John Kluge Jr. pictured in Thistlerock’s net-zero production facility. Courtesy Thistlerock Mead Company
John Kluge, a Virginia-based philanthropist and entrepreneur, came to a realization while holed up on his farm amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past few years, he had become increasingly disengaged from nature—and he wasn’t alone. The connection between people and nature has declined by more than 60 percent during the past two decades, according to a recent study. Out of this revelation came the Thistlerock Mead Company. Launched by Kluge last year, it aims to become the first net-zero meadery in the U.S. and relies on regenerative agriculture and beekeeping practices to produce its honey wine. Just about everything to do with Thistlerock is sustainable, from its ingredient sourcing to its solar electricity and 100 percent post-consumer recycled glass bottles.
Kluge didn’t just create Thistlerock to help consumers rekindle a bond with nature, but also to show the broader beverage industry that their industry is ripe with opportunities to tackle biodiversity challenges. “We are little—we can’t do this by ourselves,” he told Observer.
To that end, Thistlerock is partnering with Bee:Wild, a division of the Leonardo DiCaprio-founded organization Re:Wild, and advocacy platform Global Citizen with a mission to bring other beverage companies into the fold. A new effort unveiled by the groups today (Sep. 24) will focus on assembling a coalition of corporations united by common goals that include mobilizing some 5 million pollinator-friendly actions, protecting 1 million acres of rainforest and generating $10 million in conservation funding.
The announcement comes at a pressing time for pollinators. Honeybee colonies in the U.S. are expected to decrease by up to 70 percent this year compared to previous annual losses of 40 percent to 50 percent, according to researchers at Washington State University. They attributed the loss to factors like nutrition deficiencies, viral diseases and pesticide exposure. Despite the threats to their sustainability, pollinators remain integral to the world’s food supply and are responsible for three-quarters of food crops and 90 percent of all flowering plants.
Allison Wickham, Thistlerock’s director of apiary operations, inspects a hive. Courtesy Thistlerock Mead Company
A mixed bag of strategies
As part of the initiative, Kluge is working with other members of the Virginia Mead Guild to help them source honey. The meaderies’ efforts will include integrating Indigenous-produced honey from Amazonian communities to ferment different styles of honey wine. A percentage of the proceeds from such products will be earmarked for reinvestment into the Bee:Wild campaign.
It isn’t just beverage companies that have signed up for the collaborative coalition, but more than a dozen players across fields like fashion and beauty. The bulk of them incorporate pollen products across their business model. Other members who don’t directly work with pollinators are taking more creative approaches to the partnership. The Dubai Airport, for example, will focus on providing biodiversity-friendly messaging to the more than 90 million travelers who pass through annually, while A.I. startup G42 plans to work on a mapping tool that can indicate climate stressors to users. “They come to it from different sides,” Eva Kruse, executive director of Bee:Wild, told Observer.
Bee:Wild is expecting a mixed bag of strategies to accomplish the cohort’s goals of boosting pollinator protection, biodiversity and conservation. According to Kluge, signing a petition advocating for pollinator rights could be one tactic, as could working with local institutions to rewild garden space or encouraging lawmakers to designate cities as members of Bee City USA, a commitment to support native pollinators.
“The hope is that progress builds progress, and we will inspire each other to do more work together on behalf of our pollinators,” said Kluge, who wants the partnership to not only revive a connection to nature but also an appreciation for it. “Your morning coffee, the apple you pack for your kid’s lunch, the cocktail you have in the evening—these are things that depend on pollination and bees, and we take them for granted.”
A middle-aged man, wild-eyed and stoned, dives into a beat-up car and fumbles with the ignition, stomping the gas to a soundtrack of squealing tires as he slams the driver’s side door shut while already in motion. His chin-length hair is naturally wavy, or hasn’t seen the right side of a showerhead in a number of days, or maybe both. He’s wrapped in a bathrobe, indoor clothes in a decidedly outdoor environment, and he seems decidedly not up to the dangerous task at hand.
Am I describing Leonardo DiCaprio in the new Paul Thomas Anderson-directed One Battle After Another, or Jeff Bridges as the indelible The Dude in The Big Lebowski? Trick question—it’s both of them.
On the surface, the two movies, released more than a quarter-century apart, may not seem to share much DNA: In One Battle, DiCaprio plays Bob, an ex-revolutionary in hiding, forced off his shabby couch and into the line of fire for the sake of his teenage daughter. In Lebowski, Bridges as The Dude is first out to avenge his pissed-upon rug, then gets swept up, along with his bowling league buddies, in what science would categorize as absolute shenanigans. However, both movies trace the journeys of men (and their jaunty hair accessories) living outside of polite society, forced into action in pursuit of something they hold personally dear (when a rug ties the room together like that, that’s not something you should let go of without a fight), accompanied by an unlikely sidekick with a set of wheels and deep roots in spirituality (John Goodman’s Walter, begrudgingly driving on shabbos, which is certainly not what his buddies in Nam died for, and Benicio del Toro’s delightful Sensei Sergio, always ready with a few road beers and a few grounding words in times of crisis).
But beyond filmic similarities, perhaps Bridges’ career arc can act as something of a roadmap for DiCaprio, with The Dude and Bob, respectively, serving as iconic nexus roles for the two.
Please join me in welcoming Leo to his Dude Era, perhaps the first step to his installment as a respected elder statesman in the leading man club.DiCaprio is currently 50 years old. He’s been on our screens for decades: Just a year before The Big Lebowski’s release, his turn in Titanic had moviegoers the world over contemplating the measurements and buoyancy of wooden doors and experiencing swooning episodes when faced with grand staircases, no matter who was waiting at the top. He’s spent years as a certified leading man, doing the Suit Guy thing in Catch Me If You Can and The Aviator. With Inception, he added twisty psychological intrigue to the mix, pinned it to those lapels, and then in The Revenant he slept in a bear and finally got an Oscar.
Now, it’s time for a new phase of stardom, one with no trace of the Teen Beat heartthrob of yore. No matter what physical shape he’s in, DiCaprio’s characters now have a sense of slight psychic paunchiness, even if they don’t physically have a gut. They are wizened. They might be dads. They’re whiskery. They are, increasingly, at least a little bit unhinged, whether as Don’t Look Up’s astronomy professor-turned-political sellout or One Battle’s perpetually stoned ex-guerilla fighter, or, again…The Revenant.
“Rick, how are you doing with getting Hollywood Boulevard for me?” Quentin asked his location manager, Rick Schuler. “I’m doing well,” Schuler replied.
Quentin looked at his first assistant director, Bill Clark, and looked at Schuler. “Doing well” was not going to cut it. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a Los Angeles story, a Hollywood story, and it needed to be filmed in Los Angeles. It needed Hollywood as a backdrop. He wanted to convert Los Angeles back to 1969 — “You know, literally street by street, block by block.”
Jay Glennie’s The Making of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
Schuler had been in discussion with the California Film Commission for weeks. Under Quentin’s gaze, he admitted, “Well, I think I’m 80 percent there.”
“Rick, if there’s anything I can do to help you out, I’ll be willing to do that,” Quentin replied.
Production designer Barbara Ling was also anxious to know what it was she was going to be working with. Schuler had been asking the Hollywood powers that be, responsible for the economic success of their city, to shut down eight blocks.
“They had been, like, ‘Eight blocks? No way!’ and had said no a hundred times,” Ling recalls. “I also remember, eight blocks was freaking out the producers budget-wise.”
Schuler had an idea how he could utilize the filmmaker’s extraordinary enthusiasm and will to best use. He had an idea he wanted to run by Bill Clark: Schuler had a meeting with the Hollywood neighborhood council. Would Quentin be willing to address them — just talk about the project? Talk about the movie, what Hollywood meant to him? It could help get things over the line.
The day of the meeting, Schuler sprung it on Quentin and Clark that he wanted to make the filmmaker the surprise star act of his pitch and have him come in at the end. Nobody on the council would know he was there beforehand.
“For whatever reason, Rick thought it would be best if he kept Quentin a surprise to the council members,” Clark says.
But what was Schuler to do with Quentin in the meantime? Of course, you hide a two-time Oscar-winning writer-director in a windowless broom closet with his trusted first A.D. It is going to be only for a few minutes, right?
Quentin took one seat, Clark the other. “I tried to keep QT entertained as best I could so he wouldn’t become irritated by sitting in this little room for so long,” Clark recalls. In the main hall, Schuler was trying to work out when he would be seen.
When his turn on the agenda finally arrived, after he’d had a chance to warm up the panel and explain the needs of the production, Schuler said there was somebody else who wished to say a few words. “When Quentin walked in, their jaws just went straight to the floor,” Schuler recalled. “He had been hiding in the closet for nearly an hour, and I had no idea if he was going to be pissed at me! But he looked at me and I nodded, and he started talking. Without notes, he explained to them that he was brought up in Hollywood. He now owned a theater in the neighborhood. He is doing a movie about Hollywood and celebrating Hollywood and needed their backing and support.”
The 15-strong panel’s mouths were still agape as Quentin took his leave, followed by Clark and Schuler. Summoned back later in the day, Schuler received the news he had been hoping for: unanimous approval to shut down Hollywood Boulevard. Quentin’s petition had won the day.
Barbara Ling and her production design team could now go about transforming Hollywood back to how it was in 1969. During their early exploratory chats, a line from Quentin resonated with her: “Imagine an 8-year-old boy lying in the back of his parents’ car. Well, the movie is his point of view.” It was this line, sparse in creative detail but evocative, that spurred her on to bring Quentin’s vision to the screen. The race was on.
To re-create the Hollywood Boulevard of his youth, Quentin wanted realism as far as the eye could see. Movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), had to drive a length and take the viewer back to ’69. Eight blocks would see them fine. However, for eight blocks, a discussion was needed.
At all times, Quentin wanted for his partners — those who have financed the movie — to make back their investment. It is a matter of pride that he brings his movies in on time and on budget. And so, when producer David Heyman broached the idea of cutting back from eight blocks to a financially manageable three, he was expecting pushback from an auteur director who would stop at nothing to have his vision brought to the screen unimpeded.
“But, do you know what?” Heyman says. “He was dreamy, just dreamy. There were challenging moments — some bits were not easy — but he was like a teddy bear. I wish all directors were like Quentin.”
Taking over city blocks, whether three or eight of them, comes at a cost, and liaising with the various business owners did not come cheap. “There was a feeling that if you mentioned Quentin’s name, then everybody would open up, give you access,” Schuler says. “But these locations see Quentin’s name and Sony as the studio, and then you have Leo and Brad driving down Hollywood Boulevard, and their thinking is there is money in the pot. It always comes down to money. That caused friction with the budget.”
“It was a location-heavy show, I know, but the money leaving the production offices was huge,” production manager Georgia Kacandes adds. “The fees had to be negotiated down.”
Like Quentin, Barbara Ling was a child of the city. She got it. Ling was older than Quentin. She had used fake IDs to enter many of the clubs and bars Quentin had written about. She had hitchhiked along the winding streets of L.A. She was an Angeleno. Her excitement matched that of Quentin, who could not wait to get going. He wanted to smell the Hollywood of 1969. From the get-go, Ling knew that Quentin wanted to replicate 1969 for real — none of this fake digital nonsense, it had to be all in camera. If Rick, Cliff and Sharon were there, you’d best believe that they were really there. “I don’t ever want to be standing in front of a greenscreen or a bluescreen ever, Barbara!”
“Good!”
This chimed with Ling, who had come from a world of theater. You had to be able to touch it. Yes, she got it.
“But the sad thing with Los Angeles is that they just can’t stop ripping things down!” she laments. “L.A.’s just a very nonpreservation town, unfortunately. But the exciting thing with Quentin is, he wanted the locations practical. Look, he had no problem with using visual effects to erase something that was not in keeping with the era. CGI helps you create downward: You can make a street go longer, but when it comes to close-up, I just think it fails.”
“Ultimately, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was so well-received, and a lot of that was due to everything being practical,” Ling says. “Careers were dumbed down a bit by CGI — particularly, CGI in foreground. You can just tell you can’t touch that building. You can walk by it, but you can’t touch it.”
Leonardo DiCaprio was transported back in time. “I have driven up and down Sunset Boulevard my whole life,” he says. “To go to school, my mom would drive me, and I saw the changing of Los Angeles. During the late ’70s, I would deliver comic books with my dad on Sunset. We’d go to head shops — bong shops — and this kind of thing. People were wearing tie-dye.
Rick and his driver, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), at Musso’s bar.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
“Well, what Quentin did was so spectacular,” the actor adds, marveling. “He redressed those blocks. I mean, that was a monumental moment and a great historic cinematic memory for me. No CGI — every fucking storefront was transformed. It was like I was a kid again.”
DiCaprio, knowing that his dad would get a kick out of seeing Hollywood transformed, invited him and his wife down for the day. “My dad has long white-gray hair and is still a hippie, right?” he says. “So I told him and his Sikh wife to come down: ‘Just wear your normal clothes — you’ll fit right in.’ “
Pulling onto Sunset, Rick’s mood is not lifted at the sight of the town he calls home being overrun by swarms of “fucking hippies!” Pitt, driving, brought the car to a stop at the junction.
“That’s my dad right there — my dad and my stepmom,” DiCaprio told him. Pitt laughed, and they waited to get the nod to pull out onto Hollywood Boulevard. DiCaprio looked at a smiling Pitt and said, “No, no, that is my dad.”
“Ha-ha! Yeah, right,” his disbelieving co-star replied.
“Brad, I’m not joking! It’s my dad. He’s right there. I invited him down because he fits right into 1969.”
“Wait — you’re fucking serious?”
“Yes, that is my father right there. Hey, Dad!”
“Hey, Leo!”
A giggling DiCaprio turned to his disbelieving driver.
“Ha! See, I told you!”
Booth speeds down Hollywood Boulevard.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is running errands across Hollywood, including picking up a first-edition copy of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles for Roman Polanski from the Larry Edmunds Bookshop. This is Quentin paying homage to a real-life event, having learned that Sharon gifted a copy of the book to Roman shortly before her death.
“Oh my goodness, Quentin had every shop redesigned, and that really was a bookshop I walked into, and then I got to touch the Maltese Falcon statuette,” Robbie says, marveling. Seen in a bookshop reminiscent of the one Humphrey Bogart’s character visits in another John Huston classic, The Big Sleep, the statuette was designed by Fred Sexton for The Maltese Falcon. Its owner? Leonardo DiCaprio, who bought it at auction in 2010.
Margot Robbie walking on the streets of Hollywood was proving quite the draw, but no matter who the star is in a Quentin Tarantino movie, the director is the biggest draw. Crowds were forming. When permission to film in Hollywood was granted, a prerequisite with such a high-profile production on the city’s streets was safety. Clark and Schuler set about hiring a collection of production assistants — essentially, people with charisma who knew how to engage with others and make sure they were paying attention. Bicycle barricades were put in place, and when Clark called, “Switch sides,” a hundred people effortlessly shifted from one side of the road to the other. It helped that the PAs had a secret weapon in Quentin Tarantino.
Cinematographer Bob Richardson (seated) tracks Margot Robbie, as Sharon Tate.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
“It worked like a charm,” Clark says, laughing. “Quentin is amazing because he turned to the crowd and spoke with them just back and forth a little bit,” Schuler says, marveling. “It came naturally to Quentin. He loves making movies, and to him it was evident that the crowds that had turned up to watch him work loved movies, too. After speaking with them and signing a few autographs, he simply said, “I’ve got to go back to work — I’d really appreciate if you were quiet.” Silence prevailed.
Hey, Mark, would you ever be interested in my filming here sometime?”
“Hey, Quentin, of course— whatever you need. Just let me know.” Quentin was at the counter bar at Musso & Frank Grill, one of his favorite watering holes since he was a young kid. This particular evening, he was enjoying a martini with Christoph Waltz.
A few years later, Mark Echeverria, Musso & Frank’s COO, received an email from location manager Rick Schuler explaining that he was working on a project with Quentin that involved taking Hollywood back to 1969, and that Quentin wished to shoot a portion of the movie in Musso & Frank. Schuler explained further that, of course, there would be no need for any alterations to the restaurant. It would remain the same.
“That’s the beauty of Musso & Frank,” Echeverria says. “Our restaurant has not changed, and hardly anything had to be done to revert our restaurant to 1969.” Ling concedes from a production design perspective there wasn’t a lot to do. “Oh, they’re pretty iconic interiors,” says Barbara. “I mean, we had to change the cash registers and things like that. Tina Charad came in and reproduced all the menus from 1969.”
“Ultimately, I made my recommendation, and that was we should support Quentin,” Echeverria recalls. “I explained how the movie was on brand and of the respect Quentin and Rick had showed us by coming so far in advance. It was, for me, a no-brainer.
“Most of our bartenders and employees have a personal relationship with Quentin, as he has been such a regular, and it was more of shooting something with a friend — but, yes, ultimately, we all knew the magnitude of what was going on.”
DiCaprio and Tarantino prepare a scene in Rick Dalton’s home.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
Three years after Frank Toulet opened the doors to his restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard in 1919, Joseph Musso joined the operation, and the now-famous grill, with its red leather booths, mahogany bar and first public phone booth, quickly became the go-to place for celebrity Angelenos — a real home away from home for the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor, who mixed cheek-by-jowl with such literary giants as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker and John Steinbeck. The same year Toulet and Musso joined forces, Buster Keaton used the restaurant as a location for his film Cops. It would quickly become a favorite location for filmmakers, and Quentin knew he wanted his name associated with its illustrious past.
After Rick’s meeting at Musso & Frank with his agent (Al Pacino), Cliff drives the actor back home to his house on Cielo Drive. Rick sets about fixing himself a drink or eight, and his neighbors, Roman and Sharon, leave for a night of fun with the fun people of Hollywood.
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets with his agent (Al Pacino) in a scene shot at Musso & Frank Grill.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
Cliff is in his Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, heading home. His smooth, almost sensual, and yet authoritative gear changes see the stuntman treat the bend in the road as though it is a tight turn on a racecourse to be navigated. Accelerating out of Cielo Drive, the small car propels down the road, leaving behind the acrid stench of burnt rubber in the night air.
A decorated war veteran, Cliff understands risks, and what would be for some a ponderous journey home from work takes him no time at all — all befitting a stuntman who knows how to handle a car at speed. Quentin, as ever, wanted to see his actor’s face in the shot.
“There was no way Brad was going to let somebody else behind the wheel,” cinematographer Bob Richardson insists. “That was never a question from Brad. I’m betting he was doing 50 — he was just flying down there. We had a camera mounted behind him, and the camera car was struggling to keep up with him. Look, Brad was fully in control, but he was fast.”
“OK, no problem for Brad to be driving,” Quentin’s longtime stunt coordinator Zoë Bell agrees, “but Brad is one of the leads, and so one of the things that I fought for was that we had at least a square. That is four stunt drivers who flank Brad. They’re moving in and out so if he fucks up or one of the precision drivers does — precision drivers are basically extras who are qualified drivers, but I cannot speak of their skill — if one of those precision drivers fucks up or Brad’s brakes fail, a couple of stunt drivers can come together in a pincer and nudge a car to a stop. They’re always alert. They have those instincts.
“It is hard to place, to justify, the cost on this,” Bell says. “Brad is a lead actor, one of the stars of the movie. You’re obviously thinking of Brad’s safety, but also, if anything happens to him, it will have consequences for Quentin, the production, and blow back on me. No, I wanted everything covered.”
The stunt coordinator may have been looking out for Brad, but his speedy driving in the Karmann Ghia nearly caused a casualty. “I nearly drove over Zoë — thankfully she has calisthenic reflexes,” laughs Pitt.
If Cliff was going to get on the freeway, then Quentin would need a freeway for him to get onto. Schuler had to pull in some favors from his friends at the California Highway Patrol. He had worked closely with them organizing access for the movie CHiPs, and he scooted up to Sacramento for another round of negotiations.
“I told them that we wanted to shut down the Hollywood freeway and the 101 freeway and showed them the two exits,” Schuler recalls. “I explained to them that we needed to have rolling breaks — rolling breaks are the cops holding the traffic — between the hours we needed, slowing things down in both directions, so it was limited.”
Quentin would be asked if the trucks and cars whizzing by Brad Pitt were CGI.
“No, no, fuck no,” he would insist. “Those motherfuckers were all real.”
Pitt, as Cliff Booth, lies back in his character’s Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
Brad was just buzzing that he had a once-in-a-lifetime experience “to cruise down Hollywood Boulevard with no traffic or speed limit! And in a cool car. Well, it is a Q.T. film, so it is never gonna be a shit box!”
It is very clear what I said, what I asked for. What is to interpret? So how come we are not doing it?” First A.D. Bill Clark had heard similar refrains from Quentin over the years, but here, he was truly saddened. His director had a shot in mind, and he needed a suitable location to make it a reality — and it was proving elusive.
“Look, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the only movie I have written where I started with the end,” Quentin explains. “I thought, ‘What if Mr. Indestructible was over at his actor’s house and that actor lived next door to Sharon Tate, and Tex and the girls went to that house instead?’ And then the line came to me: ‘Those hippies sure picked the wrong motherfucking house that night.’ I thought it was a neat idea,” he adds. “But to pull it off, we had to be able to do two things: We had to have the scenes in the front and the gates to the neighboring house to the side. You had to have a sense of the two houses together, and I had to do the shot in the backyard on Rick and his pool, and then the camera goes down into where you see Sharon and Roman drive away, and then I needed that last shot.
“That shot was in my head from the get-go, but we just weren’t finding what I needed, and I am not being shown what I am having in my head,” Quentin recalls. “We had to find two houses whereby we could pull it off. I was trying to make something work from what I was being shown.”
“Quentin got very close to begrudgingly making a compromise,” says Clark, “and I wasn’t happy about that because ultimately, the movie was going to suffer. It is Quentin’s job to be dissatisfied and to push us. He was getting flustered with the places we were seeing — nothing was right.”
Location scouting is a long and arduous trek. You have to put in the hard yards to find the pearls. But the houses the team was viewing were not getting any better — they were getting worse. Clark decided to take matters into his own hands and get back on the road. He gave cinematographer Bob Richardson a call.
“Let’s make it happen, White Devil!”
This attitude typified why Quentin likes Bill by his side. “That’s Bill,” Quentin says. “He says to Bob, ‘We’re not finding what Quentin wants. Well, we know exactly what Quentin wants, so let’s start driving around the Hollywood Hills until we find the fucking houses we need.’ “
Clark resorted to poring over Google Maps and satellite views. He knew that it was going to call for a cold scout, requiring them to just knock on doors. So after another busy wrap on yet another scouting day, he and Richardson, maps on laps, set off.
During two days of intense driving, they pulled into a cul-de-sac off Laurel Canyon. There was a frisson of excitement. They saw a gate. They saw a house with a drive. Turning to Richardson, Clark said, “That’s a cool house.” And then the front door opened to reveal a woman bringing out a trash can. They hopped out of their car, and Clark quickly made the introductions.
“Hey!” Bill called out. “Hi! This is Bob, and I’m Bill.”
Explaining who they were and what they were up to, they asked whether she owned the house. “Yes,” she replied. “My renters are moving out, and I’m just clearing things up.” The levels of excitement just went through the roof.
“You’re kidding!”
If she was renting out the house, then they could rent it on behalf of Quentin Tarantino, right? Turning, they spied the gates to the neighboring property. “What’s up with those gates?” “Oh, that guy used to be an actor. They’re really nice people. They’re away on vacation right now.”
Fuck!
Looking though the woman’s door, they spotted a swimming pool. Clark and Richardson looked at each other and asked the silent question: “That’s Rick pool, right?” The pair could not contain themselves, and they obtained an invitation to have a look around the house.
Facades along three blocks of Hollywood Boulevard were replaced to take L.A. back to the ’60s. The Larry Edmunds Bookshop, the Pussycat Theater and Peaches were all re-created.
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory (2)
Quentin could see his final shot taking shape. Clark and Richardson wanted to get inside the neighbor’s property. Ling wanted to get inside, and you’d best believe that Quentin wanted to see what was behind those gates and up that drive.
“Look, it is as I often say,” Clark proclaims. “God is a Tarantino fan.”
As they were all thinking about the possibilities of the location, up drove a BMW into the cul-de-sac. Schuler’s years of location scouting told him that this dude was a player in their forthcoming story.
Pulling up alongside the minivan Schuler and Quentin sat in, the owner of the BMW rolled down his window, and Schuler did the same. Now, both participants in the drama could see into each other’s vehicles. BMW Dude, spotting Quentin, of course recognized one of the town’s favorite sons.
Schuler began his spiel: “I’m here with Quentin Tarantino, and I’m interested in your house. Can we talk about the new Quentin Tarantino movie?”
“Sure!”
The automatic gates opened. It was Hollywood — of course they did.
How author Jay Glennie earned Tarantino’s approval — and the exclusive right to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of all the director’s films.
Jay Glennie’s The Making of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
2025 Insight Editions/Provided courtesy of Insight Editions & The Story Factory
“I was saying to Q last night that these books are written for two people, me and him,” Jay Glennie says over Zoom from his home office in rural England, a cattle shed stacked floor-to-ceiling with movie history books. “My assumption being that if we both got a kick out of it, somebody else will as well.” Q in this instance refers to Quentin Tarantino, with whom Glennie has been toiling away for hundreds of hours on a new coffee table book on the making of 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, from which the adjoining article is excerpted.
The final product, published by Insight Editions in the U.S. and Titan Books in the U.K., arrives everywhere books are sold on Oct. 28. The 500-page volume is brimming with costumes, props and set photos, new interviews with Tarantino and the cast — established A-listers like Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, as well as future ones like Mikey Madison, Austin Butler and Sydney Sweeney — and behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the production team.
It’s all woven together with 170,000 words of accompanying text by Glennie, a humble cinephile who has gained an international reputation as the Cecil B. DeMille of “making of” movie books. It was one of those — 2019’s One Shot: The Making of The Deer Hunter — that drew the admiration of Tarantino. “Jay’s book brought back to me the way my dear departed friend Michael Cimino’s picture has — since the day of its release — held a significant place in my heart and memory and has been my barometer for artistic achievement inside the Hollywood studio system and memory,” the director writes in his intro to the new book.
“So we’ve got emails going, and we’re on a Zoom, a few bottles of wine consumed either end, and next thing you know, I’m booking a flight to Los Angeles,” Glennie recalls of his first conversation with the director. “Suddenly we’re doing 10 books together.”
The Making of Quentin Tarantino’sOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood features a “9” on its spine. Nine more books are planned, one for each of Tarantino’s films — including his still unannounced 10th and (allegedly) final project. The next installment, about the making of Inglourious Basterds, is already nearing completion, while the next three in the series are slated to be Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. — SETH ABRAMOVITCH
This story appeared in the Sept. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
The Warner Bros. Pictures film, which is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, sees a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. The film stars Oscar- winners Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, as well as Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, and had its premiere in Los Angeles on Sept. 8.
The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that One Battle After Another carries a hefty production budget north of $130 million, making it Anderson’s most expensive film to date. When news of the film’s budget broke, Warners’ film studio was facing scrutiny following a string of box office disappointments. Since April, however, the studio has been on something of a hot streak, with seven consecutive movies — A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, F1: The Movie, Superman, Weapons and The Conjuring: Last Rites — all opening to more than $40 million at the North American box office.
The review aggregator sites are high on One Battle After Another, with the film boasting a 97 percent critics score (from 66 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes, a 96 percent critics score on Metacritic and a very early 4.3/5 score on Letterboxd.
Below, see what leading critics are saying about the film.
In his rave review for THR, Richard Lawson described One Battle After Another as “a bracingly timely film,” in which Anderson situates us “in our dismayingly recognizable era of fascist creep.” “It is a frightening and galvanizing vision, Anderson putting away his complicated nostalgia for old (and more easily understood) days to confront, with disarmingly noble purpose, the here and now,” Lawson writes. He adds, “One Battle After Another is the rare American film released in these benighted times of ours — with the backing of a major studio, no less — to be clear and insistent in the target of its anger, its despair and its prescriptions for what might make things better.”
In the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw awarded One Battle After Another five stars, and described the film as “partly a freaky-Freudian diagnosis of father-daughter dysfunction — juxtaposed with the separation of migrant children and parents at the US-Mexico border — and a very serious, relevant response to the US’s secretive ruling class and its insidiously normalised Immigration and Customs Enforcement roundups: the toxic new Vichyite Trump enthusiasm.” Bradshaw writes that, “One Battle After Another is at once serious and unserious, exciting and baffling, a tonal fusion sending that crazy fizz across the VistaVision screen — an acquired taste, yes, but addictive.”
Empire‘s Alex Godfrey also gave One Battle After Another five stars, writing that, “In years to come, when this appears on TV late at night, it’ll be impossible to switch off. It’s just one of those films. A stone-cold, instant classic.” Godfrey is full of praise for Anderson pulling off the wealth of characters and plot points, writing that “there is a lot going on, and not an ounce of fat on it.” “One sequence in particular, involving a horribly tense, sinisterly mannered car-chase, unfolds on rolling desert roads, terrifying blind summits providing omniscient doom, front-and rear-mounted cameras taking us on a sort of haunted roller coaster ride, the landscape itself signalling death. It’s a real thrill, cinema absolutely harnessed. Everything is here.”
Vulture‘s critic Alison Willmore was also effusive, describing One Battle After Another as “top-tier Paul Thomas Anderson.” Willmore praises Anderson for his adaptation of Pynchon’s novel and for dragging the work into the 21st century, as well as the action in the film, comparing it to Terminator 2. “For all that the film revels in satire — a powerful white-nationalist secret society is Christmas themed, and its members greet one another with “Hail, St. Nick!” — it’s electric when it veers into action, and a chase sequence on a series of cresting hills manages to both reference and stand up to the one in which the T-1000 pursues John Connor into the L.A. River.”
Writing for the BBC, Caryn James praises Anderson for creating a film where “drama and comedy co-exist with remarkable, virtuosic ease.” “The film, which was shot in widescreen VistaVision, has an epic feel throughout, whether it depicts a large military helicopter landing or a ramshackle street in Baktan Cross,” writes James adding that “it’s rare to see such an ambitious film work so smoothly, but then, one of Anderson’s signatures is his ability to coolly control raucous, sprawling stories.”
In his gushing review for IGN, Michael Calabro described One Battle After Another as a “masterpiece,” and that “Anderson has hit another high point of his career.” Calabro was blown away by the performances, in particular Teyana Taylor playing Perfidia Beverly Hills: “The end of One Battle — and how it tugs on your heartstrings — wouldn’t be nearly as effective if it weren’t for Taylor’s performance.” But Calabro reserves most of his praise for the director, writing, “To be blunt, I’m still in awe that this film actually exists. It’s so much fun to watch, while also telling a timeless story about what a father would go through to protect his daughter. And PTA does all this while making an incisive commentary on America’s current political climate. Let us not forget that he does all of this while managing to make his most expensive movie to date, of original-ish IP, no less.”
One Battle After Another reviews are beginning to come in, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is getting massive praise ahead of its release on September 26, 2025.
What are the One Battle After Another reviews saying?
On Rotten Tomatoes, One Battle After Another debuted its reviews today, and debuted with a whopping 97% score on the aggregator site. The Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie is being hailed as another masterpiece from Anderson, with some even calling it the best movie of his illustrious career.
Elsewhere, Rolling Stone’s David Fear hailed the movie as a “humanistic masterpiece.” “Anderson’s humanistic masterpiece of a movie says: You fight it with love. That’s the end game. That’s how you retain your decency and sanity. That’s the only way you protect the future, and change it. That’s how you live to battle another day.” ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim also praised the movie, noting that it “crackles with energy, wit, and vision.”
The movie is reported to be “somewhat inspired” by a 1990 novel called Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.
“Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie’s long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc,” a description of the book reads. “Vineland is vintage Pynchon, full of quasi-allegorical characters, elaborate unresolved subplots, corny songs (‘Floozy with an Uzi’), movie spoofs (Pee-wee Herman in The Robert Musil Story), and illicit sex (including a macho variation on the infamous sportscar scene in V.).”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese were reportedly planning on filming another movie this year, that ended up being scrapped before it ever began filming.
What do we know about Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s movie?
According to a new report from Puck News, DiCaprio actually had several films lined up to begin production on this summer, including Damien Chazelle’s long-in-development Evel Knievel movie, to “a couple” of films with Scorsese. However, Puck’s report notes that none of the films ever made any leeway, with DiCaprio instead spending much of the summer away in Europe with his significant other.
This latest report coincides with another report from last month on Scorsese. At the time, World of Reel noted that Scorsese would not be filming a new movie at all this year. That report noted that Scorsese was simply just waiting to begin production on the Hawaii-set crime drama starring Dwayne Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Just what the projects DiCaprio and Scorsese had planned that ended up not happening are unknown as of now. DiCaprio recently expressed his desire to work with Scorsese again, though, so it’s still entirely possible those projects get made one day.
DiCaprio and Scorsese are no strangers to collaborating. To date, the pair have worked together on six different movies, including Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and more. Their most recent collaborative effort was 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Leonardo DiCaprio is endorsing Kamala Harris for president, with the Oscar-winning actor expressing support for the Democratic nominee in a video Friday.
“Climate change is killing the earth and ruining our economy, we need a bold step forward to save our economy, our planet and ourselves,” DiCaprio said in the video posted to Instagram. “That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris.”
DiCaprio, long an outspoken advocate for addressing the climate crisis, has supported Democratic candidates in the past. In early 2020, he attended a fundraiser for Joe Biden at the home of former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing.
His Instagram caption cited the recent devastation from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which he called “unnatural disasters caused by climate change.” In the video, DiCaprio praised Harris’ ambitious targets for achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and helping to build a green economy. He also noted her involvement in passing the Inflation Reduction Act. As vice president, Harris cast the tiebreaking vote on President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law that was approved with only Democratic support.
He also criticized Trump for withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord and rolling back “critical environmental protections.” Trump, he said, continues to “deny the facts” and “deny the science.”
With less than two weeks until Election Day, Harris has received the support of many high-profile entertainers including Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Chris Rock and George Clooney.
Republican nominee Donald Trump’s celebrity supporters include Elon Musk, Dennis Quaid, Roseanne Barr and Kid Rock. In December 2016, DiCaprio and the head of his eponymous foundation met with Trump, then president-elect, to discuss how jobs centered on preserving the environment could boost the economy.
Many people would swoon at the chance to kiss Leonardo DiCaprio, but Kate Winslet is here to set the record straight: “It was not all it’s cracked up to be.”
The famous on-screen kiss between Winslet and DiCaprio at the front of the Titanic is one of the most iconic scenes from the 1997 film. But shooting that moment was far from romantic, Winslet revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday that it was a “nightmare.”
The Oscar-winner shared that she was constantly out of breath because her corset was so tight, and that her and DiCaprio’s makeup kept rubbing off on each other during takes.
“Oh god, it was such a mess,” she said.
The format of the Vanity Fair interview had Winslet rewatching and commenting on iconic scenes from her career. When the Titanic kiss scene came up, Winslet immediately reacted: “Oh my lordy. This might be really cringe.”
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Winslet was only 22 when Titanic came out and DiCaprio was 23. The actors, both of whom have gone on to win Oscars, were still very early in their careers.
The movie “Titanic”, written and directed by James Cameron. Seen here from left, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack and Kate Winslet as Rose. Winslet revealed in a Vanity Fair interview that kissing DiCaprio wasn’t “all it’s cracked up to be.”
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
As Winslet watched the scene she commented: “See I look at that and I just see how much I couldn’t breathe in that bloody corset.”
“Yep. See I can’t breathe,” she said later in the scene. “My boobs practically up to my chin,” she chuckled.
Winslet explained that this scene needed to be reshot four times in order to get the perfect sunset glow, and her co-star wasn’t exactly making the process easy.
“Oh this was a nightmare, shooting this, because Leo couldn’t stop laughing and we had to reshoot this about four times, because the light — Jim wanted a very specific light for this, obviously, and the sunsets kept changing where we were.”
Another factor that made this scene difficult was that it wasn’t shot on the normal Titanic ship set. The set used for kiss scene was a “a little sort of sawn off bit” of just the ship’s bow, Winslet said.
“We had to climb up a ladder to get to it,” Winslet said, noting that hair and makeup artists couldn’t reach them up there, so she stepped up as the on-set makeup retoucher. She had makeup and brushes and sponges hidden in her costume for the two of them.
“Between takes I was basically redoing our makeup,” she revealed.
And while it may not be noticeable, Winslet confirmed that DiCaprio was wearing makeup for the scene, to give him a “fake tan.”
“So we kept doing this kiss, and I have a lot of pale makeup on,” she said. “I would end up looking as though I had been suckling a caramel chocolate bar after each take. Because his makeup would come off on me.”
Winslet’s makeup would also come off on DiCaprio, leaving him with a patches of pale makeup around his mouth.
Despite discussing all the issues with the scenes, even Winslet couldn’t seem to deny DiCaprio’s charm.
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“My god, he’s quite the romancer, isn’t he? No wonder every young girl in the world wanted to be kissed by Leonardo DiCaprio,” she said.
After the scene was finished, Winslet reflected on the impact that 1997’s Titanic continues to have.
“I do feel very proud of it, because I feel that it is that film that keeps giving. Whole other generations of people are discovering the film or seeing it for the first time, and there’s something extraordinary about that,” she said.
“It doesn’t mean that people don’t get me to try and reenact this every time I’m on a flipping boat, which does my head in,” she said, annoyed. “Every time, without fail.”
Titanic was a mega-hit when it first premiered. It was the first film ever to make over US$1 billion worldwide and maintained its position as the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron beat his own record with Avatar in 2009.
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It is currently the fourth highest-grossing film ever, behind both Avatar movies and Avengers: End Game.
James Cameron on Titanic sub disaster: ‘One wreck lying next to the other for the same damn reason’
The National Museum of Brazil hopes to reopen by 2026. Pablo Porciuncula/AFP via Getty Images
Burkhard Pohl, the Swiss-German owner of one of the world’s biggest collections of private fossils, is making a major gift to help rebuild the holdings of the National Museum of Brazil. Located in Rio de Janeiro, the 200-year-old institution lost the majority of its 20 million artifacts in a devastating 2018 fire.
In accepting Pohl’s donation of more than 1,100 fossils that include dinosaurs, turtles, plants, insects and flying reptiles, the museum is kickstarting a campaign ahead of its planned 2026 reopening to restore what was lost. The National Museum of Brazil will partner with Pohl’s fossil and gem-mining company Interprospekt Group and the arts nonprofit group Instituto Inclusaritz to rally collectors and the scientific community to help replenish its collection. “We hope this will serve as an example for others, especially individuals, to participate in the reconstruction of the main museum of natural history and anthropology in South America,” said Alexander Kellner, the museum’s director, in a statement.
Burkhard Pohl (left), Alexander Kellner (right) and Frances Reynolds (center), founder of Instituto Inclusaritz. Diogo Vasconcellos/Courtesy National Museum of Brazil
Pohl comes from a long line of prominent collectors. The art holdings of his grandfather Karl Stroeher formed the basis of Frankfurt’s Museum of Modern Art, while his mother Erika Pohl-Stroeher owned Europe’s largest collection of minerals and gems. Pohl, meanwhile, has spent the past five decades amassing fossils. He’s even co-founded two museums—the Wyoming Dinosaur Center and China’s Sino-German Paleontological Museum—dedicated to the field.
A lucrative market for paleontological material
The Swiss-German entrepreneur isn’t the only prominent enthusiast of fossils, which have fetched staggering sums at auction in recent years with a tyrannosaurus rex selling for $31.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2020 and another dinosaur skeleton fetching $12.4 million in 2022. Mauricio Fernández Garza, the former mayor of Mexico’s San Pedro Garza Garcia, oversees a $120 million collection of fossils, artifacts and artwork, while German investor Christian Angermayer’s wide-ranging collection includes a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton and triceratops head.
Even celebrities like Nicholas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio have gotten involved in fossil sales. Cage outbid DiCaprio to acquire a rare dinosaur skull for $276,000 in 2007, although the actor later agreed to return the fossil to Mongolia after discovering it had been looted.
The donation includes the well-preserved skull of a pterosaur. Handerson Oliveira/Courtesy National Museum of Brazil
Pohl’s gift to the National Museum of Brazil includes rare fossils like those of two dinosaurs that have never been previously described in scientific literature and two unstudied pterosaur skulls. The 1,104 fossils also include an example of the Tetrapodophis, which is possibly the earliest snake fossil.
Much of the donated collection comes from Brazil’s Araripe Basin, located between the states of Ceará, Pernambuco and Piauí. The region contains the Crato and Romualdo units, two formations that date back to 115 million and 110 million years ago respectively and are treasure troves for paleontological fossils.
The museum tragically lost much of its collection in a 2018 fire. Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images
The museum, which is associated with the Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), is Brazil’s oldest scientific institution. After a fire triggered by a faulty air conditioning unit set its main building ablaze in 2018, it lost 85 percent of its entire collection and the majority of its entomology holdings and displays of Egyptian and South American mummies. While the National Museum of Brazil currently has around 2,000 objects ready for exhibition, it hopes to gather 10,000 more in the next two years, Kellner told the Guardian.
In addition to urging other collectors to contribute to rebuilding efforts, the institution’s collaboration with the Interprospekt Group will invite Brazilian researchers to participate in excavations in the U.S. In August of 2023, they hosted their first joint excavation at the Hell Creek Formation in Wyoming and Montana, inviting six Brazilian paleontologists and students in a mission that could bring North American dinosaurs to Brazil for display.
“I look forward to seeing how this collaboration enriches the museum’s offerings and inspires future generations,” said Pohl in a statement. “I hope others will join this important, collective effort to restore Brazil’s natural history collection.”
Teyana Taylor recently reacted to the rumors that she’s been getting cozy with her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
The singer told E!’s ‘The Rundown’ that she was simply helping the ‘Titanic’ star with his hair and not flirting in the viral Oscar party video.
What Happened Between Teyana & Leo In The Viral Video
Last month, everyone wanted to know what the tea was between the two after the actors were seen closely chatting at the event.
Leo rested his hand on Tey’s lower back as they spoke. Additionally, the actress wrapped her arms around DiCaprio’s neck as they danced. Teyana seemingly played in his hair as they looked into each other’s eyes as they spoke. They also whispered in one another’s ears. Social media said the behavior was giving ‘more than friends.’
After the clip surfaced, rumors quickly began to circulate that Taylor, who is currently divorcing Iman Shumpert, was dating the legendary bachelor. Sources close to the mom of two said it was just an innocent conversation, but social media isn’t buying it.
Now, the ‘Lowkey’ singer has confirmed ‘The Rundown’ that she was simply helping the Oscar winner with his mane.
Teyana told the outlet, “Leo wore extensions for the movie and they were hurting him. I was literally helping him with his bun.”
Additionally, Taylor said the conversation was harmless as they discussed dinner.
“And if you’ve seen the video, I said something about cornbread because my chef was cooking for the whole cast,” the actress said. “We gotta make sure his bun is right. We gotta make sure he’s eating good.”
The ‘A Thousand and One’ star revealed he is like a brother to her. She also complimented DiCaprio’s character and revealed that he championed her acting.
“He is like the best. He will cheerlead for you all the way through,” she shared.
Before the two were secretly filmed at the party, a clip emerged of Teyanna and Leonardo from the set of an untitled Paul Thomas Anderson film. It is currently called the ‘B.C. Project.’
In the video, Leonardo smacks Teyana’s butt during a robbery scene. It was apart of the script, but fans seem to think reality is imitating art.
(FOX40.COM) — Parts of Downtown Sacramento look clearer than usual as officials remove homeless camps from Cesar Chavez Park amid scheduled filming for a new movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor.
Over the past few weeks, Warner Bros film crew has been spotted throughout the area working on a movie referred to as the “BC Project.” Although “Notice of Filming” signs were plastered throughout Downtown Sacramento in advance, the area has not been fully camera-ready.
Homeless camps are prevalent near Cesar Chavez Park, where some movie-filming is being done. The City of Sacramento officials took action for the film crew and placed notices on tents on Friday that advised campers they have to pack up and leave within 24 hours.
“Six tents were noticed in the filming area,” said City of Sacramento spokesperson, Tim Watson. “Through outreach and engagement from city resource coordinators, people in the area were offered connection to services and placement at the city’s Roseville Road campus.”
Watson said that four campers accepted the city’s offer.
Sacramento Homeless Union President Crystal Sanchez said the city’s latest move is just another instance of the City of Sacramento discriminating against the unhoused population. She addressed the producers of the film in a prepared statement:
“We hope they take a minute and understand the crisis of homelessness and that the film has notably harmed some folks trying to survive this homeless crisis. We ask that the producers are cognizant of the City of Sacramento’s harmful action and would hope they address it with them.”
Every year, Awards Season is special for one reason: we all come together in outrage against a very specific group of voters, and publicly shame them until we grow bored. The Golden Globes and Emmys are great predictors of who will be ultimately nominated for an Oscar…but this year, it appears that the Academy stopped watching movies altogether.
When I woke up yesterday, I was bombarded by thousands of Tweets calling for the evisceration of the Academy after the 2024 Oscar Nominee list was revealed. It’s your modern-day mob mentality — and get your pitchforks ready, because there were quite a few notable snubs.
Okay, so I was already up in arms about the lack of nominations for Jacob Elordi and Charles Melton. But nothing was more offensive than the glaringly obvious Barbie irony: the Academy chose to honor “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling in a movie created by women, for women, about the struggles of feminism in a male-dominated society.
This is no hate to Ryan Gosling, who has owned his Ken-ergy in the best, candid way possible. He has supported his cast and uplifted its women during every single press event, red carpet, and personal statement. But the fact that they chose to nominate the one song about men taking over is laughable. Commenting on the lack of nominations himself, Gosling took to social media to say:
“ But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film…To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement,”
Sure, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” was nominated considering it’s a beautiful, haunting ballad that perfectly fits the film. But the Oscars have proven they’re Billie stans before by honoring her James Bond ballad. What about the two women who made Barbie possible? Who revived cinema and brought millions of moviegoers to the theaters dressed in pink? Who created a whole movement surrounding celebrating women after years of being told we should bring each other down?
Barbie was a statistically bigger first-week success story than its release-day twin, Oppenheimer, and the biggest film of the year. Yet, no nomination for the director and face of the film. It’s almost like the Academy realized this movie was about them…
Here’s the worst part: you don’t have to let them win if you don’t want to. To not even recognize Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s work and impact on the 2023 cinemascape is like saying Taylor Swift didn’t dominate the music industry this year. It’s just a lie.
So I will end this the way Taylor Swift would, with lyrics from “The Man”:
To Kill a Tiger, a riveting Canadian documentary crafted by Nisha Pahuja, has made its majestic roar at the Oscars by securing a nomination in the Best Documentary Feature Film category of the 96th Academy Awards. With the backdrop set in Jharkhand, India, this sobering story revolves around a family relentlessly seeking justice for their 13-year-old daughter, a victim of a brutal rape crime by three men. The cinematic narration delves deep into the societal and legal obstacles faced by the affected family, shining a spotlight on the culturally embedded issues that turn a blind eye to violence against women. Also Read – Oscars 2024 Nominees: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and others nominated; Barbie, Oppenheimer dominate the list
The documentary first aired its social dilemma to the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, cinching the title of Best Canadian Film. It further racked up laurels such as the Inspiring Voices and Perspectives award at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival and two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Feature Length Documentary and Best Editing in a Documentary. Praise for To Kill a Tiger echoed from critics at Stir, CityNews, and Northern Stars, while comedian and producer Mindy Kaling hailed it as a “triumph” to be witnessed by all. Also Read – Dunki at Oscars 2024: Shah Rukh Khan, Rajkumar Hirani planning to submit the film for main categories?
Amongst the group of 15 movies that progressed in the Documentary Feature Film category out of the eligible 167 films at the Oscars, To Kill a Tiger marks its presence. Joining the list are other engaging narratives like American Symphony, Apolonia, Beyond Utopia, Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, and more remarkable documentaries.
About Oscars 2024
The Oscars 2024 red carpet will unroll on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California as the 96th Academy Awards unfurls. Telecasted live on ABC and universally across 200+ territories, the event will have comedian Jimmy Kimmel as the host for the fourth time. The production chair occupied by Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan and directorial reins held by Hamish Hamilton. As actors Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid reveal the nominees in various categories such as Best Picture and Best Actress on January 23, 2024, “To Kill A Tiger” is set to compete with awaited cinema pieces like Killers of the Flower Moon, and Barbie.
The societal mirror that To Kill a Tiger is, highlights the deep-seated issue of sexual violence against women, prevalent not just in India but globally. Beyond being a mere film, it’s a call for change and a manifesto challenging the rampant social evil. Lauded, celebrated, and a potential history-maker at the Oscars; To Kill a Tiger is indeed a movie with a mission.
In September 2011, I was a college junior very willing to waste away the early days of her fall semester playing Epic Games’ new third-person shooter, Gears of War 3. I pre-ordered the highly anticipated title so I could guarantee I got the gold Retro Lancer skin for my multiplayer battles, and threw myself into the beta earlier that year with more energy than I put into my entire undergraduate coursework combined.
Firefight’s Back In Halo! What Is Firefight?
The following year, my fondness of Gears 3 grew and absorbed the place once reserved in my heart by the Halo franchise after the disappointment of Halo 4.
But, like all multiplayer games with finite resources trying to keep the attention of a fickle fanbase, Gears 3 eventually faded away. I focused more on Call of Duty releases, then eventually on Overwatch 2 and the battle royales that began popping up like lanternflies on New York City vegetation in the early fall.
Occasionally, my mind would wander to Gears of War 3 and its unique, somewhat disorienting camera angle, the satisfying crunchiness and weight of its gameplay, and all those gleefully gross executions. Nothing ever felt remotely like Gears 3, not even the sequels (which came after long-time game lead Cliff Bleszinksi left Epic Games) that followed in its wake. Recently, those occasional daydreams of Epic’s third-person shooter became more frequent and, finally, I downloaded it via Xbox Game Pass and booted it up again.
Screenshot: Microsoft / Kotaku
Gears of War 3 online is a 2011 time capsule
Several things shock me in the seconds after I start up Gears of War 3. First, the Xbox 360 online interface greets me, like I applied a retro theme to my Xbox Series S in a fugue state. When the old pop-up appears to let me know that I am, indeed, online, I do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme alone in my living room. My old profile picture is there (my Xbox avatar wearing an Optimus Prime helmet), and so is all the information about the 360-era games I played. It’s a lovely little detail that threatens to derail my Gears gameplay, as I get lost in the old menu for far too long.
Then, as Gears 3 loads up and the familiar horns of the opening theme fade in, I’m shocked by the memory that the score stirs in me. Suddenly, I am 21 years old and very stoned, likely wearing a pair of leggings and a t-shirt I’ve cut the sleeves off of to make a muscle tank—maybe I’m even wearing my Gears 3 one—and I’m waiting for my friends to meet me online so we can run a five-stack in Team Deathmatch. Time flattens into a circle, just like the one Rust Cohle warned us of, and I am briefly, blissfully unaware of how my rent will be going up in my Brooklyn apartment, because I’m in upstate New York, living off my student loan.
The final thing that shocks me is that I can actually play Gears 3 online. The menu says “0 players online worldwide,” but it’s lying—I load into a Team Deathmatch game in seconds, filling in for a bot Locust (the beefy, scaly bad guys of the Gears universe) upon its death. As I step into the huge shoes of this subterranean (and for some reason bipedal) beast, I realize I’m gonna need a second to get my sea legs.
Gears of War doesn’t feel anything like the games I play now—aside from when I choose one of the heavier, tankier Overwatch 2 characters, most of the time I’m playing as someone who’s lithe and lightning-fast. When compared to modern games like Apex Legends or Modern Warfare III, Gears 3 is gluey and clumsy, like someone mixed a shooter with Ambien and a glass of wine until everything got a little wavy. It takes several gory, squishy deaths (Gears of War 3 is probably best-known for its violent multiplayer executions which include swinging your gun like a golf club and taking off someone’s head in a spray of brain matter) before I remember how the controls work.
Once I get my active reload down (a mechanic by which your weapon damage or fire rate increases if you time your reload correctly), I really hit my stride. I split a snub-nosed grenadier in half with a Gnasher Shotgun, I pop the head off of a peeking Carmine brother with a Boltok Pistol from halfway across the map, I impale Marcus Fenix on the end of a Retro Lancer. I remember that the cover-based shooter has tons of movement tricks and hacks, and soon I’m gliding around the map like my character isn’t wearing a ton of heavy armor and boots that sound like they’re made of steel.
Gears 3 multiplayer’s visceral audio brings back the same intense wave of nostalgia as the starting menu’s soft horns. There are the gushy, mushy sounds of shotgun shells embedding themselves into flesh, the nerve-wracking rev of the Torque Bow winding up its shot, followed by the high-pitched, heart-stopping audio cue you hear when one of its arrows sinks into your leg. The horrid, wet gurgling that bursts forth from Locust characters stomping about the map and the metallic clangs of menu sounds whisk me away to a simpler era. For the entire time I’m playing Gears of War 3, I am in 2011.
But it is, alas, 2024, and the other people still playing Gears of War 3 are either newcomers who can’t tell their incendiary grenades from their Boomshots or seasoned veterans who are a nightmare to play against. Matches end fast, and there’s little room for the weak in them. Despite quickly remembering how to make the most of the game’s movement mechanics and gunplay, I am still repeatedly owned by players who have no problem picking up my downed body and miming humping me against a wall.
In that way, and in many others, Gears of War 3 is a perfect 2011 time capsule, full of blood and guts and badly behaved boys, and, of course, Cole Train expressions.
There’s a reason why the AFI Awards draw pretty much every A-lister on its annual honor roll: The intimate private luncheon, which took place this year at the Four Seasons, is the most celebratory occasion on the long, windy Oscars circuit, with 10 films and TV shows apiece all named winners—and no losers in sight. This is especially useful—maybe, even ironic—when the event falls in the thick of Oscar nominations voting and campaigning is at its most intense. So everyone in attendance is a winner, yes—and also working very hard to make the final cut with the Academy.
Entrances started before noon on a chilly, sunny Friday in Beverly Hills, and pretty quickly you could play mix and match with different honorees catching up. I walked in to find May December’s Natalie Portman posing with the Reservation Dogs cast just before the red carpet. Beef’s Steven Yeun approvingly exclaimed at The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal in another striking wardrobe choice. Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr. was among the first to make his way into the ballroom, where he moved toward the front of the stage with American Fiction’s Erika Alexander.
I caught up with Maestro’s Carey Mulligan at one point as the crowd started filling out, and she quipped, “This is a great place to get a job.” And indeed, think of a writer or director in the running for Emmys and Oscars right now, and they were probably within a quarter-mile radius. Some powerful executives, too. Disney chief Bob Iger was busy making the rounds, pulling aside The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri and Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson for a chat, and later introducing himself at Reservation Dogs’ table.
Ayo Edebiri and Bradley Cooper.
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The luncheon’s hour-plus of mingling precedes a program in which each of the 20 honored programs is recognized individually, with words of commendation and a selected clip. After the last of the crowd filed in (a rushing group that included Leonardo DiCaprio) TV went first, front loaded (for alphabetical reasons) with comedies that played great in the room, especially Jury Duty, the freshman breakout going into Monday’s Emmys as an underdog hopeful. Succession appropriately capped this part of the ceremony, with the best scene from its series finale reminding that it’ll likely get a wide farewell embrace from the Television Academy in a few days.
Given the star wattage in the room—in the minutes before we got going, there was Emma Stone with Charles Melton; Mulligan with Jennifer Aniston; Greta Gerwig with Steven Spielberg;Ramy Youssef with Ali Wong; and Jeremy Allen White hugging Celine Song—here was also a great chance for a last bit of subtle campaigning. What a brilliant stroke for Barbie, for instance, to play America Ferrera’s entire famed monologue before a crowd of voters; that clip got the biggest applause of the day, and she’s vying for a spot in the supporting actress five. AFI tends to match Oscar rather closely, and of its 10, those most on the outside for best picture, May December and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, were very well-represented inside, and met enthusiastic reactions.
Steven Spielberg, Julianne Moore, and Carey Mulligan.
Lily Gladstone’s front-runner status in the best-actress race was solidified at the Golden Globes 2024, where she dedicated her historic win for Killers of the Flower Moon to “every little res kid, every little urban kid, every little native kid out there that has a dream.”
The actor, who was nominated alongside Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Hüller, Nyad’s Annette Bening, Past Lives’ Greta Lee, Maestro’s Carey Mulligan, and Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny earned Killers’ sole win at the 81st Golden Globes. She began her powerful remarks by speaking in her native Blackfeet language. In English, Gladstone then thanked “the beautiful community nation that raised me, that encouraged me to keep going, keep doing this,” adding, “My mom, who even though she’s not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get this language into our classrooms so I had a Blackfeet-language teacher growing up.”
Gladstone acknowledged Hollywood’s history of erasing Native American actors and narratives onscreen, noting that “in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English” before a sound mixer would play the tracks backwards in order to approximate Native languages—a technique that produced gibberish passed off as authentic speech. “This is a historic win,” Gladstone continued. “It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it right now, I’m holding it with all of my beautiful sisters in the film at the table over there, and my mother, standing on all of your shoulders.”
Accepting the honor for her performance as Mollie Kyle, whose community in the Osage Nation of 1920s Oklahoma was ravaged in a series of serial killings, Gladstone concluded her speech by thanking her cohort, including director Martin Scorsese, and costars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. “You are all changing things,” she said. “Thank you for being such allies.”
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The Oscar-winning actors starred in the classic film early in their careers and have remained close friends since they played Jack and Rose in James Cameron’s romance drama. In a behind-the-scenes featurette from the film’s upcoming 4K Ultra HD DVD release, the Mare of Easttown actress opened up about her relationship with DiCaprio.
“Once I started working with Leo, we were able to kind of find our own rhythm,” she said in a clip obtained by Entertainment Tonight. “And it’s amazing to kind of look back and think about it all over again,” adding that they “clicked immediately, right away.”
She continued, “He was this kind of mess of long, skinny, uncoordinated limbs, and he was just very free with himself, and he had this effervescent energy that was really magnetic. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is gonna be fun. We’re definitely gonna get along.’ And we just really did. We just really did.”
Winslet described her Titanic co-star as a “ferociously intelligent man” and detailed his technique when preparing for the role. She said he was fascinated with the period, the people who were in the lower classes, where they had come from and how they paid for their tickets, among other things.
Winslet and DiCaprio formed a close bond at the time and remain friends today, she shared, saying that they speak regularly and in real time, without either of them being too busy to connect, despite both of them working on projects often.
“You know, if you think about it, in the world that we live in now,” she concluded, “to have friendships that bind you, and that shared history, it’s really something.”
