Special effects

Hollywood’s No 1 penis-maker: ‘Chris Hemsworth keeps his next to Thor’s hammer!’

What’s behind the sudden rise in penises on screen? And who do the stars turn to when they need a great prosthetic member? We meet the master craftsman who tailors each stand-in schlong like a bespoke suit

Nell Frizzell

28, Mar, 2022 @5:00 AM

Are films really getting longer? We ask the expert

Sarah Atkinson, professor of screen media, on whether the trend for big, epic films is leading to big, epic runtimes

Coco Khan

07, Jan, 2022 @3:00 PM

Netflix scoops up Game of Thrones visual effects whiz Scanline

US streaming service says it will let new Canadian subsidiary work for a variety of clients

Mark Sweney

22, Nov, 2021 @6:00 PM

'I can count the senior women on both hands': VFX's gender problem

It’s a booming industry encompassing tech and art, and where training is readily available. So why aren’t more women working in visual effects?

Helena Pozniak

19, Feb, 2021 @6:59 AM

Ray Harryhausen's art raid: where the effects genius found his terrifying monsters

From his sword-swinging skeletons to a horn-headed cyclops, a new show reveals how the gruesome godfather of special effects plundered antiquity for ideas – and his own art collection

Jonathan Jones

22, Oct, 2020 @1:26 PM

Is this the future of film? How to finish a shoot when the coronavirus strikes

When the pandemic halted his war thriller, Timur Bekmambetov popped his leading actor inside a video game and completed the shoot from 1,200km away. Will movies now have to be made this way?

Phil Hoad

31, Mar, 2020 @11:20 AM

'Of course Marvel is cinema!' Why the Scorsese backlash is justified

Kevin Smith, Taika Waititi and James Gunn reject veteran film-maker’s dismissal of superhero movies as ‘theme park’ fare – while his output exposes a debt to spectacle and innovation

Ben Child

17, Oct, 2019 @11:32 AM

How we made A Nightmare on Elm Street

‘The character has never left me. If I’m stuck in traffic in LA, I’ll do the Freddy voice and shout: “Get out of my way!”’

Interviews by Thomas Hobbs

23, Sep, 2019 @10:43 AM

'It's ghost slavery': the troubling world of pop holograms

Dead stars from Whitney Houston to Maria Callas are going on tour again. As Miley Cyrus explores the issue in a new Black Mirror, we uncover the greatest identity crisis in music today

Owen Myers

01, Jun, 2019 @8:00 AM

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – what we learned from the Vanity Fair special

JJ Abrams and co have hinted the finale will involve less CGI, more new characters … and screen time for Carrie Fisher

Luke Holland

23, May, 2019 @3:18 PM

Weatherwatch: no business like fake snow business

Classic Hollywood snow scenes aren’t what they seem – the snow could be made of anything from cornflakes to asbestos

David Hambling

18, Jan, 2019 @9:30 PM

Jordan Wolfson: 'This is real abuse – not a simulation'

Creepy and vengeful, Wolfson’s puppet boy is violently smashed to the floor at Tate Modern – then threatens to fight back. But is the controversial US artist just yanking our chain?

Stuart Jeffries

03, May, 2018 @5:00 AM