Laura Dern The Talephoto: Kyle Kaplan/HBO
Interview

‘The Tale’: Jennifer Fox On Bringing Her Sundance-Lauded Story of Abuse and Resilience to HBO

For more than three decades, filmmaker Jennifer Fox thought she was the luckiest. That, as a smart, independent 13-year-old in the freewheeling ’70s, it was pure sophistication that her first “boyfriend” — the fellow who took her virginity — was an older man who found her beautiful and exceptionally talented. Still prepubescent, Fox memorialized the “relationship” in “The Tale,” an English-class assignment about the man, their introduction via an elegant riding instructor she called Mrs. G and the trio’s “magical” summer spent defying the conventions of love and freedom. Still, the girl told everyone it was a work of fiction. […]

Starz
Drama

‘Sweetbitter’: Stephanie Danler’s Coming-of-Age Book Becomes a Sensual Series on Starz

Like a well curated menu, Starz’s new dramedy Sweetbitter has something scrumptious for all tastes. Foodies and wine lovers will swoon over luscious images and discussions of eat and drink. The mighty legions that serve us when we dine out at long last have a scripted restaurant show that honors them. Scenesters get the New York that only New Yorkers know. And everyone can relive our own brink-of-adulthood reckoning via the show’s 22-year-old heroine Tess, winningly played by Churchill’s Ella Purnell. Tess — the not-quite alter ego of Sweetbitter screenwriter Stephanie Danler, who also penned the bestseller on which the […]

starz
Drama

‘Vida’ on Starz: Home Is Where Your Secrets Are

Though she’s worked on high-profile series with diverse casts and bold storytelling, writer/producer Tanya Saracho knew something was still missing in the modern TV landscape: a series that reflected her own life and lineage. So Saracho, who proudly identifies as queer and prefers the gender-neutral term Latinx over Latina/Latino, created Vida, a gutsy dramedy about estranged Los Angeles sisters whose return home forces them to confront myriad truths about their mother, their past and their own self-images as Americans of Mexican heritage. “Most of our department heads are female,” said Saracho of the show’s proudly female and inclusive pedigree, at […]

James-Cameron-Steven-Spielberg-AMCMichael Moriatis/AMC
Documentary

‘James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction’: Cinema’s Sci-Fi Master Plays Favorites on AMC

From the moment Arnold Schwarzenegger’s part human, part cyborg killing machine strode onto movie screens in 1984’s The Terminator, movie buffs counted cowriter/director James Cameron among the go-to guys for cinematic sci-fi thrills. This month, AMC turns over its Visionaries docuseries franchise to the Hollywood multihyphenate for an exploration of the beloved genre’s roots, evolution and massive popularity via interviews with Schwarzenegger, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Greg Nicotero, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Will Smith, Sigourney Weaver and others. “We tried to pick a few milestone pieces of popular culture — often movies or TV shows — and then go back […]

Symphony for our WorldNat Geo Wild
Documentary

Nat Geo Wild, X Ambassadors Set Mother Earth to Music with ‘Symphony for our World’

On Sunday, April 22, Nat Geo Wild celebrates Earth Day — and the splendor of Mother herself — with the unique one-hour special Symphony for our World. And as the special’s stunning trailer says, it’s an event you have to hear to believe.   The perfect way to relax after your Earth Day efforts, Symphony for our World combines the gasp-inducing nature footage National Geographic and its television channels are known for with an original symphony created by Hans Zimmer’s Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated Bleeding Fingers Music, featuring composers Austin Fray and Andrew Christie. The duo’s five-part composition brings viewers on a journey through five […]

Alex Rich Genius PicassoNational Geographic/Dusan Martincek
Interview

National Geographic’s ‘Genius: Picasso’: Alex Rich Talks Playing the Artist as a Young Man

Last year, National Geographic’s anthology series Genius earned 10 wide-ranging Emmy nominations for its stunning inaugural outing, which explored Albert Einstein’s personal and professional evolution. The series returns this month to spotlight another enigmatic intellect: prolific Spanish artist and proud bohemian Pablo Picasso. Like its predecessor, Genius: Picasso features two actors in the titular role — GLOW’s Alex Rich and movie star Antonio Banderas, this time — to capture the freethinker’s nine-decade life, a vast and colorful canvas of shifting personal and political alliances, fraught romances and astoundingly disparate artistic styles. Banderas’ connection to Picasso traces back to his youth […]

howards-end-starz-atwell-coulthard
Drama

‘Howards End’ on Starz: Hayley Atwell Talks the Schlegel Sisters’ Bond

In 1992, famed filmmakers James Ivory (a 2018 Oscar winner for Call Me by Your Name) and Ismail Merchant and their trusted screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala debuted a lush film adaptation of the E.M. Forster masterpiece Howards End. Beautifully rendered and perfectly cast — Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter and Vanessa Redgrave starred — the tale of economic class, family bonds and social conventions in turn-of-the-century England became an instant classic, earning Oscars for Thompson and Jhabvala. Twenty-five years later, the BBC revisited the epic as a four-part miniseries, which makes its American debut this month on Starz. […]

Elvis Presley The Searcher on HBOHBO
Documentary

‘Elvis Presley: The Searcher’ on HBO: We Sit Down With Priscilla Presley And Music Documentarian Thom Zimny!

Let’s start with what you do know about Elvis. Like “Hound Dog” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” “The Pelvis” nickname coupled with said pelvis’ Ed Sullivan Show debut. The stint in the Army, where he met a pretty girl named Priscilla. The feel-good films and the triumphant ’68 TV special. And the endless tabloid fodder that followed, even after his 1977 death at just 42. But do you know why Elvis moved the way he moved? Chose the songs he sang? Suffered so beneath the weight of the very fame he craved? Priscilla — Elvis’ only bride and lifelong confidante — […]

Katie Couric America Inside OutNational Geographic/Jason DeCrow
Documentary

‘America Inside Out With Katie Couric’: The Veteran Journalist Puts Everyday Faces to National Agonies

For her 2017 National Geographic documentary Gender Revolution, veteran journalist Katie Couric crisscrossed the nation to put compelling faces and poignant personal stories to America’s complex relationship with gender identity. The experience proved so fulfilling that Couric hit the road again, delving into more crackling social issues that both inspire and undermine unity in our “United” States, challenging our individual moral compasses and coloring our outlooks far beyond any neighborly chat over the backyard fence. Issues like gender inequality; the plight of American Muslims; the economic uncertainty of the white working class; the intersection of history and oppression in our […]

National Geographic
Interview

‘One Strange Rock’ on National Geographic: Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky Loves His Mother (Earth) With Help From Will Smith and Astronauts!

Much of the talk about Earth these days is how we’ll communally exit it — via NASA or SpaceX, done in by our own bad habits or getting pulverized by the sort of cosmic event that got us here in the first place. That doesn’t sit well with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky, who trained as a field biologist, teamed with the “mega-documentary” experts at Nutopia and an eight-pack of well-spoken astronauts to craft One Strange Rock, a mesmerizing 10-episode love letter to our home planet, co-anchored by Will Smith and the space travelers and airing on National Geographic. The […]