How Cinematographer Robbie Ryan Used VistaVision To Capture the Claustrophobic Terror of “Bugonia”
A good deal of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ new psychological thriller, Bugonia, is set in a cellar. Teddy (Jesse Plemons), alone in the world except for his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), and their belief that Earth is under the thumb of an alien race called the Andromedans, kidnaps Michelle (Emma Stone), whom he believes to be the aliens’ local representative and an architect of a plan to destroy Earth via colony collapse disorder.
How “K-Pop Demon Hunters” Songwriter EJAE Turned Rejection Into Her Golden Success
Kpop Demon Hunters is a juggernaut. Since its release on Netflix, not only has it become the streamer’s most-watched film of all time, but the animated feature is the first to have four songs simultaneously on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, the song “Golden” is now the longest-running number 1 by a girl group in the 21st century.
Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans, the story is about K-pop girl group Huntr/x,
“A House of Dynamite” Scribe Noah Oppenheim on His Real-Time Nuclear Thriller’s Emotional Stakes & Shocking Ending
Spoilers below.
News veteran turned Hollywood scribe Noah Oppenheim (Jackie, Zero Day) has penned a new edge-of-your-seat thriller in A House of Dynamite, a cautionary tale about nuclear weapons and those in charge of them. Helmed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty),
Production Designer Tamara Deverell on Building the Gothic Grandeur of Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein”
Guillermo del Toro became obsessed with Frankenstein at the age of seven, after seeing the 1931 Boris Karloff movie, and walked out of the theater with a new calling. “Gothic horror became my church,” Del Toro said in a statement, “and [Boris Karloff] became my messiah.”
Ever since that childhood epiphany, del Toro has dreamed of reanimating Mary Shelley’s famous monster for modern audiences. Now comes his Frankenstein (in theaters now,
How the “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” Sound Team Captured The Boss’s Raw Emotion
The Boss doesn’t just sing into a microphone; he commands attention. His raw charisma and rich baritone were evident when he burst onto the music scene in the mid-1970s at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, but arguably the strength and comfort of his singing voice became settled on his album “Nebraska.” That was the energy the sound team aimed to bottle in writer-director Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,
Inside Netflix’s “The Twits”: Writer/Director Phil Johnston on Empathy, Evil, and Adapting Roald Dahl
Writer/director Phil Johnston, known for his work on Zootopia and the Wreck-It Ralph features, says. “Every character I’ve ever truly connected to has been on the outside looking in. Outcasts, dirtbags, and weirdos are my people.” It seems appropriate, then, that he brought beloved weirdo-specialist Roald Dahl’s book “The Twits” to the big screen. He took Dahl’s story of two hateful people, expanded it,
“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” Location Manager Sarah Brady Stack on Finding The Boss’s New Jersey
For writer-director Scott Cooper’s making-of-an-album drama about one of America’s most enduring rock icons, finding the ideal location was a no-brainer, since Bruce Springsteen’s image and identity are inseparable from the Garden State. “Springsteen is like the New Jersey guy. If you’re gonna make a movie about him, it has to be in New Jersey, which is a character in its own in this film,” says the location manager for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,
“One Battle After Another” Production Designer Florencia Martin on Building PTA’s Three-Hour Action Thriller from the Ground Up
Paul Thomas Anderson’s action thriller One Battle After Another is loosely inspired by a section of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” but this three-hour epic is rooted in the present, a contemporary vision of a heightened clash between far-left and far-right, and, more intimately, a story about vengeance, desire, and family.
Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) are partners and active members of a far-left militant group,
“Hedda” Production Designer Cara Brower on Transforming a Stunning Estate for Tessa Thompson’s Rogue Heroine
To re-animate playwright Henrik Ibsen’s famously unhappy heroine Hedda Gabler, writer-director Nia DaCosta cast her longtime muse Tessa Thompson as the star of Hedda (opening Oct. 22). This vivid adaptation, featuring Nina Hoss in the gender-switched role of an ex-lover along with Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman and Nicholas Pinnock, takes place in 1950s England at a raucous party complicated by jealousy, existential angst, feminist fury,
The Invisible Architects: How Two Visionary Production Designers Launched a Global Movement
If a film’s visuals tickle the eye, scorch the heart, or linger in the consciousness long after the credits roll, you can thank the production designer. Whether the project is a blockbuster or a low-budget indie, the production designer is tasked with creating that elusive “look” of the film and translating the director’s vision into visual reality.
“A complaint often raised with production designers, like other ‘below the line’ [artisans],
“Black Rabbit” Creators Zach Baylin and Kate Susman on Cooking Up Their NYC-Set Thriller
Netflix’s hit series Black Rabbit brings viewers into the vibey, chaotic world of New York City nightlife in a breathless eight-episode sprint that left this viewer spent and satisfied, like after a particularly long and indulgent night in the city it lovingly, if somewhat dementedly, portrays. Starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as Jake and Vince Friedken, respectively, brothers who try to slough off a particularly rough upbringing by opening the titular Black Rabbit restaurant together,
“The Last Frontier” Showrunner Jon Bokenkamp on Creating Apple TV’s Frigid, Frenetic Thriller
Jon Bokenkamp may have made it in Hollywood, but he hasn’t lost his Midwestern roots. The Nebraska native, best known for creating the spy thriller The Blacklist, is the type of person who still has a letter from George Lucas’s office taped to his wall, saying, “Mr. Lucas is sorry, but he’s unable to attend the screening of your movie.” This was a movie Bokenkamp made when he was a teenager.
The Last Frontier,
“Tron: Ares” Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth on Shooting IMAX, Practical Effects, and Nine Inch Nails’ Influence
The third installment in the Tron series, which broke new ground in 1982 with a film set in the digital world, sees AI beings cross over from the grid into the physical realm. Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron: Ares stars Jared Leto as Ares, an AI soldier generatively laser printed by Dillinger scion Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) to take on rival corporation Encom. Encom CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) has cracked the permanence code,
“Roofman” Writer/Director Derek Cianfrance on Casting Real People from Jeffrey Manchester’s Incredible True Story
The real story behind co-screenwriter and director Derek Cianfrance’s new feature Roofman (co-written with Kirt Gunn) is almost too bizarre to believe. In the late 1990s, North Carolina, a financially strapped father and army veteran, Jeffrey Manchester, broke into 45 McDonald’s locations by cutting through their roofs at night, robbing the employees at gunpoint in the morning. He gained the nickname Roofman, but was also famously very polite and kind to the employees,
“After the Hunt” Production Designer Stefano Baisi on Creating Three Generations of History in One Apartment
It’s no accident that Oscar-nominated Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino‘s movies look as elegant as they do. The Italian filmmaker has a side hustle as an interior designer. In 2017, he launched his eponymous studio and hired architect Stefano Baisi, who helped him design shops, hotels, Dior fashion shows, and luxury apartments. Last year, Baisi crossed over to film by conjuring a surreal 1950s Mexico City for Queer,
“One Battle After Another”: The Makeup Magic Behind Sean Penn’s Gasp-Inducing Third-Act Reveal
Spoilers below.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson wants audiences to see One Battle After Another‘s stellar ensemble cast, warts and all. As a result, makeup department head Heba Thorisdottir and special effects makeup artist and prosthetics designer Arjen Tuiten knew that less would be more, with the only exception being Sean Penn’s Col. Stephen Lockjaw, whose shocking third-act disfigurement is the result of a masterclass of makeup and prosthetics design from Thorisdottir and Tuiten.
Busan 2025: How Locations Shape Asian Productions, From “The Dark Knight” to “K-Pop Demon Hunters”
A scroll through cinema history reveals a selection of unique, now-iconic locations that have become synonymous with the movies they have helped bring to life.
Think David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and the sands of Jordan’s Wadi Rum (utilized for modern audiences in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films). Think the Caped Crusader on the rooftop of Hong Kong’s International Finance Centre (IFC) Tower in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Getting Caught in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” Production Designer Scott Chambliss’s Perfect Web for Jennifer Lopez
Production designer Scott Chambliss is known in Hollywood for big tentpole movies— Star Trek, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Mission: Impossible III are a few of his films—so he was a bit shocked in 2023 when writer-director Bill Condon called him about revamping Kiss of the Spider Woman as an old-fashioned MGM movie musical. Chambliss knew exactly how to win over the man who made Dreamgirls and wrote the movie version of Chicago.
“One Battle After Another” Cinematographer Michael Bauman Breaks Down Filming the Chaos in El Paso
Spoilers below.
About an hour into Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson, a washed-up revolutionary living off the grid in Northern California, sends his teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) to her first high school dance, lights a joint, and queues up The Battle of Algiers when the phone rings. “Bob, we have trouble ahead and the road isn’t clear…”
He might be a burnout perpetually be-robed in tattered leisure wear that would make Big Lewboski proud,
Happy Accidents, Revolutionary Moments, & Killer Improv: Inside “One Battle After Another” With DP Michael Bauman
Spoilers below.
“That dude is unbelievable,” admits One Battle After Another cinematographer Michael Bauman to The Credits about Leonardo DiCaprio. “I mean, he’s a star and he brings people in [theaters] but his ability to expand the character is unreal.” Bauman has worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on five different features in one capacity or another, but it was the first time on set with DiCaprio on the acclaimed film,
