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How to Escape a T-Rex in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’
The director Gareth Edwards narrates a harrowing sequence from his film.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to escape by raft from an island riddled with dinosaurs and you manage to wake up a sleeping T-Rex in the process?That scenario becomes one of the signature moments in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” the latest in the long-running dino thriller franchise.In the scene, a family becomes trapped on an island where the setting is lush and the creature threats are plentiful. One family member, Teresa (Luna Blaise), finds a raft but also encounters a certain snoozing theropod nearby. The raft, per the instructions written on the side of it (seen in a close-up shot), must be opened on land.“This was something we added in the edit,” Edwards said, narrating the scene and discussing the close-up, “because we did a test screening and the audience was just like, why would you inflate it in front of a T-Rex?”Next, the filmmakers used the opportunity to make a dino disappear before the viewers’ eyes. The T-Rex is in the background of the shot, but then is hidden from view once the raft inflates on its side. When the raft gets turned flat in the water, the dinosaur has disappeared. “You sort of get this David Copperfield moment,” Edwards said.In discussing where the sequence was shot, Edwards said, “What you’re looking at is two main locations. One is in Thailand and it’s really actually a lake. We use it as a river, but it’s this big lake within a quarry. And then, once the rafting begins proper, it becomes this location in the U.K. called Lee Valley, which was essentially built for the London Olympics in 2012.”Only one of these locations was warm.“In London, in the rapid section,” Edwards said, “it’s freezing cold. And the actors, they were very tolerant, but we had to do take after take after take as you can imagine. And slowly through the day, I could see the look in their eyes. They wanted to kill me.”Read the “Jurassic World Rebirth” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More
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Superhero Movies Dominated the Box Office, but Not the Top 100 List
The notable exceptions — “The Dark Knight” and “Black Panther” — stood out among the many sequels and spinoffs.Any way you look at the last 25 years in film, there’s no denying that superhero movies have been a vital part of 21st-century big screen entertainment. Many refer to the release of “Iron Man” in 2008 as the official kickoff of what would become the moneymaking engine that resulted in a steady stream of blockbusters, sequels, phases and cinematic universes unto themselves. And yet “Iron Man,” and most of its successors, plucked from Marvel and DC Comics alike, are conspicuously absent from The New York Times list of the 100 best films from the 21st century so far, as voted on by influential directors, actors and other notable names in Hollywood.For some, this may not be at all surprising. Audiences will buy tickets to the next Marvel movie, and perhaps even enjoy it for whatever combination of cinematic spectacle, fan nostalgia and actual solid filmmaking it offers, but many would be more loath to grant it the prestige of a top film.But it’s also worth considering how years of oversaturation of superhero stories on movies and TV have worn on even the most loyal fans, causing superhero fatigue and casting a shadow over even the acclaimed films that have come out of the genre. It’s difficult to consider the individual merits of films that primarily serve as cogs in the larger wheels of their franchises.Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” which along with “Black Panther” is one of the two superhero movies that made the list, is acclaimed for bridging the gap between prestige filmmaking and comic book material. It doesn’t hurt, too, that the film looks the part of your typical award-winning drama, with a grim, realistic tone and showcasing well-loved serious actors like Christian Bale and Gary Oldman.“The Dark Knight” and “Black Panther” are prime examples of the idea that there can be more to superhero movies than camp, spandex and CGI. The two stand out for their nuanced philosophical musings: “The Dark Knight” questions the line between chaos and control, and the significance of the hero as a symbol of justice in a world where justice is not always synonymous with law and order.And “Black Panther” was not simply the first major Black superhero film of the century, featuring Black leads, Black culture and a beautiful Black utopia, but an examination of how the diaspora created a rift between Black Africans and African Americans. And both films starred now-departed actors giving career-defining performances: Heath Ledger and Chadwick Boseman.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Michael Madsen, Actor Known for ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill,’ Dies at 67
He had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies,” he said.Michael Madsen, a sledgehammer of an actor who became one of Hollywood’s reigning bare-knuckled heavies thanks to indelible performances in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill” series, as well as in the critically acclaimed mob film “Donnie Brasco,” died on Thursday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 67.The cause was cardiac arrest, said his manager, Ron Smith.Mr. Madsen never achieved true leading-man status like his soul mates Charles Bronson and James Gandolfini — but perhaps, measured by volume, he did. A tough guy’s tough guy, he seemed ubiquitous in his 1990s heyday, one of those guy-who-was-in-everything actors, like Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán.His Internet Movie Database entry cites 346 acting credits. By comparison, Mr. Bronson, a longtime marquee-topper known for star vehicles like the “Death Wish” series, had 164 when he died in 2003 at 81.With a whiff of Mickey Rourke, a hint of Sylvester Stallone and a linebacker’s physique, Mr. Madsen had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir.This point was abundantly clear to the actor himself.“Maybe I was just born in the wrong era, man,” he said in a 2004 interview with The Guardian. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies. Those guys back then, they had a certain kind of directness about them. A lot of the screenplays, the plots were very simplistic — they gave rise to a type of antihero that maybe I suit better.”If the role called for a sprinkle of sadism, Mr. Madsen was your man, as showcased in “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), Mr. Tarantino’s breakout thriller about a crew of slick-suited thieves bungling a diamond heist in the bloodiest possible fashion. He was part of an ensemble cast that also included Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn and Steve Buscemi.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman on Injuries, Action and ‘The Old Guard 2’
In the Netflix film “The Old Guard 2,” Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman play immortal warriors blessed — or cursed, depending on your outlook — with incredible recuperative powers. Stab them in the back, shoot them in the face, and wham-o, they heal in seconds. Theron’s character, Andromache of Scythia (Andy for short), has been fighting the good fight, and several bad ones, for over 6000 years; her archnemesis Discord, played by Thurman, is even older.The action epic marks Theron’s return to the franchise five years after the critically acclaimed first film (the Times’s A.O. Scott praised the movie’s action sequences and “tone of hard-boiled melancholy.”) It also marks Thurman’s high-profile return to the action movie genre, 21 years after she starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Volume 2.”The actors created two of the most celebrated action heroines of all time: Thurman’s The Bride, the vengeful, katana-wielding assassin of the “Kill Bill” films, and Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, the buzzcut-sporting, big rig-driving heroine of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” “Fury Road” was one action film among many for Theron (others include “Atomic Blonde,” “The Italian Job,” and the “Fast and the Furious” franchise). After the “Kill Bill” films, however, Thurman eschewed the action film genre for rom-coms, TV and a run on Broadway, among other things.The two recently got together at the Netflix offices in Hollywood to discuss women in action films, on-set injuries and what they won’t do in a picture. Below are edited excerpts from the conversation.Uma Thurman, left, with Charlize Theron in New York.Uma, it’s been a while since you’ve done an action movie. Why now, and why this one?UMA THURMAN Well, I find Charlize to be very mysterious. I feel like she keeps a tight circle around her. But she’s revered and admired, and her work speaks for itself, so this was a special opportunity. Getting to work with a great actress is a precious thing, and projects are usually not designed to bring multiple heavyweight women together, as Charlize has done with this franchise. Every once in a while you see these great ensembles with, like, seven great actresses, and you always feel bad that you weren’t included! You look at them with, like, hunger.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Dave Scott, Hip-Hop Choreographer, Is Dead at 52
A former basketball standout with no formal dance training, he came to provide moves for rappers like Bow Wow and dance-battle films like “You Got Served.”Dave Scott, who steered off a college basketball track to become, without formal training, a prominent hip-hop choreographer, mapping the moves for adrenaline-charged street dancing films like “You Got Served” and reality shows like “So You Think You Can Dance,” died on June 16 in Las Vegas. He was 52.His son Neko said he died in a hospital of organ failure after a long illness.Mr. Scott, who was raised in Compton, Calif., was attending Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, on a basketball scholarship when he went dancing one night. Little did he know that a manager of the rapper Rob Base was there, and was impressed enough by Mr. Scott’s gyrations that he invited him to replace a dancer who had dropped out of the rapper’s tour.Mr. Scott was anything but a professional. He learned much of what he knew by decoding the moves from Michael Jackson videos and early hip-hop films like “Breakin’” (1984). It didn’t matter.“I learned the choreography in two days,” he was quoted as saying in a 2013 article in The New York Post. “I left school and finished the tour.”So much for hoops; Mr. Scott’s direction was set.He went on to work as a choreographer for more than 20 films and television shows. His breakout effort was “You Got Served” (2004), which follows the dance-battle odyssey of a crew of Black teenagers from Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Readers Choose Their Top Movies of the 21st Century
<!–> [–><!–>When we talk about the movies we love, every voice deserves a spotlight. So after publishing our official list of the best movies of the 21st century, compiled from the votes of 500-plus filmmakers, actors and other movie-industry professionals, we turned to New York Times readers, who cast more than 200,000 ballots of their […] More
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A Teaser For Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Is In Theaters
The teaser for Christopher Nolan’s next film, based on Homer’s epic, is playing ahead of screenings of “Jurassic World Rebirth.” Here’s how much of the film’s story is revealed.Over the years, Christopher Nolan has become one of the leading voices in Hollywood advocating cinemas. That means not just seeing his movies in theaters, but their trailers as well.So if you want to see the first teaser for Nolan’s upcoming epic “The Odyssey,” you have to hit up a screening of “Jurassic World Rebirth,” this weekend’s release from the same studio, Universal. Not only is the latest “Jurassic” movie expected to reap a major box office haul over the holiday, but the promise of news about “The Odyssey” may bring out Nolan’s loyal fans. He’s one of the few contemporary directors who inspires that kind of fervent anticipation for his films.The teaser poster for “The Odyssey.”Universal PicturesAt a Wednesday morning screening of “Jurassic” at a Manhattan AMC, “The Odyssey” teaser played after the theater’s traditional pre-roll featuring Nicole Kidman waxing about the magic of the movies. The trailer itself, which runs a little over a minute long, is coy about revealing too much of Nolan’s take on Homer’s saga, which is set for release on July 17, 2026. It begins with extended shots of the sea and voice-over heralding Odysseus’s triumph in the Trojan War, a conquest that is alluded to by the appearance of a large horse structure and its imposing shadow. The first face we see is that of Tom Holland, who is playing Telemachus, the son of Odysseus.“I have to find out what happened to my father,” he says, speaking to a man portrayed by Jon Bernthal, whose role is unconfirmed. Bernthal, maintaining the unvarnished tough guy demeanor that has made him a fan favorite on “The Bear,” asks Holland if he is interested in gossip, and then calls out to a room, “Who has a story about Odysseus?” A point of note is that all the characters are speaking English with American accents, even Holland, who is British.The last shot finally reveals what appears to be the hero, played by a bearded Matt Damon, frail and marooned in the ocean. This leaves plenty unknown about how Nolan is tackling the massive story of Odysseus’s journey home, including how much of it he is covering and who stars like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are playing.Nolan has used this kind of roll out for his films’ trailers before. A peek at “Oppenheimer,” which would go on to win him best picture and best director at the 2024 Oscars, appeared before “Nope” in 2022. It’s a throwback to the days when “Star Wars” fans had to venture out to “Meet Joe Black” to get a glimpse of “The Phantom Menace” in 1998. But, of course, it’s not 1998 anymore. So while the “Odyssey” teaser hasn’t officially been released online by Universal, shakily filmed versions of it did leak Tuesday before being swiftly taken down. More
