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Avatar was Saldaña’s Juilliard 20th Century Studios Motion-capture acting and performing opposite green screens and tennis balls is pretty standard for actors in big-budget movies these days, but in the aughts, it was still fairly new territory. One only need ask veterans of the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy for a first-hand account of just how tricky it was to adjust to CGI-driven filmmaking in its early days. With “Avatar,” however, it wasn’t just the settings but most of the main characters who were created in post-production....

How The Thing Accidentally Became The Start Of John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy Universal Pictures By Devin Meenan/Oct. 31, 2022 9:17 am EST John Carpenter planned “Halloween” to be an anthology series, but the relative failure of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” put the kibosh on those plans. Instead, the series reintroduced classic antagonist Michael Myers, Carpenter’s involvement lapsed until 2018’s “Halloween,” and “Season of the Witch” had to settle for being a cult classic....

Joss Whedon Made It Clear From The Jump That The Firefly Cast Was ‘Expendable’ By Devin Meenan/Sept. 16, 2022 12:19 pm EST “Firefly” broke a naming pattern. Creator Joss Whedon’s previous TV series were named for their protagonists: “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.” “Firefly,” on the other hand, is named for its setting; the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity. The ship itself is the main character since it’s the glue that holds all of the cast together....

Joss Whedon Never Had A Real Plan For Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Cheese Man “I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.” Most fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will remember these words. Not because they’re important, but rather because the Cheese Man (David Wells) has invited debate for decades. Creator Joss Whedon was once known for his careful planning, with many of the major decisions of “Buffy” famously being plotted years in advance....

Kevin Conroy, The Definitive Voice Of Batman, Has Died At 66 DC By Jeremy Mathai/Nov. 11, 2022 11:43 am EST The end of an era is upon us. Reports from Kevin Conroy’s colleagues in the animation industry indicate that the prolific and unparalleled voice actor, most famous for defining the voice of Batman and Bruce Wayne for an entire generation of fans in multiple mediums and a plethora of different projects, has passed away at the age of 66 — just weeks shy of his next birthday....

Meet Andor’s Vel Sartha, The Hardened Rebel Soldier With A Surprising Backstory [Exclusive] Disney+/Lucasfilm By Sandy Schaefer/Nov. 22, 2022 12:00 pm EST Whenever I’m in a situation where I have to use my legal name and pronouns — as in, the ones I was assigned at birth, not the ones I’ve chosen for myself — it’s like I’m wearing a mask. It’s not that I, per se, act like a different person in these situations....

Michael Keaton Cut More Than Half Of His Own Dialogue From Batman Returns Warner Bros. By Joe Roberts/Dec. 3, 2022 1:06 pm EST In recent years “Batman Returns” has been getting the recognition it always deserved, and honestly, it’s about damn time. There’ll always be a contingent of bat-fans who hate depictions of Batman killing, alongside those that feel “Returns” is too much of a Tim Burton movie and not enough of a Batman movie....

Prey Star Amber Midthunder On Her Audition, Throwing Tomahawks, And More [Interview] 20th Century Studios By Ben Pearson/Aug. 5, 2022 2:00 pm EST Historically, the “Predator” movies have been male-dominated testosterone fests. (On the set of John McTiernan’s 1987 original, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the rest of the cast would wake up before filming, run five miles, and furiously pump iron before cameras rolled in order to looked as jacked as possible....

Surface Showrunner Veronica West On Making A ‘Girly Show With Dark Themes’ [Interview] Apple TV+ By Vanessa Armstrong/July 26, 2022 1:00 pm EST The Apple TV series “Surface” is a noir thriller in which a woman named Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) loses her memory after purportedly trying to die by suicide, and finds herself navigating the uber-rich social circles of San Francisco trying to find out who she was and what mysteries from her past continue to affect her in present day....

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) Universal Pictures Director Mike Nichols ended his career on a high note with the 2007 dramedy biopic “Charlie Wilson’s War,” his last project before his tragic death from cardiac arrest in 2014. The film features the noted political specificity of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and tells the incredible true story of how idiosyncratic U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) worked with CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to help fund Afghan resistance forces during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s....

The 18 Most Underrated Episodes Of The Simpsons 20th Television By Barry Levitt/Sept. 8, 2022 5:08 pm EST “The Simpsons” took over the world in 1989 and never looked back, with Matt Groening and company creating season after season of amazing television filled with unforgettable jokes, brilliant characters, and a non-stop bevy of fantastic guest stars. The show kept going, and going — and it’s still going, with the 34th season set to premiere later this year....

The Crown Creator’s 2006 Biopic The Queen Gives Us A Sneak Peak At Season 6 Miramax By Shania Russell/Nov. 18, 2022 5:00 pm EST Season 5 of “The Crown” leaves its audience caught between dread and anticipation. There is no question about what the sixth season will bring, at least not in its opening episodes: the time has finally come for Peter Morgan’s royal series to grapple with a defining moment for our modern perception of the British monarchy....

The Mean One Review: A Killer Seuss Satire That Can’t Justify Its Own Existence Atlas Film Distribution By Erin Brady/Dec. 6, 2022 8:00 am EST This might be an unpopular opinion, but I am in complete support of children’s entertainment icons being repurposed into horrific killers. While it might be a bit cheap, I’m of the belief that these stories serve to de-establish the creative control that soul-sucking companies have on these characters....

The Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Finale Pays Off A Niche Next Generation Subplot Paramount By Witney Seibold/Oct. 27, 2022 6:00 am EST This post contains spoilers for the season finale of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” At the end of last week’s episode of “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” called “Trusted Sources,” Ensign Mariner (Tawney Newsome) infuriates Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and Mariner has to leave the ship in disgrace. Luckily, she seems to have had a second career already lined up: Tomb Raider....

The Team Behind Shudder’s A Wounded Fawn Talk Shooting On 16mm And That Credit Scene [Exclusive Interview] Shudder By Ryan Scott/Dec. 1, 2022 2:00 pm EST Shudder has developed a knack for being one of the most well-curated streaming services out there. For as much as other services like Netflix or HBO Max have much more to offer in terms of quantity, to the subscriber, those offerings can feel like a ton of fluff....

‘We should not press our luck here’ Lionsgate If you know your “Clerks” history, then you’re likely already aware that Kevin Smith originally wrote a very different script for the third movie. In its early iteration, Smith’s screenplay began with the Quick Stop being destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which causes Randal to have a full-fledged nervous breakdown and unwittingly become the leader of a cult-like community established in the parking lot of a movie theater....

Why Henry Selick’s Stop-Motion Animated Wendell And Wild Aimed For A PG-13 Rating [Exclusive] Netflix By Danielle Ryan/Sept. 6, 2022 12:34 pm EST Spooky season is upon us, and there’s no better time to introduce the young ones to the thrill of cinematic scares. Thankfully, filmmaker Henry Selick — the man behind some of the greatest eerie kids’ movies in recent memory — has a new film coming to Netflix that’s sure to terrify the tots … in the best of ways....

10 Game Of Thrones Characters That Deserved Better Endings HBO By Eric Pierce/Dec. 9, 2022 4:34 pm EST Spoilers for “Game of Thrones.” For eight seasons, “Game of Thrones” reigned as the most-talked-about show on television. It was must-see TV, and everyone tuned in Sunday nights to see how the story progressed. The fact that readers of the George R.R. Martin books were finally getting the conclusion to an epic tale that started way back in 1996 only added to the drama....

Being John Wayne’s Son Didn’t Make It Much Easier To Get Him In Your Film United Artists By Jeremy Smith/Nov. 16, 2022 2:03 pm EST John Wayne was one of the most dependable stars in Hollywood when he formed Wayne/Fellows Productions with producer Robert Fellows in 1952. When Fellows parted ways with the star a few years later, Wayne changed the company’s name to Batjac Productions (a misspelled reference to the Batjak trading company in Edward Ludwig’s “Wake of the Red Witch”)....

Christopher Lee Had To Take Promoting The Wicker Man Into His Own Hands Warner Bros. By Devin Meenan/Aug. 6, 2022 5:04 pm EST During his life, Sir Christopher Lee appeared in more than 200 films. His favorite of these was the 1973 folk horror film “The Wicker Man,” directed by Robin Hardy. Lee plays the enigmatic Lord Summerisle, leader of a Pagan cult on a remote Scottish island. In a 2005 interview with Total Film, Lee referred to “The Wicker Man” as “one of the great cult movies of all time” and “the best film I’ve ever made....