ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 Exclusive: Sam Mendes on 1917’s Big Reveal 1917 has been keeping a secret from us. A trailer released in August promised a gripping, beautifully filmed World War I drama from director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins, reteaming for the first time since Skyfall. But a new behind-the-scenes video finally revealed the movie’s true ambition: like Birdmanbefore it, 1917 is filmed in real time, full of balletic camera work meant to look as if the war epic was filmed entirely in one take. “I wanted to travel every step with these men—to breathe every breath with them,” Mendes told Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican. “It needed to be visceral and immersive. What they are asked to do is almost impossibly difficult. The way the movie is made is designed to bring you as close as possible to that experience.” Elsewhere in HWD, Yohana Desta catches up on how Warner Bros. handled the Los Angeles Joker premiere as controversy continues to swirl around it; Laura Bradleyfinds John Oliver believing that the Ukraine scandal might actually be the thing that does Donald Trump in; and Kevin Fitzpatrick gets a look at a new spin on War of the Worlds that sticks much closer to the 1897 original’s roots. And over in Vanities, Jessica Hoppertalks to almost literally everyone—from Sarah McLachlanto then-16-year-old attendee Brandi Carlile—who made Lilith Fair a touchstone of the ’90s. “People were saying, ‘You can’t do that,’ ’’ McLachlan remembers. “Well, we did…and people came.”

War Is Hell From the trenches to ransacked farmhouses to bombed-out towns, 1917 is an ambitious war movie but, as Sam Mendes describes it, also a thriller. “It bears witness to the staggering destruction wrought by the war, and yet it is a fundamentally human story about two young and inexperienced soldiers racing against the clock.” READ MORE » Mother’s Day Ida Lupino, nicknamed “Mother” on her sets, was a pioneer for women behind the camera, and with a new box set, four of her films from the 1940s and 1950s have been given their proper due. READ MORE » Stupid Watergate II: The Stupidest Watergate “I know you’re probably thinking right now, ‘No, it won’t, you fucking idiot! Nothing Trump does ever affects him.’” John Oliver said on Sunday night of speculation that the Ukraine scandal might be Donald Trump’s undoing. “And I do get that. That has clearly been true—until, maybe, now.” READ MORE » Blast From the Past We’ve seen Tom Cruise battle alien tripods in New Jersey—but what would it look like if they touched down in Edwardian England, as writer H.G. Wells originally imagined it? BBC One has your answer. READ MORE » Building a Mystery In the mid-1990s, female musicians topped the charts and sold out shows, but were told over and over again that no one would pay to see more than one woman onstage. Sarah McLachlan set out to prove them wrong.