How ‘Godfather of Harlem’ Landed Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes and More for Season 3 Needle Drops

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Start your engines and mark your calendars for July 28. “RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under” is back for a third season with 10 fierce and fabulous queens. RuPaul will be hosting the series with returning judges Michelle Visage and Rhys Nicholson. “Australasian drag is filled with heart and humor, and I’m thrilled to share my Season 3 queens to the world, for all to see their charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent,” RuPaul says. The 10 queens hail from across New Zealand and Australia. This season promises to be filled with thrills and maxi-challenges galore as the queens go head-to-head to snatch the crown.

It’s starting to feel like the early ’00s as Nelly and Ashanti continue to fuel rumours of a rekindled romance.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When stunt coordinators Tim Connolly and Hank Kingi Jr. first read the script for the pilot of FX’s “The Old Man,” they thought its central chase sequence was one of the best-written scenes in TV. Then, their minds flooded with “a ton of concerns.” Speaking with Variety as Emmy voting comes to a close, Connolly says their challenge was: “How do you pull such a significant scene off with an actor that is 70 years old, and make it feel real and visceral?” So Jeff Bridges prepared for the scene for over a month. In the series, he plays Dan, a rogue CIA operative on the run after being discovered by the FBI. The pilot climaxes with Dan trying to outrun a tail. He seemingly disappears, but before the agents can react, he comes out of nowhere and crashes his car, staving off any fightback from the FBI agents chasing after him.

So many stars hit the pink carpet for the 2023 BET Awards tonight!

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Saturday Night Live” production designers Leo Akira Yoshimura and Keith Raywood work at breakneck speed under extraordinarily tight schedules to ensure sets for the timely satire are camera-ready each week — with changes being added right up to the very last minute. Raywood, who began as a production designer on the show in 1985, will often start crafting sets late on Wednesday nights. “This show is writer-driven. It all starts with the script,” he says. “One show can haveless complexity to it and fewer special effects are involved, but we never know until it’s handed to us on Wednesday night.” Other sets will be used for two to three scenes. When Yoshimura introduces people to the show, whether it’s cast or friends visiting, they always comment on the stage size — Studio 8H is just over 6,000 square feet, including space for audience seating — or remark on how swiftly the crew shifts scenery.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor REO Speedwagon’s “Time For Me To Fly” plays out in the very last scene of the final episode of ABC’s long-running sitcom “The Goldbergs.” The 1978 hit plays as the titular family gather together and imagine what the future will bring. Mojo co-founder and COO Peter Shane acquired REO Speedwagon’s publishing catalog in 2019, and because of longstanding relationships with both the band and “The Goldbergs” music supervisor Ann Kline, the process to clearing the song was a swift one. Having been in the business for over 25 years, Shane’s closest collaborations are with music supervisors. “We work with them at all stages,” he says. “The beginning, middle and end, when music is being considered for projects.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “George & Tammy” costume designer Mitchell Travers’ approach to any project is to start with rock solid foundation. “You get asked a billion questions every day, and because I shoot moves so quickly, I love to have that ready,” he says. Travers reunited with Jessica Chastain (the two previously worked on “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) for the intimate look at country singer Tammy Wynette. With a storyline that spanned three decades, Travers needed to know the answer to any costume questions thrown at him. “When Tammy needed a coat, in the script, it was about what coat did she grab? Was it short? Long? Fitted? Oversized? Embellished?”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Transforming Disney’s award-winning animated feature “Encanto” into a live experience at the Hollywood Bowl in front of an audience of 17,000 people was no easy feat, with factors such as the pandemic, limited access to the venue and unexpected weather conditions all in play. But the production team, cast and crew pulled it off in under 72 hours, delivering a Broadway-quality experience. Unlike a Broadway show, the original voice cast, scores of dancers and production team did not have the luxury of rehearsing at the Bowl. Gabe Turner, executive producer of the event, said, “We could only gain access to the Bowl for four days before we were due to welcome our dancers, orchestra and cast into the space.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor National Geographic’s “A Small Light” takes the well known story of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who hid in a cramped Amsterdam attic with her family during the Nazi occupation, and presents it though a new lens. The narrative focuses on a tenacious young woman, Miep Gies (Bel Powley), Otto Frank’s secretary, who risked everything to save the Frank family and many others. While the story centers around the horrors of World War II, the story finds resilience and hope through it all. Here the artisans behind the limited series break down how their respective crafts reflect hope, resilience and the atrocities of war.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Composer Sherri Chung admits she was late to the “Gremlins” party — only because she was too young and found it too scary. But when she grew older and was reintroduced to the movie, she thought “it was the greatest thing ever.” The 1984 film, as well as Jerry Goldsmith’s score, became a key inspiration for her. So when she got the opportunity to score Max’s new animated series “Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai,” directed by Tze Chun, she decided to “lean into the scary and the fear, but also the emotion” with her music. The series is an origin story that gives a partial explanation as to how Gizmo ends up in a Chinatown antique store at the beginning of 1984’s “Gremlins.” To add a Chinese element to the score, Chung used bamboo flutes, but the meat of the score came from the erhu, a two-stringed bowed musical instrument sometimes referred to as the “Chinese violin.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The story behind Pixar’s latest animated feature “Elemental” is a personal one to filmmaker Peter Sohn. The opening shows a family arriving at the fictional port of Elemental City, which closely reflected the immigration story of Sohn’s parents from Korea to New York. The story breathes life into the earth elements of fire, water, land and air, depicting them as residents of Elemental City. When Ember (Leah Lewis), a fiery young woman, meets go-with-the-flow water being Wade (Mamoudou Athie), they discover that, despite their conflicts, they have a lot in common. As the two fall in love, Ember is faced with the internal conflict of being with Wade or following in her parents’ footsteps and running the family business. As the son of first-generation immigrants, Ember’s struggle reflected not only Sohn’s personal experience, but that of many of the animators and storytellers behind the scenes.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Katori Hall’s “P-Valley,” a show about the female dancers at The Pynk, a popular strip club in Mississippi, uses music to shine a spotlight on southern female rappers and artists. In putting together the soundtrack for the series, music supervisors Sarah Bromberg and Stephanie Diaz-Matos turned to the show’s stars, J. Alphonse Nicholson and Loretta Devine, as well as Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion, to curate the anthems for Brandee Evans’ Mercedes, Elarica Johnson’s Autumn Night and Nicco Annan’s Uncle Clifford. Here, Bromberg and Diaz-Matos break down how they landed Beyoncé and other needle drops for the show’s second season.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Jessica Chastain was a “mess” when she won the best actress Oscar for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” in 2022. Not from the barrage of congratulatory messages from friends and family, but her hair (Stephanie Ingram) and makeup (Linda Dowds) collaborators had also won the best makeup and hairstyling Oscar. Says Chastain, “It was so meaningful to me that they were recognized for their work.” Chastain, Dowds and Ingram first crossed paths in 2013 on “Mama,” and most recently on Showtime’s “George and Tammy,” the story of country singers George Jones (played by Michael Shannon) and Tammy Wynette (Chastain). Since then, the trio has become a tight unit with honesty and trust at the core of their collaboration, whether conceiving real-life transformations or subtle applications as part of their process.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Production designer Tamara Deverell was tasked with creating eight different periods and working with eight different directors for Netflix’s “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.” The anthology series required Deverell, 2020’s artisan award recipient for production design, to tap into her love for building gritty sets and build everything from a brutalist architecture room inspired by her work on “Star Trek: Discovery” to using an old warehouse for an alien autopsy. Here Deverell breaks down some of her favorite sets from the series. The first episode tells the story of Tim Blake Nelson as Nick Appleton, who purchases the titular Lot 36 from a recently deceased old man and discovers strange items such as a séance table and rare books. However, the Lot also holds dark demonic secrets

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Fatal Attraction” production designer Nina Ruscio’s visual challenge was taking on an iconic movie, paying homage to it and finding a way to put her creative stamp on it by taking it into 2023. In the eight-part Paramount+ series, Joshua Jackson stars as Dan Gallagher with Lizzie Caplan as Alex Forrest, roles originated by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in the original film. And while it’s not a remake, the creative team stressed, it’s an expanded adaptation that provides more insight into Alex’s behavior after an affair with a married man drives her to obsession. The series covers Alex’s struggles with her mental health, but it’s also an erotic thriller.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Production designer Patrick O’Keefe drew inspiration from brutalist architecture, graphic artist Syd Mead and British punk band The Sex Pistols when animating the world of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” As Miles Morales crosses path with different Spider-People from other dimensions, it was up to O’Keefe and his team of animators to create visual worlds that reflect those counterparts. With Variety, he breaks down the looks of each world and shares his favorite easter eggs that pay homage to the Canadian animators who worked on the film. “Whenever it comes to developing anything for the film, I’m always asking myself, whose point of view are we seeing this from? And what does it need to do?

While “Star Wars” fans await the premieres of “Ahsoka,” “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” and “The Acolyate,” another anticipated series looms on the release horizon: “Andor” Season 2. And excitement for Tony Gilroy‘s show is well deserved.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Composer Daniel Pemberton pushed a few boundaries and “made something really creative and different” when he scored 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” When he returned to score the sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” he knew he would have to “push it as far as we can go.” Pemberton says he had to build the score from the ground up, which was complicated. “You’re trying not to make a score that sounds like other film scores. You’re trying to invent your own language.” Inventing that language took experimentation, research and failure. He explains, “I spent two years researching and developing this score, going through ideas, coming up with concepts and throwing them out.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Nominated for two Tony Awards in best choreography, Jennifer Weber describes “& Juliet” as a show filled with “music that makes you want to dance. It’s got music that everyone has danced to at some point in their lives.” The show uses memorable pop tunes from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and more as it flips the Shakespearean tale of “Romeo and Juliet” by reimagining a world where Juliet doesn’t die. In putting together Act II’s “Problem/Can’t Feel My Face” epic song battle, Weber collaborated closely with costume designer Paloma Young. “We had similar visions in terms of storytelling,” she says. “Her costumes fuse this Elizabethan aesthetic with contemporary pop. A corset and Adidas track pants have never looked better together. Each [look] is super individual.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When costume designer Marina Toybina was tasked with building the Beast costume for ABC’s live action “Beauty and the Beast” broadcast, she looked beyond what Disney and the Broadway show had previously done. Instead, she found inspiration in puppetry. Josh Groban, who played the enchanted prince-turned-Beast, would not be relying on prosthetics and makeup for his transformation. Toybina instead built a hollowed-out puppet that stood at around 10 feet tall. Within that, she ensured there was enough mobility for Groban, and with the aid of rods, he would be able to move the arms and feet, all built via a backpack structure. Says Toybina of the contraption, “I wanted to lean into the narrative that there’s this prince trapped inside of a beast.”