Bryan Bishop
- Senior Imagineer, Walt Disney Imagineering
Los Angeles
Current: Walt Disney Imagineering. Previous: ILMxLAB / Lucasfilm / The Verge.
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Articles by Bryan Bishop
Louisville Cardinals vs Virginia Tech Hokies: NCAA college football Week 10 game photos
Bryan Bishop IMAGN Images Nov 1, 2025; Blacksburg, Virginia, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies defensive lineman Emmett Laws (99) tackles Louisville Cardinals wide receiver Caullin Lacy (5) during the fourth quarter at Lane Stadium.
Apple pulls its products from EPEAT 'green' certification registry
From its hardware to its data centers, Apple is known for touting its environmentally-friendly bona fides — but the company has modified that stance when it comes to its hardware. This past month Apple pulled its 39 products that were featured in the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, telling the organization that it would not be submitting future items for consideration.
Samsung's new commercial spoofs the Super Bowl with the help of Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen
Last year Samsung took a shot at Apple with a Super Bowl ad for the Galaxy Note, and now the company has debuted a new spot that riffs on the licensing restrictions of the big game itself. In the commercial, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd play two writers pitching ideas for a Samsung Super Bowl commercial — to Mr. Show and Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk, no less.
Internet reader comments: on conversation and moderation
Hands Typing We consider reader participation an essential element of The Verge, but the Internet is filled with diverse viewpoints and what works for any given site may not work for another. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor and writer for The Atlantic, recently spoke with On The Media's Bob Garfield about his strict approach when dealing with online comments, and the tradeoffs between completely open and moderated conversations.
Did Apple's Phil Schiller drop Instagram after Android launch, blaming 'signal to noise ratio'?
Before Instagram was snatched up by Facebook for $1 billion, there was the launch of the Android version of the photo-sharing app. While we knew the release rattled the cages of more than a few iOS users, what we didn't know was that one of them may have been Apple's own Phil Schiller. 9to5Mac reports that one of its readers reached out to Apple's senior vice president of marketing after noticing that his Instagram account, under the name @schiller, had vanished.
I’ll be back: all the updates for Terminator: Dark Fate
The film hits theaters on November 1st, 2019 Contributors: Julia Alexander, Andrew Liptak, and Bryan Bishop The Terminator is back — again. This November, a new installment of the iconic time traveling robot uprising franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate, is hitting theaters. This one comes with a bit of a twist: it’s a direct sequel to the original two films, and will see stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles. The film will hit theaters on November 1st, 2019.
Google announces Drive for Work with unlimited storage at $10 a month
Google's suite of productivity software has been making inroads against competitors like Microsoft Office, and the company is ratcheting up the pressure with Drive for Work. As announced today at Google's I/O conference, the program will offer unlimited storage on Google Drive for just $10 a month per user — and will accept files up to 5TB in size.
United becomes the latest airline to let customers use electronic devices gate-to-gate
JetBlue and Delta were the first two airlines to let customers use electronic devices during takeoff and landing, and now United Airlines is joining the pack. The company announced today that it was providing "electronics-friendly cabins" for domestic flights, allowing passengers to use their phones, tablets, and other devices throughout the entire duration of a flight — provided they're in airplane mode, of course.
All the updates for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Contributors: Verge Staff The Rise of Skywalker is the last of the Star Wars “saga” films that include the original, prequel, and latest sequel trilogies. It’s also the last Star Wars film in the works at the moment. With the success of 2015’s The Force Awakens, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Lucasfilm is planning for the next “decade and a half” of Star Wars films.
Aaron Swartz's battle to free the PACER legal document database
26-year-old Aaron Swartz died tragically this year amidst threats from federal prosecutors over his involvement with downloading texts from the JSTOR academic collection. Ars Technica takes a look at an earlier effort by Swartz to liberate documents from the legal filing database known as PACER.
All of the updates for Disney’s immersive Star Wars theme parks, Galaxy’s Edge
Opening in Anaheim, California, and Orlando, Florida in 2019 Contributors: Verge Staff Image credit: Disney / Lucasfilm This year, Disney will open a pair of ambitious expansions to its theme parks in California and Florida: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The parks will be designed to look like real locations from the Star Wars universe, with Disney tying the location into the larger canon of the franchise through books, comics, and more.
Dreamscape Immersive is bringing location-based VR to the masses
Walk into the new Southern California flagship location for location-based VR company Dreamscape Immersive, and the sights and sounds of the bustling shopping center it’s located in quickly fade away. A large clock hangs over a wooden concierge desk, while a pair of monitors advertises “departure times” for the location’s trio of immersive experiences, using three-letter abbreviations that echo an airport more than a movie theater or arcade.
Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in January
True Detective, Kimmy Schmidt, and Indiana Jones By Bryan Bishop@bcbishop Dec 30, 2018, 10:53am EST With 2019 just days away, it’s important to cherish the hope and optimism that comes with every new year. A fresh calendar brings a fresh start — one where anything is possible! And then, of course, after a couple of days of well-intentioned good behavior, it’ll be time to drop the ceremony and resume the rhythms of the previous year and just get on with life.
How Weta Digital created the steampunk world of Mortal Engines
Bringing a project like Christian Rivers’ film Mortal Engines to life was always going to require a significant amount of visual-effects work. Based on Philip Reeve’s novel series, the story takes place in a future dystopia where cities have become massive, roving machines that prowl the surface of the Earth, with London, the biggest of them all, gobbling up smaller cities and dicing them to pieces for resources. There was simply no way to realize the world without heavy use of digital animation.
Bumblebee proves Transformers movies can actually be resonant and emotional
It’s nearly impossible to separate the Transformers film franchise from the creative aesthetic of director Michael Bay. From the slow-motion flag-waving to the copious explosions and visually incomprehensible CG action, the series has become the ultimate expression of Bay’s idiosyncratic style. Audiences may love it — the movies have collectively made billions of dollars at the box office.
How Searching star John Cho became convinced computer screen movies weren’t just gimmicks
When the horror flick Unfriended came out in 2015, it seemed more like a stunt than a legitimate movie. The entire movie took place on a computer screen, with audiences watching from a first-person point of view as a user navigated from Facebook to Spotify and back again, all while chatting on a group Skype call. The movie serves up a modern take on I Know What You Did Last Summer, as a group of friends are picked off by a righteously angry former victim.
Chained mixes virtual reality and live actors to tell a dark Christmas tale
I was wearing a VR headset, standing in the middle of a dark, gothic take on A Christmas Carol. A grisly Jacob Marley asked me what I missed most about my childhood, and I told him I missed the hope and optimism of youth, when it seemed like anything was possible. When the Spirit of Christmas Past subsequently visited me, he pointed out a pair of ghostly, shadowy children chasing each other a few feet away. The spirit leaned in close.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is dazzling, hilarious, and unique
Back in 2013, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced plans for its own elaborate, interconnected universe based around Spider-Man. Among the planned titles: Amazing Spider-Man 3 (which never happened), Venom (which arguably shouldn’t have happened), and The Sinister Six (which hasn’t happened yet, though writer-director Drew Goddard would still love to tackle it).
The Walking Dead’s midseason finale got the show back on track
Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 9, episode 8 below. This season of The Walking Dead has had its own meta storyline, complete with ups, downs, and breathtaking cliffhangers. After several seasons of declining ratings, it was announced earlier this year that showrunner Scott Gimple was leaving the show, with Angela Kang set to take over for season 9. The idea was that Kang’s new vision for the show could revitalize The Walking Dead, starting with a reimagined title sequence.
Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in December
A big month for Netflix original movies with Roma, Bird Box, and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle By Bryan Bishop@bcbishop Nov 25, 2018, 10:00am EST So you’ve survived Thanksgiving, and managed to do it without bringing up politics or any other awkward topics with family members? Well, then this December you should treat yourself by checking out something on your streaming service of choice.
The Void’s Ralph Breaks VR puts players inside a giant interactive Disney movie
When virtual reality company The Void released its first collaboration with ILMxLab, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, the mission was pretty straightforward. Star Wars fans want nothing more than to step inside the world of that franchise, so the experience, which lets participants play Rebel spies infiltrating an Imperial base, had to deliver something that looked and felt as much like Star Wars as possible.
The Walking Dead finds its groove without Rick Grimes
At times, the latest season of AMC’s The Walking Dead has felt muddled, as if new showrunner Angela Kang was confused about what she wanted the show to be. Is she making a daring drama that surprises audiences with fearless storytelling decisions, or continuing the stunts that have defined the last few seasons? Does she want to improve on the comic-book morality of the long-running comic series, or is she more interested in treading water and setting up an upcoming Rick Grimes movie trilogy?
All the updates for Disney’s live-action Star Wars shows
All the updates for Disney’s live-action Star Wars shows Coming to Disney+ in 2019 For Lucasfilm and fans alike, the idea of a live-action Star Wars TV series has been a longtime dream project. As far back as 2005, George Lucas mentioned his desire to produce such a show. His original plan was for a series called Star Wars: Underworld, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Netflix’s Cam is an unsettling thriller about losing your online identity
There’s a moment about two-thirds of the way through Netflix’s creepy new tech thriller Cam where audiences will think they have a pretty good handle on where the movie is headed. Alice (Madeline Brewer), a cam girl who goes by the online name “Lola,” is trying to figure out what’s going on with her account. It’s been hijacked by a woman who appears to be her doppelgänger, someone regularly performing live broadcasts in her name. And none of the fans who send her money can tell the difference.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is The Lego Movie of Disney films
Disney’s 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph proved that a movie based on video game nostalgia could actually be more than a gimmick. It’s the story of Ralph (John C. Reilly), a villain in a Donkey Kong-esque 1980s-style retro arcade game, who ventures outside of his own cabinet and into the world of other games to prove he’s not such a bad guy after all. Along the way, he befriends a wisecracking racing-game misfit named Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman).
The Walking Dead’s fresh start looks like a big step back
Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 9, episode 6 below. Last week, The Walking Dead was too clever for its own good. After head-faking for months that Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes would be killed off the show, the series aired a finale that seemed to do exactly that — before revealing in the final moments that Rick was actually just whisked away via helicopter, injured but alive.
Overlord is a gloriously entertaining piece of B-movie schlock
For some people, labeling a film as a B-movie is a crushing bit of condescension, but for others, it’s high praise and an implicit recommendation. Between directing blockbusters like Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams has spent the last few years eagerly embracing the latter point of view, producing outright B-movies through his company Bad Robot.
Industrial Light & Magic opens TV division just in time for Disney’s new Star Wars show
Industrial Light & Magic, the company that invented modern cinematic visual effects with its work on the original Star Wars trilogy, is embracing television with a new division it is naming ILM TV. According to a press release, the new group’s focus will be on episodic and streaming television series, and it already has two projects lined up: the second season of Syfy’s Krypton, and Jon Favreau’s upcoming live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
The Walking Dead has a Rick Grimes movie trilogy on the way
Last night, The Walking Dead dealt with the heavily marketed departure of series star Andrew Lincoln in a startling, unexpected way. The way the episode handled the event didn’t make sense from a story or audience perspective, but a story from The New York Times clarifies that it did make sense from a business standpoint, because the series’ network, AMC, is preparing a trilogy of Walking Dead spin-off movies that will bring Lincoln back in his role as series star Rick Grimes.
The Walking Dead has condemned itself for all time
Last week on The Walking Dead, it appeared that the show had taken a step in a bold new direction. Press releases had announced that series star Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) would depart the series well ahead of the expected midseason finale send-off. And then it looked as if new showrunner Angela Kang had opted to kill Rick off even before the announced date.
The new horror film canon (and where to stream it)
For people with a lively interest in cinema’s rapid technolgical and cultural evolution over the past few decades, few areas are as fascinating as the horror genre. Just a few decades ago, horror films were mostly considered disreputable and schlocky. The field was dominated by cookie-cutter sequels full of masked slashers and low-rent monsters, and while many actors of note started out in horror, few willingly stayed there if they could get more prestigious work.
10 scary podcasts to listen to in the dark
As podcasting has matured as a medium, it’s grown to cover almost every genre and style imaginable, from old-school tech talk and true crime, to sci-fi and sobering historical deep dives. It’s also proven extraordinarily adept at horror, with both fictional podcasts and real-life tales offering a variety of scares, chills, and unsettling encounters.
Prospect is a stylish science fiction movie that puts world building first
Science fiction tends to be an expensive genre. Bringing the elaborate worlds of Star Wars, the futuristic dystopia of Blade Runner 2049, or the exotic planets and creatures of the Alien franchise to life costs significant money, which naturally encourages studios to greenlight movies that feel like familiar safe bets. And that leads to different versions of the same story being told time and again.
The Walking Dead just pulled its best switcheroo in years
Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 9, episode 4 below. One of the biggest gripes about AMC’s The Walking Dead over the past few years has been that it doesn’t really play fair with its viewers. It’s hard to refute the argument.
Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in November
You may have noticed that in the last two months, this column has largely centered on scary movies. That’s because Halloween is obviously the best holiday of the year, which leaves me in a bit of a quandary for November. What am I going to do, focus on really awesome Thanksgiving movies? That’s clearly not an option because there really is no such thing (except for maybe Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but let’s not get bogged down with semantics). So let’s just get down to it.
Suspiria is an ambitious remix of a horror classic
Remaking horror classics is a tried-and-true tradition, but it’s still a little mystifying why anyone felt 1977’s Suspiria was a good candidate. Dario Argento’s giallo classic, about a dancer training in a school that is secretly home to a coven of witches, isn’t influential for its setting and premise, so much as for its bold visual style, its mood, and the hypnotic score by prog-rock band Goblin.
Magic Leap’s conference teases the thrilling potential of what its hardware can’t yet provide
Florida-based startup Magic Leap became infamous for hyping itself as a revolutionary company whose vision for augmented and mixed reality would transform the worlds of computing, communication, and entertainment — whenever it finally decided to show its hyper-secretive technology to the public, that is. The company set expectations high, but when it finally shipped its first headset, the Magic Leap One Creator Editor, the consensus was that some of those expectations hadn’t been met.
Netflix buys up New Mexico studio facility for massive new production hub
When Netflix moved into its new Los Angeles headquarters last year, the company made sure it had several sound stages at the ready for any production needs. Now the streaming service is taking things a step further, acquiring ABQ Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of a plan to bring as much as $1 billion in production to the state over the next 10 years.
MoviePass subscribers aren’t going to the movies, and that’s what MoviePass wants
MoviePass subscribers have had a tough go of it over the last six months, with the service changing terms, dropping unlimited moviegoing, limiting access to first-run movies, and in at least once instance, going offline completely because it ran out of money.
Venom is a bizarre and baffling mess
The benefit of adapting any pre-existing intellectual property for the silver screen is that studios always know an audience is waiting. Whether the source material is a book, a video game, or even a line of toys, the logic is straightforward: if somebody liked a story in its original medium, they’ll probably be curious enough about the movie version to buy a ticket. That’s particularly true for comic books, where decades of readers’ emotional investment can help serve as a filmmaking shortcut.
Everything coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Now in October
October is nearly here, so it’s time to think about Halloween, and streaming services are doing their best to offer up a selection of the spooky, supernatural, and suspenseful. Netflix is leading the way with a number of original movies and TV shows coming to subscribers over the course of the month.
Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House is like This Is Us wrapped in a gothic ghost story
Haunted house movies usually follow a well-worn formula. Whether it’s The Amityville Horror, Peter Medak’s The Changeling, or the wildly successful Conjuring franchise, the basic beats are all the same: someone moves into a house, bad things happen, a sinister backstory or force are eventually uncovered, and the bad things escalate, leading into the finale. The familiarity is part of what makes the whole thing work.
Destroyer is a guilt-ridden detective story made by one incredible director
Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Tackling the leap from directing low-budget indies to tentpole features is no easy feat, and Hollywood has a history of being particularly unforgiving when the filmmakers are women. Case in point: director Karyn Kusama, who burst onto the filmmaking scene in 2000 with her debut feature, Girlfight.
Michael B. Jordan will star in a new Tom Clancy film series
The Tom Clancy character Jack Ryan may have found a new home on television thanks to Amazon Prime and John Krasinski, but according to Variety Paramount Pictures will be focusing on a different character for a new film series — and Black Panther’s Michael B. Jordan is set to star. Paramount is developing adaptations of the Clancy books Without Remorse and Rainbow Six, both of which focus on the character of John Clark.
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is joining LeBron James’ Space Jam
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has more than a few projects on his plate, and he’s just signed up for another: he’s producing the upcoming Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James. The original Space Jam was a live-action / animation hybrid that came out in 1996. It featured Michael Jordan, as himself, getting recruited by Bugs Bunny to help a basketball team made up of Looney Tunes characters defeat their animated sports nemeses: a team called The Monsters.
The Haunting of Hill House trailer proves Netflix is ready to get really creepy
Netflix’s original programming team has demonstrated real dominance in nostalgic 1980s throwback science fiction, stand-up comedy specials, feature films that other studios don’t want to release, and just about every genre you can imagine. Now it’s about to seriously go after horror, judging from the trailer for the new series The Haunting of Hill House, which looks like a creepy, unnerving journey through some kid’s nightmares.
Lessons from TIFF on the next year in film
This year, the Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 6th through the 16th — 10 days of public screenings, industry events, symposiums and lectures, red carpets, and nighttime parties.
Emmy winners 2018: the complete list
It’s time for the 70th Primetime Emmy awards, and in the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles two entertainment forces are facing off. In one corner is established TV powerhouse HBO, which has 29 different Emmy nominations for shows like Westworld, Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones, and Insecure. In the other is Netflix, with a whopping 37 total nominations this evening, covering shows like Black Mirror, Stranger Things, GLOW, and The Crown.
Why Dolby Atmos coming to the Apple TV is a big deal
With the launch of tvOS 12, support for the Dolby Atmos surround sound format is finally coming to the Apple TV 4K.
Captain Marvel: all the updates, trailers and commentary for the next big Marvel movie
Captain Marvel: all the updates, trailers and commentary for the next big Marvel movie Marvel’s first female-led superhero movie At the very end of Avengers: Infinity War, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury sent out a desperate message, which we see in a fleeting image of Captain Marvel’s iconic symbol. Clearly, the character is going to play a role in Avengers 4, but before that film hits next summer, she’s going to get her own standalone film, Captain Marvel.
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