Oscar Watch: Why Ted Melfi Passed on Spider-Man: Homecoming to direct Hidden Figures
Before he became an award-winning TV commercial director, before he lured Bill Murray out of semi-retirement to star in his St. Vincent film, before he earned Oscar nominations for co-writing and producing this year's most popular Best Picture nominee Hidden Figures, Ted Melfi launched his creative journey in unlikely fashion by serving as child sports columnist for the M.A.F.I.A. Bulletin Board.
Melfi's volatile father,
Oscar Nominee Allison Schroeder on Adapting Hidden Figures
It’s an exciting and extraordinary time for screenwriter Allison Schroeder. The Hidden Figures scribe has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, is a finalist for a Humanitas Prize, and also received WGA, BAFTA and Critic’s Choice nods — all this after being named one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” this past November and giving birth to her first child.
“It’s incredibly surreal,
The Path Creator Jessica Goldberg on Finding Religion
If you haven't watched Hulu's The Path, now's your time to catch up before the second season begins tonight. The show, created by Jessica Goldberg, is a rarity for TV: a twisting, intriguing deep dive into the pitfalls of belief, the difficulties of marriage, and the risks of zealotry.
The story follows Eddie Lane (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), who lives in upstate New York with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and their two children,
Writer/Director Vincent Perez on his Timely, Devastating new Film Alone in Berlin
A somber, restrained World War II picture, Alone in Berlin, opens this week from director/actor Vincent Perez. Swiss by birth and of Spanish and German ancestry, Perez optioned the rights to Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel, Every Man Dies Alone, two years before an English translation in 2009 became a surprise bestseller in the UK and US. The story of Nazi resistance from a working class Berlin couple,
Oscar Watch: Writer Taylor Sheridan Gets Personal in Hell or High Water
Offering context for his stirring Hell or High Water screenplay, Taylor Sheridan expertly expounds on West Texas cattle farming, the 1930's dust bowl, predatory banking practices, boom or bust oil economy and the isolation engendered by wide open spaces. But Sheridan also invested plenty of his own experience into the story. Nominated for a Writers Guild Award and Golden Globe for best motion picture screenplay, Hell or High Water follows a broke,
Writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve on Things to Come
French actress Isabelle Huppert is reaping awards from critics’ groups for her roles in two films this year: Elle, from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, and the quietly poignant Things to Come, from young French writer/directer Mia Hansen-Løve.
While Huppert’s audacious performance in Elle jut might earn the actress her first Oscar nod, it’s the delicate blend of youth and wisdom, melancholy and joy,
Arrival‘s Screenwriter on Crafting one of the Year’s Best Films
For sci-fi fans, there was something doubly wonderful about watching director Denis Villeneuve's Arrival; it proved that the most malleable of genres is still alive and well, and, confirmed that Villeneuve was absolutely the right choice to helm the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049.
Ridley Scott's 1982 Blade Runner is one of sci-fi's most iconic films (coming just a few years after his equally iconic
Writer/Director Garth Jennings Mixes Legendary Music & Animation in Sing
If you have ever watched American Idol or The Voice and wished that the contestants were animals instead of humans, then Sing is definitely playing your tune – or should that be ‘toon? Writer/director Garth Jennings – the British filmmaker whose quirky vision graced the cult hit Son of Rambow as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy –takes his first stab at an animated feature,
Screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick on Deadpool 2 & More
Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have created the perfect recipe for mixing high-octane action, gore, and comedy without being heavy handed. The duo struck gold with Zombieland and if you thought their success might be a fluke, they came back and did it again in Deadpool. The R-rated Marvel box-office smash was just nominated for two Golden Globes, thanks in no small part to Reese and Wernick's mastery of combining humor and action. Their ability to mix genres could be disastrous in less skilled hands.
Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 2
In Part 2 of an interview with writer/director Kenneth Lonergan about his latest release, Manchester by the Sea, which opens Friday, the New York City native speaks about his penchant for acting in his own films, his choice of classical music to accompany a drama like Manchester by the Sea that is set in a working-class milieu and how the current political climate might affect his artistic vision in the future –
Talking to Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 1
At 54, Kenneth Lonergan has experienced the highs and lows of the movie biz. The filmmaker has basked in the glow of having his directorial debut, 2000’s You Can Count on Me, bestowed with rave reviews and two Academy Award nominations – one for his screenplay and the other for his leading lady, Laura Linney. And he has dealt with the frustration when the running time of his more ambitious sophomore effort,
Oscar Watch: La La Land‘s Director Damien Chazelle & Star Emma Stone on Their Moving Musical
Oscar-nominated writer/director Damien Chazelle set out to make a genre film with La La Land. Inspired by classic song-and-dance movies such as Singin’ in the Rain and Swing Time, he wanted to create an old-fashioned musical but “keep it grounded” in realism and contemporary Los Angeles.
“It was about trying to use real locations, use a lot of real spaces,
Mark Duplass on Stripping Away Artifice For Blue Jay
Mark Duplass readily admits he’s “a schmaltz hound.”
“I have it deep in me. I can put on Same Time, Next Year or Somewhere in Time and just go for it,” he says. “I’m a nostalgic and melancholic person and I normally try to curb that in my art because I feel like if I don’t, it’s going to run rampant over everything. With this movie,
Jonás Cuarón Talks About his Savagely Intense Film Desierto
Desierto, Mexico’s official submission as Best Foreign Language Film to the next Academy Awards, doesn’t seem a likely inspiration for Gravity, which won seven Oscars in 2014. But when young filmmaker Jonás Cuarón showed the first draft of the script to his father Alfonso nearly 10 years ago, the elder Cuarón said he wanted to make a movie like it — in space.
“Like Gravity,
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.
Talking to Little Men Director & Co-Writer Ira Sachs
Like his 2014 film Love is Strange, director/co-writer Ira Sachs’ new film Little Men is a touchingly realistic examination of the relationships between people thrown together by circumstance. In Love is Strange, the economics of life in New York force a recently wed gay couple (John Lithgow and Alfred Molina) to live separately after Molina’s character loses his job. In Little Men, a struggling actor (Greg Kinnear) inherits a Brooklyn building from his father and moves his own family there.
Chatting With Writer/Director Patricia Rozema About Into the Forest
From her 1987 debut feature I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing to Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008), writer-director Patricia Rozema makes films with women characters that drive the action. But what’s unusual is how sanguine Rozema is about the always-looming issue of the dearth of central women’s roles and the financing obstacles most female-led films face, if they are not about Ghostbusters.
“You just never know what’s plain old getting-a-film-together difficultness and what’s because-it’s-girls difficultness.
Comic-Con: The Big Bang Theory Writer’s Panel
No group is happier to appear at Comic-Con than The Big Bang Theory writers. “This is our Coachella,” Tara Hernandez told the audience filling one of Comic-Con’s biggest venues. The writers and producers appeared on a panel with their real-life science consultant, David Saltzberg, moderated by actress Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette.
The characters in The Big Bang Theory are passionate fans of the same comic books, movies, television series,
How Lights Out Writer Stretched Fear of Dark Premise to Feature Length Hit
The 2014 short version of Lights Out teased a primal horror hook grounded in universal fear: people freak out in total darkness. After director David F. Sandberg uploaded his YouTube mini-thriller about a monster who pops up when the lights go out, the clip attracted 3.2 million views and caught the notice of Hollywood producers. When they enlisted screenplay writer Eric Heisserer to expand the short, he faced a daunting question: how do you stretch a two-minute,
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,
