Home//Total Film/November 2020/In This Issue
Total Film|November 2020WELCOME TO TOTAL FILMMr. Bond, we’ve been expecting you… for quite some time. Back in March we hoped to rendezvous with 007 for Daniel Craig’s final outing in the tux, but something even more dastardly than a Bond villain got in the way. So here we are again, tussling with our favourite gentleman spy as No Time To Die gets set to release (Who knows, though? He may be creeping back into the shadows of the schedules as we speak). To celebrate this 25th Bond movie, we got together with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to share their memories of all those licensed to kill as well as getting the inside story on the latest instalment. Plus, we looked again at the game changer that was GoldenEye, dug back into our archives…1 min
Total Film|November 2020DialogueEMAIL totalfilm@futurenet.com WRITE Total Film, 1-10 Praed Mews, London W2 1QY (postal addresses will be used for the sole purpose of sending out prizes) gamesradar.com/totalfilm twitter.com/totalfilm facebook.com/totalfilm Drop us a line totalfilm@futurenet.comSTAR LETTER★I first subscribed to your magazine (or my mum did!) when I was a 14-year-old trans kid stuck in a tiny village with big dreams about being an actor/writer. I’m now 28, with a first-class degree in acting and a few movies/shows under my belt. It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses to get me this far. I have battled severe depression and recently developed a very painful physical disability. I tell you all this not for pity but because I want you to understand what I mean when I say ‘thank you’. Thank you for giving me…5 min
Total Film|November 2020KILLER BODYBodyswap slasher movie Freaky can be neatly summed up in a single sentence: Freaky Friday meets Friday The 13th. So Teasers has an obvious question for writer/director Christopher Landon: how could he sleep on the punniest title of the year? “Very early in the process I said, ‘We have to call it Freaky Friday The 13th!’” Landon chuckles. “Then, of course, 9,000 lawsuits later – or at least the threat of them – we ended up with Freaky.”Landon is rapidly establishing a reputation as a master of high-concept horror comedies having helmed the inspired Happy Death Day and its sequel. But he was still surprised when Vince Vaughn – his first choice for the physically formidable Blissfield Butcher – signed on for dual duties as the Jason-eque killer and meek…2 min
Total Film|November 2020ROCK STARSIt’s seven years since we last saw the Croods – including Grug (Nic Cage), Eep (Emma Stone) and Guy (Ryan Reynolds) – on screen, but the former cave-dwellers are still searching for the perfect home.They have competition from the Bettermans – Phil (Peter Dinklage) and Hope (Leslie Mann). “They’re a more evolved family…” says director Joel Crawford. “So, of course, there’s conflict.”Not for Eep and Dawn Betterman (Kelly Marie Tran), who hit it off instantly. “Eep doesn’t have this baggage from high school or jealousy and all of this. Straight away there’s a friendship.” BFFs!Grug has the hardest time adjusting to a new way of life, including son Thunk’s (Clark Duke) obsession with a new technology – the window. “Grug’s maybe not ready for the next step,” says Crawford.It’s not…1 min
Total Film|November 2020IT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALISTTHIS MONTH WATCHING SCENES YOU SAW FILMEDThere are certain actors I’ve interviewed over the years – Paddy Considine, Sally Hawkins and more – who refuse to watch their films as they just can’t bear to see their own mugs plastered on a 30ft screen. I can only imagine how weird it must be, as I, a humble film journalist, can’t even watch back scenes I saw being filmed while visiting a movie set.Well, that’s an exaggeration. I can watch them back, for the only other option would be to run screaming from the screening room or to screw shut my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears while humming loudly. And it would piss off other film journos. But viewing a scene I saw being shot does take me…3 min
Total Film|November 2020SOUND BYTES“Bro, while Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See… silver lining.”Mark Ruffalohas some reassuring words for fellow Avenger Chris Evans after he accidentally leaks his own nudes.$70 millionThe cost of reshoots for the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher are reportedly suiting up for pickups.92% Box-office drop year- on-year as a result of the Coronavirus crisis, according to StockApps.com.“I saw the trailer. It’s very well done [but] everything is predictable.”Alejandro Jodorowsky,who almost directed Dune in the ‘80s, throws shade at Denis Villeneuve.“The Hollywood seas didn’t part for me in the same way that it might have for maybe Anna Kendrick.”Precious star Gabourey Sidibeon the divergent career paths of two 2010 Best Actress nominees.FURY ROADSamuel L. Jackson…1 min
Total Film|November 2020BOOZE BROTHERSFour middle-aged teachers discover a theory by a psychiatrist: people are born with a blood-alcohol level that’s too low, and should take, erm, measures to up it. So that’s exactly what they do… “We set out to make a little, joyful, boyish celebration of alcohol,” says Another Round helmer Thomas Vinterberg (Festen). But as the film took shape, the theme grew. “We figured out it’s not just about alcohol; it’s about this contract you make with the uncontrollable when you put a bottle to your lips.”The Danish filmmaker explains how the idea of the uncontrollable gained a terrible resonance off set: four days into filming, his 19-year-old daughter Ida tragically died in a traffic accident. “The only reason to move on was because she loved this project so dearly,” he…2 min
Total Film|November 2020THE LONG GOODBYE1 THE ENDNo Time To Die has been a long time coming, and then some. The first major release to pull the trigger and move out of the way of Covid in March, Bond 25 has been in a holding pattern ever since. It was earmarked for a 12 November release all those months ago – a fast-approaching date which no longer feels set in stone – and stalwart producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson continue to face unprecedented challenges on an almost daily basis. But they see NTTD as the perfect film for the present moment.“The thing that’s really wonderful about this film is that it celebrates heroism and service,” Broccoli tells Total Film. “It was always the intention of the movie that Bond represents bravery and personal…10 min
Total Film|November 2020MICHAEL LONSDALE“Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.” If they gave out prizes for silkily sinister urbanity, Hugo Drax would rule the roost as surely as his space station reigned over the heavens. Yet Moonraker was only one highlight of many in the career of actor Michael Lonsdale, whose 200-plus credits included such rousing classics as The Day Of The Jackal, Of Gods And Men and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.Born in Paris and raised in London, the bilingual Lonsdale started out with ambitions to be a painter but was soon drawn into acting. Yet it was not until Jeanne Moreau murdered him in The Bride Wore Black that his career gathered pace, eventually giving him enough clout to be deemed a worthy opponent to 007 as Moonraker’s big…1 min
Total Film|November 2020Domestic DisturbanceGrowing up, Remi Weekes was afraid – very afraid – of The Wiz. “Michael Jackson was the Scarecrow and Diana Ross was Dorothy,” he recalls with a shudder. “I was in love with that film, and I can still sing along to all of the music, but I was also terrified by some of the pieces. There’s a moment when they go into the New York City underground, and the columns break free, and the bins break free, and try to attack Dorothy and her gang. It always left me shaken as a child.”Later, Weekes saw The Wizard Of Oz and wondered, “Why are these white people acting like they’re in The Wiz?” A funny anecdote, but also, he says, an example of “how, growing up, the stuff I watched…8 min
Total Film|November 2020FIVE STAR TURNSTHE SOCIAL NETWORK 2010Breaking out playing both Winklevoss twins, Hammer was originally cast alongside Josh Pence, until Fincher decided to map his face onto the other actor’s body. Double screen time to perfectly essay clinical privilege.J. EDGAR 2011As Hoover’s longtime colleague and love, Clyde Tolson, Hammer ably held his own opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s FBI boss in Clint Eastwood’s biopic. Eastwood “stripped filmmaking of all the noise,”said Hammer.THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. 2015Hammer does action with a side of sardonic in Guy Ritchie’s gleeful spy romp, pitting his KGB operative against Henry Cavill’s CIA spook. It may not have launched a franchise, but showcased Hammer’s dexterity.FREE FIRE 2016Bearded, sweary and clearly having fun, Hammer’s arms fixer trapped in a warehouse shootout is a hoot – paving the way for co*ke-snorting, sarong-wearing Steve…1 min
Total Film|November 2020funny relationshipON THE ROCKS 12AFILMOUT NOW CINEMAS / 23 OCTOBER APPLE TV+And remember, don’t give your heart to any boys. You’re mine, until you get married. And then you’re still mine…” Spoken over a black screen, On The Rocks’ opening lines could be the prelude to a dark psychodrama of paternal possessiveness.Instead, Sofia Coppola’s latest emerges as a beguiling, souffle-light comedy that could be an aged-up companion piece to the writer/director’s Somewhere (2010). There are also echoes of Woody Allen in the setup, which sees author Laura (Rashida Jones) and her philandering father Felix (Bill Murray) tailing Laura’s possibly faithless husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) all over Manhattan. As the quest takes them further afield, the film almost descends into an Allen-lite farce. But it’s yanked back from the brink by the…5 min
Total Film|November 2020family misfortunesRELIC 15FILMOUT 30 OCTOBER CINEMAS, DIGITAL HDThis year’s Hereditary’ or ‘This year’s The Babadook’ is the easy sell for Natalie Erika James’ feature debut, a female-centric Aussie horror that weaves unnerving supernatural elements into an affecting domestic drama dealing with grief, trauma and mental illness.But that’s only half the story: Japanese-Australian writer/director James fashioned Relic from her feelings surrounding her grandmother’s struggles with Alzheimer’s. And if there’s a creepy J-horror vibe to the proceedings, that’s because James was terrified of her grandma’s traditionally Japanese house when she stayed there during childhood summers.The events of Relic are all the more harrowing for being shaped by real life as much as by shivery fear flicks. A sinister note is struck from the off, as middle-aged Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her teenage daughter…5 min
Total Film|November 2020portrait of a ladyAfter 30 episodes, Peter Morgan’s royal epic The Crown arrives at perhaps its most anticipated plotline – the ill-fated fairytale romance of Charles and Diana. Season 4 spans the late ’70s to 1989, with Josh O’Connor returning to play the prince and series newcomer Emma Corrin (Pennyworth) stepping into the spotlight as the future Princess of Hearts. Here’s the duo on star-crossed love, Her Maj and epic arguments...Emma, do you feel the pressure of the role?EMMA CORRIN: There are parallels between Diana being plucked from obscurity and my situation.I remember I was with Ben Caron, one of our directors, when I was offered the part. He said that any time I was photographed or interviewed or felt nervous or exposed, use it because it’s exactly what she would have been…3 min
Total Film|November 2020facts of knifeFollowing last year’s The Golden Compass-based first series, His Dark Materials S2 tackles book two in Philip Pullman’s fantasy saga, The Subtle Knife. Returning leads Dafne Keen (Lyra Belacqua) and Ruth Wilson (the villainous Mrs. Coulter) here discuss daemons, deserted cities and destruction…What can we expect from Mrs. Coulter in S2?RUTH WILSON: She doesn’t really feature much in the second book, so I wasn’t sure how much we’d see her. Thankfully, she’s in every episode, which means we’ve stretched her story and get to explore sides of the character that the book doesn’t cover. Philip Pullman gave us licence to do that.How badass is she this time?RW: You get to see Mrs. Coulter do even more awful things in the pursuit of her child and in the pursuit of control.…3 min
Total Film|November 2020pan’s labyrinthIn horror or dark fantasy, scores steeped in dissonance and dread can pack a punch. But if you want something that gets under your skin, a lullaby is what you need. For his 2006 post-Spanish Civil War fable, Guillermo del Toro deferred to the highest authority to ensure he had a belter: would his daughter want the MP3?To get there, del Toro turned to composer Javier Navarrete, who’d made such sumptuous work of the monster maven’s heartfelt historical spook story, The Devil’s Backbone. Del Toro once noted that “prestigious musicians” often resist melody, as if it’s something to be ashamed of. But he and Navarrete nurtured Labyrinth’s score “note by note” to ensure its melody would haunt all-comers.If the resulting score resembles a labyrinth of moods, feelings, and choral crescendos…2 min
Total Film|November 2020two moreHotshot RacingOUT NOW | VARIOUSA low-poly love letter to ‘90s arcade racers, this recaptures the upbeat vibe and drift-heavy handling of its inspirations, if never quite establishing a personality of its own. Still, its races and chases are often exhilarating, particularly the shunt- happy Cops And Robbers mode and the Speed-inspired Drive Or Explode.GUNSPORTOUT NOW | STADIA ‘Cyberpunk volleyball with guns’ is the unbeatable pitch for this entertaining and deceptively deep 2v2 future sport. With a 16-bit style reminiscent of cult favourite Windjammers, it’s a real coup for Google’s Stadia service – though those without high-quality broadband may want to hang on for the inevitable console ports.…1 min
Total Film|November 2020IS IT BOLLOCKS?THIS MONTH FLIGHTQ In Denzel Washington’s aviation drama his commercial pilot saves a planeload of people from a fatal dive by flipping the bird over to correct it. Plane crazy?A ANONYMOUS COMMERCIAL PILOT, FLYING LONG-HAUL 747SI’m no aircraft engineer, but civil airliners are designed to fly under positive ‘g’ bar flutters in turbulence, which has to be fairly severe to give you negative ‘g’ (as in the passengers etc start levitating!). I would hazard that flying inverted would not impress many of the aircraft systems. The fuel pumps are at the lowest point in the tanks (as long as you’re not upside down effectively flying at negative one ‘g’), so the engines would get fuel starvation if they were uncovered. The engine oil system – lubrication and cooling – faces…1 min
Total Film|November 2020DUNEWhy it was a good idea (on paper)First came Eraserhead’s midnight movie notoriety, then The Elephant Man’s Oscar noms. Between the two, David Lynch seemed primed for a next-level splice of personal/ popular success. Bursting with world-building potential and mind-expanding themes, Frank Herbert’s sci-fi allegory stirred Lynch in ways Return Of The Jedi – a gig he rejected – did not.What went wrong?On a Lynch movie with tie-in toys? Guess. A maverick without final cut, Lynch’s mindset clashed with commercial thinking. “We destroyed Dune in the editing room,” conceded producer Dino De Laurentiis, who imposed a 137-minute run-time. Key scenes fell to studio cuts, requiring expository excesses to help viewers distinguish their Gom Jabbars from their Bene Gesserits. Not that Lynch was much interested in plot clarity. He stayed calm…2 min
Total Film|November 2020CALL SHEETJORDAN FARLEYNEWS EDITORLast December I interviewed Cary Joji f*ckunaga in a New York hotel. Last month I talked to Cary over Zoom with my laptop perched on a toilet (the quietest room in the house).MATTHEW LEYLANDREVIEWS EDITORZoom-ed with auteur Thomas Vinterberg then realised my toilet plunger was in the background the whole time. My background, not his – that would be really weird.JANE CROWTHEREDITOR-IN-CHIEFArmie Hammer is such a nice guy that he did a personalised greeting in the style of his Cars 3 character Jackson Storm for a young family member who’s a fan.…1 min
Total Film|November 2020TEASERSEXCLUSIVESPIRITED AWAYSOUL | Pixar’s latest concerns itself with life, death, purpose and all that jazz…Conduct a survey to find the finest Pixar movie of the last decade, and chances are that Inside Out - a look at the competing emotions of a little girl – will come out on top. Well, it’d better do, or Anger, Disgust and Sadness will have something to say about it. So it is with great Joy that Teasers notes that Pixar’s 23rd feature, Soul, appears to be something of a companion piece.“Uh, maybe thematically, but it’s pretty different design-wise,” says Pete Docter, who directed 2015’s Inside Out and now co-directs Soul with Kemp Powers, who is making his directorial debut after impressing with his scripts for five episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and the…5 min
Total Film|November 2020YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH EMILY MORTIMERAre you talkin’ to me?Am I talking to you?… Yes! I really believe I am.Do you feel lucky, punk?Yes, but I had a complicated relationship with feeling lucky for the first half of my life. I’ve felt privileged, I came from a nice family, and I didn’t want for much, so I had a hard time giving myself credit for anything. But as one gets older, sh*t happens [laughs] and it evens out. The luck starts to dwindle. Life gets hard. No matter who you are, complicated things happen, pain happens. Then, in a weird way, I’ve enjoyed the luck I may have had in later life more, because I feel less guilty about it.What’s your favourite scary movie?My father was a screenwriter, a…4 min
Total Film|November 2020TOTAL BANGERI think anyone who hasn’t been through therapy is crazy!” chuckles Darius Marder, the American screenwriter-turned-director. His feature debut Sound Of Metal stars Riz Ahmed as Ruben, the drummer of a two-person industrial-punk band – his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) is the singer – whose world implodes when he loses his hearing. His career in tatters, the therapeutic soul-searching comes when he’s welcomed into a secluded deaf community.Rather than adjust, though, Ruben is desperate to pay for cochlear implants to restore his hearing. “It’s the journey of awareness,” says Marder. “The movie asks for you to be in the experience with him. We’re not looking ironically down on him. We’re in it. I want you as a viewer to be as caught up in the desire for the fix as…2 min
Total Film|November 2020ABOUT FACEEarlier this year, Bafta faced a barrage of criticism after failing to nominate a single person of colour in the acting categories – Margot Robbie was even nominated twice. Following a seven-month review, the British Academy has announced 120 wide-ranging changes, representing the biggest steps forward for equality in Bafta’s 73-year history.The most aggressive of these new rules comes in the directing category, where the historical underrepresentation of female directors (six nominees in 73 years) will be tackled by parity at the longlist stage, with 10 male and 10 female directors being whittled down to a final six. The acting categories, meanwhile, will expand from five to six nominees each.Even bigger amendments have been implemented behind the scenes, with the addition of 1,000 new members from underrepresented groups. For their…1 min
Total Film|November 2020T-ZONEAMMONITEFrancis Lee’s handsome follow-up to God’s Own Country is an austere period drama charting the 1840s brusque romance between Lyme Regis fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), and melancholic wife Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), sent to the coast to convalesce. As the sea rages, so do the emotions of the two women… Highlighting female erasure from history, patriarchal entitlement and the yoke of reproduction on women via a slow- burn, Ammonite recalls Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and could attract similar gong conversations.NOMADLANDDeserved winner of TIFF’s people’s choice award (traditionally a bellwether for Oscar glory), Chloé Zhao’s meditative, beautiful film hits all the right notes following widowed Fern (Frances McDormand) as she loses her home and buys a van to live in. Travelling the country to take on seasonal…4 min
Total Film|November 2020HIGH LIFEA story that taps into the true-life phenomenon of teenagers groomed by drug dealers to do their dirty work? In other hands, County Lines could have turned into a violent exploitation flick. “There had been a habit within British entertainment, if you like, to put a genre on everything and I just didn’t feel that was the way to tackle this material,” debut director Henry Blake tells Teasers. “I’m not interested in being cool or on-trend or anything like that as a filmmaker.”The New Zealand-born former actor, who’s been living in Britain since he was 18, has been researching the subject of teen drug carriers through his day job for years. Working for various charities with vulnerable youths, Blake had always kept this side of his life separate from his…2 min
Total Film|November 2020THE 007 FILES1962-1971 SEAN CONNERYDr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever1 ANDRESSED TO KILLJAMAICA, 1962The defining image of Bond’s early years isn’t 007 in a tux, or even the gadget-packed DB5 – no, it’s Dr. No’s shell diver Honey Ryder (Swiss actress Ursula Andress) in a striking white- belted bikini. “She started the whole idea of the Bond woman,” producer Michael G. Wilson says. “She represented a new type of femme fatale – someone who was powerful and athletic and could take care of herself,” adds fellow producer and Bond custodian Barbara Broccoli. “She set this incredible standard.”2 SHAW THINGPINEWOOD STUDIOS, UK, 1963It’s a common belief that Bourne changed Bond, but Broccoli maintains the true influence on the Craig era can be found in…9 min
Total Film|November 2020LEAP OF FAITHI think there’s always the question when you do a Bond film of, ‘What hasn’t been done, when everything has been done?’” muses director Martin Campbell a quarter of a century after he made viewers’ jaws plunge in symmetry with James Bond as the MI6 superspy dived 720ft off the Contra Dam in Switzerland. “What is the thing that makes everybody go, ‘Oh my God?’ If you go back over the Bond films, there are some terrific opening sequences. And ours was him jumping off the dam, which was, by the way, not digital. We did it for real. The genius of that dam is, it’s straight down. A lot of dams float outwards, in which case the stuntman [Wayne Michaels] would kill himself by hitting it. It’s one of…9 min
Total Film|November 2020THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 15FILMOUT NOW CINEMAS 16 OCTOBER NETFLIXIn September 1969, seven members of the radical left were lumped together and charged with conspiracy and inciting to riot; the charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests held in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. An eighth defendant, Bobby Seale, was also bundled into this “all-star team” by Attorney General John Mitchell.Seale, the national chairman of the Black Panther Party, was only in Chicago for a few hours to give a speech, but his presence in the courtroom was designed to scare the jury into handing out convictions all round.It would be impossible to make a dour courtroom drama from the six-month trial that unfurled. Reality TV arguably began here, as politics and law descended into a three-ring circus while the whole…2 min
Total Film|November 2020writing wrongsSHIRLEY TBCFILMOUT 30 OCTOBER CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMAAmerican author Shirley Jackson is best known for conjuring The Haunting Of Hill House. But the creation of her 1951 bildungsroman Hangsaman is the focus of Josephine Decker’s experimental ‘biopic’, which reframes a period in Jackson’s life as though it were one of her famously unsettling tales.Jackson (a typically brilliant Elisabeth Moss) and her literary professor husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg, a hoot) live together in Bennington, Vermont – that much is true. But the film, adapted from Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 novel, imagines the arrival of a fictional young couple in the home – trainee teacher Fred (Logan Lerman) and his pregnant wife Rose (Odessa Young).Curiously, Shirley is a supporting character in the film that bears her name. Instead we follow Rose, who…5 min
Total Film|November 2020funny peculiarCrowds mill listlessly around a disused Shredded Wheat factory in Welwyn Garden City. A besuited Julian Barratt prowls the crumbling concrete floor with intent. As Nick Frost whispers in the ear of director Jim Field Smith, Malcolm McDowell wanders over. “I’ve never been that keen on Shredded Wheat myself,” he confides. “I found it rather dry.”It’s an appropriately surreal, unsettling and wryly funny introduction to Truth Seekers, Amazon Prime’s horror comedy following odd-couple broadband engineers Gus (Frost) and Elton (Samson Kayo). Their sideline in amateur paranormal investigation sends them far out of their depth, as they stumble into genuine supernatural mysteries and a conspiracy way beyond their comprehension. Screen has come to watch a spoiler-packed scene from the final episode, and Frost looks delighted with how it’s coming together.“Writing is…5 min
Total Film|November 2020haunted spouseNicole Kidman. David E. Kelley. Infidelity. Betrayal. Murder... If you’re looking for the next Big Little Lies, make an appointment with The Undoing, another HBO/Sky miniseries drama with an A-list cast. It’s a Paddington-baddie team-up of sorts, with Kidman joined by Hugh Grant, who sets the scene for Screen: “Nicole plays a New York shrink,” he explains. “She’s married to my character, a doctor who cares for children with cancer.“We have a kid who goes to a nice posh prep school in New York and they live a dreamy life, but that quickly changes. By the end of the first episode, one of the mothers at the posh prep school is horribly murdered and my character disappears...”There are many more twists and turns to come, all set against an imposing…3 min
Total Film|November 2020light entertainmentThis year’s annual reveal of new hardware at Berlin’s IFA tech-fest was – inevitably – somewhat subdued due to present circ*mstances. But there were a few launches worth keeping an eye on – especially for those currently keen to simulate the big-screen experience at home…SAMSUNG THE PREMIERE£TBC | OUT TBC 2020The Premiere 4K Ultra Short Throw laser projector delivers big pictures placed just 11cm away from the wall. It’s also the world’s first laser projector to support HDR10+, the HDR format that’s designed to boost colour and contrast for a more realistic image. The space-saving design comes in two versions, offering a maximum screen size of either 120 or 130 inches. Support for Filmmaker Mode disables annoying stuff like motion processing, preserving the original colours, aspect ratios and frame rates…3 min
Total Film|November 2020fresh spinTENETIs Ludwig Göransson ‘doing a Zimmer’ for Chris Nolan’s brain-buster? If the aural assault of ‘747’ says as much, Göransson soon swerves into his own experi-lane. Manipulated orchestrations, tense electro-pulses, plunging synths, inverted sounds and heavy breathing mix, to innovative ends. Memorable melodies are scarce – Travis Scott’s song disappoints – but poise and power aren’t: ‘Betrayal’ adds grace and ‘Posterity’ rocks hard.MULANFollowing Jerry Goldsmith’s 1998 score is a tough ask, but Harry Gregson- Williams makes intermittently stirring work of it here. Jarring electronics and brazen Prince Of Persia refits aside, trad Chinese and block-bluster elements merge with colour and emotional clout. Meanwhile, Mulan’s catchy, carefully developed theme distinguishes occasionally generic action scoring: see ‘Mulan Rides Into Battle’ for spirited evidence.…1 min
Total Film|November 2020ON LOCATIONWHAT? Terry Gilliam’s 1991 love letter to NY, The Fisher King, follows odd couple Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Parry (Robin Williams) as they search for the Holy Grail. During their quest they meditate on rocks in the Big Apple’s Central Park.WHERE? Central Park, New York.GO? Known as Rat Rock or Umpire Rock, this series of boulders can be found at the southwest corner of Central Park. Enter at the Columbus Circle gate and have a scramble. Thanks to Victoria Curlatolo.Snapped yourself at a film location? Send us the details at totalfilm@futurenet.comSTUDIOCANAL, ARROW, COLUMBIA TRISTAR, PARAMOUNT…1 min
Total Film|November 2020HINDSIGHT CORNER!KATE WINSLETWONDER WHEELSEPTEMBER 2017 “Woody Allen is an incredible director. So is Roman Polanski. I had an extraordinary working experience with both of those men, and that’s the truth.”SEPTEMBER 2020 “What the f*ck was I doing working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski? It’s unbelievable to me now how those men were held in such high regard, so widely in the film industry and for as long as they were. It’s f*cking disgraceful. And I have to take responsibility for the fact that I worked with them both. I can’t turn back the clock. I’m grappling with those regrets.”…1 min
Total Film|November 2020TOTAL FILM WINGMANDEAR WINGMANI try to slip obscure movie quotes into everyday parlance. Such as when stressing the need for attention to detail, I will say, “We need to to cross the ‘t’s and dot the lower-case ‘j’s,” in the hope only a select few will get the reference. I was just wondering if anyone else tries to slip obscure movie quotes into everyday parlance, not in the hope they will be spotted, but in the hope they won’t?PAUL LOGUE, DURHAMWINGMAN SAYS…TBH, Paul, there isn’t much that Wingman does that he hopes won’t get spotted. So definitely with you on the wilfully obscure quotes. One fail-safe way to preserve obscurity is to quip “Yes, Obi-Wan”: let them all think you’re citing Star Wars, when actually it’s co*cktail. Suckers! OK, ruined that one…1 min
Total Film|November 2020JONATHAN MAJORSAs an actor, Jonathan Majors doesn’t take his choices lightly. “In the ’hood we say you check the paperwork,” he told Variety of his determination to look deeply into what he signs up to. “Make sure the paperwork’s straight, and I expect you to check my paperwork, too.”Happily, the MCU’s paperwork appears to hold firm. Majors is sizing up a major role in Ant-Man 3, rumoured to be multi-faceted, trans-temporal trouble-causer Kang The Conqueror. And if Majors’ total immersion in his diverse roles is any indication, the MCU just hit gold.A Yale School Of Drama graduate, Majors has conquered all-comers lately. He aced Korean War veteran Atticus Freeman in TV’s Lovecraft Country, mixing fantasy and history with complicated family dynamics in a fashion that may help ready him for Marvel…2 min
Total Film|November 2020THE RESCUERSWherever you stand on Man Of Steel, it’s hard to argue with the casting of Ma and Pa Kent – Diane Lane and Kevin Costner were born to play Superman’s adoptive parents. So when it came to casting similarly wholesome midwestern couple the Blackledges, who saddle up to rescue their grandson in Let Him Go, writer/director Thomas Bezucha knew precisely where to turn.“Truthfully told, I had not seen those movies,” Bezucha tells Teasers from his New York home. “But I did see a snippet of a press junket they had done together for [Man Of Steel]. The way they interacted, I was like: ‘That’s what I want.’”Adapted from the 2013 novel of the same name and set in early ‘60s Montana, Let Him Go follows retired couple Margaret and George.…2 min
Total Film|November 2020DIVINE COMEDYHe’s only made five films in 45 years, but Roy Andersson still weighs in as one of European cinema’s heavyweights. His last film, 2014’s A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, won Venice’s Golden Lion. Now he’s back with About Endlessness, a typically droll series of 32 comic vignettes about life, the universe and everything.“I think that this movie has been in my head a long time – but not exactly formulated,” he tells Teasers, shortly before winning Best Director – again in Venice. “People say this movie’s melancholic. Maybe it is a little, but I think it is a mirror of how I regard myself. Maybe I’m melancholic! But I think it could be also based on humour. Without humour, it would be terrible to be alive.”Admittedly,…2 min
Total Film|November 2020CIARÁN HINDS‘THE MOST I’VE “LIBERATED” FROM A SET IS A PAIR OF PURPLE SOCKS THAT I QUITE FANCIED’What’s the first thing you do when you arrive on set?I go to the trailer or dressing room, pull down my hat, put on the kettle, and wangle a bacon roll from the AD.What do you take on set with you?I take the script, and I usually reach rather desperately for the little sides they give us every day. Apart from that, I take a good book to read for those moments of waiting.Any on-set superstitions?I do always check my flies before I leave the room. That’s something that comes from the theatre – before walking on stage and exposing yourself to a lot of people, you always check your flies.Best on-set experience?While filming…3 min
Total Film|November 2020LUCA GUADAGNINOHaving made waves with his so-called ‘desire trilogy’ I Am Love, A Bigger Splash and Call Me By Your Name, 49-year-old auteur Luca Guadagnino surprised with Suspiria and will be remaking Scarface next. For now he’s toying with TV in ravishing limited series We Are Who We Are and exec-producing epicurean doc, The Truffle Hunters. Teasers caught up with him at the Toronto International Film Festival…Your international breakthrough came with I Am Love…My life changed through I Am Love. We went through a lot of difficulties in making it – in funding and doing it. We were truly, truly in deep trouble. No sales agent wanted to sell the movie. They thought it was a failure. We went to the Venice Film Festival and 300 walked out, and there were…3 min
Total Film|November 2020DIANA RIGGIt takes a special lady to entrance James Bond, let alone whisk him down the aisle. And Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli certainly found one when they cast Diana Rigg as 007’s bride Tracy Di Vincenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a role they’d originally earmarked for Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. Rigg would later say she was only hired to guide George Lazenby through his first starring role and to give Peter Hunt’s film “gravitas”. Before being felled by Irma Bunt’s bullet, though, she also gave it humour, grace and sophistication – not least in the scene where she flatters Blofeld with poetry in a soon-to-be-decimated Piz Gloria.Such glamorous locales were a far cry from the Doncaster that Enid Diana Rigg was born in back in 1938, or…2 min
Total Film|November 2020PHOENIX RISINGOn 23 September 1988, River Phoenix sat down in Los Angeles to discuss his latest feature film, Running On Empty. The Sidney Lumet-directed movie marked the start of the teenage star’s transition into more adult-oriented roles and would also land him his first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, both for Best Supporting Actor.In 2020, River Phoenix would have celebrated the milestone of turning 50. His impressive movie career encompassed critically-acclaimed indies, including My Own Private Idaho, as well as coming-of-age classics, such as Stand By Me. He played a young Indy with charismatic gusto in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, and more than held his own against Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier in crime thriller Sneakers. But what promised to be a glittering career was cut tragically short…14 min
Total Film|November 2020ARMIE HAMMER“A HUGE PART OF THE JOB IS TO LOOK HANDSOME, KNOW YOUR ANGLES… THAT’S NOT WHAT’S INTERESTING TO ME”Armie Hammer is an attractive, personable man. Ask any of his colleagues about him and they talk about his towering frame, good looks and charm (“he exudes this extraordinary presence, and you think: ‘God – matinee idol!’” says his Rebecca costar Kristin Scott Thomas, while Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino describes him as “this dashing golden boy”). To watch him stride about the Hatfield House set of Ben Wheatley’s new take on Daphne du Maurier’s classic gothic romance, Rebecca – 6’5” of black tie elegance, warmly chatting with everyone and letting out head-back laughs – is to see that persona in action.It’s a definition Hammer, 34, has got used…18 min
Total Film|November 2020pack mentalityWOLFWALKERS TBCFILMOUT 30 OCTOBER CINEMASArambunctious animation about a transformational friendship, Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers turns fairytales on their head. Co-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s film centres on Robyn (Honor Kneafsey), a would-be wolf hunter shut up in Oliver Cromwell’s fortress in 1650. Robyn’s life is upended when she forges a reluctant bond with the feral Mebh (Eve Whittaker), a ‘wolfwalker’ whose bite brings out the animal in her.Grabby, as well as gorgeous, the girls’ fast-paced quest to save the wolf pack from Cromwell’s assault is laced with family jeopardy (Sean Bean’s wolf-hunter dad, caught between love and duty) that gives it emotional heft, as well as pulse-quickening adventure.Humming with Celtic culture and history, like Moore’s previous Oscar-nominated Irish folklore fables The Secret Of Kells and The Song Of The Sea,…3 min
Total Film|November 2020the undead zonePENINSULA 15FILMOUT 6 NOVEMBER CINEMASAnyone who caught 2016’s Train To Busan might (understandably) struggle to see how a sequel could either carry on the story or up the ante on its relentless claustrophobic thrills. Thankfully, director Yeon Sang-ho knows exactly how. Returning with new characters, Yeon goes all Aliens on us, vastly expanding the scope while shifting the narrative.Peninsula picks up the thread four years on, with South Korea draped in darkness and death after being locked away from the rest of the world (the successful containment of a viral contagion may be the film’s least believable plot point). A small team of outcasts is Plissken’d into this hell on Earth to recover a truck full of loot from an earlier, failed heist. Once there, we meet a small family…5 min
Total Film|November 2020child starOCTOBER 2019Diary dear (LOL!), started have we (oh, I crack me up!) on the second season of The Mandalorian. Or to give it its true name, The Child-alorian (must remember to stick another sheaf-load of redesigned logos under Kathy’s door). What a difference a year makes! Last season, I was brought to set swaddled from head to toe, to preserve secrecy. This season, it’s everyone else in the production who’s wearing a hood over their faces, at moi’s insistence. There are just certain times of the day when eye contact disrupts my process. Generally between 7am – 7pm. All aboard the Razor Crest! Or Razor Creche, if you will.NOVEMBER 2019Taking a browse of the internet, I suddenly understand what ‘meme’ means. It means me! ME! Everywhere! Every last nanosecond of…3 min
Total Film|November 2020forward thinking1 IT’S A WHOLE NEW ERAS2 spoilers follow… Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery picks up with Federation Science Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in the year 3188, having travelled through a wormhole 930 years into the future. As such, you can expect a mix of familiarity and strangeness. “Our guiding principle in everything we do is to maintain the Star Trek universe,” says co-showrunner Michelle Paradise. “So, there will be species that you recognise but they may be a little bit different. And they may have different points of view than you might expect.” Teleportation has changed, too. “The transporter technology is very well established [in Star Trek],” says Paradise. “But now we have personal transporters – and that’s really cool, because it’s honouring what came before.”2 THE GOVERNMENT’S…3 min
Total Film|November 2020EXTRASCULT CLASSICS BUSINESS CARDSCOLLECTIBLES OUT NOWFrom the makers of Business As Unusual: Horror Edition (see TF281) comes a fresh set of calling cards celebrating cult characters and their occupations, from Jackie Brown: flight attendant to Vito Corleone: olive-oil importer. BAU: Cult Classics Edition contains 30 gift-boxed cards, each one a fitting mini-monument, whether the design is chillingly severe (Nurse Ratched) or features an oily fingerprint (Daniel Plainview – wouldn’t want to meet him down a dark bowling alley…). Call on wearedorothy.com.PLAYMOBIL BACK TO THE FUTURE ADVENT CALENDARCALENDAR OUT NOWA calendar-slash-diorama-slash-collector’s goldmine that virtually rewrites ‘The Twelve Days Of Christmas’: three Marty McFlys, two Doc Browns, one Biff Tannen… there are 97 pieces in total, including a lenticular McFly family photo (erase bro and sis at will!) and the thing every…2 min
Total Film|November 2020triple jumpSUPER MARIO 3D ALL-STARSGAMEOUT NOW | SwitchFor its mascot’s 35th anniversary, Nintendo has assembled Mario’s first three 3D adventures in glorious HD. True, 3D All-Stars has few new features beyond the chance to listen to each game’s soundtrack from the main menu. But it’s hard to argue with the quality of the games.Super Mario 64 (1996) brought Mario into 3D and instantly defined a genre, establishing rules for movement and structure that are still followed to this day. The N64 favourite may be showing its age, but its sandbox worlds are still richly satisfying to explore, and laden with secrets and surprises. Super Mario Sunshine (2002), by contrast, is a glorious anomaly, expanding Mario’s moveset with a water-spraying gizmo while transplanting the action to a tropical- island setting. The black…2 min
Total Film|November 2020three moreLOVE AND THE FIGHTING FEMALEAcademic Allison P. Palumbo dissects a wide range of films featuring strong women (from Capt. Marvel to Katniss), exploring why so few of them are allowed a satisfying, non-tragic romantic life. A perceptive if dense treatise.THRAWN ASCENDANCY: CHAOS RISINGTimothy Zahn returns to the Star Wars baddie with an origin-trilogy launcher. If character beats feel familiar (Thrawn being coldly brilliant, over and over), its distance from the Skywalker Saga allows for some fresh, immersive world-building.BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIESArtisanal poster specialists Mondo pay dynamic homage to the ‘90s Bat-toon with a series of retro-flavoured, tone-nailing illos that’ll have you itching for a binge (re)watch. The Bing Crosby-inspired ‘Christmas With The Joker’ is a real k(r)eeper.…1 min
Total Film|November 2020SPOILER-Y POSTERSWARRIORAn impressive amount of spoilerage in one image, from mild (the estranged MMA sibs fight each other) to extreme (here’s who wins; oh, and they make up afterwards). Blu-ray sleeves are typically packed with info, but this is going above and beyond.ROCKY IVRocky always wins. Even when he loses, he wins (see Rocky, Rocky Balboa). So fair play to a poster that refuses to be disingenuous about our boy’s chances. His inevitable victory even found its way onto Rocky V’s poster (as a sort of ICYMI spoiler).RETURN OF THE JEDIIn case you’d forgotten what happened at the end of Ep VI, the ‘85 re-release art offered a subtle reminder. Note that the characters have blown up so many Death Stars by this point they can’t be bothered to look (that…2 min
Total Film|November 2020OR DO WE NEED MORE ‘80S-STYLE DOUCHEBAGS?The ‘80s excelled at many things: mullets, arcades, phenomenal cocaine use... But the decade also specialised in a unique movie antagonist: the weaselly douchebag who tries to thwart the hero, ending up with egg on their face.From William Atherton’s Walter Peck in Ghostbusters (“It’s true – this man has no dick”) via every G.W. Bailey character (Police Academy, Mannequin, Short Circuit, et al) to James Tolkan (Back To The Future, Top Gun) and Aliens’ Paul Reiser, these guys aren’t overarching villains seeking world domination, just petty bureaucrats using their position to boost their own egos. They exist purely to allow our protagonists to stick it to The Man and look good. They may not be the douchebags we deserve, but they’re the douchebags we need right now.Today’s movies too often…2 min
Total Film|November 2020LAST TIME IS VOL. 2 THE BEST GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY FILM?AJ NARKANAIt didn’t feel that way first time; but it was massively better the second time. The contrast of elusive father figures with Stark’s quest and hitting the nail on its head with Ego was brilliant.CHRISTIAN GREGORYIt benefits from you knowing the characters already, so it can just kick things off with a bang from minute one. And because you’re already invested in the characters, it makes it so much more emotional. Also, it has Mantis, which is a clear point in its favour.JOHN ABBASBoth Guardians Of The Galaxy movies are great. Thanks, James Gunn.JONATHAN BROCKWAYSecond-worst MCU film after Ragnarok!…1 min
Total Film|November 2020GOODFELLAS’ COPACABANA SHOTThere have been celebrated tracking shots before GoodFellas (Rope, Touch Of Evil) and there have been celebrated tracking shots since (Children Of Men, Birdman). But there’s never been a tracking shot so celebrated as the one that sweeps on-the-rise mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his starry-eyed date Karen Friedman (Lorraine Bracco) into New York’s famous Copacabana nightclub via a nondescript back entrance, a labyrinth of corridors and a vast, bustling kitchen.“Henry’s whole life [is] ahead of him, doors [are] opening to him,” said director Martin Scorsese of the much- discussed, frequently copied ‘oner’, which lasts three minutes and five seconds and is set to The Crystals’ swooning ‘60s pop classic ‘Then He Kissed Me’. “It’s his seduction of Karen and it’s also the lifestyle seducing him.”Therein lies the key…2 min
Total Film|November 2020TRAIN MOVIESEASY1. At the end of Back To The Future Part III, the name of the railroad ravine changes to… what?2. French graphic novel Le Transperceneige was adapted as which film (and later TV series)?3. The Midnight Meat Train (2008) is based on a short story by which horror author?4. The Hogwarts Express travels from King’s Cross to which station?5. Which 1974 train thriller was remade first in 1998 (as a TV movie) and then 2009?MEDIUM1. Dark Territory is the subtitle of which train-based action sequel?2. Celine and Jesse travel between which two cities at the start of Before Sunrise? 3. Which star of 1974’s Murder On The Orient Express won an Oscar for their work?4. Which two Hollywood acting dynasties are represented in 2000’s Thomas And The Magic Railroad?5. Which…1 min
Total Film|November 202060 Second ScreenplayFADE IN:EXT: CHEYENNE RESERVATIONADAM BEACH CAMEOWake up, BLU HUNT! A storm is raging!! There’s only so many set-pieces in this film, so figured you wouldn’t want to miss out.ADAM manages to get his teenage daughter to safety before being promptly swept away by a giant bear-nado.INT: PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALDOCTOR ALICE BRAGAWake up, BLU! You’re safe and sound… in the hospital where they filmed Shutter Island.BLU HUNTNooo! I think I’d rather take my chances with demon Paddington…DOCTOR ALICE BRAGABLU, you’re a mutant. Except I have no idea what your powers are. No one does. Not even the filmmakers. Anyway, time to get to know and hate the others!BLU is introduced to fellow superpowered hospital patients MAISIE WILLIAMS (lycanthropy; wigs), CHARLIE HEATON (rocket arse; tragic backstory that would disarm any talent-show judge), ANYA…3 min
