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Steven Spielberg Needed Tight Security On The Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Set Columbia Pictures By Erin Brady/Sept. 7, 2022 10:28 am EST If there is anything we know about Steven Spielberg, it’s that he doesn’t make his movies half-heartedly. If he’s making a shark movie, he’ll commission a shark animatronic and will film its scenes in a huge tank of water. If he’s making a movie about dinosaurs, he’ll ensure they look as realistic as possible through a combination of puppets and early CGI....

The 12 Best Jedi In The Star Wars Universe, Ranked Lucasfilm By Ben Begley/Aug. 17, 2022 8:14 pm EST There are few cinematic creations more recognizable than the Jedi. Who among us hasn’t walked up to an automatic door and “used the Force” to open it? George Lucas created an entire intergalactic order of noble warriors who are known for both their mastery of lightsabers and their various Force abilities. The most advanced of the bunch can even appear as ghosts to haunt — ahem, help —their allies after death....

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Finally Lets Mantis Grow As A Character Marvel / Disney+ By Tyler Llewyn Taing/Nov. 27, 2022 8:00 am EST This piece contains minor spoilers for “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.” After adventuring the cosmic Marvel galaxy alongside Thor in “Love and Thunder,” our loveable misfit group of space outlaws has been reunited once again with writer/director James Gunn for “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” on Disney+....

Parallax’s easy prison break Warner Bros. The intro voiceover (a.k.a. exposition dump) in “Green Lantern” tells audiences that the Green Lantern Corps’ greatest enemy was an entity of fear called Parallax (Clancy Brown). Only the legendary Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) could imprison him on the lost planet of Ryut. Three unnamed aliens crash on Ryut and fall through the surface to a giant cave, conveniently where Parallax is. He bellows: “You are afraid....

Jack Ryan = Jim Hawkins Paramount Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” was first published in 1883 and quickly became one of the exemplars of the “boys adventure” genre (its original title was “The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys”). Many schoolchildren in England and the United States have been assigned “Treasure Island” in class, and the book has been adapted to film, TV, stage, and radio innumerable times. For the four or five readers that may not be familiar with “Treasure Island,” it concerns the adventures of a poor tavern-working kid named Jim Hawkins who has become friends with an old drunk named Billy Bones....

Typecasting Made It Hard For Chris Pratt To Break Into The Comedy Scene Before Parks And Recreation Relativity Media By BJ Colangelo/Dec. 22, 2022 9:24 pm EST The first time I saw Chris Pratt on screen was during his run as Bright Abbott on the TV show “Everwood.” He had that relatable boy-next-door charm that only the biggest heartthrob in a small town can possess, and it was pretty evident from the start that he would be on to bigger and better things in the future....

We’re Giving Away Some Game Of Thrones BendyFigs – Here’s How You Can Win HBO By Jeremy Mathai/Nov. 21, 2022 10:05 am EST The night is dark and full of terrors … or, in this case, full of some sweet “Game of Thrones” prizes that one lucky /Film reader could win! Every fan’s watch officially ended back in 2019, when the original HBO series came to a suitably epic (and divisive!...

‘It’s a whole different Middle-earth’ Prime Video “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” picks up in Middle-earth’s Second Age, a time before the Dark Lord Sauron forged the Rings of Power and plunged the realm into war. It’s an era of peace and prosperity, back when the alliance between Men and Elves was going strong, and the kingdoms of Men had not yet fallen into ruin. It’s a far cry from the almost post-apocalyptic Third Age of Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations, both aesthetically and in terms of their social structure....

Yellowstone Star Luke Grimes Thinks The Show Can Convert Non-Western Fans Paramount Network By Lex Briscuso/Nov. 7, 2022 11:41 am EST If you’re still a cable person, you might already know how popular the Paramount Network western “Yellowstone” is. If you prefer streaming, you might not be aware just how big the “Yellowstone” following truly is — so allow us to shock you by letting you know that the series, which is about to begin its fifth season, has become one of the most-watched shows on cable television....

Exposition faster than a speeding speeder Warner Bros. Pictures “Black Adam” begins thousands of years ago in the ancient kingdom of Kahndaq, whose tyrannical king forces its many unfortunate slaves to work themselves to death in the search of the magical, under-explained ore Eternium. The king desires to forge the magical Crown of Sabbac for nefarious purposes. When an enslaved child rebels against their treatment and is soon to be executed, he’s transported to another dimension by wizards (the same from “Shazam!...

Would you like some urine with that improv? HBO In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, one of the show’s directors, Bob Weide, recounts that fateful day in the audition room. The scene Hines was asked to act in involved an employee training seminar in which one of the trainers asks the new hires what they would do if disaster were to strike the workplace. Weide went on to explain:...

Diego Luna Talks The Importance Of Andor’s Timeless Relevance, The Rise Of Hispanic Stories, And More [Exclusive Interview] Lucasfilm By Ethan Anderton/Nov. 11, 2022 1:30 pm EST Diego Luna has been making waves on Disney+ as the titular character in the live-acton “Star Wars” series, “Andor.” After making his debut as rebel character Cassian Andor in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the series winds the clock back five years (and even beyond) to reveal how Andor came to fight for the Rebel Alliance....

Every Season Of Mad Men Ranked Worst To Best AMC Networks By Liam Gaughan/Aug. 9, 2022 1:53 pm EST “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness,” says Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in the first episode of “Mad Men.” Is there a better way to learn about people than observing what they buy? “Mad Men” explored the emerging trends in the advertising industry throughout the 1960s and served as a great history lesson on the social, political, and economic changes in America during this critical decade of progress....

‘Provided only that he photographs’ RKO Radio Pictures David O. Selznick was about as successful a producer as you could possibly be. He wielded enormous power, which he used to let artists do what they wanted. In the early 1930s, he led the charge in transforming RKO from a factory system of moviemaking into unit productions, so the focus of producers was not diluted and greater artistic intention could be put behind every project....

Henry Cavill Thinks It’s ‘Wise’ That Warhammer 40K Has Held Off On A Leap To Live-Action Movies Netflix By Demetra Nikolakakis/Oct. 28, 2022 3:08 pm EST It was never a secret before, but the past few years have made it abundantly clear that, for many film production studios, investment returns take a strong priority over the art itself. Just look at Warner Bros. canceling around $2 billion worth of movies and shows in what is reportedly a tax-saving move, or VFX artists’ complaints about Marvel’s low pay and excessive demands (never mind the fact high-profile Marvel shows like “Wandavision” and “She-Hulk” are extremely VFX heavy — if someone is a crucial part of your project’s success, why are they working 64+ hour weeks?...

Taking matters into his own hands Searchlight Pictures At the time “Little Miss Sunshine” was released in 2006, MovieFone reported that Abigail Breslin was genuinely listening to Kelly Clarkson’s music in her headphones during filming and not just wearing them for show. But when Breslin appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in October 2021 to retell the story, she clarified that Arkin was the one enforcing this: “It’s so funny because … I was remembering that when I did ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ I had to listen to headphones in the scene, and I was actually listening to music because Alan Arkin — there’s a scene where there’s some language that I cannot repeat on television — but, Alan was very, very, like, not comfortable having me listen to it....

How Steven Soderbergh Shaped The Russo Brothers’ Filmmaking Style Netflix By Jeremy Smith/July 31, 2022 9:00 pm EST Joe and Anthony Russo’s path to becoming the kingpins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was neither direct nor likely. Prior to taking on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the brothers had been most successful as single-camera sitcom directors; they won an Emmy for their work on the pilot of “Arrested Development,” and shot some of the most beloved episodes of “Community....

In The Westworld Season 4 Finale, Whatever Will Be, Will Be HBO By Danielle Ryan/Aug. 14, 2022 10:00 pm EST This article contains spoilers for Westworld season 4. “Westworld” is not an easy show to love. Every season, the series slowly unravels big mysteries and forces us to think differently about narratives, only to completely drop the ball in the finale. The season 1 finale was probably the best of the series, wrapping up the complex storylines and giving a semi-satisfying conclusion to the main character arcs....

Koala Man Showrunners On Injecting Specificity Into Their Animated Suburban Superhero Story [Exclusive Interview] Hulu By Rafael Motamayor/Jan. 4, 2023 10:00 am EST The animated sitcom is a long and proud tradition in American TV history. Ever since Hanna-Barbera premiered “The Flintstones” in 1960, we’ve seen hundreds of shows exploring endless possibilities of the animation medium and mixing them with the tropes of family sitcoms. Now comes a new show, one starring a hero who aspires to join the pantheon of animated sitcom characters like Fred Flintstone, Homer Simpson, Eric Cartman, or Peter Griffin....

Michael Mann Made Heat With Two Ambitious Goals In Mind Warner Bros. By Matt Rainis/Oct. 18, 2022 2:53 pm EST In Michael Mann’s 1995 crime drama, “Heat,” an excellent ensemble cast is headlined by a clash of the acting titans between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Somehow, it was the first time the two had shared the screen together, and Mann provided them with a script rich and deep enough that it met expectations....