Category: Entertainment

When Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer said they wanted the fifth and final season of the Netflix sci-fi drama to be a “mega movie,” the VFX team knew they would have their work cut out for them.

The coming-of-age series requires “way more shots than are normally done on a two-hour feature,” VFX supervisor Betsy Paterson tells THR, noting that the show’s overall budget was expanded for the final season. This allowed the crew to execute an epic conclusion to the series’ decade-long run that saw the beloved Hawkins gang unite for a final showdown to take down Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). 

However, before the VFX team could tackle the monsters, they had to make the otherworldly dimensions that the series is known for seem realistic. The team relied heavily on practical effects, which were later punched up with visual effects. Paterson notes it’s important to the Duffer brothers to have sets that feel as tactile as possible, so “no matter how crazy this stuff gets, you are really seeing it from the perspective of these kids who are in the real world,” she says. “We’re always building things for the actors to interact with.”

Two examples are the wall in the interdimensional wormhole known as the Upside Down that serves as a portal between Earth and the alternate realm of the Abyss, and the liquefying room inside the Hawkins National Lab where Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are trapped. 

“We built a big chunk of that membrane wall for Hopper [David Harbour] and Eleven [Millie Bobby Brown] to climb on,” Paterson explains. “The goo in the melting room was real goo wherever it touches anything or the actors.” 

When it came to the Upside Down, the VFX team fortunately already had an established look from the previous four seasons to build upon. They couldn’t say the same about the Abyss, aka Dimension X, however, which was introduced in the final season and had to be designed from scratch.

“There was some talk about possibly filming it in the real desert,” Paterson says of the new alternate world. “In the end, the production logistics were too much, but that gave us a base of a look for it. We scanned and took as many reference photos as we could so that the rocks and the geography looked like a real place and not just a kind of mystery CG world.”

As fans know, no world in Stranger Things is ever void, as there are always monsters lurking nearby, namely Vecna. While the resident villain’s appearance in season five led to social media jokes about him being on Ozempic, Paterson clarifies that Vecna’s slimmer physique has to do with how he rebuilt himself after almost being destroyed by Eleven in season four.

Unlike previous seasons in which Bower wore full practical prosthetics, this time around the team relied more heavily on digital effects to accomplish his new look. “He is now much more monster than human, and he has caused that to happen. He created himself, really. So that’s what we’re seeing with all the vines and the way they move — you can see the blood going through them,” Paterson explains. “It’s an immediate signifier of how much more powerful he is now.”

That power was fully shown when it was revealed that Vecna was working as one entity with another massive monster, the Mind Flayer, whose scale was fully witnessed in the final battle against Eleven and the Hawkins gang.

“They wanted him as big as we could possibly get, but at a certain point you can’t film it. And it’s just so ridiculous that he would even notice the kids, much less get defeated by them,” Paterson notes of the cosmic CGI creature. “We went back and forth on that quite a bit and, after lots of motion tests and animation tests by Weta FX, we ended up where we landed with the size.”

Looking at the season as a whole, it’s easy to assume all the monsters and alternate worlds would be the most difficult to pull off. But for Paterson, the most challenging scene was the opening sequence with a young Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, who was only 11 years old when Stranger Things debuted in 2016.

“I felt so much pressure in that scene because we all know what he looked like,” Paterson admits. “He’s not in season one that much because he gets kidnapped, so we didn’t have a huge library of footage of him at that age. Weta was able to take every bit that we could find: outtakes, every press photograph, walking on the red carpet. They used all of it to build a young Will that looked like Noah.” 

With the help of Schnapp
and Luke Kokotek, a young stand-in actor, the VFX team was able to replace Kokotek’s face so he would appear as season one Will.

The scene serves as an emblem of the show’s 10-year journey. And with everything coming to a literal end in season five as the Upside Down — which has been a central part of the show throughout its run — gets destroyed behind Eleven in the finale, the VFX team had to leave audiences with a memorable last impression.

“When you see Hawkins High being destroyed and the Wheeler house, normally we try not to put too much detail into shots that are only going to be seen once, but it was worth it for that scene,” Paterson says. “It was a lot of fun going frame by frame and spotting all the little stuff that they built just to have it be destroyed.” 

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

The Fast and the Furious is turning 25, and to celebrate, the cast is dropping some franchise updates.

After a buzzy midnight screening at Cannes earlier this year, Universal is keeping the party going for the 2001 movie that started it all, including re-releasing The Fast and the Furious in theaters and hosting a special event in L.A. on Monday.

Looking back at the Cannes screening, Michelle Rodriguez told The Hollywood Reporter that she was “in awe at all the love that we got,” joking it was particularly powerful “with the studio heads present.”

“Sometimes you fight over things [with the studio] that seem silly, like standing your ground on ethics or morals. From a studio perspective or from a broad macro perspective, it’s like ‘Oh these guys are just criminals, what do we care if they have morals?’” she explained. “We fight for you to understand that it’s not always back and white, there’s always a grey area, and life is like that. All those fights kind of felt worth it” seeing the fan reaction, and long standing ovation, in France.

And after 10 movies over the last two and half decades, there’s an 11th — and allegedly final — on the way, set for release in March 2028. Star and producer Vin Diesel has already publicly gushed about the film, titled Fast Forever, online, calling it “the best script I have read in decades. I am still crying.”

Rodriguez said she has not yet read the script, but “if I have any wish for the last one, it’s that they bring it back to the community because that community has kept us alive for 25 years; it’s a global community, and it has to do with cars, not this 007, bring your cars to space shit,” referencing a plot line from F9. “Let’s get back to what it all started as — an article in the paper about the race scene, let’s go back there.”

Jordana Brewster echoed that she’s talked to Diesel about the new movie but hasn’t seen the script, with hopes that “we kind of go back to L.A., that would be really cool.” And as for if this final movie will really be the end of the film franchise, Rodriguez said, “It’ll be maybe the last one for us; we’re like a bridge to another generation, we’re passing the baton on. But I don’t know, you talk to Vin and maybe it’ll never end.”

On top of Fast Forever, there is also at least one Fast & Furious TV series in works, which will expand on the legacy characters. Brewster said of the pivot to TV, “I so admire the Taylor Sheridan universe, so I feel like we can really do that with television too.” She already has a series pitch ready, suggesting that her and Paul Walker’s characters “have a son and a daughter so I’d love to follow their trajectory and see what hell it is to raise kids that have Mia’s genes, Brian’s genes and Dom’s genes.”

Inside the L.A. screening, Diesel delivered a long and emotional speech for the crowd, saying that after the “amazing experience” of Cannes, “this studio said, ‘We’re going to take that experience and bring it back home.’ I thought that’s incredible, that’s everything.”

He also teased, “There’s going to be an emotion you have when you watch this film — start getting used to that,” ahead of Fast Forever. For the new movie, Diesel revealed “we went to four different writers, four years in development, and after I read the script, halfway through, one tear. By the end of the script, that we crafted and worked so hard to make right for you after four years, I was crying. And I couldn’t hold it back,” adding, “sometimes even the toughest guys in the world need to cry.”

Diesel closed with shouting out Walker’s daughter Meadow in the crowd and recalling how “25 years ago I was sitting in this row and I was sitting with Paul Walker,” calling their friendship the “greatest gift God could bestow upon you. So watch this movie and see where this eternal brotherhood started in every frame.”

Jon Bardin has a new title to match his expanding purview at Story Syndicate.

The executive has been promoted to president of documentary and unscripted at the Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan-founded company, Story Syndicate announced on Tuesday. Bardin has been with the production company, a powerhouse in the documentary scene, since its founding in 2019 and previously served as head of documentary and unscripted.

Bardin’s new role recognizes the additional responsibilities he’s taken on as he directs the company’s expansion into more recurring nonfiction shows like its series Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, whose second season premiered in July on The Roku Channel. Bardin also supervises the company’s equity fund, launched in 2025 to finance documentary films and series with commercial potential.

In his new role, Bardin will continue to report to Cogan, the company’s CEO. Bardin’s leadership team includes head of production and operations Tommy Coriale, vp of development Lianna Schwartzman, head of postproduction Casey Currier, head of business affairs Brendan Waterhouse and chief financial officer Celia Winchester.

“Jon was one of our first hires at Story Syndicate seven years ago, and his role has grown every year since. His brilliance, judgment, taste, great rapport with both filmmakers and platforms, and incredibly strong work ethic have all contributed enormously to our success,” Cogan and Garbus said in a statement. “Bottom line: we love working with Jon, and this new title recognizes the central role he plays in our nonfiction work.”

A Harvard graduate with a PhD in neuroscience from Weill Cornell Medical College, Bardin co-founded the nonprofit production company The Public Good Projects and worked as a vp of documentaries and specials at The Discovery Channel prior to joining Story Syndicate.

While at the production company, Bardin has produced Fauci, Mayor Pete, Sally, Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster and Maternal Instinct. He also served as executive producer on major projects like Britney vs Spears, Harry & Meghan and Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer.

“I am privileged to wake up every morning and go to work at Story Syndicate, and I’m deeply grateful to Dan and Liz for their mentorship — and for their trust in me as I step into this new role,” Bardin said in a statement. “There’s so much still to come, and I can’t wait to keep producing groundbreaking work in partnership with the incredible Story Syndicate team and the best filmmakers in the business.”

Phyllida Law, the Scottish actress of stage and screen and the mother of actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson, has died. She was 94.

Her death was announced by her manager, Jacky Leggo, who said in a statement that she “died supremely peacefully at home, surrounded by all her family.”

Law appeared with Emma in films including Peter’s Friends (1992), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) — both directed by then-son-in-law Kenneth Branagh — and Junior (1994), and they portrayed mother and daughter in The Winter Guest (1997), directed by Alan Rickman.

She acted alongside younger daughter Sophie in Jane Austen’s Emma (1996), starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and they would work together on TV series including Poirot, Midsomer Murders, Timeshift and Doc Martin.

Without her kids, she landed in features including The Time Machine (2002), Miss Potter (2006), Albert Nobbs (2011) and A Little Chaos (2014) and recurred as the aunt of Stephen Fry’s lawyer on the 2007-09 ITV series Kingdom.

She received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for her services to drama and charitable causes in 2014.

The daughter of a newspaperman, Phyllida Ann Law was born in Glasgow on May 8, 1932. She was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, intending to train as a stage designer before deciding that she wanted to act.

She appeared in Bristol Old Vic productions, married fellow actor Eric Thompson in 1957 and started showing up on television on programs including ITV Play of the Week, Dr. Finlay’s Casebook and Dixon of Dock Green.

She joined the original 1967 production of Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Death of Joe Egg when it made its way to the West End and in 1971 worked alongside Alec Guinness in John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father.

She later appeared in plays including Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus, Somerset Maugham’s For Services Rendered (for the National Theatre) and J.B. Priestley’s When We Are Married and played Jacqueline in the musical version of La Cage Aux Folles.

Law was married to Thompson until his death from a heart attack at age 53 in 1982, when Emma was 21 and Sophie was 18.

“We know mum so much better because we spent so much time together, we started going on holidays and traveling together, and we all live on the same street, within three doors of each other,” Emma said in 1997. “We’re far closer-knit because of [her dad’s] death in our lives.

“Also, we’re three actresses who always had to earn our own living, we’ve never been supported by anyone. My mum always worked, I always worked when I was married, and my sister works. So that’s created quite a strong kind of triumvirate.  It’s a little alarming, actually.”

Survivors also include her grandchildren, Gaia (an actress), Tindyebwa, Ernie and Walter.

What did you expect when Rosie O’Donnell was announced as making her talk show return by substituting for Jimmy Kimmel as a guest host on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live?

You probably expected O’Donnell, after leaving Donald Trump’s America for Ireland in 2025 ago in search of “a more peaceful life,” to come out swinging at the president. You probably expected O’Donnell to come across like how conservatives paint her — angry and strident, going full blast at Trump’s second-term corruption allegations and policy blunders.

What viewers got instead (video below) during the first night of O’Donnell’s weeklong stint, was so much better and more interesting, a monologue that said a lot about her and even more about what’s lacking in typical late-night discourse.

First, O’Donnell showed she hasn’t slipped at all since her days hosting her 1990s-era talk show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show. The 64-year-old radiated confidence and charm.

O’Donnell nodded to Trump at the start of her 15-minute opener, calling him “Mango Mussolini” and saying, “If you thought that the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, buckle up people!” Media writers covering the monologue predictably seized on those scraps for their headlines.

But the rest was almost entirely focused on O’Donnell’s fish-out-of-water experiences as an American settling into her new life in Ireland with her 13-year-old child. She told anecdotes about Ireland’s drinking culture, cab drivers, being a famous person abroad and, especially, her attempt to romance a kindly pharmacist.

The criticism has been made many times that current late-night shows, including NBC’s Saturday Night Live, are Trump-obsessed. They also tend to be obsessed with the media, Hollywood and breaking news, because that’s the world late-night hosts and writers know — and that’s what everyday conversations can sound like when you work in Los Angeles or New York.

Whereas O’Donnell’s monologue was refreshing fare because it was about living a normal-ish life and interacting with everyday people. She also, by and large, seemed rather happy — again, not a word that Trump supporters would typically associate with O’Donnell (or, for that matter, that Kimmel viewers would likely associate with Kimmel). The move abroad, it seems, has been good for O’Donnell, just as her friends have told reporters over the last couple of years.

At the end of the monologue, O’Donnell predicted Trump was going to be angry because she didn’t talk about him and perhaps so. She’ll surely have more to say about the president over the next few shows, giving Kimmel’s audience the latest red meat. But if the best revenge really is living well, then O’Donnell seems to have already gotten hers.