Latest news with #TheStudio
Indian Express
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
When Tom Cruise tried to recruit ‘weak-minded' Seth Rogen into Scientology: ‘Thank God Judd Apatow was there or…'
Actor Seth Rogen is turning heads and taking names with his new series The Studio, where the narrative attempts to pull back the curtain on Hollywood and what all goes on behind the big screen. Like the nature of the show, Rogen has always been outspoken about his experiences as a part of the film industry and about his relationships with his co-stars, whether good or sour. Being the comedic genius he is, Rogen was once called by none other than Tom Cruise to help him make a comedy film. However, things quickly turned away from the main motive of the meeting and somehow transitioned into Cruise talking about religion and how the 'big pharma' companies were plotting against him. Maybe Cruise had some Ethan Hunt flashbacks, a character who often finds himself being hunted, misunderstood or both. As according to Rogen, Cruise seemed all set to recruit him and actor Judd Apatow into the Scientology camp. 'I am a huge Tom Cruise fan, and I watch all his movies. We had a long meeting with him, and a couple of hours into it, the Scientology stuff comes up and how weird he has looked in the press lately. He tells us, 'If you just let me tell you what it was really about and give me 20 minutes, you would say no f***** way.' Rogen added that he and Apatow looked at each other confused and weren't really ready for converting to a new religion right then. ALSO READ: Tom Cruise shrugs off father's day question after daughter Suri dropped his name following a decade of of estrangement He said, 'Cruise started explaining to us how the pharmaceutical industry was trying to sabotage him and make him look bad in front of everyone. Cruise said, 'They're scrambling, and they're doing everything they can to discredit me so I won't hurt sales anymore'.' The 'making me look bad in the press' thing which Cruise is referring to is a collection of several instances where the actor condemned the use of antidepressants and, of course, his infamous lunge on Oprah Winfrey's sofa in 2006. When Rogen asked him about the Oprah show, Cruise said that the media edited the video to make it look worse and then compared his situation to Louis Farrakhan. For context, Louis was the head of the Nation of Islam and had made several anti-Semitic comments, including comparing the Jews to cockroaches. Rogen admitted that 'of all the strange sentences I've heard in my life, Tom Cruise name-dropping Louis Farrakhan is top three.' Rogen, who described himself as 'generally weak-willed, weak-minded person', said he was thankful the director was with him. He added: 'Thank god Judd was like, 'Eh, I think we're good. Let's just talk about movies and stuff.'' Cruise is one of Scientology's most famous followers and earlier described the religion as 'beautiful'. He was introduced to the organisation by his first wife Mimi Rogers in 1986 and has followed it since. Along with The Studio, Rogen will also be appearing in the upcoming film Good Fortune, with Aziz Ansari and Keanu Reeves. The movie marks Aziz's directorial debut.
Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Theatre reviews: Tongue Twister Shades of Shadows Saria Callas
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Tongue Twister, North Edinburgh Arts Centre ★★★★ Grown Ups, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh ★★★ Shades of Shadows, The Studio, Edinburgh ★★★★ Saria Callas, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★ It's Children's Festival time; and at the sparkling new North Edinburgh Arts Centre, one of Scotland's leading makers of theatre for children, Greg Sinclair, is rolling out his latest show Tongue Twister. It's a remarkable show at many levels, both because it uses and reflects on language in ways that international theatre for children often tends to avoid, and because of the lavish, surreal energy of its visual and physical response to that verbal content. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Tongue Twister | Imaginate Sinclair begins by telling us that he has been fascinated by tongue twisters ever since since his grandad taught him to say 'She sells sea shells on the sea shore"; and on designer Karen Tennant's luminous stage - backed by two huge sun-like circles in which words occasionally appear - he runs through a series of wild and hilarious visual variations on the theme, rolling around the stage in great frothy layers of sea-blue and white fabric. He goes on to to introduce tongue twisters in a dozen different languages, from Japanese and Swahili to Gaelic, riffing merrily, for example, on images suggested by the French tongue-twister 'dans ta tente ta tante t'attend'. In the end, what Sinclair and his team create is a glorious 50 minute tribute to that wonderful, universal, playful moment when human beings pause in the grown-up business of dealing with the content of language, and begin to amuse themselves by toying with the forms of it. And Tongue Twister not only celebrates that moment, but explodes it into whole episodes of visual and verbal silliness, as wild and surreal as they are funny, and joyfully human. Grown Ups | Imaginate If Greg Sinclair is a children's theatre maker who works by effectively becoming a child for the length of the show, I was also struck by two EICF shows, this week, which invited children to laugh (which they did, most heartily) at the sight of adults making a complete hash of being grown up. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Grown Ups, by the Compagnie Barbarie and Bronks of Belgium, is a slightly overlong but brilliantly staged piece pf slapstick about a team of four grown women failing to cope with a series of mysterious water leaks onto the stage. Shades of Shadows at The Studio, meanwhile - by Tangram Collective of France and Germany - is an exceptionally beautiful and clever shadow-play piece about two women trying to sit down for a cup of tea together, that had the children in the audience chortling with pleasure, for a blissful 45 minutes. Shades of Shadows | Florian Feisel And out beyond the children's festival, this week's Play, Pie and Pint drama came as a harsh reminder of how repressive societies can simply forbid essential forms of play and creativity, including those as basic as singing and dancing. In Sara Amini's powerful but awkwardly structured monologue, Saria Callas, she plays an Iranian woman brought up under the repressive rules of the Islamic Republic, yet as rebellious as any teenage girl, and desperate to become a singer. As an adult, and a single mother in London, she finds that her beloved son has inherited her love of performance, and - like her - wants the freedom to express himself as he is, whatever the cost. And although Saria's story takes a while to reach this crisis-point, there's no doubting the tremendous strength and charisma of Amini's performance, as a woman not only inspired by the greatest singers of both Iranian and European culture, but fully capable of making the same kind of impact on an audience, given half a chance.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Hansal Mehta wants you to watch Seth Rogen's The Studio. Know all about the acclaimed new series here
Bollywood director Hansal Mehta has reviewed Seth Rogen's new TV show The Studio. It stars Seth as a struggling Hollywood studio head trying to balance corporate demands with his personal passion for producing quality films. The show has been critically acclaimed for its stinging satire, cinematography and performances. (Also read: Seth Rogen opens up about directing Martin Scorsese in The Studio: 'Worst nightmare in the entire world') Hansal took to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account and posted a detailed review of the show. The first episode didn't impress the director and he started to question if the show was worth all the hype. However, as he went past it, Hansal started to get engrossed in the underlining irony and pathos of the show. Hansal wrote, 'I saw the trailers and I was kicked. This looked like the show — sharp, satirical, self-aware. I read the early reviews, and the buzz was real. So I dove in, eager, almost giddy with anticipation. Then came Episode 1. And I was… underwhelmed. Slapstick? Superficial? Was this really it? I wondered — had the PR outpaced the product? Or was I just not getting it? But then… the magic unfolded. Gradually. Subtly. Smartly.' 'The cast is uniformly excellent — not in that polished, prestige-TV way, but in a raw, lived-in, gloriously messy manner that suits the chaos they inhabit. Each actor seems to understand the absurdity of their world and yet plays it with complete conviction. There's a rhythm to their performances — breathless, jagged, and sometimes heartbreakingly still. The shooting style embraces this chaos — long, frantic takes that swing between backstage frenzy and intimate implosions. The camera doesn't just observe; it crashes into rooms, lingers on silent defeat, and dances with delusion. What they've pulled off is a spectacle — but not the kind the industry usually sells. This is a spectacle that feels real. Real in its pain, its absurdity, its backstage drama. And in doing so, The Studio becomes a mirror to a world that thrives on illusion — and yet somehow delivers truth," Hansal concluded. The main cast of The Studio has Seth Rogen starring as Matt Remick, the president of Continental Studios and Catherine O'Hara as veteran producer Patty. It also stars Ike Barinholtz as Matt's right-hand colleague Sal while Kathryn Hahn plays the unhinged marketing lead Maya, along with newcomer Chase Sui Wonders as creative executive Quinn. Directed, written and produced by Seth, the show boasts of memorable cameos from none-other-than Martin Scorsese and Netflix CEO Ted Sarando. Other notable special appearances include from stars like Zack Efron, Anthon Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Kravitz, Adam Scott and director Ron Howard. The Studio has been renewed for season 2 on Apple TV+.
News18
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Hansal Mehta Reviews Seth Rogen's The Studio: 'We Curse The System But We're Part Of It'
Last Updated: Seth Rogen's The Studio is a satirical comedy show about the absurdities of Hollywood. Hansal Mehta has reviewed Seth Rogen's The Studio. The show offers a behind-the-scenes look at the absurdities of Hollywood through a comedic lens. Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios, a position he secures despite lacking the creative vision typically associated with such a role. His character is portrayed as someone who, while passionate about filmmaking, often finds himself out of his depth in the high-pressure environment of studio management. Hansal Mehta lauded the show and called it 'necessary" in today's time. Hansal Mehta wrote on X, 'I saw the trailers and I was kicked. This looked like the show — sharp, satirical, self-aware. I read the early reviews, and the buzz was real. So I dove in, eager, almost giddy with anticipation. Then came Episode 1. And I was… underwhelmed. Slapstick? Superficial? Was this really it? I wondered — had the PR outpaced the product? Or was I just not getting it? But then… the magic unfolded. Gradually. Subtly. Smartly." Watched The Studio. And here's what happened.I saw the trailers and I was kicked. This looked like the show — sharp, satirical, self-aware. I read the early reviews and the buzz was real. So I dove in, eager, almost giddy with anticipation. Then came Episode 1. And I was…… — Hansal Mehta (@mehtahansal) May 29, 2025 The director explained, 'What seemed like parody started revealing layers. The humour stayed broad, but the irony deepened. The pathos began to creep in. By the second and third episodes, I was in — fully. This wasn't just a spoof of an industry we all love to hate. This was an ode. A love letter. A tragicomedy about the humans behind the madness — the ones who ruin everything and also somehow hold it all together." He added, 'Seth Rogen has pulled off something rare — a modern slapstick sitcom laced with surprising insight and aching empathy. Characters that felt like cartoons at first slowly became people. People with contradictions, with heartbreaks, with buried ideals and daily compromises. By the end, I wasn't just watching a show. I was reflecting on our world — this mad, broken, beautiful business of creativity and commerce. The Studio reminded me that even the gatekeepers, the obstructers, the 'numbers people' — they're all just cogs in a machine we all power, in some way. We curse the system. But we're also part of it." 'The cast is uniformly excellent — not in that polished, prestige-TV way, but in a raw, lived-in, gloriously messy manner that suits the chaos they inhabit. Each actor seems to understand the absurdity of their world and yet plays it with complete conviction. There's a rhythm to their performances — breathless, jagged, and sometimes heartbreakingly still. The shooting style embraces this chaos — long, frantic takes that swing between backstage frenzy and intimate implosions. The camera doesn't just observe; it crashes into rooms, lingers on silent defeat, and dances with delusion. What they've pulled off is a spectacle — but not the kind the industry usually sells. This is a spectacle that feels real. Real in its pain, its absurdity, its backstage drama. And in doing so, The Studio becomes a mirror to a world that thrives on illusion — and yet somehow delivers truth," Hansal Mehta concluded. The Studio is available for streaming on Apple TV+. The series features a stellar ensemble cast, including Catherine O'Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders. Notable guest appearances add to the show's appeal, with Martin Scorsese making a memorable cameo. First Published:
The Hindu
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Seth Rogen's The Studio and its ambitious usage of the ‘oner'
In a promotional behind-the-scenes interview conducted on the sets of the Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio (co-developed by and starring Seth Rogen), actress Kathryn Hahn says, 'Seth (Rogen) and Evan (Goldberg) had this really ambitious plan to shoot most of the show as 'oners', y'know, one-shots, long uninterrupted takes with no cuts. As an actor, it makes everything more challenging but also more beautiful because with every scene you feel like you're in a play.' Rogen plays the lead character Matt Remick, a perpetually hassled studio head. He is genuinely in love with the movies but tries to balance that impulse with the bottom line-driven demands of his corporate paymasters. The show has been universally acclaimed not only for its satire but also, as Hahn points out, the ambitious usage of 'oners'. Essentially, Rogen and Co. have expanded the scope of the Aaron Sorkin-esque 'walk-and-talk' sequences popularised by 2000s TV mainstays such as The West Wing, Scrubs and Boston Legal (all 'workplace stories' like The Studio). The walk-and-talk typically takes place in a narrow corridor (at the hospital, law firm, etc.) and focuses on the lead characters. As they walk towards the camera, other characters flit in and out of the frame. The Studio executes the same idea, only the camera isn't right in the leads' faces, like it would be in a classic 'walk-and-talk' 20 years ago. The camera is equally interested in showing us the world around Matt and whoever he is talking to in a scene, weaving and bobbing in and out of the characters' immediate vicinity. After all, a movie set is a more colourful workplace than a hospital or a law firm or, well, the White House. The Studio's oners utilise this rather well, all the way through the show's 10 episodes. The second episode, in fact, is called 'The Oner', and follows Matt as he attempts to help Sarah Polley (playing herself) shoot a oner for her (fictional) film in the show. In the here and now The oner has, historically speaking, been a point of prestige for filmmakers and actors, a show of strength that underlines the technical skills of everybody involved. Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) is considered one of the first major films to deploy the oner. In those days, a single reel of film was only capable of carrying around 20 minutes of footage. Four reels, four oners — Hitchcock used lighting and editing tricks to make it look like the film consisted of four long takes. The story follows two friends who kill a mutual acquaintance and then host a dinner party with the corpse hidden in the house. The oners elevate the sense of tension the audience feels, watching two murderers trying to get away with it, while the corpse rests right under their noses. Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil (1958) famously begins with a oner, where we see an unidentified man placing a bomb inside a car. Martin Scorsese takes the audience on a oner-trip through the Copacabana nightclub in his mob classic Goodfellas (1990) (Scorsese, incidentally, plays a tragicomic version of himself in the first episode of The Studio). Robert Altman, John Woo, Alfonso Cuaron et al — in every era, major filmmakers have used the oner to emphasise the 'here and now' nature of specific scenes, or just as a showcase for technical virtuosity. The last decade of oners, however, has been inspired by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman (2014) — the film has been shot and edited in such a way that all of it looks like one big oner, a 110-minute shot if you will. Leading up to 'Adolescence' Other than The Studio, there have been two TV shows this decade that have used the oner in inventive, formally ambitious ways. The first is the Marvel TV show Daredevil (2015), where the first season features several hand-to-hand combat scenes shot as oners. The pick of the lot is a hallway fight scene where Daredevil/ Matt Murdoch rescues a kidnapped child after fighting his way through a corridor jampacked with goons — the lighting is inspired from a famous scene in Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003), where the protagonist beats up a corridor full of goons with a hammer. The second TV innovator in this context is the recent, excellent British miniseries Adolescence, about a 13-year-old boy arrested following the murder of a girl from his school. Each of the four episodes of Adolescence is shot like a oner — no editing tricks this time, just a single uninterrupted take. There's a 12 Angry Men-like unreliable narrator edge to the drama in Adolescence, and at their best, the long takes amplify the audience's unease. I love the first and second episodes' usage of the one-shot but also feel that by the time the fourth episode winds down, the novelty value of the device wanes. Oners are great when done expertly, but because of the technical task at hand, creators run the risk of focusing too much on shot-mechanics and too little on the narrative. Thankfully, The Studio understands this only too well and takes care not to use its signature device indiscriminately, or without a clear purpose. The writer and journalist is working on his first book of non-fiction.
