Armando Nuñez Sr., the longtime international television distribution executive who worked for CBS, 20th Century Fox and Itc Entertainment, died of natural causes July 10 in Miami. He was 96.
The Cuba-born Nuñez worked for 20th Century Fox both in Havana and New York before moving to Itc Entertainment in 1964. He remained with Itc through various ownerships and incarnations including Polygram and Universal for the remainder of his five-decade career.
Born in Cuba in 1927, Nuñez later fled the country after Fidel Castro took power in October 1960 and immigrated to the U.S. with his wife Clara Jo (Josie), who was eight months pregnant with their first son Armando, Jr., who would later become President of CBS Global Distribution and Chief Content Licensing Officer at ViacomCBS. His other son, David Nuñez, was also an international TV executive.
Deadline Related Video:
Cigar-smoking British exec Lew Grade had launched Itc in 1954 and went on to...
The Cuba-born Nuñez worked for 20th Century Fox both in Havana and New York before moving to Itc Entertainment in 1964. He remained with Itc through various ownerships and incarnations including Polygram and Universal for the remainder of his five-decade career.
Born in Cuba in 1927, Nuñez later fled the country after Fidel Castro took power in October 1960 and immigrated to the U.S. with his wife Clara Jo (Josie), who was eight months pregnant with their first son Armando, Jr., who would later become President of CBS Global Distribution and Chief Content Licensing Officer at ViacomCBS. His other son, David Nuñez, was also an international TV executive.
Deadline Related Video:
Cigar-smoking British exec Lew Grade had launched Itc in 1954 and went on to...
- 7/12/2024
- by Patrick Hipes and Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
George Harrison was known as the Quiet Beatle, but he was once tossed out of a meeting for his very harsh words. In 1969, Beatles publisher Dick James sold his company, Northern Songs. This decision lost the band the rights to their music and they were, understandably, upset about it. Harrison and John Lennon were the most aggrieved, but the former got into such a fight with James that he was thrown out of the meeting.
George Harrison got into an angry fight with a Beatles publisher
In 1969, James sold his publishing company, Northern Songs, to Atv without warning The Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney were the most affected, but Harrison, who had long resented Northern Songs, was still furious.
“In fact, before [meeting with Lennon and McCartney], I’d had a meeting down at Apple, at which Neil Aspinall was present with, uh, Ringo and George Harrison, and George and I had some very, very strong words,...
George Harrison got into an angry fight with a Beatles publisher
In 1969, James sold his publishing company, Northern Songs, to Atv without warning The Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney were the most affected, but Harrison, who had long resented Northern Songs, was still furious.
“In fact, before [meeting with Lennon and McCartney], I’d had a meeting down at Apple, at which Neil Aspinall was present with, uh, Ringo and George Harrison, and George and I had some very, very strong words,...
- 6/8/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Martin Starger, a producer for such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, died Friday at 92 in his Los Angeles home of natural causes. His death was confirmed by his niece, casting director Ilene Starger.
“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his older brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”
As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Martin...
“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his older brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”
As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Martin...
- 6/1/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Martin Starger, who shepherded Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man as the first president of ABC Entertainment before producing such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, has died. He was 92.
Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, New York-based casting director Ilene Starger, announced. “He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man and had wonderful taste in projects,” she noted.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982)
He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express and the comedy Lend Me a Tenor, respectively,
Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College,...
Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, New York-based casting director Ilene Starger, announced. “He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man and had wonderful taste in projects,” she noted.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982)
He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express and the comedy Lend Me a Tenor, respectively,
Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College,...
- 6/1/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If you were to learn that Disney+, from the company that owns the work created by the late Jim Henson, was broadcasting a documentary about the visionary puppeteer and filmmaker and that doc was being directed by Ron Howard with substantial input from Henson’s family, you could probably guess what the movie would be like.
And you’d be right.
In this case, though, there’s nothing wrong with a little predictability. Henson and Howard are a fine match, and the sort of film you’d expect Ron Howard to make – straightforward, skillful, honest and sympathetic – is pretty much the kind of movie you’d want about Jim Henson.
There are surprises in “Jim Henson Idea Man,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival. But there’s nothing shocking, nothing earthshaking about this portrait of the man who gave us Big Bird,...
And you’d be right.
In this case, though, there’s nothing wrong with a little predictability. Henson and Howard are a fine match, and the sort of film you’d expect Ron Howard to make – straightforward, skillful, honest and sympathetic – is pretty much the kind of movie you’d want about Jim Henson.
There are surprises in “Jim Henson Idea Man,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival. But there’s nothing shocking, nothing earthshaking about this portrait of the man who gave us Big Bird,...
- 5/18/2024
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Quinn Donoghue, whose long career as a Hollywood publicist included beating the drum for Superman, Pink Panther and Three Musketeers films, Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 21 Grams, has died. He was 86.
Donoghue died Dec. 28 in Los Angeles, his son Alex Donoghue announced.
Donoghue also served as a unit publicist on Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire (1981), Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988) and Bitter Moon (1992), Michael Caton-Jones’ Rob Roy (1995), Robert Altman’s Kansas City (1996) and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
He did publicity for Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther (1963), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge (1974) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989), Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983) and Cuba (1979).
Plus, he produced several films,...
Donoghue died Dec. 28 in Los Angeles, his son Alex Donoghue announced.
Donoghue also served as a unit publicist on Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Quest for Fire (1981), Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988) and Bitter Moon (1992), Michael Caton-Jones’ Rob Roy (1995), Robert Altman’s Kansas City (1996) and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
He did publicity for Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther (1963), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge (1974) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989), Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983) and Cuba (1979).
Plus, he produced several films,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Herman Rush, a prominent television pioneer and former president of Columbia Pictures Television, died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Dec. 12. He was 94.
Rush got his start in the television industry in 1951 as a salesman at Official Films. In 1957, he acquired television syndication firm Flamingo Films, which he turned into a major independent syndication company. Rush also had an extensive career as head of the talent division at the agency Creative Management Associates, where he worked from 1960-1971.
In the late 1960s, Rush acquired the popular British sitcom “Till Death To Us Part” from Lord Lew Grade. He sold the intellectual property to the late television titan Norman Lear, who turned that show into “All in the Family.” The hit sitcom starring Caroll O’Connor ran for nine seasons on CBS. Rush also imported, repackaged and produced multiple BBC comedy television series including “For the Love of Ada” and “Love Thy Neighbor.
Rush got his start in the television industry in 1951 as a salesman at Official Films. In 1957, he acquired television syndication firm Flamingo Films, which he turned into a major independent syndication company. Rush also had an extensive career as head of the talent division at the agency Creative Management Associates, where he worked from 1960-1971.
In the late 1960s, Rush acquired the popular British sitcom “Till Death To Us Part” from Lord Lew Grade. He sold the intellectual property to the late television titan Norman Lear, who turned that show into “All in the Family.” The hit sitcom starring Caroll O’Connor ran for nine seasons on CBS. Rush also imported, repackaged and produced multiple BBC comedy television series including “For the Love of Ada” and “Love Thy Neighbor.
- 12/21/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
Herman Rush, a veteran television producer best known for licensing Till Death Us Do Part, the UK sitcom that Norman Lear turned into All in the Family, died Dec. 12 at 94 of natural causes in Los Angeles, according to several news reports.
Rush began his career in 1951, working in sales for Official Film. He later purchased Flamingo Films, a television syndication firm, growing it into a major independent syndication company.
Up into the 1970s, Rush was with Creative Management Associates as the president of the television division, playing a role in the agency’s entry into television packaging. Some of the shows he was placed on networks included The Perry Como Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Kraft Music Hall and The Hollywood Palace.
H also represented producer Irwin Allen for TV hits Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.
Rush began his career in 1951, working in sales for Official Film. He later purchased Flamingo Films, a television syndication firm, growing it into a major independent syndication company.
Up into the 1970s, Rush was with Creative Management Associates as the president of the television division, playing a role in the agency’s entry into television packaging. Some of the shows he was placed on networks included The Perry Como Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Kraft Music Hall and The Hollywood Palace.
H also represented producer Irwin Allen for TV hits Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.
- 12/21/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Herman Rush, who produced several television shows and was the former president of Columbia Pictures Television, has died. He was 94.
Rush died on Dec. 12 of natural causes in Los Angeles, his daughter Mandie told The Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1929, Rush grew up in a show-business family, with his uncle Manie Sacks being Frank Sinatra’s first manager.
In 1951, Rush began his career in television, working first as a salesman for Official Film before moving up to several different leadership positions. He later purchased Flamingo Films, a television syndication firm, in 1957 and turned it into a major independent syndication company.
Throughout the ’60s and early ’70s, he was with Creative Management Associates as the president of the television division. He also worked for CMA’s predecessor organization, General Artists Corporation, now known as International Creative Management, and played a huge role in the agency’s entry into television packaging.
Rush died on Dec. 12 of natural causes in Los Angeles, his daughter Mandie told The Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1929, Rush grew up in a show-business family, with his uncle Manie Sacks being Frank Sinatra’s first manager.
In 1951, Rush began his career in television, working first as a salesman for Official Film before moving up to several different leadership positions. He later purchased Flamingo Films, a television syndication firm, in 1957 and turned it into a major independent syndication company.
Throughout the ’60s and early ’70s, he was with Creative Management Associates as the president of the television division. He also worked for CMA’s predecessor organization, General Artists Corporation, now known as International Creative Management, and played a huge role in the agency’s entry into television packaging.
- 12/21/2023
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Even in the beginning, the Beatles were hugely popular. Though it seemed they were popular everywhere but London. They experienced enormous recording success, sold-out concerts, and crazed fans wherever they went. And yet, the London press hardly covered them and they couldn’t book any of the big theaters in the city. Beatles manager Brian Epstein had a theory as to why.
The Grade Brothers
Epstein believed he and the Beatles were being blacklisted by three brothers: Lew and Leslie Grade, and Bernard Delfont. The Grades were highly involved and influential in the English entertainment business.
Lew Grade, who later became Lord Grade, owned the Associated Television Corporation, Britain’s largest independent producer of TV programs. He personally produced the UK’s most popular variety show, Sunday Night at the Palladium. For an act to gain national recognition at the time, it was crucial they appear on Snatp.
Leslie Grade...
The Grade Brothers
Epstein believed he and the Beatles were being blacklisted by three brothers: Lew and Leslie Grade, and Bernard Delfont. The Grades were highly involved and influential in the English entertainment business.
Lew Grade, who later became Lord Grade, owned the Associated Television Corporation, Britain’s largest independent producer of TV programs. He personally produced the UK’s most popular variety show, Sunday Night at the Palladium. For an act to gain national recognition at the time, it was crucial they appear on Snatp.
Leslie Grade...
- 7/14/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
As the credits rolled on another episode of Crossroads on 4 November 1981, the switchboards at ITV started to jam. After watching the show’s beloved Midlands motel go up in flames, hundreds of viewers picked up the phone in tears to ask one question: would Meg Mortimer, the onscreen alter ego of actress Noele “Nolly” Gordon, make it out of the blaze alive? The odds for Meg, last seen clutching some sleeping pills, didn’t look good. The Sun claimed in a front-page splash the next day that some fans had even phoned up hospitals to ask about the injuries she might have sustained in the fire.
It was the culmination of nearly five months of outrage and hysteria that had begun in June, when news first broke that Gordon’s much-loved character would be written out of the soap. This was not a mutually agreed parting of ways – it was against Gordon’s own wishes.
It was the culmination of nearly five months of outrage and hysteria that had begun in June, when news first broke that Gordon’s much-loved character would be written out of the soap. This was not a mutually agreed parting of ways – it was against Gordon’s own wishes.
- 2/2/2023
- by Katie Rosseinsky
- The Independent - TV
As the credits rolled on another episode of Crossroads on 4 November 1981, the switchboards at ITV started to jam. After watching the show’s beloved Midlands motel go up in flames, hundreds of viewers picked up the phone in tears to ask one question: would Meg Mortimer, the onscreen alter ego of actress Noele “Nolly” Gordon, make it out of the blaze alive? The odds for Meg, last seen clutching some sleeping pills, didn’t look good. The Sun claimed in a front-page splash the next day that some fans had even phoned up hospitals to ask about the injuries she might have sustained in the fire.
It was the culmination of nearly five months of outrage and hysteria that had begun in June, when news first broke that Gordon’s much-loved character would be written out of the soap. This was not a mutually agreed parting of ways – it was against Gordon’s own wishes.
It was the culmination of nearly five months of outrage and hysteria that had begun in June, when news first broke that Gordon’s much-loved character would be written out of the soap. This was not a mutually agreed parting of ways – it was against Gordon’s own wishes.
- 2/2/2023
- by Katie Rosseinsky
- The Independent - TV
Stingray: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition
Blu ray
Network
1964, 1965 / 1.33:1 / 975 Min.
Starring Ray Barrett, Robert Easton, David Graham, Don Mason, Lois Maxwell
Written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Directed by Alan Pattillo, David Elliott, John Kelly, Desmond Saunders
If nothing else, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Stingray should be celebrated for inspiring Team America: World Police, the gonzo marionettes-on-the-make political satire from South Park agitators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. If their 2004 farce was designed to provoke just about everybody, Stingray was also pretty out there, albeit in a trippy, Summer of Love kind of way. An aquatic puppet show swimming in psychedelic color, languid pacing, and underwater scenes apparently filmed inside a lava lamp, Stingray reflected the inveterate stoner’s mindset better than anything in Yellow Submarine. The entire series has just been released in an extravagant five disc box set from Network, Stingray: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition,...
Blu ray
Network
1964, 1965 / 1.33:1 / 975 Min.
Starring Ray Barrett, Robert Easton, David Graham, Don Mason, Lois Maxwell
Written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Directed by Alan Pattillo, David Elliott, John Kelly, Desmond Saunders
If nothing else, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Stingray should be celebrated for inspiring Team America: World Police, the gonzo marionettes-on-the-make political satire from South Park agitators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. If their 2004 farce was designed to provoke just about everybody, Stingray was also pretty out there, albeit in a trippy, Summer of Love kind of way. An aquatic puppet show swimming in psychedelic color, languid pacing, and underwater scenes apparently filmed inside a lava lamp, Stingray reflected the inveterate stoner’s mindset better than anything in Yellow Submarine. The entire series has just been released in an extravagant five disc box set from Network, Stingray: The Complete Series Deluxe Edition,...
- 4/19/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Bill Gavin in Cannes in 1988 (Photo credit: © Richard Blanshard).
Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.
“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.
A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.
In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.
At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...
Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.
“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.
A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.
In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.
At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...
- 5/29/2020
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Bill Gavin, the former Goldcrest executive and general manager of Australia’s Hoyts Theatres, has died at the age of 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, after a short illness.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.
In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.
- 5/28/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Gavin worked on films including ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Whale Rider’.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
Bill Gavin, a former executive at the UK’s Goldcrest Films who worked on films including Gandhi and Whale Rider, has died aged 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand after a short illness.
The industry veteran worked on several award-winning features throughout his career as an independent sales agent, distributor, exhibitor and producer.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career as a motor racing journalist and moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to report on successful Kiwi Formula One drivers competing overseas.
- 5/28/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Clive Cussler, the bestselling author whose novels Raise the Titanic! and, much to his greater disappointment, Sahara, were made into movies, died Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Az. He was 88.
His death was announced by his wife, Janet Horvath, on the author’s official Twitter page. No cause of death was given.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the sad news that my husband Clive passed away Mon.,” Horvath wrote. “It has been a privilege to share in his life. I want to thank you his fans & friends for all the support. He was the kindest most gentle man I ever met.I know, his adventures will continue.”
Although he wrote more than 80 books — with a specialty in action, adventure and undersea stories — Cussler is best known in Hollywood for the two novels that didn’t make particularly good movies. The 2005 film Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey...
His death was announced by his wife, Janet Horvath, on the author’s official Twitter page. No cause of death was given.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the sad news that my husband Clive passed away Mon.,” Horvath wrote. “It has been a privilege to share in his life. I want to thank you his fans & friends for all the support. He was the kindest most gentle man I ever met.I know, his adventures will continue.”
Although he wrote more than 80 books — with a specialty in action, adventure and undersea stories — Cussler is best known in Hollywood for the two novels that didn’t make particularly good movies. The 2005 film Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey...
- 2/26/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Issue #46
Highlights Of Issue #46 (2020) Include:
John Wayne and Rock Hudson are "The Undefeated"
Unpublished 1974 interview with Albert Finney
Don Siegel's "Madigan" starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda
Interview with writer/director Michael Armstrong
The making of the epic film "Waterloo" starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer
Hammer Films Actor John Richardson interview Part II
Vietnam Before and After: "Go Tell the Spartans" and "Rolling Thunder"
Brian Keith in "The McKenzie Break"
Plus review of DVDs, soundtracks and film books.
USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro #46 USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro #46 $12.00 Usd UK : Cinema Retro Issue #46 UK : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £8.50 Gbp Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #46 Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £10.50 Gbp Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #46 Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £12.00 Gbp
Issue #47
Nick Anez covers "Flaming Star", the Elvis Presley drama that remains an overlooked gem.
Director John Stevenson's tribute to...
Highlights Of Issue #46 (2020) Include:
John Wayne and Rock Hudson are "The Undefeated"
Unpublished 1974 interview with Albert Finney
Don Siegel's "Madigan" starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda
Interview with writer/director Michael Armstrong
The making of the epic film "Waterloo" starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer
Hammer Films Actor John Richardson interview Part II
Vietnam Before and After: "Go Tell the Spartans" and "Rolling Thunder"
Brian Keith in "The McKenzie Break"
Plus review of DVDs, soundtracks and film books.
USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro #46 USA/ Canada : Cinema Retro #46 $12.00 Usd UK : Cinema Retro Issue #46 UK : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £8.50 Gbp Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #46 Europe : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £10.50 Gbp Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #46 Rest Of The World : Cinema Retro Issue #46 £12.00 Gbp
Issue #47
Nick Anez covers "Flaming Star", the Elvis Presley drama that remains an overlooked gem.
Director John Stevenson's tribute to...
- 10/12/2019
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Mark Harrison Sep 4, 2019
With Muppets Now headed to Disney+ next year, we celebrate Kermit and company’s small-screen history...
Between all the news about Ms. Marvel and Obi-Wan Kenobi, it feels like Muppets Now was one of the less-discussed Disney+ announcements from last month’s D23 convention. Described as an unscripted short-form series featuring Jim Henson’s loveable creations alongside celebrity guests, the new show is intended to premiere on the House of Mouse’s new streaming service in 2020.
The series will be the latest in a long line of small-screen reboots for the Kermit-led puppet troupe, who have bounced between TV, movies, and the web since they first enchanted viewers in the 1970s.
But it’s not easy being evergreen and there seems to be a persistent impulse to put the Muppets in modernised vehicles, which doesn’t always pay off. The 2011 big-screen reboot concluded that the Muppets don...
With Muppets Now headed to Disney+ next year, we celebrate Kermit and company’s small-screen history...
Between all the news about Ms. Marvel and Obi-Wan Kenobi, it feels like Muppets Now was one of the less-discussed Disney+ announcements from last month’s D23 convention. Described as an unscripted short-form series featuring Jim Henson’s loveable creations alongside celebrity guests, the new show is intended to premiere on the House of Mouse’s new streaming service in 2020.
The series will be the latest in a long line of small-screen reboots for the Kermit-led puppet troupe, who have bounced between TV, movies, and the web since they first enchanted viewers in the 1970s.
But it’s not easy being evergreen and there seems to be a persistent impulse to put the Muppets in modernised vehicles, which doesn’t always pay off. The 2011 big-screen reboot concluded that the Muppets don...
- 9/4/2019
- Den of Geek
CBS global distribution CEO Armando Nuñez Jr. went on the record with his career goals at a young age.
As a teenager in New York City in the early 1970s, Nuñez and his mother were out shopping one day when they were stopped by the New York Daily News’ Inquiring Photographer columnist. He asked Nuñez what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“I told him, ‘I want to be in international television sales, just like my dad,’ ” Nuñez recalls. “The guy looked at me like I had three heads. He had no idea what I was talking about.”
Nuñez made good on his pledge, even if he didn’t make the Inquiring Photographer column. Four decades after that encounter, CBS Corp.’s longtime international leader will be feted April 8 with Variety’s Intl. Achievement in Television Award, to be presented at the MipTV sales conference in Cannes.
“I...
As a teenager in New York City in the early 1970s, Nuñez and his mother were out shopping one day when they were stopped by the New York Daily News’ Inquiring Photographer columnist. He asked Nuñez what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“I told him, ‘I want to be in international television sales, just like my dad,’ ” Nuñez recalls. “The guy looked at me like I had three heads. He had no idea what I was talking about.”
Nuñez made good on his pledge, even if he didn’t make the Inquiring Photographer column. Four decades after that encounter, CBS Corp.’s longtime international leader will be feted April 8 with Variety’s Intl. Achievement in Television Award, to be presented at the MipTV sales conference in Cannes.
“I...
- 4/3/2019
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Sword of Sherwood Forest
Blu ray
Twilight Time
1960 / 2.35:1 /80 Min. / Street Date October 16, 2018
Starring Richard Greene, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco, Nigel Green
Cinematography by Ken Hodges
Directed by Terence Fisher
The prime architect for the gothic horror revival of the 50’s, Hammer Studios began the next decade with a revival of the less-than-fashionable swashbuckler genre by setting their sights on the legend of Robin Hood – but even with an audience-friendly runtime of 80 minutes, the lackadaisical Sword of Sherwood Forest may have the most ardent Hammer fan checking their watch.
Fortunately the action, what there is of it, plays out amid the ultra-green backcountry of Ireland’s County Wicklow and there are some very good bad guys lurking there – in particular Peter Cushing as the slippery Sheriff of Nottingham and Oliver Reed as a surly henchman who merely glowers from the sidelines but electrifies every frame he’s in.
Directed by...
Blu ray
Twilight Time
1960 / 2.35:1 /80 Min. / Street Date October 16, 2018
Starring Richard Greene, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco, Nigel Green
Cinematography by Ken Hodges
Directed by Terence Fisher
The prime architect for the gothic horror revival of the 50’s, Hammer Studios began the next decade with a revival of the less-than-fashionable swashbuckler genre by setting their sights on the legend of Robin Hood – but even with an audience-friendly runtime of 80 minutes, the lackadaisical Sword of Sherwood Forest may have the most ardent Hammer fan checking their watch.
Fortunately the action, what there is of it, plays out amid the ultra-green backcountry of Ireland’s County Wicklow and there are some very good bad guys lurking there – in particular Peter Cushing as the slippery Sheriff of Nottingham and Oliver Reed as a surly henchman who merely glowers from the sidelines but electrifies every frame he’s in.
Directed by...
- 11/13/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Roger Moore, the beloved actor best known for playing James Bond in the ’70s and ’80s, died in Switzerland on Tuesday. He was 89.
The star’s children broke the news in a statement uploaded to Twitter, noting that Moore passed away after a “short but brave battle with cancer.”
“We are all devastated,” Moore’s family tweeted alongside the statement.
“The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified with words alone,” his three children — Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian — wrote in the statement.
With the heaviest of hearts, we must share...
The star’s children broke the news in a statement uploaded to Twitter, noting that Moore passed away after a “short but brave battle with cancer.”
“We are all devastated,” Moore’s family tweeted alongside the statement.
“The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified with words alone,” his three children — Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian — wrote in the statement.
With the heaviest of hearts, we must share...
- 5/23/2017
- by Char Adams and Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
This dull, clunking return to one of cinema’s great warhorses lacks all the subtlety, passion and grandeur of its more illustrious predecessors
The Roman epic with all its legions of extras was once a genre that belonged to the big screen, but CGI paradoxically shrank it to laptop size and this new version of Ben-Hur has somehow taken the diminution further still. Despite the 3D presentation, this is a film that should be seen on a plane, on the 6in x 8in screen on the back of an airline seat, probably at 2am on a transatlantic flight, accompanied by a complementary sachet of salty cashews, a vodka and tonic and then a meal of mechanically reconstituted chicken in a fillet-style serving. This tale of warring friends-who-are-closer-than-brothers feels like a Jeffrey Archer script that Lew Grade would have turned down in 1979.
Related: Was everyone on Ben-Hur 2016 too busy sourcing camel...
The Roman epic with all its legions of extras was once a genre that belonged to the big screen, but CGI paradoxically shrank it to laptop size and this new version of Ben-Hur has somehow taken the diminution further still. Despite the 3D presentation, this is a film that should be seen on a plane, on the 6in x 8in screen on the back of an airline seat, probably at 2am on a transatlantic flight, accompanied by a complementary sachet of salty cashews, a vodka and tonic and then a meal of mechanically reconstituted chicken in a fillet-style serving. This tale of warring friends-who-are-closer-than-brothers feels like a Jeffrey Archer script that Lew Grade would have turned down in 1979.
Related: Was everyone on Ben-Hur 2016 too busy sourcing camel...
- 9/8/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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A killer robot powered by baby brains. Kirk Douglas wrestling in the nude. Ryan revisits the very weird 80s sci-fi movie, Saturn 3...
Some movies aspire to strangeness. Other movies have strangeness thrust upon them.
Saturn 3, released in 1980, was an intensely strange film. But unlike, say, Altered States (also released in 1980) it wasn’t made by a filmmaker with a taste for the oblique or the outre. Unlike Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination (1980 again), Saturn 3 wasn’t a low-budget shocker made in a hurry, but a relatively expensive exercise created by some of the most seasoned filmmakers in the business at that time. (For frame of reference, Saturn 3's budget was broadly the same as Alien’s, released less than one year earlier.)
On the surface, Saturn 3 sounds like a perfectly reasonable recipe for an intense sci-fi horror flick. It’s about a pair...
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A killer robot powered by baby brains. Kirk Douglas wrestling in the nude. Ryan revisits the very weird 80s sci-fi movie, Saturn 3...
Some movies aspire to strangeness. Other movies have strangeness thrust upon them.
Saturn 3, released in 1980, was an intensely strange film. But unlike, say, Altered States (also released in 1980) it wasn’t made by a filmmaker with a taste for the oblique or the outre. Unlike Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination (1980 again), Saturn 3 wasn’t a low-budget shocker made in a hurry, but a relatively expensive exercise created by some of the most seasoned filmmakers in the business at that time. (For frame of reference, Saturn 3's budget was broadly the same as Alien’s, released less than one year earlier.)
On the surface, Saturn 3 sounds like a perfectly reasonable recipe for an intense sci-fi horror flick. It’s about a pair...
- 2/1/2016
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
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The thriller Raise The Titanic was a $40m flop in 1980, its model Titanic alone costing millions. Ryan charts the replica's sad history...
By autumn 1977, author Clive Cussler was the toast of the publishing world. Following a decade of writing and two moderately successful novels, his third book, Raise The Titanic! was a runaway bestseller. Its popularity was a contrast to Cussler's earlier books, which had earned him a relatively meagre $5,000. But those earlier adventures - The Mediterranean Caper and Iceberg - helped establish the daring hero Dirk Pitt, a practical, earthy hero designed as a counterpoint to the suave, refined James Bond.
For Raise The Titanic!, Cussler dreamed up a scenario in which Pitt headed up a multi-billion-dollar operation to find and recover the doomed luxury liner, which sank in 1912. Their goal: to recover a mysterious, incredibly rare substance called byzantium from the ship's belly - a...
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The thriller Raise The Titanic was a $40m flop in 1980, its model Titanic alone costing millions. Ryan charts the replica's sad history...
By autumn 1977, author Clive Cussler was the toast of the publishing world. Following a decade of writing and two moderately successful novels, his third book, Raise The Titanic! was a runaway bestseller. Its popularity was a contrast to Cussler's earlier books, which had earned him a relatively meagre $5,000. But those earlier adventures - The Mediterranean Caper and Iceberg - helped establish the daring hero Dirk Pitt, a practical, earthy hero designed as a counterpoint to the suave, refined James Bond.
For Raise The Titanic!, Cussler dreamed up a scenario in which Pitt headed up a multi-billion-dollar operation to find and recover the doomed luxury liner, which sank in 1912. Their goal: to recover a mysterious, incredibly rare substance called byzantium from the ship's belly - a...
- 10/21/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...
- 9/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
I’m giddy as a schoolgirl, and I don’t know what to do with my hands.
I should explain.
Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds is as major a lynchpin of my childhood as M&Ms, my Big Jim collection, and faking sick to stay home from school…usually to watch Thunderbirds. The Tracy brothers, launching rescue missions from their secret island, was filled with edge of the seat action, staggering special effects and miniatures, and engaging character work. This is made more impressive that the characters were played by marionettes. Electronically keyed to the dialogue and incredibly detailed, but marionettes nevertheless. The show is as well-loved and respected worldwide, but most so in England, where it’s as beloved as other Sci-Fi touchstone Doctor Who. So it was rather a given that they’d go for a remake of the series eventually, and the 50th anniversary is just too tempting for anyone to pass up.
I should explain.
Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds is as major a lynchpin of my childhood as M&Ms, my Big Jim collection, and faking sick to stay home from school…usually to watch Thunderbirds. The Tracy brothers, launching rescue missions from their secret island, was filled with edge of the seat action, staggering special effects and miniatures, and engaging character work. This is made more impressive that the characters were played by marionettes. Electronically keyed to the dialogue and incredibly detailed, but marionettes nevertheless. The show is as well-loved and respected worldwide, but most so in England, where it’s as beloved as other Sci-Fi touchstone Doctor Who. So it was rather a given that they’d go for a remake of the series eventually, and the 50th anniversary is just too tempting for anyone to pass up.
- 4/6/2015
- by Vinnie Bartilucci
- Comicmix.com
Ian Ogilvy in his latest film, "We Still Kill the Old Way", now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Ian Ogilvy: Saints, Sorcerers and Secret Agents
Cinema Retro's Mark Mawston recently caught up with the legendary Ian Ogilvy to discuss projects past and present.
Mark Mawston: Ian, your film career began in the mid 60’s with The She Beast, directed by Michael Reeves. You had a great relationship with him. How did that come about?
Ian Ogilvy: Well, when we were 15 years old we made a couple of amateur movies together after we were introduced by a mutual friend and we became great friends. I used to stay at his mother’s house with him in Norfolk and over two years we made these two little amateur movies. I then lost contact with him as I went off and did different things like attending drama school and he went...
Ian Ogilvy: Saints, Sorcerers and Secret Agents
Cinema Retro's Mark Mawston recently caught up with the legendary Ian Ogilvy to discuss projects past and present.
Mark Mawston: Ian, your film career began in the mid 60’s with The She Beast, directed by Michael Reeves. You had a great relationship with him. How did that come about?
Ian Ogilvy: Well, when we were 15 years old we made a couple of amateur movies together after we were introduced by a mutual friend and we became great friends. I used to stay at his mother’s house with him in Norfolk and over two years we made these two little amateur movies. I then lost contact with him as I went off and did different things like attending drama school and he went...
- 1/15/2015
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Adrian Smith
(The following pertains to the UK, Region 2 releases)
Like Walt Disney before him, Gerry Anderson's name became a brand identifier in itself, a mark of quality. It is impossible to hear his name without automatically thinking of puppets on strings, whizzing spaceships and secret island hideouts. In tribute to Anderson, who sadly passed away two years ago before the completion of this documentary, Filmed in Supermarionation presents a brilliantly detailed history of his working life. The film is full of archival material detailing just how difficult it was bringing life to those puppets, along with interviews with many of those who worked alongside Anderson, most notably his wife and long-standing collaborator Sylvia who also provided the voice of Lady Penelope.
The documentary revisits some of the original studios that Anderson and his crew used and new footage is shot in Supermarionation (Gerry Anderson's term to...
(The following pertains to the UK, Region 2 releases)
Like Walt Disney before him, Gerry Anderson's name became a brand identifier in itself, a mark of quality. It is impossible to hear his name without automatically thinking of puppets on strings, whizzing spaceships and secret island hideouts. In tribute to Anderson, who sadly passed away two years ago before the completion of this documentary, Filmed in Supermarionation presents a brilliantly detailed history of his working life. The film is full of archival material detailing just how difficult it was bringing life to those puppets, along with interviews with many of those who worked alongside Anderson, most notably his wife and long-standing collaborator Sylvia who also provided the voice of Lady Penelope.
The documentary revisits some of the original studios that Anderson and his crew used and new footage is shot in Supermarionation (Gerry Anderson's term to...
- 10/20/2014
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Having been turned down by every television studio in America, Jim Henson’s Muppet Show was eventually bankrolled in the UK by legendary cigar-chomping mogul Lord Lew Grade. From its debut in 1976, The Muppet Show was a huge, global success; an instant hit with both children and adults. Three years later, with the Muppets at the zenith of their popularity, Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy and company made their big screen debut with The Muppet Movie (‘More Entertaining Than Humanly Possible’) which was one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Since then a further seven big-screen adventures have been released, including this month’s Muppets Most Wanted, as well as several TV specials – not to mention some classic Muppet albums.
The great appeal of The Muppets is its deft blend of childish wonder, a primary-coloured rainbow of felt and ping-pong balls, underscored with a sly, anti-establishment edge and a sureness...
The great appeal of The Muppets is its deft blend of childish wonder, a primary-coloured rainbow of felt and ping-pong balls, underscored with a sly, anti-establishment edge and a sureness...
- 3/27/2014
- by Cai Ross
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The sad passing of actress Alexandra Bastedo earlier this month saw many recalling and celebrating her work on '60s spy-fi series The Champions - just one entry in the canon of cult programme makers Itc Entertainment.
Though it also branched out into film production - with the likes of 1976's The Eagle Has Landed and 1982's The Dark Crystal - Itc was best known throughout the 1960s and '70s for its raft of cult TV programming, with shows like The Champions making an indelible screen icon of Bastedo and others like her.
These shows are now world-renowned - The Saint, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds - but the team behind them still go sadly unsung.
This week, the Week in Geek is looking to redress the balance with a fond tribute to Itc Entertainment - one of the UK's very best, most influential production teams.
Sherlock: The Problem of the Vanishing Detective
Doctor Who,...
Though it also branched out into film production - with the likes of 1976's The Eagle Has Landed and 1982's The Dark Crystal - Itc was best known throughout the 1960s and '70s for its raft of cult TV programming, with shows like The Champions making an indelible screen icon of Bastedo and others like her.
These shows are now world-renowned - The Saint, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds - but the team behind them still go sadly unsung.
This week, the Week in Geek is looking to redress the balance with a fond tribute to Itc Entertainment - one of the UK's very best, most influential production teams.
Sherlock: The Problem of the Vanishing Detective
Doctor Who,...
- 1/21/2014
- Digital Spy
Glamorous star of the 1960s television adventure series The Champions who went on to run an animal sanctuary
Alexandra Bastedo, who has died of cancer aged 67, found fame and sex-symbol status playing the secret agent and scientist Sharron Macready in the 1960s television fantasy series The Champions. She appeared with William Gaunt as Richard Barrett and Stuart Damon as Craig Stirling in the show about three agents working for the Geneva-based law-enforcement organisation Nemesis who gain superhuman powers after being rescued from a plane crash in Tibet by a mysterious lost tribe. With computer-like intelligence and Olympian levels of strength and endurance, they can communicate by telepathy and are assigned to cases where world stability is under threat.
It was one of the globally successful series made by the television mogul Lew Grade's international production and distribution company Itc. Bastedo described her butt-kicking character as a "gutsy girl before...
Alexandra Bastedo, who has died of cancer aged 67, found fame and sex-symbol status playing the secret agent and scientist Sharron Macready in the 1960s television fantasy series The Champions. She appeared with William Gaunt as Richard Barrett and Stuart Damon as Craig Stirling in the show about three agents working for the Geneva-based law-enforcement organisation Nemesis who gain superhuman powers after being rescued from a plane crash in Tibet by a mysterious lost tribe. With computer-like intelligence and Olympian levels of strength and endurance, they can communicate by telepathy and are assigned to cases where world stability is under threat.
It was one of the globally successful series made by the television mogul Lew Grade's international production and distribution company Itc. Bastedo described her butt-kicking character as a "gutsy girl before...
- 1/14/2014
- by Anthony Hayward
- The Guardian - Film News
Interview Louisa Mellor 3 Sep 2013 - 07:00
Philip Hinchcliffe, Doctor Who producer 1974 - 1977, chats about Tom Baker, villains, visual FX, companions, the 2005 revival, & more…
A week or so ago in a Brighton basement, Den of Geek attended a fun evening organised by the - aptly named, in this instance - arts and entertainment group, Space.
A regular Brighton-based event, Space regularly welcomes luminaries from the creative world to talk to its intimate group. Past guests have been from the world of film and television (Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Nicholas Roeg, David Morrissey, The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception visual effects artist Paul Franklin, Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark production designer Norman Reynolds), literature (Ian Rankin), and music (William Orbit, Skunk Anansie’s Skin, Goldie).
There are two Q&As per event, and opportunities to ask questions in an informal, friendly and geeky atmosphere, making the nights well worth the £8 advance ticket price.
Philip Hinchcliffe, Doctor Who producer 1974 - 1977, chats about Tom Baker, villains, visual FX, companions, the 2005 revival, & more…
A week or so ago in a Brighton basement, Den of Geek attended a fun evening organised by the - aptly named, in this instance - arts and entertainment group, Space.
A regular Brighton-based event, Space regularly welcomes luminaries from the creative world to talk to its intimate group. Past guests have been from the world of film and television (Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Nicholas Roeg, David Morrissey, The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception visual effects artist Paul Franklin, Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark production designer Norman Reynolds), literature (Ian Rankin), and music (William Orbit, Skunk Anansie’s Skin, Goldie).
There are two Q&As per event, and opportunities to ask questions in an informal, friendly and geeky atmosphere, making the nights well worth the £8 advance ticket price.
- 9/3/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Feature Philip Tibbetts 22 Aug 2013 - 07:00
Philip revisits short-lived but well-loved time-travel TV series featuring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, Sapphire & Steel...
Despite being a show about a Time Lord, Doctor Who didn’t really start to focus on the themes and workings of time travel, paradoxes and other temporal phenomena until its 2005 rebirth. However, at the turn of the 1970s, a short-lived ITV rival described as “completely different to Doctor Who” set a chilling example of the dangers of messing around with time…
“All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.
Sapphire and Steel have been assigned”.
Sapphire & Steel follows the two titular detectives, played by Joanna Lumley and David McCallum respectively; assigned by an unknown authority to correct anomalies...
Philip revisits short-lived but well-loved time-travel TV series featuring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, Sapphire & Steel...
Despite being a show about a Time Lord, Doctor Who didn’t really start to focus on the themes and workings of time travel, paradoxes and other temporal phenomena until its 2005 rebirth. However, at the turn of the 1970s, a short-lived ITV rival described as “completely different to Doctor Who” set a chilling example of the dangers of messing around with time…
“All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.
Sapphire and Steel have been assigned”.
Sapphire & Steel follows the two titular detectives, played by Joanna Lumley and David McCallum respectively; assigned by an unknown authority to correct anomalies...
- 8/21/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
The That Puppet Game Show co-producer on how his father got the Muppets on screen, and why London feels like home
Above the entrance to The Jim Henson Company lot in Hollywood stands one cultural icon, Kermit the Frog, dressed as another, Chaplin's Little Tramp. Chaplin built this lot in 1917 and sold it in 1953 after Hollywood blacklisted him. Now it's an active working studio, the headquarters of a puppetry empire that bestrides the world like a green-felt colossus, and also a living memorial to the man who might be called the Other Dad to three generations of children raised on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show (I count myself among them). And it's a measure of the centrality to modern American popular culture of Henson's cast of characters, and their abiding universality, that Kermit's donning of Chaplin's outfit seems not sacrilegious, but entirely natural and right.
When I meet Brian Henson,...
Above the entrance to The Jim Henson Company lot in Hollywood stands one cultural icon, Kermit the Frog, dressed as another, Chaplin's Little Tramp. Chaplin built this lot in 1917 and sold it in 1953 after Hollywood blacklisted him. Now it's an active working studio, the headquarters of a puppetry empire that bestrides the world like a green-felt colossus, and also a living memorial to the man who might be called the Other Dad to three generations of children raised on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show (I count myself among them). And it's a measure of the centrality to modern American popular culture of Henson's cast of characters, and their abiding universality, that Kermit's donning of Chaplin's outfit seems not sacrilegious, but entirely natural and right.
When I meet Brian Henson,...
- 8/11/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
How soon they forget. Amid the current pall of gloom over the release of a new Lone Ranger movie (Gone west: Disney's hopes of any success with The Lone Ranger, 8 August), one merely has to cast the mind back to the turn of the 80s, when an earlier big-screen incarnation of the western hero helped wreck the film ambitions of Britain's last movie mogul, Lord Lew Grade. Nineteen-eighty-one's The Legend of the Lone Ranger, co-starring unknowns Klinton Spilsbury and Michael Horse (as Tonto), but costing, for its day, a massive $18m, turned out to be a huge flop.
It did however at least manage to win three Raspberries, including two for Mr Spilsbury – for worst actor and worst new star – who had to be re-voiced for the film. Maybe history will continue to repeat itself.
Quentin Falk
Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Johnny DeppWesterns
theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
It did however at least manage to win three Raspberries, including two for Mr Spilsbury – for worst actor and worst new star – who had to be re-voiced for the film. Maybe history will continue to repeat itself.
Quentin Falk
Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Johnny DeppWesterns
theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
- 8/9/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Thunderbirds creator who made some of the most popular children's TV shows of the 1960s
Gerry Anderson, who has died aged 83 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was the main mover behind a number of puppet series commissioned by Lew Grade's Independent Television Corporation. They made the company a fortune from the space age: perhaps the best known was Thunderbirds (1965-66), and among the others were Fireball XL5 (1962-63), Stingray (1964) and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68).
Anderson embarked on Thunderbirds in 1964. For Grade, international sales – particularly into the Us market – were a key concern. So Thunderbirds focused on the Tracy brothers, with first names borrowed from the Us astronauts Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Gordon Cooper. Enormously popular in its time, the series is still being repeated today.
Scott and the others were members of International Rescue, based on a south Pacific island, set up,...
Gerry Anderson, who has died aged 83 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was the main mover behind a number of puppet series commissioned by Lew Grade's Independent Television Corporation. They made the company a fortune from the space age: perhaps the best known was Thunderbirds (1965-66), and among the others were Fireball XL5 (1962-63), Stingray (1964) and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68).
Anderson embarked on Thunderbirds in 1964. For Grade, international sales – particularly into the Us market – were a key concern. So Thunderbirds focused on the Tracy brothers, with first names borrowed from the Us astronauts Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Gordon Cooper. Enormously popular in its time, the series is still being repeated today.
Scott and the others were members of International Rescue, based on a south Pacific island, set up,...
- 12/27/2012
- by Nigel Fountain
- The Guardian - Film News
Exclusive: In a sign of continuity, The Saint, the backdoor pilot from Brad Krevoy’s film and TV production company Mpca, has cast the two men who played the dashing Templar in the previous two Saint TV series, Roger Moore and Ian Ogilvy. Also joining the cast of the Saint reboot, starring Adam Rayner and Eliza Dushku, are James Remar (Dexter), Enrique Murciano (CSI), Thomas Kretschmann (Wanted), Beatrice Rosen (The Dark Knight), Yani Gellman (90210), Greg Grunberg (Heroes), Michael Ornstein (Sons Of Anarchy), Sonalii Castillo (Heroes), Sammi Hanratty (A Christmas Carol), Oliver Bell (The Sparticle Mystery), Kirsty Mitchell (Capone’s Boys), and Jason Brooks (Star Trek). Moore also is producing the pilot, directed by Simon West from a script by Jesse Alexander who serves as showrunner. A new take on Leslie Charteris’ The Saint 70-book franchise, The Saint will follow the exploits of Simon Templar (Rayner), a brilliant criminal who uses...
- 12/20/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
Exclusive: Buffy The Vampire Slayer alumna Eliza Dushku is set to co-star opposite Adam Rayner in The Saint, a backdoor pilot from Brad Krevoy’s film and TV production company Mpca. Simon West is directing the pilot from a script by Jesse Alexander. Alexander is set as showrunner of the project, a new take on Leslie Charteris’ The Saint 70-book franchise. It will follow the exploits of Simon Templar (Rayner), a brilliant criminal who uses his considerable illicit skills as a modern-day Robin Hood as he infuriates local law enforcement and woos Patricia Holm (Dushku), his on-again, off-again romance. Roger Moore, who played Templar in Lew Grade’s popular 1962 Saint British TV series, has joined as a co-producer along with with his son Geoffrey Moore, Lulu Moore, and Louisa Macdonald. Author Ian Dickerson, an expert on the history of Charteris’ creation, will serve as a creative consultant. Krevoy, Alexander, and...
- 12/10/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
Neither shaken, nor stirred. Just perennially cool. While he'll no doubt be best remembered for the seven James Bond films he made from 1973 to 1985, Sir Roger Moore - he was knighted in 2003, for his humanitarian work on behalf of Unicef - also wears many other labels proudly. He was a young MGM star (opposite the then-equally young Elizabeth Taylor), a TV star and producer (The Saint), an author twice over (a 2008 autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, and the brand-new Bond on Bond: Reflections on 50 Years of James Bond Movies), and a word-class raconteur. It was in those last two...
- 11/10/2012
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Schwarzenegger stands the test of time best in the first adaptation of Philip K Dick's story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
As a curtain-raiser to the new version of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell coming out later this year, here's a rerelease of Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi action picture from 1990, based on the Philip K Dick short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. In a distant future where interplanetary travel is commonplace, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) pines for a trip to Mars, but his wife Lori (Sharon Stone) isn't interested. So instead he goes to a mysterious neurosurgery company that promises to implant a vivid memory of a glorious trip to Mars in his mind at a fraction of the real-world price. It all goes horribly wrong. This wildly successful movie laid the foundations for The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,...
As a curtain-raiser to the new version of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell coming out later this year, here's a rerelease of Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi action picture from 1990, based on the Philip K Dick short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. In a distant future where interplanetary travel is commonplace, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) pines for a trip to Mars, but his wife Lori (Sharon Stone) isn't interested. So instead he goes to a mysterious neurosurgery company that promises to implant a vivid memory of a glorious trip to Mars in his mind at a fraction of the real-world price. It all goes horribly wrong. This wildly successful movie laid the foundations for The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,...
- 7/5/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
To have one giant money-losing tentpole is unfortunate. To have two starts to look careless, and that's what's happened to Taylor Kitsch. The actor, who broke out on TV's "Friday Night Lights," was seen as Hollywood's next great hope, picked out to star in two great big blockbusters with a combined cost of half-a-billion dollars. But when "John Carter" arrived in March, the film wildly underperformed, with Disney taking a hit of at least $100 million on the project. And after this weekend, it looks that his other film, "Battleship," is going to lose similar amounts.
The film, Universal & Hasbro's adaptation of the board game, directed by "Hancock" helmer Peter Berg, had taken the unusual step of opening everywhere else in the world six weeks ahead of the U.S, in the hope of bagging lucrative foreign coin and building buzz for the U.S. release. But while the film did ok abroad,...
The film, Universal & Hasbro's adaptation of the board game, directed by "Hancock" helmer Peter Berg, had taken the unusual step of opening everywhere else in the world six weeks ahead of the U.S, in the hope of bagging lucrative foreign coin and building buzz for the U.S. release. But while the film did ok abroad,...
- 5/21/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Everyman: The Story Of Patrick McGoohan – The Prisoner
The Lantern Theatre, Blundell St., Liverpool
8.30pm Sat 14th April 2012
www.thelanterntheatre.co.uk
‘Everyman: The Story Of Patrick McGoohan – The Prisoner’ written by Brian Gorman, details the life of the theatre, television, and film star (who sadly died in 2009).
The play begins a mini tour of the UK, beginning with a special preview at The Lantern Theatre in Liverpool at 8.30pm on Saturday 14th April. The play will be seen later in the year, across the UK, as part of a double bill with ‘A Passion For Evil’ by writer/actor John Burns (detailing the life of the infamous Aleister Crowley).
Chester-based writer Brian Gorman, has played McGoohan and his character 'Number Six' on stage in Manchester, Chester, and twice in Portmeirion (as a guest of Six Of One, The Prisoner appreciation society). A reading of the play by Gorman garnered...
The Lantern Theatre, Blundell St., Liverpool
8.30pm Sat 14th April 2012
www.thelanterntheatre.co.uk
‘Everyman: The Story Of Patrick McGoohan – The Prisoner’ written by Brian Gorman, details the life of the theatre, television, and film star (who sadly died in 2009).
The play begins a mini tour of the UK, beginning with a special preview at The Lantern Theatre in Liverpool at 8.30pm on Saturday 14th April. The play will be seen later in the year, across the UK, as part of a double bill with ‘A Passion For Evil’ by writer/actor John Burns (detailing the life of the infamous Aleister Crowley).
Chester-based writer Brian Gorman, has played McGoohan and his character 'Number Six' on stage in Manchester, Chester, and twice in Portmeirion (as a guest of Six Of One, The Prisoner appreciation society). A reading of the play by Gorman garnered...
- 4/8/2012
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Why has this sluggishly paced and dull Danish thriller got a release in the UK?
The huge success of The Killing on British television may well have made Danish crime stories the new rock'n'roll, but it's still a bit of a mystery that this sluggishly paced and often quite dull thriller from Denmark has got a release in UK cinemas. It is from the Zentropa studios – or, as it says on the poster, "from the producers of Melancholia"; Lars Von Trier fans curious to see it may well be as baffled as anyone else. Actually, it looks more like something Lew Grade, in his 70s pomp, might have greenlit for Atv with a handshake. A mysterious, beautiful woman wakes up in a remote wooded area in France with a wound on her head, and no memory. She stumbles into a small hotel with her rucksack and gets a small room...
The huge success of The Killing on British television may well have made Danish crime stories the new rock'n'roll, but it's still a bit of a mystery that this sluggishly paced and often quite dull thriller from Denmark has got a release in UK cinemas. It is from the Zentropa studios – or, as it says on the poster, "from the producers of Melancholia"; Lars Von Trier fans curious to see it may well be as baffled as anyone else. Actually, it looks more like something Lew Grade, in his 70s pomp, might have greenlit for Atv with a handshake. A mysterious, beautiful woman wakes up in a remote wooded area in France with a wound on her head, and no memory. She stumbles into a small hotel with her rucksack and gets a small room...
- 2/17/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
BAFTA Fellowship: Few Women, Few Outside UK/Hollywood, Steven Spielberg Before Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder [Photo: Laurence Olivier] 1971 Alfred Hitchcock 1972 Freddie Young 1973 Grace Wyndham Goldie 1974 David Lean 1975 Jacques Cousteau 1976 Charles Chaplin, Laurence Olivier 1977 Denis Forman 1978 Fred Zinnemann 1979 Lew Grade, Huw Wheldon 1980 David Attenborough, John Huston 1981 Abel Gance, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger 1982 Andrzej Wajda 1983 Richard Attenborough 1984 Hugh Greene, Sam Spiegel 1985 Jeremy Isaacs 1986 Steven Spielberg 1987 Federico Fellini 1988 Ingmar Bergman 1989 Alec Guinness 1990 Paul Fox 1991 Louis Malle 1992 John Gielgud, David Plowright 1993 Sydney Samuelson, Colin Young 1994 Michael Grade 1995 Billy Wilder 1996 Jeanne Moreau, Ronald Neame, John Schlesinger, Maggie Smith 1997 Woody Allen, Steven Bochco, Julie Christie, Oswald Morris, Harold Pinter, David Rose 1998 Sean Connery, Bill Cotton 1999 Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise, Elizabeth Taylor 2000 Michael Caine, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bazalgette 2001 Albert Finney, John Thaw, Judi Dench 2002 Warren Beatty, Merchant Ivory Productions (James Ivory, Ismail Merchant) 2002 Andrew Davies, John Mills 2003 Saul Zaentz, David Jason 2004 John Boorman, Roger Graef 2005 John Barry, David Frost 2006 David Puttnam,...
- 1/4/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From the late '70s through the '80s, "The Muppet Show" was a staple in many households and while Jim Henson's creations never completely disappeared, their prominence has since dwindled, but now Jason Segel along with his his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director, Nicholas Stoller, have written a screenplay bringing the Muppets back to the forefront. With unemployment rates rising, a European debt crisis and war across the globe, perhaps the innocence of the Muppets are just what we need right now and when I brought this up with The Muppets director James Bobin he seemed to agree. "I think it's a perfect time to bring the Muppets back, and I hope the audience agrees with us. The thing about them is, they're not cynical at all." Bobin responded. "I think we need them now more than ever." A little later, Jason Segel went even further saying, "I think...
- 11/22/2011
- by Bill Cody
- Rope of Silicon
Founded by J Arthur Rank, the studios are home to 007, Harry Potter and American blockbusters – but still invest in UK talent
The horizon at Pinewood alters every month as sets and scaffold towers go up and down. This weekend a visitor told to present themselves at the "main gate" might face a moment's confusion. By far the biggest gate, dwarfing everything else at the entrance to the film studios in Buckinghamshire, is a huge wooden affair, reached by a drawbridge.
A portcullis is suspended above it and a pair of crenellated stone towers stand on either side. It is part of the set constructed for Snow White and The Huntsman, one of a succession of big budget films that have queued up to get inside a production centre that is unrivalled, not just in Britain, but across the world.
The film, directed by Rupert Sanders, will star Charlize Theron as The Evil Queen,...
The horizon at Pinewood alters every month as sets and scaffold towers go up and down. This weekend a visitor told to present themselves at the "main gate" might face a moment's confusion. By far the biggest gate, dwarfing everything else at the entrance to the film studios in Buckinghamshire, is a huge wooden affair, reached by a drawbridge.
A portcullis is suspended above it and a pair of crenellated stone towers stand on either side. It is part of the set constructed for Snow White and The Huntsman, one of a succession of big budget films that have queued up to get inside a production centre that is unrivalled, not just in Britain, but across the world.
The film, directed by Rupert Sanders, will star Charlize Theron as The Evil Queen,...
- 10/1/2011
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
'What single thing would improve the quality of my life? New knees'
Sir Roger Moore was born in London in 1927. After school, he was an office boy for an animation company before going to Rada. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked in Hollywood under contract to MGM and then Warner Bros before being cast as the lead in the TV series The Saint. A decade later, he became James Bond, starring in seven films. He also co-starred with Tony Curtis in the TV series The Persuaders! whose 40th anniversary Blu-ray is out now.
When were you happiest?
Now, with my wife Kristina, our children and grandchildren. We have a lovely life.
What is your greatest fear?
Walking on stage and not being able to remember a single line.
What is your earliest memory?
Christmas Eve, lying in bed and seeing my parents arrange my stocking.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?...
Sir Roger Moore was born in London in 1927. After school, he was an office boy for an animation company before going to Rada. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked in Hollywood under contract to MGM and then Warner Bros before being cast as the lead in the TV series The Saint. A decade later, he became James Bond, starring in seven films. He also co-starred with Tony Curtis in the TV series The Persuaders! whose 40th anniversary Blu-ray is out now.
When were you happiest?
Now, with my wife Kristina, our children and grandchildren. We have a lovely life.
What is your greatest fear?
Walking on stage and not being able to remember a single line.
What is your earliest memory?
Christmas Eve, lying in bed and seeing my parents arrange my stocking.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?...
- 9/23/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Retro-action! Volumes 1-3
It's a common occurrence: you buy a box set of a show you fondly yet vaguely remember, then, after you've got the buzz of seeing the title sequence again and reacquainted yourself with the characters, you find that maybe the whole series wasn't as good as your rose-tinted vision had you believe.
That's why these compilation discs are such a great move. All the shows here (one episode of each) are from Itc, a UK production company run by the legendary showbiz impresario Lord Lew Grade and responsible for much of our world-class TV output during the 1960s and 1970s. Itc shot everything on film rather than video (so everything here looks stunning) and made full use of all the writers, directors, actors, craftsmen and technicians the British film industry had to offer. Over three separately available discs you get the pick of such classics as The...
It's a common occurrence: you buy a box set of a show you fondly yet vaguely remember, then, after you've got the buzz of seeing the title sequence again and reacquainted yourself with the characters, you find that maybe the whole series wasn't as good as your rose-tinted vision had you believe.
That's why these compilation discs are such a great move. All the shows here (one episode of each) are from Itc, a UK production company run by the legendary showbiz impresario Lord Lew Grade and responsible for much of our world-class TV output during the 1960s and 1970s. Itc shot everything on film rather than video (so everything here looks stunning) and made full use of all the writers, directors, actors, craftsmen and technicians the British film industry had to offer. Over three separately available discs you get the pick of such classics as The...
- 9/16/2011
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
When given the opportunity to interview John Landis, I had to take it. After all, this is a man whose films I’ve grown up on (The Blues Brothers may very well be my most-watched movie of all time), so the idea of talking to him was pretty thrilling. Thankfully, it turns out that he’s a great conversationalist.
While we started off with his latest project, Burke and Hare, the discussion soon veered toward the creative state of Hollywood, as well as what he has planned next. There are many other places we could have gone, but I think that the ensuing talk was both informative and enlightening.
Without further ado:
How did this material get into your hands?
John Landis: I was visiting my friend, Gurinder Chadha, who is an English director. Do you know Gurinder?
I don’t know if I do.
You know a movie called Bend It Like Beckham?...
While we started off with his latest project, Burke and Hare, the discussion soon veered toward the creative state of Hollywood, as well as what he has planned next. There are many other places we could have gone, but I think that the ensuing talk was both informative and enlightening.
Without further ado:
How did this material get into your hands?
John Landis: I was visiting my friend, Gurinder Chadha, who is an English director. Do you know Gurinder?
I don’t know if I do.
You know a movie called Bend It Like Beckham?...
- 9/7/2011
- by [email protected] (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
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