Indie Filmmaker Neil LaBute on His Return Behind the Camera With Thrillers House of Darkness & Out of the Blue
It feels like we haven’t seen many movies from playwright-turned-filmmaker Neil LaBute in recent years. In fact, it’s been seven years since his last feature film, Dirty Weekend, which came after a fairly prolific run that began in 1997 with an adaptation of his own stage play, In the Company of Men. That was... »
Barbarian Filmmaker Zach Cregger on How He Made One of the Year’s Craziest Horror Films With the Help of a Bulgarian Crew
Zach Cregger spent many years making the series The Whitest Kids U Know, writing and directing most of the episodes with the late Trevor Moore. The two of them also co-directed a few comedy features, but none of Cregger’s past work hinted at the horrors that lurk within his new movie Barbarian, which hits... »
Summering Director James Ponsoldt on the Challenge of Capturing Elusive Female Friendships Among Tweens
Filmmaker James Ponsoldt cut his teeth in the world of independent filmmaking with a number of highly-regarded movies that premiered either at Sundance or SXSW, beginning with his 2006 debut, Off the Black, and continuing through Smashed in 2012, The Spectacular Now in 2013, and The End of the Tour in 2015. (Ponsoldt’s 2017... »
Breaking Director Abi Damaris Corbin on Showing Brian Brown-Easley’s Humanity and Designing the Wells Fargo Bank
Much of the discussion surrounding the new Bleecker Street film Breaking, which stars a phenomenal John Boyega, posits the hostage drama as a modern-day Dog Day Afternoon. There are certainly similarities between the two, though Dog Day Afternoon explores themes of sexuality, while Breaking examines race. The film premiered at Sundance earlier this year... »
Trees of Peace Director Alanna Brown on Her 9-Year Journey to Get the Netflix Movie Made and Why the Story of the Women in Rwanda Is Close to Her Heart
Alanna Brown made a decision. An actor-turned-aspiring filmmaker, she’d written Trees of Peace, a tough, emotional drama about a quartet of disparate women – a Tutsi (Bola Koleosho), a nun (Charmaine Bingwa), a pregnant Hutu (Eliane Umuhire), and an American (Ella Cannon) — hiding in a basement during the violent Rwandan genocide in 1994,... »
Bodies Bodies Bodies Director Halina Reijn on Creating Real Terrors for Her Young Cast and How They Helped With the Lighting
A24‘s Gen-Z horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies has now been in theaters for a few weeks, but there’s an amazing story behind how it came together under the direction of Halina Reijn. This is her second feature, but her first English-language film, as well as her first time working with a major American studio.... »
Beast Director Baltasar Kormákur on Working With CG Lions in a Very Real African Environment
Director Baltasar Kormákur has been bouncing between making studio movies and films in his native Iceland for over 20 years, first breaking onto the scene with 101 Reykjavik back in 2000. Even once Hollywood came calling, Kormákur’s heart never strayed far from Iceland’s film business, and his early English-language film Contraband was actually a... »
Rebecca Rhine to Join DGA as Western Executive Director Following Her ICG Departure This Fall
Rebecca Rhine, who has served as the National Executive Director of the International Cinematographers Guild since 2015, announced that she will be joining the DGA as its new Western Executive Director once her ICG contract expires in September. Rhine will assume her new post in October, and she will have oversight of the DGA’s... »
Secret Headquarters Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman on Working With Jerry Bruckheimer and Prepping Kids for Action Scenes
The new Paramount+ movie Secret Headquarters is a family adventure film that harks back to classic ’80s movies like The Goonies, albeit with a more modern superhero tinge. Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) stars as Charlie Kincaid, who is constantly trying to get the attention of his busy father (Owen Wilson). One day, Charlie’s father... »
I Love My Dad Filmmaker James Morosini on Why He Took a Risk and Put Himself and His Catfish Father Out There With His Art
Sometimes, life imitates art, and it can be really, really, really cringe-worthy, funny as hell, and the stuff that movies are made of. Case in point: James Morosini’s father catfished him. And now, Morosini — in his capacities as writer, director, and star — has made the acclaimed indie comedy I Love My Dad.... »
