Best of 2024: “Furiosa” Art Director Jacinta Leong on That Breathtaking 15-Minute Action Sequence
Nine years after Mad Max: Fury Road star Charlize Theron wreaked havoc as bad-ass adult Furiosa, director George Miller revisits his post-apocalyptic nightmare with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (in theaters now). The prequel, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and the mighty first-generation War Rig truck, features one of the year’s most spellbinding action sequences, a relentless, 15-minute mind-melter that took 78 days to film.
While the 15-minute sequence is the most thrilling action scene of the year (in any film),
“Furiosa” Art Director Jacinta Leong on Building Flying Motorcycles & That Breathtaking 15-Minute Action Sequence
Nine years after Mad Max: Fury Road star Charlize Theron wreaked havoc as bad-ass adult Furiosa, director George Miller revisits his post-apocalyptic nightmare with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (in theaters now). The prequel, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and the mighty first-generation War Rig truck, features one of the year’s most spellbinding action sequences, a relentless, 15-minute mind-melter that took 78 days to film.
While the 15-minute sequence is the most thrilling action scene of the year (in any film),
“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 Peter (Noah Jupe) and his search for his long-lost sister Adele (Pixie Davies).
As the title suggests,
Art Director Daniel Lopez Muñoz on Finding Pixar’s Oscar-Nominated “Soul”
This interview with Daniel Lopez Muñoz is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on December 24, before the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.
Once again Pixar tackles the subjects of the meaning of life, fearlessness in the face of change, synchronicity, and inspiration in their new film Soul. It’s the first time, however, that they have centered the story on a Black man,
Art Director Daniel Lopez Muñoz on Finding Pixar’s “Soul”
Once again Pixar tackles the subjects of the meaning of life, fearlessness in the face of change, synchronicity, and inspiration in their new film Soul. It’s the first time, however, that they have centered the story on a Black man, that of middle school band teacher and jazz pianist Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx). Daniel Lopez Muñoz has worked in such diverse roles for Pixar as a character designer for Up and Coco,
Spider-Man: Far From Home—A Tale Told on Three Bridges
Peter Parker’s summertime journey through Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home is an American teenager’s dream. His science class trip hits Venice, Prague, Austria, and London, with Peter (Tom Holland) making Spider-Man work detours to Berlin and the Netherlands. In reality, the majority of the production relied on locations in Italy and the Czech Republic, with sets built on a backlot in the UK’s Leavesden Studios providing a backdrop for the film’s stunts and visual effects.
Star Trek: Discovery‘s Art Director Gives you the VIP Tour
When Art Director Jody Clement stepped in to work on CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery, she was no stranger to ambitious sci-fi television series. She’d already worked on Guillermo del Toro’s deliciously creepy The Strain, as well as BBC America’s narratively complex Orphan Black. For Star Trek: Discovery, Clement was stepping into both a major new show and TV history simultaneously.
“We do our initial research based on canon,
Bad Times at the El Royale’s Art Director on Building the Lunatic Lodge
In Bad Night at the El Royale, location is everything. The titular lodge sets the mood and structures the interlocking plot twists suffered by seven shady characters who cross paths there on a stormy night in 1969. Director Drew Goddard wrote the story and production designer Martin Whist defined the vision. It was up to supervising art director Michael Diner to make sure all the physical pieces of the environment came together on time and on budget.
Incredibles 2‘s Shading Art Director Reveals the Film’s Insane Level of Detail
Like production designer Ralph Eggleston, with whom we spoke about putting together the look of Incredibles 2, shading art director Bryn Imagire is a longtime Pixar collaborator. Since working as a computer graphics painter on 1998’s A Bug’s Life, Imagire has been a member of the visual effects or art departments of Coco, Ratatouille, UP,
The Supervising Art Director for Avengers: Infinity Wars on Mixing Many Worlds
At two-and-half-hours, Avengers: Infinity War might scare off superhero-movie detractors, and that would be too bad. Though most Marvel titles at least attempt to inject humor into their scripts for broader appeal, the jokes in Infinity Wars always land, no matter where that land might be. In Anthony and Joe Russo’s mega-blockbuster, most of the Marvel universe comes together to fight Thanos (Josh Brolin), a suddenly emotionally complex giant on a complicated mission he believes to be essentially good: population control.
The Dazzling Design of Ghost in the Shell
*We’re sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year this week in our ‘Best of 2017’ roundup.
Freakish cyborgs look right at home in Scarlett Johansson’s Ghost in the Shell sci-fi epic thanks in part to three years of ingenious design work from New Zealand-based Weta Workshop. Inspired by Masamune Shirow’s visionary Manga series and 1995 anime film, co-art director Ben Hawker, who previously channeled Middle Earth critters for the Lord of the Rings trilogy,
The Beguiled Art Director Sets the Scene for Beauty and Terror
The dilapidated Civil War era girls’ school you see in the intriguing Sofia Coppola remake of The Beguiled is actually a pristinely manicured historic plantation in New Orleans. On seeing the film, you won’t even recognize that the house was also used in Beyonce’s Lemonade. Art Director Jennifer Dehghan and her team are responsible for the transformation that included reverse landscaping to create an overgrown look,
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Doc Writer/Director on Unsung Film Heroes
The work of storyboard artist Harold Michelson and researcher Lillian Michelson was integral to some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history: The Ten Commandments, The Apartment, The Birds, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and Rosemary’s Baby, to name just a few.
But you won’t find their names in most of the credits.
The couple,
Silhouettes Say it All in Dramatic Feud Title Sequence
When Feud: Bette and Joan creator Ryan Murphy envisioned a retro opening for his FX series about Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) and Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange), he reached out to Emmy-winning main title director Kyle Cooper with a simple mandate: take inspiration from mid-century graphic designer Saul Bass. "Ryan wanted this to be like the kind of thing Saul Bass did for Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, so that was our creative brief,"
The Dazzling Design of Ghost in the Shell
Freakish cyborgs look right at home in Scarlett Johansson's Ghost in the Shell sci-fi epic thanks in part to three years of ingenious design work from New Zealand-based Weta Workshop. Inspired by Masamune Shirow's visionary Manga series and 1995 anime film, co-art director Ben Hawker, who previously channeled Middle Earth critters for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, worked with director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) to fashion a wild array of futuristic semi-android city dwellers.
Check out This Gorgeous Star Wars: The Force Awakens Concept Art
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has just released a bunch of concept art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, all of which is totally mind-blowing. Some of these pieces were more or less exactly what eventually appeared in the film (like the shot of the TIE Fighters advancing against the backdrop of a huge setting sun), while others depict what could have been a totally different version of the story.
Mad Max: Fury Road Earns 6 Oscars, Crushing Technical Categories
It's not all that surprising that Mad Max: Fury Road did so well at the Oscars last night, winning six Oscars, the most for any film. George Miller's sand blasted chase epic was a technical marvel, reminding viewers what a thrill good, old fashioned stunts are. Although it's a mistake to consider the film solely a marvel of practical effects—there was a lot of great special effects required, they were simply more subtle than you typically get in a film of this size.
Brooklyn’s Production Designer Francois Seguin’s Period Perfection
Though the romance film is about as out of vogue as ever before, it’s a testament to the work behind director John Crowley’s Brooklyn that the quiet Saoirse Ronan-starring love story has become an Oscar favorite since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. A respectful return to the traditions of melodrama, Brooklyn is stuffed with astonishing performances and masterful design, causing many critics to take note not just of the affecting emotional qualities,
New Zoolander 2 Posters Includes These “Phones for Giants”
Zoolander 2 brings fashion icons Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) well into the moment, fifteen years after they made their first appearance in Zoolander, before social media was even a thing. They've got an Instagram account now, where they can showoff their latest poses, selfies, and celebrity run-ins. "What are these, phones for giants?" Zoolander quips in the caption for the main poster, riffing on the size of these iPhone 6's and calling back the sight gag from the original
New Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character Posters Revealed
Well, you had to know that the final Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer wasn't going to be the very last thing released before the December 18 premiere, right? These five new character posters, three of which were shared on Instagram by the film's stars, all share a common theme—the right eye of the character is covered (or in the case of Carrie Fisher's Leia, simply obscured). What's that about? Just aesthetic cohesion and nothing more?
