J.A. Bayona and his producing partners spent years attempting to finance “Society of the Snow.” Despite his track record, no one, no studio, no production company from his native Spain wanted to back it. And, the story of the 45 passengers on that ill-fated 1972 flight from Uruguay to Chile has become a little engine that could. A surprise success story even for Netflix, who eventually financed it. “Society” is not only in the running to win an International Film and Sound category Academy Award, but is a massive hit on the streaming service across the globe.

Continue reading J.A. Bayona Reflects On Young People Embracing The Netflix Blockbuster ‘Society of the Snow’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

The story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the plane that crashed over the Andes mountains in 1972, mainly carrying a young team of Uruguayan rugby players expecting to play a match in Chile, has been told several times. Perhaps most famously in 1993’s “Alive” and the stellar documentaries “I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash” and “Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains,” to name just a few.

Continue reading ‘Society Of The Snow’ Review: J.A. Bayona’s Disaster-In-The-Mountains Drama Is A Harrowing & Soulful Story Of Survival at The Playlist.

The story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 is one of the most well-known flight disasters of all time. Many films, TV shows, books, and more were based on the story of the Uruguayan rugby team who chartered a flight over the Andes mountains and crashed with seemingly no hope of survival. And perhaps there has been no better telling of this story than J.A. Bayona’s new film, “Society of the Snow.”

READ MORE: ‘Happy Campers’ Review: A Lyrical, If Slight, Portrait Of An Odd Community Facing Extinction [DOC NYC]

As seen in the trailer, “Society of the Snow” tells the story of the aforementioned charter flight which crashed in the Andes during the winter and resulted in the deaths of many young men.

Continue reading ‘Society Of The Snow’ Trailer: J.A. Bayona Brings The Story Of The Rugby Team Who Crashed In The Andes To Netflix In January at The Playlist.

Did anyone expect J.A. Bayona to follow up “Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom” with an altogether different kind of survival thriller? Maybe not, but “Society Of The Snow” has garnered a lot of positive word of mouth as it made the festival rounds this Fall. After Bayona’s latest closed the Venice Film Festival in early September, it won Audience Awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Continue reading New ‘Society Of The Snow’ Teaser: J.A. Bayona’s Latest Premieres On Netflix On January 4, 2024, Gets Limited Theatrical Release In December at The Playlist.

The story has been told several times in the famous 1990s movie, “Alive,” the excellent documentary “Stranded,” and hell, arguably even “Yellowjackets” borrows its core premise from the story of Air Force Flight 571, which went down in the Chilean Andes mountains in 1972, filled with 45 passengers many of them who were young soccer players on their way to a match (and yes, there’s a cannibalism element to it all).

Continue reading ‘Society Of The Snow’ Teaser Trailer: J.A. Bayona’s ‘Alive’-Like Snow Rescue Thriller Hits Netflix In January at The Playlist.

Netflix has a slew of intriguing titles getting their world premiere at the Venice Film Festival soon, including David Fincher‘s “The Killer,” Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro,” and Pablo Larráin‘s “El Conde.” But don’t sleep on J.A. Bayona‘s “Society Of The Snow,” tapped as the festival’s closing night film.

Continue reading ‘Society Of The Snow’ Teaser: J.A. Bayona’s Latest Closes The Venice Film Festival On September 9 at The Playlist.

A new synopsis from Amazon’s ridiculously expensive “Lord of The Rings” series has made its way online. First posted by The One Ring, it has been authenticated by Deadline and IGN. The synopsis has plenty of hints of what is going to happen in the high-fantasy show that takes place during The Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” or “The Lord of Rings” trilogies.

Continue reading ‘The Lord Of The Rings’: Series Synopsis Teases Tolkien’s “Greatest Villain” & The Fall of Númenor at The Playlist.

Though details are still fairly scarce, we are moving closer and closer to Amazon’s billion-dollar investment in “The Lord of the Rings” TV series coming to fruition. And with development ramping up, and production looming, the studio is finally ready to tell fans who will be behind the camera to bring Middle-earth alive one more time.

According to Deadline, Amazon has tapped J.A. Bayona to direct the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated “The Lord of the Rings” TV series.

Continue reading ‘Jurassic World 2’ Filmmaker J.A. Bayona Hired To Direct Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ TV Series at The Playlist.

Qumra is an industry event comprising lectures, masterclasses, labs, and mentoring sessions, held annually in the Qatari capital Doha for the benefit of emerging filmmakers from the region and worldwide, sponsored by the increasingly influential Doha Film Institute.

“Production designers are the great unsung heroes of the film world,” declared one audience member soberly during the Q&A portion of Eugenio Caballero‘s Qumra masterclass. “That’s the fun part,” Caballero replied impishly.

Continue reading Qumra 2019: Oscar Winner Eugenio Caballero On ‘Roma,’ ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ And The “Az-Tech” Approach To Production Design at The Playlist.

***The following contains MINOR SPOILERS for “The Predator,” “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” and “Alien: Covenant.”***

There’s a scene midway through Shane Black’s “The Predator” where a government agent named Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) explains to biologist Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) that the titular creatures have been visiting Earth more frequently because they smell blood in the water.

Continue reading The Messy Nihilism And Shared DNA Of ‘The Predator,’ ‘Alien: Covenant,’ & ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ at The Playlist.

Ready or not, the fifth entry in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is set to hit theaters this week. With the first “Jurassic World” breaking records at the box office, many are predicting a huge weekend for the dinosaur epic. But ‘Fallen Kingdom’ wouldn’t have nearly as big of an opening if it was R-rated. So, Universal was smart enough to make sure director J.A.

Continue reading ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Deleted Scene Featured LGBTQ Character Discussing Her Sexuality at The Playlist.

2015’s “Jurassic World” featured an irresistible premise: the failed dinosaur theme park promised in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 original is finally realized, open and thriving. And the mega-popular, mega-profitable institution has become its own industrial complex fueling corporate greed, exploitation and the playing-with-fire dangers of genetic mutation. Though conceptually sound, the Colin Trevorrow-directed effort was a rather shabby effort at best, albeit one that surely pleased audience with its billion-dollar grosses.

Continue reading ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’: The Franchise Erupts, But It’s Never Enough [Review] at The Playlist.

If you were hoping that the early reviews for “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” would be a good barometer for the quality of the film, then you’re out of luck. The reviews that have been posted so far on Rotten Tomatoes range from solid to downright awful. As of this writing, the current Tomatometer score is at 67%, but that is changing by the second [editor’s update: it appears to be finalized at 70%].

Continue reading ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Early Reviews Range From Great To “Infuriating” at The Playlist.

Filmmaker J.A. Bayona is making the leap from moderately-budgeted films to massive blockbusters this summer with the release of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” Previously, the director was best known for his films “A Monster Calls,” “The Orphanage,” and “The Impossible,” but now will have a (probable) billion-dollar film under his belt. And in a recent interview, a “Jurassic World” producer admits Bayona’s transition to blockbuster filmmaking could have happened sooner.

Continue reading Producer Admits That J.A. Bayona Was First Choice To Helm ‘Jurassic World’ Before Colin Trevorrow at The Playlist.

When “Jurassic World” came out in 2015, it became the 4th highest-grossing film of all time. Aside from the “Jurassic Park” franchise being revived, that meant we’d be getting a sequel. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is about to arrive in theaters and judging by the trailer, it appears darker than its predecessor. Also, Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Maclolm which is promising.

Continue reading New ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Trailer Makes The Case For The Franchise To Beat Extinction at The Playlist.

“Jurassic World” was a success at the box office and with fans, but if there was one complaint, it was that the storyline was pretty similar to the first movie. Similar, but missing one crucial element — the sometimes shirtless stammering of everyone’s favorite chaos theorist, Dr. Ian Malcolm.

READ MORE: First Look At Jeff Goldblum In New Footage From ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’

Thankfully, the powers that be have heard the call, and Jeff Goldblum will be donning his shades and returning to the prehistoric  mayhem in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” In addition to Goldblum, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and B.D.

Continue reading ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Trailer: Life Finds A Way at The Playlist.

When “Jurassic World” was released last summer, audiences accepted the film with open arms to the tune of $1.67 billion worldwide. With a plot and certain scenes that felt lifted directly from the 1993 classic “Jurassic Park,” the film feels like nostalgia turned up to 11. Well, in a recent interview, J.A. Bayona, the director of the upcoming “Jurassic World 2,” wants everyone to know that they intend for the sequel to be even more closely connected to the original.

Continue reading Director J.A. Bayona Says ‘Jurassic World 2’ Will Have More Of A Direct Connection To ‘Jurassic Park’ at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Felicity Jones has walked red carpets round the globe. She’s survived the rigors of an intense Oscar season for “The Theory of Everything” and blissfully sat through five different awards shows where she lost every single time, including the Academy Awards.  Nothing, however, has matched the response she’s experienced as part of the “Star Wars” franchise since she was cast as the lead in Gareth Edwards’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

“I was overwhelmed by the warmth of the response from the fans,” Jones says.

Continue reading Felicity Jones Says ‘A Monster Calls’ Co-star Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley Made ‘Rogue One’ Possible at The Playlist.

Trilogies — everybody, it seems, wants to do one. It was pioneered cinematically, mostly, by “Star Wars” (some might argue “The Godfather,” but that left a decade and a half between its second and third instalments, with the third only tacked on because Coppola had money troubles), but had few imitators, only becoming really popular after the back-to-back success of “The Matrix” and “Lord Of The Rings.”

Suddenly, every movie was seemingly being envisioned as a trilogy, something that continues to this day.

Continue reading Director J.A. Bayona Confirms That ‘Jurassic World 2’ Will Be The Middle Part Of A Trilogy at The Playlist.

Before “A Monster Calls” powerfully overflows its banks with deeply felt tides of emotion. Before you are trying to keep watching the screen through eyes welled with tears, the first thing you’ll notice about young Conor (Lewis MacDougall) — who is “too old to be a kid, yet too young to be a man” — is that he’s tired. He’s tired and angry. His mother Lizzie (Felicity Jones) is dying, he’s being bullied at school, his father (Toby Kebbell) lives halfway around the world with a new family in California, and should things turn for the worst, Conor will have to live with his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver).

Continue reading ‘A Monster Calls’ Is A Deeply Moving Fable About Loss & Love [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

'World War Z' Sequel Gets New Writer, Director Courted For 'Jurassic World 2' But Sticks With The Undead

Continue reading ‘World War Z’ Sequel Gets New Writer, Director Courted For ‘Jurassic World 2’ But Sticks With The Undead at The Playlist.