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Staying in character 20th Century Studios Pesci may be tiny but the guy has a rage on screen unlike any other. However, in an interview with CBC’s Midday, Pesci stated that he wanted to take the role of burglar Harry Lime because “Home Alone” had a “great script,” but also because it was different from the kind of movies he usually starred in: “I wanted to play it for the kids because I never get to work for children, you know?...

Mel Brooks Wanted Gene Wilder To Cut An All-Time Classic Young Frankenstein Scene By Anya Stanley/Aug. 22, 2022 2:29 pm EST You know him as Willy Wonka, the Waco Kid, a Frankenstein heir, and perhaps Skip Donahue. Whatever the role, Gene Wilder had a knack for burrowing into the hearts of audiences all over the world. Over several decades, the Milwaukee-born multi-hyphenate endeared scores of fans to his work in now-classic films like “The Producers,” “Silver Streak,” “Young Frankenstein,” and “Blazing Saddles,” each time lighting up the screen with natural absurdity and poignant emotional warmth....

Michael Mann’s Vision For Heat Needed A Different Kind Of Movie Villain Warner Bros. By Jeremy Smith/July 24, 2022 10:00 pm EST The cops-and-robbers formula is as reliable a formula as there is in entertainment, regardless of the medium. There are typically two approaches to these kinds of stories. The first is to focus on a detective, who could be anything from stolidly righteous (think Jack Webb’s Sergeant Joe Friday) to relentlessly corrupt (they don’t get much baser than Harvey Keitel’s “Bad Lieutenant”)....

The scene in question “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” was directed by the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and is based on the children’s book of the same name. It centers on Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), a struggling inventor who finally finds success by building a machine that literally makes food rain from the sky. However, this goes a little off the rails, as one might expect, and animated hijinks ensue....

Only Murders In The Building Dives Into Mabel’s Past In The Latest Episode Hulu By Josh Spiegel/Aug. 2, 2022 12:00 pm EST The seventh episode of the first season of “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Boy from 6B”, was a true standout. You may recall it well enough if you’re a fan of the Hulu crime comedy series: the installment was almost entirely free of spoken dialogue, as it primarily was presented from the perspective of Theo Dimas (James Caverly), the deaf son of deli king Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane)....

Robin Williams Had A Lot To Prove Going Into Good Morning, Vietnam Touchstone Pictures By Jeremy Smith/Aug. 23, 2022 4:33 pm EST For those who were not cognizant throughout the 1980s, it’s probably difficult to believe there was a time when Robin Williams was considered a risky box office bet. Though his first time out as a leading man, in Robert Altman’s “Popeye,” was a hit, that film’s success was largely ascribed to the popularity of the cartoon character....

Sam Raimi Shot An Entirely Separate Film To Find Funding For The Evil Dead New Line Cinema By Erin Brady/Oct. 10, 2022 2:25 pm EST The making of “The Evil Dead” and its subsequent release is considered one of the best Cinderella stories in filmmaking history. After all, how does an entirely DIY project made entirely by friends end up becoming a multimedia franchise, launching the careers of several people involved?...

Season 10 Was Almost The End Of Archer FXX By Matt Rainis/Sept. 9, 2022 1:47 pm EST It takes a lot of hard work and luck to even get the pilot of a television show made. Then, only a fraction of those shows actually get ordered for a season. Those shows then consider themselves lucky if they earn a second season. Anything over that, is just gravy. But for a select group of shows, being renewed for more seasons becomes less of an “if” and more of a “when....

Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks Crossover Caused Some Initial Confusion For The Cast Paramount By Witney Seibold/Aug. 5, 2022 2:18 pm EST One of the bigger “Star Trek”-related surprises to come out of the 2022 San Diego Comic Con was that the animated series “Star Trek: Lower Decks” (about to begin its third season on August 25) and the most recent “Trek” iteration “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (which just concluded its first season) are going to have a crossover episode....

Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River Is Getting A Sequel With Director Kari Skogland The Weinstein Company By Jeremy Mathai/Nov. 9, 2022 2:28 pm EST You didn’t think that filmmaker Taylor Sheridan was exclusively building an empire on television, did you? The “Yellowstone” creator and Western aficionado, who first cut his teeth as the credited writer on big screen projects such as “Sicario” and “Hell or High Water,” is about to see his feature film debut receive a new (and unexpected) installment....

Bird’s the word New Line Cinema Okay, I did warn you we were going to get nerdy here, right? The very first scene in that aforementioned prologue of “The Rings of Power” might seem unassuming enough, showing us Galadriel as a child in the carefree and innocent realm of Valinor, essentially the elven equivalent of heaven. Almost immediately, however, we see that even elvish kids can be just as obnoxious as any regular human one....

The Daily Stream: Lady Macbeth Is The Original Florence Pugh Knockout Altitude Film Distribution By Lex Briscuso/Sept. 28, 2022 5:00 pm EST (Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching, why it’s worth checking out, and where you can stream it.) The film: “Lady Macbeth” Where you can stream it: The Roku Channel, Tubi, Kanopy, Freevee The Pitch: In rural England in 1865, there isn’t much more for young Katherine (Florence Pugh in her first feature film) to do at home but wait for her cruel and bitter husband — a man twice her age trapping her in a loveless engagement — to return....

The Surprising Sound Clint Mansell Used To Craft Requiem For A Dream’s Score Artisan Entertainment By Marisa Mirabal/Sept. 17, 2022 11:59 pm EST Director Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” is one of the most stunning and heartbreaking films to ever depict the loneliness and depravity associated with addiction. Adapted from Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1978 novel, Aronofsky’s sophomore feature film cemented the filmmaker’s unique style, combining gorgeous cinematography, close-up shots, and a harrowing score that perfectly enhances the disturbing fate of its characters....

Wendell Pierce Is Glad The Wire Never Wound Up Winning An Emmy HBO By Erin Brady/Sept. 16, 2022 5:40 pm EST “The Wire” is one of those shows that, in retrospect, were horrifically robbed of any Emmys during its time on HBO. The crime drama is still revered as one of the best of its genre, as well as one of the programs that helped ring in the era of prestige television....

Why The Director Of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Loves Michael Bay Netflix By Adam Wescott/Sept. 17, 2022 11:37 am EST “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” is an animated spin-off of “Cyberpunk 2077,” a blockbuster sci-fi dystopian video game that itself was made in a pretty dystopian manner. It’s also the newest show by Hiroyuki Imaishi, the director of “Gurren Lagann” and “Promare.” Imaishi started as an animator and director at the legendary studio Gainax before co-founding Studio Trigger with fellow Gainax staff including Yoh Yoshinari....

The true story of the cocaine bear Universal Pictures When asked about how successfully “Cocaine Bear” manages to skirt the line between comedy and horror, Banks quipped, “Hopefully as well as Sam Raimi” without missing a beat. The fact that the far-fetched story is actually based on a true event should also help make every outlandish death seem a little more believable. In September of 1985, police found the body of Andrew Carter Thornton II in a driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee (according to an investigative article in Backpacker)....

‘Daredevil’ VFX Breakdown: Creating A Ninja Fight Scene Daredevil can boast a number of Emmy nominations for 2015, including nods for Main Title Design, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects. To celebrate that last nomination, effects house Shade VFX has released a Daredevil VFX breakdown for the fight scene between Daredevil and the ninja Nobu. It’s a scene from midway through the season, so some spoilers follow if you’re not yet watched the show, but...

46 Long HBO A great pilot introduces our main characters, kicks off the drama, and paints a picture of the world we are about to inhabit in 50-minute chucks. Naturally, “The Sopranos” nailed it. However, many shows take a few episodes to really find their footing, and I believe that viewers needed this episode as much as the pilot to convince them to stick around. In “46 Long,” Tony’s mother, Livia, accidentally sets her kitchen on fire while sautéing mushrooms....

A Gigantic 8 And A Half Acre Set Was Built For Both Seasons Of Andor Lucasfilm By Erin Brady/Aug. 24, 2022 1:00 pm EST Set design is an intricate and often underappreciated aspect of filmmaking. After all, the majority of settings in a movie don’t just appear there out of thin air. Most of the time, it takes nearly a village of designers and construction workers to create the best-looking sets for a movie or television show....

A Run-In With Wendell Pierce Changed The Course Of Anthony Mackie’s Acting Career Marvel Studios/Disney By Jeff Kelly/Nov. 14, 2022 12:30 pm EST It feels like it’s been a bit of a meteoric rise to stardom for Anthony Mackie, even if the New Orleans-born actor has been doing strong work on the big screen for the last two decades following his first film role in the Eminem-starring “8 Mile.” After making a splash as the main antagonist in that movie, Mackie started working steadily with roles in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “We Are Marshall,” and “The Hurt Locker,” but it wasn’t until he landed the coveted role of Sam Wilson, better known as the Falcon, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that his career really started to soar....