In 2019, a year after swells of protests swept through universities in Chile, a group of women, many of them blindfolded, took over the streets of Valparaiso, a coastal city in the country, to dance and sing a song that would go on to become an anthem. The performance was organized by LASTESIS, an interdisciplinary and trans-inclusive feminist collective, and it was their way of joining the global reach of the #MeToo movement. The lyrics to the song translated roughly to “A Rapist in Your Path” and even if you can’t understand the words, the demonstration is powerful.
There are similarly affecting scenes in Sebastián Lelio’s The Wave, a spirited musical film about the 2018 university protests. The feature, which premiered at Cannes outside the main competition, chronicles the fictional experiences of a student named Julia (Daniela López), who wrestles with the realities of a recent sexual assault within the context of this burgeoning movement.
The Wave
The Bottom Line
A catchy anthem that at times rings hollow.
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premiere) Cast: Daniela López, Lola Bravo, Avril Aurora, Paulina Cortés Director: Sebastián Lelio Screenwriters: Sebastián Lelio, Manuela Infante, Josefina Fernández, Paloma Salas
2 hours 9 minutes
The Wave is an ambitious spectacle, with Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, The Wonder) combining energetic songs and dance sequences with surrealist touches to tell a story of women’s empowerment. Aesthetic flourishes abound, which make it an entertaining viewing experience, but one does wish that the narrative was a touch more complex. Lelio embeds some compelling meta-textual moments — ones that mostly address that fact that he’s a man tackling this subject — but the actual story of Julia can feel secondary to the melodic pageantry.
Still, with the stateside popularity of Emilia Perez, which premiered at Cannes last year, The Wave could find a meaningful audience in the U.S. should it get distribution. Lelio’s film is more coherent in its politics than it is dramatically, and could resonate on that level with younger arthouse viewers.
When we meet Julia, she’s going home with her TA, Max (Lucas Sáez Collins). How their evening ends remains a mystery (Lelio films the couple stumbling into Max’s apartment and the door closing to us), but it haunts Julia. The following day at school, the women and nonbinary students marshal their peers to join a demonstration condemning how the university handles sexual assault cases. The protests takes the school by storm, and soon more women feel empowered to speak up about their experiences.
Julia, somewhat reluctantly, joins the organizing efforts and becomes a member of a working group tasked with collecting survivor testimonies. Hearing all of these testimonies, which Lelio stitches together with the help of editor Soledad Salfate, compels Julia to come forward with her own story.
The Wave, which was written by Lelio, Manuela Infante, Josefina Fernández and Paloma Sala, tackles many aspects of the #MeToo movement — and dynamics within organizing communities more broadly — with good intentions. That said, the results can be shaky. Part of the issue stems from the fact that Julia isn’t a sturdy enough anchor; her character at times feels flat.
The university student initially struggles to speak up because she’s working-class and on scholarship, while her assaulter comes from relative wealth. There’s a compelling thread concerning these class differences, as well as the fact that Max considers himself to be a good guy. This complicates the otherwise straightforward narrative by imbuing it with higher stakes. One wishes that The Wave further embraced this type of gray area and the challenges that crop up in real-world cases involving sexual violence.
Unfortunately, for the most part, especially early on, The Wave sticks to the surface, offering a story that can feel like Feminism 101. There’s also an overplayed metaphor about using one’s voice that tips into cliché over the course of this 2-hour-plus film. To his credit, Lelio does take more risks in the second half of The Wave, when he breaks the fourth wall and adds surrealist touches that effectively blur the lines between Julia’s reality and her memories.
In an exciting turn, the director also focuses on tensions that form within organizing communities because of competing goals or comfort levels with certain actions. Julia eventually falls into a sororal relationship with Rafa (Lola Bravo), Luna (Avril Aurora) and Tamara (Paulina Cortés), three other women who encourage her to confront her memories and report Max to university administrators.
Even when it falls short, The Wave boasts a commitment to its entrancing maximalist aesthetics (Benjamín Echazarreta serves as DP, Estefanía Larraín is the production designer and Muriel Parra does costumes). Lelio gathers an ensemble of more than 100 performers to stage dramatic dances (with choreography by Ryan Heffington) to rousing musical selections (music is by Matthew Herbert) about the difficulty of speaking up as a survivor, the manipulative tactics used by assailants, as well as the violent ineptitude of university administrators. The big numbers are anthemic, and just as affecting as LASTESIS’ enduring protest song.
Disney’s live-action redo of Lilo & Stitch and Tom Cruise‘s final Mission: Impossible movie from Paramount and Skydance fueled the biggest start-of-summer holiday weekend of all time, based on Monday estimates. Lilo & Stitch blew away all expectations with a record-smashing, four-day domestic debut of $183 million, and a jaw-dropping $341.7 million globally, while Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opened to a series-best $77.5 million domestically and $191 million worldwide. The domestic numbers include a three-day weekend tally of $145.5 million for Lilo and $64 million for Final Reckoning.
The female-fueled Lilo was always expected to beat the latest M:I title, but no one imagined it would hit these heights and, in an ironic twist, see Lilo & Stitch supplant Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick ($160 million) to rank as the biggest Memorial Day opener of all time, not adjusted for inflation. That’s not the only irony: Cruise-starrer Minority Report barely beat the original animated Lilo & Stitch when they opened opposite each other in June 2002. In North America, Lilo also zoomed to the second-biggest gross of all time for any four-day holiday weekend behind the $242 million opening of Marvel and Disney’s Black Panther ($242 million) and the third biggest debut ever for a Disney live-action title, both domestically and globally, behind Beauty and the Beast and crown-holder The Lion King, not adjusted for inflation.
Three weeks ago, Lilo & Stitch was tracking to open to $120 million. On Thursday, that number had grown to $165 million. But it came in even higher. The reason?
Stitch isn’t just drawing interest from families; to the contrary, 60 percent of ticket buyers were non-parents and kids, far higher than the norm. Interest exploded among teenage girls and younger women adults — i.e., Gen Z and younger millennials — who grew up on the first movie and resulting TV show about a Hawaiian girl with a fraught family life who adopts an adorable, albeit trouble-making, dog-like alien. Box office pundits say the nostalgic factor is running high, just as it did among millennials and Gen Z’ers for Disney’s live-action Aladdin, which made $1.1 billion in global ticket sales after getting families, teens and younger adults. Rideback produced both Lilo and 2019’s Aladdin.
It also plays to a notably diverse audience. Latinos, the most frequent moviegoers in the U.S., made up 33 percent of ticket buyers, while the film scored the biggest opening ever for a live-action Disney reimagining across Latin America.
For a minute, the live-action Lilo & Stitch was originally intended to go straight to Disney+, helping to explain its modest $100 million production budget before tax incentives and rebates.
Both films benefited from strong scores from critics and glowing audience exits, including five-out-of-five stars from moviegoers polled by industry-leading service PostTrak. Lilo has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 70 percent and nabbed an A CinemaScore from audiences.
Lilo & Stitch began its historic run by grossing a huge $55 million Friday from 4,410 theaters, including a record $14.5 million in Thursday previews, the largest preview gross of the year to date and a Memorial Day record for Disney’s live-action studio after besting The Little Mermaid ($10.3 million) and Aladdin ($7 million), not adjusted for inflation. Regarding Disney’s larger film empire, Thursday’s previews also beat Memorial Day entry Solo: A Star Wars Story ($14.1 million). Overall, it repped the seventh-biggest preview gross of any PG title, including Disney’s recent animated blockbuster Moana 2 ($13.8 million).
Final Reckoning — which had a lock on Imax screens — more than made up for the lackluster $54.7 million five-day bow of Dead Reckoning, as well as supplanting the $61.2 million three-day launch of Fallout to set a new franchise opening record. M:I movies have never been big openers since diehard fans are usually older adults, and particularly older males. Ticket buyers over the age of 55 made up the largest chunk of the audience, followed by the coveted 18 to 24 demo. It boasts a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 80 percent and earned an A- CinemaScore.
“Mission accomplished,” says Paramount domestic chief of distribution Chris Aronson. “This is a remarkable result for the eighth title in a franchise that’s 30 years in the making.”
Cruise’s film, directed by his go-to partner Christopher McQuarrie, began its run with a Friday gross of $24.8 million from 3,857 theaters, including Thursday previews. The film set its own preview record in earning a franchise-best $8.3 million, ahead of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ($7 million) and Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($6 million).
A major challenge in terms of Final Reckoning‘s financial success is its $400 million net budget before marketing — making it one of the most expensive films ever made — although Paramount insiders note that each new installment increases the value of the entire library, including a spike in home entertainment sales and rentals of previous titles.
Thanks to the might of the two films, overall ticket sales for the holiday weekend will come in north of $326 million, according to Comscore (the final stat won’t be tallied til Monday). The previous Memorial Day revenue crown belonged to the $306 million in ticket sales collected in 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 zoomed to $117 million, followed by The Hangover Part III with $50 million. It would also mark the best showing for two Memorial Day titles going up against each other. In 2007, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End opened to $140 million over the holiday frame, followed by Shrek the Third with $67 million.
While the mashup isn’t expected to become quite the same cultural phenomenon that Barbenheimer was in July 2023, the potent combo of the two movies can’t be ignored (as for a moniker, how about “Stitchin: Impossible”?)
Overseas, Lilo & Stitch likewise went up against Final Reckoning, although the M:I movie began rolling out in a handful of major markets last weekend via previews.
Lilo is reporting an international opening of $158.7 million, ahead of expectations. In a number of territories, it has scored the highest opening day of the year so far, including in China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France and Italy.
Final Reckoning is reporting an international start of $127 million through Sunday. Both its domestic and international openings were in line with expectations. The movie doesn’t open in China until May 30.
Also stocking the Memorial Day blaze in North America was the second weekend of New Line and Warner Bros.’ Final Destination: Bloodlines, which placed third with an estimated $24 million for the four days for an early domestic cume of $94.1 million and $186.7 million globally.
Marvel and Disney’s Thunderbolts* came in fourth with an estimated $12 million in its fourth weekend for a domestic cume hovering around $174 million through Monday and $335 million globally, followed by Ryan Coogler and Warners’ sleeper sensation Sinners, which earned another $11 million in its sixth weekend. Sinners will finish Monday with an estimated domestic cume of nearly d$259 million and $341 million worldwide.
The holiday’s other new nationwide offering, Angel Studios’ The Last Radio, only managed a sixth-place domestic finish with a four-day debut of $6.2 million.
Weekend actuals will be released Tuesday morning.
May 23, 4:10 p.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates based on early Friday returns. May 24, 7:45 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates. May 25, 8 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates. May 26, 12 p.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates, including a four-day number for The Last Rodeo.
This story was originally published May 23 at 8:04 a.m.
Tom Cruise is still speaking highly of ex-wife Nicole Kidman, even nearly 25 years after their divorce.
During a recent interview with Sight and Sound (via The Independent), the actor looked back at his 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut, and how he recommended Kidman be cast as Alice Harford in the Stanley Kubrick-directed erotic thriller, opposite his Dr. Bill Harford.
“I flew out to his house, and I landed in his backyard. I read the script the day before and we spent the day talking about it. I knew all of his films,” he recalled. “Then it was basically he and I getting to know each other. And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice]. Because, obviously, she’s a great actress.”
Cruise was particularly passionate about the film as he also told Kubrick, “Whatever it’s going to take [to make the movie], we’re going to do this,” despite it shooting much longer than expected.
Eyes Wide Shut centers on Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife Alice tells him that she contemplated having an affair the previous summer. He then embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey in New York City, during which he infiltrates a masked orgy of a secret society. It was Kubrick’s final film before he died in 1999 at 70 years old.
“I thought the film was very interesting, and I wanted to have that experience,” the Mission: Impossible star reflected. “When I go to make a movie, I do a lot of detailed investigation and a lot of time with the people before I commit so that I understand what they need and want and they understand me and how we can work together and really create something very special.”
Kidman has previously addressed whether working with Cruise on Eyes Wide Shut brought up “negative feelings” about their marriage at the time, as some viewers made comparisons between their onscreen and real-life relationships.
“That fits the narrative that people came up with, but I definitely didn’t see it like that,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “We were happily married through that.”
Kidman — who is currently married to country singer Keith Urban — and Cruise divorced in 2001 after 11 years of marriage.
Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* lorded over a relatively quiet weekend at the domestic box office, earning $33.1 million for a 10-day North American tally of $128.5 million and $272.2 million globally.
The ensemble pic led by Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan fell a respectable 55 percent from its opening weekend, compared to an average decline of 57 percent for a title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and far less that more recent MCU films. Earlier this year, Captain America: Brave New World tumbled more than 65 percent.
Thunderbolts* boasts both enviable reviews and audience scores, which is sparking strong word-or-mouth. And in a savvy stunt to whip up additional interest, Disney’s marketers revealed after the movie opened that the asterisk refers to the unofficial title The New Avengers, since many of the characters will appear in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.
Directed by Jake Schreier, the film brings together a band of dysfunctional outsiders — and lesser-known comic book characters — who discover their potential to be heroes when working together. In addition to Pugh (Yelena Belova) and Stan (Bucky Barnes), the movie features Wyatt Russell (John Walker), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CIA director Valentine Allegra de Fontaine).
With no new event pic on the marquee, the weekend belonged to holdovers all the way around.
Warner Bros. had plenty to celebrate as Ryan Coogler’s sleeper hit Sinners crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office for a worldwide total of nearly $300 million. In a second victory, A Minecraft Movie zoomed past $900 million in global ticket sales.
Sinners came in second in its fourth weekend with a huge $21.1 million for a North American total of $214.9 million through Sunday and $283.3 million globally. The supernatural vampire pic starring Michael B. Jordan is another coup for Coolger, the bold and audacious filmmaker behind the Black Panther and Creed franchises. (Jordan has starred in all five of his movies.)
A Minecraft Movie — the second-top-grossing video adaptation of all time behind Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, not adjusted for inflation — placed third in its sixth weekend with $8 million for a domestic haul of $409 million and $909.6 million globally.
Amazon MGM Studios’ The Accountant 2, now in its fourth weekend, enjoyed a fourth-place finish with $6.1 million for a solid domestic total of $50.9 million.
Among a handful of smaller titles hoping to drum up business on a nationwide basis, IFC’s slasher pic Clown in the Cornfield fared the best in opening to $3.7 million, enough to round out the top five. Lionsgate’s Shadow Force and Vertical’s Fight or Flight both opened in the $2 million range (the order will be determined Monday morning when final weekend grosses are tallied.)
“This relatively quiet weekend is just the calm before the proverbial storm,” says Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian in referencing such upcoming May titles as Final Destination: Bloodlines,Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch and Karate Kid: Legends. He adds, “It’s looking like it’s going to be an epic month of May for movie theaters.”
There was action at the specialty box office, thanks to A24’s critically acclaimed Friendship, which opened in six cinemas. The Tim Robinson-Paul Rudd bromance scored a dazzling per theater average of $75,137, which A24 says is the best showing of the year so far for an indie title opening in platform run.
Shinji Higuchi’s action thriller Bullet Train Explosion debuted on Netflix on April 23 with something of a bang, with the movie enthusiastically embraced by viewers and climbing as high as No. 2 in the streamer’s global non-English films list. The movie was another win for Netflix Japan, and notably a breakout feature for the region after it had scored international and critical successes with series such as Alice in Borderland, First Love, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House and The Boyfriend.
A sequel to Junya Sato’s 1975 classic The Bullet Train — a film that inspired Jan de Bont’s 1994 blockbuster Speed — Bullet Train Explosion updates the action to the present day and similarly sees an unseen villain claim (and also prove) that they have placed a bomb on a Tokyo-bound Shinkansen train, that is set to explode if the train drops below 100 km/h in speed. A combination of JR East train employees, passengers, as well as control tower staff and bureaucrats then attempt to figure out a plan to rescue the hundreds of train passengers and stop the train from reaching central Tokyo before it explodes.
On top of its lineage to The Bullet Train, Higuchi’s film will have extra special resonance for Japanese audiences, as well as anyone who has visited Japan, with the central importance the Shinkansen plays in the movie. Bullet Train Explosion is notable for the production getting official backing from Japanese railway operator East Japan Railway Company, a rarity as the organisation is loath to sanction depictions of the service that may cast aspersions or associate it with unsavory issues.
At Netflix’s recent Asia Pacific film content showcase in Tokyo, Higuchi, as well as some of the creative team behind Bullet Train Explosion, spoke at length about the linkup with JR East and the amount of detail the production went into recreating the high level of verisimilitude in the film. Higuchi and the producers were keen to stress that Japan’s legions of train afficianados would appreciate the level of work that went into the sets that recreated the carriages, the uniforms and everything else that was unimistakably a part of the experience of travelling on the JR East.
Ahead of the streaming release of Bullet Train Explosion on Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Higuchi about the film at the Tokyo showcase. The filmmaker discussed the inspirations he took from The Bullet Train, what the Shinkansen means to the Japanese people, the making of the film and some of the dos and don’ts from JR East Railway.
First, I wanted to ask you what you think the Shinkansen train means to people in Japan?Why is it so important?
I don’t know what the Shinkansen train means for everybody in Japan, but for me on a personal level, I was born in 1965 and the first Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced a year before I was born. And so as a child, the Shinkansen was something that you would see in TV programs and there would be children’s songs about it. It was something that everybody dreamed of, it was aspirational for us. It was the first thing that really let you experience things out of the ordinary.
As I grew into an adult, I would use the Shinkansen more for getting to and from work. And so I started using it differently than compared to when I was a child. And the Shinkansen evolved too, the speed became 1.5 times faster than it was in the beginning, and it allowed you to go to all these different places. When it started, it was just one route between Osaka and Tokyo, then it expanded, and you were able to go everywhere. When that happened, it went from something out of the ordinary, to something that was part of everyday life. Then in 1975, there was the original movie, [The Bullet Train]. The poster showed the Shinkansen blowing up, but when you actually saw the movie, though, it didn’t explode! Because it would be a disaster if it actually exploded, so the characters just did everything in their power to prevent the explosion from happening. [In the film] you see the police, the railway company, people doing everything they can to stop the bullet train, that was something that was very intriguing to see.
[The star of The Bullet Train], Ken Takakura, is an iconic actor in Japan, he played perpetrator. This actor, who we usually saw as a hero, was now a villain, he sets a bomb on the train, and he is shot by the police at the very end. I was in fourth grade when the film came out, and until then I had only seen movies of monsters, heroes and animation. And The Sound of Music! [laughs]. So it was the first time that I saw a movie where the criminal was shot by the police. It was very shocking because I was accustomed to seeing movies with happy endings. [The film] really talked about the injustice that exists in this world, and it taught me a lesson. It was a refreshing experience, where you were able to experience the thrill of somebody actually committing a crime, and then also this real tension of seeing this beautiful Shinkansen being in this kind of situation. So the film left an emotional scar when I saw it for the first time.
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi plays the conductor in ‘Bullet Train Explosion.’
Netflix
Regarding the themes of your film. What did you want to communicate to Japan and also to the world with the themes of the film? What I loved about Bullet Train Explosion is the way that it is a great action film, but also the way it celebrates the things the world loves about Japan, like working together to solve problems, keeping the trains on time, social trust. Did you have those things in mind at all?
From a critical point of view, I think the Japanese people they are on a decline, compared to 50 years ago, when the original film was made. Everything has been going down, in terms of the economy. But then, if we bring you that decline as the core of this film, that’s not going to make anybody happy! This time around [for Bullet Train Explosion], the characters in this film are all people that are not such great people, including, some of the passengers, they all have their faults. [There’s the scandal-plagued] politician, there’s the YouTuber that only thinks about money. There are a lot of these kinds of people in Japan today. And the ultimate character is the girl who has no appreciation for life and no hope at all. Those are the characters, but we made a point of not killing any of them.
Then you have the JR people, the staff on the JR, these are people that seem like they are only able to do routine work. [Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s character] would have been able to save all the passengers if he was able to kill that girl, but he’s not able to do that. So, it’s really a question of whom the hero is, and that’s the message that I wanted to convey when we were portraying the perpetrator. I think the character that Tsuyoshi Kusanagi played is very representative of the people of Japan in today’s society.
Actually, when we initially came up with the idea of the conductor, his background would be that he would have a family, he had children to go back home to. He would have this everyday life, and he would be stuck in this conflict between his family and his work. When we pitched that character idea to JR in the beginning, they said the scenes where [the conductor] leaves a voicemail on his smartphone or emails his family from the Shinkansen [weren’t realistic] because when the JR conductor boards a Shinkansen, they do not have smartphones with them because they put them in their lockers at the station. They shut themselves off completely from the outside world and their families.
‘Bullet Train Explosion’
Netflix
From my point of view as an American, watching the film what I loved about it is that we’re living in a time when all around the world, trust in institutions and civic society is breaking down. This film really celebrates people doing humble jobs with dignity — coming together to solve a problem. There’s some critique of bureaucracy, but overall, people work together to solve a problem. The trains are running on time, where it feels like social services around the world are breaking down, like even Germany’s trains don’t run on time anymore! Do you think the world can learn from Japan a little bit at this moment and what this film says about that?And the other thing I’m curious about is what else JR said that you could and couldn’t do, and what their concerns were?
I don’t really have an intention of pushing Japan’s message to the world! I’m actually more curious to hear what people think of the film after they see it. When I first went to the airport [in the U.S.], I saw the people who were doing the body checks, and they seemed to be living an extension of their private life and everything was just very free and so that actually was very shocking to me when I first went to the U.S. And I think it really showed what kind of country that the U.S. is. I think there isn’t a need for any country to be like the other. We need to learn and take the good things from one another. And they were throwing snacks! On the flight! [laughs] It makes you feel you can join in, become one of them! That would never happen on the Shinkansen! [laughs] It’s a very small thing, but that’s one of the things that I really appreciated when I went to the U.S., that experience. It’s great. I love it.
About JR and their concerns. I think, because they have so many rules, if we had kept to each and every one of their rules, everything would have been out of the question! In that sense, they really gave us that freedom to do what we wanted. But we really did stay in tune to the mindset of the employees and really thought of how they would react in these kinds of situations.
Greg Cannom, the masterful prosthetics and makeup specialist who received Oscars for his work on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Vice, has died. He was 73.
Cannom worked often with makeup maestro Rick Baker early in his career, and Baker on Friday reported his death in an Instagram post. “His work will be remembered long after his passing,” he wrote. No details were immediately available.
In March 2023, a GoFundMe page was set up to help Cannom with expenses as he battled diabetes and a staph infection that led to one of his legs being amputated below his knee.
In addition to his four wins, Cannom received six other Oscar makeup noms: for Hook (1991), Hoffa (1992), Roommates (1995), Titanic (1997), Bicentennial Man (1999) and A Beautiful Mind (2001).
He and Wesley Wofford shared an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2005 for “the development of their special modified silicone material for makeup applications used in motion pictures.”
And in 2019, the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cannom was especially skillful at making actors age onscreen; witness Kevin Pollak in The Whole Ten Yards (2004), Brad Pitt in Babel (2006) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man and Christian Bale — as Dick Cheney — in Vice (2018).
In 2006, he landed one of his five career Emmy nominations for his work in the finale of the original run of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace when the characters age some 20 years.
“With monsters, you design whatever you want. With age makeup, everybody knows what they look like, so it’s got to be really good,” he said in a 2021 interview.
His skill on transforming the young actors in The Lost Boys (1987) into vampires — while still retaining their boyish good looks — is universally admired. He also helped turn Williams and Martin Lawrence into believable women in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and the Big Momma’s House movies of 2000 and ’06.
Cannom said he was inspired to pursue a career in Hollywood after being wowed by the aging makeup handled by Dick Smith on Max Von Sydow in The Exorcist (1973).
After attending Cypress College in Southern California and working at the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park during Halloween seasons, he connected with Baker and served as his assistant on It Lives Again (1978).
The two also collaborated on The Howling (1981), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), Cocoon (1985), the 1987-88 Fox series Werewolf and perhaps most significantly on the 1983 music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
In that, Cannom appears near the end in full closeup as one of the vampires in makeup applied by Charles H. Schram of Wizard of Oz fame.
His remarkable film résumé also included Dreamscape (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (1987), Big Top Pee-wee (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), Postcards From the Edge (1990), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Alien 3 (1992), Batman Returns (1992), The Man Without a Face (1993), The Mask (1994), Thinner (1996), Kull the Conqueror (1997), Blade (1998), The Insider (1999), Hannibal (2001), Ali (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Van Helsing (2004), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), his final film.
Cannom assisted on seven films nominated for best picture: Titanic, The Insider, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, Babel, Benjamin Button and Vice, with Titanic and A Beautiful Mind coming out on top.
He shared his Oscars with Michèle Burke and Matthew W. Mungle on Bram Stoker’sDracula (1992), with Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng on Mrs. Doubtfire and with Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney on Vice.
