Director Series: Joe Wright Explores the Many Colors of Love in Cyrano
Over the course of his 25-year career, British filmmaker Joe Wright has directed two movies to Best Picture nominations and three actors to Oscar-nominated performances — including Gary Oldman‘s only Oscar win for Darkest Hour — but Cyrano might be one of Wright’s best films to date. It’s also the director’s first full-on movie musical, as it uses the... »
Catch the Fair One Director Josef Kubota Wladyka on Making the Distinctive Crime Movie
Josef Kubota Wladyka’s Catch the Fair One is a pretty special film, co-written and starring real-life boxer Kali “KO” Reis, though it’s not exactly a boxing movie, per sé. Instead, Reis stars as Kaylee, an indigenous boxer who has been looking for her missing younger sister. Going off on her own investigation, Kaylee comes... »
Director Series: Being the Ricardos Allows Aaron Sorkin to Create His Strongest Biopic Yet
Aaron Sorkin was already one of the most renowned screenwriters in Hollywood with multiple Emmys and a single Oscar (for writing David Fincher’s The Social Network), when he decided to go behind the camera to direct one of his own scripts. That movie, 2018’s Molly’s Game, earned Sorkin another Oscar nomination, as did last... »
Director Series: Filmmaker Johannes Roberts Reinvents Resident Evil with a Faithful-to-Game Prequel
After directing the shark movies, 47 Meters Down and its sequel, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, filmmaker Johannes Roberts had to figure out what to do next. Although Sony Pictures and Screen Gems had already made six Resident Evil movies with Paul WS Anderson, Roberts came upon a way of rebooting the franchise with the... »
Director Series: Filmmaker Mike Mills Talks about Making C’mon C’mon
Mike Mills might not be the most prolific of filmmakers, but the four feature films he has made have all had a significant impact on indie filmmaking, whether it’s his directorial debut, Thumbsucker, which received an Indie Spirit nomination and festival awards for star, Lou Taylor Pucci. Mills’ second film, 2010’s Beginners, garnered the... »
Director Series: Jason Reitman on Creating Ghostbusters: Afterlife Using Old-School Filmmaking Techniques
Filmmaker Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) has been on quite a long journey before arriving at Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Going back 16 years to his feature debut, Thank You For Smoking, the second-gen director has done just about every kind of movie other than the big-budget comedies his father, Ivan Reitman, made famous... »
Director Series: Swagger Director Reggie Rock Bythewood on the Apple Youth Basketball Series
Over the course of his film and television career, Reggie Rock Bythewood has worn multiple hats: actor, writer, producer, showrunner and director. His acting credits include Brother from Another Planet and Vampire’s Kiss. He wrote for A Different World, wrote and produced New York Undercover, wrote and directed the film Biker Boyz, and created,... »
Director Series: Scott Cooper Ventures into Horror with Antlers
If you know Director Scott Cooper‘s work from any of his earlier films — whether it’s directing Jeff Bridges to an Oscar for the drama Crazy Heart; making the Whitey Bulger film Black Mass with Johnny Depp; or the Appalachian crime-thriller Out of the Furnace and Western, Hostiles, with Christian Bale — you might be surprised to... »
Director Series: David Gordon Green Returns to Haddonfield for Halloween Kills
Although it’s only been three years since filmmaker David Gordon Green entered the horror franchise world with 2018’s Halloween, an intended sequel to the original John Carpenter Halloween from 1978, it seems like it’s been longer since the sequel, Halloween Kills, was supposed to come out last year. (Thanks a lot, COVID) Halloween Kills... »
Director Series: Kay Cannon on Modernizing Cinderella and Dealing with the Pandemic
For many years, Kay Cannon was best known as a writer/producer on Tina Fey’s NBC show 30 Rock, followed by a stint on New Girl, or as the screenwriter of the Pitch Perfect movies. In 2018, she went behind the camera to direct the raunchy comedy, Blockers, and that’s all it took for her to... »