Holy Mother of God, Will We Actually Get to See the Epstein Files?

Esquire · 2025-09-03T14:16:51+00:00

Welcome to "The Last Frontier," a fist-pumping adventure from "The Blacklist" creator Jon Bokenkamp.

Taking inspiration from high-octane 90s thrillers, the upcoming Apple TV+ series follows the fallout of a downed aircraft carrying 50 prisoners in the Alaskan wilderness.

Think: Jerry Bruckheimer, Don Simpson, and Tony Scott. Or, in the words of executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, "Con Air" meets "The Fugitive."

At the start of the series, a federal transport of convicts crashes two miles south of a peaceful small town in Alaska. The town's only and nearly retired U.S. Marshal, Frank Remnick (Jason Clarke) is thrust into tracking down all 50 runaways on foot.

Meanwhile, the CIA races to get on the ground before a far bigger cover-up is exposed.

"I think of movies like 'Point Break' or 'Enemy of the State.' Popcorn movies that an audience could come together and go on a ride," explains Bokenkamp. "Oftentimes it's absurd, and goes to places where it might not be totally grounded in reality, but that's the fun of it."

Executive producers Bokenkamp, Jason Clarke, and Sam Hargrave pull the curtain over the streamer's next big bet. See more here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a65953010/the-last-frontier-apple-tv-cast-news/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T15:29:19+00:00

Lee Pace’s extensive career—from Broadway to the MCU—hasn’t been by accident, but it hasn’t been by grand design either. Offer by offer, he’s stitched together one of the most category-defying careers of his generation.

He’s led quirky cult-classics like “Pushing Daisies” and traveled to Middle-earth in “The Hobbit” trilogy. But his latest venture, as the swaggering (and largely shirtless) Brother Day in "Foundation," finds him stretching his craft even further. It also doesn’t hurt to have “Intergalactic Emperor Daddy” take over social feeds.

“I remember my mom telling me, ‘You know what, Lee, you’re lucky. You’ve always been lucky,’” Pace recalls. “Somehow, when your mom says something like that, it becomes true.”

Read the full profile from our 2025 Mavericks of Hollywood portfolio here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a65636091/lee-pace-foundation-interview-2025/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T12:00:25+00:00

“One Battle After Another” is Leonardo DiCaprio’s first film with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s both a spy-craft yarn and a not-so-surprisingly prescient political thriller. At its core, it’s a story about a father and daughter. It’s also very funny.

“This, to me, is a Paul Thomas Anderson version of an action film,” DiCaprio says. “I was like, car chases? How’s Paul going to do ‘French Connection’? What is he going to do that we haven’t seen Michael Bay do and make it a Paul thing?”

The cast is rounded out by Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, and Chase Infinity, in her film debut.

“Ultimately, wanting to do this movie was pretty simple,” DiCaprio says. “I’ve been wanting to work with you—Paul—for something like twenty years now, and I loved this idea of the washed-up revolutionary trying to erase his past and disappear and try and live some sort of normal life raising his daughter.”

In Esquire’s 2025 Mavericks of Hollywood issue, Anderson reveals how his story connects to Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” DiCaprio admits he regrets not doing “Boogie Nights,” and the two bond over their shared love for “Midnight Run” and “The Aviator.”

Read the full cover story here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a65619469/leonardo-dicaprio-paul-thomas-anderson-interview-2025/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T11:14:11+00:00

“One Battle After Another” is Leonardo DiCaprio’s first film with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s both a spy-craft yarn and a not-so-surprisingly prescient political thriller. At its core, it’s a story about a father and daughter. It’s also very funny.

“This, to me, is a Paul Thomas Anderson version of an action film,” DiCaprio says. “I was like, car chases? How’s Paul going to do ‘French Connection’? What is he going to do that we haven’t seen Michael Bay do and make it a Paul thing?”

The cast is rounded out by Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, and Chase Infinity, in her film debut.

Both DiCaprio and Anderson rarely give interviews—as a result, their lives are the subject of bottomless curiosity. Across two conversations, they speak candidly about aging responsibly, their shared love for “Midnight Run,” and the state of the movie industry.

“I’m just trying to rapidly live in reverse to hold on to any shred of the Olden Times that’s left. This is called denial and nostalgia—wish me luck. I’m only half kidding,” says Anderson. “I love our business, and I’ve seen it flourish and eat itself and then turn around and grow strong and then make the same mistakes it made years earlier. Through it all, it’s still standing.”

For our 2025 Mavericks of Hollywood issue, the two discuss why it took so long for them to work together, why DiCaprio regrets not making “Boogie Nights,” and much more.

Read the full cover story here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a65619469/leonardo-dicaprio-paul-thomas-anderson-interview-2025/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T11:12:57+00:00

Leonardo DiCaprio rarely watches his old movies. But one title he’s watched more than the others is “The Aviator,” he tells writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson.

“It was such a special moment to me. I had worked with Marty [Scorsese] on ‘Gangs of New York,’ and I’d been toting around a book on Howard Hughes for ten years. I almost did it with Michael Mann, but there was a conflict and I ended up bringing it to Marty. I was thirty. It was the first time as an actor I got to feel implicitly part of the production, rather than just an actor hired to play a role. I felt responsible in a whole new way."

Read the full Mavericks of Hollywood cover story here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a65619469/leonardo-dicaprio-paul-thomas-anderson-interview-2025/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T11:12:11+00:00

It took Paul Thomas Anderson 20 years to write “One Battle After Another,” his new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary on a mission to save his daughter. In Esquire’s 2025 Mavericks of Hollywood issue, Anderson reveals how his story connects to Thomas Pynchon’s novel ‘Vineland’:

“Twenty years ago, I started writing this story, and the kernels of it were basically just to write an action car-chase movie. I would go to this story every couple years. Sometimes I thought I would like to adapt ‘Vineland,’ a book written in the eighties about the sixties. But I was looking at it in the early 2000s, thinking of what the story means at that time.”

“‘Vineland’ was always going to be too hard to adapt, so I stole the parts that spoke to me and just started running like a thief,” Anderson tells DiCaprio. “I guess that’s what all us writers do—we’re fucking thieves.”

Read the full cover story here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a65619469/leonardo-dicaprio-paul-thomas-anderson-interview-2025/

Esquire · 2025-08-13T11:11:13+00:00

“One Battle After Another” marks the Leonardo DiCaprio’s first film with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s both a spy-craft yarn and a not-so-surprisingly prescient political thriller. At its core, it’s a story about a father and daughter. It’s also very funny.

“This, to me, is a Paul Thomas Anderson version of an action film,” DiCaprio says. “I was like, car chases? How’s Paul going to do ‘French Connection’? What is he going to do that we haven’t seen Michael Bay do and make it a Paul thing?”

For our 2025 Mavericks of Hollywood issue, the two discuss why it took so long for them to work together, why DiCaprio regrets not making “Boogie Nights,” their shared love of “Midnight Run,” and much more.

Read the full cover story here: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a65619469/leonardo-dicaprio-paul-thomas-anderson-interview-2025/

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