Travis A. Johnson

Professional writer figuring out what he thinks by, well, writing about it.
Carry each other. Carry the fire.

[Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri]

Rewatching the movies you love is one of the best things you can do to improve your life. People seem perplexed by the idea of rewatching something. Imagine listening to a great song only once. Absurd.

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

I used to make fun of this kind of thing when reporting in North Korea.

[Sarah Isgur @whignewtons]

“There are no maverick molecules in the universe.”

Haven’t seen a conversation like this—intellectual, philosophical, big picture—on tv in decades. It’s incredible.

[Emily Zanotti 🦝 @emzanotti]

I believe this is known as “toxic empathy.”

[Ross Douthat @DouthatNYT]

If it's the very first commandment, it's probably not one of the more important ones.
https://t.co/taeq8r9cUu

[Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri]

I repeat: Physical media is your friend.

[U2 @U2]

A note to U2’s audience from Bono:

"We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, 'unreasonably colour xerox’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives. We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world. It’s a time that has our band digging deeper into our lives to find a wellspring of songs to try to meet the moment…

With Easter Lily we ended up asking very personal questions like: Are our own relationships up to these challenging times? How hard do you fight for friendship? Can our faith survive the mangling of meaning that those algorithms love to reward? Is all religion rubbish and still ripping us apart…? Or are there answers to find in its crevices? Are there ceremonies, rituals, dances that we might be missing in our lives? From the rite of Spring to Easter and its promise of rebirth and renewal… Patti Smith’s album Easter gave me so much hope when it was released in 1978. I wasn’t yet 18. The title is a nod to her.

We will attempt hoopla and fanfare at a later date to remind the rest of the world we exist but in the meantime… this is between you and us."

Easter Lily EP available now. https://t.co/OB3mVe69vu

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

None of them.

[HD Report @hdreport]

There are 25 #IMAX Enhanced movies on Disney+. What's your go-to?
https://t.co/OG1KgEzliv

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

This dude never forgets to bring the stupid.

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

[Variety @Variety]

#ProjectHailMary screenwriter Drew Goddard says backlash against James Cameron's writing is unfair.

"If you look at 'The Terminator,' it’s a profoundly emotional film. It’s not just about a robot who shows up to kill people. It’s about this woman and how she deals with this chaos."

"From my point of view, for big event movies, there’s nobody better at structure than [James Cameron]. If you look at something like 'Titanic,' we meet two kids, they fall in love, we root for them, the ship hits the iceberg, right? If you look at 'The Abyss,' there’s a couple trying to put their marriage back together when the encounter this fantastic thing. Both these movies are about two individuals dealing with these big emotional things in the middle of wildly complicated situations."

https://t.co/QC9wak4PhJ

[Variety @Variety]

#ProjectHailMary screenwriter Drew Goddard says backlash against James Cameron's writing is unfair.

"If you look at 'The Terminator,' it’s a profoundly emotional film. It’s not just about a robot who shows up to kill people. It’s about this woman and how she deals with this chaos."

"From my point of view, for big event movies, there’s nobody better at structure than [James Cameron]. If you look at something like 'Titanic,' we meet two kids, they fall in love, we root for them, the ship hits the iceberg, right? If you look at 'The Abyss,' there’s a couple trying to put their marriage back together when the encounter this fantastic thing. Both these movies are about two individuals dealing with these big emotional things in the middle of wildly complicated situations."

https://t.co/QC9wak4PhJ

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

You're a bestselling author and journalist, and you didn't know about Cesar Chavez. I have worked at The Atlantic for 15 years and I did not know about this. Do you think that when you get hired at "legacy" outlets there's... what... a secret trove of unpublished blockbuster scoops that they show you? I don't even understand what claim you're making.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Sure, your eyes aren’t tricking you. That clip looks better than the new trailer, and the reason has nothing to do with talent. The VFX supervisor on Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014? Jerome Chen. The VFX supervisor on Brand New Day? Also Jerome Chen. Same person. Completely different system around him.

In 2014, Chen had 50 effects artists at Sony Imageworks, the largest VFX crew the studio had ever put on a single project. They handled about 1,000 of the film’s 1,600 VFX shots on a $255 million budget. The crew shot on real film (not digital), on location in actual New York City, scanned Times Square with 36,000 photographs of over 100 billboards, and built physical lighting rigs on set so the CGI would match the real world.

Now look at how Marvel makes Spider-Man movies. No Way Home had 2,500 VFX shots spread across 12 studios and about 3,000 artists. The budget was $200 million, $55 million less than TASM2 despite having 56% more VFX shots. Digital Domain, one of the VFX vendors, was delivering final shots days before the December 17, 2021, release. They kept reworking shots into mid-January, after the movie was already in theaters.

Zoom out, and the math gets worse. Marvel released 6 films between 2008 and 2012. From 2023 to 2025, they pushed out 7 films and 7 TV shows. The Hollywood union representing VFX workers reported that Marvel pays artists about 20% below industry average and staffs one person where other studios hire three. Artists described 64-hour weeks and breakdowns on the job. Then, in February 2025, Technicolor, the parent company of MPC (three-time Oscar winner for Life of Pi, The Jungle Book, and 1917), collapsed almost overnight. 4,500 jobs gone globally. The studio had been actively working on Disney and Paramount films when the lights went out.

Brand New Day has four months before release, and trailers routinely show unfinished shots. But the gap between a 2014 Spider-Man and a 2026 Spider-Man has nothing to do with technology going backwards. The industry has been asked to do three times the work for less money per shot while its biggest studios are going under.

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

AVATAR (2009) https://t.co/AJJHFDr9PQ

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

"Screenplays are often judged on the merits of their dialog alone. It’s an unjust rubric. #AVATAR (and its sequels) receive fair criticism on this front, but writing is more than giving characters something to say." (Link in the reply)

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

https://t.co/KTuKSvvVd3

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

In my third reflection on Mike Flanagan's brilliant #MidnightMass (2021), faith, atheism, and Carl Sagan intersect. Link in the reply.

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

It’s true.

[Robert Meyer Burnett, Viceroy of Verisimilitude @RMBee]

Actually, the ten million Hollywood spent made this possible. Seedance 2.0 just copied it.

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

James Cameron’s most underrated film has surprising theological heft. (Link in reply)

[Travis A. Johnson @TravisAJohnson1]

https://t.co/rg58frhWIO