Best of 2024: “Challengers” Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes on Acing his Zendaya-led Tennis Scorcher
Spoiler Alert: The following article contains spoilers for Challengers. Back in 2018, playwright and author Justin Kuritzkes was obsessively consuming the world of elite tennis. As the first-time screenwriter conveyed to The Credits, it was better than anything in theaters or on the small screen — tennis was really just that good. During that year’s ...
“Challengers” Production Designer Merissa Lombardo Sets the Stage on Court & Off
Director Luca Guadagnino’s sexy new tennis romance, Challengers, layers a years-long love triangle of three millennial-era players over the highs and lows of their careers. At the center is talented, driven, and stunning Tashi (Zendaya). She first dates Patrick (Josh O’Connor), who plays as well as she does, but doesn’t take his career or their ...
“Challengers” Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes on Acing his Zendaya-led Tennis Scorcher
Spoiler Alert: The following article contains spoilers for Challengers. Back in 2018, playwright and author Justin Kuritzkes was obsessively consuming the world of elite tennis. As the first-time screenwriter conveyed to The Credits, it was better than anything in theaters or on the small screen — tennis was really just that good. During that year’s ...
Game On: Zendaya & Co. Reveal Why “Challengers” Will Be Your New Obsession
From the warm embrace of Call Me By Your Name to the eerie thrill of Bones and All, Luca Guadagnino’s latest film, Challengers, is a culmination of the better parts of all of his earlier work, ending in an explosive (and sweaty) finale. The film centers on a love triangle, set in the world of high-stakes ...
“American Fiction” Writer/Director Cord Jefferson on Cutting to the Heart of the Matter
Writer/director Cord Jefferson’s narrative feature debut, American Fiction, has become one of the most talked about films this awards season, and for good reason. Adapted from Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure,” the satirical drama won the audience award upon its debut at the Toronto Film Festival, with a number of subsequent fests following suit, and ...
“American Fiction” Star Jeffrey Wright Authors a New Chapter in a Stellar Career
Jeffrey Wright has found a great role as Monk Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction. The story is based on a 2001 novel called “Erasure” by Percival Everett and centers on a professor and writer fed up with the way the literary world limits how Blackness is portrayed in pop culture. In response, Monk ...
“Saltburn” Cinematographer Linus Sandgren on Creating a Fluid Painting for Emerald Fennell
The comic drama Saltburn from director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) is as beautiful as it is macabre. It’s 2006, and Oliver (Barry Keoghan), an awkward, lonely student at Oxford, finds his place within the scenic confines of his university by becoming friends with Felix (Jacob Elordi), who is everything Oliver is not — handsome, ...
How “Saltburn” Production Designer Suzie Davies Imbued a Palatial Estate With Sinister Detailing
Like so many of us, production designer Suzie Davies loved Emerald Fennel’s debut, Promising Young Woman. When she heard that the actress-turned-director planned a sex-drenched thriller called Saltburn as a follow-up to her debut feature, Davies, Oscar-nominated for designing Mike Leigh’s lush period piece Mr. Turner, threw her hat in the ring. “I was like, ...
“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 ...
First Trailer for Guy Ritchie’s “The Covenant” Finds Jake Gyllenhaal Paying a Battlefield Debt
The first trailer for writer/director Guy Ritchie’s latest film, The Covenant, is here, and it packs a punch. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as John Kinley, a sergeant deployed on his last tour in Afghanistan. Disaster strikes and John’s facing certain death, but he’s saved by a local interpreter named Ahmed (Dal Salim), who goes above ...
“Women Talking” Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on Scoring Sarah Polley’s Astonishing New Film
Based on the novel by Miriam Toews, writer/director Sarah Polley’s new narrative Women Talking considers how a group of women can move forward after the shocking betrayal and abuse by men in their isolated religious community. The backstory of the novel and subsequent film, which is set in 2010, mirrors horrific true events that took ...
“Bones And All” Writer/Producer David Kajganich on Creating a Consuming Cannibal Love Story
When screenwriter David Kajganich decided to adapt the YA novel Bones And All by Camille DeAngelis, he approached his friend and longtime collaborator, director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), about taking on the project — the two had worked together on Suspiria and A Bigger Splash. Though professional commitments initially prevented Guadagnino from ...
See Timothée Chalamet & Taylor Russell as a Cannibals in Love in First “Bones and All” Teaser
Timothée Chalamet has revealed the first teaser for Bones and All, his upcoming collaboration with his Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino. Bones and All will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the end of this month (August 31, to be exact) and is one of the fest’s most eagerly-anticipated entries. Guadagnino’s film is ...
“Cyrano” Composer Aaron Dessner on Tuning Into Timeless Love
Director Joe Wright, known best for emotional period films like Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, has brought a new musical version of Cyrano to the screen, starring Peter Dinklage in the title role. Dinklage is receiving rave reviews for his part in the romantic classic, bringing a new depth to the brilliant wordsmith and swordsman who loves his best ...
Oscar-Nominated “Cyrano” Costume Designer Massimo Cantini on a New Vision For a Timeless Tale
Cyrano (in theaters on February 25) boasts megawatt talent – notably, Peter Dinklage in the title role – but newly minted Oscar-nominee, costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini, may be the film’s secret weapon. Parrini has won a bundle of European awards, mostly for his work in his native Italy. He came to Hollywood’s attention in ...
“Cyrano” Screenwriter Erica Schmidt on Adapting the Iconic Love Triangle for Film
It is one of the dramatic arts’ most famous and heartbreaking love triangles: Cyrano de Bergerac, in love with Roxanne, who loves Christian and he her, aided in his pursuit by Cyrano’s eloquent written and spoken words. Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play about the brilliant wordsmith and his unrequited passion has been adapted over the past ...
“House of Gucci” Screenwriter Roberto Bentivegna on Centering Lady Gaga’s Obsessive Patrizia Reggiani
Sometimes you just have to say, “F*** it all, I’ll give it a shot.” That’s what Roberto Bentivegna did when he got his shot to write the screenplay for the new MGM Studios feature House of Gucci, opening November 24. At the time, Bentivegna had only a handful of short-film credits and award wins from way ...
Leonardo DiCaprio in Final Talks to Play Cult Leader Jim Jones in MGM Film
Leonardo DiCaprio gravitates towards difficult roles, so it’s hardly surprising he’s in final talks to play the infamous religious cult leader Jim Jones in MGM’s upcoming film. Deadline reports that DiCaprio is close to finalizing the deal for the feature written by Scott Rosenberg that’s centered on Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple religious ...
“No Time To Die” Is Officially the Longest Bond Movie Ever
It was another lifetime ago (seriously, it feels like that) when we shared the news that No Time To Die was likely going to be the longest Bond movie ever made. This was way, way back in February of 2020 before the pandemic had changed everything. Now it’s official—United Artists has told domestic exhibitors not only the ...
Listen to the First Episode of The Official “No Time To Die” Podcast
If you’ve been hankering for some more James Bond in your life (and who hasn’t?), you can now get your fix, podcast style. A new No Time To Die podcast featuring the film’s director, stars, producers, and more is now available. No Time To Die: The Official James Bond Podcast includes stars Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa ...
