When he first sat down with director Ridley Scott to discuss planning visual effects for Alien: Covenant, VFX supervisor Charley Henley understood that Scott was putting him in charge of re-animating a particularly iconic sci-fi character—the so-called xenomorph aliens that Scott first brought to the big screen in his classic 1978 film, Alien. “To step into […]

You’ve seen Spiro Razatos’ work in a wide range of movies over the years, including several in theaters right now, and yet you may not be aware of who he is or that he did that work in the first place. Still, contributions to major feature films by Razatos and a hearty band of colleagues […]

Bojan Bazelli, ASC, enjoyed his reunion with director Gore Verbinski — their third collaboration together — on the director’s newest visual-fest, A Cure For Wellness, even though he readily admits it was one of the most creatively and technically challenging projects of his career. The psycho-horror thriller tells the story of a young executive (Dane […]

In searching for his next project, director J.A. Bayona found himself attracted to the children’s fantasy novel, A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness (based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd) primarily because it “talked about childhood in such a respectful way, and portrayed the complexities of the psychology of a kid.” He felt the […]

Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, BSC, had been collaborating with David Mackenzie since 2003 when he shot the director's feature Young Adam — a story about a drifter involved in intrigue in economically distressed working class regions of Scotland while working on a barge. Thirteen years later, he recognized similar themes when Mackenzie brought Hell or High Water to him […]

It isn’t every day one gets invited to head up a major department on a Clint Eastwood film. Consider the fact that Eastwood’s close-knit team rarely has an opening, with most of his key collaborators having been in their positions for years, if not decades. That was particularly true of the editing job in Eastwood’s […]

With the Star Trek franchise celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, a lot was riding on getting visuals right in the newest feature film in the series — Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond, which debuted last month. Lin, taking over helming duties from J.J. Abrams (now producing), was coming over from the Fast & Furious franchise and […]

Brad Furman’s new movie, The Infiltrator, was risky for him as a young director because it’s a serious drama built around themes seen before in motion pictures — a law-enforcement mole infiltrating organized crime at the highest levels and getting in perhaps too deep, so much so that he can’t easily distinguish his undercover life from […]

There is an irony to the fact that the editors behind the tentpole blockbuster currently burning up the box office, about the trials and tribulations of a team of superheroes, were eager to emphasize the collaborative nature of making the film in the first place, when they spoke recently about their team for StudioDaily's Podcasts from […]

Given his resume, populated with major Hollywood action and visual-effects oriented fare including multiple X-Men films, one would think that lensing a real Hong Kong-style martial arts caper in the form of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, the long awaited sequel to Ang Lee’s stylized and critically acclaimed 2000 epic, would be somewhat […]