Sam Esmail
‘Leave the World Behind’ Director Sam Esmail Explains His Controversial Ending
[This story contains major spoilers about the ending of Leave the World Behind, now streaming on Netflix.] Plenty of people tried to talk Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail out of his film’s controversial ending — even Esmail tried to talk himself out of his film’s controversial ending. But the filmmaker responsible for projects including […]
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‘Leave the World Behind’ Filmmaker Sam Esmail on Those ‘Mr. Robot’ Connections and Using the ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ Playbook
[This story contains spoilers for Leave the World Behind.] Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind currently ranks atop Netflix’s film chart, and longtime fans of the filmmaker are now decoding its place in his greater universe of storytelling. Ten minutes into the thriller, Mr. Robot buffs likely picked up on a familiar site: a yellow […]
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Inside ‘Mr. Robot’ Creator Sam Esmail’s Carefully Curated L.A. Headquarters
Every room in Sam Esmail’s Los Angeles office bears the name of an author who he’s been inspired by — or, in his words, was “obsessed with growing up.” Walk down a hallway, and you’ll see Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Ellison, Sartre. When his Universal Television-set company, titled simply Esmail Corp., took over the building back in […]
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Why Sam Esmail Cast America’s Sweetheart Julia Roberts as a “Karen”
Sam Esmail is baffled by the desire for adaptations to be faithful to their source material. “That’s not the point,” says the man who brought us Mr. Robot and Homecoming. “The point is, you’re making a great film, and if you’re handcuffing yourself to the source material, you’re going to get into a lot of […]
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‘Leave the World Behind’ Director Sam Esmail on Collaborating with the Obamas and Telling Another Cyberattack Story After ‘Mr. Robot’
Writer-director Sam Esmail premiered his latest film Leave the World Behind at the opening night of AFI Fest on Wednesday night, where he opened up about getting notes on the film from the Obamas — who served as producers — and comparisons of the project to his past work on Mr. Robot. The film is […]
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‘Leave the World Behind’ Review: Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali in Sam Esmail’s Not Quite Satisfying Dystopian Vision
Ethan Hawke also stars in the AFI Fest opener, based on the best-selling suspense novel by Rumaan Alam.
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What the ‘Leave the World Behind’ Adaptation (and a Julia Roberts-Starring Role) Means to Rumaan Alam
When Rumaan Alam released his third novel, Leave the World Behind, the world was six months into a deeply traumatizing — and claustrophobic — pandemic. The book opens on a white family vacationing at a rural Long Island Airbnb as the Black family who owns the home knocks at the door asking for refuge from a […]
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‘Leave the World Behind’ Trailer Stars Julia Roberts in Obamas-Produced Netflix Thriller
There are a lot of big names on this one. Netflix’s official trailer for Leave the World Behind, an apocalyptic thriller, stars Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts and is executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. The premise: “Amanda (Roberts) and her husband Clay (Hawke), rent a luxurious home for the weekend with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) […]
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Julia Roberts Confronts the Apocalypse in ‘Leave the World Behind’ Trailer
Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke’s Amanda and Clay Sandford get a fateful midnight knock at the door in the teaser trailer for Netflix’s Leave the World Behind, which dropped Monday. “In my line of work, you have to understand the patterns that govern the world. That can help you see the future,” Mahershala Ali’s G.H. […]
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Barack Obama Gave Script Notes on Netflix’s ‘Leave the World Behind,’ Starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke
Director Sam Esmail revealed that former President Barack Obama gave him notes on the script for Netflix’s adaptation of author Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, published online Wednesday, the Mr. Robot creator said that he actually turned to Obama when he was penning the original drafts because he […]
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Writers Guild Meeting With Top Showrunners Canceled as Negotiations Poised to Resume
As the writers strike wraps its 20th week and inches toward an October date that would make it the longest in the guild’s history, a Friday meeting between the union’s top leadership and a dozen of the industry’s top showrunners has been canceled. Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Friday’s meeting — which was […]
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Emmy Rossum on ‘Angelyne’ in Premiere Date Teaser: “She’s a Trailblazer, a Hustler”
Angelyne is ready to make her debut. Peacock’s limited series about the L.A. billboard legend, which is based on a 2017 Hollywood Reporter feature by Gary Baum and was announced before the NBCUniversal streamer even launched, has finally set a release date. The five-episode series will release in full on May 19. And in the […]
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