There was a stretch of time, not even that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when "unfilmable" was the word permanently welded to J.R.R. Tolkien's name. Too much internal monologue. Too much walking. Too many appendices. Hollywood had already taken a swing and mostly whiffed, and the conventional wisdom held that fantasy simply … Continue reading How The Lord of the Rings Rewired Fantasy for Film and TV
Film History
Two Notes, Five Notes, and Fifty Years: How John Williams Became the Sound of Steven Spielberg
There are directors and there are composers, and then there are pairings so fused that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other. Hitchcock had Herrmann, at least for a while. Burton has Elfman, most of the time. But no director-composer relationship in film history has lasted longer, produced more, or shaped the sound … Continue reading Two Notes, Five Notes, and Fifty Years: How John Williams Became the Sound of Steven Spielberg
From Joke Writer to American Icon: The Filmmaking Evolution of John Hughes
I have a specific memory of watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the first time and thinking — probably at an age when I wasn't yet sophisticated enough to articulate this — somebody made this movie who actually remembers what it feels like to be young. Not young in a generic, greeting card sort of … Continue reading From Joke Writer to American Icon: The Filmmaking Evolution of John Hughes
