http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G_Y496IIQI

Philip Seymour Hoffman's Hollywood peers such as Kevin Costner, Steve Coogan, Gary Oldman, Steve McQueen, and Harry Connick Jr. talk about why he was a special presence on screen and "one of the greats."  Hoffman passed away on February 2, 2014, at the age of 46.

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Initial Reaction From Stars on Hoffman’s Legacy appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaYPvqYD-UQ

Actress Carmen Ejogo plays Coretta Scott King in the 2014 movie “Selma”, which is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. Ejogo had previously played Coretta Scott King in the HBO production “Boycott”, and in this video she discusses portraying Scott King at different points in her life. Of the difference between “Boycott” and “Selma”, Ejogo says: “By this point, they’ve really been steeped and very much – they’re deep in the trenches at this point. And I think the threat of violence and death as being something that is a potential on their horizons I think is very much more palpable, and as a result there’s just much more of a burden that I think is very evident in the way that she conducts herself. And so it’s been quite an interesting thing to have played her at a much fresher, more sort of optimistic stage in her life and then to sort of move ten years on and to have all of that experience, all of that sort of that knowledge and research I had from playing her the first time and then adding to that with something that’s so much weightier.”

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Carmen Ejogo On Playing Coretta Scott King appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-gP9dzD4vw

Steven Spielberg is an American Director best known for his work on films including Jaws, E.T., Jurrasic Park, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg has won three Academy Awards for his work. In this video, actor Tom Hiddleston discusses being directed by Spielberg in the film War Horse. Of the experience, Hiddleston says: “I want you to de-age yourself by twenty years. SO you’re twenty-nine, and then you’re nine. Strip away the man and show me the boy. Kind of leave that with you. I thought that was one of the most heartbreaking pieces of direction I’d ever received. Just it’s so emotionally acute. In the middle of this action sequence, you know, this great, grand, epic, exciting, dramatic piece of cinematography with 120 horses going at 40 miles an hour – He had the space in his filmmaking head, and in his heart, for something very intimate, and I thought it was amazingly impressive.”

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Tom Hiddleston On Steven Spielberg’s Directing appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IkxV6b_V8

Gone with the Wind is a film from 1939 based on Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. Set in the 19th-century American South, the film tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, to her marriage to Rhett Butler. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, the story is told from the perspective of white Southerners. The film debuted on December 15, 1939, at the Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Gone With The Wind received positive reviews, and the film went on to win ten Academy Awards in 1940, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy became the first African-American to win an Academy Award. Gone With The Wind is still considered the most successful film in box-office history. This video features live footage from the film’s premiere.

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Gone With The Wind’s Movie Premiere appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBSbNuvfy0w

Jamie Foxx is an American actor, singer, songwriter and comedian who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2004 for his work in the movie Ray. Foxx’s real name, however, is Eric Marlan Bishop. In this video, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who first worked with Foxx on the popular 90s TV show In Living Color, talks about how Eric Marlon Bishop became Jamie Foxx. Says Wayans: “He noticed that at the comedy store in LA, they had a preference towards women, in terms – at audition night. Whoever the sleazy guy was, MC was, wanted to get the cute girls. So he put his name as Jamie Foxx, something ambiguous but sounds like it could be a fine girl. And sure enough, it worked. But now he’s stuck with being Jamie Foxx.”

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How Jamie Foxx Got His Name appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJB78-ltW88

West Side Story is a musical film from 1961, based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and took home 10, including Best Picture. In this video, the movie’s stars, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris recall their auditions and their experience at the Academy Awards. Recalls Moreno of her three auditions: “I did a singing audition which went very well. I did an acting audition and I did that terrifically well. They loved it. And then Jerry came to me and said ‘You know, you’re going to have to audition for the dancing part.’ So I ran to the nearest dancing school and I literally signed up for every class, literally, that hey had. I was truly killing myself, but I wanted that part so badly.”

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Rita Moreno On Auditioning For West Side Story appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8w23e4icrE

Joel and Ethan Coen, more commonly known as the Coen brothers, are American film directors best known for their films Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man and Inside Llewyn Davis. In this video, Michael Stuhlbarg, who worked with the Coen brothers on A Serious Man, discusses what it is like to have two directors. “They really are pretty much two sides of the same head. Joel will say ‘action’ and ‘cut and Ethan will mostly put his head down and sort of pace around in the back of the room and just listen listen listen very carefully. But as for asking them questions, you can ask either one and generally they’ll give an answer, and if they feel like they need to consult each other they do.”

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What It’s Like To Work With The Coen Brothers appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0sx4aDn6ag

Alfonso Cuarón is a director best known for his films Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men and Gravity. Gravity was nominated for Best Picture and won Best Director at the Academy Awards in 2013. Sandra Bullock stared in Gravity, and discusses working with Cuarón. When asked if it was scary to work without knowing how the film would turn out, Bullock says: “Absolutely, but because of Alfonso and his work from before, there is no one else I think I would have had the balls to step in and do it with. Because my desire to work with him was so strong and after meeting him as a human being I went ‘I can’t believe this person I sort of idolized turned out to be an extraordinary human being. Usually you’re disappointed… He exceeded who he was as an artist to me.’”

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Sandra Bullock On Alfonso Cuarón appeared first on Witnify.

“As for those responsible for this conspiracy: All I can wish them is an Alien breeding inside their chests…”

“Alien: Resurrection” poster. (1997.) Source: Creative Commons.

H.R. Giger is a Swiss artist whose imagination gave birth to the design of the aliens in the iconic “Alien” film franchise. His horrifying creations first came to the screen in 1979′s “Alien” and recently in 2012′s “Prometheus.” Nevertheless, Giger was surprised to learn that the 1997 “Alien: Resurrection” did not credit him at all. In November, he wrote a frustrated letter to the film studio:

November 13, 1997

To: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

The Alien Quartet has, from the very beginning, contained my unique and personal style. For the first film ALIEN, I was awarded an Oscar for “Best Achievement for Visual Effects”. In ALIENS, a film I was not asked to work on, I still received a screen credit for “Original Alien Design”.

On ALIEN 3, I was cheated out of the Oscar nomination received by that film because 20th Century Fox gave me the credit, “Original Alien Design” again, instead of “Alien 3 Creature Design”, as it was my rightful title in accordance to my contract and the work I had performed on the film. In 1976 I had completed two paintings, “Necronom IV” and “Necronom V”, in which two long-headed creatures appeared. In 1977 these paintings were published in my book, NECRONOMICON, by Sphinx Verlag, Basel, in German. It was in this version of the book that Ridley Scott, in his search for a credible Alien creature, came across these two paintings and decided on them for the full-grown Alien, using the words “That’s it!” The statement has been graciously repeated by Ridley Scott in almost every interview about his work on ALIEN.

H. R. Giger in 2012. Source: Creative Commons.

The creatures in ALIEN: RESURRECTION are even closer to my original Alien designs than the ones which appear in ALIENS and ALIEN 3. The film also resurrects my original designs for the other stages of the creature’s life-cycle, the Eggs, the Facehugger and the Chestburster. ALIEN: RESURRECTION is an excellent film. What would it look like without my Alien life-forms? In all likelihood, all the sequels to ALIEN would not even exist! The designs and my credit have been stolen from me, since I alone have designed the Alien. So why does Fox not give me the credit I rightfully earned?

As for those responsible for this conspiracy: All I can wish them is an Alien breeding inside their chests, which might just remind them that the “Alien Father” is H.R.Giger.

H.R.Giger

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[Text] H.R. Giger Reclaims Role as ‘Alien Father’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg6hJTK61nU

Film critic Alexander Walker discusses why American director Stanley Kubrick was “in awe” of actor and comedian Peter Sellers. Walker says of Kubrick: “Stanley couldn’t write and he couldn’t act”–therefore, Kubrick admired actors who could bring more zest and creative flourishes into their scripted roles, which Sellers could do very well. The two worked together on the 1962 film, “Lolita” and “Dr. Strangelove” in 1963. Walker himself describes his admiration for Sellers: “Peter could assume disguises and he could assume vocal disguises. And he could make Stanley laugh. And that was very difficult.”

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Why Stanley Kubrick Was ‘in Awe’ of Peter Sellers appeared first on Witnify.