“The Creator” Production Designer James Clyne Fabricates the Future
When writer-director Gareth Edwards finished Rogue One, he took a road trip to his girlfriend’s home in Iowa. Along the way, he noticed a Japanese factory in the middle of a cornfield and started dreaming up a new story. Seven years later, Edwards has delivered The Creator. Set in 2065, the movie pits American humans ...
How “A Haunting in Venice” Production Designer John Paul Kelly Built a Possessed Venetian Palazzo
There’s a chilling haunt in Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation of famed detective Hercule Poirot that will make the hair on the back of your neck tingle. Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, this third whodunit sinks into darker waters and unravels a tale along the ...
“Winning Time” Production Designer Richard Toyon on Capturing the Lakers Highs & Lows in Season 2
A Los Angeles native and longtime Lakers fan, production designer Richard Toyon had a good idea of how the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty should look. After all, he was there when it originally happened. Opening in 1979, season 1 saw Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) buying the Lakers and ...
Best of Summer 2023: “Beef” Production Designer Grace Yun on Mixing Real & Surreal Into a Simmering Style
*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA ...
Best of Summer 2023: “Oppenheimer” Production Designer Ruth De Jong on Helping Christopher Nolan Build the Bomb
*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA ...
Beyond the Craft With Emmy Nominees From “The Last of Us,” “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” & More
A ruined world, decimated by a fungi-borne plague and teeming with zombified hordes and hardened survivors who can be just as dangerous. A biopic about one of the all-time greatest musical tricksters who created an astonishingly successful career parodying hit songs. A reality show where contestants move into a palatial castle and need to cohere ...
“Oppenheimer” Production Designer Ruth De Jong on Helping Christopher Nolan Build the Bomb
Oppenheimer is a colossal achievement. Christopher Nolan’s film is an exquisitely calibrated epic, brimming with ambition and ingenuity, appropriate for its titular protagonist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the brilliant physicist who led America’s Manhattan Project during World War II. Nolan and his crew, including production designer Ruth De Jong (Nope), reached for the stars ...
Pretty in Pink With “Barbie” Production Designer Sarah Greenwood & Set Decorator Katie Spencer
“It was trying to find a solution to what makes a toy,” says production designer Sarah Greenwood about creating the charmed sets of Barbie alongside set decorator Katie Spencer. The two have been near inseparable, having worked on over thirty projects together. Darkest Hour, Beauty and the Beast, and Anna Karenina are among their six ...
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” Production Designer Gary Freeman Creates an Artificially Intelligent Palace
The bespoke work of production designer Gary Freeman on Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One might be overlooked by most moviegoers. A few of the reasons might be because of a then 60-year-old Tom Cruise out stunting himself yet again or the scene-stealing performances by Hayley Atwell as a wily thief and Pom Klementieff as ...
“Godfather of Harlem” Production Designer Patrick Howe on Handling History in Season 3
The story of gangster Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker) continues to unfold with the third season of Godfather of Harlem, from creators Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein. This prequel series to Ridley Scott‘s 2007 feature American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, cleverly intertwines a kinetic group of characters in a period crime drama well ...
“Fatal Attraction” Production Designer Nina Ruscio on Creating Design With an Edge
The famed 1987 film Fatal Attraction, starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, made its way to the small screen with Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan as the unfaithful couple tearing each other’s lives apart. Reinvigorated by Alexandra Cunningham (Physical), the psychological thriller unravels over eight gripping episodes, taking place 15 years after Dan (Jackson) is ...
“Beef” Production Designer Grace Yun on Mixing Real & Surreal Into a Simmering Style
Beef creator Lee Sung Jin (Dave, Undone), who goes by Sonny Lee, reached out to production designer Grace Yun (Past Lives, Ramy, Hereditary) to share his vision of the series that pins Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor, and Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur, against one other following a heated parking lot ...
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” Production Designer Adam Stockhausen on That Thrilling Opening Sequence
“There is a lot to draw from, but there’s also a very high bar in terms of how visually exciting these films have been,” says production designer Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel) of the Indiana Jones franchise. The four previous films – Raider of the Lost Ark (1981), Temple of Doom (1984), Last Crusade ...
“American Born Chinese” Production Design Team Cindy Chao & Michele Yu’s Dazzling Details
It’s rare enough to see a production design team and rarer still to see a team of two female Asian American designers, but Cindy Chao and Michele Yu have been collaborating together successfully on both the large and small screens for over a decade. Recently they got a Primetime Emmy nomination for their work on ...
“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 ...
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 ...
“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 ...
“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 ...
“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 ...
“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 ...
