Westworld season three ended with an apocalyptic big bang that will undoubtedly send season four into uncharted territory as we unearth new mysteries about what’s become of the world and hopefully learn a whole lot more about what Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) discovered in his extended time offline.

With the season finally dropping the veil on what the world outside of the park looks like, it was no surprise to see the acclaimed HBO series receive its third consecutive Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, and shortly thereafter, I was granted an exclusive opportunity to get on the phone with the series’ lead VFX supervisor Nhat Phong Tran from PIXOMONDO and talk to him at length about creating the unique world and vehicles of future Los Angeles.

In addition to Westworld, Tran has also worked on a number of prominent projects, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Oblivion, Fast Five, The Fate of the Furious, The Orville, and much more.

Check out our full interview below!

ROHAN: For our readers, could you briefly describe your role as VFX supervisor on Westworld?

NHAT PHONG TRAN: “We worked in collaboration with the VFX team at HBO on Westworld season three. My team at PIXOMONDO worked mostly on environments and the world builds, which the majority was to build the future world that we see outside of Westworld.“

ROHAN: How are your different projects assigned? Do you meet with individual filmmakers and pitch your vision or do they contract your company?

NHAT: “In this case, there was already a pre-established relationship with HBO. I’d worked with them already on previous seasons, so it was easy to keep that relationship going.“

ROHAN: What is your process like when beginning work on a new season? Do you work with conceptual artists early on to give the filmmakers a general idea of what things will look like or is it the opposite and you begin work after filming has started?

NHAT: “That’s a great question, especially for something like Westworld. They are always pretty good about getting us involved early and introducing us to a digestible amount of information to start out with.

As you know, it’s a very complex show and we don’t want to get confused with too much detail that we should not be focusing on, so yes, we were involved while they were still shooting, especially when there was shooting happening for an LED stage, which is pretty much an interactive backdrop of aerial footage. We got involved early on because that backdrop footage, mainly of Los Angeles, had to be augmented to become our utopian future Los Angeles.“

ROHAN:: Unlike the previous two seasons, this year, you actually had to create a futuristic city before ultimately destroying it. Where did look to for inspiration? I know the season was predominantly shot in Singapore, Shanghai, and Los Angeles, did you just look to preexisting architecture or decided to take things in your own direction?

NHAT: “A lot of inspiration was given to us from Singapore being one of the cities. The way the city is designed, it’s very well-balanced in terms of how it combines art with architecture as well as with nature. All of these elements combined makes the city much more enjoyable and more appealing for people to live in. You also don’t have anything petrifyingly pragmatic, so we used a lot of foreign architecture as reference and also the work of Bjarke Ingels, who’s a Danish architect and very well-known for his type of architecture, which kind of falls in line with the Singaporean as well.

We used those two sources as our inspiration for our designs, so what we did was we kind of analyzed the different buildings and molds. We looked a few more specific Singaporean buildings like the Marina One designed by Ingenhoven Architects and we just extrapolated from there to see what other buildings we could build that could fit in the same design language that were set by those inspirational references.“

ROHAN: Unlike most dystopian sci-fi worlds, the world we see in season three feels a lot brighter and more optimistic, albeit with its own dark undertone, but compared to something like Blade Runner, this seems like an optimal outcome for humanity moving forward. Was that a conscious decision you made going in?

NHAT: “Absolutely, that was something we very consciously decided to do. It is a very optimistic version of the world, technology has gone in the right direction, we make the right decisions about the environment, clean energy. It seems like people, well most of them, are really living a good life. That is really the world we wanted to portray, and that is why we consciously steered away from the more daunting future that you would see in like Blade Runner where things are overpopulated and it’s pretty dark and bleak. Instead, the thought was because of the technology, the right decisions were made and we managed to control a lot of events to set humanity and the environment on the right course.“

ROHAN: There’s a real standout sequence where Tessa Thompson’s character Charlotte Hale is in a vehicle when it explodes. Could you speak on working on that, if you did, and from the reel, it looks like the vehicles were fully digital? Was that the case?

NHAT: “That sequence with her getting blown up in the car, we unfortunately didn’t work on anything with the actors, but we did design the cars and all the flying vehicles. Those were all custom made. There was one car in particular that came from the art department very early on that we called the RideShare – it was the vehicle that they used a lot that was seen as sort of a futuristic Uber or Lyft.”

To better answer your question, a lot of the vehicles were custom made for us to use on the series, we actually used a concept Audi for the electric, self-driving car, but other than that, it was all digital.“

ROHAN:: In addition to Westworld, you’ve also worked on another new sci-fi project that explores unique worlds in The Orville. How does your approach different when working on a drama like Westworld versus a comedy like The Orville where Seth MacFarlane could dream up literally any scenario.

NHAT: “The Orville, it’s great! Westworld is very grounded in reality, and is essentially a futuristic take on how our world is now. The Orville takes us to places that don’t exist and like you said, Seth may come up with a planet or space anomaly that we’ll have to completely realize. The challenge is to visualize something that only exists in theory, which can be very exciting because you’re entering uncharted terrority.“

 

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The Batman trailer that premiered at DC FanDome on Saturday night got everyone talking (even Justice League: The Snyder Cut director Zack Snyder), but the visuals were a little murky, and that left some fans in the dark. Now, however, we have a crystal clear 4K version which makes it a little easier to see what this Dark Knight is getting up to in Gotham City. 

It’s obviously the same trailer, but we think you’ll appreciate checking this out, especially if you have a 4K compatible device. Eventually, the film will reach this format on Blu-ray and HBO Max, though the latter has yet to debut that quality of streaming for paying subscribers. 

The Batman promises to be an intense, gritty, gory ride, and it’s hard to believe it will have anything other than an R-Rating based on the level of violence seen throughout this teaser trailer. That’s not been confirmed, though, and it’s not something Reeves commented on during DC FanDome.

IGN has shared some shots from the trailer as well, which give us a much better look at characters like Batman, Catwoman, The Riddler, and Oz (who hates being called The Penguin, apparently).

Click HERE for more The Batman news from CBM!
 

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Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller has now confirmed that he is planning a Furiosa-centric prequel that’ll focus on a younger incarnation of the one-armed warrior before she became Immortan Joe’s most feared Imperator, and we may now have an idea of who Warner Bros. is hoping to cast as the movie’s male lead.

Tom Hardy’s Road Warrior won’t appear, but The Illuminerdi reports that a new character named Dementus will be introduced, and the studio is eyeing Marvel’s God of Thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth, to play him.

Dementus is said to be “breathtakingly handsome. An angel’s face, scarred by a deep forehead wound stitched together with shiny chrome staples.” The name and description would seem to suggest that this fella will be a villain, but that’s not specified here.

We have no idea if Hemsworth has been contacted about the role or not, but he certainly fits the bill. A previous rumor pointed to Game of Thrones and Eternals actor Richard Madden being on the studio’s radar for the same part.

As for Furiosa herself, the trades recently confirmed that Miller has had discussions with Killing Eve star Jodie Comer, but we haven’t heard anything since. The Fury Road spinoff is only in a very early stages of development (Miller has yet to begin shooting Three Thousand Years of Longing with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba).

We’re probably going to be waiting a while for official casting news, but keep an eye out for updates.

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Following Saturday’s DC FanDome, Zack Snyder joined The Reel in Motion podcast to discuss the day’s events. It was a big night for the filmmaker as he was able to share a trailer for Justice League: The Snyder Cut, and that sneak peek was set to “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. 

The first Justice League trailer was released during 2016’s San Diego Comic-Con, and Snyder confirmed that he’s been planning to use that tune for the past two years. 

“It’s something that I just felt like, you know, was right for this,” the filmmaker explained, noting that “it has significance beyond just the movie.” He didn’t elaborate on what that might be, but Snyder used the same song in 2008’s Watchmen, so he’s clearly a fan of the meaning behind it. 

The director was also asked to share his thoughts on the first teaser for The Batman and, like the rest of us, he loved it. “I don’t know yet what the rating is going to be, but I felt the same way. I actually just texted Matt [Reeves] after and I was like, ‘What the f***! This is cool! I loved it. I thought it was so cool. I thought it was the right direction and everything about it.”

“As far as just being a fan, it’s the kind of movie I want to see, so I felt like [two thumbs up].”

Justice League: The Snyder Cut is due to be released on HBO Max early to mid-2021, and The Batman was recently delayed from next June to October 1. 

Click HERE for more Justice League: The Snyder Cut news from CBM!

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As expected, the Elongated Man will be leaving Central City when The Flash returns to The CW. Actor Hartley Sawyer was fired from the DC Comics series after some racist and misogynistic Tweets from his past resurfaced, something which led to both showrunner Eric Wallace and star Grant Gustin issuing damning statements about those comments. 

Now, the former has weighed in on how the character will be written out of The Flash, telling Entertainment Weekly: “[We’re] going to treat it like we would if we were writing a comic book graphic novel. We’re giving the Elongated Man a bit of a rest for while. But we will leave the door open.”

“I’m not saying by any means that it’s the end of the character,” Wallace continued. “In fact, quite the opposite. We just don’t know when he will return, or in what form he will return.”

In other words, the Team Flash member is being put on the shelf for now, but when he does return, it’s likely to be with a new face and actor. That’s something the showrunner says we’ll get a taste of in season seven’s opening episodes.

“Ralph is a guy who can change faces and his appearance in many ways. Without giving any spoilers away, there are a couple of ways that we can have Elongated Man still appear in at least one episode this season to wrap that storyline up, that gets us what we need and still allows fans to say goodbye to the character, at least for the indefinite future.”

For those of you worried that this also means saying goodbye to Sue Dearborn, Wallace later confirmed that we’ll be seeing actress Natalie Dreyfuss “more than once this year, even without the Elongated Man.” However, you have to believe her story will have undergone some key changes.

How do you guys feel about plans for the Elongated Man’s departure in The Flash?

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The DCAU has received a fresh coat of paint, with a brand new animation style for Superman: Man of Tomorrow. The story takes us back to when Clark Kent is just starting out as Superman (Darren Criss), and being a newcomer for the Daily Planet. However, when a parasitic threat comes to harm Metropolis, Superman must fight his way through this challenge with the help of Martian Manhunter. 

So it’s a pretty basic plot, but one that fits perfectly for a young Superman who’s still adapting to the superhero life. That being said, the film makes sure it has entertaining characters to keep you engaged from beginning to end. Such as Lobo (Ryan Hurst), otherwise known as “the main man”, plays a good sized part in this. Honestly, he’s probably the MVP of the whole film. 

Like mentioned before, Martin Manhunter (Ike Amadi) is also a main character here, which makes Clark feel not so alone on the alien side of things in Metropolis. Last but not least, Lois Lane (Alexandra Daddario) tries her absolute best to get that juicy scoop. There isn’t a relationship between her and Clark yet, but if they plan to make a sequel, that would most likely be a direction they would go. 

While the action is far and few between, it’s well done and captivating. The film also has a chunk of heart in here that is essential to Superman as a character. His goody-two shoes, average joe persona is in full effect, and he gives a pretty touching speech at the end which puts the cherry on the top. Also, the voice acting was likable from top to bottom. 

Overall, nothing about Superman: Man of Tomorrow stood out in some amazing way, but it was a solid entry to DC’s bountiful list of animated movies. It understood what the Man of Steel is all about. If this is the new universe DC wants to start making their movies in, then so be it. There’s a lot of potential here, and starting things off with Supes just seems right.

8 out of 10

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