Film

Joseph Kosinski didn’t want to direct “F1” unless he was able to do it the hard way. That was the germ of an idea for what would eventually become one of the biggest hits of 2025: Create a movie about an underdog Formula One team that didn’t fake being at F1 races, but actually became a part of them.

“It was kind of like, ‘Yes, this is a little insane,’” said Kosinski, “‘but if we can pull it off, we’ll get something totally unique.’”

Kosinski doesn’t present as your average adrenaline junkie. He’s mellow and looks like he could work at a bank — in fact, he pursued architecture before finding a calling in film as a David Fincher protégé. Kosinski was trusted with blockbusters from his debut, 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” and in 2022 broke through with “Top Gun: Maverick,” which strapped Tom Cruise and other insurance liabilities into actual fighter jets as an alternative to relying on CGI.

“I think on ‘Maverick,’” Kosinski said, “I found out that the audience does appreciate when you shoot something for real. They can tell the difference between something done on a soundstage and done in a real situation. It’s something we are very attuned to and connect to.”

“F1” tells the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a leathery road dog of a driver who gets called back into Formula One by an old racing friend (Javier Bardem), who’s now the owner of a struggling team, desperate for a Hail Mary. The film is partially based in reality; the Hayes character is inspired by Martin Donnelly, whose promising career was cut short in 1990 by a gruesome crash. It’s also partially based in a fantasy in which someone old enough to have seen the 1966 epic “Grand Prix” in theaters would be allowed to sit in the driver’s seat of a modern F1 team.

Director Joseph Kosinski on the set of “F1.”

(Apple TV)

But the fantasy elements were designed to be offset by a hyperrealism that’s rarely afforded to film productions — not just in the ability to feature the actual teams and drivers, but also to film a significant portion of the movie at the races themselves. It helped that the production had Lewis Hamilton, one of the best drivers in the history of the sport, on board as a producer to help grease the wheels with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of F1. Even with Hamilton, though, Apple — which ultimately spent over $200 million on the movie — had to prove to the FIA that they could set up at an event like the fabled British Grand Prix at Silverstone and not cause a pileup.

“We had to rehearse the blocking and staging for about two weeks with a stopwatch in front of the FIA to prove to them that we could actually shoot a scene and get off the track before the race started,” said Kosinski, referring to a crucial scene when the characters played by Pitt and Tobias Menzies first meet.

Unlike “Maverick,” in which military pilots flew the jets, “F1” features driving from Brad Pitt and co-star Damson Idris, in some sense because it was the only way to get the shots they needed. “They’ve got four cameras in front of them that are whipping around and they’re having to do their lines and perform,” said Kosinski. “But mostly they’re trying not to die in front of 100,000 people.”

Every department — from the actors to craft services — had to learn how to operate at dangerous speeds and with higher stakes. Ben Munro, who did the production design with Mark Tildesley, explained that, normally, his department would have two weeks to build a set; in some cases on “F1,” such as a scene filmed at the McLaren headquarters, they would have just 12 hours, overnight.

“When you try to integrate with the real world, ultimate control becomes harder,” Munro said. “And as filmmakers, we’re used to being in ultimate control.”

The “F1” team developed new cameras to capture the film’s ultra-realistic high-speed racing.

(Apple TV)

The camera team too had to be adaptable and mobile (no VistaVision here), all while figuring out how to capture footage at 180 miles per hour that couldn’t be covered with more than a few takes. “First, we had to make a camera that didn’t exist yet,” said Claudio Miranda, the film’s cinematographer.

Miranda, who won an Oscar for “Life of Pi,” worked with Sony to develop small, agile “sensor-on-a-stick” cameras with Imax-worthy lenses to place around the cars. Coverage became essential — there were 16 camera positions to capture as much as possible. With both the racing itself and the hoopla around race weekend, the usual filmmaking mindset simply had to change: “I’m not always able to shoot sunset for this shot, or backlight for this quarter,” said Miranda, describing his thinking. “We traded all that in for the realism of the movie. But I think that’s unbeatable.”

Other than a few spinouts (and a stray Brad Pitt fan ruining a shot to get a selfie), the production was miraculously accident-free, despite taking almost two years to film. That may be due in part to the fact that, if you squint, it turns out that a film crew is similar enough to an F1 team to fit right in.

“Everyone had to be prepared for those nine-minute shoot windows in the same way that you’d have to be ready for a pit stop,” Kosinski said. “There was a really interesting kinship. And we really did feel like the 11th team after spending two seasons with them.”

The moment that sticks with Miranda is from the end of the production, in Abu Dhabi, when all the real F1 teams got their cars out for one grand scene together — a million-dollar setup, to undersell it by a few digits. “In the beginning, it did feel like we were this annoying little buzzard,” Miranda said. “I think that’s why I got really emotional when everyone wanted to help us out in the final race and bring the cars out. Because it felt like, at the end, we were kind of loved.”

Periodically, the Latinx Files will feature guest writers. Filling in this week is film reporter extraordinaire Carlos Aguilar.

With the explicit goal of making people laugh, the endearingly foul-mouthed Mexican American filmmaker Alejandro Montoya Marin is building an unpretentious body of work.

“There are far smarter people than me to make ‘Parasite’ or to make Yorgos [Lanthimos’] movies,” says Montoya Marin, 42, laughing during a recent video interview from his home in Los Angeles. “I want to entertain you for 88 minutes and have you come out and be like, ‘I’m going to recommend that to a friend.’ That’s it.”

It’s not that he lacks ambition.Montoya Marin, whose T-shirt is emblazoned with Hong Kong action film legend John Woo, feels secure in the type of storytelling that best suits his interest and abilities. And he’s taken a DIY approach to making films and promoting them so that they can reach audiences directly.

“Their job is to tell you no,” he says of decision makers in the entertainment industry. “But you have the ability to say, ‘F— you, I’m going to be creative. You’re not going to tell me when I can be creative.’ And that was always the mentality that I had.”

His third feature, “The Unexpecteds,” now available on streaming platforms, features a mostly Latino cast: Chelsea Rendon (“Vida”), Francisco Ramos (“Gentefied”) and Alejandro De Hoyos (“The Man From Toronto”) — as well as actor Matt Walsh in the lead role. Executive produced by independent cinema legend Kevin Smith of “Clerks” fame, the action comedy follows a group of everyday working people who take justice into their own hands after an online financial guru, Metal Mike (John Kaler), scams them out of their savings.

“I love underdog stories because I feel like I am one and there are so many people like that,” Montoya Marin says about “The Unexpecteds” and his other films. “Maybe there could be movies that can inspire them or make them feel good about themselves for a little bit.”

Born in Laredo, Texas, to parents from Yucatán and Mexico City, Montoya Marin owes his cinematic awakening to a disparate double feature that introduced him to the gritty dystopia of “RoboCop” and the heart-rending sentimentality of “Cinema Paradiso.”

He was about 7 years old and had tagged along with his uncle, who was taking a date to the movies, in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. “I didn’t understand [“Cinema Paradiso”] because it was in Italian and subtitled in Spanish. My Spanish wasn’t amazing then,” says Montoya Marin. “But I understood a lot of it, and that double feature did it for me.”

And thus, his topsy-turvy, multicity trail to the triumphs and pitfalls of moviemaking began. At 12, Montoya Marin moved from the U.S. to Merida, Yucatán, where he then made his first amateur short film inspired by the “Star Wars” universe.

He later studied marketing in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. To supplement his income during those days, Montoya Marin opened his own video store, which he called Quick Stop Video, in honor of Quick Stop Groceries, the convenience store in Smith’s “Clerks.” One day, an office opened across the street that had a sign that read “Go study in Canada.” Intrigued, Montoya Marin inquired about film schools, and was immediately enticed by Vancouver Film School, mainly because a young Smith had briefly attended there. He sold all his movies and, as an American citizen, got a student loan and moved to Canada.

Though they now have a close relationship, Montoya Marin’s father, a successful businessman, did not initially support his artistic aspirations, which caused conflict.

“My dad would go, ‘Bring those dreams down because the fall will be less hard,’ and I’d go, ‘F— that. Why?’” he recalls. “He told me, ‘If you go there I don’t want to see you. You’re not seeing the family.’ I was like, ‘OK, that’s a risk I have to take.’”

After graduating, Montoya Marin couldn’t afford to live in Los Angeles and instead moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where he worked for 13 years as a production assistant and as a commercial director. During that time, a career-altering opportunity came his way.

While in Europe shooting a project, Montoya Marin finished the screenplay for his first feature, “Monday.” The script earned him a spot in Robert Rodriguez’s reality show “Rebel Without a Crew,” which aired in 2018 on El Rey Network. Each participant had to produce their feature film with a budget of $7,000, the same amount of money Rodriguez made his debut, “El Mariachi,” for.

“It was a dream come true. Robert is very down to earth. You could tell he’s not bulls—. He doesn’t play the game,” he says. “We would be filming at three in the morning, y ahí lo veías trabajando.”

“I was honored to mentor Alejandro as he directed his very first feature film,” Rodriguez said in an email. “He had the true indie filmmaking spirit within him and inspired me right back! He’s a great representation of what audiences desire: authenticity and passion.”

After “Monday,” an action comedy centered on a man down on his luck who gets caught in a cartel war, Montoya Marin raised $60,000 via crowdfunding to make his sophomore effort, “Millennium Bugs,” a Y2K-set tale about two people coming of age as the world anticipates chaos. And while neither of those films had the impact he’d hoped for, that outcome did not deter him in the slightest.

“There’s no Plan B, compadre,” he said, laughing. “That’s why I can firmly just go headfirst because if I die on set, I will be a happy man.”

Montoya Marin met Walsh while shooting Eva Longoria’s “Flamin’ Hot,” where they both had acting parts. A friendship developed between them, and eventually the filmmaker offered Walsh the part in “The Unexpecteds.” Although he shot the film in 15 days, like his previous features, this time he had a more sizable budget (still under $1 million).

As part of its 2024 festival run, “The Unexpecteds” screened at Smith’s Smodcastle Film Festival in New Jersey, where it won the Best Comedy Award. It was there that Montoya Marin first connected with one of his heroes.

“Giving a platform to fledgling filmmakers with the Smodcastle Film Festival is meaningful to an old film fest kid, and if my name can help them open a single door, I’m happy to help,” Smith said. “But being involved with ‘The Unexpecteds’ does me more good than them. Attaching myself to a talent like Alejandro is a sure way to ensure I get to stick around in a business I’m getting too old for.”

The first time Montoya Marin met Smith in person was right before going on a news show where the two were supposed to have a joint interview to promote the film. It was there that Montoya Marin witnessed his hero’s walk-the-walk allyship in action.

Before going on air, the production informed Montoya Marin that they wouldn’t be able to have him do the interview. Only Smith would be on camera. “But to make it up to you guys, we’re going to make this a Hispanic Heritage Month themed segment,” the team told them.

That’s when Smith stepped in. “You’re going to put the white guy to come and promote Hispanic Heritage Month,” he said, according to Montoya Marin. “Kevin goes, ‘That’s stupid. I’m not doing that. Mic him up, because the filmmaker is the best salesman of a film.’” Smith was shocked at what the TV folks had tried to pull. “I told Kevin, ‘You were just witness of what they do to us without saying an insult. It’s just polite,’” Montoya Marin recalls.

Thanks to Smith’s intervention, Montoya Marin ultimately did the interview. “I fell in love with him even more,” he added.

Now that his most ambitious project yet is out in the world, Montoya Marin has multiple projects in the works, from a thriller to a comedy set in the ‘90s, and even a project that would allow him to shoot in Mexico. Like a good salesman, he has perfected his pitch.

“I’m dying to make a movie in Spanish. I already have the concept and some producers. I just need $1.5 million and I will give you one of the best comedies in Mexican cinema,” he declares. “And I’m not saying just to be m—, but I know I’m funnier in Spanish.”

Speaking with Montoya Marin, one gets the sense that he’s consistently trying to disarm you into rooting for him. It’s not manipulative but refreshingly sincere — and a bit brash. Getting behind him is a vote of confidence for independent cinema that doesn’t take itself so seriously. His humorous conviction and rousing spiel make one eager to believe him.

The American Cinematheque will screen “The Unexpecteds” on Dec. 13 at the Los Feliz 3, with Montoya Marin and Smith in attendance.

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.

Politics, immigration and foreign affairs

Arts, culture and entertainment

Twenty-five years ago (25!), I was talking with John Cusack about his movie “High Fidelity,” the one where he played Rob Gordon, a record store owner and compulsive list maker. We were batting around top-fives — Rob’s top five movies: “Blade Runner,” “Cool Hand Luke,” the two “Godfather” films and “The Shining” are as good a list as any — and I asked Cusack if he, like Rob, had a funeral music top five.

“‘Many Rivers to Cross’ feels like the perfect choice at No. 1,” Cusack answered, citing the great Jimmy Cliff’s enduring anthem of perseverance.

Now Cliff has crossed over to the other side, which makes it feel like a good time to cue up “The Harder They Come” — though there is never a bad time to play that trailblazing reggae soundtrack.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, thankful I can see clearly now the rain is gone. Let’s look at how box-office success is all relative these days when it comes to awards season.

With Oscar voters, box-office perception is reality

Misato Morita and Brendan Fraser in the movie “Rental Family.”

(James Lisle / Searchlight Pictures)

What movies are you seeing this Thanksgiving weekend? If you’re pushing aside the pie and leftovers, chances are you might be buying a ticket for “Wicked: For Good” or “Zootopia 2.” The “Wicked” sequel opened to an estimated $150 million last weekend, besting the original and making my optimistic forecast for its Oscar prospects look a little rosier.

Meanwhile, “Rental Family,” a sweet, superficial drama starring Brendan Fraser looking to savage your heartstrings once again, opened to just $3.3 million from nearly 2,000 screens. Even in a lead actor field that isn’t particularly deep this year, Fraser’s chances of returning to the Oscars are now pretty much nil.

“Rental Family” is the latest fall film festival awards contender starring an A-list (or A-list-adjacent) actor to disappear at the box office. The list includes “The Smashing Machine” (Dwayne Johnson), “Christy” (Sydney Sweeney), “After the Hunt” (Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield) and “Die My Love” (Jennifer Lawrence).

Going through these titles, you could make a case that moviegoers are simply showing discernment. None of the movies worked. Critics shrugged, and audiences responded in kind. Good on Johnson and Sweeney for using their star power to stretch, but when people are questioning if they can afford to eat out at McDonald’s, they’re going to need a reason to buy a ticket beyond mere curiosity.

The dead-on-arrival opening weekends of these movies have recast the lead actor and actress Oscar races, boosting anyone not stained by perception of outright failure.

But in this post-pandemic age of moviegoing, what constitutes success? Pushing through to December when the critics groups (as well as “critics” groups) start handing out awards and nominations, the goal is to convey an impression of success and hope that financial windfall might follow.

For example: Joachim Trier’s decidedly unsentimental family drama “Sentimental Value” has parlayed its strong word of mouth and critical acclaim to decent-enough ticket sales in its limited engagement the last two weeks. No one expects a Norwegian-language movie to burn up the box office. Doing fine is a victory.

Then there’s Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon,” a modest, moving portrait of legendary Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, which opened last month in five theaters, quickly expanded to nearly 700 screens before retreating to a few dozen. It didn’t flame out commercially but has grossed a mere $2 million. That’s … OK. The strong reviews for the film and its lead, Ethan Hawke, have kept Hawke in the conversation for his first lead actor Oscar nomination.

Is it fair that Hawke lives while Lawrence, Sweeney, Roberts and Johnson, whose movies opened wide to disastrous results, feel finished?

“Oscar voters aren’t going to watch a movie that has been deemed a failure,” says a veteran awards publicist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the situation candidly. “When people read those scary headlines opening weekend, they don’t forget.”

Oscar Isaac in “Frankenstein.”

(Ken Woroner / Netflix)

Netflix, which opens its contending films in qualifying releases before they land on the streaming platform, is mostly immune to this kind of negative publicity as it doesn’t report box-office numbers. But it will release the number of “views” its films rack up. Guillermo del Toro’s monster movie “Frankenstein” accumulated nearly 63 million views in its first 10 days; Kathryn Bigelow’s riveting thriller “A House of Dynamite” totaled 31.6 million in its first two weeks. (The company defines a view as the total time spent watching a movie divided by the running time.)

Guess which movie is currently Netflix’s perceived Oscar favorite?

The movie to watch this weekend then, in more ways than one, is Chloé Zhao’s celebrated drama “Hamnet,” which has piled up audience awards at film festivals the last several weeks. Focus Features is platforming it in 100-plus theaters, and if you live in Southern California, you won’t have to drive too far to see this beautiful story of love and loss and transcendent catharsis.

What narrative will emerge? I’ll write more about “Hamnet” on Monday. For now, get thee to a theater and let me know what you think.

“LADIES and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones!”

For decades, those six simple words have heralded the arrival on stage of the world’s greatest rock and roll band.

The announcement most likely paves the way for the raw, staccato thrill of Start Me Up, followed by at least two more hours of music mayhem.

It is the moment when all the work put in by the band’s creative director and lighting designer, Patrick Woodroffe, comes to fruition.

Since the 1982 tour supporting the Tattoo You album, Woodroffe and his team have been tasked with shining the spotlight on the Stones — literally.

It has been their job to showcase the swagger of Mick Jagger, the laid-back riffing of Keith Richards, the playful interaction of Ronnie Wood and the effortlessly cool drumming of the late Charlie Watts.

bowing out

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NEP-OH NO

Rock star’s nepo baby son plays tambourine in band – can you guess who he is?

Things always go wrong on some level!

Woodroffe

We know ever-energetic Jagger struts across cavernous stages in front of vast crowds, but Woodroffe says: “Keith once told me that Mick could perform on a coffee table, and it would still be great. Our job is simply to provide a setting in which he can work.”

Although the Stones’ age-defying shows continue to this day, fans and casual observers alike are being invited to step back in time to 1990 for what the band calls “a bigger, louder and more immersive” experience.

From December 10, the fabled film, Rolling Stones — At The Max, returns to select IMAX and Cineworld venues across the UK.

‘Visual narrative’

First released in 1991 and now remastered, it captures the previous year’s Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour in all its raging glory and is also notable for the final performances with the band of bassist Bill Wyman.

The film was shot in three European cities, London (Wembley Stadium), Turin and, less than two months before the reunification of Germany, East Berlin.

Using eight IMAX cameras, it was the first full concert movie to be shown on the giant screens and featured a typically storming set.

Rocking live staples were present and correct — Honky Tonk Women, Sympathy For The Devil, Street Fighting Man, Brown Sugar and the Stones’ favourite finale (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

Jagger gives a vocal masterclass on mid-Sixties classics, Ruby Tuesday and Paint It Black, while Richards takes his customary turn at the mic for a rousing Happy.

There’s room for live rarity 2000 Light Years From Home, which first appeared on the Stones’ psychedelic 1967 outing, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

And for several tracks on newly minted Steel Wheels — Sad Sad Sad, Rock

And A Hard Place, and a wild, experimental sonic adventure called Continental Drift.

So, which songs in the live repertoire make for particularly dramatic visuals?

“Certain numbers are considered production numbers,” says Woodroffe.

“Sympathy For The Devil is a good example as is Gimme Shelter.

I met Mick for the first time that night in a tiny dressing room under the stage just before the show

Woodroffe

“These are powerful songs, typically longer than most, which allow time to build a visual narrative. For Sympathy, we set the stage on fire! Not literally of course, but smoke machines, flame effects and pulsing red lights give a pretty good impression of it.”

To celebrate the 2025 At The Max refresh, I’m speaking to Woodroffe about his association with the Stones, which stretches back to the early Eighties.

He recalls his initial dealings with Jagger and Co: “The first show I ever made for the Rolling Stones was at the Capitol Theatre in Aberdeen in the summer of 1982.

“It was also the first show for our musical director, Chuck Leavell. So he and I share the distinction of being the longest- serving Stones employees, something we are both very proud of.”

Woodroffe remembers a fateful encounter in that north-eastern corner of Scotland: “I met Mick for the first time that night in a tiny dressing room under the stage just before the show.

“His only direction to me then was, ‘Bright for the first numbers and darker for the ballads’. Not bad advice and something I have followed for the last 45 years.”

So, I venture, how involved have the band members been in the process of designing, lighting and staging a show?

He replies: “Mick and Charlie have been the most involved with helping our set designer Mark Fisher to develop designs for tours. But Ronnie and Keith have also been very aware of the stages on which they perform.

“Keith always refers to the stage as ‘The Office’.”

I always watch a Stones show in two very distinct ways

Woodroffe

Next, Woodroffe talks of the strong rapport he has built up over the years: “Much of the success of the relationship I have with the band is simply based on longevity.

“There is a real shorthand and understanding of what we’re all doing to create these shows, so communication is easy.

“But I’m also genuinely enthusiastic about my work and I think that probably has some resonance with the band.

“I’ve always loved their music — and having a job that allows me to be a part of their world is hugely gratifying.”

Over the years, Woodroffe has learned how to highlight the band in different settings.

“I always watch a Stones show in two very distinct ways,” he says.

“The first is to make sure that our part of it is right in terms of the lighting, the staging and the video content.

“The second is to understand the audience who come to watch the band — and that changes every night.

“An audience of 60,000 in a giant stadium in Tokyo is a very different beast from a club show in Paris or a run of shows at Madison Square Garden.

“It is how an audience acts, how they respond to the band emotionally and, more to the point, how the band responds to them.

“That is something that’s unique from show to show.”

This brings us to the challenges of staging the 1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours with At The Max in mind.

Woodroffe says: “Stones shows are often filmed for either live broadcast or simply as a record of a tour.

“Each time, lighting and the staging is adjusted to capture the show on film but, for the IMAX project, we were in unknown territory.

“No one had done anything like this before and everything was different, particularly the cameras themselves, which were enormous and took three people to run them.

“The film cartridges also only lasted 12 minutes, at which point another three people had to reload the film canisters.

‘Huge spectacle’

“Unlike a normal video shoot where a TV monitor can show us instant results and can therefore be adjusted on the fly, the IMAX system had no facility for this.

“Instead, we would shoot something one night, the film would then be flown to the States to be processed, then flown back again to Europe where we would have to find an IMAX cinema near wherever we were touring.

A Stones performance is an interesting mix of huge spectacle — sound, light, video and pyrotechnics — with intimate performance where the heart and soul of this extraordinary band is there for all to see

Woodroffe

“Then we’d go to watch the rushes at one o’clock in the morning when the theatre was empty!”

Next, I ask Woodroffe how he and his team went about achieving the right atmosphere for such big screens?

He answers: “A Stones performance is an interesting mix of huge spectacle — sound, light, video and pyrotechnics — with intimate performance where the heart and soul of this extraordinary band is there for all to see.

“Getting that balance right is key to a successful concert and, on the IMAX film, we achieved that with real success.

“With all the talk of immersive experiences, At The Max is as immersive as it gets.

“You really do feel as if you were there and the Rolling Stones are performing just for you!”

Like the rest of us, the Stones and their production team are only human, so I’m keen to find out if things ever go wrong.

“Things always go wrong on some level!” says Woodroffe. “But it’s usually quite easy to hide them. Even something as obvious as a microphone going down can easily just be considered part of the energy of a live performance.

“But, in the 45 years I’ve worked with the band, we’ve never lost a show because of a technical issue.

“After all, that famous mantra ‘the show must go on’ applies to us as much as anyone.”

Woodroffe’s career goes back to 1973 and he has lit and directed shows for many artists who sit at rock and pop’s top table.

Among them are AC/DC, The Police, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and Lady Gaga — but who are his favourite artists to work with, aside from the Stones, of course?

‘My soundtrack’

Woodroffe tells me: “All an audience ever wants to see from an artist or a performer is authenticity.

“However staged or considered or planned a concert might be, it is that connection between the artist and audience that matters — more than any special effect or fancy costume. And the Stones are nothing but authentic.

“I think Stevie Wonder is probably the one other artist that I felt the most connected to other than the Stones, which is of course ironic as Stevie has never seen my work.

“But his music was the soundtrack of my life and growing up. So, to be a part of interpreting that with light and colour, helping him to share it with an audience, was a privilege.”

Woodroffe reserves his final comment for the Rolling Stones, giving a clue to his strong and enduring relationship with them.

“I consider myself a fan and a friend.”

Like the rest of us, the Stones and their production team are only human, so I’m keen to find out if things ever go wrong.

I consider myself a fan and a friend

Woodroffe

“Things always go wrong on some level!” says Woodroffe. “But it’s usually quite easy to hide them. Even something as obvious as a microphone going down can easily just be considered part of the energy of a live performance.

“But, in the 45 years I’ve worked with the band, we’ve never lost a show because of a technical issue.

“After all, that famous mantra ‘the show must go on’ applies to us as much as anyone.”

Woodroffe’s career goes back to 1973 and he has lit and directed shows for many artists who sit at rock and pop’s top table.

Among them are AC/DC, The Police, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and Lady Gaga — but who are his favourite artists to work with, aside from the Stones, of course?

‘My soundtrack’

Woodroffe tells me: “All an audience ever wants to see from an artist or a performer is authenticity.

“However staged or considered or planned a concert might be, it is that connection between the artist and audience that matters — more than any special effect or fancy costume. And the Stones are nothing but authentic.

“I think Stevie Wonder is probably the one other artist that I felt the most connected to other than the Stones, which is of course ironic as Stevie has never seen my work.

“But his music was the soundtrack of my life and growing up. So, to be a part of interpreting that with light and colour, helping him to share it with an audience, was a privilege.”

Woodroffe reserves his final comment for the Rolling Stones, giving a clue to his strong and enduring relationship with them.

“I consider myself a fan and a friend.”

NEW YORK — After President Trump’s reported intervention, Paramount Pictures is set to distribute Brett Ratner’s “Rush Hour 4,” a project that Hollywood had eschewed after earlier sexual misconduct allegations against the director.

Paramount Pictures on Tuesday was in closing talks to distribute the film, according to a person close to the negotiations who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to announce a deal. Paramount would be stepping in to take a distribution fee on the film, not finance it.

In 2017, during the #MeToo movement, six women said Ratner sexually harassed them in a Los Angeles Times report. Warner Bros., which had a $450-million co-financing deal with his production company, severed ties with Ratner. Ratner, who denied the allegations, hasn’t produced a film this decade.

But on Sunday, Semafor reported that Trump personally requested Paramount take on “Rush Hour 4.” Paramount recently merged with Skydance in an $8-billion deal that required regulatory approval from the Trump administration. Trump has praised the studio’s new chair and chief executive, David Ellison, the son of Oracle executive chair and prominent Trump supporter Larry Ellison.

The White House didn’t immediately comment Wednesday.

Ratner had been shopping “Rush Hour 4” after Warner Bros., which released the three previous films in the franchise, passed on the project. The movie would reteam Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in the action-comedy series launched in 1998, with sequels in 2001 and 2007.

Ratner has managed to get one other film made: a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump. Earlier this year, Amazon MGM Studios acquired the film for a reported $40 million. It’s set to open in theaters Jan. 30.

Coyle writes for the Associated Press.

It’s awards season crunch time, in the sense that I’m crunching in as much work as I can before a Thanksgiving respite — including a guide to some of the highlights from this week’s issue of The Envelope, covered by my profile of Renate Reinsve.

Whether it’s while you smell turkey legs being turned into gravy (i.e., if you’re me as I write this) or as you’re lounging around over the holiday weekend, I hope you’ll dive into the great stories below. And be sure to take a breather from the mayhem in the process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

Digital Cover: Ethan Hawke

(Victoria Will / For The Times)

In the years since the Golden Age of TV, it’s not been uncommon for actors to vie for major awards on both the big and small screens at once. But few in recent memory have done so in such distinct projects as Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon” and “The Lowdown”: One is a chamber drama about the last days of legendary songwriter Lorenz Hart, the other a noirish tale of a hangdog journalist.

It’s a reflection of the actor’s voracious appetite for the unexpected (see also: “Black Phone 2”), which he reveals that some in Hollywood once found “irritating.”

“Generally, people are more comfortable when they know exactly what you are and what your thing is, and if you keep changing your thing it’s confusing,” he tells writer Emily Zemler. “But it’s always been interesting to me to do different things. It makes acting really exciting to me to keep shaking it up. Each thing has its own geometry and math, and that keeps you really engaged.”

Eva Victor on ‘Sorry, Baby’

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

One of my favorite films of the year, “Sorry, Baby” works on many levels — as a campus satire, a portrait of a friendship, a slice of small-town life. And as writer-director-star Eva Victor writes in a new essay on the film, it took all of those other levels to make the film’s deepest, darkest level possible.

“There was a time in my life when I was looking for a film about going through a trauma that held my hand while I was watching it,” Victor notes, contrasting “Sorry, Baby” with films that depict similar subjects with violent imagery. “I needed the film to care for me, the person who’d been through the difficult thing. I didn’t need a film that existed to teach people how bad it is to go through a bad thing, I needed a film that existed to make me feel less alone.”

How ‘F1’ became a part of F1

As an avowed fan of Formula One, from docuseries “Drive to Survive” to scripted miniseries “Senna,” what fascinated me most watching Apple TV’s summer blockbuster “F1” was the delicate logistical dance it must’ve required to shoot a major theatrical film at actual races on the actual F1 circuit. Maybe that’s my stressed-out editor brain at work, but I asked Nate Rogers to dig into the question.

He reports back that even with legendary racer Lewis Hamilton and Apple on board, the film had to prove “that they could set up at an event like the fabled British Grand Prix at Silverstone and not cause a pileup.”

“We had to rehearse the blocking and staging for about two weeks with a stopwatch … to prove to them that we could actually shoot a scene and get off the track before the race started,” director Joseph Kosinski tells Rogers.

I can recognize a tough deadline when I see one.

Additional highlights from our Nov. 25 issue

At the Beijing premiere of “Zootopia 2” last week, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush encountered a wall filled with letters from people throughout China, all writing about what the original 2016 animated movie meant to them.

They highlighted the optimism of rabbit cop Judy Hopps and how they wanted to emulate her sunny outlook. They cited the unlikely friendship between Judy and her partner in crime, a fox named Nick Wilde, as hope that they could find common ground with different family members. It was a display Bush didn’t see at any other premiere.

“It’s more than just a story,” said Bush, who wrote and directed “Zootopia 2,” directing alongside Byron Howard. “A lot of the time, these characters have helped people through difficult moments of their life. They have a lot of love for these characters.”

To this day, the original “Zootopia” ranks as China’s highest-grossing Hollywood animated film, with a total box office haul there of $236 million. Marketing ahead of the new film has included promotions with 10 brands, as well as displays throughout the country, including in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Beijing.

But over the years, the China market for U.S.-made films has changed dramatically, leading to questions about whether “Zootopia,” which heads to theaters Wednesday, and its loyal following can break through the more difficult landscape that American movies face there today.

Once seen as a major — and lucrative — destination for big Hollywood blockbusters, the country now has a more robust local film industry that’s pumping out strong competitors. The fraying geopolitical relationship between the U.S. and China also hasn’t helped, nor has the increasing trend of younger audiences watching short-form content on their phones.

“It’s important to the industry that both ‘Zootopia’ and ‘Avatar’ work,” said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios, referring to the upcoming James Cameron-directed “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” “The overall industry needs some success at year-end, and I think this would be a tremendous sign of confidence in the marketplace.”

China was once seen as a gold mine for certain films — namely, big studio movies — that could get approval from its government for release.

A decade ago, Hollywood movies would regularly haul in more than $100 million at the Chinese box office, with massive blockbusters like 2015’s “Furious 7” and 2014’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction” drawing north of $300 million each. Some films with softer domestic debuts could count on China to supersize their box-office returns, like 2016’s “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” which grossed nearly $160 million in China alone, but just $26.8 million in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2016, the domestic Chinese film business saw a significant slowdown in box-office growth. As a result, revenue from imported films — largely those from the U.S., such as Universal Pictures’ “Warcraft” and Disney-owned Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Civil War” — increased by 10.9%, said Ying Zhu, author of “Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market.”

Those foreign films accounted for 41.7% of the total market share at the time, up from 38.4% in 2015, she wrote in an email. To help boost year-end revenue, Chinese regulators even relaxed the so-called blackout on imported films during December, which was traditionally saved for local movies.

“Zootopia” opened in China to just $22 million at the box office, but momentum grew in subsequent weeks. Though a movie from the U.S. typically got a four-week run in China, Chinese regulators made an exception and added two extra weeks, said Bush, who co-directed and co-wrote the 2016 film.

“‘Zootopia’ was somewhat of a real surprise to us here in China,” he said on a video call from Beijing while on the film’s publicity tour. “We didn’t know that it was going to turn into this phenomenon here.”

Known in China as “Crazy Animal City,” the film’s dynamic between lead characters Nick and Judy and their imperfect but caring relationship appealed to Chinese audiences, as did Judy’s backstory of moving from a small town in the countryside to a major metropolis, Bush said. Animated films have also long been popular in the market.

After the film’s success, Disney built the “Zootopia”-themed land in Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2023 and is the only such land in any Disney park. The studio recently held the movie’s Shanghai premiere at the themed land, as crowds of fans (both there and in Beijing) dressed up as characters from the film, including lesser-known ones like Fru Fru the shrew and Officer Clauhauser, a pop culture-obsessed cheetah.

But since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, China has pulled back from its embrace of Hollywood films, particularly as its political relationship with the U.S. has chilled.

Earlier this year, China planned to reduce the number of Hollywood films it allows into the country, amid tariff tensions with the U.S. At the same time, China’s homegrown film industry has matured, leading to more locally-produced movies at the box office. A notable success was the animated hit “Ne Zha 2,” which raked in almost $2.2 billion worldwide, $1.8 billion of which was in China.

And similar to the U.S., the Chinese film market has also been dented by the growth of short-form content and increasing popularity of watching entertainment on phones and tablets, keeping theatergoers at home.

That’s all meant a less reliable haul for U.S. films. So far this year, the top-grossing American film in China was Universal’s “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” which brought in $79 million — a far cry from the massive returns some U.S. movies once commanded. The last Disney film that was released in China and made more than $100 million was 2024’s “Alien: Romulus.”

But there are still niches that appeal to Chinese audiences, including family movies, big blockbusters laden with special effects and animated franchises. Cripps said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the film’s reception in China, because of the franchise recognition and the themed land in Shanghai.

“Given what’s happened over the last two to three years, it’s hard to get overly excited until you see some actual data,” he said. “But certainly, it feels good going into it.”

Great documentaries are sometimes lucky accidents, the product of being at the right place at the right time and then having the wherewithal to produce something extraordinary out of those unlikely circumstances. When director Julia Loktev traveled to Russia in October 2021, all she wanted was to chronicle a handful of smart, dogged journalists trying to tell the truth who, for their trouble, had been branded foreign agents by Vladimir Putin’s vindictive government. She didn’t know she would be arriving mere months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But thanks to a quirk of coincidence, she ended up having a front-row seat to history.

She made the most of it: Running five-and-a-half hours without a minute wasted, “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” takes us inside TV Rain, one of Russia’s last independent television channels. Divided into five chapters, the documentary begins as Loktev, who was born in the former Soviet Union before leaving when she was 9, returns to her homeland armed with an iPhone to shadow veteran TV Rain reporter and host Anna Nemzer. Over the next four months, a period that ended shortly after the invasion began, Loktev embedded herself not just with Nemzer (who is credited as the film’s co-director) but several other journalists as they fear being arrested for their reporting.

Loktev hasn’t completed a film since 2011’s “The Loneliest Planet,” which starred Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as soon-to-be-wed lovers backpacking through the Georgian countryside, their seemingly close bond shattered after a harrowing encounter. In that movie and her previous feature, 2006’s “Day Night Day Night,” a spare procedural about a nameless suicide bomber in New York, Loktev explored the mysteries of human behavior under pressure. But with “My Undesirable Friends,” she takes that fascination to a new level, introducing viewers to a group of compelling subjects, many of them women in their 20s, who open up in front of her camera while hanging out at TV Rain, their apartments or in cafes, candidly processing their country’s terrifying descent into authoritarianism in real time.

These intrepid journalists couldn’t foresee the invasion that was coming, nor the brutal local crackdown on free speech in its wake, but Loktev makes those dire certainties clear from the start, solemnly intoning in voice-over, “The world you’re about to see no longer exists.” Since its premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival, “My Undesirable Friends” has been compared to a horror movie and a political thriller but perhaps more accurately, it’s a disaster film — one in which you know the characters so intimately that, when the awful event finally occurs, you care deeply about the outcome. (“My Undesirable Friends” bears the subtitle “Part I” because Loktev has nearly finished a second installment, which catches up with the women after they fled Russia.)

In its avoidance of interviews with experts or historians, the documentary offers a kind of personal scrapbook of Loktev’s subjects, showing what everyday life is like in an oppressive society: strikingly banal with a constant background hum of paranoia. Each woman comes into empathetic focus. Nemzer, who is a little older than her colleagues, balances her demanding job with marriage and motherhood. Meanwhile, her younger co-worker Ksenia Mironova keeps diligently filing stories despite her fiancé, journalist Ivan Safronov, being imprisoned for more than a year. (He would subsequently be sentenced to 22 years.) Investigative reporter Alesya Marokhovskaya has a girlfriend, whose face we never see, and eventually details grim memories of a violent childhood. And then there’s Marokhovskaya’s best friend and partner Irina Dolinina, who combats anxiety while her politically unconscious mother harangues her about not being able to find a man now that she’s been labeled a foreign agent.

The stress and uncertainty of these conversations is palpable but, remarkably, so is a spiky sense of humor. When a co-worker is temporarily locked up, Mironova cracks jokes outside his prison while awaiting his release. The journalists wear their foreign-agent designation as a badge of honor, mocking the comically lengthy disclaimer text they’re forced to run with their broadcasts, a pitch-black coping mechanism to make sense of their tense, surreal moment.

“My Undesirable Friends” captures dark times with some of the funniest people you’d ever hope to have as sisters-in-arms. Defiant, emotional and life-affirming, the film presents us with endearing patriots who love their country but hate its leaders, sucking us into a riveting tale with a powerful undertow.

The audience anticipates the frightening future that awaits these journalists, which makes their relentless advocacy all the more moving. If our 20s are a period of unbridled optimism — a hopefulness that slowly gets beaten out of us as we grow older — “My Undesirable Friends” stands as a touching display of the resilience of youth. There is nothing naive about these women who came of age during Putin’s cruel regime, but they nonetheless believe they can change things. While Loktev rarely inserts herself into this epic, we feel her admiration from behind the camera. The film inspires while it challenges: What were any of us doing at that age that was comparably heroic or meaningful? What are we doing now?

Those questions should stick in the craw of Americans who watch this masterwork. Loktev has made a movie about Russia but its themes spread far beyond that country’s borders. During a year in which the worst-case scenarios of a second Trump presidency have come to fruition, “My Undesirable Friends” contains plenty of echoes with our national news. The canceling of comedy shows, the baseless imprisonment of innocent people, the rampant transphobia: The Putin playbook is now this country’s day-to-day. Some may wish to avoid Loktev’s film because of those despairing parallels. But that’s only more reason to embrace “My Undesirable Friends.” Loktev didn’t set out to be a witness to history, but what she’s emerged with is an indispensable record and a rallying cry.

Disney’s latest animated film, “Zootopia 2,” a sequel to its 2016 box-office juggernaut, isn’t exactly an adult political drama, though the stakes certainly feel grimmer. Members of Zootopia’s elite plan to expand their territory by displacing certain indigenous animals from an area they want to claim for themselves. And they will do so without pushback by convincing the rest of the population that their uprooted neighbors are dangerous. Any attempt by the victims of this injustice to reclaim their homeland and their dignity will be deemed a violent attack. In turn, anyone who sides with their cause will be labeled a criminal enabler, a disloyal pariah.

Meanwhile, tensions flare in law enforcement as pawtners Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps (voiced by Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin) — who in the previous film saved Zootopia from a power-hungry wolf in sheep’s clothing — have to prove their compatibility after their recklessness lands them in hot water with Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). Could their personalities be too disparate for them to make a dream team? Judy values justice above all things, while Nick prioritizes survival and comfort. In truth, the tie-wearing fox only became a cop because of his fondness for Judy, not out of a sense of dutiful conviction.

That push-and-pull tests the strength of their bond as they visit previously unseen areas of Zootopia, including a visit to the Marsh Market, where exiles live. These adventures occur as they search for Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), a fanny-pack-strapped viper, and Pawbert Lynxley (Andy Samberg), the socially conscious son of a wealthy family. They’re on a quest to find evidence that would clear the reputations of reptiles in Zootopia, all of whom have been forced to exist on the outskirts for decades.

Writer Jared Bush, who also co-directs with Byron Howard (both return from the first “Zootopia”), leans into Quan’s personal history as an immigrant whose family had to escape Vietnam to render Gary a resilient survivor with a noble soul. Leave it to Disney to make a giant snake look disarmingly adorable and to Quan to match that energy with his warm vocal performance. On top of the new characters, Judy and Nick’s emotional arc is adorned with cameos from fan-favorite minor players from the original (Flash, the sloth; Mr. Big, the shrew). The loaded narrative robs the picture of more time with Gary and Pawbert, even if Bush finds plot-effective ways to feature the supporting mammals.

Like its predecessor, “Zootopia 2” impresses visually, especially given the breadth of characters and environments it immerses the audience in. In the faces of new characters like the anxious Pawbert and friendly Gary, one can best appreciate the level of nuanced expressiveness that Disney’s animators, working at the highest level of 3-D CG technique, can achieve.

After several haphazard attempts with the “Frozen” and “Moana” franchises, “Zootopia 2” can take the title as Disney’s most effective animated sequel yet. In most regards, the formula that propelled the first one to hit status remains unchanged: an encyclopedia of animal puns, an upbeat tune by Shakira and a twist villain (in this case, an Elon Musk type desperate for approval that all the money in the world can’t buy). And yet, “Zootopia 2” arrives as an expansion with a punchier, more focused approach to its mature ideas. This is a movie where the antagonists are willing to kill for their nefarious goals, and where the heroes are willing to die in order to uphold what’s right.

The more one reads into the movie’s timeliness, though, the more obvious it becomes that there’s a dissonance between the artists making an animated feature such as this one and the company’s leadership, which continues to push artificial intelligence and capitulate to those who bemoan “wokeness.” Those people might certainly find “Zootopia 2” rather woke indeed. (Who knows, maybe in the next installment Judy and Nick will question their role in perpetuating the police state.) In our bizarro world, the “Zootopia” franchise serves as a vehicle for thought-provoking subjects disseminated by way of colorful anthropomorphic animals.

German actor Udo Kier, a film veteran whose diverse body of work spanned from Lars von Trier tragedies to “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Blade,” has died. He was 81.

A ubiquitous avant-garde film star, Kier died Sunday morning, his partner, Delbert McBride, confirmed to Variety. McBride did not provide a cause of death.

By the time of his death, Kier had racked up more than 200 film and television credits, most notably his collaborations with Von Trier. They worked together intermittently over several decades, starting with 1987’s “Epidemic” and last collaborating on Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” in 2013. Kier, also in films “Dancer in the Dark” (starring Björk), “Melancholia” and “Breaking the Waves” among others, aided Von Trier in his explorations into the bleakest of human emotions.

In addition to Von Trier, Kier starred in films from a number of other famed European filmmakers including Werner Herzog, Dario Argento and childhood friend Rainer Werner Fassbinder over the course of his career.

Kier, known for his his imposing presence and piercing blue eyes, often played offbeat and menacing characters in art-house films, including a desperate, virgin-seeking Count Dracula in 1974’s “Blood for Dracula” (“Andy Warhol’s Dracula”) directed by Paul Morrissey. A year prior, the artists collaborated on 1973’s “Flesh for Frankenstein.” Kier was often cast as supernatural, appearing in “Blade” and “Shadow of the Vampire” alongside Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, among other horror movies.

Nearly 30 years after his breakout role in the 1966 short film “Road to Saint Tropez,” the Cologne-born Kier notably starred in Gus Van Sant’s 1991 feature “My Own Private Idaho,” sharing the screen with a young Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix. The film has become a cult classic, earning praise for its depiction of sex and queerness. The feature was one of 25 films selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2024.

Though best known for his arthouse roles, Kier also appeared in numerous mainstream works including “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Downsizing” and “Armageddon.” His most recent film credits include “Swan Song,” “Bacurau” and “The Secret Agent,” Brazil’s international feature film entry for the 2026 Academy Awards.

Kier also starred in scores of TV projects including Von Trier’s television film “Medea,” horror miniseries “The Kingdom,” and shows “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated,” “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” and “Hunters.”

Outside television and film, Kier appeared in music videos for Madonna (“Deeper and Deeper,” “Erotica”), the Goo Goo Dolls, Supertramp and Korn, among other artists. He also lent his voice to a handful of video games including “Call of Duty: WWII” and was set to collaborate with Hideo Kojima on his upcoming “OD.”

Kier was born Oct. 14, 1944, in a hospital that was being bombed by Allied forces during World War II, according to Variety. Kier’s father left before his birth and the actor was raised by his mother. In his teenage years, Kier sparked a friendship with Fassbinder.

In the mid-’60s, Kier moved to London to study English but was instead discovered and cast in “Road to Saint Tropez.” He later met Morrissey, who was closely associated with Warhol at the time, laying the foundation for his decades-long film career.

Kier lived in Palm Springs, where he was a regular at the annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

For officials in Singapore, one Australian man’s actions at the “Wicked: For Good” premiere earlier this month wrought enough chaos to keep him out of the country — for good.

Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority has deported and barred 26-year-old Johnson Wen from reentering the country after he crashed the yellow carpet and accosted star Ariana Grande, according to several reports. A representative for the authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Singapore’s the Straits Times reported that Australian national Wen arrived in the country earlier this month on a 90-day social-visit pass to attend the movie musical’s premiere and for a vacation. The self-proclaimed “Troll Most Hated” was seen in video jumping over the fan barricade onto the other side of the carpet. He ran toward Grammy winner Grande with his arms and legs flailing before grabbing her roughly around the neck and shoulders. He turned and smiled for the cameras before Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo interfered and separated Wen from Grande. He was arrested, charged and later released.

Wen, who has a history of crashing other celebrity events including concerts down under by Katy Perry and the Weeknd, was charged with being a public nuisance days after the incident. Shortly after that, he was convicted and sentenced to nine days in jail.

During his trial in Singapore, Wen said he was “going to stop,” according to the Straits Times. His courtroom statement, however, doesn’t seem to match up with his tone on social media.

Wen re-shared video of the incident Sunday on Instagram. “Dear Ariana Grande thanks for letting me join the Red Carpet 💛,” he captioned the video.

“Wicked: For Good” premiered Friday, a year after after the first “Wicked” film. The sequel also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode and Jonathan Bailey. Jon M. Chu directs both films.

Times assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.

ZOOTROPOLIS 2 star Ginnifer Goodwin says her kids would mock her for saying she voiced the main character, rabbit Judy Hopps, and refused to believe it was really her.

The actress, who attended the London premiere of the Disney animated adventure yesterday, previously spoke to Bizarre’s Jack at Walt Disney World in Florida, while she was at the launch of the park’s new Zootopia attraction – the film’s name in the US.

Ginnifer, who is married to Josh Dallas, her co- star in TV fantasy series Once Upon A Time, said: “My kids still don’t feel comfortable with watching me on screen.

“Even though they are obsessed with Disney, they have never seen more than the pilot of Once Upon A Time, which they did love but they said it was weird for them – even though Mummy and Daddy are together in the show.

“A few years after, I showed them Zootropolis.

“Someone said to them, ‘That’s your mum’, and they were like, ‘That is a rabbit and it’s not our mum’.

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“My eldest replied, ‘I know Mum thinks she sounds like that rabbit but she doesn’t’.”

And Ginnifer said of the sequel to the 2016 original, which opens in cinemas on Friday: “I was ecstatic to grow with the character and it may be a bit weird to say about your own product, but I do think it’s outrage-ously good.”

Elphaba and Glinda have changed the box office, at least for this weekend.

“Wicked: For Good” — the conclusion to Universal Pictures’ two-part film franchise — hauled in an estimated $150 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, marking the second-highest domestic opening this year, trailing only blockbuster hit “A Minecraft Movie.” Globally, the film grossed about $226 million.

The opening weekend audience for “Wicked: For Good” skewed even more female (69%) than the first film, which counted 61% of its viewers as women, according to data from EntTelligence.

Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” came in a distant second at the domestic box office with $9.1 million. The third installment of the illusionist franchise has now brought in a cumulative $36.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total of $109.4 million globally across its two weekends.

Disney’s 20th Century Studios’ “Predator: Badlands,” Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man” and “Rental Family” from Searchlight Pictures rounded out this weekend’s top five.

The Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-led film was bolstered by a massive marketing push that began early last year before the first “Wicked” movie debuted. Though the films are based on the hit Broadway play, Universal wanted to expand awareness of the story to markets that had been less exposed to the theatrical show.

As a result, the franchise has partnered with more than 100 brands, including toy companies like Lego and Mattel as well as more unexpected firms such as household goods giant P&G and online Asian supermarket Weee!, where director Jon M. Chu serves as chief creative officer.

The film’s opening weekend success also points to a demand for female-focused franchises.

After 2023’s “Barbie” grossed $1.4 billion at the global box office, there were countless calls for more films geared toward women. But this year, many of the big-budget movies were male-leaning, and the narrower returns at the box office have prompted questions about whether films were reaching all possible demographics.

“Women continue to be a really underserved audience,” said Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and founder of the website Box Office Theory. “In terms of large blockbusters, it’s been a minute since there’s been a female-skewing movie on the scale of ‘Wicked’ or ‘Lilo & Stitch.’”

“It’s a rare glimpse into their vulnerability,” says cinematographer Ben Fordesman of a scene in Ronan Day-Lewis’ “Anemone,” where estranged brothers Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Jem (Sean Bean) drunkenly dance moments after Ray reveals the scars of his childhood. Here, the film’s unflinching energy — influenced by Ingmar Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata” — shifts; the camera shakes free from restraint before pulling back to reveal them small against the empty wilderness. “Ronan was keen on exploring the psychological landscape of Ray, in particular, in a metaphysical way. This was our way to recontextualize the characters and place them against the vast indifference of nature. To suggest a kind of detachment from reality,” Fordesman says of “Anemone,” which examines trauma and its generational ripple effects. The scene’s dramatic payoff wasn’t originally scripted and almost didn’t happen, as the cabin set had to be redesigned so one side could be removed. Creative engineering from production designer Chris Oddy and seamless visual effects helped bring it to life. “It was genuinely one of the most fun things to shoot when you’ve got the motivation to move freely. Everything in the rest of the film is considered and composed,” says the cinematographer. “This maybe leans into the way that trauma can be often experienced as a memory and the dancing is a way of shaking that off.”

Back in 2024, Universal conjured a pink and green tornado that swept pop culture.

From themed drinks at Starbucks and dolls of Elphaba and Glinda, to joint appearances by stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande at the Olympics and throughout a heavily-publicized press tour, “Wicked” was everywhere.

As the conclusion of the two-part film franchise heads to theaters at the end of the week, the marketing for “Wicked: For Good” has accelerated.

There are still themed Legos, but now also Gain laundry scent boosters, Swiffers and Pottery Barn bedding. There was a “Wicked” night on rival network ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and a “Wicked: One Wonderful Night” musical event broadcast on NBC.

The complete takeover of culture was all part of Universal’s plan to build one of its biggest and most important franchises, which has already brought in nearly $759 million in worldwide box office revenue for the first film, not to mention the haul from merchandise sales, theme park tie-ins and other categories.

Beyond the immediate revenue, “Wicked” also gives Universal a rare, female-focused franchise, an underserved audience, particularly as so many recent films have been geared toward men.

The success of the Broadway play, which has run for more than two decades, gave Universal the confidence in its potential for the big screen, said David O’Connor, president of franchise management and brand strategy at Universal Pictures. He’s also been a fan of the stage production almost from the beginning — he watched a table reading on the Universal lot, saw the musical additions to the script and finally, its run in San Francisco.

“For us, you had this potential to really take the fanship and really make ‘Wicked’ into a cultural imperative,” he said in a call from New York ahead of the film’s premiere. “When you think about the characters, the two leads, the themes of friendship, identity and empowerment, and how that resonates universally, and then, of course, the fantastical worlds of Oz and Shiz and Munchkinland, it just seemed like such a great opportunity for us.”

“Wicked” has proved to be a key boost to Universal’s lineup of blockbuster franchises.

Though the studio boasts series like “Jurassic Park,” “Despicable Me” and “Fast & Furious,” it has lacked the deep roster of intellectual property that rivals like Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. have, said Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at data firm Greenlight Analytics.

The series “has really emerged as a much-needed, fresh tentpole for Universal,” he said. “There’s such a waterfall of value that this two-part franchise creates that Universal will be banking out on this for years to come.”

The two films were shot back-to-back, with a combined production budget of $300 million, reportedly split evenly between the two.

So far, interest for the second film is high — as of Thursday, “Wicked: For Good” was the highest ticket pre-seller of the year, according to Fandango. It is also the highest PG-rated ticket pre-seller ever on the Fandango platform, passing 2017’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” 2019’s animated hit “Frozen 2” and the first “Wicked.”

The film is tracking to haul in $150 million to $160 million in its opening weekend, according to estimates from industry analysts.

And the film’s appeal to women is crucial, particularly in a year when there were few films geared toward female viewers. Despite the persistent debates about the dearth of female-focused films, there have been few big, recent hits, other than 2023’s “Barbie” and last year’s “Wicked.”

“Every three or four years, female audiences are rediscovered with some hit,” said Alisa Perren, professor in the department of radio-television-film at the University of Texas at Austin’s college of communication. “It’s kind of striking how little mainstream female [films] have been released.”

To court all audiences, including those who were familiar with the play as well as those new to the story, Universal leaned into its so-called Symphony program to leverage all arms of the company to promote a film.

The program has been used previously for films like “Despicable Me” and has become a critical part of the marketing campaign, O’Connor said.

One new strategy the company used for supporting this franchise was building a “Wicked” fair, which was held on set in 2023 in London and allowed more than 200 partners to get a feel for the story, see the filmmakers and actors and meet heads of departments, like costumes and props. The studio has done set visits in the past, but nothing like this.

That open house was pivotal in driving partnership agreements and started to fuel the franchise’s success, O’Connor said. One of those was Lego, which signed on with “Wicked” after the fair and has been a partner on both films with product lines and an episode of “Lego Masters.”

Because not all geographic markets had the same built-in awareness of the Broadway play, getting corporate brands on-board was key to increasing knowledge of “Wicked” around the globe, he said.

Though “Wicked: For Good” marks the conclusion to the two-film series, O’Connor was coy about what’s next for the franchise.

“Our focus remains on building experiences that will deepen that connection to ‘Wicked,’” he said. “And all I can say is, we are very committed to ‘Wicked,’ but it’s probably too early to share much more than that.”

Canadian officials are investigating the death of actor Spencer Lofranco, who died Monday.

The British Columbia Coroners Service confirmed its investigation on Friday, days after the “Gotti” and “Unbroken” actor’s brother announced his death on social media. Lofranco died Tuesday at age 33.

“My brother. You lived a life only some could dream of. You changed people[‘s] lives, and now you are with God,” Santino Lofranco wrote in a Facebook statement shared Thursday morning. “I will always love you and miss you BEAR. RIP.”

The statement did not include a cause of death. A spokesperson for the British Columbia Coroners Service did not share additional details, pending the ongoing investigation.

Spencer Lofranco most notably shared the screen with John Travolta in the critically-panned John Gotti biopic “Gotti” and appeared in Angelina Jolie’s Oscar-nominated World War II-set drama “Unbroken.” His credits also include films “At Middleton,” “Jamesy Boy,” “Dixieland” and “King Cobra” and the 2015 short film “Home,” according to IMDb.

In his “Jamesy Boy” review for The Times, critic Martin Tsai wrote, “newcomer Lofranco deserves credit for carrying the film.” Starring as ex-convict-turned-filmmaker James Burns, Lofranco “holds his own against vets” Ving Rhames, Mary-Louise Parker and James Woods, Tsai added.

Lofranco, born Oct. 18, 1992, told Interview in 2014 that he became interested in acting at age 17 despite his father’s wishes for him to be a hockey player or lawyer. His mother was a dancer, musician and actor and would often take him along to auditions, he said.

Amid his brief acting career, Lofranco faced legal trouble for running over a cyclist with his SUV in Hollywood in 2013. The cyclist suffered severe injuries, including a broken hip and several fractures, according to CBS News. Officials said Lofranco got out of his vehicle after the accident to apologize to his victim before leaving the scene.

A judge, after his victim’s urging for a harsher sentence, sentenced Lofranco in 2015 to 50 days of community service, two years of probation and $161,000 in restitution.

Over the last year, Lofranco often posted to Instagram, sharing photos of his outfits, tattoos and graffiti art. In his final Instagram post, a black-and-white selfie, Lofranco seemingly wrote about starting a new chapter of his life.

“Period the best is yet to come,” he said, after encouraging fans to follow his OnlyFans account. “The hair is on it way it’s got held up customs. Crazy.”

When he spoke to Interview more than a decade ago, Lofranco said his future path included doing “real-life, candid films.”

“I don’t want to be thrown into anything that could jeopardize my career. I want to be wise about what I choose,” he said. “Actors whose choices I’ve liked are Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio, River Phoenix.”

“Forever chemicals” don’t die — they just regroup. Only instead of regrouping in hell, as that old Marines saying goes, it’s in the oceans, where such compounds were dumped for decades.

For years, Times environmental reporter and Pulitzer finalist Rosanna Xia has been covering the legacy of forever chemical DDT, a pesticide once applied to humans as innocuously as hairspray and yardhose water. In 2020 she broke the story that barrels of DDT’s toxic waste, last sent to the ocean floor decades ago by its biggest manufacturer, Montrose, were closer to Southern California’s shores than previously thought. Her ongoing investigative work is now the subject of a documentary, “Out of Plain Sight,” which Xia co-directed with Daniel Straub. (Full disclosure: It was produced by L.A. Times Studios, an affiliate company.)

The film is a fleet, urgent-sounding dispatch, centering on Xia herself as an intrepid factfinder roving the affected coastline, dropping in on scientists, oceanographers, biologists and wildlife experts as she tries to piece together the effects of half a million barrels of forgotten DDT, banned in 1972 but still having an impact on an already fragile ecosystem and the descendants of those exposed to it. Her inspiration, quoted up top and glimpsed in archival footage, is Rachel Carson, whose seminal 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” spurred enough public outcry against chemical pesticides to lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Carson’s galvanizing alarm was, paradoxically, an absence, seen in declining bird populations (hence the “silent” of her title). Xia’s clarion call, meanwhile, starts with robot-captured images of leaking barrels on the ocean floor. That’s the beginning of the sea-to-land food chain that starts with DDT-ridden marine life. Microplastics are the current bete noire and rightly so, but we’re still in the dark about the causal calamity of a past era’s chemical polluting. It’s one thing if a company like Montrose, now defunct, once believed no one would notice their massive DDT-waste-dumping operation. It’s another, the movie argues, if we choose not to wrestle with the environmental ramifications being felt today.

“Out of Plain Sight” strives to be more cinematically alive than the standard talking-head-laden documentary. A brief history of DDT, from the corporate excitement over its invention to protesting, is given a snazzy split-screen archival montage treatment, sourced from educational films, newsreels and interviews but scored to the Zombies’ “I Don’t Want to Know” as a cheeky touch. And all of Xia’s interviews are filmed in the field in a vérité style, a nod to journalism in action, from UC San Diego labs and mammal rescue operations treating cancer-riven sea lions to microbiologist David Valentine’s attempts to collect samples from those time-bomb-like barrels of sludge.

Though we need movies that demystify journalism (and Xia is an appealing on-camera correspondent), that aspect is less interesting than the propulsive portrait of a dedicated, multi-pronged effort to expose, understand and hopefully clean up a still-viable threat. “Out of Plain Sight” doesn’t need to be earthshaking filmmaking to relay a valuable ongoing story about a hidden nightmare for all of us. It brings to mind another famous saying, just as applicable to DDT’s longevity as the one about the Marines, from William Faulkner: “The past is never dead — it’s not even past.”

Life has a way of taking things from us that we think we can’t do without. Often that means the death of a loved one, but sometimes it can be home — and with it, our grounding in the world. When we meet Dusty, the laconic protagonist of “Rebuilding,” he has already lost so much. His marriage is over. His parents have been dead and buried for quite a while. But as this modest drama begins, Dusty is grappling with the most crushing of blows: His cherished 200-acre family ranch in Colorado has burned down in a devastating wildfire. He survived but he might as well be a ghost.

Dusty is played by Josh O’Connor, who lately has cornered the market on sensitive, passive outsiders. With his wiry frame and shy eyes, the British actor has demonstrated in films such as “La Chimera” and “The Mastermind” an appetite for soft-spoken characters who exude a gentle masculinity. We don’t know if Dusty’s voice is noticeably hushed because of his recent tragedy, but as he tries to pick up the pieces, this lonesome cowboy drifts through his days, doing his best to pretend he’s holding up OK.

Writer-director Max Walker-Silverman’s second feature shares with his first a sympathy for strong, silent types. His flinty 2022 debut “A Love Song” was drenched in melancholy, casting Dale Dickey and Wes Studi as aging childhood friends reunited, a tentative romance faintly sparking. Similarly, “Rebuilding” is a tale of grief and what-ifs populated by everyday folks who speak in terse tones. The movie radiates the spare, rugged poetry of a short story or a John Prine song. (Fittingly, the musician appears on the soundtrack.)

O’Connor keeps Dusty’s inner life a mystery as he reluctantly moves into a beat-up trailer at a temporary FEMA camp, struggling to make it hospitable for his grade-school daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre), who primarily lives with Dusty’s ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and Ruby’s boyfriend, Robbie (Sam Engbring). Dusty is not a bad father or a snide former spouse — everybody in his orbit likes him, including Ruby’s ailing mother Bess (Amy Madigan). But when Callie-Rose informs Dusty that Ruby said he underachieved in school, we believe her. “Rebuilding” doesn’t reveal much about Dusty before the ranch was incinerated, but what eventually becomes clear is that he’s always been something of a disappointment.

It’s a performance that requires O’Connor to hint at an ineffable void. The character operates at a remove from even those closest to him — he has a kindly spirit, but he can’t quite connect. Dusty and Ruby were adolescent sweethearts, but the audience doesn’t need to know the whole backstory to guess why they broke up. He’s the kind of guy weighed down by an internal inertia, asleep while standing up, stuck in a rut. At least he had his ranch. But after the wildfire, Dusty’s omnipresent cowboy hat is all that remains from the only life he’s ever known.

In keeping with Walker-Silverman’s naturalistic approach, “Rebuilding” eschews a conventional plot, instead observing Dusty’s negotiation of an outside world he’s tried to avoid. He gingerly makes friends at the FEMA camp, most memorably with Mila, depicted with gruff authenticity by Kali Reis. This de facto support group has no big inspirational speeches to offer Dusty, just a weary resilience to keep going because, really, what else can they do? Some of the film’s finest moments involve O’Connor ceding the spotlight to his co-stars, each of them so offhandedly genuine one might assume Walker-Silverman gathered actual wildfire survivors.

The movie’s verisimilitude may trigger some Los Angeles viewers who know all too well the pain of recovering from a natural disaster. When “Rebuilding” premiered at Sundance in January, Southern California festivalgoers couldn’t help but feel a queasy déjà vu: The Eaton and Palisades fires were still raging, destroying communities and displacing so many. That horror and sorrow loomed heavy over those initial screenings, and no doubt for many in our city, 10 months will hardly be enough time to enter the proper headspace to appreciate Dusty’s processing of his disorienting new normal.

But while Walker-Silverman couldn’t have imagined his movie’s jarring real-world parallels, “Rebuilding” is as much a character study as it is a warning about our increasingly fragile planet and the beloved places we call home. The story’s studied minor-key tone can occasionally come across as mannered, yet “Rebuilding” possesses its own delicate grace, especially once Dusty endures other losses — some personal, others more existential. Walker-Silverman introduces a minor twist near the end that comes across as a little too narratively convenient, but one can hardly begrudge him seeking a sliver of hope for those whose sense of place has been obliterated. As Dusty learns, when you’ve lost nearly everything, all you’ve got is whatever’s left behind.

Do you like your “Wicked” sweet or sour?

How you answer may be the key in how much you enjoy the sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” which opens today and is on track to sell more tickets in its first weekend than its predecessor.

Will the new movie once again cast a spell at the Oscars? The answer, for the moment, is confusifying.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and someone hoping to see a movie at the Village before the Olympics land in L.A. in 2028. Which film should they book to kick off its revival?

‘Wicked’ can’t defy gravity this time

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform at the 97th Academy Awards in March.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Who wasn’t charmed by the first “Wicked” movie last year? Film critics gave it more than a pass, with reviews scoring a respectable 73 grade on aggregator site Metacritic. Audiences loved it, powering the film to a $758 million worldwide box office haul. And Oscar voters fell in line, rewarding “Wicked” with 10 nominations and wins for production design and costumes. Gratitution abounded.

Repeating success is a taller order, our beloved Dodgers notwithstanding. As noted, multiplexes should be full this first weekend and, you’d expect, the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend as well. But the reviews haven’t been as kind this time around. “Wicked: For Good” sits at a 60 on Metacritic. Empire magazine’s review sums up the sentiment: “‘Wicked: For Good,’ sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.”

Sequels rarely land as well as the original film, so the drop-off isn’t surprising. And, if you’ve seen the Broadway musical, you already knew this was coming. All the best songs are packed into the show’s first act, culminating in the soaring, sustaining final notes of “Defying Gravity.” But you can only beat that gravitational force for so long before you fall flat on the ground.

That splat you hear is “Wicked: For Good.”

Not everyone feels that way. The Vulture review sports the grabby headline: “‘Wicked: For Good’ is actually better than the first.” Times film critic Amy Nicholson agrees in her write-up titled: “The first one was a candy-colored slog, but ‘Wicked: For Good’ is pleasantly sour.”

Which brings me back to the question I first asked you: What are you looking for in a “Wicked” movie? I enjoyed all the spirited dancing and singing and, yes, the bright, candy colors of the first movie. You want a slog? The sequel takes almost an hour to bring together the two characters you truly care about — Elphaba and Glinda.

To get to that moment, you have endure a lot of filler, as if the musical doesn’t have enough material to sustain two movies totaling nearly five hours. (It doesn’t.)

The so-so critical reaction shouldn’t keep “Wicked: For Good” from picking up a best picture nomination, provided the movie’s fans keep showing up at theaters through the end of the year. With so many high-profile festival films — “The Smashing Machine,” “After the Hunt,” “Die My Love” among them — failing to connect with audiences and critics, there’s room at the inn. Academy voters will likely keep the light on.

Equaling the first film’s 10 nominations will be difficult. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the Oscars ceremony last year in spectacular fashion, but a reunion might not be in the cards. The pair were arguably co-leads in the first movie. “For Good” belongs more to Glinda than Elphaba, charting the Good Witch’s journey from complacency and compliance to … less complacency and compliance. Maybe Glinda’s going to learn from all this and take principled stands moving forward, though the movie doesn’t do enough to convince me. Grande’s dimple has more depth.

Still, Grande figures to score another supporting actress nomination and, who knows, she may well win. Voters love big theater-kid energy in this category, giving Oscars to Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) in recent years.

Erivo, placed in the more competitive lead class, might not be as fortunate, as she no longer centers the movie. She still masterfully conveys Elphaba’s vulnerability and sadness, but she’s also saddled with a chemistry-free love story with Capt. Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). I won’t count her out. But Erivo could well lead the “snubs” and surprises list come nominations morning.

Repeat nominations in production design and costume design, the two Oscars the first movie won, seem safe bets. Hair and makeup does too, as does sound since voters love movies heavy on music. “Wicked: For Good” might pick up another nomination in the newly created casting category, as it won’t be a spot where voters feel like they’re repeating themselves. And while the first movie didn’t have any new songs, “For Good” sports two. Look for “The Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Grande, to pop.

Eight nominations? That’d be a win. The loss would be if “Wicked: For Good” followed the path of the two “Black Panther” movies. The first, a critical, commercial and cultural sensation, earned seven nominations, including best picture, and won three Oscars. The less-regarded sequel picked up five nods, winning one. It was not nominated for best picture.

Sometimes being popular isn’t enough.

Read more coverage of ‘Wicked’

With the release of Wicked: For Good today, a travel company has named the top 10 most beautiful destinations to experience real-life Disney charm

A stunning little-known city just a stone’s throw from the UK is like stepping foot into a real-life Wicked movie. Travel company Omio released their findings in time for the release of smash-hit musical Wicked: For Good today (November 21).

Colmar in France is filled with Disney-inspired charm, pastel houses and stunning canals. To get there is easy too, requiring just a 1hr 30 flight from London to Strasbourg, before a 55 minute drive to the city. Other recommended destinations in the top 10 include Sintra in Portugal, Lake Bled in Slovenia and the UK’s very own Isle of Skye.

The list came as part of a new survey that found more than a third of Gen Z (36%) are more likely to travel with friends they “hold space” for in the year ahead compared to just 12% of Boomers.

The ‘holding space’ phrase – meaning to be emotionally present with who you are with – became a viral meme during Wicked’s press tour in 2024, but now fans are incorporating it into their holidays.

These friendship trips can lead to a deeper bond and create lasting memories according to travel company Omio, mirroring the evolving relationship between the characters Elphaba and Glinda.

More than a quarter of Brits (28%) quizzed in Omio’s latest ‘Now Next 2025-2026 Travel Report’ say they’re influenced by film and TV when choosing where to go. Despite Oz not being a viable destination for jetsetters, whimsical fairytale-inspired destinations are found to be on the rise.

The report also reveals that almost two-fifths (37%) of women internationally want to feel connected, with 44% planning family and friend reunions. Wellbeing-led escapes are found to be on the rise with more than half (59%) of travellers wanting to return from holidays feeling recharged.

The report also discovered that people are opting for unique travel plans, with 32% preferring under-the-radar locations that would make people green with envy. Veronica Diquattro, President of Consumer and Supply Business Europe, said: “Our extensive inventory makes finding the best route to niche destinations simple.

“Gen Z leads the charge. They are purposeful planners, determined to travel more, for longer, and sustainably. Omio meets their expectations with breadth, flexibility and digital-first solutions.

“Our report reveals a new age of smart, conscious and value-driven travel. The desire to explore is stronger than ever, and Omio is at the forefront, ensuring every trip is seamless.”

Omio’s top 10 recommended fairytale destinations

1. Colmar, France: Disney-inspired charm, pastel houses and canals for cottage-core queens
2. Schwangau, Germany: a village in Bavaria, southern Germany. It’s a gateway to the iconic Neuschwanstein Castle, a magical hilltop fairytale castle that famously inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.
3. Sintra, Portugal: Home to whimsical palaces and castles nestled in lush hills, plus candy-coloured palaces for the perfect girls’ trip.
4. Hallstatt, Austria: a picturesque village nestled by lakeside magic, with mountain backdrop drama.
5. Český Krumlov, Czech Republic: A small city with a large castle complex and a charming medieval old town.
6. Isle of Skye, Scotland: A rugged and scenic island with dramatic landscapes.
7. Lake Bled, Slovenia: A picture-perfect lake surrounded by forested mountains.
8. Giant’s Causeway, Ireland: An iconic World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland, steeped in legend and folklore.
9. Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore, Italy: A combination of grand architecture, vibrant floral displays, hidden grottoes, and the presence of white peacocks.
10. Grindelwald, Switzerland: Stunning natural scenery featuring towering snow-capped mountains and lush valleys.