Steve Pond's Blog, page 26

Richard Linklater Takes You Behind the Scenes of ‘Breathless’ in First ‘Nouvelle Vague’ Trailer

Richard Linklater is back. And this time he’s taking us inside the French New Wave film movement.

“Nouvelle Vague,” the latest from the prolific director, concerns the making of “Breathless,” Jean-Luc Godard’s masterwork and one of the first films of the movement that swept France in the late 1950s and ’60s. Guillaume Marbeck plays the director, Zoey Deutch plays Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin plays Jean-Paul Belmondo. It is shot in black-and-white in a boxy 1.33:1 aspect ratio and Linklater filmed it in France with a French crew.

And while the movie doesn’t debut until later this fall, you can get a glimpse of the film via its brand-new trailer. Watch it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UufRz...

This is Linklater’s third film for Netflix, after 2022’s animated charmer “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood” and last year’s “Hit Man” (which premiered at festivals the year before).

“Nouvelle Vague” debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was warmly received – there were reports that Quentin Tarantino, who named his production company A Band Apart after Godard’s 1964 classic, had watched the movie twice in one day. Linklater has another new, based-on-a-true-story movie this year, “Blue Moon,” which premiered in Berlin and will also be coming out this fall from Sony Pictures Classics. That film stars Linklater regular Ethan Hawke, as Lorenz Hart, set on the opening night of “Oklahoma!”

“Nouvelle Vague” will get a theatrical release from Netflix on Oct. 31 and premiere on the platform on Nov. 14.

The post Richard Linklater Takes You Behind the Scenes of ‘Breathless’ in First ‘Nouvelle Vague’ Trailer appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Blue Heron’ Review: Sophy Romvari’s Astonishing Feature Debut Is a Riveting Reflection on Memory and Regret

A film whose quietly flooring opening frames of a vast landscape becoming home to a compassionate story of a Hungarian-Canadian family navigating an uncertain world together already signal it as a major work, writer/director Sophy Romvari’s intimate and incisive “Blue Heron” only grows even greater from there. This is because the stunningly confident feature debut, while deeply personal in a way Romvari has been in her equally spectacular shorts, is one that expands outward in time just as it draws us closer in emotion. 

It’s a film you can’t shake your way free of once it has you in its grasp and wouldn’t ever want to. No matter how painful it can be to take in, the way it pushes you to sit with all the many complications of a life most others would overlook is genuinely invigorating. Profoundly interested in memory and the way it gets refracted in a manner that recalls Charlotte Wells’ similarly significant recent feature debut “Aftersun” while also gently uncovering new ground all its own, “Blue Heron” signals the arrival of a bold new filmmaking voice. 

Set primarily in the late 1990s on Vancouver Island, before leaping ahead years in time to ponder how everything played out, it centers the family’s struggles as seen through the perceptive eyes of the youngest daughter, Sasha (Eylul Guven).

As we soon discover, Sasha’s brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) has been struggling with his mental health and increasingly lashes out at others around him. Despite their parents (Iringó Réti and Adam Tompa) trying to figure out how it is that they can support their son, both are in over their heads. We then follow an older Sasha (Amy Zimmer), who tries to piece together this time in her life from fragmented memories and see how she could have done things differently.

No such easy answers are forthcoming. 

Wonderfully shot by cinematographer Maya Bankovic with precise editing by Kurt Walker, the film is a sensory experience that authentically captures how the memories we have from our youth often come from ephemeral sights and sounds. It makes “Blue Heron” into a work both rigorously detailed and enduringly compassionate. It’s a film so delicately textured that it is as though you can practically reach out and touch the grass of the family’s yard. Of course, no matter how tightly you try to hold on to them, such memories will always slip through your fingers just as they do for Sasha.  

This takes shape and form in a concluding chapter that consists of some of the most shattering sequences of the year. After we begin to see how the older Sasha is turning to mental health experts in the hopes that they can shed light on what could have been done differently, the two timelines fold in on themselves to remarkable effect.

Again, looking to “Aftersun,” Romvari’s film carries the same potent feeling as the dreamlike dance sequences Wells so strikingly brought to life. “Blue Heron” operates on a different wavelength and rhythm, with one patient shot of the older Sasha alongside her counterpart knocking you completely flat just as it remains beautifully still. When this all then further loops back in on itself, bringing us back to the beginning that now has even more power than with which it began, we hear one last final reflection that speaks directly to us through a message based on one that Romvari herself received. It provides a closing note of compassionate grace in a film overflowing with them, gently re-contextualizing everything and making you immediately wish to see it all again.

Like Sasha, we too want to hold tight to the moments in our childhood when life was tranquil, and chase away the bad ones that came later. We can’t and never will, though through Romvari’s final shot that mirrors the opening, we see our own world reflected back in shattering detail one last time. In her hands, “Blue Heron” demonstrates the full potential of the cinematic form to not just move us emotionally, but rewire our understanding of how it is that we tell stories on screen. What a joy it is that an artist like Romvari has an entire future of filmmaking ahead of her. 

Read all of our Toronto Film Festival coverage here.

The post ‘Blue Heron’ Review: Sophy Romvari’s Astonishing Feature Debut Is a Riveting Reflection on Memory and Regret appeared first on TheWrap.

Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trump as ‘a Real A.I. Joe’ After Fake ‘Apocalypse Now’ Images | Video

Jimmy Kimmel gave a big thumbs attempt to Donald Trump’s social media posts over the weekend, declaring the president to be “a real A.I. joe” for sharing doctored images of himself based on “Apocalypse Now” while glibly threatening military action against the city of Chicago.

“On Saturday, Francis Ford Grope-ala posted this AI generated image of himself to celebrate his invasion of Chicago. Someone made this and called it ‘Chipocalypse Now,'” Kimmel explained as he showed the image. “With the caption, ‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning.’” “This is normal, right? Both sides do this? You remember when Obama declared war on Orlando? Totally normal.”

“You know, for a guy who dodged the draft, he sure does love fake pictures of himself in battle gear,” Kimmel continued. “He’s a real A.I. Joe when it comes to the internet. And by the way, if Trump was actually a character from the movie Apocalypse Now. It wouldn’t be Robert Duvall. It would be late life Marlon Brando, okay?”

“Trump is now after Chicago,” Kimmel added. “He has declared Chicago to be the ‘world’s most dangerous city.’ That of course, is based on statistics gathered by the worm inside RFK Jr’s head.”

Among the other things Kimmel discussed in the monologue was the latest news concerning Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein — the release on Monday of the actual letter that according to Wall Street Journal and members of the House Oversight Committee Trump wrote to the billionaire sex offender for his 50th birthday in 2003.

“Listen. That is not a birthday note. That is a signed confession. That letter is so creepy, it should have its own documentary series on Netflix. I give it two hours before Trump claims it was written by Joe Biden’s autopen,” Kimmel joked.

“And by the way, can you imagine if that little pubic scribble said Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump? There would be another storming of the Capitol. There’d be torches and pitchforks going right up his Pennsylvania Avenue,” Kimmel added. 

You can watch the full monologue below:

The post Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trump as ‘a Real A.I. Joe’ After Fake ‘Apocalypse Now’ Images | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Dust Bunny’ Review: Bryan Fuller’s Family Horror Flick Is Wild, Colorful and Just Plain Nuts

There’s a long history of films in which a vivid world of monsters and fantastical creatures turns out to be the fantasy of a traumatized child using imagination to escape from a hard reality. “The Wizard of Oz” is a prime example, if you buy the “it was all a dream” angle, and Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” is a particularly vivid latter-day descendant.

And then there’s “Dust Bunny,” Bryan Fuller’s fantasy that premiered in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows a young girl who insists that a monster under her floorboards has eaten several sets of her stepparents, and you can certainly see it as another child’s escape into fantasy because that’s easier to deal with than reality.

But to his credit, Fuller really wants to have his cake and eat it, too – so while you’re welcome to interpret “Dust Bunny” as a troubled child’s fantasy, it’s just too much fun to buy little Aurora’s story and embrace the monstrosity of it all.

Wildly colorful, gloriously spooky and just plain nuts, this is a movie in which the audience will want to take a quote from one of the characters – “The happiest I’ve ever been is believing something impossible” – and adopt it as their new motto.  

Aurora, played by the irresistible Sophie Sloan, is a no-nonsense, delightfully hard-boiled 8-year-old who knows the facts of life: There’s a monster under her floorboards who has eaten her parents more than once; if you want to live, you have to get around the house without touching the floor; and the neighbor down the hall in her impossibly ornate apartment building (think Tim Burton meets Wes Anderson) might be a guy who can hunt down that monster.

That neighbor is played by Mads Mikkelsen, who insists that he doesn’t believe the whole monster story or consider himself an assassin for hire. But he does have a particular set of skills, and he is mixed up with some unsavory characters, not the least of them being Sigourney Weaver’s zestfully evil Laverne. Plus, he seems to feel guilty over the deaths of Aurora’s latest folks. So when she offers him $327.42 – which she acquired, she tells him without an ounce of shame, by robbing the collection plate at church – he takes the job of at least being her protector.

The feature directorial debut of Fuller after a career best known for the TV series “Hannibal,” “Pushing Daisies” and “American Gods,” “Dust Bunny” takes place in a world of magic and evil that lies just beneath the surface of a more mundane reality. On the streets outside, dragon parades seem to morph into real dragons, while inside, through all those rounded, tinted and etched windows, pulling the covers over your head will keep the monsters away but won’t stop the thumps, groans and screams.

Designed as a horror movie for the entire family, the film has its scares, but it’s just too wacky and too much fun to be disturbing. With a bold musical score by Isabella Summers that keeps circling back to the liturgical doom of the “Dies Irae,” it’s macabre but wacky, though it doesn’t shrink from some dark issues and moral dilemmas. When the neighbor asks, “What makes you so tasty, Aurora?” she has a succinct but sad answer: “I’m wicked. It knows I’m wicked. It keeps eating my family because it knows I don’t deserve one.”

And she can’t be argued out of that or any other stance. A wonderfully to-the-point heroine, she responds to the neighbor’s insistence that “monsters aren’t real” with a simple declaration: “Yes, they are. Don’t pretend.”

By the end, nobody can pretend, because the film’s climactic siege involves at least half a dozen bad guys facing off against Aurora, the neighbor, an FBI agent posing as a child services worker and maybe even Aurora’s monster, who turns out to be pretty helpful in a fight.

Does it make sense? Not really. Do you want it to make sense? Hell, no. Is it all just a dream? No way.

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release “Dust Bunny” in theaters on Dec. 5.

The post ‘Dust Bunny’ Review: Bryan Fuller’s Family Horror Flick Is Wild, Colorful and Just Plain Nuts appeared first on TheWrap.

Guillermo del Toro Writing ‘Very Violent’ New Crime Thriller, ‘Fury,’ to Star Oscar Isaac

During an audience Q&A following the Toronto International Film Festival of his latest project, “Frankenstein,” director Guillermo del Toro revealed he’s already working on two new projects, including a new collaboration with the film’s star Oscar Isaac.

Del Toro told the audience he’s working on a new crime thriller called “Fury,” and promised “it’s going back to sort of thriller aspects of ‘Nightmare Alley,’ very cruel, very violent. Like ‘My Dinner with Andre,’ but killing people after each course.”

The director also explained that “I’m very interested in the violence we do to each other, and we do it with our minds, we do it with our souls and we do it physically. And I think it’s new questions. I’m 60 now, so I’ve gone from asking where I’m going, and father and son, to regret. I’m in the regret decade, so expect a lot of regret.”

Watch those comments below:

Guillermo del Toro teases upcoming projects including another film with Oscar Isaac | #TIFF pic.twitter.com/xWHNBX35NR

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 9, 2025

Del Toro also revealed to the crowd that he’s also developing an animated adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel “The Buried Giant,” which he promises will be an “epic stop-motion that is not going to be for kids. It’s truly exploring the capacity to act, of a stop-motion project, and fuse a world the way you would do it if it was a live-action.”

The director alluded to these projects earlier in the day while speaking to TheWrap about “Frankenstein,” saying in part, “we’re doing a film together that I’m writing, again for Oscar, that is completely different stylistically [from ‘Frankenstein’]. It’s a crime thriller, and we already, what we’re gonna do is continue the dialog we started.”

Del toro also explained his thinking about his new version of “Frankentein,” that he wanted to recreate they way it must have felt to read Mary Shelly’s landmark horror novel before it became a ubiquitous pop culture icon.

“It’s about, can you renew what it felt to read that book, what it felt to encounter those characters for the first time, before they became figures to advertise radiators or cereal cartoons,” he told TheWrap. Read more about that here.

The post Guillermo del Toro Writing ‘Very Violent’ New Crime Thriller, ‘Fury,’ to Star Oscar Isaac appeared first on TheWrap.

Jasmine Crockett Says ‘It’s Really a Sad Day’ That Trump ‘Is the Guy Leading Our Nation’ After Latest Epstein Reveal | Video

On Monday, not one but two documents providing yet more evidence of Donald Trump’s close relationship to billionaire sex offender were released to the public — prompting Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett to remark that it’s “really a sad day” for America that Trump “is the guy leading our nation.”

For those just catching up, first on Monday, the Wall Street Journal published the actual birthday note Trump wrote for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, which was included as part of a larger birthday book. The existence of the book and the letter were originally reported by WSJ in July. House Democrats have also confirmed that the House Oversight Committee has received a copy of the same letter. Along with a poem, the message included a drawing of a nude woman, with Trump’s signature appearing to stand in for public hair.

Trump has long denied the existence of the letter, calling it a hoax somehow created by Democrats, and on Monday he repeated that claim. He and his supporters have insisted that the image of the letter itself is fake, and in particular they claim that the signature is not Trump’s. However, multiple news organizations, including the the New York Times, have compared the signature on the letter to other examples of Trump’s signature, and these comparisons show they are identical.

Also on Monday, the House Oversight Committee released a photo also said to have been included in Epstein’s birthday book, which shows Epstein and three other people holding a giant oversized check along with a note, “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”

“Depreciated” appears to be a joke about the age of a woman, possibly one in the photo whose face is redacted. The signature on that oversized check does not resemble Trump’s known signature however.

On Monday night, Crockett discussed all of this with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

“The White House has denied that the drawing existed. They denied that it was Trump’s signature. Tonight, they are denying it, saying that releasing it is proof that it’s not his signature,” Collins said, noting that CNN has also compared that signature to Trump’s other signatures to show they are “similar.” “What do you make of the White House’s defense here,” she then asked Crockett.

“The fact that the President is a liar. He’s consistent. I mean, that’s all I really got for you,” Crockett said. She then rebutted Trump’s claim that the letter was created by Democrats. “We got this from the Epstein estate. This isn’t something that came from a random Democratic something, this came from the estate. And so because, basically, that would have been that someone had to forge this correct? That’s the whole thing. Like it before he even got elected. Remember when Epstein died, right? That was before Donald Trump got elected this time. And they would have had to have some kind of foresight that he was going to run for office again, somehow win again. And we’ve got to make sure that this is sitting here so that when a committee comes through to get this. It’s crazy.”

Crockett acknowledged that birthday letter isn’t by itself proof of any specific wrongdoing by Trump. But, she added, his behavior related to them raises more questions.

“I think the biggest issue is the fact that he cannot be honest about it, right? Like, Why lie? Because it doesn’t implicate right? But the fact that you’re lying makes it look like, ‘what else are you lying about?’ Those are the questions that we have. If you’ll lie about something this simple, then when you’re trying to tell us that you had nothing to do with these women or these girls, why should we believe you?”

As for the other photograph, Crockett said, “I think that that is more incriminating than the birthday. The birthday just makes him look like a creep. But this, it’s, it’s joking about selling a woman. When, and why is that ever funny?” the congresswoman asked. “And why is it that they would say that he would be one that would be buying a woman, and so, and to say ‘fully depreciated’… and it had some things that really made you feel like it was somebody that was young, because it was talking about the ability to learn, like a quick learner, or something like that. I don’t remember the exact language, but it’s really disturbing.”

“And honestly,” she continued, “it’s really a sad day in this country that this is the guy that is leading our nation. I mean, we used to care about the morality of a leader, but when you’re looking at this and you’re looking at his actions overall, it doesn’t seem like he has a moral compass or that he has an honest bone in his body.”

Watch her remarks in the videos below:

Collins: The WH has denied that the drawing existed. They denied that it was Trump's signature. What do you what do you make of their defense here?Crockett: The fact that the president is a liar? I mean, he's consistent.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T01:16:20.891Z

Crockett: Why lie… the fact that you're lying makes it look like what else are you lying about?

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T01:17:46.014Z

Crockett: And honestly, it's really a sad day in this country that this is the guy that is leading our nation.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T01:20:58.625Z

The post Jasmine Crockett Says ‘It’s Really a Sad Day’ That Trump ‘Is the Guy Leading Our Nation’ After Latest Epstein Reveal | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Lily James on Producing Her First Feature Film With ‘Swiped’: ‘I Wanted to Be Part of the DNA’

Lily James, who stars as Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd in the upcoming film “Swiped,” unpacked her decision to shift into producer mode for the film, highlighting how the tech exec’s inspiring story made her want to be part of its creation.

“When I came on board, there was this really beautiful gear change in my career because I’m producing on this too,” James told TheWrap’s Emily Vogel at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday. James has previously EP’d on TV series, but “Swiped” marks the first feature film she’s produced.

“I really wanted to be part of this film and the storytelling, given it’s about Whitney — one of our great female entrepreneurs of her generation and time,” James continued. “I wanted to kind of be part of the DNA of this project. So, brilliantly was able to produce and work on the script and kind of get on board from that early stage.”

“Swiped,” directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg, is a biographical drama about Herd and her journey to launch the dating apps Tinder and Bumble. It stars James, Dermot Mulroney, Dan Stevens, Clea DuVall and more.

When it came to what was the most important to her in terms of producing, James said “every part.”

“Every music choice, everyone in crew, casting, all these sort of decisions, which I was glad to be part of, was so galvanizing for me,” she said. “And to have some agency and lean on the really experienced people that we were working with … In terms of storytelling, I would fight for everything I believed in. It’s always wins and losses and compromise in making a film and it’s better for it. It was pretty delicious.”

Along with Herd’s accomplishments, the film will also highlight the unique challenges she faced as woman in trying to build a company in a male-dominated industry and the experiences many women face when using dating apps to meet a partner.

“This is exploring really big themes, gender equity and gender dynamics and politics online and in-office,” James explained. “How women are silenced, the many ways that women have been silenced. So I felt a huge sense of responsibility and just showing up fully with an open heart to really explore these issues and hopefully just offer of something that the audience can then experience and make their own decisions and decide how they feel.”

She added: “I hope it can inspire and galvanize a lot of people, women, to go after what they want and believe in and to recognize that sometimes those things that feel like they might destroy us, or the darkest moments in our life, can actually be used for something good and powerful.”

“Swiped” made its debut at TIFF and lands on Hulu on Sept. 19.

Catch up on all of TheWrap’s TIFF coverage here.

The post Lily James on Producing Her First Feature Film With ‘Swiped’: ‘I Wanted to Be Part of the DNA’ appeared first on TheWrap.

VMAs EP Van Toffler Says He’s ‘Not a Great Rule Follower’ After Return to ‘Risqué’ Awards Show Helm

The MTV Video Music Awards returned to form as longtime producer Van Toffler made a comeback to the pop culture awards show.

After spending nearly 30 years at the music network and serving as president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, Toffler’s production company Gunpowder & Sky teamed up with Den of Thieves to bring the VMAs back into the zeitgeist.

This year the awards show premiered not only on MTV but also on CBS and its accompanying streamer Paramount+. Toffler told TheWrap that the variety of platforms created new challenges for his production team but also boosted viewership with the awards show seeing its highest ratings in six years.

“You kind of had to be welcoming of all the different audiences and try to appease all of them without alienating any,” Toffler told TheWrap. “A bunch of years ago, MTV was the only audience, and so I think the Vanguard Award, the icon awards, give you a chance to recognize people like Mariah [Carey], Busta Rhymes and Ricky Martin.”

But Toffler noted that the move to broadcast did not cause him to shy away with the iconic boundary-pushing moments the VMAs is best known for (Reminder: he brought viewers the 2003 Madonna-Britney-Christina three-way kiss.) The executive producer did not give any restrictive guidance to the talent.

“I, like many of my fellow colleagues who grew up at MTV, are not great rule followers,” he said. “There were some quite risqué performances, but we never asked anybody to hold back.”

Instead the producer said he told talent to “take it to the limit,” referencing Yungblud’s Ozzy Osbourne tribute and Tate McRae’s dynamic dance-forward medley specifically.

He added that it’s much harder to corral musicians and force them to follow the straight and narrow. “They don’t always listen,” he joked.

Yungblud and Steven Tyler perform during a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for MTV)

The 2025 VMAs featured performances that spanned generations, genres and even locations. Lady Gaga performed an exclusive medley pre-taped from her Mayhem Ball concert at Madison Square Garden for the awards show. And Post Malone and Jelly Roll performed their hit “Losers” live from Germany. Toffler said it was worth it to include the remote performances in order to celebrate the best in music today.

“It’s undeniable that Post Malone and Jelly Roll are two of the biggest acts that cross country, rock and hip-hop, and they happened to have been in Germany,” he said. “We couldn’t get them to the UBS arena, and we decided that it was worth it to take a remote from them, and it was beautifully shot.”

As for Gaga, he said that “she gave us one of the most cinematic performances in the history of the VMAs,” even debuting her song from “Wednesday” “The Dead Dance.”

This year’s VMAs merged legacy talent with up-and-comers like Conan Gray, Alex Warren and Tate McRae. Toffler said that balance was intentional and critical in keeping the VMAs topical.

The show also leaned on influencer and digital media talent with presenters like Alix Earle and Livvy Dunne as well as other appearances from MrBeast and podcasters Brooke Averick and Connor Wood. Toffler said embracing social media is crucial for the music industry and integral for promoting his show.

“It’s essential for the vibrancy of music, the VMAs, and pop culture,” he said. “Young people watch content on the platforms that make sense for them, so it could be TikTok, Youtube, Snapchat, and the beauty this year for MTV and the whole social team is that they embraced all the influencers.”

The 2025 VMAs earned 5.5 million viewers across Paramount channels, scoring a six-year viewership high up 42% from the previous year. Toffler’s production company has signed a multi-year deal to produce the annual awards ceremony.

The post VMAs EP Van Toffler Says He’s ‘Not a Great Rule Follower’ After Return to ‘Risqué’ Awards Show Helm appeared first on TheWrap.

Stuart Craig, Oscar-Winning Production Designer of ‘Harry Potter’ Fame, Dies at 83

Stuart Craig, a three-time Oscar-winning production designer who brought Hogwarts to life with his work on all eight “Harry Potter” films, died on Sunday at the age of 83, according to the British Film Designers Guild.

Craig won his Oscars for his work on “Gandhi” in 1983, “Dangerous Liaisons” in 1989, and “The English Patient” in 1997 before going on to leave a huge mark on pop culture designing the environments of the “Harry Potter” films and their trio of “Fantastic Beasts” spinoffs.

Those designs for locales such as Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Ministry of Magic, and other locations from J.K. Rowling’s books earned Craig two additional Oscar nominations along with six BAFTA nominations. They also became the basis for Universal’s theme park attractions based on the films in Hollywood, Orlando, Osaka and Singapore.

Other films in Craig’s credits prior to “Gandhi” include “The Elephant Man,” “Chaplin,” and “The Secret Garden.”

In a Facebook post announcing Craig’s death, designer Neil Lamont talked about how he first met Craig when working on “The English Patient” with him in Tunisia.

“Straight out of the airport, on a recce of a local derelict, ruined building, 40 degrees, nervous, and I probably did one of the poorest surveys ever on a location. It turned out that we, subsequently, found better places,” he wrote. “The experiences I had on this film, not only allowed me to see Stuart’s talent, his beautiful sketches, pencil drawings and vision, but also the way which he conducted himself in all walks of life, in the studio, the car, restaurants. A true gentleman, with grace, kindness and humility.”

“I bet that anyone you ask, ‘which designer would you like to work with the most’ the answer 100% would be Stuart Craig, and anyone who met him will remember their encounter forever,” Lamont continued. “I replay all mine, all the time, he will never be forgotten. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.”

The post Stuart Craig, Oscar-Winning Production Designer of ‘Harry Potter’ Fame, Dies at 83 appeared first on TheWrap.

Amanda Seyfried Says ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Taught Her She Was Able to ‘Do Things I Didn’t Think I Could Do’

“The Testament of Ann Lee” star Amanda Seyfried said there was nothing easy about the role. However, the challenges she faced portraying the real-life founder of the Shakers taught her she is able “to do things I didn’t think I could do.”

Directed and co-written by Mona Fastvold and co-starring Lewis Pullman, the film is a musical retelling of the founding of the controversial and often persecuted Christian sect and its colorful leader, with dancing and songs adapted from real life Shaker hymns. And it presented Seyfried with enormous challenges as an actress.

“You name it,” Seyfried told TheWrap’s Steve Pond Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Getting over my own insecurities with playing somebody who had so much power and felt so strong-willed and someone so committed and someone so devoted. That’s it. That’s not me. But there’s so many qualities about her I could relate to.”

“In terms of what I couldn’t relate to, the accent, the technical aspect of the accent,” Seyfried continued. “I had to let go of my own ear when I’m listening to my own singing because it didn’t need to sound good, it just needed to sound devoted. Just needed to sound true, which is a different way of singing … It was just a lot. Choreography is like math to me; I don’t get it. So I had to work extra hard on that. Everything was hard about it. Everything.”

However, Seyfried said once she released herself to the idea that the role was going to be difficult, it ultimately added to her skillset as an actress.

“When you release yourself to the challenge of it, and you commit full-stem ahead, then the gifts are just there,” Seyfried said. “It’s unlimited. I’ve completely shifted my perspective on my own life because I was able to do things I didn’t think I could do. And I’d give Mona [Fastvold] what she deserved.”

Seyfried was joined by Fastvold and Pullman, who plays Ann’s brother William Lee. Fastvold said she discovered the story of Ann Lee through learning about Shakers member Patsy Roberts Williamson, a formerly enslaved Black woman who joined the sectafter they purchased her freedom.

“I stumbled upon a hymn by a woman named Patsy called ‘Pretty Mother’s Home,’ which is in the film a little bit together with the ‘I Love Mother’ hymn, and I thought that was really beautiful,” Fastvold explained. “I tried to figure out the history behind it and I discovered that it was a ‘gift song,’ as they call it, that was received by a woman named Patsy, who was a freed slave and who became a prominent leader within the Shakers.”

Intrigued by Williamson’s story, she dug deeper until she ran into the story of Lee.

“I thought, ‘What is this religion? Where in America where there’s a, in the early 1800s where there’s an African American woman who’s a religious leader … I’ve never heard about this before,” Fastvold said. “I started doing more research and I read about mother Anne and the Shakers. I just thought this is such a fascinating story. My background is in movement, and a lot of music, so I always wanted to bring that into my filmmaking even more so, but in an organic way, and this just felt like the perfect opportunity to do so because the Shakers were musical people … I thought I can ground this in a reality that kind of works within my cinematic language as well.”

Catch up on all of TheWrap’s TIFF coverage here.

Catch up on all of TheWrap’s TIFF coverage here.

The post Amanda Seyfried Says ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Taught Her She Was Able to ‘Do Things I Didn’t Think I Could Do’ appeared first on TheWrap.