Book Club‘s Creators on How Fifty Shades of Grey Inspired Their Dream Project
Whatever you did to celebrate Mother’s Day probably wasn’t as great as Bill Holderman’s gift to his mom in 2012. The final book in the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy had just been published, and the Book Club director, co-producer, and co-screenwriter sent the entire set to his mother.
“As sons do, right?” Holderman joked.
Book Club co-producer and co-screenwriter Erin Simms worked with Holderman at a production company at the time and heard about the plan.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinke’s Exec Producer on Rebooting a Classic
When you hear the executive producer of the new DreamWorks show The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scott Fellows, speak about this cartoon, you can hear the passion that he and the entire cast and crew must have put into it. Gratefully, all that enthusiasm shows up onscreen. From the opening credits to the artistry of backgrounds and the writing, they have crafted a reboot worthy of the fans of the 60s classic.
Sweetbitter Creator Stephanie Danler on Adapting her Award-Winning Novel for TV
Sweetbitter portrays a side of restaurants not often seen in mainstream media—delicate, sensual, feminine. The Starz TV show, based on Stephanie Danler’s award-winning novel of the same name, premiered Sunday, May 6.
As executive producer, Danler trades her lyrical sentences for powerful visuals. States of loneliness, intoxication and longing are portrayed in many ways, though most perceptively on star Ella Purnell’s face, best known for her role in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.
RBG Co-Directors/Producers on Their Groundbreaking Subject – Part 2
In Part 2 of our two-part interview with Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the filmmaking team behind the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG that opens May 4, the pair discusses what they learned while doing their research (the justice is a huge opera fan), her nearly 56-year fairy-tale marriage to her incredibly supportive college sweetheart Martin Ginsburg and how they got around not being able to film the Supreme Court in session.
RBG Co-Directors/Producers on Their Groundbreaking Subject – Part I
Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the Brooklyn-born, 85-year-old grandmother of four who became the second female to be appointed as a Supreme Court justice in 1993 – has been having a pop-cultural moment since 2015 or so. That’s when the liberal-leaning Harvard grad was cheekily dubbed The Notorious RBG (a play on the late rapper Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. The Notorious BIG) by a pair of young female writers who saluted this petite powerhouse’s stealthy sense of bad-assery in book form.
Writer/Director/Producer Rosemary Rodriguez Continues on Continuing her Scorching TV Career With NBC’s Rise
Rosemary Rodriguez, the award-winning writer/director of the feature films Acts of Worship and Silver Skies, has been directing on the small screen for over a decade. She has helmed episodes on some of the best TV shows currently or recently part of the cultural conversation, including The Good Wife, Rescue Me, Law & Order, Empire, The Walking Dead, and Jessica Jones.
A Wrinkle in Time‘s Producer on her 55-Year Journey to Bring This Film to Life
Since its publication in 1962, Madeleine L’Engle’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time” has earned the affection of millions of fans. In fact, many of the people who worked on Disney’s new cinematic adaptation have loved the book for years.
It seems impossible though that any of them have loved the book as much as producer Catherine Hand, who wanted to make it a feature film when she first read it in 1963.
Detective Turned Producer on Revisiting Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls in Unsolved
Though he’s no longer a detective, Greg Kading continues to deal with his 2006 investigation, when he led a task force charged with figuring out who killed Tupac Shakur and Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace. Now retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, Kading co-executive produces USA Network’s limited series Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. (Tuesdays starting Feb. 27). Based on his self-published book “Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls &
How Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams Producer Envisioned Sci-Fi Reboot
Paranoid, brilliant and prolific, sci-fi visionary Philip K. Dick not only wrote the source material for Minority Report and Blade Runner; he also churned out 130 short stories half a century ago that anticipated with eerie precision many of today’s man-versus-technology conundrums. Anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, now streaming on Amazon Prime, adapts Dick’s fiction as foundation for 10 episodes populated with robots, holograms, smart watches,
The Walking Dead Super-Producer Gale Anne Hurd on Putting Women Front & Center
Few producers have been as involved in fandom as long as Gale Anne Hurd. A producer of The Terminator, Aliens and now The Walking Dead — all projects that amassed a cult following — she turned fans into collaborators by partially crowdsourcing her new documentary project Mankiller.
“With the resources that I have in terms of being able to reach out to the actors on the TV series [The Walking Dead] and friends of mine like Felicia Day and ask them to help,
Talking to Landline Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre & Producer Elisabeth Holm
The year is 1995. Bill Clinton is president, Natalie Merchant sings about the weather, Mad About You is must-see TV, Lorena Bobbitt jokes are all the rage, floppy discs are a clunky necessity – and cellphones are nowhere to be seen.
Director-writer Gillian Robespierre and producer Elisabeth Holm’s first film together, the 2014 art-house circuit darling Obvious Child, was a moving contemporary comedy that focused on a stand-up comic (Jenny Slate) who deals with an unexpected pregnancy after a one-night stand.
Mars Executive Producer Justin Wilkes Talks the Category Defying Miniseries
Last fall, National Geographic premiered a new series that was as ambitious and innovative as its subject: the first manned mission to Mars. Over seven episodes, Mars featured inspiring interviews with some of the greatest minds of our age while visualizing the first human colonization of the red planet. Experts delve into the history of space exploration, the unbelievable technology that’s already been developed, and what it will take to make home on a new planet.
The Filmmakers Behind the Sweeping Historical Epic The Promise
Although best known for 2004's Hotel Rwanda, Terry George has written or written and directed a half dozen films about areas of conflict, notably his own childhood homeland, Northern Ireland. With The Promise, which opens April 21, George addresses the genocide of Armenians in what is now Turkey during World War I. The murder of approximately 1.5 million is well documented, yet Turkish authorities have never acknowledged it.
The Boss Baby‘s Director & Producer Talk Baldwin, Childhood, Dr. Seuss
Director Tom McGrath (the Madagascar movies) admits that his very funny and heartwarming new animated film, The Boss Baby is both a tribute and apology to his older brother. It is the story of a seven-year-old named Tim whose blissful life is turned upside down by the arrival of a baby brother. As Tim’s parents dote on the new arrival, they somehow never notice that the baby has a suit and tie,
Celebrating Reel Women: Women in Focus
Meet the women who are calling the shots behind the scenes. We’re talking about the influential women who have produced some of the most entertaining movies and television shows to have ever hit the big and small screens. Sure, you may know about famous actresses who have made the leap to producers such as Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore, but what about all the movers and shakers who are responsible for some of your favorite titles that you haven't heard of?
Sundance 2017: Line Producer Shea Kammer on Breaking Into the Industry
A line producer on a film is one of the most crucial jobs on the crew. Often the first person hired by the producer, a line producer's responsibilities are daunting, to say the least. We spoke to Shea Kammer, a line producer extraordinaire, about what the role requires. Kammer is heading to the Sundance Film Festival, where he has two films in competition; the Iraq war drama The Yellow Birds and the medical drama
The Future of Film: 360 VR
Technology has been propelling storytelling techniques since the advent of the camera. Annie Lukowski and BJ Schwartz are at the forefront of the newest revolution in filmmaking. Their company, Vanishing Point Media, aims to immerse audiences in the story by surrounding them with 360 degrees of action.
Jonathan Ames Talks Season 2 of Blunt Talk
The idea was an inspired one. Novelist, screenwriter and TV creator Jonathan Ames, the man behind HBO's beloved (but short-lived) detective comedy Bored to Death, got an email from his agent saying that Seth McFarlane was looking to create a comedy for Sir Patrick Stewart. Stewart had proven his comedic chops by lending his voice to several episodes of McFardland's Family Guy, and now the budding mogul wanted to create a whole show around the legendary British thespian and movie star.
Chatting With Legendary Filmmaker James Schamus at the Provincetown Film Festival
James Schamus has been responsible for some of the best films of the last 20 years. The award-winning screenwriter, producer and CEO of quality film juggernaut Focus Features has put his stamp on modern cinema with a slew of stylish, intelligent independent films, which has included producing some of the most respected filmmakers in the industry. These filmmakers have included Todd Haynes, Nicole Holofcener, Michel Gondry, Gus Van Sant, Sofia Coppola, and the Coen Brothers. His creative partnership with Ang Lee has been a quiet,
Chatting With X-Men: Apocalypse‘s Composer, Editor & Co-Producer John Ottman
John Ottman is a very busy guy. He was composer, editor, and co-producer of X-Men: Apocalypse, which he describes as “running the store.” But that’s not all – he also composed the score for another film opening this month, The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling and written and directed by Shane Black. Somehow, he managed to find a few minutes to chat about both projects.
