“Wicked: For Good” First Reactions: A Heartbreakingly Tender Conclusion & Major Oscar Contender

The first reactions to Jon M. Chu‘s Wicked: For Good have arrived. When we spoke to Chu and co-writer Dana Fox, Chu was putting the finishing touches on the film, while Fox, who had a chance to watch both Wicked and Wicked: For Good back-to-back (as many fans will be doing in the years to come), said the experience was overwhelming for her. 

By The Credits  |  October 28, 2025

Interview

Cinematographer

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.

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  October 27, 2025

Interview

Actor

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,

By Leslie Combemale  |  October 27, 2025

Interview

Screenwriter

“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),

By Daron James  |  October 23, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

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,

By Hugh Hart  |  October 22, 2025

Interview

Sound Designer

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,

By Daron James  |  October 22, 2025

Interview

Screenwriter

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,

By Leslie Combemale  |  October 21, 2025

Interview

Location Scout

“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,

By Su Fang Tham  |  October 21, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

“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,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  October 20, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

“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,

By Hugh Hart  |  October 20, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

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],

By Loren King  |  October 17, 2025
Shocking Doc “The Age of Disclosure” to Make Contact With Viewers on Prime Video

The Age of Disclosure, director/producer Dan Farah’s chillingly compelling alien doc that premiered at the SXSW Film Festival (read our reaction to the film here), has set a worldwide release on Prime Video, as well as an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in New York City, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, on November 21. Prime Video has secured an exclusive VOD window for the film, which is now available for pre-order.

Farah’s film is the product of three years of working in secrecy to gain access to highly-placed government officials to discuss a highly sensitive and historically taboo subject—the existence of non-human intelligent life and a nearly century-long global coverup to keep the details of our knowledge,

By The Credits  |  October 16, 2025

Interview

Cinematographer

“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,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  October 14, 2025
Hollywood Mourns Diane Keaton: Tributes Pour In from Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and More

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton passed away on Saturday, October 11, 2025. Following her death this past weekend, co-stars, colleagues, friends, and movie lovers shared their feelings about the iconic, singular star.   This remembrance of Keaton has spread across social media, highlighting her legendary roles, kind spirit, activism, and talent.  

Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Keaton’s nephew in  the 1996 film Marvin’s Room, posted a remembrance on his Instagram Stories of the two together and wrote,

By The Credits  |  October 13, 2025

Interview

Director, Screenwriter

“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,

By Leslie Combemale  |  October 13, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

“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,

By Hugh Hart  |  October 13, 2025
Bradley Cooper in Talks to Join Margot Robbie in “Ocean’s Eleven” Prequel

A new star-studded caper in the Ocean’s Eleven universe is currently being assembled, and Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie are likely going to be your leads. Cooper is currently in talks to join the prequel with Robbie.

The new project would be a prequel to Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 heist comedy Ocean’s Eleven, set before the events in that film. Soderbergh’s Ocean’s remake—the original, which premiered in 1960,

By The Credits  |  October 10, 2025

Interview

Hair/Makeup

“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. 

By Simon Thompson  |  October 8, 2025

Interview

Producer

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.

By Mathew Scott  |  October 8, 2025

Interview

Production Designer

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.

By Hugh Hart  |  October 8, 2025