Interviews

Interview: Gnomes creator Joel Kohn and producer Richard Kelly on their gloriously unhinged new comedy-horror series

Garden gnomes have long been considered harmless, if somewhat unsettling, fixtures of suburban lawns. But in the delightfully deranged new Australian horror-comedy Gnomes, those innocent-looking ornaments are anything but, as an ancient evil unleashes an army of murderous garden dwellers upon an unsuspecting small town. Blending the creature-feature chaos of Gremlins with the bloody irreverence…

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Interview: Brad Caleb Kane on recontextualizing the world of Friday the 13th for the Crystal Lake series

For nearly half a century, the Friday the 13th franchise has taught audiences to fear what lurks around Crystal Lake. With A24’s Crystal Lake, creator and showrunner Brad Caleb Kane is asking audiences to look at that mythology from an entirely different perspective – not by beginning with the unstoppable killing machine Jason Voorhees would…

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Interview: Director Rachel Morrison on the importance of forgiveness in her new film Love of Your Life; “One has to fall back in love with themselves in order to really move forward in life.”

Grief is rarely a linear experience, and the notion of simply “moving on” after losing someone can feel almost cruel in its suggestion that love is something we’re expected to leave behind. It’s this emotional complexity that sits at the heart of Love of Your Life, the beautifully observed romantic drama from director Rachel Morrison…

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Interview: Mike Flanagan on why he had to adapt Stephen King’s Carrie; “There’s nothing about the story that’s inevitable. And that’s part of the fun we had with it, was to really look at the choices.”

For more than 50 years, we’ve known how the story of Carrie White ends. Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel has become so embedded in popular culture – helped immeasurably by Brian De Palma’s seminal 1976 adaptation – that even those who have never read the book or watched one of its screen incarnations likely know…

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Interview: Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan on reestablishing the mother-daughter relationship at the centre of Carrie

Stephen King’s Carrie has been revisited on screen numerous times, but Mike Flanagan’s eight-episode television adaptation has something those earlier incarnations never truly had: time. Time to understand Carrie White before the blood falls. Time to explore Margaret White beyond the religious fanaticism that has traditionally defined her. And time to consider the small acts…

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Interview: Peter Lawson on the bodies, bloodshed and bad behaviour of Kill Jackie

Catherine Zeta-Jones being hunted across Europe by seven of the world’s deadliest assassins is already a fairly irresistible proposition. Give her a wicked sense of humour, a violent criminal history and permission to beat the living hell out of anyone standing in her way, and Kill Jackie has all the ingredients of a gleefully unhinged…

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Interview: Kenneth Branagh on surrendering himself to the playful nature of Mayday; “I believed that my job in this was just to absolutely show up.”

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s Mayday may wear the familiar uniform of an old-school 1980s buddy movie, but beneath the action, comedy and Cold War absurdity is a surprisingly tender story about two men questioning the lives they were taught to want. Ryan Reynolds stars as Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a hotshot U.S. Navy…

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Interview: Maria Sten and Greyston Holt on Neagley, vulnerability, and stepping out of Reacher’s shadow

Frances Neagley has never needed much introduction. Across Reacher, Maria Sten’s fiercely self-sufficient private investigator proved such a commanding presence that giving the character her own spotlight felt less like a gamble and more like an inevitability. But Neagley isn’t interested in simply replicating the formula of its parent series. Instead, it takes a character…

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Interview: Neagley creator Nick Wootton on expanding the world of Reacher; “The mystery is absolutely Neagley’s and hers alone.”

There’s an inherent challenge in spinning a supporting character off from a series as successful as Reacher. Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) has already proven herself a fan favourite, but the qualities that make a character compelling in concentrated doses don’t necessarily translate to carrying an entire series. For creator and showrunner Nick Wootton, the answer…

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Interview: Jasper Jones and Adeline Rudolph on what their characters are hiding in Neagley

Frances Neagley may be the name above the door, but Neagley quickly expands its world beyond the formidable private investigator audiences came to know through Reacher. As a suspicious death from her past pulls Neagley (Maria Sten) into an increasingly dangerous investigation, she crosses paths with Keno (Jasper Jones) and Renee Birdwhistle (Adeline Rudolph), two…

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Interview: Olivia Cooke on identity, isolation and returning to Slow Horses; “Who am I now?”

For several seasons of Slow Horses, Sid Baker has existed almost like a ghost. Shot in the head during the first season and subsequently presumed dead, the capable MI5 agent disappeared from Slough House, leaving River Cartwright – and audiences – without any real sense of closure. But Sid wasn’t dead. She was simply living…

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Interview: Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly on choosing love when infinite possibilities exist in Dark Matter Season 2

Apple TV’s Dark Matter has always used its high-concept science fiction to ask deeply human questions. Its multiverse may offer infinite realities and innumerable versions of the lives we could have lived, but beneath the physics, the Box and the alternate worlds is something far more intimate: if you could see every path you didn’t…

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Interview: Connor Finch on second chances and finding his place for Bookish‘s second season; “Normality is overrated.”

For Connor Finch, the key to understanding Jack in Bookish has always been deceptively simple: he’s a working-class kid who learned to survive because nobody gave him much of an alternative. Created by and starring Mark Gatiss, the richly atmospheric detective drama returns to post-war London, where eccentric bookseller Gabriel Book once again puts his…

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Interview: Liv Hewson on new Australian mystery series Treasure & Dirt, disrupting archetypes and why character always comes first

For Liv Hewson, a good detective story isn’t really about the crime. It’s about the people trying to make sense of what has been left behind. That philosophy sits at the heart of Treasure & Dirt, a distinctly Australian murder mystery set in the scorched, dust-choked opal mining town of Nullah, where the brutal beheading…

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Interview: Jason Sudeikis, Abbie Hern, Faye Marsay and Jude Mack on the new era of Ted Lasso

When Ted Lasso concluded its third season, it felt less like a television finale than a heartfelt farewell. It was the kind of ending that seemed content to leave AFC Richmond exactly where audiences hoped it would: bruised, wiser and full of possibility. So the announcement of a fourth season inevitably raised the question every…

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Interview: Furious creator Elizabeth Meriwether, star/executive producer Emmy Rossum and the cast on approaching damage with empathy

On paper, Furious sounds like a familiar crime thriller. Emmy Rossum plays FBI agent Alice Black, a former NYPD detective hunting Catherine (Lola Petticrew), a calculating serial killer who targets powerful men. But creator Elizabeth Meriwether (The Dropout, Dying for Sex) is far less interested in asking who committed the crimes than why these women…

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Interview: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers on what to expect from Season 4; “We really try to see each episode as its own little movie.”

Few television series are as fearless as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Across its first three seasons, the Paramount+ Original has redefined what modern Star Trek can be, embracing everything from courtroom drama and sweeping romance to a full-blown musical, all while never losing sight of the optimism and humanity that have defined the franchise…

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Interview: Babs Olusanmokun and Martin Quinn on the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; “Hope is one of the most powerful forces aboard the Enterprise.“

One of the greatest strengths of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the way it honours the franchise’s legacy while finding new depths in characters fans thought they already knew. Some, like Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, arrive with decades of expectation attached to their name. Others, like Dr. Joseph M’Benga, have been transformed from little more…

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Interview: Lazy Susan on joining the judging panel of Drag Race Down Under vs The World; “Drag is such a stupid job – and that’s exactly why it’s wonderful.”

After conquering the competition in RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 4, Lazy Susan is back in the Werk Room – but this time, she’s sitting beside Michelle Visage and Rhys Nicholson on the judging panel for Drag Race Down Under vs The World. Premiering July 24th on Stan, the new series brings together eleven…

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Interview: Rhys Nicholson on judging Drag Race Down Under vs The World; “You’ve got to have that slightly unhinged level of confidence to make it work.”

For four seasons, Rhys Nicholson has watched queens sashay, lip-sync and occasionally self-destruct from the Drag Race Down Under judging panel. But with Drag Race Down Under vs The World, the competition gets even fiercer, bringing together eleven queens from across the global Drag Race franchise for the first international showdown filmed on Australasian soil….

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Interview: Anna Friel on new Australian medical drama The F Ward, second chances and why tough love saves lives

When lives are on the line, there’s little room for hesitation. Stan’s new Australian drama The F Ward throws audiences into the chaotic reality of Sydney’s underfunded Pines Hospital, where a group of failed medical interns are handed one final opportunity to prove they deserve to become doctors. Battling impossible workloads, life-or-death emergencies and the…

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Interview: Jennifer Garner, D’Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan and Chloë Sevigny on exploring grief and second chances in The Five-Star Weekend

Luxury, laughter and seaside escapes might be what first catches your eye in The Five Star Weekend, but beneath the picture-perfect Nantucket backdrop lies a far more relatable story about grief, forgiveness and the friendships that shape us long after we’ve left different chapters of our lives behind. Based on Elin Hilderbrand‘s bestselling novel, Peacock’s…

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Interview: The F Ward‘s creator Dan Edwards on why failure can make better doctors

Medical dramas have long been built around brilliance. The gifted surgeon. The impossible diagnosis. The life-or-death operation that only the best doctor in the hospital can pull off. But The F Ward takes a different approach, asking what happens when the people holding the scalpel are the ones still trying to put themselves back together….

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Interview: Anya Taylor-Joy and Drew Starkey on the humanity at the heart of Lucky

On paper, Lucky has all the ingredients of a gripping crime thriller. There’s a multimillion-dollar heist gone wrong, a woman on the run from both the FBI and a ruthless crime boss, and a protagonist forced to revisit a life she desperately tried to leave behind. But beneath the danger, deception and high-stakes action, the…

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Interview: Annette Bening and Timothy Olyphant on the power of contradiction and the psychology of family in Lucky

There are plenty of television series about criminals. Far fewer are interested in the contradictions that make them human. On paper, Lucky has all the ingredients of a high-stakes thriller. Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, the Apple TV+ series follows Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy), a gifted con artist forced back into the criminal world she…

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Interview: Lucky creators Cassie Pappas and Jonathan Tropper on the emotional inheritance at the heart of their Apple TV series

On the surface, Lucky is a high-stakes thriller about a woman running from both the law and the criminal world she thought she’d left behind. Beneath the twists, cons and near-constant danger, however, lies a far more universal story about inheritance – not of money or possessions, but of perspective. Adapted from Marissa Stapley’s bestselling…

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Interview: Producer Jeff Purser on why authentic stories will always find their audience; “I think audiences have always rewarded honesty.”

For more than two decades, Australian producer, writer and director Jeff Purser has worked across both commercial hits and critically acclaimed cinema, helping bring stories as varied as Fat Pizza and Cedar Boys to the screen. With a career spanning film, television and streaming, Purser has seen the industry evolve through changing technologies, audience habits…

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From BookTok to Barry’s Bay: How the cast of Every Year After honoured a beloved love story

The cast of Every Year After knew they were stepping into beloved territory. Adapted from Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel ‘Every Summer After’ – a BookTok sensation that spent 16 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and has sold more than one million copies – the series arrives with an audience already deeply invested…

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Interview: Colin Farrell on pushing John Sugar beyond observation in Sugar Season 2

When Apple TV+’s Sugar premiered last year, much of the conversation centred on its audacious mid-season twist. The neo-noir detective drama, starring Colin Farrell as private investigator John Sugar, revealed that its seemingly hard-boiled detective was, in fact, an alien observer living among humanity. But according to Farrell, that revelation was never the true heart…

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Interview: Director Daniel Nettheim and The Killings at Parrish Station series creator Ben Jenkins on grounding cosmic horror in emotional reality

A remote massacre. A decades-spanning mystery. A signal from somewhere beyond understanding. On the surface, The Killings at Parrish Station has all the hallmarks of a gripping cosmic horror thriller. But beneath the murders, the occult intrigue and the lingering questions of what happened at the isolated Parrish Research Station lies something far more human….

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