Meet the Caricaturist who Created Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood‘s Classic MAD Magazine Cover
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood takes place in 1969 and it is filled with meticulously researched and re-created period detail. Leonardo DiCaprio plays television star Rick Dalton, whose western series was once a big hit but whose career has faded. How bad is it for Rick? He’s relegated to doing guest shots on ...
Meet the Man Who Provided the Vintage Props for The Sopranos Prequel
When a movie takes place in the past the filmmakers have to recreate a whole bygone world. We might not notice if a telephone, neon sign, or cash register is right for the period, but if it’s wrong it can be a distraction. Prop Specialties provides all kinds of items to film and television productions ...
Own Spidey’s Mask From Captain America: Civil War & Spider-Man: Homecoming With Shutter Eyes
If your spider-sense is tingling right now, it’s just because this new fan-made mask is dangerously cool. For years, Spider-Man’s mask with ever-moving eyes was a staple of the comic books and animated productions, but it wasn’t until Captain America: Civil War in 2016 that viewers got a glimpse at a live-action mechanical mask. It ...
How Actual New York Chefs Reality-Checked Restaurant Drama Feed the Beast
AMC touts its new David Schwimmer/Jim Sturgess drama Feed the Beast (debuting Sunday, June 5, at 10 pm ET) as a show that explores the "insanity of the New York restaurant world." It's a topic series consultant Harold Dieterle knows a lot about. After winning Bravo TV's Top Chef crown, the American Culinary Institute-trained New Yorker ...
How They Built the Props for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
One of the things that has always made Star Wars such a delight is the intense care that went into the design of the franchise's many iconic props. It's not just that they're cool (they are), but that they looked like objects that have been in use for years or more. As far back as A New Hope, the Star Wars films ...
Introducing Independence Day: Resurgence‘s 40 Ton Space Tug
20th Century Fox dropped an exclusive first look at the space tug used by Liam Hemsworth’s character ESD Pilot Jake Morrison in Independence Day: Resurgence over at ComingSoon.net. Think of a tug boat in space, only for Resurgence, the crew actually built this 40 ton monster so the actors could interact with and act in a real space. It's ...
Lightsabers, James Bond’s Aston Martin and Scarlett Johansson: Your Friday Video Roundup
From James Bond’s car to StarWars.com’s list of the 10 best lightsabers, we’ve got your Friday video roundup here. Yesterday, StarWars.com’s editorial staff released this video of their ranking of the 10 best lightsabers in the galaxy—do you agree with their assessment? Oh James, you should have thought of this before you got behind the ...
The Real Effects Used to Simulate the Raging Sea in The Finest Hours
The Finest Hours tells the incredible true story of a daring rescue mission conducted by a handful of men from the Chatham, Massachusetts, Coast Guard when a huge storm struck New England on February 8, 1952. The storm ripped two 500-foot oil tankers in half, leaving their crews stranded at sea. Despite hurricane-force winds and ...
Check Out How They Updated This Classic Scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Once again, if you haven't seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, read no further. This video, produced by Tested, unlocks how Phil Tippett and Tippett Studios created the classic Dejarik holochess game for The Force Awakens, which was seen in the very first Star Wars. Don't remember that scene? Here's a refresher— R2-D2 plays Chewbacca while aboard the Millennium Falcon, and after the little ...
BB-8: From Napkin Sketch to Starring Role in The Force Awakens
We're just hours away from the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and here's a great, spoiler free way to pass the time until you see it—a featurette on the new droid BB-8. BB-8 is perhaps the most emblematic creation in all of The Force Awakens because this adorable "soccer ball" droid represents a return to the practical effects that director and co-writer J.J. ...
The Return of “In-Camera” Effects in Krampus & The Force Awakens
With the technological leaps and bounds that CGI made after the turn of the 21st century, the mid to late aughts brought with it a deluge of films relying heavily on newly discovered and increasingly honed special effects, particularly in genres like sci-fi and horror. But after years of reboots and remakes that sought to ...
Finn’s Got A Lightsaber? Watch new Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser
“There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it”? Um, yes, Star Wars, we have. And now that Star Wars: The Force Awakens released a teaser to a teaser trailer today on Instagram, we can be pretty sure that the 8 people who haven’t yet felt it (they’ve been on the International Space Station) have as ...
Creating Star Wars: The Force Awakens Newest Droid—BB-8
When it came to creating a new droid for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the task for J.J. Abrams and his fellow filmmakers was not without potential disaster—R2-D2 and C-3P0 are such iconic characters in the Star Wars universe that any new droid that was to have a decent sized role (larger a role than, say, ...
The Man behind the Machines – Ted Moser, Picture Car Coordinator
Ted Moser has been one of the most knowledgeable picture car coordinators in the film business for decades. His resume includes movies that have breathtaking chases and car stunts, including Munich, Argo, The Town, Rush Hour 3 and 2 Fast 2 Furious. He’s also the founder and owner of Picture Car Warehouse, which he created after ...
From Home Builder to World Builder, Carpenter Jason Allard’s Life in the Movies
One of the most important and most highly skilled crew jobs in Hollywood is that of the carpenter, those men and women who create the scenery and props that plunge us into the physical world of the film. “It’s construction with a twist,” says Jason Allard, a man who knows how to turn a description ...
Sick Ride: A Look at Furious 7‘s Supercharged Cars
“Cars are like a cowboy’s horse or a Samurai’s sword. They are an extension of our heroes and representative of their personalities," says Furious 7 screenwriter Chris Morgan. "We always try to maintain that philosophy but accomplish it in a fresh new way with every film. The constant though: Brian (the late Paul ...
Made in Maryland: Hanging With the Crew on the Set of Veep
It was a cold, blustery Tuesday in December when we were on the set of HBO’s Veep in downtown Baltimore. On the production front, however, It was a relatively calm day of filming by Veep standards, but a calm day on the set of this show still requires dozens of crew members to work their butts off. Whether it ...
Win Your Halloween Costume Contest With Duds From Actual Films
Not only can you do as the title suggests, you can also help save the planet. All you have to do is live in New York. Here's how. Head to an 11,000 foot warehouse in Gowanus, Brooklyn, on 540 President Street, and sample from a gargantuan collection of costumes, props, and more. The bonus? All of these ...
Space Creators: Building the Guardians of the Galaxy
James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy opens on Earth, where a young Peter Quill sits alone in a hospital corridor, listening to his walkman. Prop master Barry Gibbs lead the search for the perfect cassette player, which took four months of internet searching and yielded only 16 cassette players in various states of disrepair that would be suitable ...
Call of the Holly-Wild: Animal Trainer David Meeks
If you’ve ever seen a rhino in a television commercial, his name is Tank and he’s the only working rhino in show business. Maybe you’ve noticed zebras, bears, leopards, African lions, panthers or Siberian tigers in TV ads or on the big screen and wondered how they're train to stand still, lie down, run around or ...
