Posted on February 23, 2017 at 8:01 am
USA Today has the iPhone footage writer/director Damien Chazelle made in the rehearsal for the bravura opening number that looks like one continuous shot. It was actually three shots stitched together, and this rehearsal, shot by Chazelle himself, shows how carefully it was planned.
Posted on February 19, 2017 at 3:24 pm
“The Feud” is the new series from Ryan Murphy (“Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “Nip/Tuck,” “American Crime Story”), with three Oscar-winning actresses in the real-life story of three Oscar-winning actresses. Susan Sarandon played Bette Davis, Jessica Lange plays Joan Crawford, and Catherine Zeta Jones plays Olivia de Havilland in a story that takes place at in the 1960’s, when their stardom was waning. Davis and Crawford, both known to be temperamental divas who were intensely competitive and loathed each other so much it was almost a hobby, were cast in the grotesque horror film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” They played sisters, both performers (yes, that means actresses are playing actresses playing actresses). Davis was Jane, a former child star and Crawford was Blanche, a one-time movie star, now paralyzed following an accident, and thus dependant on Jane, who delights in torturing her.
“The Feud” is the behind-the-scenes story of Davis and Crawford as they made the film. The cast includes Alfred Molina as director Robert Aldrich, Judy Davis as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, Oscar winner Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell, and Murphy favorite Sarah Paulson as Geraldine Page.
Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud has more details about the decades-long animosity between the two stars, including Davis ordering a Coke machine for the “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” crew — because Crawford was married to the CEO of Pepsi.
Posted on February 18, 2017 at 3:15 pm
Before special effects were done with CGI, movie creatures were built out of rubber and imagination. And Rubberhead is the first of a projected five-volume sex, drugs, and movies series from Steve Johnson, the guy behind such iconic movie creatures as Slimer from “Ghostbusters” and the glowy underwater guys in “Abyss.” Johnson takes us behind the scenes with anecdotes about how the movies were made.
Entertainment Weekly wrote:
Johnson recalls disguising Jackson so the King of Pop could mingle with the public unrecognized or fleeing to Costa Rica in the mid-aughts after the rise of computer-generated trickery knee-capped a career built on practical effects. “I really enjoyed working with Michael,” he says. “Michael was very unassuming, very child-like. Not intimidating at all. Just a really really really sweet man.”
Johnson is also open about his onetime drug usage and how, for example, he sculpted the character of Slimer in the original Ghostbusters movie high on cocaine. “I’m not glamorizing anything,” he says. “I’m basically screaming to the universe, ‘Look, here’s what happened to me, don’t make these same mistakes!’”
Posted on February 17, 2017 at 8:00 am
Screen Rant has a great piece busting the myths underlying some movie stunts. Pro tip: don’t try these at home. And don’t spin a six-shooter.
Posted on February 9, 2017 at 8:00 am
