talks

21 May

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything’s Sound Chief Talks Revolution

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The revolution is being televised. Fifty years later. Apple TV+’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything highlights how musicians were in touch with what was happening around them even as they were making things happen. Marvin Gaye lays down “What’s Going On” in the first episode, and the remainder of the eight-part docuseries builds the basic tracks which became the soundtrack to a changing world. Solo ex-Beatles took to the streets and concert halls while The Rolling Stones, as a group, went deep into exile. Aretha Franklin went to the courthouse to post bail for former University of California…

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27 Apr

The Suicide Squad: James Gunn Talks the Creative Freedom of That R-Rating

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A couple of days. That’s how long director James Gunn had to wait before Warner Bros. and DC came calling in 2018. Up until that moment, it’d been a pretty turbulent July. The iconoclastic filmmaker who made audiences cry over a talking tree in Guardians of the Galaxy was just fired by Disney—temporarily as it turns out—and his name was being besmirched on social media. Yet less than 72 hours after that dismissal, WB was making him an offer that could change the face of DC superhero movies forever. “It happened immediately,” Gunn says with a hint of lingering chagrin.…

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05 Apr

Godzilla vs. Kong Writer Talks About Spending 8 Years in the MonsterVerse

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This article conatins spoilers for GODZILLA VS. KONG. Aside from studios Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, and certain behind-the-scenes executives, the four MonsterVerse movies to date have embraced largely different creative and directorial visions for each outing. This includes the latest installment Godzilla vs. Kong. But even though all four movies have had different directors, somewhat different tones, and mostly different casts, one of a handful of constant names has been that of Max Borenstein. Borenstein has had a writing credit on all four MonsterVerse movies, starting with penning the screenplay for 2014’s Godzilla. Since then he’s co-authored the…

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03 Mar

Raya and the Last Dragon Star Kelly Marie Tran Talks Moving On After Star Wars

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One of the darkest stains on the history of Star Wars, Disney, and fandom in general was the disgraceful treatment of Kelly Marie Tran, who played Resistance mechanic Rose Tico in 2017’s The Last Jedi and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Starting almost immediately after she was cast and continuing through the release of The Last Jedi, Tran was the subject of hideous online abuse and harassment from a toxic subsection of alleged Star Wars “fans.” The constant attacks ultimately drove Tran off social media as members of the Star Wars cast and crew — as well as other actors…

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23 Feb

Frank Zappa’s Son Ahmet Talks Legacy, Labels, and His Father’s Inventions

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Frank Zappa, who died in 1993, is one of the least understood artists of the 20th Century, which is ironic because he was also the most prolific. Introduced to the world as a bicycle-playing artiste concrète sitting naked on a toilet, he was a harmonic genius who experimented with sonic assault weapons and visual subversions. Frank Zappa was the Nikola Tesla of music. Alex Winter’s documentary ZAPPA, which is now available to watch in the UK and Ireland on Altitude.film, clarifies many of the contradictions by highlighting Zappa’s primary focus. The Mothers of Invention bandleader was a composer. As such,…

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26 Jan

The Masque of the Red Death: Roger Corman Talks Pandemics and Restoration

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During the 2020 lockdowns and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people at home sought isolated comfort. News reports continued to count the number of dead while people in charge downplayed its seriousness or offered dubious advice on dealing with the disease. It certainly didn’t interrupt many golf games. As workers were furloughed from jobs, they binged. One of the movies at the top of the playlist was The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman’s 1964 low budget masterpiece. It told the tale of a wealthy medieval prince in a country decimated by an epidemic. The satanic overlord, played by the legendary…

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21 Jan

Ben Affleck Talks Working Again with Matt Damon in The Last Duel

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The movie industry has changed a lot since Ben Affleck and Matt Damon first conquered it in 1997. Once two hungry actors who’d done a lot of supporting work up to that point, the pair became overnight stars and Hollywood golden boys thanks in large part to co-writing and co-starring in Good Will Hunting. It netted each an Oscar for screenwriting. The memories of those early breaks reemerged in a recent awards screening Q&A that Damon moderated with Affleck for the latter’s new film The Way Back. Clearly a personal passion project for Affleck, the sports drama about a high…

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24 Nov

Zappa Director Alex Winter Talks Preserving The Mothers’ Inventions

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Zappa is an intimate look into the innovative life and eclectic works of Frank Zappa, the composer. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd pushed boundaries of what rock could do in the mid-1960s, but Zappa ignored any preconceived compositional restraint. He mixed rock with classical, jazz with chamber, and twelve-tone with Spike Jones. From his 1966 proto-punk, garage band debut, Freak Out, through the immediate experimental turns he took on Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In it for the Money, and continuing through his career, Zappa’s music sounds unlike any other sonic unit. Not only was Zappa a…

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19 Nov

Mindhunter Creator Talks Season 3 Possibilities

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Fans of Netflix’s macabre true crime series, Mindhunter, already know that the series has essentially become another casualty in the streaming giant’s latest hair-trigger cancelation rush. However, unlike high-profile recent contemporaries such as GLOW, Away, Altered Carbon, and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the David Fincher-produced series never officially got the axe; something that’s led to a sliver of optimism over its future. Fincher, who recently attributed Mindhunter’s de facto cancelation to an exorbitant budget that didn’t match its performance, remains passionate about the series, and his comments in a Variety cover story reveal a desire to eventually conjure…

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02 Nov

Link Tank: The Mandalorian Composer Talks Season 2 Music

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Ludwig Göransson, the composer for The Mandalorian, spoke on how he changed the original soundtrack in Season 2. “The propulsive theme for The Mandalorian not only redefined Star Wars music, it’s also become the soundtrack for millions of people’s motivational playlists. The hard-to-categorize score, composed by Ludwig Göransson, doesn’t just transport us to a galaxy far, far away, it also feels somehow closer and more intimate than the John Williams space opera that came before.” Read more at Inverse. Bohemiam Rhapsody by Queen is one of the greatest, most recognizable songs of all time. Here are some fun facts about…

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30 Oct

When the Present is the Past: Carina Round Talks the World of Puscifer and Existential Reckoning

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As the colossal disaster that is 2020 starts to wind down, frantic members of the public gather in socially distanced huddled masses, lined up to place their vote in the U.S. election as they stand under shadowy fears of doubt and uncertainty. Yet, these final months of this confusing time have a steady pipeline of great new music to help quell those worries and take our minds to a more peaceful plane of existence.  One of these treasures about to hit the market is the new album from the musical collective started by Tool’s Maynard James Keenan; Puscifer. Though originally…

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26 Oct

Oscar Isaac in Talks for Marvel’s Moon Knight on Disney+

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Oscar Isaac is in talks to join the Marvel screen universe as Moon Knight, according to Deadline. Isaac, who starred as Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy for LucasFilm and Disney, will now stay with the Mouse House if he signs up to star in Marvel’s Moon Knight series, which has been announced for the Disney+ streaming service. Moon Knight, a.k.a. Marc Spector, was created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin and made his Marvel Comics debut in the August 1975 issue of Werewolf by Night. The son of a rabbi, a former CIA agent and…

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09 Oct

Fast & Furious Spy Racers Producer Talks Vin Diesel, Family, and the Franchise Going to Space

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The following contains spoilers for Fast & Furious Spy Racers season 2. Fast & Furious Spy Racers is something a throwback to the past, a kids TV tie-in to a popular adult movie franchise. While the Fast & Furious films are no Rambo (which somehow got a kids cartoon) it’s still a challenge to take a well beloved franchise of films and turn them into a TV series meant for kids. That’s just what executive producer Tim Hedrick has done, taking elements of the Fast & Furious universe but making sure the show can stand on its own for kids…

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08 Oct

Robert De Niro Talks Going to Battle Again with Christopher Walken in The War with Grandpa

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It’s a different battlefield from what they’ve known before, and a different kind of movie set too. Perched atop a series of trampolines, with bouncy surfaces beneath their feet, and red rose dodgeballs in their hands, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are standing side by side on screen for the first time since 1978’s The Deer Hunter. In that earlier movie, they played young men who eagerly went off to war, but now they’re in a different kind of conflict here. They’re in the midst of The War with Grandpa’s biggest battle. The scene in question occurs at the…

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30 Sep

Zendaya In Talks to Play Ronnie Spector In Biopic

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Zendaya will play Ronnie Spector in A24’s upcoming adaptation of the iconic rock and roll singer’s 1990 biography Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, And Madness, according to Variety. The 24-year-old Zendaya recently made history as the youngest actress to win an Emmy lead actress in a drama series. She is only the second Black woman to win the award, after Viola Davis for her role on How to Get Away with Murder in 2015. Spector personally chose Zendaya to portray her. Former Disney Channel star Zendaya won the Emmy for her role as Rue in HBO’s Euphoria,…

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15 Sep

Director Mike Figgis Talks Trading Licks with Ronnie Wood

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Before becoming a filmmaker, Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis was a musician and performer in the experimental group called The People Show. Before that, he played trumpet and guitar in the experimental jazz ensemble The People Band, whose first record was produced by Rolling Stone drummer Charlie Watts. He is also the founding patron of an online community of independent filmmakers called Shooting People. You can say Figgis is a People person, which makes him the perfect director to capture Ronnie Wood in the documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me. One of rock and roll’s most iconic guitarists, Wood…

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17 Aug

Kevin Conroy Talks Crisis on Infinite Earths Batman Backlash

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Arrowverse fans were thrilled to learn that Batman Beyond voice actor Kevin Conroy would be part of The CW’s highly-anticipated Crisis on Infinite Earths lineup after it was announced, but when he finally popped up in Batwoman’s ninth episode as Earth-99’s Bruce Wayne at the tail end of last year, some viewers were left reeling after Bruce’s encounter with Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) and Supergirl Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) resulted in an attempt to kill Kara. In a new interview with former Lex Luthor Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside of You podcast, Conroy revealed that he didn’t know just how…

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23 Jul

The New Mutants: Maisie Williams Talks Same Sex Love Story and Kiss

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Superhero movies have a notoriously poor track record on sincerely depicting disenfranchised or marginalized groups on the screen, LGBTQ+ or otherwise. Often every time a Hollywood studio brags about including a gay character in a major blockbuster, it turns out to be a character without a name, or a background player whose public display of affection can be easily trimmed out of international cuts of the film. That doesn’t appear to be the case with The New Mutants. While we still have not actually seen the long-forthcoming superhero-horror movie hybrid, much to the chagrin of the movie’s makers, the picture…

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13 Jul

Mucho Mucho Amor Creative Team Talks the Magic of Walter Mercado

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Walter Mercado gave almost half the world their daily horoscopes, drawing 120 million Latinx viewers to their televisions every evening. Each of the astrologer’s fans got a personal reading which resonated with them, even though they shared their sign’s message with millions of others. Walter didn’t even have to consult his ephemeris. Mucho Mucho Amor, which can be streamed on Netflix, is named after Walter’s signature closing. Co-directed by Cristina Costantini (Science Fair) and Kareem Tabsch (The Last Resort), and produced by Alex Fumero (I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson), it is a loving look at the beloved…

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09 Jul

Tommy Chong Talks Cheech & Chong Delivery Systems, Old and New

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Smoking more now but getting high less? The iconic comedy duo Cheech and Chong have always had a solution. The very names Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin are synonymous with weed culture. When The Simpsons ran an episode on dispensaries being legalized in Springfield, they referred to stoners as “Cheech and Chongs.” The pair won’t be selling out of the back of an ice cream truck, like they did in Nice Dreams. Cheech & Chong are doing it legal. They even got a license. Together with Five Point Holdings, they will license the Cheech & Chong Brand to open dispensaries.…

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