Princess Elodie’s icy imprisonment in the cave, and her considerable pluck as she sets about trying to free herself. Set to Timber Timbre’s “Run From Me,” the trailer centers Princess Elodie’s potentially fatal predicament, as well as the rationale provided by Robin Wright’s queen. “For generations, it has been our task to protect our people,” she says. “So tonight, you join a long line of women who have helped to build this kingdom. The price is dear, but so, too, the reward.”
The price is especially dear for Princess Elodie, but we’re betting she’s got what it takes to turn the queen’s statement on its head—who ends up paying the price and who enjoys the reward will be the question Damsel will eventually answer.
Check out the trailer below. Damsel arrives on Netflix in 2024:
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Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, whose groundbreaking Koyaanisqatsi (1982) remains influential and much admired, didn’t travel to Boston for the November 3 screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre of his new film and his first in a decade, Once Within a Time. But executive producer Steven Soderbergh and co-director and editor Jon Kane happily channeled the 83-year-old Reggio’s animated, eccentric spirit in a lively post-film conversation (which this writer moderated) before an enthusiastic crowd that cheered Reggio’s avant-garde fairy tale released in theaters this week from Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Soderbergh, who executive produced Reggio’s Naqoyqatsi (2002) and Visitors (2013), drew laughs with his deadpan response about working with such a passionate visionary. “Godfrey is a fun guy, absolutely, but I tap out fast … I leave inspired, excited, and confused. It’s like, I’ll never see the UFO, but I believe he saw it, and you go with that. You go with the resume, which is unique among American filmmakers,” said Soderbergh, the 2001 Oscar winner for Traffic. “What’s really inspiring is that with each film, he creates a new grammar to tell the story that he wants to tell. I was excited by [Once Within a Time] because it’s completely different than anything he had ever attempted, and I just wanted to see it.”
Apple man in “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Once Within a Time reunites Reggio with his longtime collaborator, composer Philip Glass, to create a unique visual and aural experience. A wordless, futuristic fairy tale that looks like it was made in the silent era, with each shot hand-painted digitally, the film mixes circus and apocalyptic imagery and features a cast of children. It’s a cautionary tale about omnipresent technology that also offers hope for the future.
Reggio originally wanted to make a “3D IMAX comedy for children,” said Kane, who edited Reggio’s last two films and served as editor and co-director for Once Within a Time. Kane described the long journey to bring Reggio’s fantastical ideas to life. The trial and error process involved miniatures on a sound stage, rear projection, “a lot of rotoscoping,” and hand painting each frame of film so it looked like a silent from the 1890s.
“It took a year to figure out how to do it so it didn’t look like an Instagram filter,” said Kane. “We did it by hand but digitally. To make it convincing, we had to treat every layer separately. It’s futuristic imagery done in silent style, frame by frame.” Silent films were handprinted using brushes, he said, but Kane’s team had to employ the technique with computers.
An image from “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Apple man in “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories.
“Godfrey wanted to make a futuristic movie that looked like it was made in the past so it was somehow out of time and therefore timeless. The idea was great, but it was expensive,” said Kane, noting that the budget was originally estimated at 16 million dollars. “So we thought, [let’s] do in a studio, do it in 18 months, and make it a short film with Godfrey’s ideas still the same.” The short eventually expanded to its 52-minute running time, and although under $16 million, the budget was still a hefty price tag.
An image from “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Apple man in “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Enter Soderbergh, who over the past two decades had helped Reggio, a former monk and social activist, get two of his poetic, experimental films made: Naqoyqatsi, the final film in his “Qatsi” trilogy, and Visitors. Soderbergh wasn’t concerned with the lack of commercial prospects for such eclectic work; he wanted to help bring Reggio’s bold, singular vision to audiences that crave it.
An image from “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Apple man in “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories.
With his latest effort, said Soderbergh, Reggio “wanted to make something young people could look at and be activated by. It is intense what we’re all going through right now. To send a message that whatever is going to happen, the option of doing nothing isn’t viable. Get involved; do anything. I signed on for that. Godfrey often says that making his films requires finding an angel. An angel is someone who is willingly going to make a bad deal. At the end of the day, my name is the only thing I have that’s all mine. So I try to be careful how it’s deployed. And this, to me, is a no-brainer.”
An image from “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Apple man in “Once Within a Time.” Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories.
One of the most surprising moments in the film features boxing legend Mike Tyson as “The Mentor,” who regales a group of kids with a kind of jazz monologue. “Godfrey is very well connected in Hollywood. He can just call up Spike Lee or Francis Ford Coppola; he’s like the crazy hippie uncle,” said Kane. “He wanted Mike Tyson, and I thought, ‘that will never happen,’ but it did.” Tyson worked for a day on the soundstage and “was amazing,” said Kane. “He was happy to be there; he was witty; he was game for everything. A lot of the guys who work around the building in Red Hook in Brooklyn grew up with him, which we didn’t even know. So it was a homecoming.”
Soderbergh still draws inspiration from the uncompromising Reggio. “Godfrey is a child; it’s like being around a child, and I say that in the best possible way. There isn’t a mean or cynical bone in this man’s body,” said Soderbergh. “There’s something pure about how he sees and imagines things.”
The first official trailer for part one of Zack Snyder’s upcoming two-part sci-epic has arrived. Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire will arrive on Netflix in late December, and the trailer opens with a look at a once peaceful galaxy finding itself in the crosshairs of the armies of a tyrannical lunatic. Their only hope is a surprising figure—a mysterious woman who lives quietly among them and who possesses skills that they had no idea she had.
A Child of Fire sets up this epic tale and introduces us to Sofia Boutella’s Kora, a woman whose aforementioned surprising skill set comes in handy when her otherwise quiet planet is visited by soldiers who have no interest in her peaceful people’s farming techniques. Kora’s mysterious origins are tied to the invaders, and after she dispatches them (to the astonishment of the assorted villagers), she warns them they’ll have to fight to survive. “What do they want?” the villagers ask about the soldiers. “Everything,” Kora replies.
This leads to Kora heading out on a mission to protect her home—she must find enough able-bodied fighters, preferably men and women with a chip on their shoulders, to help her defend her people and her planet. We meet some of these figures briefly in the new trailer, including Charlie Hunnam’s Kai and Djimon Hounsou’s General Titus, two men who will be very useful in the upcoming war. Another character we meet is the droid Jimmy (although, considering this isn’t a Star Wars universe, they can’t be technically called droids, so we’ll say robot). The upshot with Jimmy? He’s voiced by none other than Anthony Hopkins.
Snyder has rounded up a great cast to support the above-mentioned players, including Ed Skrein as the villainous Admiral Noble, the late, great Ray Fisher as Darien Bloodaxe, Bae Doona as the arachnid-like Nemesis, Jena Malone as Harmada, Staz Nair as Tarak, Cleopatra Coleman as Devra Bloodaxe, E. Duffy as Milius, Charlotte Maggi as Sam, and Michiel Huisman as Gunnar.
Snyder’s been dreaming about Rebel Moon for years—it actually began as a potential Star Wars spinoff more than a decade ago—and the film is based on a script he wrote with his Army of the Dead co-writer Shay Hatten and his 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad.
Check out the trailer below. Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire arrives on Netflix on December 22, while Part 2: The Scargiver lands on April 19, 2024
With director Susanna White’s The Buccaneers, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel set in the 1870s, Apple TV+ adds a period drama with a modern spin to its lineup. If any 19th-century chronicler of the era’s mannerisms can withstand a contemporary update, it’s Wharton, whose insight into upper-class idiosyncrasies on both sides of the pond ring true, even set to a modern soundtrack and present-day dialogue as is the case here.
The Buccaneers turns on the fallout of intercontinental marriages of convenience between five wealthy American heiresses and Englishmen long on family trees but short on cash, beginning at the nuptials of Conchita (Alisha Boe) and Richard (Josh Dylan), a love match overshadowed by an intractable culture clash. Despite the pair’s difficulties, Conchita’s four best friends take inspiration from her good-on-paper marriage and follow her from New York to England, where they vie to pair off with aristocratic, eligible young men.
The heart of the story isn’t in the girls’ subsequent marriages but in their determination to retain their American joie d’esprit, rendering them glaringly incompatible with their grim British hosts. For cinematographer Oliver Curtis (Stay Close, Vanity Fair, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA), who worked on the first two episodes, the contrast was a natural setup. “The theme of the clash of cultures from these vivacious, energized, young American women coming over to musty old England to meet their potential suitors has got a natural kind of transformative quality. You’ve got the color, light, and energy of their New York life, and then the dour, desaturated world of old England,” he said of the humor and heartbreak of the meeting of these two worlds, which informed the series’ lighting, camera movements, and framing. “It’s all about forward movement in people’s lives. It’s a playful show, full of light and color. The cinematography had to reflect that.”
John Arnold and Alisha Boe in “The Buccaneers,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Conchita and Richard get set up at a lavish country estate and have a baby, but their family life is anything but blissful. Jinny St. George (Imogen Waterhouse) pairs off more quickly than her sister and their friends, but to Richard’s even less fun older brother. Nan St. George (Kristine Froseth), the show’s heroine, has the most appealing marriage prospects, but she’s too preoccupied with a shameful personal secret to fully enjoy them. As the Brits and Americans get tangled up in each other’s lives, Curtis’s camera work shifts. “Once we’re here in the UK, the worlds enmesh and disrupt and then infiltrate each other, so there are moments of stillness and quiet,” he said, best exemplified over a terrifically awkward, stilted English welcome dinner of soup. “But once the girls are running riot at the country house, you really get a sense of their energy and lack of respect for the mores of the time and the innate conservatism of the characters they’re living with.”
Imogen Waterhouse and Aubri Ibrag in “The Buccaneers,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Curtis’s cinematography balances the grandeur of the girls’ lifestyle with a more personal sense of what’s really happening in their lives. “There’s always an expectation that in a period drama, certainly for television, that you’ve got to present the opulence of interiors — these big wide ballrooms, corridors, candlelit rooms, and so on. But what I think is important in this show is character, its close-up, its portraiture,” the cinematographer explained. Using a large-format camera, the Alexa LF, and Arri’s vintage DNA lenses, Curtis was able “to meld those two things — the sense of intimacy and expression within a big close-up, without losing the sense of the environment in which the characters found themselves.”
Alisha Boe, Josie Totah, Kristine Frøseth, Aubri Ibrag and Imogen Waterhouse in “The Buccaneers,” now streaming on Apple TV+.Kristine Frøseth in “The Buccaneers,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Par for the course for Wharton’s realistically complicated relationships, nothing that works out for this wild American crew could be chalked up as a straightforward love story. Instead, The Buccaneers is marked by a constant sense that something is always befalling somebody. For Curtis, it was important to keep a sense of energy in the camera, and he and his team typically ran two to ensure they captured the performative nuances inherent to an ensemble cast drama and to foster a sense of fluidity around the actors’ performances. Ultimately, he said, “it’s all about forward movement in people’s lives. They’re emotionally changing all the time. I hope that comes across in the show.”
For more stories on Apple TV+ series and films, check these out:
Featured image: Episode 1. Kristine Frøseth, Alisha Boe, Josie Totah, Aubri Ibrag and Imogen Waterhouse in “The Buccaneers,” premiering 8 November 2023 on Apple TV+.
There are countless unsung heroes of the civil rights movement who will never get the recognition they deserve, yet it’s hard to imagine an overlooked figure more central to the cause and more courageous and capacious in spirit than Bayard Rustin. While historians are well aware of the impact Rustin had on the civil rights movement writ large and specifically the March on Washington, most Americans are not.
George C. Wolfe‘s Rustin (in theaters now) offers a course correction. Wolfe directs from a script co-written by JulianBreece, who has put ten years into shaping the story of a larger-than-life figure whose life went so largely unapplauded. Breece first heard about the project a decade ago and petitioned Oscar-winning screenwriter (and his co-writer on Rustin) Dustin Lance Black to give him a shot. Once onboard, Breece faced the challenge that every storyteller attempting to craft a biopic about a legend must surmount—how do you capture the essence of a figure so crucial and so complex into a single movie?
Breece’s approach was to focus on Rustin’s ingenious, tireless efforts to orchestrate the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was not just a crucial architect of this defining moment in American history, but he was also a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and these dual roles gave Breece the backbone of his story, vividly showing how Rustin helped take the March on Washington from an impossible dream to King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
“I grew up thinking whatever I did, I was going to have to be behind the scenes or in the shadows because I was queer, and I’m sure Bayard felt some of that as well,” says Breece. He was talking specifically about how Rustin, who was openly gay well before the March, was sidelined during portions of the civil rights movement on account of a whisper campaign about his sexuality. Eventually, King would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his mentor, but it was the journey of getting to that moment on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that Breece set his sights on.
We spoke with Breece about his decade-long pursuit of a script worthy of Bayard Rustin, Colman Domingo’s absorbing performance, and what he hopes audiences will take from Rustin’s life.
Tell me about this ten-year journey you went in researching and writing Rustin.
The year I found out about the project, in 2013, I was temping. I’d won some screenwriting awards coming out of grad school for a screenplay I’d written about the ball scene in New York, but none of that had translated into work, so I was still doing my spec scripts and working on a studio lot. My manager told me that Dustin Lance Black [Oscar-winner for his Milk screenplay] was producing a movie about Bayard Rustin, and he’s looking for a writer. At the time, it was still difficult to get into any rooms for features, particularly for Black writers. There weren’t a lot of us in the system in 2013.
Julian Breece
So, how did you get to Dustin Lance Black?
I wrote this super long letter to Lance explaining to him why I was so passionate about Bayard, who had been a hero of mine since I learned about him on my own—he wasn’t taught in any classes. I finally got a meeting with him after he saw a short I did at Out Fest, and he liked it. He read my work, and we hit it off. From there, I was off to research.
And what did your research entail?
I read everything I could get my hands on and actually moved to New York for three months because that’s where Bayard was based and where the people closest to him still live. And the Rustin Papers are in D.C. [at the Library of Congress]. But it was the one-on-one interviews that I did where I discovered the heart of the movie. I did about 19 hours of interviews with people who worked with Bayard and had close relationships with him. That was probably the most rewarding part of the research process.
How did you start to shape the story from this wealth of research material and all the hours of interview tape?
There was so much about Bayard’s life; it really could be a limited series. But I learned about Bayard in connection with the March on Washington and his relationship with Martin Luther King. You can’t do a movie about Bayard without centering the March on Washington, especially since it’s a culmination of the different parts of his career.
Did you look to any other biopics as a reference for what you were hoping to achieve?
As a student of film, there’s a place for cradle-to-grave biographical films, but I’m more attracted to films focused on the moment that made the person great. One of my favorite biographical films is Capote. I’d read the script over and over and over again. It’s so beautifully written. It really takes that moment when Truman Capote as we know him, all his flash and flair as a writer and public person, became great. It shows how his growth as an artist was also, in some ways, tragic. So, if I had to say there was a model for the way I looked at Rustin, it was definitely Capote.
There are so many moments that depict the way Bayard had of being in the world, his warmth and humor, his passion and hard-headedness. Who specifically did you interview that helped you flesh out his character?
I spoke to Rachelle Horowitz [played by Lilly Kay], who was one of Bayard’s assistants, for hours and hours. Then there was Walter Naegle, his partner, who was so generous and who has really been the person who’s carried the torch of Bayard’s legacy all of these years when it seemed like people didn’t want to know. He let me know the private Bayard, the Bayard behind the public face, behind the strength, behind the strong leader and organizer who everyone looked up to and wanted to follow, behind the Bayard who was charismatic and wonderfully flamboyant and captivating. Walter helped me know who he was in those vulnerable moments and how really felt about certain things, things that he may not have said publicly that hurt him.
RUSTIN (2023) Lilli Kay as Rachelle Horowitz. CR: Courtesy NETFLIX
You highlight so many crucial relationships Bayard had, and none more so than his relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. How did you approach their fondness for each other, as well as their falling out for a time?
What moved me the most when I learned about Bayard and King was that you have the most iconic, famous religious figure in modern history, aside from the Pope, who was mentored by a gay man. Mind-blowing. I think Bayard’s mentorship of King was the reason he was pushed out— the whisper campaign. Even though Bayard had helped mold King as a leader, it was like, ‘Well, now we can’t have you be associated with him at all.’ The lessons that Bayard taught King about bravery and leadership, we see that in the arc of King’s growth to becoming great, right at the moment before he stepped out onto that podium and made the greatest speech of all time.
Rustin also makes a very moving point that it’s the relationships between people, rather than simply the greatness of any one individual, that get things done. I’m thinking of Bayard’s conversations with Ella Baker [played by Audra Macdonald], who spurs him on to get back into the game after the whisper campaign.
Ella Baker and Bayard provided that kind of support for each other. Him being queer, and her being a woman in the movement and being underestimated because of that. You understand why Bayard’s relationship with the women in the movement was so important and why he saw them in a way that male leadership didn’t. And Ella was able to see him in ways that the male leadership couldn’t afford to, too. The March on Washington was all about coalition building and relationships. That’s the only way that it happened, and I’m hoping that we can look at that now as a country and a world and just see the importance of intersectionality and being able to support each other’s causes, as opposed to everyone fighting for themselves. Things don’t change that way. Bayard Rustin knew that revolutionary change happens through relationships and coalition building.
Another thing you take away from Rustin is the tremendous courage Bayard had. To live openly as a gay Black man at that time and be a force of nature in the civil rights movement…it boggles the mind.
People loved Bayard Rustin. Like anyone else, he has his edges, his thorns, but he was a deeply generous, deeply gentle person. The reason why he was out in the thirties, forties, and fifties is because his belief in equality and truth ran that deep. He’s like, if I’m not living it, I can’t fight for it. I can’t live a lie and tell other people to tell the truth. He drew people to him because of that courage.
RUSTIN (2023) Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin and Johnny Ramey as Elias. Cr: David Lee/NETFLIX
His charm comes through from the very first scene, when he’s being mocked by a young member of the civil rights movement, and by the end of the film, that same young man adores him.
That was one of my favorite scenes to write. Showing Bayard coming back into the movement through the young people. You have to learn what’s going on. Even the old guard didn’t really know what was happening on the lower frequencies, but the young people who were on the ground knew. So Bayard’s relationship with that particular character, Blyden [Grantham Coleman], was a real relationship. Blyden’s a radical straight dude who, by the end, felt like Bayard was a badass. Who is more badass than Bayard Rustin? Who’s able to slay all of these dragons, say, ‘This is who I am, deal with it, come with it, I am going to fight on no matter what.’ I hope other people coming out of it feel that same way about Bayard.
Rustin is in theaters now and streams on Netflix on November 17.
We start with the good news—the actor’s strike is over. After 118 days, SAG-AFTRA and the studios reached a tentative deal on Wednesday, and with that deal, it looks like Hollywood could be back to regular business in as little as a few weeks. The strike officially ended at 12:01 a.m. PT on Thursday, November 9 (according to Deadline), after more than seven months of work stoppage with both the Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA jointly striking for the first time in more than 60 years. It’s excellent news.
For fans of the Venom franchise, the additional good news is, of course, that production can now resume on the third installment. Yet we now know that Venom 3 won’t be arriving next summer, when it was supposed to arrive in theaters on July 12, 2024. Now, Venom 3 will be charging into theaters on November 8, 2024. It’s fitting, in a way, that the antihero with the insatiable appetite will be hitting theaters just in time for Thanksgiving.
Production had begun on Venom 3 in late June in Spain, but it eventually had to shut down once the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14. With the later release date, director Kelly Marcel, who co-wrote the script with star Tom Hardy, and her team have more time to get the film into proper shape. The later release date also allowed Sony to get screen time in IMAX and premium-format screens, giving audiences a chance to see Hardy’s lovable lunatic Venom on the biggest, sharpest screens in the world.
Newcomers in Venom 3 include stars Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Plot details are still under wraps.
While Venom 3 and a slew of other films, from Warner Bros. Dune: Part Two to Sony’s Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and Kraven the Hunter, have seen their release dates pushed back, the good news is that Hollywood will be up and running at full capacity before the end of the year.
For more on the Venom franchise, check out these stories:
Question: if there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who are you gonna call? Okay, now what if that something strange is freezing cold temperatures in July?
The first teaser trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has arrived, the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, revealing the Gil Kenan-directed new film that continues the story that director Jason Reitman and Kenan (he co-wrote Afterlife) began in 2021. In that film, single mom Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) move to a dilapidated Oklahoma house in a small town to restart their lives. Their connection to the original Ghostbusters was significant—Callie’s father was Egon Spengler (the late, great Harold Ramis), and Egon had spent his final years out at that house in Oklahoma, so naturally, there was a bevy of supernatural secrets for his family to uncover.
The Frozen Empire trailer opens on a sweaty summer day in New York City, with shots of beachgoers, Coney Island, and gushing fire hydrants—all the classic motifs of a sweltering summer day in the Big Apple. Yet something strange is going on—a storm cloud is moving towards the city, yet obviously, this is no typical summer soak. It’s a supernatural front that brings with it instantaneous frozen conditions, ruining everyone’s day on the beach and a lot more besides. “For the first time in New York history, people froze to death,” says Patton Oswalt (a newcomer to the franchise), “..in the middle of July.” Then we see some of the original Ghostbusters—Dan Ackroyd’s Raymond Stantz, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, and Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddmore.
Coon, Wolfhard, and Grace all reprise their roles from Afterlife, as do Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, and Celeste O’Connor. Newcomers include Kumail Nanjiani, James Acaster, and Emily Alyn Lind.
Kenan directs Frozen Empire from a script he co-wrote with Reitman.
Check out the teaser trailer below.
For more upcoming films from Sony Pictures, check out these stories:
Mean Girls is back, and it’s got a song to sing. Paramount’s movie musical, which was first glimpsed by audiences who went and saw Taylor Swift’s concert film in the theater, has revealed its first trailer online. This musical version is adapted from the 2018 Broadway play, itself an adaptation of the hit 2004 film (the original film, the Broadway musical, and this cinematic adaptation of the musical were all written by Tina Fey) and boasts a sensational cast.
If you haven’t yet caught any of the previous iterations, consider this your first day of school. Mean Girls is centered on new student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), who finds herself accepted into the most popular clique in school, the Plastics, led by their undisputed queen, Regina George (the considerably talented Reneé Rapp). The Plastics are a rough bunch, and Cady will find soon enough that Regina’s an imperious queen whose mean side is considerable. Rice and Rapp will be singing their way into roles first made famous by Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams.
The cast includes Auli’i Cravalho as Janis ‘Imi’ike, Jaquel Spivey as Damian Hubbard, Avantika as Karen Shetty, Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners, Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels, Jenna Fischer as Ms. Heron, Busy Philipps as Mrs. George, Ashley Park as Madame Park, Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury, Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall.
The trailer doesn’t reveal the musical chops of the cast, but there will be more trailers to come that will likely lean into the songs. The film comes from the directing duo of Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics from Nell Benjamin.
Check out the trailer below. Mean Girls arrives in theaters on January 12:
Here’s the official synopsis from Paramount:
From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.
For more films and series from Paramount and Paramount+, check out these stories:
Hollywood’s about to head to Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda creator and game developer Shigeru Miyamoto announced on Twitter that he’s been working on a live-action film adaptation of his iconic game for years with veteran producer Avi Arad (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and many more).
Miyamoto and Arad are turning to director Wes Ball, the helmer of the Maze Runner trilogy and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which was produced by Miyamoto. Miyamoto also produced 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a massive hit. The man knows video games and video game adaptations, and Ball has proven he’s adept at world-building and action.
The Legend of Zelda will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment and comes at a time when video game adaptations are having a major moment. Not only was The Super Mario Bros. Movie a major hit, but The Last of Us was a critical darling this year for HBO (24 Emmy nominations), and recently, Five Nights at Freddy’s, which had a great opening weekend.
Here’s how the legendary Miyamoto broke the news:
This is Miyamoto. I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films. [1]
I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it. [2]https://t.co/2H9lzzS5Pv
Speaking with Varietyfor an April cover story, here’s how Miyamoto described the keys to adapting a video game for the big screen:
“The reason we were so resistant and careful to adapt our games into movies is because in video games, there is always a player who overcomes challenges and fights their way through. Their struggle — redoing the levels over and over — is all part of it. Just following the plot points of the video games will never work as a movie. Without the involvement of the player, it won’t meet expectations.”
There are no plot details about The Legend of Zelda at present, but the video game follows the warrior Link on his quest to vanquish the villain Ganon and save Zelda, the princess of Hyrule. The most recent installment of the series, 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom, was another major hit.
For more upcoming films from Sony Pictures, check out these stories:
The Marvels had its premiere in Las Vegas on Tuesday, with additional press screenings in New York and Los Angeles. This means we’ve got your first reactions to co-writer/director Nia DaCosta’s first MCU film, which features the return of Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel as she finds herself teamed up with her estranged niece, Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau (reprising her role from WandaVision) and her number one fan in Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (reprising her role from her Disney+ series).
The Marvels finds these three, literally star-crossed superheroes (their powers are all mixed up thanks to the cosmic fallout from an anomalous wormhole) facing off against a formidable foe in Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a Kree revolutionary with a major bone to pick with Captain Marvel. As the final trailer revealed, Dar-Benn’s powers only seem to expand when she fights with the exponentially potent Captain Marvel, so the superhero trio will need to work together to find a way to stop a villain who is every bit Captain Marvel’s match.
“This film is so much fun and exactly what a comic movie should be,” the Washington Post‘s Herb Scribner wrote. “The Marvels is so much fun, action-packed goodness, but genuinely hilarious and exciting to watch from start to finish,” wrote Mary Sue‘s Rachel Leishman. “This thing moves! The location-swap action is a blast,” writes Fandango’s Erik Davis. This is the general tenor of the reactions—genuine delight at a film that’s short, sweet, and filled with well-paced action.
Let’s have a glance at what some of the critics are saying in their first reaction to The Marvels.
#TheMarvels is the most fun I’ve had watching a superhero movie in a while! It’s hilarious, action-packed & full of girl power. Kamala was a stand out & so many moments surprised me. There was a great balance of the team, while dropping shocking bombs that will change EVERYTHING. pic.twitter.com/Zj6Lbc5xKn
Nia DaCosta’s #TheMarvels is a delight! The power-swapping plot is cool & all, but the real fun comes from the stellar chemistry between Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris & Iman Vellani. Low stakes aside, it delivers some of Marvel’s best action & comedy to date! See it with a crowd 👀 pic.twitter.com/Qz8k9j6nAm
#TheMarvels worked for me. Female Avengers team-up movie packs in chuckles, cats, hairballs, and musical sequences. Much more episodic than a cinematic endeavor, but I think that’s its greatest strength. Great post-credits. Loved my leading lady trio. Great visual effects. Jersey… pic.twitter.com/uWk9w4M4Og
All I wanted from #TheMarvels was to have a good time and that movie is stupid fun! Kamala, Monica, and Carol are so much fun together. The swapping, singing, and dancing played better than I thought it would. The cameos, my god those cameos! I’m so happy I saw this in IMAX! pic.twitter.com/seWhnb9fzX
Nia DaCosta’s #TheMarvels is a great time at the movies! It’s well paced & full of frantic, hilarious energy. I even liked it more than 2019’s #CaptainMarvel. This thing moves! The location-swap action is a blast & the end credits scene is 😱 . I’m definitely a fan.
Happy to report #themarvels is a blast. It’s fun, funny & the cast is so good together. Is it one of the best Marvel movies? No. But I had a smile on my face a lot. Definitely worth seeing in a movie theater.
#TheMarvels is so much fun, action-packed goodness, but genuinely hilarious and exciting to watch from start to finish. I love my girls so much and seeing them fight all three together truly is so special. Higher, further, faster baby! pic.twitter.com/epEroO2ClU
it’s no secret i adore captain marvel and wandavision, so #TheMarvels is something i knew I’d have fun with. brie larson, teyonah parris, and iman vellani’s chemistry made this one for me — they had superb comedic timing together but also beautifully worked in the touching scenes pic.twitter.com/BRYh2fcaDm
#THEMARVELS is short, sweet, and a hell of a lot of fun. The main trio is a blast together and it’s great to have action sequences that are exciting again. Probably the most charmed I’ve been by a MCU film since No Way Home, and I can’t wait to see what this film leads to… pic.twitter.com/BA8lkRCjU8
#TheMarvels is actually great fun, with a good complex dynamic between the leading trio at its center. Iman Vellani steals every scene. Some great stylistic action and a hilarious place-swap dynamic. Lots of Meowsomely crazy moments. With also some BIG setup for the larger MCU. pic.twitter.com/BppzxYyoIQ
#TheMarvels flies higher, further and faster than the first movie! Iman Vellani, take a bow. Easily the most fun I’ve had watching a Marvel movie since Spider-Man: No Way Home. pic.twitter.com/labCXnNEta
—This film is so much fun and exactly what a comic book movie should be. It’s funny, silly, short and sweet, action-packed. Loved the cosmic sci-fi moments. Plenty of MCU interconnectivity without being overbearing.
While Marvel Studios’ upcoming new series Echo is directly connected to their previous series, Hawkeye, featuring Jeremy Renner’s ace sharpshooter and his unasked for protegé, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), it also represents a new approach to how Marvel will handle some of their upcoming series. Echo, which stars Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, was a nominal villain in Hawkeye, a gifted fighter who was thrust into the underworld at a young age and was a ferocious enforcer. Echo follows Maya, who is Native American and hearing impaired, after the events in Hawkeye and centers her reconnection to her Native American roots as she tries to chart a new path forward. It will be a dark path, as is evident in the first trailer, one that has been shaped from the time she was a little girl by one of Marvel’s most notorious villains, Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). The series will also include the return of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock.
Yet despite these connections to the MCU, Echo will be the first series to fall under Marvel’s new Spotlight Banner, which won’t require viewers to possess previous MCU knowledge and which will be darker and grittier in tone and substance than previous Disney+ series. They will, in fact, be more in line with Marvel’s previous TV era on Netflix, specifically Daredevil and The Punisher, and will be geared directly towards a TV-MA audience.
The Spotlight Banner might be new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s actually got a long, rich history within Marvel Comics. Spotlight was an anthology series that began in 1971 and launched new characters with a more grounded approach.
Marvel Studios’ head of streaming, television, and animation, Brad Winderbaum, explained the approach on Marvel.com:
“Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity. Just like comics fans didn’t need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.”
At a press screening of scenes from Echo, series director Sydney Freeland said that viewers can expect a very different tone, considering that, unlike previous Marvel TV installments on Disney+, Echo follows an ostensible villain.
“People on our show — they bleed. They die,” Freeland said. “They get killed, and there are real-world consequences.”
Those consequences are on vivid display in the trailer, which you can see below. Echo arrives on Disney+ on January 10:
For more on all things Marvel Studios, check out these stories:
In writer Susannah Grant’s adaption of the novel Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, currently airing on Apple TV+, Brie Larson plays a budding chemist, Elizabeth Zott, thwarted in her work by her male colleagues who put politics and patriarchy above credible scientific achievement. Shut out of any hope of a chemistry career despite her brilliance, Elizabeth falls into a television career. It’s the early 1950s, and cooking shows are still relatively new, and Elizabeth, both telegenic and a mother, if not a traditional one, is an excellent cook with a television producer for a neighbor.
Cinematographer Zachary Galler (Paper Girls, Dr. Death), who worked on series’ episodes one, two, five, and six, had to set two stages: Elizabeth’s suburban life, featuring an office romance with cantankerous chemist Calvin (Lewis Pullman) and unexpected journey into motherhood, contrasted with her foray under the harsh lights and even harsher psychological milieu of television stardom. Despite the obstacles she faces, her environments are beautiful, lit in a naturalistic way in Elizabeth’s daily life, and blazing and vivid as she ascends in her studio career.
In either setting, despite being a period piece on its face, the camera work in Lessons in Chemistry intentionally avoids a sense of nostalgia, a tendency we got to speak with Galler about, as well as how he created a show within a show, what makes lighting a lab interesting, and how he and the crew brought a vintage sensibility to Elizabeth’s studio through functional retro-engineered props.
The lighting feels real, whether it’s the sun filtering through the windows onto Elizabeth and Calvin in their lab or Elizabeth, Harriet, and their kids eating dual-family dinner at night. How did you approach that?
We worked with Len Levine, my amazing gaffer, to come up with a plan. We had pretty large builds on these stages and pretty large installs and had to plan for a five-episode arc. Knowing how long we were going to be spending in there, we put in a pretty decent-sized lighting installation and did a lot of it with LED so that we could quickly change from day to night and be able to give the directors and actors flexibility. We used lenses called Canon K35s. They’re like these beautiful old vintage lenses. It was a combination of lighting and those lenses that let us keep it naturalistic. We tried to light more from outside the set than inside, in the interest of creating an environment for the actors to exist in, rather than making them step around too many stands and lights and things like that. Philosophically, to me, everything should be there in support of the actors and great performances because ultimately, that’s what’s going to draw the viewer in most.
Brie Larson in “Lessons in Chemistry.” Courtesy Apple TV+.
Some of the most arresting lighting also seemed supported by what we see on screen, like in the case of the Christmas dinner in the lab in the second episode.
Cat Smith, our production designer, really helped me out by giving me a lot to work with in there. We tried to motivate the feeling of the lighting from the Christmas trees and the Christmas decorations. Spoiler alert: for these characters, this was kind of the pinnacle of their relationship, and we wanted it to feel as magical and fairy tale-ish as possible within the set of rules we had for ourselves.
Brie Larson and Lewis Pullman in “Lessons in Chemistry.” Courtesy Apple TV+.
You also had to create a show-within-a-show once Elizabeth starts cooking for television. How did you make that stand apart from her daily life?
I wanted the show to have a kind of perfection in crispness and sharpness that we hadn’t really seen too much in the subjective, naturalistic parts of the story. In episodes 5 and 6, where she gets into the show, at first, it feels kind of saccharine, and it’s not what she wants. It’s what everybody else wants, and she’s finding her way, and as this character does repeatedly, she smashes through the barriers. It needed to feel sort of fake. It’s all pink. It’s not what she would have chosen. I wanted it to be there as a contrast to the dynamic we had in the rest of the show, this romantic part with her and Calvin that feels warm and soft and moody and cozy. This is a harsher environment where, ultimately, the stakes are very high, but she succeeds. Even though it’s sterile and clean and bright in a way that we haven’t really felt elsewhere in the show, it’s there for her to commandeer and start steering.
Episode 8. Stephanie Koenig, Kevin Sussman and Brie Larson in “Lessons in Chemistry,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Did you also look to vintage cooking shows for inspiration?
Len, the gaffer, Cat, the production designer, and I did a lot of research about the period and what this place would have looked like had it actually existed. Julia Child is a thing that comes to everybody’s mind, but there were a lot of cooking shows at this time period. And especially researching Los Angeles, to see smaller studios, what the technicians would have looked like, what the lights would have looked like, and how they would have lit the studio, was really fun. Actually, from a prop house, we found a bunch of lights to be on-camera and then were able to retrofit some of them with newer LED technology so that it wasn’t a thousand degrees in the studio, and we could move things around and dim things up and down without changing the color temperature much. At first, I went in and said we should use all period lights; we’ll do it exactly how they did it. Then I realized this is cutting off our nose to spite our face. There’s a much easier way to do it and still keep the aesthetic. But it was cool to use the old stuff that we don’t really get to put our hands on anymore.
Kevin Sussman in “Lessons in Chemistry,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
So what we see on screen while Elizabeth films in the studio is also providing actual lighting?
We’re seeing behind the scenes, so the character has to be lit, but at the same time, if we’re seeing it from the back, we’re seeing those lights. We could do maybe a little augmentation for a closeup. But everything that you see is there. Cat Smith found the old pedestal cameras that had these turret lenses on them, and they were actually working. We installed these lipstick cams that put a small black and white image — it’s a digital image, but you can’t really tell — on the back of these cameras, which is what the camera operators in the 50s would have had so that we could really have the run of the studio. It was all practical, and we didn’t really have to do the effects and be careful about what we were shooting. Cat gave us an entire 360-degree area to play in.
Kevin Sussman, Brie Larson and Rainn Wilson in “Lessons in Chemistry.” Courtesy Apple TV+
Outside the cooking show, how did you decide how far along the vintage spectrum to go?
It’s not a nostalgic story. The fact that it takes place in the 50s is part of the story, but it’s not necessarily what the story is about. I think Elizabeth Zott could have existed under circumstances in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, and things would have been different aesthetically, but the themes haven’t changed that much. We didn’t want to look back with rose-colored glasses in a way that sometimes a period piece would. We wanted it to feel alive because the things we’re learning about, what this character is going through, are things that still happen.
The lab scenes are interesting because they’re quite beautiful but also present a lot of real science.
That’s just another testament to Cat Smith’s genius, really. These sets were really beautiful, and then it’s funny, we had these science advisors, and we were also trying to adhere to the book. It’s this huge best seller. We don’t want to mess with the formula that’s working; forgive the pun. But like 90 percent of the things scientists do is just clear liquid going into clear liquids, and so we’re figuring this out in prep, and we’re just like okay, we thought it would be a lot more inserting stuff into test tubes and Bunsen burners. There was just not that much visually that happens. Finding a good amount of glass to keep the space looking busy without having our eyes not be able to understand what’s going on was a fine balancing act. And Calvin’s character had really lived in this space, so there was that added aspect of that patina on everything. The labs were an interesting challenge. It was great because Cat built the floors in a way that we could roll dollies around very easily. It was tricky to shoot because it was just four white walls, and Cat did the best version of it that I’ve seen. I think the props and the set direction really just helped it along beautifully.
Brie Larson in “Lessons in Chemistry.” Streaming now on Apple TV+
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The opening half-minute or so of the final trailer for The Marvels connects co-writer/director Nia DaCosta’s movie to major moments in MCU history. From Nick Fury’s initial idea to form a team of superheroes to fight threats too large for any one of them to face alone to the troubling words of the biggest threat of them all (so far), Thanos (Josh Brolin), who promised those Avengers that he was “inevitable,” and even if vanquished, “there will always be more.” Over these words, we see the threat that will center The Marvels, Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn, a Kree revolutionary whose anger at Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is so potent she’ll burn down the world to make her pay.
The final trailer more fully centers Dar-Benn than any previous look at the film and firmly paints a picture of a formidable enemy who can use Captain Marvel’s prodigious powers to make herself stronger. This leads to the trailer’s most surprising moment, the arrival of a beloved character from the larger MCU, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. Valkryie tells Captain Marvel, “You can stand tall without standing alone.” This crucial piece of wisdom likely helps the good Captain see that she can use the help of her two new, cosmically intertwined teammates. The Marvels, as the title suggests, offers not one but multiple heroes in the form of Captain Marvel’s estranged niece, S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Harris), and the pint-sized powerhouse who also happens to idolize her, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani, reprising her role from her Disney+ series Ms. Marvel). These three women find themselves cosmically connected after a mishap with an anomalous wormhole that connects their powers and turns them upside down.
It will take Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Ms. Marvel to take down Dar-Benn, with a little help from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), of course.
The abovementioned cast is joined by Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Saagar Shaikh, Mohan Kapur, Jessica Zhou, and Caroline Simonnet.
Check out the final trailer below. The Marvels arrives in theaters on November 10.
FX’s brilliant series is coming back for a third course.
Hulu has officially renewed The Bear, FX’s critical smash focused on Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a top-flight chef returning to Chicago and taking over his late brother’s sandwich shop. Of course, for lovers of The Bear, that description barely scratches the surface of what this often very funny and equally dramatic series brings to the table, so to speak.
Creator Christopher Storer has staffed his restaurant-world-focused comedy/drama with a pitch-perfect cast, who, along with White, include rising star Ayo Edebiri as Carmen’s skillful number two, Sydney, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as lovable if erratic cousin Richie, Liza Colón-Zayas as the warm, wise chef Tina, Abby Elliott as Carmen’s sister, Natalie, Matty Matheson as the Jack-of-all-trades Neil Fak, Oliver Platt as Uncle Jimmy, and guest turns from huge stars, including Jon Bernthal as Carmen’s late brother Mikey, Jamie Lee Curtis as volatile mom, Donna, and Gillian Jacobs as Richie’s ex, Tiffany.
The Bear‘s first season has been nominated for 13 Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor for White, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Edebiri, and Outstanding Guest Actor for Bernthal and Platt. It was also recognized as an AFI TV Program of the Year and earned a PGA Award, WGA Award, ACE Eddie Award, and more. Season two, bowing this past June, didn’t miss a beat and enjoys a 99% fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The Bear, which wowed audiences in its first season only to achieve even greater heights in season two, has become a cultural phenomenon,” said FX entertainment president Nick Grad in a statement. “We’re so proud to partner with Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo, Josh Senior, and the rest of the creative team, as well as the brilliant cast led by Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. What they and the crew have done is truly remarkable, and we and our partners at Hulu join fans in looking forward to the next chapter in the story of The Bear.”
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While we’ll be eagerly awaiting Dune: Part Two to hit theaters on March 15, 2024, it’s not the only story coming to the screen that’s based on “Dune” author Frank Herbert’s rich, complex sci-fi world. A prequel series for HBO, previously titled Dune: The Sisterhood, has been in the works for some time. Now, according to IGN, HBO has confirmed that the official title for the new series is Dune: Prophecy, and we can expect it in 2024 as well.
Dune: Prophecy will be set some 10,000 years before the events in Dune and will focus on the mysterious sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit, members of whom included Rebecca Ferugson’s Lady Jessica Atreides and Charlotte Rampling’s Reverend Mother Mohiam from Denis Villeneuve’s Part One. It was Mother Mohiam who famously forces Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) to put his hand in a box while holding a lethally poisonous Gom Jabbar to his neck, essentially torturing him, a potentially fatal test to see if Paul is worthy. Such is the mysterious power of the Bene Gesserit that a mother as fierce and protective as Lady Jessica would allow her son to endure this hell.
Dune: Prophecy began filming back in November 2022, and IGN reports we will likely see it in Fall 2024. The cast includes Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Indira Varma, Travis Fimmel, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Faoileann Cunningham, Aoife Hinds, and Chloe Lea. It’s important to note that none of these actors is a part of SAG-AFTRA, so production has not had to shut down.
Prophecy will explore the origins of Bene Gesserit, with sisters Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) at the very center of the action. You might find their last name familiar—they are, indeed, from House Harkonnen, the despotic despoilers of Dune who killed Duke Atreides (Oscar Isaac) in the first film and started a war with House Atreides.
So, it looks like 2024 will be the year of Dune, with director Denis Villeneuve’s Part Two bringing his ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel to a stunning conclusion, while Dune: Prophecy expands the world and the timeline of one of the greatest sci-fi stories ever told.
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Featured image: Caption: REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures
