Creative Space
How Gus Van Sant Earned His Rep as “The Mellowest Man in Hollywood”
Gus Van Sant has taken on a few superlatives over the course of his 40-year career: indie provocateur, Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker and, per the late Robin Williams, “mellowest man in Hollywood.” A label that long eluded the 71-year-old director, despite his line of work, was Angeleno. Van Sant built one of the more eclectic résumés in […]
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With Nicole Kidman’s ‘Expats,’ Creator Lulu Wang Finally Has a Project Her Mother Likes
Scribbled on a chalkboard in director Lulu Wang’s kitchen is a list of films and TV shows she and her partner, Barry Jenkins, have yet to see. As is tradition, their friends, many of them fellow filmmakers, come through their Silver Lake home and jot down suggestions for the pair. On this morning, the list […]
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Brad Falchuk Finally Goes Solo
When Brad Falchuk moved into wife Gwyneth Paltrow’s house in 2019, there was plenty to consider. For starters, they each came to the relationship with two children from previous marriages. So, in reconfiguring the Goop founder’s longtime Brentwood pad for a family of six, Falchuk’s home office became a bit of an afterthought. “If I’m […]
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Fran Drescher Weighs In on Bob Iger’s Charm, ‘The Nanny’s Future and Her Own “Take No Sh**” Ethos
“I’m an unlikely labor leader,” Fran Drescher acknowledges on a late November evening. Before this summer, Drescher long had been synonymous in the public imagination with her most iconic role, Fran Fine, in the popular ’90s CBS sitcom The Nanny, which she tailored to her comedic strengths, including her thick Queens accent. The sassy childcare […]
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Noah Hawley Has Been Offered the World, But ‘Fargo’ Keeps Calling
For the past 15 years or so, Noah Hawley has called Austin, Texas, home. Sure, he’s spent long stretches elsewhere — Calgary for FX’s Fargo, Bangkok for his forthcoming series Alien — but home, where his wife and two children (ages 16 and 11) reside, is 1,400 miles from Hollywood. And, as Hawley sees it, […]
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To Grow More, Chip and Joanna Gaines May Look Beyond Waco
Chip and Joanna Gaines may be approaching a saturation point in Waco. Since the couple first let cameras roll on their home renovation operation with 2013’s Fixer Upper, an unrivaled hit for then-network HGTV, the Gaineses have managed to transform their Central Texas town into the hub for a thriving entertainment and lifestyles brand. There, […]
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AFM Creative Space: Ukraine’s Green Light Films Targets Market Leadership Despite Launch in Wartime
Few industry executives would have the moxie to launch a new film company in the middle of a full-scale war. But ahead of AFM, distribution veterans Veronika Yasinska and Nadiia Zaionchkovska unveiled the start of Green Light Films, an all-rights distribution and co-production outfit for Ukraine. Backed by the holding company that owns Ukraine’s Multiplex […]
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Larry Charles Released the Movie He Set Out to Make: “That’s a Miracle in Hollywood”
Larry Charles’ résumé is all over the place. As a writer, he penned some of Seinfeld’s most memorable episodes (see: “The Library”). As a TV director, he skewered his industry with Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. As a filmmaker, he embraced mockumentary with Borat and Brüno. But his latest entry, by his own admission, might […]
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Vladimir Duthiers Is Making Up for Lost Time
There’s an eight-minute window, just after 9 a.m. ET every weekday morning, when Vladimir Duthiers goes AWOL on live TV. Viewers might think he’s just off camera at the CBS News Streaming Network anchor desk that he shares with Anne-Marie Green, but the 53-year-old newsman is frantically covering over a mile of midtown Manhattan that separates […]
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Yvonne Orji on Embracing Her “Endearing” Christianity and “Crazy” Hollywood
Yvonne Orji, like so many of her peers, is eager to get back to work. But as she Zooms from her Los Angeles home office in mid-August, she’s mostly itching to get out of town. “When the strikes end, and I think it’ll be soon, everyone is going to be bat-crap crazy — so get […]
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The ‘Narcos’ Showrunner Is Ready to Tackle a New Drug War
Eric Newman didn’t set out to be a writer. In fact, segueing to writing, much less showrunning, wasn’t even his idea. The veteran producer, whose résumé was lined with films like Children of Men and Dawn of the Dead, was down in Colombia making Narcos when, he says, Netflix urged him to take the reins. […]
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“To Be in Hollywood Is to Be Gaslit”: Justin Simien Levels Up With Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ at a Fraught Time
Filmmaker Justin Simien was the main attraction at the July 15 red carpet premiere of his latest effort, The Haunted Mansion. But it wasn’t because he arrived in a floor-length cape, his tribute to the movie’s costume designer. It was because the hours-old SAG-AFTRA strike prevented his starry cast — LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and […]
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