Daniel Eagan

Mayor of Kingstown Production Designer John Willett on Shooting in a Prison During a Pandemic & Designing Depressing Sets

July 15, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

The fading town of Kingstown, Michigan is a town that’s supported by prisons — seven of them in all, housing 20,000 people, within a 10-mile radius. The prisons, and the economic infrastructure that supports them, have replaced former factories and warehouses. Prison isn’t just a way of life to these people, it’s their entire life… and sometimes, death, too. The Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown stars Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky, […]

Reacher Supervising Stunt Coordinator Buster Reeves on How to Stage a Knife Fight on a Fire Escape, Plus That Epic Prison Brawl

June 21, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

Bestselling author Lee Child has written more than 20 books about Jack Reacher, a former Army MP who is a magnet for trouble, and the character has built an enormous following. In fact, two Reacher novels were previously adapted into Tom Cruise vehicles. Fans who have been begging for a more physically accurate version of Child’s hero had their prayers answered with Amazon Prime’s eponymous series Reacher. The first thing […]

Heartstopper DP Diana Olifrova on Split Screens, Shooting Intimate Scenes, and Her Camera & Lighting Package

June 13, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

The new Netflix series Heartstopper has been a big hit for the streaming service, garnering praise for its positive depiction of LGBTQ teens. Based on Alice Oseman‘s graphic novel, the series charts the unlikely romance between Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), classmates at an upscale British grammar school. The duo has been a favorite of Netflix subscribers since Season 1 premiered in July, and the streamer has already renewed […]

Candy DP Simon Dennis on Why He Used Three Cameras and Focused on Framing Rather Than Movement

June 1, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

Hulu’s new true-crime series Candy stars Jessica Biel as Candy Montgomery, a church-going mother of two who is accused of murdering her friend, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), with an axe. Set in Wylie, Texas, in the 1980s, the series finds Candy — clad in bell bottoms, oversized glasses, and a perm — shuttling in her trusty station wagon between church, shopping malls, and volleyball games, though she feels stifled by suburban life, with […]

Station Eleven Director Jeremy Podeswa on Trusting His Actors, Staging Hamlet in an Airport, and Finding the Perfect Fork in the Road

May 31, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

Emily St. John Mandel‘s award-winning 2014 novel Station Eleven describes the aftermath of a pandemic that kills 90 percent of the global population. Combining elements of mystery and science fiction, the book built a dedicated fan base en route to selling over a million copies. When novelist Patrick Somerville adapted Station Eleven into a 10-part miniseries, the story’s deeply emotional themes once again connected strongly with viewers who were enduring a pandemic of their […]

Everything Everywhere All at Once Sound Team Talks Track Counts, Son Lux, and the Hot Dog World

May 20, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

A24’s indie breakout Everything Everywhere All at Once tackles the multiverse on its own terms and in this timeline, it has become a bonafide box office hit, as it’s on the verge of becoming the studio’s highest-grossing domestic release. Directed by the Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), the movie stars Michelle Yeoh in a powerhouse performance alongside Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, and the great Jamie Lee Curtis. Sound […]

Slow Horses DP Danny Cohen on Using the Camera to Create Suspense and That Opening Airport Sequence

May 2, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

For British spies, Slough House is the end of the line. A home for misfits and losers, its grimy offices are a world away from MI5’s high-tech headquarters. Slough House is ruled by the dissolute Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a sort of Smiley gone to seed. Based on a series of novels by Mick Herron, Slow Horses is the opposite of James Bond’s glamorous, high-energy thrillers. Dark and dingy, it […]

Pachinko DP Florian Hoffmeister on Working With Kogonada and the Subtlety Behind Shooting Dialogue-Driven Scenes

May 2, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

Based on Min Jin Lee‘s epic bestselling novel, the new Apple TV+ series Pachinko follows an immigrant Korean family through several generations of hardship and tragedy. In an unusual strategy, the eight episodes of Season 1 were split between two indie directors — Kogonada (1, 2, 3, 7) and Justin Chon (4, 5, 6, 8). For his entries, Chon used his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Ante Cheng. Kogonada, however, worked with veteran […]

Foundation Production Designer Rory Cheyne on Building Futuristic Sets for Terminus, Trantor, and Synnax

April 15, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

A scientist plans a new society by hastening the collapse of the current regime in Foundation, Apple’s big-budget series based on novels by Isaac Asimov. With battles reaching across the galaxy and stretching through decades, the show is as ambitious as science fiction gets. Showrunner David S. Goyer (The Sandman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) based the first of eight planned seasons on the initial book in Asimov’s trilogy. […]

Ted Lasso Casting Director Theo Park on Finding the Right Team for Our Favorite Soccer Coach in Season 2

April 13, 2022 Daniel Eagan Comments Off

Apple’s award-winning series Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis as an American college football coach who decides to tackle the alien world of British soccer. The show could have easily fallen into tough-guy shtick, but instead, Ted Lasso surprised viewers by bringing a sunny, upbeat approach to its fish-out-of-water premise, as Coach Lasso is determined to see the best in everyone he meets despite the animosity he often faces. Viewers quickly warmed to the character as […]