Jazz Tangcay Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Director Blitz Bazawule had a clear vision of what he wanted Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) to represent in “The Color Purple.” She was a bold, sexy, beautiful and extraordinary woman, but she was also loving and nurturing to Celie (Fantasia Barrino) and Sophia (Danielle Brooks). “Those were her sisters and there was a bond there,” Tym Wallace, the film’s makeup and hair department artist explains.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Choreographer Fatima Robinson fused hip-hop, dance, African history, tap, jazz and even Jamaican moves as she crafted the musical numbers in “The Color Purple,” but there was one person in particular whose energy she wanted to capture: Beyoncé. Specifically, the energy of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” Director Blitz Bazawule blends Alice Walker’s text and the Broadway musical to reimagine the classic as a vibrant movie musical. “American Idol’s” Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, a woman who slowly finds her voice with Shug Avery’s (Taraji P.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor In Paul King’s “Wonka,” there is a scene where Noodle (Calah Lane) and Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) have to sneak into a zoo so he can produce his one-of-a-kind chocolate. There the duo meets Abigail the giraffe and milks her. It cues up the musical number “For a Moment” where they fly over way the town’s Galeria and back into the town square.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Many stories have been told about Westward expansion, but few have focused on the impact and consequences. John Williams’ 1960 novel “Butcher’s Crossing” follows William Andrews, a Harvard student who leaves his life behind to join a buffalo-hunting expedition, facing many harsh realities on his journey. Producer Molly Conners sat down with Variety for the film’s DVD release to discuss director Gabe Polsky’s journey adapting the story, financing the film, casting its star Nicolas Cage and working with the Blackfeet Nation to tell the story about the destruction of the buffalo population in 19th century America.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor VFX supervisor Sean Konrad was tasked with bringing to life some iconic titans back for Apple TV+’s eight-part series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” Among them are “Kong: Skull Island’s” Mother Longlegs and Godzilla, as well as some new monsters, including a crab-inspired titan and star-mole beast. Showrunner and writer Chris Black had always wanted to open the series on Skull Island to root the viewer in familiarity without having to rewatch past films. The opening episode sees Bill Randa (John Goodman) being chased through a bamboo forest that opens out onto a rock peninsula, before Mother Longlegs emerges.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When Greta Gerwig worked with costume designer Jacqueline Durran on “Little Women,” the pair went on a trip to a building in London’s Docklands to draw inspiration for the adaptation. “There were old file cabinets labeled ‘British Gardens 1830-1835′ and things you couldn’t find anywhere,” Gerwig recalls. “There were out-of-print books and original frames for making corsets and hoop skirts.” A few years later, the director would turn to Durran to help bring the aesthetic of “Barbie” to life.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Alexander Payne calls editor Kevin Tent his filmmaking partner. The two first met running in the same L.A. film school circles.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” has won rave reviews and is tipped to be an Oscars favorite with its satirical portrayal of the exploitation of Black people in media, balanced with sharp comedy and a punch of emotional family drama. Jefferson credits his editor, Hilda Rasula, with striking the right tone for the film. “The thing I appreciate about Hilda is that she never lies, she’s very honest, and she tells me when she doesn’t like something,” Jefferson tells Variety.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Based on the nonfiction book by David Grann, “Killers of the Flower Moon” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a WWI vet who travels to Oklahoma to work for his wealthy uncle, William King Hale, played by Robert De Niro. It’s the early 1920s, and this part of Oklahoma sits on lots of oil, whose rights are owned by the Native American Osage and other tribes. They are prosperous, some even rich, and it’s here that Ernest meets Mollie (Lily Gladstone).

Caroline Brew editor Director Abdulelah Alqurashi sat down with Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay at Variety’s Artisans Screening Series to break down his film “Alhamour H.A.,” Saudi Arabia’s official Oscars submission. The film is based on the true story of one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest con artists, a former security guard named Hamed who grows rich by convincing people to make dubious investments. Alqurashi lived in Jedda as a banker while the scam was happening.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Color Purple” director Blitz Bazawule hesitated to take on the latest incarnation of Alice Walker’s sacred text. However, when he revisited the book, the first line (“Dear God, I’m 14 years old”) struck him as a way to navigate a familiar story and “keep expanding Celie’s imagination.” In the new musical movie adaptation, as Celie (Fantasia Barrino) is bathing Shug (Taraji P. Henson), an old record plays on a gramophone in the background.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Is “May December” camp or not? That’s the question the internet is currently obsessing over, but whether you fall on the “definitely” or “no, rude question!” side, one clue can be found in the dark comedy’s notably prominent score by Marcelo Zavros. Ten minutes into the Todd Haynes movie that’s loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letournau, Julianne Moore, playing Gracie, the wife and mother, opens the fridge while getting ready for a family barbecue. As she casually comments, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs,” the lush chords familiar from the 1971 movie “The Go-Between” burst loudly into the scene, lending the mundane moment an unexpected melodramatic punch.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The biggest challenge for “Poor Things” costume designer Holly Waddington was trying to establish a costume arc for Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter. In the Searchlight film based on Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, Bella is a creation of Willem Dafoe’s mad scientist Godwin. He brings Bella back to life after she tries to kill herself, using the brain of an unborn fetus, and Bella ends up a young child trapped in a woman’s body.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Five years ago, while chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios Jennifer Lee was finishing work on “Frozen II,” she mentioned to her co-director, Chris Buck, that the studio’s 100th anniversary was coming up — and asked whether he’d want to be involved in any projects pegged to the anniversary?They didn’t have any idea what that animated feature would be but they knew that “we wanted original characters, story and music,” says Buck. They began gathering stills from every animated feature the studio had done and pinned them to a bulletin board. They looked at the breadth of colors and styles. From “Pinocchio’s” Jiminy Cricket to “The Princess and the Frog’s” Tiana to Judy Hopps in “Zootopia,” one thing was apparent — that these and many other characters had all made wishes on stars. “It feels very obvious.

Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles. Variety‘s senior awards editor Clayton Davis, Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay and Senior Entertainment & Media Writer Matt Donnelly moderated several panels throughout the event.

Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay during Variety’s A Night With Artisans. The creatives who helped build the Los Alamos set for “Oppenheimer” or acquired 1,000 blankets for “Killers of the Flower Moon” shared their creative processes and stories from set. In six separate conversations, Tangcay spoke with the teams behind “Oppenheimer,” “Saltburn,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction” and “The Color Purple.” See the full Variety A Night With Artisans recap below.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Brainstorming about how “Trolls: Band Together” should look, the creatives decided they wanted to take the colorful creatures to a different world than the previous two installments of the animated franchise.In this tale, Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) learns that Branch (Justin Timberlake) was once part of her favorite boyband, BroZone. When his brother Floyd (Troye Sivan) is kidnapped by pop star villains voiced by Andrew Rannells and Amy Schumer, Branch and Poppy bring the band back together to rescue him, embarking on a grand adventure culminating in a huge concert that turns into a rollercoaster-esque car chase.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “I’m Just Ken,” the showstopping number performed by Ryan Gosling in “Barbie,” took Mark Ronson and co-songwriting partner Andrew Wyatt just two days to write. “But we needed the entire year to make it what it was,” notes Ronson. It’s been a contender to nab an Oscar original song nomination ever since it was first teased in the film’s trailer earlier this year.

Harrison Ford surprised SAG-AFTRA members during a nomination committee Q&A this afternoon when he showed up to talk about his role on Apple TV+’s “Shrinking.” Ford was keen to lavish praise on the cast of the comedy-drama television series, describing working with his co-stars as a uniquely different experience that rejuvenated his perspective on acting. “There are people who improvise as though it was an exercise in egos. That never happens with this bunch.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer Jennifer Lee had not yet written the script for “Wish” when Grammy nominated songwriter Julia Michaels wrote the demo for “This Wish” in 2020. But that demo, Lee says, “defined the whole movie; it became our North Star.” Celebrating 100 years of storytelling at Disney, “Wish” pays homage to the celestial entity so many have wished upon. Ariana DeBose voices Asha, its main protagonist and heroine, a 17-year-old who lives in the magical kingdom of Rosas, ruled by Disney’s newest villain, King Magnifico, voiced by Chris Pine.

William Earl This awards season’s premier contending filmmakers, talent and artisans will gather for exclusive panels at Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles from 9 a.m.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “She blended in — there was no ‘Kitty’s world,’” “Oppenheimer” production designer Ruth De Jong says of the woman portrayed by Emily Blunt in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster. Kitty is a scientist with her own ambitions when she meets J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man who led the atomic bomb project.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Growing up, Kris Bowers felt like he was an outsider trying to fit in. These days, he is anything but that in Hollywood. The Oscar-nominated composer has scored a wide array of projects in the past five years, ranging from “Green Book” to “When They See Us,” and worked with Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes repeatedly.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Writers of nine limited series ranging from “A Murder at the End of the World” to “Tiny Beautiful Things” traded shop talk and stories of how they crafted muscular worlds to tell extended, standalone stories. Ed Solomon of Max’s “Full Circle” astounded the crowd at Variety’s A Night in the Writers Room at Hollywood’s NeueHouse with the origin story of his 586-page spec script for the twisty thriller.

Whitney Cinkala Variety will host its annual A Night With Artisans event in Los Angeles on Dec. 5.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor With a few weeks to go until the original song for Oscars shortlist is released, Aotearoa, New Zealand-based Māori Artist Stan Walker (Tūhoe, Ngāi TeRangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga, Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngai Tahu) has released the video for the haunting original song created for Ava DuVernay‘s searing drama “Origin,” “This summer, I was talking with my producing partner Paul Garnes about wanting something unexpected for an original song to end our film, ‘Origin.’ The next day, he showed me Stan’s ‘Ultralight Beam’ interpretation and I watched it four times, back to back. I jumped online and blessedly, we had a producer pal of mine, Chelsea Winstanley in common.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor What better way to celebrate 100 years of Disney Animation than a movie about the brand’s famous wishing star? After all, so many Disney characters, dating back to “Pinocchio’s” Jiminy Cricket, look to the stars and cast their dreams and hopes on them. With 61 feature films preceding it, “Wish” is filled with nods to Disney’s animation legacy.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points, including the ending for “Saltburn.” Singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor was already a fan of Emerald Fennell when she was approached about the use of her 2001 hit “Murder on the Dancefloor” in “Saltburn.” “I loved ‘Promising Young Woman,’” Ellis-Bextor says. But what really sold it to her was the pitch: “A naked man dancing through the rooms of a stately home…I’ve got a quirky sense of humor, and my main thing was, ‘I’ve got to see that.’” Set in 2006, Oliver is a student at Oxford University who becomes dangerously obsessed with the suave and good-looking aristocratic classmate Felix, played by Jacob Elordi.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “You may know me from other stuff, but I don’t use a lot of colors, except when necessary,” says renowned costume designer Trish Summerville. So, when it came to designing the main outfit worn by Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” Summerville, whose credits include “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Mank” and “Gone Girl,” had to wrap her head around “a rainbow dress with ruffles and things she keeps in her pockets.” The rainbow dress was one of the first outfits Summerville tackled.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor There is no task too tough for “Gen V’s” makeup department head Colin Penman. Across three seasons of Prime Video’s and Sony Pictures Television’s “The Boys,” and now its spinoff, “Gen V,” Penman has been assigned to creating an exploding penis, a five-foot-tall penis and, most recently, puppets who get into a bloody massacre. The show’s executive producers Eric Kripke and Michele Fazekas wanted to take a fight sequence idea to the next level for “Gen V.” Penman happened to have puppet-making skills on his resume.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Bradley Cooper had a problem. The Oscar-nominated actor was gearing up to play Leonard Bernstein, the musical genius behind “West Side Story” and “Candide” and one of the driving cultural forces of the 20th century. Except, Cooper looked nothing like the distinctive composer and conductor.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Director Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” roots itself in 1970s nostalgia, right down to the main title design and the studio logos. However, neither company existed at the time. Distributor Focus Features was founded in 2002, while the film’s production company Miramax got started in 1979.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor With the actors strike finally over, Oscar-winning actor Ariana DeBose flew from New York to Los Angeles and surprised audiences at an All-Guild screening and Q&A for Disney Animation’s “Wish.“ DeBose, who voices Asha in the studio’s latest animated feature, wasn’t able to make the film premiere Wednesday night, as the strike officially ended at 12:01 a.m. PT on Thursday. The joy in the room was palpable as she joined songwriter Julia Michaels, directors Chris Buck and Fawn Verasunthorn, and producers Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones and Peter Veccho for the Q&A to talk publicly for the first time about playing the role.

Jaden Thompson The Emmy-nominated creatives behind Prime Video‘s shows have sat down for another series of Master Crafts conversations with Variety‘s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, drawing back the curtain on the complex process of bringing these wide-ranging series to the small screen. In five separate conversations, Tangcay spoke with the teams behind “The Marvelous Mrs.

Valerie Wu Intern Variety has been nominated for 97 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards including nominations for best entertainment publication and best entertainment news website. “We are incredibly proud of the Variety newsroom for another outstanding year as the No. 1 news organization covering the business of Hollywood,” said co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Netflix has released the trailer for “Stamped From the Beginning,” a hybrid documentary and scripted feature that delves into race in the United States. Roger Ross Williams (“The Apollo Life”) directs Ibram X. Kendi’s book adaptation of the same name.