iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I got to break out the family Bible for this one …

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Branagh says Nolan himself has a strange ability with time. Almost eerie.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"He was so moved and so brilliant in his perception of what Shakespeare was trying to do with memory, with time. [It’s about] people's lives in the moment when they may be driven to try and right wrongs, and somehow settle life before it all goes away from them. He was so sensitive to that."

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Finally — Branagh tells his #ChristopherNolan tales. The actor appeared in Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer, but before all that, the future #Odyssey filmmaker came to see him in a London stage performance of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale in 2015. "Which of course is a play which deals with time..."

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Other amazing stories from Branagh: —His "cameo" in Chariots of Fire, where he was really a background extra. — Competing with Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman and Richard E. Grant in auditions when they were all starting out. — His time in "Harry Potter" as the vainglorious Gilderoy Lockhart.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Also ... Dead Again was a disaster. The 1991 neo-noir supernatural drama that he starred in with Emma Thompson was destroyed in seven different test screenings and was headed for ruin. Then the studio gave up. And Branagh made one last-second change that saved everything.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

After shooting Hamlet, Branagh invited Williams for dinner. But Robin said no. He'd signed up for an open-mic night at London comedy club. "That personality was constantly fireworking. When I think of Robin, I think about a tough guy—but so bruisable. Like a fruit that you don't want to mishandle."

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The way he played the ex-KGB woodland hermit reminded me of Robin Williams — mischievous, explosive, but vulnerable and heartfelt. Turns out that was part of it. And that led to several moving stories about Robin from Branagh, who knew him and worked with him in Dead Again and 1996's Hamlet.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The hook is #Mayday, an action comedy with Ryan Reynolds. It's a surprise move for the classical actor—like seeing your Lit professor throw down in a bar fight. "It definitely FELT new," Branagh says. "When I got it, I said, “Why have they sent this to me? Zach Galifianakis should play this part.”

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Goodbye, Dolly Parton. The world was a more wonderful place with you in it. ❤️ And you were your true to yourself every step of the way.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Always loved Miss Dolly Parton. Only got to interview her once, alongside Queen Latifah, when they made a gospel comedy called "Joyful Noise" in 2012. (This was for EW.) Dolly called her by her real name, Dana Owens, and these two were hilarious together. Here's how the conversation STARTED...

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Farewell to Ben Jones. I knew Cooter had served in congress after Dukes of Hazzard, but I did not know he was a Democrat or that he had helped rid us of Newt Gingrich. 👍 RIP

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Here’s a walk through this beloved character actor’s long, strange trip … From Ghost, to Eerie, Indiana, and the principal from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even the Angel of Death on Night Court. Each is a stepping stone to Widow’s Bay 💀🚤🐍

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Today is the day of “There Will Come Soft Rains” 🌧️ To Ray Bradbury in 1950, August 4, 2026 was once the distant future.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Spaceballs: The Clickbait I spent Comic-Con with the gang from Spaceballs: The New One, shadowing them as they orchestrated the return of Rick Moranis after 30 years. Then ... they lost him. Here's what happened behind-the-scenes at Hall H. 🚀

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Got a little dramatic at Comic-Con to show off the scale of my new Darth Vader book.💥 No tables were broken, but I think this demonstrates the physical weight of 50 years of Star Wars storytelling.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I'm the voice you hear at the start of this video saying, "Let's talk about your open shirt..." That opened the door for Sam Neill and Laura Dern to mercilessly torment their Jurassic Park pal Jeff Goldblum later in the chat (It made fun tease for the opener.)

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I think of that scene every time a Twitter or Bluesky mob rears up in a flurry of performative outrage. The process of changing the world for the better is a slow and painstaking one, requiring sophistication, strategy, and patience. That’s very different from catharsis or virtue signaling.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Denisov looks down with contempt but not surprise. “Your young people, attacking the symbols of power—that they can see,” he purrs. “They resist in ways that make them feel good, not those that actually accomplish anything.”

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Neill's Denisov meets one night in the city with a midwestern politician and USSR collaborator named Peter Bradford (played by Robert Ulrich). From Denisov’s balcony, they watch as a mob of young people from an underground punk concert surrounds a police car and sets it on fire.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The role was in a 1987 ABC miniseries called Amerika, a cold war alt-history parable about what life in the United States might look like under Soviet rule. Neill played Colonel Andrei Denisov, a KGB apparatchik and administrator of the occupation.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome Pelley?!?”

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

There’s a story behind that Angus Cloud footage on #Euphoria. 💔 Sam Levinson tells it in about 40 minutes at Esquire.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The new Empire covers are loose! 🕷️ Inside the making of Spider-Man: Brand New Day—featuring … everyone. Writing this was an absolute blast, and the designers made both the newsstand and the subscriber special look, well, amazing. Hope you Spidey fans enjoy.❤️ @empiremagazine.bsky.social

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

🐍 Sam Levinson talks it out with us at Esquire. #Euphoria

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I raise you one Indiana Jones. The man was busy making adventures for us to choose back then.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

If you translate the Latin on the biceps of Javier Bardem's Max Cady, it reads: "Tonitrus Fulmen” or “Thunder and Lightning,” while “Iustitia Ignis” is "The Justice of Fire." This and 12 more new images can be found across the three Esquire stories.

Javier Bardem as Max Cady in the new "Cape Fear" TV series.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Met Gala is breathtaking this year.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Definitely got my attention with that email subject line, WB Home Entertainment. 😱

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

20 short stories about The Guy Who Makes You Laugh and Cry. Bill Lawrence tells tales from Shrinking, Rooster, Scrubs, Ted Lasso and more. ** Including how Harrison Ford personally made sure they wouldn’t have to pay to add the Indiana Jones theme song joke to Shrinking. 🎶

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

A very King Sorrow-looking remnant of tonight’s space launch over California.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

“Maul is afraid, and power is the only way he knows to really overcome this fear of being insignificant, of being forgotten, of being a nothing,” Dave Filoni says. There's a scene in the show that reminded me of this moment with Edward G. Robinson's wannabe gangster:

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Some of the influences on Maul: Shadow Lord were crime movies like Heat and The Untouchables. I saw elements of 1931’s Little Caesar and 1948’s White Heat too. Desperate men driven to crime to prove themselves. Made it, Pa(lpatine)! Top ‘o the world!

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Tomorrow at 9 am ET. Exclusive @ Esquire Some news, some deep-diving, some 😈 💥

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This is a good day! The new novel from the always excellent @bevvincent.bsky.social has arrived in my mailbox.📪 Cannot wait to check in to this sinister story. lividian.com/just-announc...

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

When I interviewed Amy Madigan for Empire, her husband Ed was in the background of the Zoom, brewing fresh coffee for his girl. That’s one way actors support each other. 1985 to 2026

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Oscar statuettes are not people, pets or family photographs, but they do stand for a life's work. This image from the article is heartbreaking to me because it shows the destruction of joy and pride and talent. Josh's story finds beauty in the ache. And maybe a happy ending after all.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Josh is an evocative writer, and the tension he builds in this story took me back to that time when everyone in this city was looking at their homes and doing the mental calculation of what they would grab at a moment's notice.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

We venture down the scarecrow-infested road of another epic short story collection, Nightmares & Dreamscapes. And why would they change covers from the eerie hardback to … this Bed, Bath & Beyond wall decoration on the paperback?

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Haunted Girl book arrival… from @ethansacks.bsky.social and Naomi Sacks, and Marco Lorenzano. This is a special one.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

“I've had more sex scenes on this show than I've had in my whole career,” she says. “I feel, I don't know … I feel honored.” A new look at season two of Your Friends & Neighbors.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

There is a lot in this book about robber barons siphoning away prosperity, leaving crumbs and decay for everyone else. Sounds familiar. This passage could be written about today’s tech ghouls.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I call this story: Aging, Distressing and Dying (but we're talking about the clothes.) Let's explore the workshop of #Frankenstein costume designer @katehawleycostume.bsky.social and her adventures with @realgdt.bsky.social. For @goldderby.com 🏆 #Oscars #Filmsky

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Let's explore the chambers of an undead heart. 🖤 For @goldderby.com, a tour of the glorious ruins of #Frankenstein. "Can we turn the lights on?" says Tamara Deverell, @realgdt.bsky.social's Oscar-nominated production designer "All these sections are completely terrifying to me..." #filmsky

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Walton would be fantastic. Also a good friend of Duvall, so there’s a heritage there with King’s own suggestion.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

This reminded me that Stephen King once said he could picture Robert Duvall playing Randall Flagg.

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Can I get a ride home?” Robert Duvall asked. Another good story about the man, this time from Scott Bowles. 🔗 hollywoodbowles.com/2026/02/16/g...

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Need to crowdsource something ... What style architecture is this house?

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Anthony Breznican @brezwrites.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Publicity photo from the good old days. Nothing says "We're scary guys" like a little demon goat on his hind legs, a two-headed calf (one of which is wearing a crown) and a wolf who's clearly singing his heart out.

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