“Transatlantic” Costume Designer Justine Seymour on Outfitting Socialites & Surrealists in a Time of War
In 1940, the U.S. still maintained an official stance of neutrality in World War II. Across the Atlantic, however, relief organizations were already on the ground, working their influence at local embassies and trying to convince the American government to grant entry visas to refugees. Netflix’s new limited series, Transatlantic, is based on the efforts ...
“The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die” Stunt Coordinator Levente Lezsák on Orchestrating a Viking Melee
Action buffs who enjoy English history will find much to savor in The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die. The Netflix epic (now streaming) follows five seasons of The Last Kingdom to chronicle the bloody Battle of Brunanburh in 937 when native Saxons crossed swords with invading Vikings and warriors from Scotland. Both sides suffered ...
“Chevalier” Screenwriter & Executive Producer Stefani Robinson on Hitting the Right Narrative Notes
The story behind French Creole composer and virtuoso violinist Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, has been largely neglected in music history until recently. His life sounds too incredible to be true. He was born in 1745 in Guadeloupe, the son of an enslaved Senegalese woman Nanon and her captor Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges, and sent ...
“Evil Dead Rise” Makeup & FX Artist Tristan Lucas on Loose Limbs, Buckets of Blood, & That Cheese Grater Scene
Evil Dead Rise keeps the spirit of the franchise alive by conjuring the living dead in the most emphatically gnarly way. The fifth installment in the horror franchise is a bloodbath of riches, full of wondrous practical effects and makeup. Most of the body horror in director Lee Cronin’s film is tangible, not computer generated, ...
Transportation Manager Ryan Doucette on How Warner Bros. Turned “Kung Fu” Season Three Green
Ryan Doucette is the manager of transportation compliance for Warner Bros. Studio Operations, Canada, and while that title might not immediately bring to mind a job at the forefront of the studio’s efforts at creating ever more sustainable productions, that’s precisely where Doucette finds himself. “This is probably not as exciting as talking to a ...
“Renfield” Stunt Coordinator Chris Brewster Sinks His Teeth Into Hyperkinetic Action-Comedy
Chris Brewster knows how to make a bloody mess. The stunt coordinator has been making the rounds in Hollywood for over twenty years now and reteams with director Chris McKay on Renfield, following their collaboration on The Tomorrow War (2021), where Brewster served as a fight choreographer. This time around, Brewster sinks his teeth into ...
A Legend Lives Again in Lisa Cortés’s Sparkling New Documentary “Little Richard: I Am Everything”
Little Richard liked to call himself the King of Rock and Roll, and it’s hard to argue with that claim after seeing the new documentary about the incendiary singer’s wild music and even wilder life. Little Richard, born Richard Penniman, not only pioneered rock attitude with piano-pounding hits like “Lucille” and “Long Tall Sally, but” ...
“Mafia Mamma” Director Catherine Hardwicke Creates a Comedy You Can’t Refuse
Oscar-nominated actor Toni Collette stars in the title role of Mafia Mamma, a new femme-forward comedy that offers a twist on the gangster film genre. The movie features women in roles both above and below the line, with director Catherine Hardwicke at the helm, writer Amanda Sthers as producer, and Monica Bellucci and Sophia Nomvete as co-stars. ...
“Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” VFX Team on the Owlbear, Talking Corpses & More
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fantasy nerd’s dream. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein packed the film with human characters as colorful as the variety of creatures, both animated and practical, that populate its fantastical world. It’s a modern adventure and throwback fantasy film. Crucially, it looks terrific. The world is tangible, ...
“Great Expectations” Cinematographer Dan Atherton Goes Dark with Dickens
How dark is too dark? For fans of Peaky Blinders, the BAFTA-winning period crime series created by Steven Knight, bleak is better. In adapting Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations,” Knight ramped up the vice and violence for a six-part FX/Hulu series running through April 23) that introduces opium, sadomasochism, attempted suicide, prostitution, F-bombs, and literal butchery ...
“Beef” Costume Designer Helen Huang on Dressing “Chill” Angelenos Seething With Rage
Girl honks boy. Boy gets revenge. Complications ensue. Beef features Oscar-nominee Steven Yeun and comedian Ali Wong as star-crossed L.A. malcontents whose lives go haywire after a road rage incident. Created by Lee Sung Jin (Silicon Valley, 2 Broke Girls), who was tapped last week to write Marvel’s upcoming Thunderbolts movie, the ten-part Netflix series ...
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” Sound Mixer Ronan Hill’s Formula for Fantastic Sounding Fantasy
Ronan Hill has a way with dragons. The Belfast-based production sound mixer is best known for his tenure on HBO’s Game of Thrones, where he and the sound teams tuned the rich, resonating sonic palettes across its eight epic seasons, winning five Emmys along the way. Hill returns to familiar territory with Dungeons & Dragons: ...
“John Wick: Chapter 4” Editor Nathan Orloff on Cutting Chaos Into Crackling Coherence
Editor Nathan Orloff is the man who helped turn the mayhem in John Wick: Chapter Four into a beautiful, brutal ballet. It is the longest entry in the franchise, yet it moves with the grace and precision of a seasoned dancer. It’s not only an epic because of director Chad Stahelski’s action sequences; it’s the patient ...
“Tetris” Director Jon S. Baird on Putting the Pieces Together
The origin story of Tetris is even more exciting than the iconic game itself. The game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov), and its greatest champion, businessman Hank Rogers (Taron Egerton), fought to get the game out from under the thumb of Soviet Russia and out into the world. The true story is complicated, but in ...
How “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” Costume Designer Amanda Monk Casts a Sartorial Spell
Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D as it’s more commonly called, is the king wizard of role-playing games. First rolled out in 1974 by co-creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, it’s shifted from friends playing in basements to the public lexicon, in part, from the popularity of shows like Stranger Things, which has its characters rolling ...
Director Jon Erwin Shares a Message of Hope in True Story “Jesus Revolution”
Clashing ideals and collective soul-searching led many Americans to both destructive and hopeful paths in the 1970s. Among Christian churches, opinions were divided over who was permitted to preach the gospel – and who was worthy of listening. A surprising partnership between establishment pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) and hippie preacher Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) ...
“A Good Person” Costume Designer Tere Duncan on Dressing Florence Pugh’s Woman in Crisis
Costume designer Tere Duncan leaped into the fray of Zach Braff’s A Good Person with the challenge of crafting the looks for a character in crisis without relying on the usual tropes—baggy sweatpants, mismatched socks, visible stains. That woman, Allison (a fantastic Florence Pugh), is facing multiple horrors at once, grieving the loss of her would-be sister and ...
“Shrinking” Production Designer Cabot McMullen on Laughing & Crying in Pasadena
Shrinking is that rare hybrid; a laugh-out-loud comedy that turns on a dime into a lump-in-your-throat drama. Created by star Jason Segel, Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence, and writer (and Ted Lasso star) Brett Goldstein, Shrinking follows Segel’s therapist Jimmy the year after his wife, Tia (Lilan Bowden), has tragically died. Because Jimmy is played by Segel, he’s ...
“Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham” Composer Stefan L. Smith Draws out the Darkness
Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham submerges Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) in a world of magic, myths, and monsters. Set a century ago in the roaring 20s, the glamour and grandeur of Gotham glimmer beneath an evil awakening set to consume the city. The edgy animated style based on the 2000-2001 comic book miniseries ...
“The Magician’s Elephant” Creative Team on Netflix’s Warm, Wondrous New Animated Film
If you’re looking for a wonderful, feel-good movie to cozy up to, The Magician’s Elephant on Netflix is a beautiful story whose animation springs to life an ensemble cast of characters you’d want to befriend. The film is a re-imagination of a novel by Newbery award-winning author Kate DiCamillo and follows a young boy named ...
