You know that feeling where you think it's one kind of story, but it turns out to be an entirely different kind of story? We produced this trailer to show aspiring filmmakers that at Toronto Film School the twists are what it's all about. Oh, and that old house in the background that looks like Downton Abbey? It isn't really there. It's just a matte painting.
Sometimes what we don't see is scarier than what we do see...and all it takes to conjure that perfect sense of dread is an actor, an iconic costume and a little sound design. It's cheaper than building an alien (although we do that too).
Remember that alien we didn't show you in our Toronto Film School video? Well here it is. Sometimes a magic trick is even more impressive when you know how it was done, so we partnered with The Butcher Shop to show all those Alien fans what it takes to bring a Baby Xenomorph aka a "Chest-Burster" to life before the release of Alien: Covenant.
Casting Kermit and Miss Piggy as the hosts of a special custom pre-show was one of our most delightful yet deceptively complex assignments. We wrote and produced a series of segments in collaboration with the production and puppetry teams at Disney and the Jim Henson Company to get kids excited for the release of Muppets Most Wanted, but it didn't stop there…
Process is one of the hardest things to capture on camera, but our behind-the-scenes expertise on movie sets made us uniquely qualified. We worked with Google to produce this deep dive on the making of Racer for Chrome — and getting to sit down with iconic movie composer Giorgio Moroder (Scarface, Top Gun, Flashdance) added a little touch of movie magic.
Few books have amassed a bigger following than Frank Herbert’s Dune, but we realized that it might be daunting for newcomers to see Denis Villenueve’s movie adaptation if they were unversed in the source material so we produced this primer, combining cast interviews, archival footage, and behind-the-scenes access to narrate the book’s mythical journey to the big screen and make experts out of the uninitiated.
Our approach to to filming this House of Marley promo was just as organic as their sustainable products. To promote the Marley family’s message of oneness and togetherness we followed technologist Marc Saltzman to NYC to chat with Rohan Marley about his father (Reggae legend Bob Marley) and how they give back through their family brand.
Writing a novel is a process that’s often very internal and idiosyncratic, so how do you bring an author's working method to life for the camera? Author Jon Redfern work is uniquely inspired by the places he visits, and when we discovered that he owned an old-fashioned typewriter his "movie" appeared to us.
It was snowing outside, but red hot inside when we took over The Bus Terminal diner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Grease. Director Ivan Hutomo shot and choreographed this retro ode to the Hollywood musical in just one night and it was a party on (and off) camera.
Nobody would have guessed that Joker would become a $1B box office phenomenon, or that it would be the first comic book film in history to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but when it comes to Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-winning performance we saw the writing on the wall…and we’d like to think that our Joaquin retrospective for Landmark Cinemas had a little something to do with the movie’s success.
Sensing the potential market fatigue awaiting the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, we got legendary comic book artist Ty Templeton to inject some much-needed excitement back into the franchise, by taking us back to the roots of the character. By showing us what it takes to create a single Spidey frame, Ty put us in the perfect mindset to appreciate the new film, without resorting to a hard-sell.
Sometimes you have to go back in time to appreciate where we are now. We asked iconic TV movie critic Richard Crouse to help us celebrate the big screen re-release of The Wolf Man by undergoing a little makeover. Remarkably, the special techniques that were used in 1941 have barely changed.
Before Greta Gerwig became the Hollywood powerhouse behind Barbie, she wrote and directed the definitive modern adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and we went behind the scenes to offer a first look at what made her version more modern than all of the others.
We’re all about classic films so it didn’t take any arm-twisting for us to jump headfirst into this irreverent Classic Film immersion that put Cineplex Pre-Show host Tanner Z inside some of our favourite movies… and it was all seamlessly achieved through the magic of green screen under the aegis of veteran director Michael MacKinnon.
For this instalment in our series for Landmark Cinemas, we took a closer look at Christian Bale to show how a lifetime spent playing oddball, physically-demanding characters made real-life race car driver Ken Miles, in Ford v Ferrari, his first true everyman performance.
Filmmaking isn’t just about meticulous planning, it’s also about knowing how to capture the unforeseen. We sat down to interview best-selling author Robert Rotenberg about his best-seller Old City Hall, but his words were so vivid that we saw the movie version of his book unfold before our very eyes — and we chased that vision to help sell copies without spoiling anything for his readers.
How do you attract an audience that didn’t grow up with The Shining to Stephen King’s long-delayed sequel Doctor Sleep? We dug deep into the pop culture vault with this one to remind audiences at Landmark Cinemas of the many different ways the Overlook Hotel has dominated our collective consciousness.
Unpacking Keanu’s unique blend of charisma, kick-assery and unassuming vulnerability had to be one of our favourite assignments. There’s just no way you can look at what he’s done and not want to see The Matrix Revolutions as soon as possible.
