How “Severance” Cinematographer David Lanzenberg Captured a Chilling Corporate Nightmare
Severance earned 14 Emmy nominations the first time around, and after a three-year hiatus, the show has reignited fan frenzy as it builds toward the Season 2 finale streaming Friday [March 21] on Apple TV +. Again, bifurcated employees and their bosses (Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman and Christopher Walken) navigate the tortuously fascistic world of Lumon Industries, which severs employees from their civilian selves — but now,
SXSW 2025: 11 Intriguing Film & TV Premieres Highlight a Big Time Festival Lineup
Hello from Austin!
This year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival is extra star-studded and jam-packed with exciting titles. This is due, in large part, to the fest not coinciding with the Oscars, as it has for the past few years. As always, SXSW is chock-a-block with screenings—an adventurous and inexhaustible attendee has 111 films and 17 series to choose from—and some very big stars and a ton of intriguing filmmakers and TV creators are on hand to showcase their work.
How The “Blitz” Sound Team Shook Steve McQueen’s Harrowing World War II Film
While researching Small Axe, a riveting series about the political awakening of London’s West Indian community, director Steven McQueen found a photograph of a young Black boy standing on a train platform holding a large suitcase. The stark image had the director questioning who the child was and what his story was during the London Blitz, a period in World War II when the city was bombed by Germany over eight long months.
“Blitz” Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Threads Through a Traumatic History in Steve McQueen’s WWII Epic
Costume designer Jacqueline Durran first dressed Saoirse Ronan in director Joe Wright’s sweeping English drama Atonement in 2007. She did so again for Wright’s action thriller Hanna and Greta Gerwig’s heartwarming period adaptation of Little Women, winning an Oscar for Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Aclott’s beloved book. Durran collabs with the dazzling Irish performer for a fourth time in Steve McQueen’s wartime epic Blitz which follows Ronan as a widowed mother (Rita) trying to protect her only son George (magnificently played by eleven-year-old Elliott Heffernan) from the looming atrocities by sending him on a train far away.
“Severance” Season 2 Trailer Unveils New Employees and Deepening Mysteries
Lumon Industries is back in business. What is that business? Well, that’s part of Severance‘s cryptic, compelling dread.
It’s been three years since Severance‘s first season, and the trailer for season two reintroduces us to Adam Scott’s Mark S., returning to the Lumon offices after he let his “innie” loose on the outside world and learned, to his shock and horror, that the wife he thought he’d lost in a car accident is actually alive and working at Lumon—she’s the wellness counselor,
“Silo” Season 2 Trailer Reveals Rebecca Ferguson’s Survival
The first trailer for Silo season 2 has revealed the survival of Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette. While the fact that Ferguson’s returning to the series should surprise no one, considering she’s the star of the show, for those folks who haven’t yet watched the first season, you’re in store for one of TV’s most underrated sci-fi series.
Silo is centered on the story of the last surviving people on Earth,
“Wolfs” Stunt Coordinator George Cottle on Designing Superlative Stunts For George Clooney & Brad Pitt
For stunt coordinator George Cottle, it started on a warm summer’s day in Los Angeles. He and director Jon Watts were shooting an episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew when Watts mentioned a film idea he was developing to star Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Watts asked Cottle if he’d like to be involved.
“I’ve done three Spider-Man’s with him. I love the way he works,” says Cottle says.
“Women in Blue” Cinematographer Sarasvati Herrera on Lensing Apple TV+’s Gripping New Thriller
The Apple TV+ series Women in Blue (Las Azules) is torn from the history books of Mexico during a time when the first female police officers joined the ranks. Created by Pablo Aramendi and Fernando Rovzar, the ten-episode crime thriller follows four women – María (Bárbara Mori), Gabina (Amorita Rasgado), Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana), and Valentina (Natalia Téllez) – on a psychological whodunit as they to catch a serial killer terrorizing the neighborhood.
A Symphony of Success: Emmy Nominees Talk VFX, Composing, and Editing
We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our first panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. For our second panel, our Emmy nominees came from a wide-ranging group of shows—Lessons in Chemistry‘s ace director Millicent Shelton, nominated for directing episode 6, “Poirot,” Shōgun‘
“Manhunt”: A Visual Journey Through Time with Graphic Designer Gina Alessi
Manhunt graphic designer Gina Alessi had a significant assignment when she was brought on board Apple TV+’s stellar limited series about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s (Hamish Linklater) assassination—among other historical recreations, Alessi was tasked with making sure Abraham Lincoln’s deathbed at the Petersen House next to the Ford Theater, down to the pattern on the blanket, was period perfect. It was not an insignificant challenge,
“Disclaimer” Teaser Reveals Alfonso Cuarón’s Star-Studded Limited Series
Apple TV+ has released the first teaser for Disclaimer, the star-studded limited series written and directed by five-time Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Roma). Cuarón’s series is based on Renée Knight’s bestselling novel and follows the journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (another Osar-winner in Cate Blanchett), a well-respected journo whose career was made uncovering the shadowy deeds of others. What happens when Ravenscroft is sent a novel by a mysterious author who seems to have turned the journalist into the main character?
“Fly Me to the Moon” Screenwriter Rose Gilroy Reimagines the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
As we just celebrated the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 16, director Greg Berlanti’s latest offering is a stylish, charming Space Race rom-com that salutes the 400,000 people who worked on the program. Starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson (who pulls double duty as producer), Fly Me to the Moon (in theaters now) is based on a story by producer Keenan Flynn and writer Bill Kirstein and crafted by screenwriter Rose Gilroy.
“Presumed Innocent” DPs Daniel Voldheim & Doug Emmett on Capturing Jake Gyllenhaal’s Raw Emotions & Moral Ambiguity
An intoxicating amalgam of courtroom thriller, relationship drama, and a whodunit, David E. Kelley’s latest entry into long-form prestige drama arrives with Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent, a cerebral puzzle steeped in betrayal, obsession, love, and ambition. Fresh off his quietly menacing turn in Amazon MGM’s wildly entertaining Road House remake, Jake Gyllenhaal (who also serves as Executive Producer) plays Rusty Sabich, Chicago’s chief deputy prosecutor and devoted family man,
“Fancy Dance” Producer Heather Rae on Putting Together Erica Tremblay’s Moving New Film
For Heather Rae, it’s all about heart. The award-winning producer of Frozen River, Wind Walkers, and Tallulah, and the director/producer of the acclaimed documentary Trudell, believes her place is at the heart of a production. And just as important, Rae is driven to make films with heart.
Fancy Dance, Rae’s latest film, now streaming on Apple TV+,
“Fancy Dance” Writer/Director Erica Tremblay on the Power of Indigenous Storytelling
Fans of Lily Gladstone will be happy to know they can see her on the big screen again in Apple’s new release, Fancy Dance. The film centers on Jax (Gladstone) and Roki (newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson), an Indigenous aunt and niece who live on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation and are dealing with the disappearance of Tawi, Jax’s sister and Roki’s mom. Jax and Roki are hoping they’ll meet up with Tawi at the annual powwow if she’s not found beforehand.
Callum Turner on Accents, B-17s, and Crew Glue in “Masters of the Air”
Based on Donald L. Miller’s 2007 book of the same name, Masters of the Air on Apple TV+ has been praised as theatrical television that’s both true to history and beautiful to watch. Created by John Shiban and John Orloff, the show marries vast set builds with painstakingly correct CGI to depict the tragedies and heroics of the 100th Bomb Group, which flew over 300 combat missions and received two Distinguished Unit Citations but also suffered heavy losses of 177 aircraft during World War II.
“Silo” Creator Graham Yost Unseals the Secrets of Season 1
Graham Yost had his work cut out for him when he set out to tackle author Hugh Howey’s apocalyptic sci-fi trilogy series “Silo,” all of which are set in the titular structure (none of Howey’s books are actually titled “Silo”) and deal with the society that lives within it’s 144 heavily monitored floors. The denizens of the Silo live in a claustrophobic brutalist tower outfitted with retrofuturistic touches that include clunky computers, a large screen in the cafeteria showing what appears to be a denuded,
“Silo” Director/Executive Producer Morten Tyldum on Helming Rebecca Ferguson’s Sci-Fi Mystery
Apple TV+’s Silo, created by Graham Yost, is an ingeniously constructed sci-fi series that nevertheless opens with a shot worthy of any classic western—a Sheriff’s badge—and goes on to meld elements of that genre, along with police procedural and conspiracy thriller, in 10 satisfying episodes. The series’ claustrophobic setting, the titular Silo, serves as a character almost every bit important as Rebecca Ferguson’s resourceful, remorseful Juliet, an engineer plucked from the obscurity of the Silo’s lowest levels to take over for the last lawman,
How the Latest VFX Techniques Immersed the “Masters of the Air” Actors in Battle
Masters of the Air, starring Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan, is the latest celebrated WWII epic from Band of Brothers and The Pacific executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman. The intense drama inspired by the 100th Bomb Group is the most detailed on-screen depiction of B-17 planes ever. The visual effects teams from DNEG studios, led by VVFX Supervisor Xavier Bernasconi and VFX Producer Abigal Everard were provided with thousands of hours of research materials about the aircrafts and battles they flew from the Production Designer Chris Seagers and his show researcher Jessica Bradbury.
“Shakespeare but with football”: Director Matthew Hamachek Unpacks “The Dynasty: New England Patriots”
Director and executive producer Matthew Hamachek calls The Dynasty, the 10-part docu-series now streaming on Apple TV+, “Shakespeare but with football.”
He’s not overstating it. As Dynasty charts the rise and fall of the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots over the course of 20 years, dazzling on-field highlights are deftly layered with the documentary’s themes of male ego, betrayal, the price of success, and the corporatization of sports at the expense of players.
