Latest news with #Fincher
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2 Cast Adds The Crown Star & More
has added two new stars to the cast of the David Fincher movie. Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was released in United States theaters in July 2019 from Sony Pictures. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Fincher was working on a sequel to the movie, which is believed to be centered around Pitt's character, for Netflix. Production is expected to begin this July in California. Elizabeth Debicki and Scott Caan have both joined the cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Debicki is known for playing Diana, Princess of Wales, in Netflix's The Crown. She has starred in movies such as 2013's The Great Gatsby, 2015's Macbeth, 2015's The Man from U.N.C.L.E, 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, 2018's The Cloverfield Paradox, 2018's Widows, 2020's Tenet, 2024's MaXXXine, and more. Caan, meanwhile, is known for playing Danny 'Danno' Williams in CBS' Hawaii Five-0. He also played Turk Malloy in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy (which also starred Pitt), while his filmography further includes 1998's Enemy of the State, 1999's Varsity Blues, 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds, 2008's Meet Dave, 2015's Rock the Kasbah, 2023's One Day as a Lion, and more. Debicki and Caan's character details are being kept under wraps at this time. Not much is known about the plot of Fincher's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2 at this time, other than that it will star Pitt. 'The story's origins lie in a script that Tarantino wrote for himself to direct, but eventually put it aside,' The Hollywood Reporter's article reads. Pitt convinced the filmmaker to let Fincher take a stab at directing it, setting it up earlier this spring.' Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2 does not yet have a release date. The post Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2 Cast Adds The Crown Star & More appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Express Tribune
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Not enough love for robots
Netflix recently dropped the fourth volume of acclaimed animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots,.created by David Fincher and Tim Miller. Since 2019, Fincher and Miller have crafted this sleek universe where opportunities for top-of-the-line animation and exciting, genre-bending stories are in abundance. However, after six years and four volumes, it seems that the series is running out of original ideas. Standouts While Volume 4 of Love, Death & Robots still delivers absolutely beautiful animation and keeps its diversity in terms of the different visual styles, it's the storytelling that suffers. The first three volumes were hugely successful because they always had a few standout episodes. The series has always been structured to offer a few episodes, usually 10 to 15 minutes, which have the strongest story concepts backed by the most stunning animation. These episodes offer a banger beginning, middle and end to each volume, which is sprinkled with shorter, usually comic experiments. The first volume – with its 18 episodes, the highest of any so far – offered the most gems. Episodes like Sonnie's Edge, Good Hunting, The Witness and Zima Blue blew away the audience. Sonnie's Edge was a revenge tale set in the underground 'beastie' fighting world while Good Hunting explored the bond between a shape-shifter and the son of a spirit hunter in a rapidly industrialising world. The Witness follows a woman fleeing through the city after she witnesses a murder while Zima Blue recounts the journey of the artist Zima and his true identity in a story that leaves your jaw on the floor. While the eight-episode second volume saw interesting ideas like genetic modification in Ice and themes of immortality and loneliness in Snow in the Desert, it was Jibaro in volume three which deserves a spot in the all-time great episodes of the series. Alberto Mielgo's masterpiece became a cultural phenomenon due to its hypnotic CGI work and brilliant characters and story, all told without words. You could see its influence as tons of fans recreated their own versions of the iconic 'dance of death' sequence with all the makeup, jewelry and costumes. The purpose of all this is to say that there are no episodes in the latest volume which achieved this level of emotional resonance. This volume consists mainly of filler episodes that are rehashed from filler ideas of previous seasons. Night of the Mini Dead (Vol. 3) became Close Encounters of the Mini Kind. The Other Large Thing serves as a prequel to Vol. 1's Three Robots. Micro experiments like Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners, while funny, are not strong enough to be complete episodes. They are test exercises at best and feel too short to have any substance. Even Can't Stop, a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert with animated puppets, directed by Fincher himself, seems underwhelming. This is something that Neill Blomkamp's Oats Studios also did back in 2021. The District 9 director experimented with his own collection of strange, fascinating world building and concepts. Love, Death & Robots Vol. 4 faces similar issues as Oats Studios did: exciting concepts which are left half-baked almost as teasers to full-length films which never come about. In love with death and robots This is not to say that Vol. 4 offers nothing. It offers just enough to keep it going. There are some great ideas in episodes such as Spider Rose, The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur, How Zeke Got Religion and For He Can Creep. The first three of the aforementioned episodes come close to scratching the signature Love, Death & Robots itch. Spider Rose, set in the same universe as Swarm from Vol. 3, explores a grieving woman's pursuit of revenge with the help of a furry companion. The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur offers a race-slash-fight between genetically modified gladiators atop custom-bred dinosaurs on a space station above Jupiter. It follows the same tropes of dystopian sci-fi where the poor die for the entertainment of the elite until it backfires. Despite the rehashed narrative and a feeling that perhaps more could have been done with the story, the world-building and characters make this episode a worthy addition to the series. How Zeke Got Religion is absolute chaos, a loud, twisted feverish nightmare come to life. It works with a similar structure as Kill Team Kill (Vol. 3) where a team of US armed forces fight inhumane beasts they never expected. While that team was at least foul-mouthed and humorous, the new deployment of the forces forgo the humor. And considering the hellish monstrosity that awaits them mid-air, you can't blame them for not finding the situation funny. In the same vein, we find 400 Boys where a band of survivors fight giant baby monsters called 'Boys'. But beside the hilarious image of baby-faced giants causing destruction, it doesn't give you much to take home. Love, Death & Robots also offers a surprise this season with a live-action episode 'Golgotha' in which an aquatic alien race arrives on earth. It essentially warns us not to kill and torture aquatic life and maintain the balance of the ecosystem. But the episode itself isn't much of a standout. Despite having something important to say, it doesn't say so with impact and style. For He Can Creep had the potential to be an all-time great episode. Set in London in 1757, Satan is here to battle a poet's cat as he wishes to take the poet's soul. The soul is in the form of a new verse and taking it would allow Satan to rule over the earth. But his cat isn't a pushover and will fight at all costs to defend its master. An interesting twist on the deal-with-the-devil idea that has prevailed in myth, literature and film for so long, the episode still feels like it tries too hard to be fun. But there is a lot that could have been done with this 'selling the soul' trope, and the makers end up choosing a rather vanilla iteration and presentation of the idea. Regardless, while the latest volume does offer just enough dopamine to not be bored, it is not as engaging or innovative as the early volumes. On the animation front, it still delivers top-notch visuals and sound. The issue isn't with the production, but rather the quality of stories. It feels littered with vignettes and unfinished ideas, and often weak concepts to begin with. One does hope we get a Vol. 5 to rebound with some exceptional takes. If the makers have to follow old concepts and flesh them out, the worlds of Jibaro, Zima Blue and Good Hunting offer plenty of rich aspects and depth to go on for the next several seasons.
Los Angeles Times
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Why David Fincher turned the Red Hot Chili Peppers into string puppets
Chad Smith remembers the night in 2003 when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played for an audience of 80,000 or so amid the rolling hills of the Irish countryside. After a somewhat fallow period in the mid-'90s, the veteran Los Angeles alt-rock band resurged with 1999's eight-times-platinum 'Californication' and its 2002 follow-up, 'By the Way,' which spawned the chart-topping single 'Can't Stop.' To mark the moment, the Chili Peppers brought a crew to document their performance at Slane Castle, where they headlined a full day of music that also included sets by Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, for an eventual concert movie. 'Everything's filmed now, but back then it was a big shoot,' Smith, the band's drummer, recently recalled. 'You can get a little self-conscious. At the beginning, I f— something up — nothing nobody would know, but we would know — and Flea kind of looked at me,' he said of the Chili Peppers' bassist. 'We gave each other this 'Oh s—' look. We laughed it off, and I don't think I thought about it after that because the crowd was so engaged. The energy was incredible.' Twenty-two years later, the Chili Peppers are bringing that 2003 gig to screens again — only this time they're string puppets. 'Can't Stop' is director David Fincher's re-creation of the band's rendition of that tune at Slane Castle. Part of the just-released fourth season of the Emmy-winning Netflix anthology series 'Love, Death + Robots,' the animated short film depicts the Chili Peppers — Smith, Flea, singer Anthony Kiedis and guitarist John Frusciante — as dangling marionettes onstage before a veritable sea of the same. As the band rides the song's slinky punk-funk groove, we see Flea bust out some of his signature moves and Kiedis swipe a fan's cellphone for a selfie; at one point, a group of women in the crowd even flash their breasts at the frontman. The puppets aren't real — the entire six-minute episode was computer-generated. But the way they move looks astoundingly lifelike, not least when one fan's lighter accidentally sets another fan's wires on fire. So why did Fincher, the A-list filmmaker behind 'Fight Club' and 'The Social Network,' put his considerable resources to work to make 'Can't Stop'? 'A perfectly reasonable inquiry,' the director said with a laugh. 'First and foremost, I'll say I've always wanted a Flea bobblehead — it started with that. But really, you know, sometimes there's just stuff you want to see.' Fincher, 62, grew up loving Gerry Anderson's 'Thunderbirds' series featuring his so-called Supermarionation style of puppetry enhanced by electronics. But the Chili Peppers project also represents a return to Fincher's roots in music video: Before he made his feature debut with 1992's 'Alien 3,' he directed era-defining clips including Paula Abdul's 'Straight Up,' Madonna's 'Express Yourself' and 'Vogue' and George Michael's 'Freedom! '90.' (Fincher's last big music video gig was Justin Timberlake's 'Suit & Tie' in 2013.) In addition to 'Thunderbirds,' he wanted 'Can't Stop' to evoke the '80s work of early MTV auteurs like Wayne Isham and Russell Mulcahy — 'that throw 24 cameras at Duran Duran aesthetic,' as he put it. Fincher said he knew his puppet concept would require 'a band you can identify just from their movement,' which seems like a fair way to describe the Chili Peppers. He recalled first encountering the band around 1983 — 'I think it was with Martha Davis at the Palladium?' he said — and was struck by a sense of mischief that reminded him of the 'elfin villains' from the old Rankin/Bass TV specials. 'I feel like Finch got the spirit of me,' said Flea, 62, who's known the director socially for years. The bassist remembered discussing 'Can't Stop' with Fincher at a mutual friend's house before they shot it: 'I was talking about how I still jump around onstage and my body still works really good. But I used to dive and do a somersault while I was playing bass — like dive onto my head. And now I'm scared to do it.' He laughed. 'Some old man thing had happened where I'm scared to dive onto my face now. Finch went, 'Well, Puppet Flea can do it.'' After doing a day of motion capture with the band at a studio in the Valley, Fincher and a crew of animators from Culver City's Blur Studio spent about 13 months working on 'Can't Stop.' Fincher said the hard part was giving the marionettes a feeling of suspension. 'With the mo cap, you're capturing the action of a character who has self-determination,' he said, referring to a human Chili Pepper, 'then you're applying that to an object that has no self-determination,' meaning a puppet controlled by an unseen handler. 'It's so much trickier than it looks. But that was kind of the fun, you know? I mean, not for me,' he added with a laugh. Asked if the production involved any use of AI, Fincher said it didn't. 'It's Blur — it's a point of pride for them,' he said. But he also shrugged off the idea that that question has become a kind of purity test for filmmakers. 'For the next couple of months, maybe it'll be an interesting sort of gotcha,' he said. 'But I can't imagine 10 years from now that people will have the same [view]. Nonlinear editing changed the world for about six weeks, and then we all took it for granted. 'I don't look at it as necessarily cheating at this point,' he continued. 'I think there are a lot of things that AI can do — matte edges and roto work and that kind of stuff. I don't think that's going to fundamentally ruin what is intimate and personal about filmmaking, which is that we're playing dress-up and hoping not to be caught out.' As he reportedly works on an English-language version of 'Squid Game' and a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,' did making 'Can't Stop' lead Fincher to ponder the state of the music video now that MTV is no longer in the business of showcasing the form? 'Well, the audience that MTV aggregated — in retrospect, that was time and a place,' he said. 'Remember, the Beatles were making music videos — they just called it 'Help!' There was no invention at all on MTV's part. 'What I do miss about that — and I don't think we'll ever see it again — was that I was 22 years old and I would sketch on a napkin: This is kind of the idea of what we want to do. And four days later, $125,000 would be sent to the company that you were working with and you'd go off and make a video. You'd shoot the thing in a week, and then it would be on the air three weeks after that. 'You make a television commercial now and there's quite literally 19 people in folding chairs, all with their own 100-inch monitor in the back. The world has changed.' He laughed. 'I started my professional career asking for forgiveness rather than permission, and it's been very difficult to go the other direction.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kalispell Council OKs fee hikes for parks and rec programs
May 7—Public youth programs, pool fees and park reservations in Kalispell will undergo price hikes in the near future. Kalispell City Council on Monday approved a request from the Parks and Recreation Department to make across-the-board fee increases intended to keep pace with mounting operational costs. The hikes, ranging from roughly 8% to 20%, also take into account Kalispell Public Schools' plan to charge for use of its facilities. The Parks and Recreation Department historically has relied on the district's amenities to house after-school activities, camps and indoor sports programs. The two entities have in the past stuck to an informal agreement where each can use the other's facilities for free. All pool fees received an 8% increase and park reservation fees rose 8% as well. Still, a cost increase is not an aberration, according to Parks and Recreation Director Chad Fincher. The department comes before Council every two to three years to adjust prices, he said. Council was not keen on raising costs but saw it as a necessary measure to retain popular programs. Around 27,000 participants took part in youth programs between July 1, 2024 and present, according to Fincher. COUNCIL SCHEDULED a public hearing on the Main Street Safety Action Plan for May 19 at 7 p.m. in City Hall. The forum will give residents the opportunity to share their opinions on the long-planned project to transform Main Street before Council decides whether to seek a federal grant to fund it. The plan was adopted by Council in August and identified high-risk intersections and streets downtown. Main Street, First Avenue East and First Avenue West were prioritized by Council to receive traffic safety measures including wider sidewalks, flashing and raised crosswalks, and bike lanes. Space for parallel parking will remain available on each corridor. The plan also calls for slimming down Main Street to one lane of traffic headed in either direction and a dedicated left turn lane, which has drawn the ire of some residents and business owners. Called road dieting, the widely used, low-cost practice is intended to enhance safety and access for road users, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Dale Haarr, a former city councilor from 1990 to 1998, recalled a past renovation of Main Street's buildings and sidewalks. "And for three months, me and the business community operated our businesses out of the alley," he told Council during the meeting's public comment period. Haarr warned that if Main Street closed for construction, businesses would go under. "I would say easily 30% of those businesses won't be in business," he said. But Amber Roper, owner of Nature Baby Outfitter in downtown Kalispell, saw the Main Street Safety Action Plan as an investment in local business. "Downtown is dying. Not because people don't care about downtown, but we have made it uninviting," she said, describing narrow sidewalks and limited parking along the thoroughfare. "There are so many blocks that are sitting quiet filled with service offices and empty buildings instead of shops, cafes or gathering spaces and that vacuum is inviting loitering and transients, which is making the downtown less safe and less special," she added. If approved by Council, the city will pursue a $25 million federal grant, which requires a 20% match. FOUR MILE drive will get a new multi-use path along a portion of the road, although the price tag was heftier than expected. The path will start from the existing sidewalk at Foxglove Drive, go along the Kidsports Complex and connect to another path at Champion Way to the east. While estimated to cost around $700,000, the lowest bid came from Strods Contracting at just over $1 million. Council determined that rebidding would not bring about a lower cost, as the other bids were similar in price. Instead, Council chose to increase its local match to $46,000 to help cover the cost, which is also being paid through a federal grant and partly by the nearby Bloomstone subdivision. The city dollars will come out of a contingency pool in the general fund as well as previously unallocated Parks and Recreation funds. COUNCIL ALSO OK'd the Montana Department of Transportation's request to build a 28,400-square-foot building in North Kalispell to store equipment and house mechanics and welding shops. Council annexed the 9-acre plot of land into the city with initial zoning of P-1 (public) and a conditional use permit to allow for the facility located at 2905 U.S. 93 N., which is currently a maintenance yard. The permit calls for a road connection from Rose Crossing north to Quail Lane. The private road that runs along the north side of the property and onto the highway will see southbound turns restricted. Reporter Jack Underhill may be reached at 758-4407 and junderhill@
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Fincher and the genre-bending return of ‘Love, Death + Robots'
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways 'For my money, it's like Love, Death + Robots should be anything. Anything that you can't figure out where else it goes,' legendary filmmaker David Fincher mused about the unconventional, sci-fi/cyberpunk-flavored Netflix (mostly) animated anthology series. It's as apt a description as any for the ambitious, experimental, and genre-bending project, now launching its fourth season. 'Creativity happens on the fringe,' said Fincher — the director behind boundary-pushing cinematic classics like Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network, Gone Girl, and Zodiac. Speaking on stage at the Love, Death + Robots season premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, he was joined by fellow executive producer Tim Miller (Deadpool) and supervising producer Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3). 'It always does, and it always takes somebody — it has to be these weird flyers out there — to inform where the industry is going to go. So we're just going to be out there.' More from GoldDerby 'Out there' also aptly describes Fincher's contribution to the new season as a director. Having launched his career as an in-demand music video director for top artists in the '80s and '90s — including Madonna, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Sting, George Michael, Aerosmith, Nine Inch Nails, and Paula Abdul — Fincher returned to those roots to helm 'Can't Stop.' The dynamic, fully CGI-animated short features the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing their 2002 hit at a Scottish castle—as marionettes on strings. 'We hadn't done a music video before,' Miller told Gold Derby on the red carpet before the panel, noting that he recruited his longtime collaborator 'because he's David Fincher and he invented music videos.' 'He said he wasn't going to do one this season, and I just thought, 'Dude, you've got to!'' Miller added, describing how he lightly twisted Fincher's arm to take on the challenge. 'Because it's a set length of time and he can't make it any longer, so it'll contain him inside the box. And he said, 'OK, then I'm going to do the Red Hot Chili Peppers as puppets!' Which, oddly enough, was something that he had said he wanted to do for a long time, so I wasn't surprised when I heard it. He had talked about us doing it for a music video version earlier. Directors get these ideas kicking around their head and they just stay there.' Guillermo del Toro and David Fincher at Netflix's Love, Death + Robots: Volume 4 premiere (Photo:) - Credit:Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea told Gold Derby that Fincher 'just reached out — and we're friends — and he was very generous with him to offer to do it. And obviously he can do whatever the f--k he wants, so for him to want to work with us, it's just a super-cool, connected thing to do. … We just did it!' On stage during the post-screening panel, moderated by filmmaker and fellow animation enthusiast Guillermo del Toro (who pledged to direct an episode if a hoped-for fifth season materializes), Fincher revealed one of the key pleasures of working with motion capture — especially with such intrinsically recognizable performers as vocalist Anthony Kiedis, guitarist John Frusciante, drummer Chad Smith, and Flea. Flea attends Love, Death + Robot premiere (Photo:) - Credit:'I love that when you look at a motion capture session and you see just the dots as sort of fused as a little [character] — I love the fact that you can go 'That's Flea!'' Fincher said. 'And so I thought that would be very funny — to find a band that you can really identify physically by the way that they move around the stage and mocap them, and then try to work out the whole dangling problem.' 'If anybody's been on a motion capture stage, it's not a pretty place,' Miller added. 'You really have people in ugly leotards and in fluorescent lighting.' Given Fincher's well-known taste for beautifully composed, striking imagery, 'David couldn't look at the monitors of these people being filmed. He just couldn't! It was so aesthetically unappealing that he couldn't bring himself to look at it, and all he could look at was the computer monitor with little dots representing people.' Taking big creative swings is at the core of what Love, Death + Robots is all about, Fincher explained on the panel. He remains amazed by the range of stories and concepts Miller — an avid fan of science fiction writing and the full spectrum of animation techniques — curates each season, with Yuh Nelson overseeing conceptual approaches that range from traditional to avant-garde. That level of ambition is made possible by Netflix's unflinching support for the series — regardless of how bizarre, obtuse, or head-scratching the concepts might sound at first. 'We have a benefactor who is absolutely a thousand percent behind taking these kinds of risks,' Fincher said. 'We're not convincing anyone. We're just barely getting finished before it has to be shown here. So to have the support that we have — I don't know. If we were making this somewhere else, for someone else, it wouldn't happen.' Best of GoldDerby Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. 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