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No disrespect to Toronto, Vancouver, downtown L.A., Sydney or all the other cost-effective shooting locations that have stood in for New York onscreen, but people can always tell. Imagine if Scorsese had filmed Taxi Driver in Burbank or if HBO had shot Sex and the City in Atlanta. There’s no substitute for Gotham’s grit and glamour.

“New York is the greatest backlot,” says Robert De Niro, perhaps the most New York of New York movie stars, who was raised in the West Village, founded the Tribeca Film Festival and has been featured in numerous films that helped define the city. “Plus, we have the most extraordinary talent, whether it’s actors or craftspeople, above and below the line.” Film production in New York is an $82 billion industry, generating 185,000 jobs. And yet the city has long suffered from a scattered, largely ad hoc studio infrastructure — much of it...

PBS has looked into the future and set a premiere date and unveiled a trailer for its latest high-profile docuseries.

The network will launch A Brief History of The Future, which comes from Drake’s DreamCrew, Kathryn Murdoch and Ari Wallach’s newly-launched Futurific Studios and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, on April 3.

Watch the trailer above.

The six-part series is hosted by futurist Ari Wallach and the idea is that it will help viewers imagine – and work toward – a better tomorrow. The series challenges the dystopian framework embraced by popular culture by offering a new take on the future exploring potential solutions to existential threats.

It features insights from thinkers, scientists, developers and storytellers including French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur, musician Grimes, architect Bjarke Ingels, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and soccer player Kylian Mbappé.

The...

PBS is delving into the question – how can we become the great ancestors the future needs us to be? The public broadcaster is set to air A Brief History Of The Future, a new six-part non-fiction documentary series that explores how re-thinking tomorrow can bring long-term change.

Written and directed by Andrew Morgan and hosted by futurist Ari Wallach, the series, according to the description, “challenges the dystopian framework embraced by popular culture by offering a refreshing take on the future exploring potential solutions to our existential threats. The program invites viewers to imagine a world that is full of discovery, hope, and possibility – inspiring each of us to understand our power to shape the future that future generations need us to so they can flourish.”

Weaving together history, science and storytelling, each episode follows those who are working to solve our greatest challenges. Those featured in the docuseries include French President Emmanuel Macron,...

“It’s a reboot, really, because we’re in a whole different world,” says Emmy-nominated Westworld production designer Howard Cummings about season 3, which drops us right inside our world –the human one– outside Delos’ robotic theme park.

And to create a near future Los Angeles, and a near-tomorrow for San Francisco where the Delos HQ is located on the show, Cummings respectively synthesized both cities’ skylines with Singapore and Valencia, Spain.

It’s a world that’s geometric, clean, green, sleek, and organized in shape — a perfect place for host bot Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) to stomp on as she squares off to battle a megalomaniac Serac (Vincent Cassel) who wants control over human beings’ behaviors.

Cummings worked with Westworld VFX supervisor Jay Worth and Dutch architect Bjarke Ingels in creating a future where the hosts would wage a revolution. In creating the Los Angeles skyline, Cummings married the current...

Production design is not without its challenges, even on the best of days — and between dealing with tight deadlines, small crews and chasing a yacht around the European coast, the Emmy-nominated designers working on HBO shows this year certainly faced their share.

In a panel for TheWrap’s Virtual Screening Series on Wednesday, John Paino (“Big Little Lies”), Stephen Carter (“Succession”), Howard Cummings (“Westworld”), Eric Morrell (“Last Week Tonight”) and Kristian Milsted (“Watchmen”) discussed some of those challenges.

For Paino, who worked on the second season of HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” the difficulty was maintaining the look and feel of what was originally intended to be a limited series. With Andrea Arnold taking over as director from Season 1’s Jean-Marc Vallee, that also meant more significant time split between Los Angeles and Northern California as a stand-in for the show’s Monterey setting.

Also Read: 'Watchmen' Star...

You might have been shocked by the destruction of the theme park and the reveal of the real world at the end of Season 2 of “Westworld,” but not production designer Howard Cummings.

“It’s one of the reasons I signed on to ‘Westworld.’ It was that I knew this was coming, so we had been talking about it for a couple of years, so it wasn’t a surprise,” Cummings said during Gold Derby’s Meet the Btl Experts: Production Design panel (watch above). “I knew eventually the robots would get crazy and get out. The question is: What do they encounter? That kept evolving. I think the big challenge for that show is they were going into not a spaceship — the future was actually the real world and they were going in all different places. The challenge of that is: How do I take these normal locations and amp...

When Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan first introduced their version of “Westworld” on HBO in 2016, they brought to life a world that was inherently more technologically advanced than the real world. At first, that was depicted through the theme parks in the show, populated by actors playing robotic hosts perfectly designed to reflect a real human’s face, body, movements and personality. The implication was always that the larger world outside of the parks had come a long way. But in the third season premiere, the scope of that world was finally shown in earnest.

After the destruction of the theme park at the end of the second season, the characters who survived are now scattered in places including Los Angeles; London; and Beihai, China. Production was equally expansive, taking place in Valencia, Spain, as well as Los Angeles and San Diego.

The show’s outlook for the new world is somewhat hopeful,...

[Note: The following interview contains spoilers for the “Westworld” Season 3 premiere, “Parce Domine.”]

It was really only a matter of time before Nazis made their way into “Westworld.” In one of the big surprises from the HBO show’s Season 3 premiere, a post-credits scene re-introduces Maeve (Thandie Newton) into a terrifying new setting. No longer trapped inside the dangers of the Wild West, the parting sequence from this episode includes a dramatic zoom out of a city under siege, ending with the reveal of a Nazi flag.

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“Westworld” is far from the only TV show to bring fascism into its narrative — “The Plot Against America” premiere is coming roughly 24 hours later on the very same network — and series co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan said that prevalence...

The initial slate of Keynotes and Featured Speakers for 2019’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festival have been announced and they include Academy Award-nominated Jason Blum, Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson as well as Instagram CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom. The fest kicks off March 8 and continues through March 17, 2019.

Known for its diverse, collaborative and inventive community, SXSW presents ideas that encourage and empower its audience of creative professionals to achieve their goals. Other speakers announced include 2017 Time Person of the Year Susan Fowler; world-renowned architect Bjarke Ingels; artist and musician Amanda Palmer; co-founder of Upworthy and Fellow at the New America Foundation Eli Pariser; New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan; media theorist and author Douglas Rushkoff; Benevolent AI CEO Joanna Shields; futurist and author Amy Webb; and more.

SXSW Conference programming is organized into 25 tracks divided between Interactive, Film, Music, and Convergence, presented in a variety of session formats.

Jason Blum, Marti Noxon, Kevin Systrom and Shirley Manson have been selected as speakers at next year’s South by Southwest Conference.

The quartet were among the high-profile name announced Monday in the first wave of keynote and featured speakers for the 2019 conference, running concurrently with the SXSW Film Festival on March 8-17 in Austin, Texas.

Keynotes announced include Instagram CEO Systrom, interviewed by TechCrunch editor-at-large Josh Constine, and a keynote conversation between Shirley Manson, lead vocalist of the rock band Garbage, singer-songwriter Lauren Mayberry of the Scottish electronic pop band Chvrches, and writer, producer, and director Marti Noxon.

Among the featured speakers revealed are Jason Blum in conversation with John Pierson; writer and 2017 Time Person of the Year Susan Fowler; architect Bjarke Ingels; artist and musician Amanda Palmer; co-founder of Upworthy and Fellow at the New America Foundation Eli Pariser; New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan; media theorist...

Big Time directed by Kaspar Astrup Schröder screens Friday February 2nd through Sunday February 4th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts each evening at 7:30pm.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels is known as one of the world’s most inventive and sought-after architects, named to Time’s list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People and called “one of architecture’s biggest stars” by the Wall Street Journal. Ingels is a creative and influential force in modern building design. Big Time follows Ingels over 5 years as he struggles to finish his biggest project so far, Two World Trade Center, and shares Ingels’ creative processes along with the endless compromises that his work entails. The film also captures Ingels’ struggle with a health crisis that causes him to reflect on his priorities and threatens his success. The film is in English and Danish with English subtitles.

Grand ideas changing skylines and sidewalks take center stage in Big Time, an illuminating portrait of starchitect Bjarke Ingels. Directed by Kaspar Astrup Schröder, he rides shotgun for the young architect as he transitions his practice from Copenhagen to New York. The move, around his 40th birthday, is marked with some tension as his design from Big (Bjarke Ingels Group) has trouble retaining its European clients as Ingels puts down roots in North America. While here, he works on projects like Two World Trade Center with the Silverstein Properties group and West 57 with Durst Organization, which houses the only movie theater in New York City currently showing the film.

On camera these developers praise the Big’s team for their willingness to be flexible on these grand projects, while Ingels finds himself battling his patrons over oxidized vs. painted surfaces in a particularly fascinating scene as he expresses disappointment with...

The hits keep on coming. Both “The Disaster Artist” (A24) and “The Shape of Water” (Fox Searchlight) opened strong, despite the usual strong-fall off in post-Thanksgiving audiences. Last year the month of November saw only one specialized release, “Manchester By the Sea,” pull an opening platform per theater average over $60,000. This year has already seen five.

“The Disaster Artist” (in 11 markets) showed the best performance in New York/Los Angeles of any title this year (nearly $120,000 per theater), besting last weekend’s numbers for “Call Me By Your Name” (Sony Pictures Classics). They join other Oscar-bound strong openers including “Lady Bird” (A24) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight).

This marks unprecedented strength over such a short period, with “Lady Bird” and “Three Billboards” already performing well in wider release. At some point exhibitors are going to be challenged to handle so many hits (all will not go wide...

That filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schroder had uncommonly intimate access to his subject becomes apparent while watching Big Time. His documentary delivers a portrait of wunderkind Danish architect Bjarke Ingels as he leads his firm, the Bjarke Ingels Group (Big), through several landmark projects. Shot over seven years, the film occasionally gets bogged down in the sort of minutiae that would have been better left on the cutting room floor, but it also provides an insightful depiction of the personal and professional travails that inevitably accompany career success.

Among Ingels' noteworthy buildings in his native country are a Copenhagen power plant...

"To see abstract ideas become concrete reality is all it's about." Mongrel Media has released the first official trailer for a documentary called Big Time, telling the story or Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. You may not know his name, but he is well-known in the architecture world as a rising star. Ingels' company Bjarke Ingels Group (Big) was given the task of designing and building one of the skyscrapers which will replace Two World Trade Center in Manhattan. He has been named "one of architecture's biggest innovators" but that doesn't mean he takes his work lightly. The documentary lets us "into Bjarke’s creative processes as well as the endless compromises that his work entails, and we are on the side when his personal life starts putting pressure on him, too." An intriguing and intimate doc about an architecture virtuoso. Take a look. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Kaspar Astrup Schröder...

Exclusive: The innovative architect designed the new World Trade Centre.

Early in the market, documentary sales outfit Autlook is racking up deals on its new title Big Time.

The film gives an insight into the creative mind of prolific and innovative architect Bjarke Ingels, who designed World Trade Center 2, Google Headquarters Silicon Valley, The Smithonian Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur Signature Towers a.m.m.

Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schroeder follows Ingels over a period of six years.

MK2 Films confirmed it has taken Big Time for France and will give the film a theatrical release.

Madman in Australia plans to release the project in the late autumn. The Danish release will be handled by DoxBio.

Big Time is a Danish production, led by Sonntag Pictures (Cannes selected Armadillo by Janus Metz, Tribeca awarded Dance movie Bobbi Jene by Elvira Lind)

The new deals have been negotiated by Autlook’s Salma Abdalla on behalf of the filmmakers Sara Sonntag...

Documentary will premiere as a Special Screening at Cannes.

Vienna-based sales outfit Autlook Film Sales has picked up worldwide rights to Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut Sea Sorrow.

The documentary has been selected for Cannes Special Screenings and is framed as a personal meditation on the refugee crisis.

It features contributions from Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson, and is produced by Vanessa Redgrave and her son Carlo Nero of Dissent Projects.

“Vanessa Redgrave is an human rights campaigner who deeply cares about the situation of very young refugees,” Autlook Film Sales CEO Salma Abdalla commented.

“She investigates the role of Europe with a personal narrative that organically compares the situation of children during WWII with today’s situation.

“Sea Sorrow is a very moving and important film that will resonate with audiences all around the world.”

Autlook’s sales roster at Cannes includes three-time Tribeca-winning documentary Bobbi Jene, biography of ‘star-chitect’ Bjarke Ingels Big Time, and Goddesses...

“Abstract: The Art of Design” is not necessarily a show we’d recommend for binge-viewing. The new Netflix series, streaming now following its Sundance 2017 premiere, is far from bad. Executive produced by Morgan Neville, the documentarians assembled to capture the spotlighted subjects have done a masterful job, by and large, of highlighting the unique sort of artistry at work here. However, episode by episode, every installment strikes such a similar tone and mood that to truly appreciate the difference in aethestics and disciplines on display, you’ll want to space them out.

You might also favor certain installments over others, whether it be because of subject matter or the execution itself. We reviewed the first two installments last month, finding it to be a fascinating approach to the importance of design we might otherwise take for granted. But now that we’ve been able to see all eight episodes, we have our favorites.

Here at Et, we’re obsessed with a lot of things -- and for the week of Feb. 6 to 12, this is what we’re most excited about:

Why We’re Obsessed With ‘Legion’

Based on the Marvel Comics about a troubled young man who may be more than human, Legion follows David Haller (an unrecognizably skinny and funny Dan Stevens), a hospitalized schizophrenic who slowly learns the voices in his head are indeed real and he has the ability to absorb the superhuman powers of others. While Legion exists in a parallel universe to the X-Men films, don’t expect too much overlap. The producers say this show is focused on a character that has not been on-screen up until now. Oh, and did we mention that the show was created by FX wunderkind Noah Hawley, who has turned Fargo into an award-winning anthology series?

Legion premieres Wednesday, Feb. 8 on FX.

Why We’re Obsessed...

If you’ve ever been curious about what drives today’s leading designers to create and build many of the world’s greatest designs, now is your chance. In Netflix’s original documentary series, “Abstract: The Art of Design,” audiences will meet eight of the most creative thinkers and imaginative minds working in the world of art and design today.

From the shoes we wear, to the cars we drive and the buildings we see, art and design are everywhere in our lives. The docuseries will let you take a journey into their creative processes and explore their work, showcasing the designers as we discover how their innovative designs affect our every day lives.

The episodes will focus on the following artists: Bjarke Ingels (Architect), Christoph Niemann (Illustrator), Es Devlin (Stage Designer), Ilse Crawford (Interior Designer), Paula Scher (Graphic Designer), Platon (Photographer), Ralph Gilles (Automobile Designer) and Tinker Hatfield (Nike...

Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick. Morley Safer’s time at 60 Minutes is coming to an end.

RelatedMichael Weatherly Previews NCIS Exit: With Farmhouse Inferno, ‘The Fuse Has Been Lit’ for Dinozzo’s Send-off

On Wednesday, the veteran reporter announced his retirement from CBS’ Sunday-night news magazine – where, after 46 years, he ranks as its longest-serving correspondent.

CBS will honor the 84-year-old newsman with a one-hour special, Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life, this Sunday at 8/7c.

Safer’s first season as a regular 60 Minutes correspondent began in 1970 with a story about the training of U.S. Sky Marshals, and wrapped with his 919th...

Morley Safer, who has been with the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes since 1970, is retiring. The network said today that it will celebrate his career in an hourlong special titled Morley Safer: A Reporter's Life to air this Sunday after 60 Minutes. Safer's first season as a regular 60 Minutes correspondent began in 1970 with a story about the training of U.S. Sky Marshals. His final 60 Minutes report — number 919 — a profile of Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels, was broadcast in…...