“I always start from the ground up,” reveals production designer Sophie Becher about massive undertaking of designing the look and feel of the Paramount Plus blockbuster sci-fi drama “Halo.” For our recent webchat she adds, “I imagine, on every show I do; I just put myself in that world,” noting that the breathtaking final product adheres so closely to her initial concept designs that she ultimately felt “really proud” that her and her team pulled it off. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
See over 400 interviews with 2022 Emmy contenders
“Halo” was developed by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, who adapted the series from the blockbuster Xbox franchise that is among the most popular video game series of all time. The space opera is set during a 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of advanced alien races determined to eradicate the human race,...
See over 400 interviews with 2022 Emmy contenders
“Halo” was developed by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, who adapted the series from the blockbuster Xbox franchise that is among the most popular video game series of all time. The space opera is set during a 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of advanced alien races determined to eradicate the human race,...
- 6/8/2022
- by Rob Licuria
- Gold Derby
“A Private War” is expanding this month after its Nov. 2 launch in New York and L.A. The film, starring an excellent Rosamund Pike, is the perfect calling card for the new Aviron Pictures. The film embodies what Aviron is doing, but it’s also an exception to its rules.
“Most of our films are mid-budget feature films that we believe have the ability to be wide releases,” says Aviron president David Dinerstein. “But ‘A Private War’ is a little different.”
Aviron execs knew this film would depend on word-of-mouth. It is a complex, adult drama, centering on war correspondent Marie Colvin, who reported from war zones in Africa and the Middle East for Sunday Times of London; the film covers her work for a decade, concluding in 2012.
Reviewing the film out of Toronto, Variety’s Peter Debruge praised it as an “incredibly sophisticated, psychologically immersive” film, adding that director...
“Most of our films are mid-budget feature films that we believe have the ability to be wide releases,” says Aviron president David Dinerstein. “But ‘A Private War’ is a little different.”
Aviron execs knew this film would depend on word-of-mouth. It is a complex, adult drama, centering on war correspondent Marie Colvin, who reported from war zones in Africa and the Middle East for Sunday Times of London; the film covers her work for a decade, concluding in 2012.
Reviewing the film out of Toronto, Variety’s Peter Debruge praised it as an “incredibly sophisticated, psychologically immersive” film, adding that director...
- 11/15/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Why did veteran cinematographer Robert Richardson, a three-time Oscar winner, agree to work on “A Private War,” the first narrative feature directed by documentarian Matthew Heineman?
It had a lot to do with Heineman’s courage and sense of purpose, says the Dp. Heineman was nominated for an Oscar himself for his documentary feature “Cartel Land,” about the Mexican-American border drug wars. “City of Ghosts,” which took on the crisis in Syria, was also well received. “A Private War,” out Nov. 2, is based on the life of the late reporter Marie Colvin, who died in 2012 in Syria while covering the siege of Homs.
Prior to reading the script for “A Private War,” Richardson — who has lensed films ranging from “JFK” to “Inglourious Basterds” to “The Hateful Eight” — watched Heineman’s “Ghosts,” which at the time had not been publicly released.
“It had a profound emotional impact on me,” he says.
It had a lot to do with Heineman’s courage and sense of purpose, says the Dp. Heineman was nominated for an Oscar himself for his documentary feature “Cartel Land,” about the Mexican-American border drug wars. “City of Ghosts,” which took on the crisis in Syria, was also well received. “A Private War,” out Nov. 2, is based on the life of the late reporter Marie Colvin, who died in 2012 in Syria while covering the siege of Homs.
Prior to reading the script for “A Private War,” Richardson — who has lensed films ranging from “JFK” to “Inglourious Basterds” to “The Hateful Eight” — watched Heineman’s “Ghosts,” which at the time had not been publicly released.
“It had a profound emotional impact on me,” he says.
- 11/9/2018
- by Valentina I. Valentini
- Variety Film + TV
Sir Alfred Munnings, the celebrated equestrian painter, was the first artist I learned to despise courtesy of my sixth-form grammar school teachers, and no doubt largely as a result of his notorious, drunken valedictory speech as president of the Royal Academy, broadcast live in 1949, in which he managed to insult Picasso and Anthony Blunt in the same breath as he buttered up Winston Churchill.
This movie concerns a little-known period in his life just before the first world war, when he was a leading member of the Lamorna group, a branch of the British impressionism better known as the Newlyn school in far western Cornwall. The flamboyant, one-eyed Munnings (Dominic Cooper), who comes across as a boorish bohemian, competed for the hand of the young, mentally disturbed painter Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning) with his reserved friend, the regular army officer Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens). It's not a particularly interesting or...
This movie concerns a little-known period in his life just before the first world war, when he was a leading member of the Lamorna group, a branch of the British impressionism better known as the Newlyn school in far western Cornwall. The flamboyant, one-eyed Munnings (Dominic Cooper), who comes across as a boorish bohemian, competed for the hand of the young, mentally disturbed painter Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning) with his reserved friend, the regular army officer Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens). It's not a particularly interesting or...
- 6/15/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
London -- Ruth Wilson and Ulrich Thomsen are in discussions to star in Amit Gupta's debut feature, "Resistance," based on Owen Sheers' World War II novel.
German-speaking Dane Thomsen, who turned heads with his performance in "Festen" and "The International," is being lined up to play the leader of a German patrol in the film.
"Resistance" is set in an alternative 1944 where Russia has fallen to Nazi Germany and the D-Day landings have failed. With Britain partly occupied by German forces, a group of Welsh villagers wake to discover that their husbands have mysteriously disappeared. Wilson, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role in TV miniseries "Jane Eyre," is lined up to play a young farmer's wife whose husband is one of the missing men.
The script has been penned by Gupta and Sheers for the big screen and has secured backing from Munich-based Square One Entertainment...
German-speaking Dane Thomsen, who turned heads with his performance in "Festen" and "The International," is being lined up to play the leader of a German patrol in the film.
"Resistance" is set in an alternative 1944 where Russia has fallen to Nazi Germany and the D-Day landings have failed. With Britain partly occupied by German forces, a group of Welsh villagers wake to discover that their husbands have mysteriously disappeared. Wilson, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role in TV miniseries "Jane Eyre," is lined up to play a young farmer's wife whose husband is one of the missing men.
The script has been penned by Gupta and Sheers for the big screen and has secured backing from Munich-based Square One Entertainment...
- 3/18/2010
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Seeing a title such as "Best Laid Plans", a moviegoer just knows those plans will go dramatically awry. So the challenge facing these young and talented filmmakers is to challenge the audience: to work both with and against expectations, to dazzle the viewers with misdirection and create twists where turns are anticipated.
Writer Ted Griffin and director Mike Barker have laid out their dramatic plans with such charming deception and wit that this Fox Searchlight release should score not only with lovers of genre movie-making but with sophisticated audiences of all ages. The lack of marquee-value actors does put a burden on Fox marketing mavens, but if they target the right audiences, word-of-mouth will sell the film.
Griffin's screenplay is somewhat reminiscent of David Mamet's writing in his elaborate con game stories such as "House of Games" and "The Spanish Prisoner" -- only Griffin has shifted the scene to the pulp-fiction world of small towns and the losers who reside there, characters who would just about kill their mothers to escape the anomie and despair of their existences.
There is a risk in detailing too much of the plot, since its discovery is what the film is all about. Let's just say that late one night a couple of guys -- Bryce (Josh Brolin), a college grad just returned to his home town of Tropico, and Nick (Alessandro Nivola), who dropped out of college to take care of his dying dad -- share several drinks in a Tropico bar. Then a jailbait sexpot (Reese Witherspoon) happens to wander in at the right (wrong?) moment.
Nick splits, and Bryce and the girl get friendlier. They return to the home where Bryce is housesitting. Events swiftly spin out of control, and Bryce phones Nick later that night in desperation. The girl claims Bryce raped her. Options narrow as everyone feels trapped, and pretty soon someone is desperate enough to think the unthinkable -- murder.
Griffin's mischievous script is beautifully served by Barker's stylish direction. Barker, a former cameraman with a number of BBC films and one feature to his directorial credit, may be one of the most talented directors to emerge from the United Kingdom since Danny Boyle.
Clearly, Barker knows how to work with actors to build tension from scene to scene. And he is most definitely in command of the film's visual design.
Working with production designer Sophie Becher, he creates the ultimate film-noir small town. Tropico (portrayed by some of the more desolate patches of Bakersfield, Calif.) is a Nowhereville of stark white streets and pale-green shops, virtually devoid of people and with only an occasional battered red car chugging down the boulevard.
In contrast, the luxury home where Bryce is housesitting is a bizarre melange of purple and green, chrome and glass, with hideous shag carpets and pink lampshades -- a perfect setting for nightmare.
Tropico manages to be both wide open and claustrophobic. Ben Seresin's camera emphasizes its dreary, horizontal lines that make it look almost like a deserted movie back lot. It's truly a place that life has abandoned.
Witherspoon perfectly captures the suffocation one feels in such a hopeless town and the yearning to break away. Nivola's character has a streak of independence, but without Witherspoon he lacks the emotional resources to make the Big Move. Brolin conveys the pathetic swagger of the returning college grad, a swagger that quickly disintegrates as he finds himself getting in way over his head.
Barker also gets solid performances from actors in smaller roles, performances that resonate with increasing intensity by the time the final credits are rolling and all the pieces have finally fit into place.
BEST LAID PLANS
Fox Searchlight
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Dogstar Films Production
Producers: Alan Greenspan, Betsy Beers, Chris Moore
Director: Mike Barker
Screenwriter: Ted Griffin
Executive producer: Mike Newell
Director of photography: Ben Seresin
Production designer: Sophie Becher
Music: Craig Armstrong
Costume designer: Susan Matheson
Editor: Sloane Klevin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nick: Alessandro Nivola
Lissa: Reese Witherspoon
Bryce: Josh Brolin
Bad Ass Dude: Rocky Carroll
Jimmy: Terrence Howard
Barry: Jamie Marsh
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Writer Ted Griffin and director Mike Barker have laid out their dramatic plans with such charming deception and wit that this Fox Searchlight release should score not only with lovers of genre movie-making but with sophisticated audiences of all ages. The lack of marquee-value actors does put a burden on Fox marketing mavens, but if they target the right audiences, word-of-mouth will sell the film.
Griffin's screenplay is somewhat reminiscent of David Mamet's writing in his elaborate con game stories such as "House of Games" and "The Spanish Prisoner" -- only Griffin has shifted the scene to the pulp-fiction world of small towns and the losers who reside there, characters who would just about kill their mothers to escape the anomie and despair of their existences.
There is a risk in detailing too much of the plot, since its discovery is what the film is all about. Let's just say that late one night a couple of guys -- Bryce (Josh Brolin), a college grad just returned to his home town of Tropico, and Nick (Alessandro Nivola), who dropped out of college to take care of his dying dad -- share several drinks in a Tropico bar. Then a jailbait sexpot (Reese Witherspoon) happens to wander in at the right (wrong?) moment.
Nick splits, and Bryce and the girl get friendlier. They return to the home where Bryce is housesitting. Events swiftly spin out of control, and Bryce phones Nick later that night in desperation. The girl claims Bryce raped her. Options narrow as everyone feels trapped, and pretty soon someone is desperate enough to think the unthinkable -- murder.
Griffin's mischievous script is beautifully served by Barker's stylish direction. Barker, a former cameraman with a number of BBC films and one feature to his directorial credit, may be one of the most talented directors to emerge from the United Kingdom since Danny Boyle.
Clearly, Barker knows how to work with actors to build tension from scene to scene. And he is most definitely in command of the film's visual design.
Working with production designer Sophie Becher, he creates the ultimate film-noir small town. Tropico (portrayed by some of the more desolate patches of Bakersfield, Calif.) is a Nowhereville of stark white streets and pale-green shops, virtually devoid of people and with only an occasional battered red car chugging down the boulevard.
In contrast, the luxury home where Bryce is housesitting is a bizarre melange of purple and green, chrome and glass, with hideous shag carpets and pink lampshades -- a perfect setting for nightmare.
Tropico manages to be both wide open and claustrophobic. Ben Seresin's camera emphasizes its dreary, horizontal lines that make it look almost like a deserted movie back lot. It's truly a place that life has abandoned.
Witherspoon perfectly captures the suffocation one feels in such a hopeless town and the yearning to break away. Nivola's character has a streak of independence, but without Witherspoon he lacks the emotional resources to make the Big Move. Brolin conveys the pathetic swagger of the returning college grad, a swagger that quickly disintegrates as he finds himself getting in way over his head.
Barker also gets solid performances from actors in smaller roles, performances that resonate with increasing intensity by the time the final credits are rolling and all the pieces have finally fit into place.
BEST LAID PLANS
Fox Searchlight
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Dogstar Films Production
Producers: Alan Greenspan, Betsy Beers, Chris Moore
Director: Mike Barker
Screenwriter: Ted Griffin
Executive producer: Mike Newell
Director of photography: Ben Seresin
Production designer: Sophie Becher
Music: Craig Armstrong
Costume designer: Susan Matheson
Editor: Sloane Klevin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nick: Alessandro Nivola
Lissa: Reese Witherspoon
Bryce: Josh Brolin
Bad Ass Dude: Rocky Carroll
Jimmy: Terrence Howard
Barry: Jamie Marsh
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/10/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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