News

Macaulay Culkin might not be as big a presence in Hollywood as he once was, but the actor will forever remain beloved to anybody that grew up in the '90s. That's not only due to the fact he played one of the most legendary on-screen scamps in Kevin McCallister for two "Home Alone" movies, but also because he will always be the kid with a McDonalds in his own house, thanks to him playing the title role in 1994's "Richie Rich." His endearing cheekiness equally paired so well with John Candy's Buck Russell in the sometimes-overlooked but perpetually charming "Uncle Buck."

If those were the only three roles Culkin ever played, that would be enough to maintain his standing as a '90s legend. But before he took an extended break from acting in 1994, the actor had a considerable career outside of those well-known films, including an upsetting...

Taylor Russell broke down while presenting Ellen Burstyn with the Liberatum Pioneer Award in Venice.

“Everyone in this room knows how incredible you are. I’ve been so affected by your life and your characters, and no, it’s not part of my speech,” she said on Thursday, tearing up.

The “Bones and All” actor starred alongside Burstyn in Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch.”

“The most exciting part was knowing I would have the opportunity to work with you,” said Russell, raving about “every piece” of Burstyn’s “specialness.”

“I think about your spirituality and the way you’ve connected your heart, your truth and your soul to your work. And that makes me think: ‘I can attempt to do that too,’” she said.

“This is not the woman who takes the easy route. She has never stopped searching. Ellen, by sharing the gift of your work and life with us all,...

A while back, a terrific book about the golden age of action stars called “The Last Action Heroes” came out (buy it here). Written by Nick De Semlyen, the book takes a very affectionate look at all of the icons we grew up with in the 80s and 90s, with one notable exception. Steven Seagal does not come off well in the book – at all. One of the wildest stories from the book recounts a time when Seagal grew outraged over the fact that a meeting room he wanted was being occupied by the legendary Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

The two actors, who would have been in their late sixties then, were participating in a read-through for their hit comedy Grumpy Old Men. According to the book, the vibe in the room was light, with the two old pros cracking up their director, Daniel Petrie and assembled guests. One of them was William Osborne,...

Oscar, Emmy and Tony-award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn will be honored at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the Liberatum Pioneer Award for her lifetime contribution to cinema.

The 91-year-old acting legend will be honored at a “Women in Creativity” event and gala dinner in Venice on Sept. 4 at the Blue Pavilion in the Palazzina Grassi Hotel on the Grand Canal. Burstyn will also take part in an on-stage discussion of her decades-long career.

Burstyn made her acting debut on Broadway in Fair Game in 1957 and was a TV regular throughout the 1960s but her breakthrough came on screen in the 1970s, with Oscar-nominated performances in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the widow Alice Hyatt in Martin Scorsese’s romantic drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1974. A year later,...

Kevin Bacon and Glenn Howerton have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix series Sirens. Billed as a female-driven limited dark comedy, the cast is led by Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock.

Per the official synopsis (via Deadline),Sirens focuses on Devon (Fahy) who is worried about her sister Simone (Alcock) and the creepy relationship she has with her mysterious socialite employer, Michaela Kell (Moore). Michaela's cult-like, luxurious lifestyle is like a drug to Simone and Devon thinks it's time for an intervention. When she eventually tracks down her sister, she finds herself in Michaela's dangerous path. The story takes place over a weekend at a lavish beach estate.

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Related The Dark Knight Actor Reveals Whether A Robin Spinoff Was Ever In The Works

Joseph Gordon-Levitt explains that spinoffs were not a common consideration "in those olden days."

Bacon will portray Michaela's husband, Peter Kell, who comes...

Henry Fonda earned his first Oscar nomination for his indelible turn as Tom Joad who becomes head of his family of Oklahoma tenant farmers in John Ford’s 1940 masterpiece “The Grapes of Wrath’ based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. And 44 years later, his two-time Oscar-winning daughter Jane Fonda had her “Grapes of Wrath” moment in the ABC Mother’s Day movie, “The Dollmaker.”

Based on Harriette Arnow’s 1954 novel of the same name, the three-hour drama set in the final two years of World War II, finds Fonda playing the indomitable Gertie Nevels, a caring, loving and uneducated mother of five. A sharecropper in Kentucky, Gertie dreams of owning her own farm and has saved enough money to buy one. Her husband (Levon Holm) isn’t much of a farmer but is good at fixing machines. When he gets a job as a mechanic at a factory in Detroit,...

Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. died of a lung condition, according to his death certificate obtained by TMZ. The actor died in Santa Monica on March 29 at the age of 87.

According to the report, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Copd), was the main cause of death, TMZ says, with heart failure and atrial fibrillation contributing factors.

A cause of death was not known at the time of Gossett’s passing last month.

His family announced the death in a statement on March 29: “It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning.” It continued, “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You...

If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.

Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...

We are sad to report that legendary African-American actor Louis Gossett Jr. passed away on March 28, 2024 in Santa Monica, CA. He was 87 years old at the time of death, and was on his way to celebrate his 88th birthday in May this year. No official cause of death has been given, but Gosset has had health issues in the recent decade, being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and being hospitalized for Covid-19 during the pandemic. The news was confirmed by Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett.

A true acting legend, Louis Gossett Jr. was born in New York on May 27, 1936. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a porter. Although he was proficient in sports as well, after his stage debut at the age of 17, his teacher encouraged him to pursue an acting career. Although he obtained a sports scholarship at the NYU and was offered to play basketball,...

Louis Gossett Jr., who won an Emmy for his role in the groundbreaking TV miniseries Roots and an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, died Thursday night in Santa Monica. He was 87.

His death was first reported by his nephew to the Associated Press. No cause of death was given.

“It is with our heartfelt regret to confirm our beloved father passed away this morning,” his family said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “We would like to thank everyone for their condolences at this time. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You and soon would successfully audition for the Broadway production Take a Giant Step, then perform in a star-making supporting...

Louis Gossett Jr., the tough guy with a sensitive side who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a steely sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy for his performance as a compassionate slave in the landmark miniseries Roots, has died. He was 87.

Gossett’s nephew told the Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica. The cause of death is unknown, but Gossett announced in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.

With his sleek, bald pate and athlete’s physique, Gossett was intimidating in a wide array of no-nonsense roles, most notably in Taylor Hackford’s Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where as Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley he rides Richard Gere’s character mercilessly (but for his own good) at an officer candidate school and gets into a memorable martial arts fight.

He was the second Black man to win an acting Oscar, following Sidney Poitier in 1964.

For the role,...

Robert Swan, the veteran character actor who appeared in key roles in the notable sports films Hoosiers, Rudy and The Babe, has died. He was 78.

Swan died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer at his home in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, his friend Betty Hoeffner told The Hollywood Reporter.

Swan also portrayed a Canadian Mountie in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987) and a bloodied deputy in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) and was other lawmen in Who’s That Girl (1987) and Mo’ Money (1992).

In Hoosiers (1986), his character, the Indiana farmer Rollin Butcher, has two sons on the Hickory High School basketball team, and he’s one of the few people in town to welcome new coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman). Later, he joins Coach Dale on the bench as a Huskers’ assistant.

Swan then reunited with Hoosiers director David Anspaugh to play a priest in another classic underdog sports flick,...

Josephine Chaplin, an actress and the sixth of 11 children fathered by screen legend Charlie Chaplin, died July 13 in Paris, her family announced. She was 74.

Chaplin starred with Laurence Harvey in Menahem Golan’s Escape to the Sun (1972), about a group of people attempting to leave the Soviet Union to escape antisemitism and political repression.

She also appeared with Vittorio De Sica and Maurice Ronet in L’odeur des fauves (1972), with Liv Ullmann and Kiefer Sutherland in Daniel Petrie’s The Bay Boy (1984), and with Klaus Kinski in a German-language version of Jack the Ripper (1976).

In 1988, she portrayed Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway, in a miniseries that starred Stacy Keach.

Josephine Chaplin with Laurence Harvey in 1972’s Escape to the Sun.

Josephine Hannah Chaplin was born in Santa Monica on March 28, 1949, the third of eight children of Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill, the British actress...

Just in time for Succession‘s end, let’s look at method acting. The Criterion Channel are highlighting the controversial practice in a 27-film series centered on Brando, Newman, Nicholson, and many other’s embodiment of “an intensely personal, internalized, and naturalistic approach to performance.” That series makes mention of Marilyn Monroe, who gets her own, 11-title highlight––the iconic commingling with deeper cuts.

Pride Month offers “Masc,” a consideration of “trans men, butch lesbians, and gender-nonconforming heroes” onscreen; the Michael Koresky-curated Queersighted returning with a study of the gay best friend; and the 20-film “LGBTQ+ Favorites.” Louis Garrel’s delightful The Innocent (about which I talked to him here), the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, and Stanley Kwan’s hugely underseen Lan Yu make streaming premieres, while Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin also get a run. Criterion Editions include Five Easy Pieces,...

John Wright, the film editor who received Oscar nominations for his work on Jan de Bont’s Speed and The Hunt for Red October, one of six movies he cut for John McTiernan, has died. He was 79.

Wright died April 20 at his home in Calabasas after a battle with prostate and bone cancer, his wife of 57 years, Jane Wright, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Wright’s résumé also included such other high-profile films as Sam Peckinpah’s Convoy (1978), Paul Michael Glaser’s The Running Man (1987), Stan Dragoti’s Necessary Roughness (1991), John Woo’s Broken Arrow (1996), Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), James Gartner’s Glory Road (2006) and Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk (2008).

He collaborated with directors Mel Gibson on The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Apocalypto (2006); with Graeme Clifford on Frances (1982) and Gleaming the Cube (1989); and with Randall Wallace on Secretariat (2010) and Heaven Is for Real (2014).

Wright was nominated for an Emmy...

Kiefer Sutherland is best known for playing Jack Bauer in "24," the defining TV drama of George W. Bush's presidency. Few other series from that time -- as dramatized by YouTuber and sports writer Jon Bois in his classic video "I Wish Everyone Else Was Dead" -- capture the country's reverence for and fear of its own power as effectively. Sutherland would love to step into Bauer's shoes again too. After all, he had a great time on the long-running series, once telling Collider that he compares his experience acting on "24" to the training regimen of an Olympic runner.

"When I got to do '24,' I got to work every day," he says. "I feel that my knowledge of the craft of acting grew exponentially during that time period." The success of "24" opened new doors for Sutherland. Game director Hideo Kojima hired him to...

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William G. Borchert, the Emmy-nominated screenwriter behind the 1989 Hallmark Hall of Fame telefilm My Name Is Bill W., which starred James Woods and James Garner as the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, has died. He was 89.

Borchert died Saturday at his home in Stratford, Connecticut, his son Robert P. Borchert told The Hollywood Reporter.

Woods received an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or special for his turn as Bill Wilson — a stockbroker and World War I veteran who struggles to keep sober after he loses his fortune in the 1929 stock market collapse — in ABC’s My Name Is Bill W., directed by Daniel Petrie.

Wilson meets Robert Holbrook Smith (Garner), who is battling a drinking problem as well, and the pair launch a support group in 1935 that leads to Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12-step program to recovery.

Borchert, who also landed...

Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.

On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.

See the full...

Actress Yvette Mimieux, who starred in movies including “Where the Boys Are,” “The Time Machine,” “Light in the Piazza,” “Toys in the Attic,” “Dark of the Sun” and “The Picasso Summer,” died Tuesday. She was 80.

The beautiful blonde Mimieux made most of her films in the 1960s, but she was also among the stars of Disney’s 1979 sci-fi film “The Black Hole.”

Among the films Mimieux made in 1960 were MGM’s glossy teen movie “Where the Boys Are,” in which four coeds including Mimieux’s Melanie head to Fort Lauderdale for spring break in search of fun and the “right” boy, and George Pal’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” starring Rod Taylor and with Mimieux third billed as Weena, Taylor’s romantic interest, who lives among the Eloi, a peaceful race living in the year 802,701.

In 1962 she appeared in four films, including the big-budget critical and...

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By Tim McGlynn

Zephina Media and Metropolis Post have released a Blu-ray edition of 1974’s Buster and Bille, a teenage romantic drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent, Joan Goodfellow, Pamela Sue Martin and, in his first film role, Robert Englund.

The story is set in Georgia during 1948, where Buster is the local school athletic hero who is known for pulling pranks such driving his truck in front of the school bus and temporarily blinding the driver in a cloud of dust. Cocky and handsome, Buster is the leader of a group of cool kids and misfits that includes an albino, Whitey (Robert Englund) who has the shocking habit of dying his hair black. He’s engaged to a pretty classmate named Margie (Pamela Sue Martin) who has decided they should not have sex until their wedding night. The rest of Buster’s pals make a...

Fear No Evil / Ritual of Evil

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1969, 1970 / 196 Min. / 1:33.1

Starring Louis Jourdan, Wilfred Hyde-White, Bradford Dillman

Cinematography by Andrew J. McIntyre, Lionel Lindon

Directed by Paul Wendkos, Robert Day

Just as she hops into bed with Charles Aznavour in Shoot the Piano Player, Michèle Mercier exclaims, “Television is a cinema that you can see at home.” Et voilà—from Michèle’s lips to Studio City’s ear, Hollywood responded with a new kind of home entertainment, movies made exclusively for TV. The first examples of this awkward hybrid began to appear in the mid-sixties, but it wasn’t the first time the small-screen tried to expand its horizons; CBS beat movie studios to the punch with Playhouse 90‘s original productions of The Miracle Worker in 1957 and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1959. And there was the occasional holiday treat like NBC’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin starring Van Johnson...

Dorothea G. Petrie, a two-time Emmy winner and founding member of the Producers Guild of America who guided telefilms starring the likes of Jean Stapleton, Denzel Washington, Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, has died. She was 95.

Petrie died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her family announced.

Survivors include her sons Daniel Petrie Jr., the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Beverly Hills Cop, and Donald Petrie, director of films including Mystic Pizza and Grumpy Old Men. She was married to Emmy-winning director Daniel Petrie from 1957 until his death in 2004.

Petrie won her Emmys in 1986 and 1990 for ...

Dorothea G. Petrie, a two-time Emmy winner and founding member of the Producers Guild of America who guided telefilms starring the likes of Jean Stapleton, Denzel Washington, Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, has died. She was 95.

Petrie died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, her family announced.

Survivors include her sons Daniel Petrie Jr., the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Beverly Hills Cop, and Donald Petrie, director of films including Mystic Pizza and Grumpy Old Men. She was married to Emmy-winning director Daniel Petrie from 1957 until his death in 2004.

Petrie won her Emmys in 1986 and 1990 for ...

No horror fan needs to be introduced to the likes of Robert Englund, a name which in the collective imagery has become synonymous with so many different and varied aspects of the genre that he has left a deep and undeniable mark on. Needless to say, the thread holding together Englund’s celluloid persona is streaked with red and dark green, but the Californian actor could also resonate with many for the work he did with Tobe Hooper; his participation in ’90s items such as Urban Legend (1998), Strangeland (1998), and Wishmaster (1997); his previous work, during a time in which Freddy was still taking shape in the mind of Wes Craven, including Bruce D. Clark’s Galaxy of Terror (1981); or his recurring role as “Willie” in the TV series V (1983–1985).

Some might have discovered him through his more recent campy and grindhouse-inspired flicks like 2001 Maniacs (2005), Zombie Strippers (2008), or The Funhouse Massacre (2015). What...

Stars: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Louis Gossett Jr, Ivan Dixon | Written by Lorraine Hansberry | Directed by Daniel Petrie

In the early 1960s, in a Chicago ghetto apartment, a black family is on the cusp of great change. It’s all because of an insurance cheque that the grandmother is about to receive. Ten thousand dollars – but what to do with it? She wants to buy a bigger home to contain three generations of her family. Her son, Walt (Sidney Poitier), the passionate patriarch, is thinking bigger. He doesn’t want to hide in the suburbs; he wants to push forward the fate of the “coloured” man.

The arguments over the purpose of the windfall are the maguffin to the real regrets and resentments hiding just below the surface of this borderline impoverished family. Walt’s wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), is caught between two worlds: the hope...

Lorraine Hansberry’s play has been given a masterful film adaptation, with the emotional truth of her words left intact. We’re told of some superficial compromises, but they do not diminish the play’s powerful clash between old and new ideas in a Southside Chicago family struggling to escape poverty. This may be Sidney Poitier’s best screen performance, but the honors are shared with a superlative cast.

A Raisin in the Sun

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 945

1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett Jr., Stephen Perry, Joel Fluellen, Louis Terrel, Roy Glenn.

Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.

Film Editors: William A. Lyon, Paul Weatherwax

Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal

Written by Lorraine Hansberry, from her play

Produced by David Susskind, Philip Rose

Directed by Daniel Petrie

In more than...

Lorraine Hansberry is sometimes lost in the shuffle of famous playwrights, which is quite a shame considering she was the first African American writer to have work produced on Broadway. While only a few of her plays made it to the stage due to her young and untimely death, Hansberry utilized her writing to help the Civil Rights artistic movement, specifically with her hit Broadway show A Raisin in the Sun. Starring Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands (all three of whom reprised their roles on screen), among others, the play centers on an African American family struggling with being swallowed by racism in their everyday lives. The show became so popular that Columbia Pictures adapted it for the screen with Hansberry writing the script. Despite the issues that can often come when adapting from stage to screen, Hansberry and company manage to create a space for their actors to...

BAMcinématek pays screen tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright - True West: Sam Shepard on Film Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Sam Shepard, who died on July 27, 2017 at the age of 73, will be honored by BAMcinématek in New York with True West: Sam Shepard on Film.

Wim Wenders' Don’t Come Knocking and Paris, Texas (BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Shepard); Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff (Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination for Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager); Graeme Clifford's Frances; Daniel Petrie's Resurrection; Terrence Malick's Days Of Heaven; Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, co-written by Shepard; Robert Altman's adaptation of Fool For Love; Robert Frank's Me And My Brother (text by Shepard, poems by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky); Shirley Clarke's video of Shepard's Tongues performed by Joseph Chaikin, and Far North, directed by Sam Shepard will be screened.

The latest horror flick filled with immense badassery to be added to Shudder's library is the fifth sequel in the Phantasm franchise, Phantasm: Ravager. Also in today's Highlights: details on the Clive Barker Reel Fear Contest, Portland International Film Festival's After Dark program, release details for Slasher.com and The Eyes, a new poster for Atomica, and production news and photos for A Haunting at Silver Falls II.

Phantasm: Ravager Comes to Shudder: "Joining Shudder is Phantasm: Ravager- the final installment of the long-running Phantasm series.

In addition to Phantasm: Ravager, streaming exclusively on Shudder is the remaster of Don Coscarelli’s 1979 classic Phantasm, as well as its sequels Phantasm III and Phantasm IV.

Phantasm was recently restored by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Coscarelli, and given both a new 4K remaster and a 5.1 surround sound mix, which will be the version presented exclusively on Shudder."

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Clive Barker Reel...

Swedish writer Hakan Nesser’s Nordic Noir books have sold more than 20million copies worldwide and will be published in English and additional languages in 2017.

Los Angeles-based Enderby’s Rick Dugdale and Thomas Peter Friedl are producing the Intrigo features alongside Uwe Schott from Germany’s The Amazing Film Company.

Production is set for early 2017 in Europe. The Amazing Film Company and Umedia will co-produce and finance and UTA Independent Film Group represents North American rights. Daniel Petrie, Jr. serves as executive producer.

Daniel Alfredson, whose credits include The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, will direct the English-language Intrigo trilogy, which comprises Death Of An Author, Dear Agnes and Samaria.

The stories take place in an unspecified northern European country and deal with the themes of escape, guilt, revenge and atonement. Alfredson will adapt the material with Ditta Bongenhelm.

“I was immediately captured by Hakan Nesser’s work...

Live in Los Angeles and want a little Mick Taylor in your life? Pop TV presents a two-episode screening of the Wolf Creek series at this year's Screamfest on Wednesday, October 19th. Also: Redwood details, trailer, and poster, a new trailer for The Similars, Blood in the Snow 2016 lineup revealed, and A Haunting at Silver Falls II production news.

Wolf Creek Screamfest Screening Details: Press Release: "Pop and Screamfest invite horror fans across Los Angeles out for a night of mayhem and murder with Wolf Creek’s infamous crazed killer Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) at Screamfest 2016 on Wednesday, October 19th. Get your free tickets here while supplies last. More details below!

What: A special two-episode screening of Pop’s television event and primetime limited series “WolfCreek.” A pre-screening reception will include specialty cocktails, fan photos, and trivia hosted by journalist (Blumhouse.com, ComingSoon.net) and author (Curious Goods: Behind the...

Boys in the Trees.

Nicholas Verso.s Boys in the Trees has won the award for Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival. "I first attended the Austin Film Festival back in 2013 to attend the Writers Conference clutching my own script, desperately wanting to turn it into a film,. said Verso on accepting the award. .So it was incredibly exciting to return to Austin, not just for the Us premiere but to also receive this award.. Being acknowledged among their industry greats and emerging talents that have given me so much inspiration is truly an honour. .I especially wanted to thank John August and Craig Mazin at Scriptnotes for their wise tips and wisecracks at my accent as well as Rick Dugdale and Dan Petrie Jnr at Enderby Entertainment for their ongoing support and introducing me to this festival.. . The film.s producer, Mushroom Pictures. John Molloy said the...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

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Was there ever a better 80s' tagline that 'Crime is a disease. Meet the cure'? Join us in celebrating the 30th birthday of Cobra...

This article contains spoilers for Cobra. We suspect we're the only website to have written those words in recent times....

Had Sylvester Stallone had his way, the now cult classic Beverly Hills Cop would have been a much different film. Before Eddie Murphy was cast in the role that would define his acting career, the part of Axel Foley was offered to Sly. Yet the Italian Stallion had other ideas in mind for what he wanted the film to be, so he took it upon himself to rewrite the script, moulding it to suit his strengths as a white-knuckled mortal terminator. As screenwriter Daniel Petrie Jr told us last year, whilst it was "considered a coup to have written a script to attract...

Join El Rey Network and Freddy Krueger for the third annual "Rip Your Heart Out" Valentine's Day Marathon. This year will bring you and your Dream Warrior closer together with five of the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street films as well as episodes from the iconic 1988 series Freddy's Nightmares. The marathon will begin with the episode Black Tickets on Saturday, February 13th at 6Am Et/Pt and will conclude with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child on Monday, February 15th at 2Am Et/Pt.

The entire weekend will be hosted by the star of the franchise - Robert Englund. Englund's portrayal of Freddy Krueger blasted him into the pop culture vernacular as heir apparent to the horror icons of the past, destined to stand alongside Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera and Boris Karloff's monster in Frankenstein.

After five years of success in regional theater Robert Englund.

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Exclusive: the co-writer and producer of Turner & Hooch explains how it got its infamous ending.

This article contains major spoilers for Turner & Hooch

If you've not seen Turner & Hooch, don't scroll below our spoiler squirrel. Once you're past the picture, we start talking about the ending of the film...

Arriving a couple of months after K-9 at the Us box office was the Tom Hanks-headlined Turner & Hooch. You know the one: Hanks gets paired, reluctantly, with a slobbering dog. Comedy ensues.

Well, almost.

Unlike K-9, Turner & Hooch comes with a harsh ending where the dog in question - that'd be Hooch - bites the bullet. In what's ostensibly a Disney family comedy.

So then: what happened.

Daniel Petrie Jr, one of the writers and producers of the film, told us that "we all did" when we asked him who killed the dog. That is, the filmmakers wanted that ending.

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From writing Beverly Hills Cop to directing Toy Soldiers and Dawn Patrol, we have a chat with writer/producer/director Daniel Petrie Jr.

Daniel Petrie Jr comes from a family with movies in its blood.

His father, Daniel Petrie Sr, directed films such as Resurrection, Cocoon: The Return and A Raisin In The Sun. His mother, Dorothea, produced movies, wrote novels and acted. And then his brother, Donald Petrie, directed Cocoon: The Return, Miss Congeniality and Grumpy Old Men.

Yet Daniel Petrie Jr is just as busy. His screenplays include Turner & Hooch and Beverly Hills Cop (for which he earned an Academy Award nomination), whilst his directorial debut was the much-loved (by us especially) Toy Soldiers.

As his new film as director, Dawn Patrol (starring Scott Eastwood) lands on DVD, he spared us some time for a chat about his career. Starting with what he's up to right now.

The former Newsweek film critic recently served as artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival and joins the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff), set to run from January 1-11 2016.

As lead programmer Ansen will work with a team of six programmers under the direction of festival artistic director Helen du Toit.

He will be responsible for acquiring films from distributors and sales agents and will be a key member of the selection committee for films submitted to the festival from a wide variety of sources.

“I’m thrilled to have someone with David’s vast scope and depth of knowledge about film join us as a key member of the Psiff programming team,” said festival director Darryl Macdonald.

“His taste in films has always been impeccable, ranging from the discovery of unheralded works from gifted new international directors to a singular appreciation of films from seasoned filmmakers working in the major studio millieux.”

“As a longtime...

Another forgotten gem from the mid-1970s receiving a new Blu-ray treatment is 1975’s Report to the Commissioner, a textured police procedural examining changing social mores and the generalized internal corruptions we’re used to in these scenarios, resulting in tragic circumstances thanks to the sincere ignorance of its protagonist. Yaphet Kotto, a regular supporting player in a number of Blaxploitation features from the decade, is a standout as a weary, sympathetic detective numbed by the machinations of law enforcement. It’s a greatly overlooked title of the era, featuring a variety of recognizable names in early roles as street hoods, and based on a novel by James Mills (The Panic in Needle Park, 1971), adapted for the screen by Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961) and Ernest Tidyman (Shaft; The French Connection, both 1971). Though its narrative is, at times, a bit rough around the edges, this deliberately paced thriller features rich characterizations and excellent chase sequences.

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

Exclusive: La-based indie Enderby Entertainment has set a new production fund to finance two to four projects annually from various domestic and international partners with budgets of up to $15M. The first to be greenlit is Texas-set thriller The Storm. Nelson McCormick (The Stepfather, Prom Night) is directing from a script by Josh Campbell. Enderby partner Rick Dugdale will produce with Peter Toumasis; Enderby’s Daniel Petrie Jr (Beverly Hills Cop) is executive producing. Slated to shoot later this year, the film takes place in the midst of Texas storm season as a cold-blooded criminal seeks revenge on the small town sheriff who sent him to prison a decade earlier. With the sheriff mortally wounded, only an inexperienced deputy is left to protect the locals who are caught in the crossfire after a tornado rips through the town, cutting it off from the outside world.

“We are excited to start financing new projects at Enderby,...

Daniel Petrie Jr..'s film "Dawn Patrol" tells the story of a surfer-turned-Marine (Scott Eastwood) held at gun point tells his tragic story of ‘revenge gone wrong’ to stall his execution.The film will premiere on October 25th at the Austin Film Festival.

With the screenplay originating out of Austin Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition,”Dawn Patrol” was acquired by Daniel Petrie Jr. and Rick Dugdale at Enderby Entertainment. The story will make its way back to Texas this October for its World Premiere

Julie Carmen describes her character in “Dawn Patrol” as,“Every woman who loses a child to violence.”She calls the film,“A West Side Story set among the turf and surf wars of 'locals only' beaches.”Scott Eastwood and Julie Carmen tell their stories from parallel perspectives.Julie says,“it feels like ‘Rashomon’-the way we co-narrate the twists and turns of this complex, contemporary tragedy of racism,revenge and reconciliation.” To read more about the actress visit Here

Who is attending the premiere:(Director) Daniel Petrie Jr.,(Writers) Brian Pittman, Rachel Long,(Producer)Rick Dugdale,(Cast) Scott Eastwood, Rita Wilson, Julie Carmen, Jeff Fahey, Chris Brochu, Kim Matula, Dendrie Taylor, Matt Meola.

Horror legend Robert Englund talks about his new film The Last Showing, what was wrong with the Nightmare On Elm St remake, and more...

Sitting with Robert Englund deep in the bowels of a gilded London hotel, it becomes obvious just what a great storyteller he is. As he reminisces about his early acting career in such films as Five Easy Pieces or Hustle, or goes even further back to his childhood brushes with the horror genre, he talks in a soothing, sonorous voice that is a million miles away from his signature role of Freddy Krueger.

Then again, Englund doesn't look or sound like the character in his latest movie, either. In The Last Showing, a psychological horror thriller written and directed by the UK's Phil Hawkins, Englund plays Stuart, a once proud projectionist who, thanks to the advent of digital cinema, finds himself busted down to the lowly...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

The poster for Voyage of the Damned makes a bold claim, and maybe those who saw Stuart Rosenberg’s star-studded blockbuster in 1976 have remembered it ever since. Until a couple of weeks ago, however, when I saw it in a list of past Oscar nominees, I had never heard of it, and I don’t think it would be unfair to say that it is a film that has not stood the test of time.

Voyage of the Damned, which chronicles the tragic failed escape of 937 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, was nominated for three Oscars (for Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, and for Lee Grant for Best Supporting Actress, the lone acting nominee among a boatload of international heavyweights).

Oscar nominations, especially for acting, tend to confer a certain amount of immortality on their recipients (you are forever “Academy Award nominee Lee Grant”) and there are many films and...

Criterion has released their annual New Year teaser image hinting at titles we can expect from the boutique distributor over the course of the new year and the most easily recognizable titles include David Cronenberg's Scanners, an upgraded version of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Howard Hawks' Red River and a box set celebrating Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot, which would seem to suggest Blu-ray editions of Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle. I'd say we may be able to expect Daniel Petrie's A Raisin in the Sun and I can't tell if the deer in the bushes suggest The Deer Hunter or not. The beatles in the grass could suggest Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night and the girl with the long black hair at the picnic could mean Hideo Nakata's Ringu. The red sun seems almost obviously Terence Young's Red Sun...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

Our daily countdown continues, with part nine out of 30 in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 220-211.

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220) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Giuseppe Tornatore France/ Italy

 

219) Blue Angel (1930) Josef Von Sternberg Germany

 

218) A Raisin In The Sun (1961) Daniel Petrie USA

 

217) Dances With Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner USA

 

216) The 10 Commandments (1956) Cecil B. DeMille USA

 

215) Rebecca (1940) Alfred Hitchcock USA

 

214) The Miracle Of Morgan Creek (1944) Preston Sturges USA

 

213) Easy Rider (1969) Dennis Hopper USA

 

212) Ran (1985) Akira Kurasawa Japan

 

211) Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) Sergio Leone USA

Numbers 210-200 coming next.

film cultureClassicslist300...

The boss of internet group Allure Media has insisted that the organisation will continue to operate independently, despite the acquisition of its parent group by Fairfax Media.

The purchase of Netus signals a significant shift in the local ownership of sites within the technology space. Allure runs the local versions of Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku along with consumer sites Popsugar, Fabsugar, Bellasugar and Shopstyle.

Allure, which launched six years ago, claims a monthly audience of 2 million Australians.

Parent company Netus was set up by Daniel Petrie and initially financially backed by News Limited. In December, Fairfax Media bought the company for an undisclosed sum believed to be in the tens of millions.

Allure managing director Chris Janz told Mumbrella that the company will operate as usual. He said:

“News Ltd never had a role in the day to day running of the business and neither will Fairfax.

“Our business model...

Los Angeles – The Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) has named two-time Wgaw President Daniel Petrie, Jr. as its 2013 Morgan Cox Award honoree in recognition of his longtime service to the Guild. The award will be presented at the Wgaw’s 2013 Writers Guild Awards West Coast ceremony on Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jw Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live. “Dan Petrie, Jr. is a remarkable man, distinguished for his creative accomplishments as an Oscar®-nominated screenwriter, as a producer and as a director, and no less distinguished for his long and passionate commitment to the well-being of all writers. Dan has served this Guild for 25 years, twice as President. He has guided us through difficult times. A champion of our fervent and often raucous democracy, with a quiet manner and a firm hand, Dan made our many voices our strength. In the process, he earned the respect of all who served with him.