Music Supervisor Alex Patsavas Gives “Queen Charlotte” a Majestic Soundscape
While gossip is the prevailing currency on Bridgerton, the emotional depth of Queen Charlotte is Her Majesty’s greatest asset. For a woman who can seem quite cold in the original series, a peek into her own lonely bedchamber is, at times, searing. The intertwining pasts of the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel), Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), and ...
“Fast X” Stunt Coordinator Andy Gill on [Safely] Going Pedal to the Metal
Fast X roared into theaters this past weekend and delivered another pedal-to-the-metal, physics-melting action adventure. Director Louis Leterrier steered the tenth installment, which finds Dominic Torretto (Vin Diesel) and his beloved family of gearheads facing off against a ferocious villain with a passion to burn Dom and the family to the ground. There’s a reason why ...
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Production Designer Beth Mickle on Building Rocket’s Epic Spaceship
Production designer Beth Mickle got on the Hollywood radar for her work on Nicolas Winding Refn’s ultra-cool indie Drive and worked her way into the blockbuster realm when her first collaboration with James Gunn, The Suicide Squad, was embraced by both critics and DC fans. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is her third project with ...
“Barry” Editor Ali Greer on Cutting Her Way Through a Brilliant Final Season
Ali Greer has been so focused on editing the fourth season of Barry that it didn’t truly dawn on her that the hit HBO comedy about the master assassin/would-be actor was coming to a close. “Tomorrow will be my last day. We have our final sound mix on the series finale… tomorrow… yes,” Greer says ...
How “Poker Face” Production Designer Judy Rhee Built a Winning Hand
Already renewed for a second season, the Rian Johnson-created series Poker Face garnered universally enthusiastic reviews and built a passionate following ever since its first episode dropped in late January. Johnson has said Poker Face was built in the tradition of the great crime series of the 70s and 80s, including Columbo and Quantum Leap. As such, each episode is constructed ...
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Composer John Murphy Channels Rocket’s Emotional Journey
“It felt, to me, that this might be the most important of the Guardians for James [Gunn],” says Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 composer John Murphy after reading the script. “What struck me was how much darker the story was compared to the first two films. When I say darker, I mean emotionally within ...
“Hypnotic” Composer Rebel Rodriguez on Scoring The Robert Rodriguez/Ben Affleck Head-Trip Thriller
Rebel Rodriguez knew about Hypnotic even before the screenplay was written. The composer is one of the sons of its writer-director Robert Rodriguez, the famed helmer behind countless cult classics like From Dusk Till Dawn, the neo-noir stylized Sin City, Planet Terror, and the blood thirst avenge tour Machete. “This idea has been gestating for like ...
“It Ain’t Over” Director Sean Mullin on Capturing the Brilliance of Yogi Berra
Even though It Ain’t Over is about Yogi Berra, one of baseball’s preeminent figures during his 18 seasons as catcher with the New York Yankees and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, director Sean Mullin says the “last thing I wanted to do was make a sports movie.” Instead, Mullin took as inspiration ...
NBCUniversal Archivist Natalie Auxier Takes Us From “Jurassic Park” to “Fast X”
Natalie Auxier, the Manager of Collection & Outreach at NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, has something of a photographic memory. Given the rigors of her job, this ability makes sense, as does her passion for the collection she oversees. “I think all of us archivists have a passion for this field. We love knowledge, and we ...
“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Creator Jemima Khan on Her Singular Rom-Com
For her foray into romantic comedies, writer/producer Jemima Khan looked, in part, at her own life for inspiration. While living in Pakistan with her ex-husband and his family for many years, she witnessed firsthand the process behind arranged marriage, now termed assisted marriage, and eventually returned to her native U.K. with a unique perspective on ...
“Awkwafina is Nora From Queens” Composer Tangelene Bolton Drops the Needle
“I’ve been playing music since I was two or three, piano specifically, and then I was really into film starting in middle school, and I thought, ooh, maybe I’ll be a director one day,” says composer Tangelene Bolton, whose work can currently be heard on season three of Awkwafina is Nora From Queens. “I started ...
Director Dawn Porter Details a Complex First Lady in “The Lady Bird Diaries”
In filmmaker Dawn Porter’s newest documentary, The Lady Bird Diaries, Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson speaks for herself. Porter’s film is based on 123 hours of audio diaries that Lady Bird recorded during the presidency of her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The personal, often poignant diaries reveal the First Lady’s key role as her husband’s ...
“Queen Charlotte” Stars Golda Rosheuvel, Corey Mylchreest, & Arsema Thomas Spill the Tea
Ever since creator Shonda Rhimes brought the Bridgerton saga, based on Julia Quinn’s novels, to the screen, it has developed a loyal following. The series has found success eschewing the homogeneous casting of most period dramas, reimagining 19th-century Britain with an aristocracy representative of all colors and sizes. The newest show in the Bridgerton Cinematic Universe is Queen ...
“Queen Charlotte” Hair and Makeup Head Nic Collins Styles Two Decadent Timelines
Everything is in bloom for spring, including the high society style on Netflix’s Queen Charlotte. The Bridgerton spinoff, with a sly eye on the groundbreaking, no-nonsense monarch, features towering wigs and a glance back at some of the series’ strongest characters in their younger years. Hair and makeup head Nic Collins spared no indulgence ...
“Big George Foreman” Cinematographer John Matysiak on Getting Into the Ring for a Legend’s Life
Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World is an epic narrative—even the title spells that out. Filmmaker George Tillman Jr.’s biopic about the boxing champ, preacher, and grill king George Foreman captures the man in full. The story begins with a young Foreman (Khris Davis) struggling ...
“Swarm” Production Designer Sara K White on Creating Fractured Spaces for the Celebrity-Obsessed
Swarm has a way of hovering in your thoughts long after you’ve finished the latest episode. The new series from Janine Nabers and Donald Glover (available now on Prime Video) takes the conceit of toxic fandom and unleashes a psychological thriller with a nasty, lasting sting. Starring a phenomenal Dominique Fishback as Dre, a socially stunted ...
“A Small Light” Executive Producer & Director Susanna Fogel on Disney+’s Illuminating New Miniseries
With Holocaust Remembrance Day having just passed and with antisemitism on the rise around the world, the release of National Geographic’s new eight-part miniseries A Small Light couldn’t come at a more apt time. The series is based on the true story of Miep and Jan Gies, who risked everything to hide Otto Frank and his ...
“Evil Dead Rise” Production Designer Nick Bassett on Building the Apartment From Hell
The Evil Dead franchise is all about cabin life. The franchise’s iconic location, however, is nowhere to be seen in Evil Dead Rise. The new installment gets a fresh look in director Lee Cronin’s sequel, thanks in part to production designer and art director Nick Bassett. Evil Dead Rise is focused on two estranged sisters ...
“Love & Death” Director Lesli Linka Glatter on HBO’s Deadly Sharp New Crime Drama
Love & Death, which debuted on April 27 on HBO/Max, begins with faith, family, and infidelity. It concludes with a criminal investigation and a gripping courtroom trial. In the middle is a gruesome axe murder. And once Emmy-nominated producer/director Lesli Linka Glatter had read the script, she wanted in on it. “I was totally swept ...
“Polite Society” Writer/Director Nida Manzoor on Her Genre-Melding Feature Debut
Writer/director Nida Manzoor grew up on martial arts, action, and Bollywood, so it makes sense that her feature directorial debut Polite Society would be a genre mashup that includes all that and more. An idea she’s been kicking around since her teen years, the film is a celebration of sisterhood, inspired, in part, by her experiences as ...
