“Wake Up Dead Man” Composer Nathan Johnson: From Beauty to Darkness in Benoit Blanc’s Latest Mystery

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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery composer Nathan Johnson has scored all three of Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out films. Working alongside Johnson (his cousin), Nathan has created a unique sound for each film, culminating in a fantastical, orchestral finale for Benoit Blanc’s closing monologue. So how’d Johnson do? His work on Wake Up Dead Man has recently been shortlisted for an Oscar.

Here, Johnson takes us into the gothic, at times gruesome, and always compelling world of Johnson’s darkest, most delightfully dastardly Knives Out film yet.

This Knives Out was a bit darker, and the music was a bit more unsettling. Can you talk about your creative process in scoring this film?

All of these movies are pretty distinctly different, even from the very beginning of the script stage. And that applies to the music as well. I mean, for the first Knives Out, it was defined by kind of like a cutting quartet in a claustrophobic New England mansion. For the second one, we went big and broad and sort of luscious, orchestral Greek isles. For this one, it was a lot darker. It was Gothic. It was, in Rian’s mind, I think we were going Edgar Allen Poe. And the very first thing you hear in this is the sound of the entire violin section scraping their bows against the strings, and this is a nails-on-a-chalkboard, uncomfortable sound. And then that resolves into a single, pure tone. And for me, it was this tug-of-war between ugliness and beauty, or between darkness and light, that was the whole movie in my mind, and also what I tried to bring to it with the music.

 

It seemed like there were a lot more singular sounds — the plucking of the strings, the percussion, and violin harmonics. How did those types of sounds help you create the feeling of the film?

So I was looking for a way to use a traditional orchestra, but to kind of upend it, and to lean into these unsettling sounds that were made with traditional instruments, but maybe our ears weren’t quite so familiar with. And part of that had to do with how I approach the rhythm. So instead of having a snare drum, for instance, I got a whole group of bass clarinets. I had them use the keys on their instrument to do this clicky, clacky — almost like a cross between spiders scattering and dominoes falling — and we brought all of them into this big, old stone church and kind of captured the natural reverb in the space. For the strings, we also brought a quartet into the same church, and I led them in these gestural explorations, where I would tell them the key or the chord, and then have them use their bows in a technique called ricochet, bouncing them across the strings. So we got this very precise—yet a little unhinged—sound of skittering and scattering.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Nathan Johnson and Writer/Director Rian Johnson on the set of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

What about the harp? 

Same thing with the harp. Harp is traditionally a majestic, heavenly sound. But instead, I was using the harp in a lot of ways as a rhythmic instrument, and also sometimes just having our amazing harpist, Skaila (Kanga), pluck the lowest note on her harp and letting it ring. And whereas a harp normally sounds like heaven, in this case, it sounds like the dreaded bells of hell. So it was all about trying to take the instruments I had established in the previous movies and turn them on their heads a little.

 

I know you guys filmed in London, and then the film, of course, takes place in New York. Were you working with local musicians in London, or do you have a team you regularly collaborate with?

Yeah, 100%. In fact, I was over there during production, so I was on set. I would go on set a couple of days a week, and then a good friend of mine let me just use his writing room. And so that happened to be at AIR Studios. And so when my player friends were working downstairs, they would come up for lunch break, and I would show them an idea, and they would quickly mock it up for me. For instance, the Tippet Quartet has performed on all three of these movies, and the lead violinist, John Mills, is our concertmaster; he plays all the violin solos in the concerto in this movie. That’s sort of the big piece that finishes the whole thing. So, yeah, it’s really pretty special to have developed a shorthand with these individual musicians.

 

I can imagine that once you’re in the final stage, with the scene filmed and the composition on top of it, you’re not changing things, right?

Exactly. Rian and I are really involved even in that process, so maybe I give him a first pass at what I’ve done for a scene, and he might point out a specific moment. I remember, for instance, during the confession, there’s a moment when one of the characters is talking about what happens, and there’s a very strong musical thread and a really strong rhythmic element. And Rian was asking me at this moment: when the character starts to lose it, can you make it feel like the whole orchestra is falling apart?

Nathan Johnson scoring “Wake Up Dead Man.” Courtesy John Wilson/Netflix.

I saw you talk in an interview about how you like to let the characters’ motivations drive your thought process. So for you…when you’re thinking about the composition of the film, are you going into it thinking what this character is doing right now? What are they thinking? What are they feeling?

I think what makes these movies special is that, if you look at them from the outside, you might think they’re a puzzle we are trying to solve, and Rian and I both love puzzles. We do puzzles every day, but purely puzzle-solving is not enough to sustain an audience through a movie. And the wonderful thing is that these movies really work the way any good movie works, which is 100% based on character and motivation. Who’s the protagonist? What do they want? Why can’t they get it? And what are they feeling? And that’s really where I come in. I mean, there’s enough plot in these movies already. And I love the fact that I get to come in and dance with each character. And that’s something that Rian is also really, really good about. He’s not making decisions primarily based on his musical taste. He’s making decisions based on the story.

 

This one, I’m sure, was fun because there are so many heavy emotions.

This is the first movie of Rian’s that made me cry. I watched an early assembly of the edit with no music, and there’s a moment that made me cry, and it’s sort of a crucial moment. And I realized, A) because it moved me, and B) because it’s such a key part of the movie, that if that scene doesn’t land, the whole movie doesn’t work. So that became the first thing I went home and started working on, because I knew I needed to protect that moment. It was so important to me in my first experience of the movie that I knew we had to be really, really gentle with this moment, and to make sure we set it up so it really lands emotionally.

I did want to ask about motifs in this film, because obviously, you have Benoit Blanc in all three movies. Can you talk about the motifs for his character and for the Monsignor?

So Blanc has a couple of motifs that we feature in all of the movies. This one is interesting because Blanc is really the only one who has melodic motifs. All the other motifs in this movie are conceptual. So we talked about that scratch tone as a pure tone? That’s the motif for Eve’s Apple, which is sort of the thing that they’re chasing all throughout the movie. And it represents this agnostic jewel. It can be good or bad, depending on whose hands it’s in. Which I think is really accurate with a lot of these concepts, like money and power today.

 

Monsignor Wicks’ theme was a really fun one, because it’s a theme of conflicting rhythms. So I’m using this thing called metric modulation to have the orchestra playing in entirely different time signatures and tempos. And anytime Wicks is up in the sermon preaching, the whole orchestra is almost playing at odds with itself, and it’s like mathematically related, but the groove feels so wrong. And I felt like this was just an effective way to evoke the idea of hypocrisy and double-speak among people in power. And it’s this common feeling that we have anytime someone in power is talking about something that very clearly doesn’t exist in the world, and they’re convincing us of a thing that when we look around us, we realize, like, no, that’s not real.

 

I want to know if there’s a scene you felt particularly proud of when you first saw it on screen.

At the end of every Knives Out movie, there’s this 10-minute monologue extravaganza. And that’s always the biggest challenge for me, and this one’s hanging over my head the whole time I’m working on this, because it has to switch gears every 15 to 20 seconds basically, and it has to feel like we’re pulled through the entire thing. So it’s a really challenging bar to hit, because we’re looking back and sometimes seeing the key scenes in the movie in a different light. So it has to feel exciting, but then we have to — on a dime switch and take our foot off the gas and feel the emotion. And then we have to go from basically a standstill, right back up to fifth gear. And because I know that this is the point where the whole movie has to land, I’m always sort of nervous about it. So I think seeing that scene, watching the audience respond to it — this is the moment where I feel like, phew, I can take a breath.

Wake up Dead Man is streaming on Netflix now.

Featured image: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

How James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” Uses Practical Filmmaking You’ve Never Seen Before

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It has been three years since Avatar: The Way of Water became the third-highest-grossing movie, with $2.3 billion worldwide. The much-anticipated third installment in James Cameron’s cinematic spectacle, Avatar: Fire and Ash, launched this past Friday, once again immersing audiences in the lush forests and pristine oceans of the exomoon Pandora. The epic sci-fi from 20th Century Studios picks up after Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family from the blue-skinned Na’vi tribe found refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan in the midst of war against the RDA (Resources Development Administration), which is led by a cloned version of the late Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The visually stunning adventure is another technological marvel that wows audiences with flying whales (Tulkuns), dragon-like pterodactyls (Ikrans), and underwater creatures such as the long-necked reptilian Ilus.

Varang (Oona Chaplin) in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The sensory and visual feast is achieved through cutting-edge motion and performance capture technology that meticulously translates every sinew of emotion and movement onto humanoid characters and creatures alike; there would be no movie at all without the actors’ performances behind every frame. “Some people think that Avatar is very digital or animated, but it’s not animated at all. If there’s a wolf, that’s a human being on all fours acting like a wolf,” reveals stunt coordinator and second unit director on all three films, Garrett Warren (Road House, Logan). “The Tulkuns in the water are water performers from Cirque du Soleil. This movie is shot with practical, in-camera action; it’s all real. We’re sinking a ship for real. When someone flies a bird, we’re not animating that; we capture it on a rig. When a character is riding underwater on an Ilu, we built a jet machine that flies underwater with someone piloting it and another person grabbing onto the back of his neck, flying underwater at 20 knots. The stuff that we’re doing, you’ve never seen done practically in a film before.”

 

To show audiences the practical filmmaking inherent in these films, Cameron released a two-part documentary weeks ahead of the film’s release: available on Disney+, Fire And Water: Making The Avatar Films includes exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, concept art, and interviews with the filmmakers and cast. For years, these details were kept under wraps because “Jim wants people to believe what they’re seeing and think they’re on Pandora with these nine-foot-tall creatures. But many think that’s all digital and animated. But Zoe is really flying on these creatures and fighting people with a bow and arrows. Stephen Lang is really out there fighting Jake. It’s all practical,” the five-time SAG stunt ensemble nominee reveals. “We don’t want to ruin it for anybody — we want the magic to still be there — but some don’t believe in the magic because they think it’s all animated. These movies don’t look like any other animated movie because they’re not animated,” Warren remarks.

 

Oscar-nominated editor of all three Avatar films, Stephen Rivkin (Alita: Battle Angel, Pirates of the Caribbean) concurs: “Everything you see is performed by the actors and the stunt crew. We edit the film at least twice. First, we take the raw performances and create performance edits to pick the best takes, which are then played back to create the shots that go into the sequences,” he explains of the laborious editorial process to construct the film. “The performance capture is done in what’s called a ‘volume’ on the sound stage, where the actors perform, and every movement of their bodies and faces is captured. We have video reference cameras to give us a way to review and edit the performances. After Jim picks the takes he wants from the dailies, we combine the actors’ performances from different takes to assemble the best pieces. The digital characters represent the actors’ exact performance. They’re CG characters, but the performance is not computer-generated — it’s like wearing makeup — but the actors’ performances drive everything.”

 

“Jim often talks about the limitations of live-action shooting; some actors get it right the first time, others might peak on the sixth take,” Rivkin continues. “But here, we’re able to put every actor’s best performance in the same scene so that everybody’s at their very best. Every line is perfect, and everybody hits their marks because it’s all been pre-selected and edited.” These performance edits are then combined with the characters’ CG models in the lab, where digital artists create shootable files with inputs from production design, environments, wardrobe, creatures, and anything needed in the scene for the rough camera pass, which informs “how it’s going to be lit and shot, in preparation for Jim to do final virtual camera shooting. The performances can be played back on the volume as many times as needed, when the actors are no longer present, and used to create the coverage of virtual shots that go into the final edit of each scene.”  

(L-R) Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tsireya (Bailey Bass) in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Despite the digital embellishments, every shred of emotion on-screen is driven by human performance. “I think after two films, there is still the misconception that these actors are not performing every second on the screen, and that is not true. Some people think there is a voice track with the actors voicing the characters in a booth, like for an animated film. But nothing could be further from the truth,” Rivkin points out, adding that: “As the side-by-side final render in the documentary shows, you can see the actors’ performance. Hopefully, audiences will begin to understand the complex, painstaking process of reproducing that actor’s performance in all its nuance. Nowadays, with the level of photorealism in CG animation, I can understand why people might think this is an animated CG character, but it’s not. These films are purely driven by actors. Once Jim has completed his final pass of cameras and editing, only then does it go to WETA. They apply the facial capture data to the high-res model, where every muscle in the face is accounted for and accurately reproduced on the CG model.”

 

“It goes performance capture, editorial performance edit, back to stage for virtual cameras, then back to editorial, then onto our post process. It’s an unusual cycle that creates a paradigm shift in the filmmaking process,” shares two-time Oscar-winning VFX Supervisor for the first two Avatar films, Richard Baneham (who was also on The Lord of the Rings films). “We call it performance capture, as opposed to motion capture, because we are wholly invested in the performance of the actor, including the cadences and idiosyncrasies of the selected take,” he says of the precise process. In terms of constructing every shot, “we shoot reference cameras from every conceivable angle. The capture system allows us to record the complete performance, both motion and facial, in the volume. We don’t shoot unless it has been calibrated down to less than a millimeter of fidelity. We really want to get to the very essence of the performers and make sure that’s recorded in a manner that we carry it through the pipeline all the way to final delivery, because our process is completely dependent on the audience buying these characters. I work directly with WETA to protect these performances so that we have that connection from inception through to the final moment. I review every piece of motion and performance all the way through and constantly check it against the actor’s performance.”

 

There are four types of cameras in this demanding process, as Baneham explains. “The optical sensors record the motion with infrared light at about 240 Hz. Then, we turn that motion into kinematic data. The second cameras are witness or reference cameras; we shoot them almost as if they were coverage. We live and die by the close-ups, as we need to understand the idiosyncrasies of each performance so that Jim and Editorial can choose the ones that’ll have the most narrative impact. The editorial process is one of the paradigm shifts, since in our process, we introduce editorial before we ever have shots, which was a crazy concept in 2005,” he says of the groundbreaking filmmaking technique when the first Avatar film was made. “Camera #3 includes two head-mounted cameras on the head rig, or the HMC, that builds the topography of the face on a frame-by-frame basis. The value of what we put on-screen is based on these specific performances. With Camera #4, we do the rough camera pass. The first pass stands up all the basic angles, and we do an editorial pass before reviewing with Jim. He conducts a fully fledged camera pass, making decisions about close-ups and two-shots and setting the scene’s rhythm. In some ways, this mimics the live-action paradigm, except that we get the advantage of choosing the very best performances. So, we naturally have continuity since the performances have already been chosen to work well together.”

Director James Cameron and Oona Chaplin on the set of 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo by Mark Fellman. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

With Fire and Ash, Baneham is particularly excited about sharing the new characters with the audience. “I think we’ve touched on something special with the relationship between Oona [Chaplin] and her character, Varang, which I’m really anticipating the audience enjoying.” As for Rivkin, “my hope is that there’s a new appreciation and respect for the actors’ performances, which have existed in all three films, but I think they’ve been underestimated and overlooked because of a misconception about how these films are made. I really hope there’s a much wider acceptance of the actors’ contribution and the diligence that our team takes to reproduce that performance in all its glory and detail onto the screen.” Baneham agrees: “Zoe’s performance was so strong: her effort, energy, and commitment to the character was every bit as powerful had we shot her live action.”

Zoe Saldaña on the set of 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo by Mark Fellman. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

 

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters everywhere, and Fire And Water: Making The Avatar Films is streaming now on Disney+.

Featured image: Varang (Oona Chaplin) in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

“Superman: Man of Tomorrow” Villain Revealed: James Gunn Casts Lars Eidinger to Play Brainiac

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James Gunn shared some huge news on social media this past Saturday, revealing that he’d found the man to play Brainiac, the villain in his upcoming Superman sequel, Superman: Man of Tomorrow. 

Lars Eidinger has secured the coveted role, a German actor little known stateside but who has appeared in some big series, including the acclaimed German series Babylon Berlin, Shawn Levy’s Netflix miniseries All the Light We Cannot See, and Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise. 

We’ve known since September that Gunn’s upcoming sequel will find David Corenswet’s Superman teaming up with a very unlikely ally, Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, after Luthor moved heaven and Earth to try to have Superman destroyed in the first film. In Brainiac, Eidinger is taking on a classic Superman villain first introduced in Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino’s 1958 “Action Comics No. 242,” revealing a super-intelligent alien hell-bent on shrinking Metropolis and bottling it up to add to his collection of miniaturized alien cities. The threat is so significant that Superman has no choice but to turn to Lex Luthor.

Gunn wasted no time after Superman‘s successful launch this past September to get moving on the sequel, with Man of Tomorrow slated to hit theaters on July 9, 2027. Gunn is once again directing from a script he wrote.

For more on all things DC Studios, check out these stories:

Meet Milly Alcock’s Messier, Mightier Kara Zo-El in Wild First “Supergirl” Trailer

James Gunn’s Finished the Next “Superman Saga” Treatment, “Peacemaker” Season 2 Key to DCU

“Film is Forever”: How Maria Gabriela de Faría Embraced the Pain of Playing “Superman” Villain The Engineer

From Bismuth Crystal Rivers to Real Neon Signs: Supervising Art Director David Scott on Designing James Gunn’s “Superman”

Featured image: BERLIN, GERMANY – FEBRUARY 13: Lars Eidinger poses at the “Das Licht” photocall during the 75th Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin at Grand Hyatt Hotel on February 13, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Shawn Levy Celebrates “Star Wars: Starfighter” Wrapping Filming With New Image

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It’s official—Star Wars: Starfighter has finished filming. We are that much closer to the first new Star Wars film since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, J.J. Abrams’ trilogy capper, which revealed that Rey (Daisy Ridley) is a direct descendant of Emperor Palpatine.

Director Shawn Levy shared the news on Instagram with a fresh look at himself—we’ve previously gotten a glimpse of Gosling and co-star Flynn Gray somewhere on the Mediterranean—running through an Inception-style corridor (he’s practically running on the wall). Levy is racing toward post-production on the hotly anticipated film.

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A post shared by Shawn Levy (@slevydirect)

So what is Star Wars: Starfighter actually about? This is the part where we are required, by Galactic law, to state that the details are being kept sealed in carbonite. The broad strokes are that it’s a stand-alone film, meaning it is not a part of the Skywalker Saga, the mega-narrative that fueled all of George Lucas’s films and the three new Star Wars films—The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker. Levy’s film is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker and will feature new characters that are, presumably, not connected to Rey, Luke, Leia, and the rest of the Skywalker gang.

Star Wars: Starfighter boasts a very good cast to support Gosling and Gray, including the always excellent Amy Adams and rising star Aaron Pierre. They’re joined by Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, and Daniel Ings. It was previously announced that Mia Goth and Matt Smith are on board as villains. 

“I feel a profound sense of excitement and honor as we begin production on Star Wars: Starfighter,” Levy said in a statement when production kicked off in the United Kingdom. “From the day Kathy Kennedy called me up, inviting me to develop an original adventure in this incredible Star Wars galaxy, this experience has been a dream come true, creatively and personally. Star Wars shaped my sense of what story can do, how characters and cinematic moments can live with us forever. To join this storytelling galaxy with such brilliant collaborators onscreen and off, is the thrill of a lifetime.”

Star Wars: Starfighter is scheduled for release on May 28, 2027. Before that, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu is set to hit theaters on May 22, 2026.

Featured image: Shawn Levy on the set of “Star Wars: Starfighter.” Courtesy Walt Disney Studios. 

Melting Ice: How “Heated Rivalry” Became the Year’s Hottest Sports Romance

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Based on Rachel Reid’s bestselling book series, Heated Rivalry has become one of the hottest sports dramas of the year. The original show blends high-stakes professional hockey with a slow-burning romance that’s just as emotionally charged as it is physical. Set over eight years in the Major League Hockey (MLH), the series follows a trio of players as they reckon with their paths of self-discovery, identity, denial, and love.

 

Scott Hunter (François Arnaud), a veteran player traded from the Montreal Metros to the New York Admirals, sees his private life clash with the public expectation of being an athlete. In Episode 3, “Hunter,” Scott meets Kip Grady [Robbie G.K.], initially asleep behind the register at a smoothie shop, but after trying his Blueberry-Banana shake, he quickly becomes a regular. Their chance meetings around town quickly deepen into something more intimate and complicated. Despite their chemistry, Scott struggles to be seen publicly with Kip, revealing the strain of remaining closeted in such a hyper-masculine sport.

Heated Rivalry – (L to R) François Arnaud as Scott Hunter and Robbie G.K. as Kip Grady in Episode 103 of Heated Rivalry. Cr. Sabrina Lantos © 2025

Skating in parallel is the undeniable attraction between Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storries) as they both compete to be the next great. Shane Hollander, an Asian-Canadian rising star, joins the Montreal Metros as their new Captain after the draft. He becomes a trailblazer in a league long dominated by white athletes. However, the pressure of leadership, representation, and perfection weighs heavily on Shane, both on and off the ice.

Heated Rivalry (L to R) – Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in Episode 105 of Heated Rivalry. Cr. Sabrina Lantos © 2025

Ilya Rozanov is an overly cocky, aggressive Russian player for the Boston Raiders who faces a different kind of pressure. Coming from a non-accepting LGBTQ+ country, seeking his family’s approval and carrying the financial burden of trying to support his family back home, Ilya pushes himself harder than anyone else on the ice. With his personality as a helmet, he’s been trained never to drop the puck, especially when his father’s approval feels as slippery as being on the ice right after the Zamboni.

Heated Rivalry – Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in Episode 105 of Heated Rivalry. Cr. Sabrina Lantos © 2025

What begins as a tense rivalry for bragging rights doesn’t necessarily lead the duo into the penalty box, but instead into an unexpected romance. Beneath the body checks, romantic tension between the two begins to break the ice, eventually something neither will be able to hide. In “The Roses” episode, in an intimate moment, everything changes when Shane and Ilya start addressing each other by their first name instead of their last names. The subtle shift is terrifying for Shane as he realizes he’s crossed an emotional line he’s not ready to face, and in a panic, he leaves Ilya. 

Heated Rivalry (L to R) – Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in Episode 104 of Heated Rivalry. Cr. Sabrina Lantos © 2025

The tension only further escalates when Shane enters a public relationship with actress Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse), leaving everyone swooning except for one. Ilya sits in jealousy, heartbreak, and anger watching Shane in a relationship with someone else. 

Heated Rivalry – (L to R) Sophie Nélisse as Rose Landry and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in Episode 104 of Heated Rivalry. Cr. Sabrina Lantos © 2025

Their story unfolds through moments of glances, silences, and the physical language of two men who were taught never to show any weakness. Williams and Storries’ microexpressions convey every unspoken thought, adding to the already unmatched level of natural chemistry that could—yes, I must—melt the ice. With Jacob Tierney as writer/director, the show remains faithful to Reid’s original series, making the fans of the series now fans of the series. His writing allows both actors to create the raunchy dynamic that makes those of us who loved Reid’s novel very happy indeed. The series generates enough heat to fog up the glass.

Produced by Canadian streaming service Crave, the series was initially expected to be released only in Canada. International fans, determined, took to social media to strategize ways to watch the show. With massive buzz across social media and the internet, global demand only continued to grow. Nearly one week before its expected release, HBO picked up U.S. and Australian distribution, while Crave partnered with Sky and Movistar+ to ensure the series reached other audiences worldwide. 

Since its debut, Heated Rivalry has become Crave’s biggest original series on record, growing its viewership by nearly 400% in its first seven days. The show has already been greenlit for a second season, with HBO Max boarding for U.S. and Australian rights. Warner Bros. Discovery has secured Season 1 and 2 rights across most of Europe, Asia, and Latin America, while Neon/Sky New Zealand is returning as a partner for Season 2. 

Lace those skates up; things are only going to get hotter.

​

Stream Heated Rivalry now on HBO Max, with new episodes hitting the platform every Friday.

Featured image: Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie. Photograph by Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

Steven Spielberg’s First Original Sci-Fi in Years: “Disclosure Day” Teaser Reveals Emily Blunt’s Chilling Alien Encounter

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“If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?”

This is the question posed in the opening seconds of the first glimpse at Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day, his first original sci-fi thriller in years, which he directed from a script he co-wrote with Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp. From the unsettling opening question, we’re taken into a television studio in Kansas City, where things get deeply, unsettlingly bizarre. Emily Blunt’s meteorologist is about to report on the day’s weather when she finds herself unable to speak, and what comes out of her mouth next is certainly no language humanity has ever heard, but it resonates on some deeper, elemental level. This sounds like the language of a species not from our planet.

We then meet Josh O’Connor’s character, who seems to know a thing or two more about what’s going on. His plan is to reveal to the world what’s really going on. “Full disclosure,” he says, “all at once.” That means seven billion people learning the truth. But what is the truth?

Such is the setup for Disclosure Day, which, this being a Spielberg event film, features an incredible ensemble cast. Joining Blunt and O’Connor are Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).

“Why would he make such a vast universe?” a nun asks in the closing seconds of the teaser, “and save it only for us?” This is not a bad question, and we’re guessing that Spielberg will have an answer for us next summer.

Check out the first teaser for Disclosure Day, which lands in theaters on June 12, 2026.

Director Steven Spielberg on the set of DISCLOSURE DAY.
Josh O’Connor in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.

Featured image: Emily Blunt in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg. Courtesy Universal Pictures.

Production Designer Kevin Thompson on Capturing NYC’s Iconic Comedy Scene in Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?”

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Production designer Kevin Thompson knows New York and its environs like the back of his hand (one of those old, paper MTA maps), and few things give him more joy than showcasing his knowledge of and love for the city on the big screen. His work on director Bradley Cooper‘s Is This Thing On? is a perfect example.

Having already immortalized the Big Apple in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Igby Goes Down, 54, and The King of Staten Island, the dramedy’s heart lies in the Village’s legendary comedy scene. Will Arnett plays Alex, a man who finds solace in stand-up comedy as his marriage to his wife Tess, played by Laura Dern, crumbles. The estranged couple must navigate co-parenting and their new lives while reassessing the choices and sacrifices they have made. Is This Thing On? lands in select theaters on December 19.

Here, Thompson, who previously worked with Cooper on Maestro, explains where the collaborators start on any project, how they maintain the authenticity of locations, and how they filmed at the iconic Comedy Cellar.

 

What were your first conversations you had with Bradley about this?

We always start on a conceptual, emotional level. What do you want to feel when you watch this movie? How do we get to know these characters, and what’s the geography? What’s believable and natural? We have to get that before we start discussing tangible details, such as set dressing or locations. Bradley likes to work from the characters’ emotions outward.

There are a handful of focal locations for this, including the Comedy Cellar, Alex’s apartment, and Cooper’s character Balls’ apartment. Did you get those locked first, then fill in everything in between?

We actually started with an overall package. We got the backstory going on how Alex and Tess’ suburban house was about 45 minutes away up the West Side Highway. Alex lived in the Village, not far from the Comedy Cellar, and we wanted to make that realistic. He lives in a very bland apartment. We knew from the beginning that we were going to build it because of the way we wanted to shoot it. Balls [Cooper] and Christine [Andra Day] lived in a loft they had lived in for years in DUMBO or somewhere in Brooklyn. We figured out the Oyster Bay house, the geography of the train’s route, and where it would end up, so we started mapping the world and had imagery for each part. We could see the whole movie and would juggle things around as needed. We felt we needed Jill’s [Jordan Jensen] East Village apartment to contrast with where Alex was in his development as a comic and in his marriage. We also filled in by building things, like the attic room in Oyster Bay, for the big scene between Tess and Alex at the end of the movie. We were inspired by the Stanford White House that we found. We thought it would be nice to have a turret room, and the only way we could really shoot in that, practically, was to build it.

Will Arnett and Laura Dern in IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Movies and TV shows set in New York often put characters in apartments they could never afford in real life. Friends is a great example. Was it important to avoid that?

Absolutely. Alex says at the beginning of the movie that he works in finance. He has a house and family that he’s paying for. He ends up renting a decent, one-bedroom apartment in a nondescript, sad building, but realistically, he could have afforded that. From the beginning, Bradley wanted New York City to be a character. We wanted to be out on the streets, feel naturalistic, and avoid exaggerating the amount of money these people had, unlike Friends. Those were kids; these are adults, so they actually have money at this point. The Oyster Bay house was in Balls’ family, and there’s a whole backstory to him that the audience doesn’t get told. As a designer, this was a genre of movie where, from the beginning, we wanted the design to be practically invisible. We wanted it to augment the characters, to tell something about them through the design of where they lived and how relaxed, or messy, life is. 

From L to R: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Andra Day in IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett in IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Are there other ways that manifested?

It’s not staged or designed with intention; accidents happen, and there are messes everywhere. There are signs of real life. It’s not a polished Hollywood look; it’s about keeping the utility out of the design. You see the cash registers, the screens, and the trash cans, and typically in another movie with a different point of view, we would clean up a location much more. In this case, we left them the way they were, and sometimes even enhanced the mess and the f***ed-up quality to the way things are so that it would feel more natural.

Will Arnett in IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Jason McDonald/Searchlight Pictures, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Did you have to do anything to the Comedy Cellar to film there?

We did quite a bit of work to make the lighting work for the camera, adjust the layout, raise the stage, and get camera points of view that worked with all the mirrors. Hopefully, it’s all invisible, and it feels the way it does when you’re there. It was the same with the Olive Tree café above the Comedy Cellar, where the comics hang out and sit in the booth. All that art is what is authentically existing in the place, and that corner booth is where they really hang out, from Judd Apatow to Chris Rock. We wanted those people to see the movie and go, ‘This is exactly the way it is.’ There was a lot of attention to understanding what that felt like. Between Matthew Libatique, the DP; Bradley, the director; the camera operator; the prop department; and the set decorators, everybody understood what we were doing from the beginning. Bradley has his eyes on everything and understands what each department does. He is micromanaging in a loving way. He makes everybody step up their game and understand what he’s doing, because he talks about it to everybody from the set PAs to the prop people. It’s a beautiful process.

 

You have portrayed New York as a different character in many movies. For Is This Thing On? it’s the comedy clubs and the world of comedians, but with Birdman, you focused on another heart of New York: Broadway. Did you find any similarities, or were they very different beasts?

I consider myself an expert on New York. I’ve lived here since 1981, and I’ve done 35 movies here, each with its own point of view. New York can offer so many things. I’m always interested in how New York has changed so much since my first movie here, what each movie is about, and what it can say about the city. This was about Downtown, Brooklyn, people moving to the suburbs, and these very specific neighborhoods. I know this neighborhood very well because I live near the Comedy Cellar, so it’s my world. It’s also Bradley’s world because he lives two blocks from me. Part of what I love about this job is that I get to do something different with every movie and director. Some directors want a very spare, clinical, rich-person’s New York, and others want the opposite, so it’s really fun to create different worlds. I’m familiar with many different pockets of this city and its boroughs, so it’s really fun to work with another New Yorker like Bradley.

Laura Dern and Will Arnett with director Bradley Cooper on the set of IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

When it comes to local talent, is there someone you always call on for anything you need or for an answer to a question you can’t provide?

There’s not one person in particular, but I have a few teams that I can bring on for specific jobs. There’s a really strong community of leading set dressers, decorators, art directors, set designers, scene painters, and construction coordinators in New York, and I depend on all of them. I work with different groups for different movies, depending on the size and nature of the film, but there’s definitely a strong community I depend on.

New York remains set up for filmmakers. What can be done to make things even easier?

I would like the city to have more stage space for building. There are a lot of things going to New Jersey right now, and I am a designer who really believes you have to shoot New York in New York. We’re building more stage space and trying to keep things here. The crews put up with a lot on the streets, and they’re used to it. It’s down and dirty. 

Is This Thing On? will be released in select theaters on Friday, December 19, with a wider release on Christmas Day.

Featured image: Will Arnett with director Bradley Cooper on the set of IS THIS THING ON? Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

“Wake Up Dead Man” Cinematographer Steve Yedlin on Framing Rian Johnson’s Darkest “Knives Out” Yet

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When I walked into the theater to see Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I’d soon be talking to Steve Yedlin, the cinematographer behind the film’s meticulous, moody visual world. I was just excited by the thought of revisiting a universe that has become something like comfort food to me. I’ve watched Knives Out and Glass Onion more times than I care to admit publicly, and something about their combination of old-school craft, modern playfulness, and rapier wit keeps me coming back. What struck me about Wake Up Dead Man, though, was how distinct it felt: visually darker, more Gothic, threaded with a different flavor of tension, yet still unmistakably part of the same lineage.

Talking with Yedlin, it became obvious that none of this was accidental. What most people think of as visual magic was, in large part, the product of decades of collaboration between him and Johnson, a partnership as intuitive as it is highly technical. This isn’t a director-DP relationship so much as a shared language built over years of evolving together. And as Yedlin tells it, that evolution has been steady, continuous, and almost familial. “There’s never been any sort of break point or big change,” he told me. “It always just feels like going back and doing a Rian movie again, a ‘Rian family get-together.’” Even when working on a large-scale project like The Last Jedi, that dynamic didn’t shift. “It just always feels like going back for another ‘Rian family get-together.’”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Director of Photography Steve Yedlin and Writer/Director Rian Johnson on the set of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

That sense of continuity doesn’t mean stagnation, however. Both artists have grown, both as people and as craftspeople. “Rian has always been fantastic,” Yedlin said, smiling. “He’s been one of my best friends since we were 17, 18 years old…And he’s just gotten, not just better and better at his craft, but he really makes it a journey. Just like he puts all the work into the movie being great, he puts work into making it a magical adventure for the whole cast and crew.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Writer/Director Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig on the set of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

Wake Up Dead Man is imbued with that spirit of adventure from the script level. I was particularly curious about the film’s elaborate sun-and-shadow choreography, which features beams of light breaking through clouds, dimming mid-monologue, and returning at just the right emotional moment. This was one of the things that made the film feel so evocative and distinct from earlier entries, and I wondered when those ideas first came up. “Oh, I mean, right away,” Yedlin said. “He (Johnson) builds a lot of that stuff even into the script.” Sometimes those cues were explicitly written into scenes. Other times, Johnson had already decided exactly where he wanted naturalistic or symbolic shifts in light before the shot list even existed. “He also knew that he wanted to do it more than just those ones that had been very carefully planned in advance,” Yedlin explained. “He told me kind of first thing, when we first started talking about it.”

 

That early intentionality is no small thing when the technical demands are this enormous. In the film, the church and rectory sets function almost like characters themselves, their environments shifting dramatically in ways that are precise, repeatable, and subtly felt rather than flashy. Yedlin lit up describing the challenge of engineering all those transformations. “We kind of have every type of different feel,” he said. “Day, night, overcast day, sunny day, dusk, dawn, early morning warm light slicing in. And then we have the flashback that’s pointedly unrealistic, not evocative of a real time of day.” In other words, every lighting scenario imaginable, all of which had to be executed in a way that felt seamless.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

Yedlin and his team approached the problem like a giant puzzle. “It was figuring out how to rig it all so we could do the changes,” he explained. That meant a combination of highly controlled rigging and Yedlin’s own custom light-control software, which allowed him to make subtle adjustments in real time. “The best interface is no interface,” he said, referencing a philosophy that clearly guides his process. “You don’t feel like you’re interacting with the mechanics of it. You’re just doing the creative thing and getting results, not thinking about the mechanics.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig on the set of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

It struck me how that level of preparation actually freed the crew rather than constrained them. You’d think that shots as elaborate as the ones in Wake Up Dead Man would take significantly longer to set up, but Yedlin insisted that wasn’t the case. “Even some of the super complicated [shots]…didn’t really take any longer than shots that aren’t that complicated because of all the work that we had done in prep,” he said. “Once you have something you like, it’s perfectly repeatable. We can always write on this line, we can always start the cue, and it takes exactly this long for the sun to come out.”

The effect on the final film is stunning. There’s a lighting sequence early on, when Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) cloaks himself in philosophy and skepticism, that seems to move seamlessly with the dialogue. A cloud drifting, shadows falling, and a swell of light returning all occur within a single shot. I remember sitting in my seat thinking, Oh, this is so good. Hearing Yedlin describe it, I understood why it felt almost musically timed. That’s because it is.

 

From our conversation, it became clear that despite their precision, these visuals exist to be felt rather than noticed. Still, I had to ask about something I’ve always loved about these films. Each installment looks uniquely its own, yet the series maintains a cohesive identity. How did he and Johnson approach that balance on Wake Up Dead Man? “There’s no one weird trick,” he said, laughing at the idea of a formula. “It’s not like a novelist saying, ‘My idea for this novel is it’s going to be in all caps.’” Instead, they treat each shot the way a writer treats a sentence: with purpose, with context, and with emotional specificity. “If you’re actually designing the shots to tell this story, it’s going to look different from the other ones automatically.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

At the same time, some consistencies are inevitable. “Firstly, just because it’s us doing it,” he said. “It’s your personality…your brain doing the problem solving. So there’s going to be some aspect of the same sort of…you.” And he added that the ensemble nature of the Knives Out films presents recurring structural challenges. “You always end up with a couple of scenes where everybody’s kind of standing in a circle,” he noted. “All of these movie stars standing in a circle, a lot of dialogue…and the strong line of conflict between these two people. When you have those same things to problem-solve, you inevitably end up with at least similarities in the solutions.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Josh Brolin, Daryl McCormack, Glenn Close, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott and Jeremy Renner in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

One of the most striking elements of Wake Up Dead Man is its tonal shift. It’s darker, moodier, more Gothic, and, in places, closer to a horror film than a traditional whodunit. Yedlin has experience in that arena. He’s worked on slashers and even collaborated with the late Tobe Hooper, a horror legend whose Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains one of my all-time favorite films. I was curious whether that background influenced his work on Wake Up Dead Man. “Yeah, but not directly,” he said. “It’s not like I’m doing exactly one thing we did on those, but those experiences inform everything, even if it’s a comedy, just because it’s where I learned so much.” Talking about Hooper, his expression softened. “Tobe was absolutely amazing. He was the first director I ever worked with who was really experienced, the first person with a whole career as a director. I always remember learning so, so much from him.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Glenn Close and Josh O’Connor in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. John Wilson/Netflix © 2025

The cinematic language of Wake Up Dead Man, with its stylized lighting cues, haunted Gothic textures, and bold tonal swings, certainly echoes genre filmmaking. But what interested me most was how Yedlin manages to hold precision and spontaneity together at once, without sacrificing either. When I asked him about the balance, he actually changed the premise. “I don’t even know if those are opposites,” he said. “In a way, the precision is that we can finesse and improvise more. We’re not spiraling.” Because the technical foundations are so secure, he explained, the team can spend its time creatively rather than troubleshooting. “We can be finessing, making it better and better,” he said. “Even to the point where…I can be doing last little finesses even between banging the slate and action, or sometimes even sneaking them in while we’re already rolling.”

Precision, in Yedlin’s mind, is not rigidity. It’s the condition that allows for freedom.

 

That freedom was especially important on this film because of the scope of Johnson’s conceptual ideas, which Yedlin described as both specific and enormously evocative. “Rian always has big story and thematic ideas about lighting,” he said. “He already knows what he wants. It’s not me pitching him ideas.” Yet, at the same time, “he doesn’t micromanage me at all about how to do it. He trusts me to figure out how to do the conceptual thing.”

The result is a process without the usual friction. There’s no tug-of-war, no prolonged indecision, no competing visions. “He was making such a great movie,” Yedlin said. “Those ideas were themselves so big and evocative…baked into the fabric of the thing.” That clarity allowed them to devote all their energy to execution, from the massive church lighting system to the bold simplicity of the resurrection scene, in which a jarring floodlight punctuates the darkness. “We’re not spending time pitching ideas or wondering,” he said. “We know what we’re doing. So we can spend all of the time in prep, and then when we’re shooting, be really honing in on making that the best it can be.”

As our conversation concluded, I couldn’t resist asking Yedlin the question every Knives Out fan asks. What’s next for him and Johnson? He laughed and shook his head. “He’s told me the concept of the new one, but I don’t think I’m allowed to say it.”

Fair enough, I had to try.

What stayed with me after we parted wasn’t the secret of the next mystery, but the feeling I get talking to cinematographers: the realization that movies, especially beautiful movies, are held together by a thousand invisible choices, hours of unseen problem-solving, and the steady curiosity of people who love making images, not for show, but for story. Yedlin approaches cinematography with the mind of an engineer and the heart of a storyteller, and Wake Up Dead Man is one of those rare films where you can feel those layers at work even if you can’t see them.

Walking out of the theater after my first viewing, I remember thinking that this film feels different. After talking with Steve Yedlin, I understand exactly why.

 

Wake Up Dead Man is in theaters and streaming on Netflix now.  

Featured image: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (L-R) Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

 

Filming “F1: The Movie”: Stunt Coordinator Gary Powell on Brad Pitt’s Wild Ride From Abu Dhabi to Spa

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In the first part of our conversation with stunt coordinator and second unit director Gary Powell, he talked about director Joseph Kosinski’s ambitious vision for Apple’s highest-grossing theatrical release to date, F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt (Sonny Hayes) and Damson Idris (Joshua Pearce). The film received unprecedented access to the Formula One organization and was filmed during the 2023 and 2024 seasons at several Grand Prix events, including the climactic race in Abu Dhabi. Now, we continue our conversation with Powell.

 

For all the cars used in this production, whether stunt cars, camera cars or the hero cars, were there extra safety features built into them that you wouldn’t find in an actual Formula One car?

No, the Formula One cars are as safe as they physically can be because they’re designed to go as fast as possible and keep the driver inside. There was nothing we could add to enhance it. We didn’t need to because all the cars had to be FIA-certified [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile]. Our cars were built by Mercedes, they were F2 cars with an F1 body on them. All the impact zones and everything are exactly as they should be on a proper Formula One car.

(L-r) Director/Producer JOSEPH KOSINSKI and Producer LEWIS HAMILTON on the set of Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Even the stunt and camera cars had to be FIA-certified?

Yes, the cars that Brad drove were exactly the same as what the stunt guys drove. The only difference is each driver has their own seats molded to their body so you’re not moving around inside the cockpit. If you have an impact, that movement can cause injury. But when you’re locked in solid, it’s actually a lot safer.

Brad Pitt in “F1.” Courtesy Warner Bros.

How many cameras were mounted on each of car?

We could put eight IMAX cameras on each car, they were custom-built by Sony and Claudio. All the camera mounts were custom-made for each car, so it’s not like the ones bolted on stunt cars. Everything was crash-tested — things couldn’t be flying off if there was an impact.

For the climactic race in the Abu Dhabi circuit, how did your team prepare for that?

We were there testing for a few weeks and had the track to ourselves. On the last day, the heavens opened up and rain flooded the area. Fortunately, we were done by then and got out. When we went back to shoot during the Grand Prix, we had certain time slots and knew exactly what we had to do each time we went onto the track.

Apple Original Films’ “F1: The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

You also filmed there during their practice days?

Yeah, which gave us the real crowd on the grandstands with the fireworks after the night race. It was spectacular. All the proper teams were in the pit lane when our cars pulled in as if we’re doing a pit stop. At the end, we also had [Formula One racing drivers] Charles LeClerc and George Russell, who started off a race with our drivers in main race. It was really nice having them come on board with us. At one point, we had Lewis Hamilton interacting with our actors during a pit stop. It was a great collaboration with the Formula One world.

How much time on the tracks did you have on practice days?

There are other races going on at the same time, Formula Two, Formula Three, and other championships. Generally, everything before the Sunday race day is all practice, whether it be Formula One or Formula Two, and the qualifying is generally on Saturday. The crowd is there with all the banners and all the screens up, so we didn’t have to do it digitally, which was a huge cost saver. After a Formula One race, we might have 15 minutes before the Formula Two race starts. As soon as their cars pulled in, we had to go out, do our bit and get in. It was very strict. There was no opportunity to do another lap that wasn’t planned. You’ve got four or five laps and that’s it.

Apple Original Films’ “F1: The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

What was the G-forces that the actors and drivers had to deal with at those speeds?

We had all ex-racing drivers, so they’re used to it. But that’s why we kept up with practice throughout filming. Formula One goes on a summer break, but we couldn’t just stop and come back into it, because your muscles would relax. Your neck muscles in particular take a lot of strain when you’re going around the corners at those speeds. So, it’s something you have to keep up with. If you’re not used to it and just got in a Formula One car and went around for 10 laps, you’d probably have a stiff neck for about a week.

 

All the stunt drivers are former racing drivers?

Some of them are still racing, but all have raced at a very high level in championships. Luciano is an F2 champion. Duncan Tappy teaches many drivers now, including Lando Norris. They’re all at the top of their game, which made my job really easy. When you’re doing 180 miles an hour inches away from each other, you have to be precise.

Finally, let’s talk about the Daytona sequence!

That was our first scene, so that was good fun. I remember the night I drove there after flying in from England, you come across the grandstand at this world-famous track, which just keeps going and going — it’s absolutely enormous! It was an amazing experience to interact with all the race teams and the thousands of people. Many weren’t in the stands but actually in the infield with hundreds of motorhomes, set up with little bars and hot tubs. All these people were having the best time, that was pretty impressive to see.

What was different about filming there?

The bank circuits are something that Grand Prix drivers and those from Europe don’t really come across anymore; we used to them back in the 60s. When you see it on TV, it doesn’t show how steep it actually is — it’s literally like walking up a brick wall. I remember going out there in a pickup truck and I had to speed up or I would’ve rolled over. It was amazing to be on that track. Porsche was very nice to give us a brand spanking new GT3 RS for us to learn the track. We were using the infield as well, not just going on the outside. Banking is something that not many people get to experience.

Director Joseph Kosinski and crew on the set of “F1.” Courtesy Apple/Warner Bros.

Approximately how many race cars were used in this film?

We had six cars in the Formula One races and about seven for Daytona, including two GT3 Porsches. Four cars were generally for Brad and Damson and the others were camera cars. What we used to do is swap cars around — one car would be rigged with cameras on the left, another would be rigged with the cameras on the right. On this film, rather than waiting ages to change the cameras, having extra cars allowed us to keep leapfrogging all the rigs. While we’re out filming, the next cars are getting prepped with camera angles that Joe wanted for the next setup.

(L-r) DAMSON IDRIS as Joshua Pearce and BRAD PITT as Sonny Hayes in Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films

It all looks extremely difficult, but were there any filming days that were particularly challenging?

The tricky one was actually Las Vegas, because that was a night race on a street circuit, and it gets pretty cold there at night. So, we had trouble keeping the tires warm. Originally, there was a limit on how fast we could go, but that actually put us slightly into danger zone because we needed to go fast to keep the tires warm. Too slow and they would get cold, which makes them slippery. Since we were only allowed on the circuit for a few laps, it was hard to keep the tires warm.

How did you deal with that?

You keep the tires as hot as possible and try to go as fast as you can. But the circuit is not very forgiving because it’s lined with concrete barriers. If something was going to go wrong, that was probably it — you could just spin out on the corner. But we did a lot of Sim work and prepared for it. Obviously, everything worked out fine.

It’s such an ambitious production. Looking back now, what stands out to you the most?

One of the most impressive days was at the [Belgian Grand Prix] Spa [Francorchamps] Eau Rouge, it’s a world-famous bend. That was Brad’s last time driving and the last thing we shot. We were all enjoying the last four laps. Every time he went for it and came up the hill with the camera facing his face, his smile just got bigger and bigger. He was just totally enjoying himself! And probably didn’t want to get out of the car! To see someone enjoying it that much, we’re all lucky to be in this job! Every single person on the film, whether in front of the camera or behind the camera, put a lot of work into it. For it to pay off like this has been great for all of us, and great for the industry. So, I’m really happy for everyone.

 

F1: The Movie is streaming on Apple TV on December 12th.

Featured image: Caption: A scene from Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo by Scott Garfield Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films

 

Hollywood Mourns Rob & Michele Reiner: Lives Defined by Storytelling and Social Justice

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Rob Reiner, American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and political activist, passed away on Sunday, December 14th. Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Reiner, were found dead in their home in Brentwood, California. The news has shocked and appalled their loved ones, friends, admirers, and film fans all over the world. As of this writing, their son, Nick, is currently in police custody. It’s a horrific tragedy. 

Following this devastating news, colleagues, friends, and film fans are reflecting on his legendary Hollywood career spanning over six decades. The tragedy has ignited an outpouring of love and admiration for Reiner’s work in the film industry, his kind nature, and his fierce activism.

1994: American director, producer, and actor Rob Reiner gestures near a camera while crew members surround him outdoors on the set of his film, ‘North’ (Photo by Andy Schwartz/Fotos International/Getty Images)

Rob Reiner, son of Carl Reiner, followed in his father’s footsteps, building a legacy in the entertainment industry with an impressive, diverse film discography, including iconic films like When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, This Is Spinal Tap, The Bucket List, and A Few Good Men. Most of these classics were brought to life under Reiner’s direction, but his career success began with acting, as he won two Emmy Awards for his role as “Meathead” on All in the Family.

Reiner also famously adapted two of author Stephen King’s works into classics—Stand By Me and Misery.

In a 1986 Chicago Tribune interview, Reiner revealed that after the premiere of Stand By Me, Stephen King told him it was “the best film ever made out of anything I’ve written.”

The world agreed. Stand By Me is widely regarded as one of the best coming-of-age films ever made, from the raw exploration of innocence, boyhood, and nostalgia to the famous closing line, “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

Today, Stephen King wrote on X, “I’m horrified and saddened by the death of Rob Reiner and Michele. Wonderful friend, political ally, and brilliant filmmaker (including 2 of mine). Rest in peace, Rob. You always stood by me.” 

Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, and Wil Wheaton, three of the stars of Stand By Me, recently wrapped the first short leg of their tour, Stand By Me: The Film and Its Stars 40 Years Later, during which they screen the movie and take audiences behind the scenes in an intimate conversation. Wil Wheaton recently posted a heartfelt blog post on his website, sharing that he ironically felt closest to Reiner “in the last week or so, as the three stars on this legacy tour spent a recent weekend reminiscing on their time filming together while doing these screenings.

Ben Stiller took to X to celebrate Reiner’s incredible run of movies and send condolences to the family. Stiller said he was a longtime fan of Reiner’s work. “Rob Reiner was one of my favorite directors. He made some of the most formative movies for my generation… Spinal Tap is one of the best comedies ever made – and the list goes on.” 

Wheaton wrote, “We talked extensively about how much we all loved Rob, and how much he loved us. We talked about how important it was to him that we got to be kids when we weren’t at work.”

Wheaton also shared personal insight into why Reiner’s time directing him on Stand By Me made him feel like more than just a filmmaker, but a father figure. “When I was turning 13, and realizing that my own father didn’t care about me, that my mother didn’t see me as a son, but as a thing she could put to work, Rob Reiner made me feel loved, valued, seen, and respected,” he shared.

Reflecting further on Reiner’s lasting influence, Wheaton highlighted the warmth and humanity that defined him both on and off set. “He told us stories about the strength of the human spirit, and he made us laugh. Oh, how he made us laugh. The world knows Rob as a generational talent, a storyteller, and a humanitarian activist who made a difference with his art, his voice, and his influence.”

Jerry O’Connell took to Instagram to share an old photo of the two and shared on CBS Mornings, “Everything I have is because of Rob Reiner.” Corey Fledman also shared his condolences on X.

Zooey Deschanel, who was Reiner’s on-screen daughter in the sitcom New Girl, posted a series of photos of the two together on Instagram, writing, “My heart is broken. Rob Reiner was the absolute warmest, funniest, most generous of spirits. A truly good human being. An incredible artist and a playful, fun collaborator. I cherish the time we spent working together and the many films he made that have shaped who I am. Rob and his lovely wife Michele were always so kind, and it brought me so much joy any time I was lucky enough to see them.”

Lamorne Morris, who starred alongside Zooey Deschanel in New Girl, wrote, “The news about Rob and his wife Michele’s passing is truly heartbreaking. What a blessing to have been around him. Truly a wonderful man. Give someone a hug today, life is too precious.”

The Directors Guild of America shared on social media, “Rob was a giant whose work helped define modern American cinema.”

The Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood, who starred in the 1994 movie North for Reiner, sent his love to Rob, Michele, and the family amid this horrific news on X.  

Meredith Salenger wrote on Instagram, “There are no words. He was such a light. Beyond his talent in film, he advocated for the best of society. He was a true leader. This is an unimaginable loss.”

The Human Rights Campaign posted a compilation of Rob Reiner speaking at various events to fight for equality and social justice as an “unapologetic ally through and through.”

Reiner’s legacy will extend far beyond the American film canon. He consistently championed equal rights and the preservation of democracy. He led the fight to overturn Prop 8 in California, which reversed an earlier California Supreme Court ruling that allowed same-sex marriage. He continued to advocate for legalized gay marriage nationally, founded the marriage equality group, supported immigrant rights, voting rights reform, and gun safety laws. Reiner was the architect of Prop 10 in California, which created First 5, the first early childhood funding system in California, helping non-profits and clinics provide food, healthcare, parental support, and maternal care.  

Former President Barack Obama shared on X, “Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people—and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action. Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose.”

Michelle Obama shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live that the Obamas were supposed to see the Reiners the evening they died. She stood up against negative claims of their character to share the “truth” about the Reiners. “Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know. They are not deranged or crazed. They were the kind of people ready who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about. They cared about this country, fairness, and equity.” 

Fans are paying tribute by sending condolences to his family, returning to the timeless films that shaped his legacy, and amplifying his wisdom and passionate activism. 

“The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that’s all I care about.” – Rob Reiner.

We remember and honor the inspirational actors and creators, Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner.

 

 

Featured image: LOS ANGELES – FEBRUARY 6: Actor/director Rob Reiner and wife Michele arrive at “Turn Up The Heat-Fight Global Warming”, a benefit to help the Natural Resources Defense Council, featuring a concert performance by the Rolling Stones at the Staples Center on February 6, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

“F1” Stunt Coordinator & 2nd Unit Director Gary Powell on Training Brad Pitt to Drive 190 MPH on Real Grand Prix Tracks

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Amassing over $630 million in global box office since its June release, director Joseph Kosinski and Brad Pitt’s racing drama F1: The Movie is Warner Bros’ second-highest-grossing film in 2025, and partly responsible for the legacy studio’s newly minted status as the first to cross the $4 billion mark this year. Following 2022’s box office juggernaut, Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski reteamed with Maverick screenwriter Ehren Kruger and cinematographer Claudio Miranda for another adrenaline-pumping, nonstop thrill ride. In the cutthroat world of F1 racing, Pitt’s charismatic legend, Sonny Hayes, comes out of semi-retirement to take another shot at his ultimate dream while also salvaging his buddy Ruben’s (Javier Bardem) racing team. However, to do so, Sonny must find a way to work with cocky rising star and teammate, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), amidst a host of operational and financial quagmires.

A stunt veteran whose impressive resume includes Skyfall, Spectre, and Jason Bourne, second unit director Gary Powell had his work cut out for him on Kosinski’s ambitious goal of having actors behind the wheel going 190 mph on real Grand Prix circuits. “First and foremost, it was the vision of Joe, Brad, and Jerry Bruckheimer that the drivers did their own driving for real,” Powell says. “They didn’t use blue screen, but you’d never get the feeling in the cars or the visuals like you do when you’re physically driving cars that fast. The proof in the pudding is obviously Tom Cruise doing his own stuff in Top Gun: Maverick. If we do it for real, it’s going to be a better film. From the very start, we put the drivers in proper Formula Two racing cars to train them.”

Powell talked to The Credits about what it was like to follow the Grand Prix around the world for almost an entire year and shooting at the Silverstone Circuit in England in between live races.

 

Are car stunts your specialty, and how did you get into that?

I’ve done some pretty unusual things in very unusual vehicles, like I drove the tank in Golden Eye and a 50-ton crane in Terminator. The vehicle stuff is a lot of fun! And to be truthful, on this job with drivers like Luciano, Craig, and the others, it was pretty easy because they were so good.

Without watching the film, it’s hard to imagine actors like Brad and Damson really driving on the Grand Prix tracks at those top speeds.

We had four cars all the same color. Every time you see the two actors driving, they were physically driving that car on that particular racetrack. We had stunt cars for crashes, but they did all their own driving. There was no cheating, no blue screen, no pod cars.

 

How did you train actors for something this intense and dangerous?

[Sequence choreographer and stunt double for Pitt] Craig Dolby and [lead sequence choreographer and stunt driver] Luciano Bacheta trained both actors. They started with a driving assessment in smaller cars, like the Radicals and GTR, around Willow Springs so that they could get used to the speeds. The braking is probably the biggest thing — it’s not so much the acceleration but how late you can physically brake into a corner. In a road car, you’d be braking 150 yards sooner than in a proper racing car. So, that was the thing that needed to be drummed into them.

Caption: A scene from Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films

Did you start with the simulators and Formula 3 cars?

Yes, we had simulators on set to work out some of the choreography. For a sequence where Brad’s in second place and going around the track, he moves to the inside, then pushes wide before another driver overtakes him and streams down the straight. All that stuff we could physically work out on the Sims, which means we didn’t need as much time on the track. Then, we’d bang out a few laps in rehearsal, tighten it up until we start shooting.

How long was the training and prep?

A few weeks, and throughout filming. We had a few weeks at Silverstone. Each time we went to a track, we’d get so many days with the actors so they could learn that track. It was a constant process. A lot of credit goes to Joe Kosinski for his vision. But a hell of a lot of it has to go to Brad and Damson too — at the end of the day, they are actors. Brad has a love for motorsport and motorbikes, but it’s a new thing for Damson. For them to do what they did at those speeds was truly impressive.

Caption: (L-r) DAMSON IDRIS as Joshua Pearce and BRAD PITT as Sonny Hayes in Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

How big was your core team?

Luciano and Craig were the main drivers in some of the chasing cars, Ollie [Millroy], Oliver Webb, and Duncan Tappy, who we used as a camera guy as well. When we did the Daytona sequence, Pat Long helped guide Brad around that part of the circuit because it was all GT racing, and he is a Daytona 500 racing champion.

How did your team choreograph the races?

Joe would have a story idea and relied on ex-racing drivers like Luciano and Craig to translate it into racing stories. If you watch a real race, it can sometimes be quite boring. So, they spiced it up with what could really happen. There are a lot of scenarios that happen over the course of a Formula One season or a few years, but in our film, they all happen at once. The scene where the car hits the curb and flies up in the air, everyone was saying it was over-the-top and not believable, but that actually happened at a race. All the scenarios in the film really happened, just not all in one season.

Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

While your team films on the ground, aerial DP Phil Arntz and his pilot Will Banks were coming at it from the air. How did you coordinate with the aerial team?

The camera cars cover the track and get close to the cars, but some shots work better from an aerial angle. Choreography and communication were key because we were going 190 mph at Daytona, so timing was everything. When the helicopter had to be at a certain place, we rehearsed so we could get the timing right. It was one big communication exercise — one can’t work without the other.

Were the racing cars also used as camera cars?

We had an LMP [Le Mans Prototype] car, which is like an Enduro car, and a Lamborghini, both with a camera mounted to them so we could get those speeds. You can get cars to go fast in a straight line, but racing cars can round corners so much faster.

The rehearsals must be so complex and detailed, because you’ve got actors who are not stunt drivers also going at 200 mph!

It really was quite easy because I had such good people around me. We had it all drawn up with toy cars out on a table. For the hero car, say Brad’s car, we’d plan out the cars that will interact with him, at what point on the track does the helicopter come in, and when does the camera car need to be behind, in front of, or beside him. It’s one massive communication exercise with the director, first AD, drivers, and special effects cameras.

Caption: A scene from Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films

You followed the entire Grand Prix season that year, right? Was it difficult to mesh the chaos of a film crew with the chaos at the live races?

Full credit has to go to the Formula One organization for allowing us that level of access. We’re a very small fry in their world, but they gave us access to the pits and drivers, and even on race days, we were allowed to put our cars on the grid for warm-up laps. It wouldn’t have been achievable without that.

 

How much access to the tracks did you have?

We shot on practice days when the drivers were qualifying, and we got in between their sessions when the crowds were still there. On race day, we were in the pit with our cars next to all the proper teams, which was pretty amazing. We didn’t go on the track because it’s a live broadcast, and nothing can stop that show.

What was it like to shoot at the Silverstone race in the UK?

We were lucky enough to have access to Silverstone before the actual Grand Prix, where we worked out much of our choreography. We were given certain time slots, sometimes a 10-minute or 15-minute slot, and we had to maximize shooting during that time. We always had a game plan of what we needed to shoot and practice. The Silverstone event is absolutely massive, with around 300,000 people. On race day, helicopters land and take off every minute, carrying celebrities, and the pit walk is crammed with celebrities doing press. So, we just slot in and do our stuff. It’s pretty amazing to see the actual show and the infrastructure that goes into it. They build these mini buildings that are enormous hospitality units and leapfrog from race to race throughout the year. There’d be one at Silverstone, one at the next race getting put up, and the one at the previous race getting taken down. It’s pretty impressive to see this live show physically being flown around the world.

Apple Original Films’ “F1® The Movie,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of our interview to find out how the climactic race in Abu Dhabi was shot and why the Las Vegas track turned out to be the most challenging one.

 

Available on PVOD now, F1: The Movie is streaming on Apple TV.

Featured image: Brad Pitt in “F1.” Courtesy Warner Bros.

“You Die, I Die”: “Stranger Things” Unleashes Dark New Trailer As Our Heroes Prepare to Risk Everything

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The vibes are not awesome in the opening moments of the new trailer for Stranger Things‘ 5th and final season 5, volume 2, to be precise. Will (Noah Schnapp) says it as plainly as possible: “We failed. We never stood a chance.” His indefatigable mom, Joyce (Winona Ryder) won’t hear of it—this is not over, she promises her Upside Down-weary son, possibly the one person from Hawkins, Indiana, who has suffered the most under Vecna’s brutal power grab. Without Joyce, one can’t help but imagine that Will would have never stood a chance in the first place.

Joyce isn’t alone in her fighting spirit—Will’s got a small army of friends who have committed themselves, at great personal risk, to fighting alongside him to retake Hawkins from Vecna and his various ghouls. His brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and his pals like Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Eleven  (Millie Bobby Brown) Jim Hopper (David Harbour), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) are doing their level best to help him. And this time around, the gang is bringing the fight to Vecna where he lives, unleashing themselves and their plans on the Upside Down, from the inside out. This is especially true of Max, who has been living in the Upside Down, more or less, since her season four travails.

The new trailer shows just how far the gang is willing to go to finally put an end to Vecna’s phantasmagorical reign of terror. How serious are our heroes? Dustin and Steve share a grim promise with each other: “You die, I die.” And they mean it, too.

Stranger Things season 5, volume 2 streams on Netflix on Christmas day, and then, in a wonderful twist, the two hour finale will get a theatrical release on New Year’s Eve.

Check out the new trailer here:

For more on Stranger Things, check out these stories:

Runtime & Theater Locations Revealed for Massive “Stranger Things” Series Finale

“Stranger Things” Season 4 Recap: Getting Upside Down From Eddie’s Guitar Solo to Vecna’s Revenge

The Boy Who Survived: Will Byers’ Journey to the “Stranger Things” Finale

How “Stranger Things” Revived the 1980s: From Eggo Waffles to Kate Bush

“Stranger Things” Seasons 1-3 Summary: What You Need to Know Ahead of Season 5

Featured image: STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. Vecna in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix © 2025

Meet Milly Alcock’s Messier, Mightier Kara Zor-El in Wild First “Supergirl” Trailer

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The last time we saw Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El, she came crashing into the Fortress of Solitude during James Gunn’s Superman, looking like she’d just had herself a mighty good weekend, wondering why her cousin had moved the door. It was a charming, offbeat way to introduce Supergirl, and it set the stage for a fresh approach to how one of the mightiest superheroines out there was going to be depicted. We learn that Supergirl likes to party on planets with red suns, because, due to the Kryptonian metabolism, she and her cousin can’t catch a buzz on planets with yellow suns, like Earth. In Gunn’s new DC Universe, Supergirl gets to be just as messy as the boys often do (not her cousin, of course, who’s proudly a square).

In the first trailer for director Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl, we open on everybody’s favorite mischievous pup, Krypto, rummaging around a hotel room in dire need of a deep clean (he eventually pees on a newspaper), and there, at last, is Supergirl, still asleep in a pair of large, askew sunglasses. Once again, she seems like she’s coming off a big weekend of partying.

As the trailer eventually moves from Kara’s wayward young life (she’s turning 23), we can see the spark of good in her—she’s ready to battle for a friend, in this case Ruthye (Eve Ridley), and she’d obviously die for Krypto—but she also makes it clear what differentiates her from her cousin. “He sees the good in everyone,” she says, “I see the truth.”

The script comes from Ana Nogueria, and was inspired by Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic-book miniseries “Supergirl: Women of Tomorrow,” which doesn’t shy away from Kara Zor-El’s rougher edges.

“This is really an anti-hero story. She’s got a lot of demons, a lot of baggage coming into this, which is very different from where Superman is in his life,” Gillespie told a crowd in New York at a recent press event. 

James Gunn, also in attendance, added an important additional note: “So many times female superheroes are so perfect. She’s not that at all. Like male superheroes have been allowed to be for a while.”

It’s a major new role for Alcock, who was sensational in HBO’s House of the Dragon, and with the sensibilities of her director, Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella), she looks like she had a blast making the film.

Featured image: Milly Alcock is Supergirl. Courtesy Warner Bros.

Jason Momoa, 50 Cent & More Prepare for Battle in First Teaser for “Street Fighter” Live-Action Film

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We’ve got our first peek at Paramount’s live-action Street Fighter adaptation, with all the classic characters from the iconic video game series ready to do battle. Director Kitao Sakurai leads a killer cast, including Jason Momoa as Blanka, 50 Cent as Balrog, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Noah Centineo as Ken, Eric André as Don Sauvage, and Callina Liang as Chun-Li. For those of us from a certain generation, “Street Fighter” was a seminal video game experience, and it’s high time, many years after Mortal Kombat has seen multiple big screen adaptations, for Chun-Li and the gang to high kick their way into theaters.

The teaser is a relentless 45-second smackdown, with Chun-Li, Ken, and the crew unleashing their devastating fighting chops. The teaser debuted at the 2025 Game Awards, with the cast taking the stage to introduce the first look at Sakurai’s film. The film is set in 1993, and finds estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Centineo) thrown back into combat after Chun-Li recruits them for the bruising, brutal World Warrior Tournament. Yet this legendary battle royale is a cover for more sinister doings, and the combatants who enter the tournament won’t just be fighting each other; they’ll be taking on the demons of their past. As the synopsis reads, “…if they don’t, it’s game over!”

The cast also includes Joe Anoa’i as Akuma, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Mel Jarnson as Cammy, Kyle Mooney as Marvin, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, and Orville Peck as Vega.

Sakurai directs from a script by Dalan Musson. The film is produced by Legendary Pictures and Japanese video game developer Capcom, with Paramount handling distribution.

Check out the trailer below. Street Fighter brawls into theaters on October 16, 2026.

For more films and series from Paramount and Paramount+, check out these stories:

Edgar Wright & Screenwriter Michael Bacall on Sending Glen Powell Into a Retro-Futuristic Nightmare in “The Running Man”

“Roofman” DP Andrij Parekh on Shooting Super 35, Filming in North Carolina, and Channing Tatum’s Surprising Vulnerability

“Roofman” Writer/Director Derek Cianfrance on Casting Real People from Jeffrey Manchester’s Incredible True Story

Featured image: Jason Momoa is Blanka in “Street Fighter.” Courtesy Paramount Pictures.

Cillian Murphy in Talks to Return in “28 Years Later III” as Sony Greenlights Third Film in New Trilogy

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Yesterday, we wrote about the rave reactions to Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the second film in a planned new trilogy from franchise creators Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. Now, it seems as if Boyle and Garland’s vision for their planned trilogy, no doubt boosted by reactions to DaCosta’s film (which Garland wrote), will come to pass. Sony is moving forward with the third installment, and to sweeten the pot, Cillian Murphy, star of the original 28 Days Later, is in talks to return to star.

Garland is currently working on the script for the third film, which Boyle has said he plans to direct. 28 Years Later, which premiered on June 20, 2025, was a critical hit and grossed $151.3 million at the box office. DaCosta’s The Bone Temple, set to hit theaters on January 16, 2026, is already one of next year’s very early must-sees, with critics lauding the boldness of its vision (more than one have pointed out how delightfully weird it gets), standout performances from Ralph Fiennes, reprising his role from 28 Years Later as Dr. Kelson, and Jack O’Connell, playing the demented Jimmy Crystal, the leader of a cult who are every bit as dangerous, if not more, than the infected. Alfie Williams plays Spike, the young boy in 28 Years Later who risks his life on mainland England to try and get his ailing mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), to Dr. Kelson for treatment. 28 Years Later ended with Isla dead, Spike being “saved” by the band of Jimmys, and Dr. Kelson embarking on a strange, potentially world-changing connection with the biggest, baddest infected of them all, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).

Boyle had initially hoped for a commitment to the trilogy from Sony, which won the rights to 28 Years Later after a bidding war. Sony committed to two, which were shot back-to-back. For Murphy to join the third film would be a major narrative and practical coup for all involved, bringing the franchise full circle back to its original star, who has gone on to carve out a sensational career, which recently included winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film Oppenheimer. 

For the upcoming The Bone Temple, perhaps the key was that DaCosta made the wise decision to make her own film within the franchise’s universe, rather than try to mimic what Boyle does. As Boyle told The Hollywood Reporter, “I remember her saying, ‘I’m not going to make a Danny Boyle movie.’ She was absolutely clear about that. And she hasn’t. She’s made her own movie and it’s very strong.”

Jack O’Connell is Jimmy Crystal in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Chi Lewis-Parry is Samon in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
Ralph Fiennes is Dr. Kelson in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.

For more on 28 Years Later, check out these stories:

Death Metal Vocals & Brutalized Cabbages: How Sound Designer Johnnie Burn Crafted “28 Years Later” Sonic Terror

Inside the Bone Temple: How Designers Carson McColl & Gareth Pugh Crafted the Pagan-Apocalyptic World of “28 Years Later”

Flesh-Eating Evolution: VFX Supervisor Adam Gascoyne Reveals How “28 Years Later” Zombies Got Scarier

Featured image: Cillian Murphy in “28 Days Later” (Photo by Sundance/WireImage)

Jennifer Lawrence & Josh Hutcherson Returning for “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”

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The trials and tribulations of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark might not be quite over yet.

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are expected to return to their star-making roles in Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping prequel, directed by franchise stalwart Francis Lawrence, who has directed every installment of the franchise since 2012’s Catching Fire. The latest film in the franchise is based on Suzanne Collins’s most recent novel and follows the events of the 50th Hunger Games, which took place 24 years before Katniss and Peeta were deployed as tributes for District 12. The main thrust of Collins’ novel centers on Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the films), Katniss and Peeta’s mentor, who was a 16-year-old tribute in the games himself. Joseph Zada is set to play the younger Haymitch.

So how would Lawrence’s Katniss and Hutcherson’s Peeta make an appearance in a prequel set well before their time? Their cameo is, of course, being kept a secret, but in Collins’ book, Katniss and Peeta appear in the epilogue alongside an older Haymitch.

Lawrence directs from a script by Billy Ray. Joining Zada in the ensemble cast are Maya Hawke as Wiress, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee (previously played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket (originally played by Elizabeth Banks), Ralph Fiennes as President Snow (previously played by Donald Sutherland), Kiernan Culkin as Caesar Flickerman (previously played by Stanley Tucci), Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle, Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier (previously played by Jeffrey Wright), Billy Porter as Magno Stift, and Laura Marcus as Silka Sharp.

As for Lawrence, she’s fresh off another Golden Globe nomination for her sensational performance in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, while Hutcherson starred in the recent Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and HBO’s series I Love L.A.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to hit theaters on November 20, 2026.

Featured image: Actors Josh Hutcherson (L) and Jennifer Lawrence (R) on the set of the film “The Hunger Games”, North Carolina, USA, 2012. {Photo by Murray Close/Getty Images}

“The Drama” First Trailer: Something Mysterious Lurks Beneath Zendaya & Robert Pattinson’s Perfect Relationship

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The first trailer for writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama starts off with a dream pairing—it’s Zendaya (playing Emma), and Robert Pattinson (playing Charlie) as a young couple preparing for their wedding. They’re beautiful, they seem kind, and, charmingly, they seem a bit nervous. They’ve arrived at a photographer’s studio to get some pre-wedding shots, but their nerves have them a little too tight for the photographer’s liking. So, she tries to loosen them up by asking them to describe what they love about the other person. Cue a litany of flattery—about her laugh, about his caringness—with cuts to the dashing couple having what appears to be a beautiful relationship. But one look at their faces in the photo studio, and one glance at the title of the film, and you know there’s more afoot. “Just smile naturally,” the photograph implores them. They can’t seem to do it. She tries again, asking, nearly begging Charlie, “just a completely natural smile…just like how you would smile in life.”

Charlie and Emma’s life, which we only glimpse in brief cuts, definitely has some drama. Borgli’s film, which was produced by Ari Aster, a filmmaker known for revealing horrific intimacies on screen, is also an A24 film, so with all these ingredients, you know that whatever revelation is lurking here will likely not be for the faint of heart. Borgli, the writer/director of the excellent 2023 film Dream Scenario, which featured an increasingly unhinged Nicolas Cage (is there any other kind?) dealing with the fact that strangers kept seeing him in their dreams, knows his way around the off-kilter and sublimely bizarre.

Pattinson and Zendaya are joined by Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, and Hailey Gates. Upcoming for Zendaya is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which hits theaters next summer. Pattinson was just in Lynne Ramsay’s wild Die My Love, starring opposite Jennifer Lawrence, and also has a role in Nolan’s upcoming epic.

Check out the trailer below. The Drama unfolds in theaters next spring.

Featured image: Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in “The Drama.” Courtesy A24

First Reactions to “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” Praise Nia DaCosta’s Brutal, Bold, & Brilliant Sequel

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The first reactions to Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple are in, and, unsurprisingly, critics say DaCosta’s film hits the mark. The talented filmmaker behind Candyman and Hedda expands the world created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland in 28 Days Later. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is beautifully chaotic, breathtaking, and everything I wanted it to be,” wrote Collider’s Rachel Leishman on Twitter. This is pretty much the tone and tenor of all the reactions, with critics praising DaCosta for not only carrying on the story with aplomb, but creating a truly original, bracingly weird, and oddly touching horror film.

28 Years Later ended with Spike (Alfie Williams) choosing not to return to his relatively safe tidal island, where his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), was waiting, growing increasingly paranoid that Spike wasn’t coming back. Spike had ventured onto the mainland with his sick mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), in a desperate attempt to find a cure for her illness. When they found Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), the mad doctor of the Bone Temple, all he could offer was a quick, painless death for the dying Isla. Spike, devastated and disillusioned by his father’s lies and lifestyle, decides to stay out on the dangerous mainland.

DaCosta picks up the story and finds the brilliant (if deeply odd) survivor Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), finding himself in one of the most shocking relationships one could imagine, with world-shaking consequences. Boyle and Garland’s 28 Years Later ended with Spike (Alife Williams) being “saved” by Jimmy Jimmy (Robert Rhodes) and his nightmarish gang of blonde hooligans, the Jimmy’s. Spike is taken to their leader, Jimmy Crystasl (Jack O’Connell), and finds himself in a horror that might be more unsettling than the rampaging world of the infected.

Joining the aforementioned cast are Erin Kellyman, Emma Laird, Chi Lewis-Parry, Maura Bird, Sam Locke, and Ghazi Al Ruffai. You can also expect some surprise inclusions. The Bone Temple is the second film in a new trilogy, all penned by Garland, with Boyle set to return to direct the final installment. It’s due in theaters on January 16.

 

Let’s have a peek at what some of the critics are saying:

For more on 28 Years Later, check out these stories:

Death Metal Vocals & Brutalized Cabbages: How Sound Designer Johnnie Burn Crafted “28 Years Later” Sonic Terror

Inside the Bone Temple: How Designers Carson McColl & Gareth Pugh Crafted the Pagan-Apocalyptic World of “28 Years Later”

Flesh-Eating Evolution: VFX Supervisor Adam Gascoyne Reveals How “28 Years Later” Zombies Got Scarier

“Sentimental Value” Production Designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen on Joachim Trier’s Tender Family Drama

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Winner of this year’s Grand Prix prize at Cannes, Joachim Trier’s tender family drama, Sentimental Value (original title: Affeksjonsverdi), is co-written with Eskil Vogt and stars Renate Reinsve (Presumed Innocent); the trio previously collaborated on 2021’s critical darling, The Worst Person in the World, which was nominated for two Oscars, Best Original Screenplay for Vogt and Trier, and Best International Feature. Trier’s latest explores themes of grief, love, forgiveness, and healing from trauma through art.

A stage actress spiraling with anxiety and bitterness, Nora Borg (Reinsve), and her pragmatic sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), have to deal with their estranged father, the once-successful film director Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård of Dune, Andor), who returns to attend their mother’s funeral. Unfortunately, he still owns the family home and intends to shoot his next movie (inspired by his mother’s suicide) at the house. When he offers the lead role to Nora (who would play Gustav’s mother, Karin), she refuses outright, since she still resents him for abandoning them after the divorce. So, he offers it to eager Hollywood actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning).

Shot on film, Trier anchors the family’s struggles in a stunning Dragestil (or “dragon style”) house that quakes and shivers with the joys and agonies of life. In a serendipitous turn, production designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen (Absolution, The Burning Sea) learned that he and Trier had previously shot at that very location. “It turned out to be the house where we shot Oslo, August 31st [which also stars Reinsve], 14 years prior. So, I knew it very well,” he says of the house owned by Norwegian musician Lars Lillo-Stenberg, which intertwines with the emotional turmoil that has stifled multiple generations of the Borg family.

Larsen recently spoke with The Credits about his second collaboration with Trier.

 

The house plays a pivotal role. What was the aesthetic that you were looking for?

It’s a very beautiful old house — it’s changed a bit, but still has that patina and feeling of a soul. Some changes were made to make it a contemporary house, such as painting over some period wallpaper that I didn’t want for the present-day scenes, and a rusty red color in the library. I painted all the rooms but kept the aging patina.

The family house in “Sentimental Value.” Courtesy Neon.

It is adorned with a very distinct red trim on the exterior. Was that added for the film?

No, it was like that. We didn’t do anything to the exterior.

I interpreted the red trim as a symbol of the anger and trauma in that family, especially with Nora’s seething resentment against her father. Am I reading too much into it?

It’s lovely however people interpret that. I didn’t think that myself, but it gives the house a character of its own, helps it stand out in a neighborhood that has several embassies. The other houses around it are more renovated, so it really stands out. The architecture style is “Dragestil” — the National Romantic style ­— with a lot of woodwork.

The interior of the house from the 1930s/40s. Courtesy Neon.

The film covers the 1940s all the way to the present day. What were some of the changes made to denote the different eras?  

In the location house, we shot all the scenes in the present day: Nora’s mother’s funeral and Gustav’s table reads with Rachel, and in the ’90s when the sisters were growing up. We found economical ways by not changing the kitchen. We changed only the three main rooms connected to each other: the living room, dining room, library, and hallway. For the kitchen in the ’90s and the present day, we added some tiles, cabinets, and different table setups. Otherwise, we kept it as it was.

The bedroom in the past. Courtesy Neon.

What about the room at the end of the hallway, where Gustav’s mother, Karin (Vilde Søyland),  hung herself decades earlier?

In the present day, it’s a storage room. We did all the other time periods on the soundstage, including the corridor in the ’50s when Karin walks down before ending her life. In later years, it’s where people put their jackets. In the final scene in Gustav’s film, Nora comes out and closes the door when the scene is over. It was quite beautiful to keep it completely empty with a little stool and the rope.

What was the design process for the soundstage version of the house?

We built the first and second floors, including the bedrooms, corridor, and exterior balcony, with all the red woodwork. We had one balcony that could go on wheels between floors. It’s almost like building a real location on the soundstage because we had full ceilings in all the rooms, moldings in the ceilings, and aged wooden floors. We actually found a couple of doors that matched the house. We built the other doors and windows too, including the massive ones with double-paned glass in the living room. We had virtual production in-camera VFX with LED screens for the views outside the windows.

A render of the house for the stage. Courtesy Neon.

Why was it important to shoot this project on film?

We filmed on 35mm, 16 mm, and black-and-white because we wanted it to resemble the look of films in those eras. But the set needed to be authentic and lived-in to be believable as a home during all time periods. Everything we added contributed layers that amplified the believability and tactile feel of the set. I didn’t approach the time periods in a romantic way — it was very important not to make it just beautiful, but more about what was happening to these specific characters in the ’30s or ’50s, and make it look lived-in with a lot of details. What are they doing at that time? How did they hang their art? Maybe not perfectly.

The deathbed. Courtesy Neon.

Did you shoot more on the soundstage versus at the location house?

No, it’s actually the opposite. The older time periods are in montage sequences, so we shot one time period in a day, and then changed to another period. We shot more days at the location house for Nora’s mother’s funeral, most of the scenes in the present day, except for the bedrooms upstairs, and the table reads with Gustav and Rachel.

Renate Reinsve. Photo: Kasper Tuxen-Andersen

How did you style the rooms to reflect distinct decades?

For the ’30s, when Karin was 12 years old and listening to records with her friends, we had darker wallpapers with lots of patterns, old furniture, and art. For the ’50s, when Gustav was a kid, we went into a lighter mood with more subtle wallpaper, mid-century modern furniture, and simpler shapes. For the ’60s, I didn’t change the wallpapers — I didn’t feel it was natural that Karin’s sister, Edith (Mari Strand Ferstad), who lived there until the ’80s, would’ve renovated after Karin took her life there. So, it was more about aging the house and reusing furniture in different ways.

Gustav as a child in the dining room in the 1950s. Courtesy Neon.

Even though Edith was only in the film briefly, it is impressive to have her emotional psyche reflected in the décor as well.

Yeah, and I brought in some furniture from the ’30s that I imagine was stored somewhere in the house, but they took it out to use again. There was more colorful art in the 1960s, when I imagined many people coming and going for parties, poetry readings, music, and dancing, maybe to run away from the sadness, but also a time of joy. We see the ’80s in three shots with Edith and her lover and housekeeper, Lillian (Julia Küster), who lived there for all those years. I wanted to show the rich and beautiful life they enjoyed together, with a lot of colors, and surround them with art and books. But when Gustav moves in, he paints everything white and tears down the wood paneling. We had these one-shots through the doorway in the years 1918, 1925, and 2000, which were like death, birth, and the argument with Nora’s parents.

Living room in the 1930s. Courtesy Neon.
Living room in the 1990s. Courtesy Neon.

That’s when Nora overhears her parents’ arguing through the old stove pipes in the bedroom upstairs.

Yes, and there’s also a scene with Edith listening by those pipes in the 1940s, and again in the present day when Nora brings Agnes’s son, Erik (Øyvind Hesjedal Loven), up to show him the stove. That was all on the soundstage ­—using LED screens, we created period views with animated cars, buildings, and evolving nature as the trees grow over time.

Where was Nora’s performance on stage filmed?

That was the National Theater of Norway — we shot for a week and worked around the theater’s schedule. We had to light both plays and try the set design in one day. I had to plan ahead since we had days with and without the audience. So that was another very carefully planned and quite challenging aspect. We started super early to get everything we needed there.

Courtesy Neon.

What was the most challenging part on this film?

Probably the changeovers from one period to another had to be planned very carefully. We had to change all the set dressings, like fabrics, curtains, and wallpapers, to add the patina and aging for each period. I used Twinmotion, a program with real-time rendering and lighting, so I could work with the sets in a very photorealistic way to show Joachim how they work in the room. We had to plan as carefully as possible because we only had one to one-to-two days, maximum three days, to do the shifts. But often with big challenges, you plan the most, so they go very well.

One of the most interesting aspects is the artistic play with the bilingual element in Gustav’s screenplay. Early on, Rachel reads a very emotional section in English during a table read. Then, towards the end, Nora reads the same in Norwegian with Agnes by her side, which is very cathartic. It highlights how translations, no matter how well done, often cannot fully capture an emotional sentiment.

That moment between the sisters is so pivotal that it really needed to work. I think that turned out really beautifully.

 

Sentimental Value is playing in theaters now.

 

Featured image: Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård. Photo Christian Belgaux/Neon.

Spoiler Special: Ethan Slater on Boq’s Cold-Hearted Transformation in “Wicked: For Good”

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Spoilers! 

As the pitchforks raise higher, the chants grow louder. 

“Go! And hunt her! And find her! And kill her!” 

The crowd becomes restless as tensions rise. They demand justice. Boq raises his hatchet and addresses the mob.

“So for once, I’m glad I’m heartless/I’ll be heartless killing her!” 

He then turns slowly, looks upward to where Glinda stands on her balcony, and with pure hatred in his eyes, he glares. 

For Ethan Slater, who plays Boq (aka the Tin Man) in Jon M. Chu‘s Wicked: For Good, there’s a lot of meaning behind that glare.

“I personally think that he leads the mob to this area of the Emerald City specifically to have her as an audience,” Slater explains. “I don’t know how conscious or unconscious that is, but that is something that I kind of feel. And then when he looks back up, he really can’t see the Glinda that he once knew. He’s too blinded by the torches, by the flames, by the rage, to see her in any meaningful way.”

 

“March of the Witch Hunters” is one of the most chilling songs in Wicked: For Good. It’s the climax of the film, the moment we understand the true impact of the Wizard’s propaganda about Elphaba, and watch as those who once called themselves her friends chant to kill her.

L to R: Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.

“I think even with somebody who is blindly rageful, there can be overlapping motivations,” Slater continues explaining. “And sometimes people do crazy things to get the attention of somebody, and also, sometimes people throw blame really hard at someone that they know they shouldn’t be blaming, because it’s easier. And we see it. We see it everywhere. We see it all the time. We see it in our real world all the time.”

In Wicked: For Good, Boq has a much smaller role, but Slater was arguably a standout. 

Slater went from playing the goodhearted, adoring munchkin boy in the first film to the hardened, heartless Tin Man in the second. The transformation was as much of a physical one as it was mental.

Ethan Slater is Boq and Marissa Bode is Nessarose in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu

“With all the prosthetics and the sort of heavy suit and all of that —  I mean, the prosthetics were amazing. They helped the performance,” Slater explains. “And I also didn’t feel like I had to do anything differently. I could just kind of be myself. It just felt…heavier.”

Ethan Slater becoming the Tin Man in “Wicked: For Good.” Courtesy Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Slater says it took about 20 minutes to get into the Tin Man suit and about 20 minutes to get out of it. 

“So unless it’s a long turnaround, you kind of just have to stay in it,” he says of the filming process.

Beyond the physical transformation, Boq’s mental transformation into the Tin Man allowed Slater to dive deeper into his character. 

Jon M. Chu and Ethan Slater on the set of “Wicked: For Good.” Courtesy Universal Pictures.

“There’s this moment at the end of the first movie — the world is kind of crumbling,” Slater explains. “Everybody’s fleeing Shiz, and Boq kind of comes down the stairs and sees that everybody he knows is gone, and everyone he loves is gone.”

For Slater, he doesn’t think of his journey into the Tin Man so much as a transformation, but more so as Boq losing the very essence of himself. 

“The thing that makes him who he is is his big, open heart,” he says. “And once his heart shrinks to being no longer there because of Nessa…all he’s left with is sort of this limbic rage.” 

Slater’s love for both films and the original musical as a whole shines through in his dedication to his character. And although Boq’s fate in Wicked: For Good isn’t a happy one, Slater says his interpretation of Oz’s ending — particularly the final scene when the Grimmerie opens for Glinda — makes him “weep.”  

L to R: Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.

“I think it’s so beautiful,” he says. “And I think in the first movie, Elphaba is a superhero, right? She finds her power inside, and she decides to use it to help people. In the second movie, Glinda is a superhero, and she realizes that there is a way that she can make real change in the world.” 

Wicked: For Good is in theaters now.

Featured image: Ethan Slater is Boq/the Tin Man in “Wicked: For Good.” Courtesy Universal Pictures.