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When Kevin Smith shot "Clerks" for $27,575, he'd received a small amount of film school training but was a babe in the woods when it came to the crucial aspect of directing actors. It shows in the movie, which is so stiffly performed that I've never been able to connect to it. The screenplay is undeniably hilarious and wise in the ways of the workaday convenience store world, but Smith's actors seem so oddly strangled. It's not the kind of acting you get in a poorly rehearsed community theater production where you can see the actors struggling to remember their lines; it's more like you're watching people who've been unnaturally directed. Their performances are really those of their director, not their own.

The off performances in "Clerks" and "Mallrats" began to make sense years later when I heard that Smith had a penchant for committing the cardinal sin of directing. Be it theater,...

Quick LinksBefore 'Game of Thrones' There Was 'Dragonslayer'Fans Noticed Similarities Between 'Dragonslayer' and 'Game of Thrones'Should You Watch 'Dragonslayer'?

George R.R. Martin's Game of Throneshas become a cultural phenomenon and the most beloved fantasy series of the modern era. The first book, having sold over 45 million copies in the US alone, led to the HBO series, which would draw an average of 9.3 million viewers per episode for its inaugural season. Yet, the foundational success of Game of Thrones can be owed to its forbearers, from the iconic work of J.R.R. Tolkien to the grimdark world of Conan as created by Robert E. Howard. On the screen, early works like 1963's Jason and the Argonauts set the precedent for decades of films celebrating the fantasy genre.

Yet, the underrated gem Dragonslayer has flown mostly under the radar, an initial failure at the box office that saw some later resurgence in appreciation.

David Korda, a prominent member of the Korda family movie dynasty who served as a producer and important film financier in a show business career that spanned more than 60 years, has died. He was 87.

Korda, chairman of the British company Film Finances Ltd., died Sept. 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London, author, editor and film historian Charles Drazin told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been in poor health after a battle with cancer.

Korda’s parents were Zoltan Korda, director of the Ralph Richardson-starring epic The Four Feathers (1939), and actress Joan Gardner (Dark Journey, The Scarlet Pimpernel).

One of his uncles was Alexander Korda, the founder of London Films, the owner of British Lion Films, a producer of such classics as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and The Third Man (1949) and the first filmmaker to receive a knighthood. Another uncle, Vincent Korda, was a painter and Oscar-winning art director.

The post-Star Wars effects boom in the 1980s didn’t just bring sci-fi back to prominence, but fantasy and horror as well. Virtually every filmmaker of the era was desperate to show audiences something they’d never seen before with the newfound era of more sophisticated physical effects. The first non-Lucasfilm production to utilize Ilm, “Dragonslayer” was intended to be a prominent, big-budget example, but tanked at the box office, largely regulated to late-night cable showings.

Though released on DVD by Paramount with little fanfare back in the market’s early days, the film has cultivated a following since its 1981 release, finally earning a bit of recognition with the recent Blu-Ray and 4K reissues and accolades from the likes of George Rr Martin and Guillermo del Toro, the latter of whom contributes a commentary track to the new release alongside the film’s director, his longtime collaborator Matthew Robbins.

A band of rabbits must leave their warren to find safety in a film that, even in a digital age, still has the bloody force to scare young minds

‘The field … it’s covered in blood!” This is the young visionary rabbit Fiver, voiced by Richard Briers, in the British animation from 1978 by Martin Rosen, based on Richard Adams’s classic children’s book. The rabbits’ warren, quite as important as Tolkien’s shire, is about to be destroyed by a property development, announced by the humans’ heartless wooden sign, which of course none of the rabbits can read, but twitchy, squirming Fiver can sense the disaster it represents.

So his brother Hazel (voiced by John Hurt) leads Fiver and a breakaway gang on a quest for safety to far-off Watership Down, a rumoured place of sanctuary foreseen by Fiver; they include hot-headed Bigwig (Michael Graham Cox) and later the...

Courtesy of StudioCanal

by James Cameron-wilson

An Inspector Calls, freshly minted with a pristine print of pin-sharp clarity, was originally written as a play by J.B. Priestley and remains a damning indictment of England’s hypocritical upper middle-classes. Set in 1912 in the north Midlands, the play premiered in 1945 in Moscow of all places, before coming to London a year later and to Broadway a year after that. I can’t tell you who was in the Russian version, but in the West End the titular character was taken by Sir Ralph Richardson, with Margaret Leighton, Harry Andrews and, in the Bryan Forbes part, none other than Alec Guinness. Imagine seeing that bunch on the London stage! I say the Bryan Forbes part, as it was he who had one of his best roles as Eric Birling in the 1954 film, running the gamut from embarrassing drunk to tipsy flirt to indignant...

Alvin Rakoff, the Canadian-born filmmaker who directed Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Round My Father, has died. He was 97.

His death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his longtime publicist, Nick Pourgourides. He passed away on Oct. 12 surrounded by family at home in Chiswick, a neighborhood in London.

Rakoff as a writer, director and producer of over 100 TV, film and stage productions, as well as novels, directed Olivier and co-stars Alan Bates and Jane Asher in the 1982 TV drama A Voyage Round My Father, a film written by John Mortimer and which earned the director his second Emmy Award.

Alvin and Olivier also worked together on Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson and A Talent for Murder, both shot in 1983. The two-time Emmy Award winner also gave a young Sean Connery his first leading role in the 1957 film Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Alan Rickman as a young actor was...

Norman Spencer, the British producer, production manager and screenwriter who worked alongside famed director David Lean on films including Blithe Spirit, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 110.

Spencer died Aug. 16 in Wimbledon three days after his birthday, the European Supercentenarian Organisation announced.

Apart from Lean, Spencer produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point (1971), the car chase movie that starred Barry Newman; and Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987), starring Denzel Washington.

Spencer was Lean’s unit manager on the ghost comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), based on the Noël Coward play, and served as his production manager on his adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).

He produced Lean’s The Passionate Friends (1949) and the Hepburn-starring, Venice-set Summertime (1955); worked on a rewrite of the script for...

Warning: contains spoilers for Time Bandits (1981) & (2024) episodes one & two.

“Strong language, self-harm references & violence. This programme isn’t suitable for younger viewers,” is the warning from Channel4.com to anybody currently wishing to stream Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy adventure film Time Bandits in the UK. Despite the film’s “G” (all ages admitted) rating, the streamer asks viewers to confirm that they’re over the age of 16 before it will play.

An overreaction, or fair dos, in light of the film’s meaty battle scenes and famously bleak ending?

The Original Time Bandits Ending

In the film’s final scenes, 11-year-old Kevin (Craig Warnock) awakens in his own bed following a series of perilous adventures through history with a band of time-travelling wannabe thieves played by actors with dwarfism.

After romping through Napoleon’s battlefields, having a hand in the killing of the Minotaur, experiencing the sinking of the Titanic,...

To a generation of Brits, Iain Morris may forever be known as half of the duo that created “The Inbetweeners,” the wildly rude sitcom about a group of mostly unpopular teenage boys that ran from 2008-2010 and was followed by two hugely successful films.

But the multi-talented creative has been prolifically busy since then, reuniting some of the “The Inbetweeners” lead cast for BBC comedy series “White Gold,” creating another BBC comedy “First Team,” working on FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows,” helping write Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy “Next Goal Wins” and recently being tapped to direct Netflix rom-com feature “My Oxford Year.”

For the last few years, he’s also been hard at work on “Time Bandits,” Apple TV+’s small-screen reimagining of Terry Gilliam’s cult 1981 fantasy comedy about a young boy taken on an adventure through time with a band of thieves (mostly played...

Sidney Lumet once wrote: “While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and set the mental juices flowing. In a film career spanning 50 years, Lumet explored conscience in such classics 1957’s “12 Angry Men,” 1973’s “Serpico,” 1976’s “Network” and 1982’ s “The Verdict.”

Lumet’s New York Times 2011 obit stated: “Social issues set his mental juices flowing and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal, but also celebrated individual acts of courage.” And one should also add redemption to that list. He was always in a New York state of mind. Of the 38 films he made, 29 were shot in New York. Lumet earned four Oscar nominations for best director- “12 Angry Men,” which marked his feature debut,...

Quick Links What Is Dragonslayer About? Why Dragonslayer Needs A Reboot The Timing Is Perfect For Another Dragonslayer Movie Despite its initial failure at the box office, Dragonslayer remains a cult classic with great potential for a reboot. The success of modern fantasy franchises like Lord of the Rings makes now the perfect time for a Dragonslayer remake. Audiences are ready for a fresh take on Dragonslayer with improved CGI and updated themes that fit modern sensibilities.

In an age of constant sequels, reboots, and reimaginings, Disney's cult classic '80s film, Dragonslayer, should be the next movie to get a second iteration. The Matthew Robbins-directed dark fantasy film is largely unknown to modern audiences, who have been inundated with reboot upon reboots of classic films that will always be better than any other attempts to capture their magic. Unlike other early Disney films, Dragonslayer fades into obscurity after its theatrical run,...

The 1980s was a golden age for fantasy movies, but one that often gets overlooked is Time Bandits. Directed by Terry Gilliam and written by him and fellow member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Michael Palin, it follows a young boy named Kevin (Craig Warnock) who gets whisked into a fantastical adventure across time and space and meets six dwarves. They used to work for the Supreme Being (Tony Jay and Ralph Richardson) as space-time repairmen until they realized they could use their map of rifts to steal history's riches. Unfortunately, their get-rich-quick scheme is being monitored by Evil (David Warner), the physical embodiment of evil in the universe, who wishes to use the map to escape from his prison.

Back in 2022, we got word that Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi and frequent collaborator Jemaine Clement were in the process of developing a reimagining of Terry Gilliam's '80s sci-fi classic Time Bandits for Apple TV+ with Friends alum Lisa Kudrow set to star.

Now, we finally have a first look at the series thanks to EW's summer TV preview.

Kudrow will lead a cast that also includes Kal-El Tuck (Unseeing Evil), Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up), Tadhg Murphy (Conversations With Friends), Roger Jean Nsengiyumva (You Don’t Know Me), Rune Temte (Eddie the Eagle), Kiera Thompson (Martyrs Lane) and Rachel House (Heartbreak High).

Though specific plot details are still under wraps, the series is described as "a comedic journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an eleven-year-old history nerd."

Kudrow is playing the team's leader Penelope; with Tuck as Kevin...

(Photo Credit – Instagram)

Apple TV+ has set the premiere date for its new comedy-adventure series Time Bandits, an adaptation of the 1981 film of the same name. Headlined by Friends star Lisa Kudrow, the series is described as an ‘unpredictable journey through time and space’ that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.

The show follows an 11-year-old history geek, Kevin, who tags along with a group of thieves on a mission to save his parents and the world. Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris, and Taika Waititi are the creators behind the series.

Release Date of Apple TV+’s Time Bandits Announced

On Monday, Apple TV+ announced that Time Bandits will be released on the streaming platform for the global audience on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The series is going to comprise 10 episodes. Kudrow stars in the show as Penelope, the leader of the group of marauders. As per the official synopsis, the...

Martin McCallum, a British theatrical producer whose work on more than 500 Broadway and West End shows saw his participation in some of the most successful stage productions in modern theater history, died peacefully, surrounded by family, on January 14 in Sydney, Australia. He was 73.

His death was announced by his family. A cause was not disclosed.

The President of the Society of London Theatre from 1999 to 2002 and a member of the Broadway League since 1988, McCallum made an indelible mark on Broadway with massive hits, critical favorites and even two high-profile flops.

His impact on the London theater scene was even greater. Born in Blackpool on April 6, 1950, McCallum began his stage career as an assistant stage manager at the Castle Theatre Farnham,...

Glynis Johns, the upbeat leading lady with the British charm who starred as the spirited feminist mother Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins, has died. She was 100.

Johns lived in West Hollywood and died Thursday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the area, her manager, Mitch Clem, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A multitalented actress, dancer, pianist and singer, Johns earned a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for playing the widowed saloon and hotel owner Mrs. Firth in Fred Zinnemann’s Australia-set The Sundowners (1960).

Plus, she memorably sang “Send in the Clowns,” which Stephen Sondheim wrote just for her, in her Tony Award-winning performance as Desiree Armfeldt in the original 1973 production of A Little Night Music.

The husky voiced Johns was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying a daffy older socialite who is stirred by the young stud she meets on the beach in a then-controversial film about sex,...

Since the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930, 73 people have received acting Oscar nominations for their debut film performances, yielding a total of 15 breakout wins. Conversely, the list of actors who have earned recognition for their final movie appearances is much smaller, featuring only 18 general and two successful examples. Those who belong to this club gained entry in a variety of ways, with some having voluntarily quit acting altogether, others having specifically stepped away from film performing, and a few having sadly not lived long enough to bask in the glory of their farewell nominations.

Since film acting retirement can never be absolutely permanent while a performer is still alive, only deceased individuals can correctly be counted as official members of this group. Although most currently living retired actors did not pick up Oscar nominations for their latest films anyway, the academy did smile upon one – Daniel Day-Lewis – on his declared way out.

After a dearth of new releases worth discussing in the few months since Barbenheimer, it’s been refreshing to see the response to Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon as it enters a wide release. While we’ll have our own extensive discussion coming soon on The Film Stage Show, the director himself has now provided some welcome homework as he’s highlighted six key films to watch that influenced the making of his David Grann adaptation.

Courtesy of TCM and Letterboxd, the director has joined the latter platform and provided nearly 60 companion films that he studied in preparation for making all of his features. While that entire list is well worth checking out, particularly the accompanying notes the director has provided, we’re keying in on the influences for Killers of the Flower Moon. Find the list below, including where to watch each film, as well as Scorsese’s full commentary.

Under the non de plume John Le Carre, David Cornwall penned a series of best-selling spy novels including “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” ‘The Little Drummer Girl’’ and “The Russia House,” that are cerebral, unadorned, gritty. The antitheist of Ian Fleming’s suave James Bond. In fact, his most popular character George Smiley just blended into the crowd: “Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession,” Cornwall described him in “A Murder of Quality.” “The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventure of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, had lived and worked for years among his country’s enemies learns only one prayer; that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim.”

Before his death at the age of 89 in in December, 2020, Cornwall sat down for a rare interview with award-winning documentarian Errol Morris...

Michael Gambon, a protégé of Laurence Olivier and giant of the British stage who portrayed Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, apparently with little effort, in the final six Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 82.

“The Great Gambon,” as Ralph Richardson once called him, died “peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia,” according to a family statement provided Thursday by a publicist.

Among the first group of actors recruited by Olivier for the National Theatre Company in the early 1960s, Gambon, a Dublin native, was nominated 13 times for an Olivier Award, winning in 1986 and ’90 for Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Man of the Moment, respectively, and in 1988 for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

He received another one for his turn as a recently widowed businessman trying to reunite with his former mistress in Skylight,...

To mark the release of Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics’ 4k restorations of three comedies directed by Muriel Box available in the UK from 14 August, we have Blu-Ray box sets to give away to 2 lucky winners.

Studiocanal are pleased to announce their Vintage Classics release of brand new 4k restorations of three comedies directed by Muriel Box, one of Britain’s earliest trailblazing female directors who remains to date the most prolific UK female director in history. Muriel Box’s The Passionate Stranger, The Truth About Women and Rattle Of A Simple Man will be available in the UK on DVD and, for the first time in the UK, on Blu-ray and Digital from 14 August.

The Passionate Stranger (1957) centres around happily married house-wife Judith Wynter (Margaret Leighton) who keeps the fact she is a best-selling author of steamy romance novels, a closely guarded secret. As her husband Roger (Ralph Richardson), recovers from a serious illness,...

The satire that would pervade Terry Gilliam’s subsequent Brazil is largely confined to the first few minutes of 1981’s Time Bandits. The film opens in a modern, English household where a boy, Kevin (Craig Warnock), pores over a book on ancient Greek history while his parents (David Daker and Sheila Fearn) both watch and read advertisements, discussing the relative merits of their various gadgets and appliances compared to those of their neighbors. The living room is lit with harsh artificial light and decorated like a showroom, a place designed as a boast, not to be lived in. Only Kevin’s room, naturally lit via a window and adorned with self-taken photographs and childlike drawings, betrays any humanity.

Soon, the cozy retreat of Kevin’s room is invaded, though not by his parents, but by a medieval knight on horseback, and then a sextet of time-traveling dwarves who recruit the...

Paul Geoffrey, an English actor known for his roles in “Excalibur” and “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,” has died. He was 68.

Geoffrey died on June 3 in Santa Fe, N.M. from a battle with cancer, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

“A thespian to the core, Paul continued to act for the remainder of his life. He loved French wine and food, had a stunning grasp of history, was a life-long Arsenal fan, and excelled at being the sweetest guy in the world,” the Santa Fe New Mexican said of Geoffrey.

Nigel Terry (left) as King Arthur, Paul Geoffrey (right) as Perceval, in “Excalibur.”

Throughout his acting career, Geoffrey starred as Perceval in the 1981 film “Excalibur,” a medieval fantasy film that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The film won best artistic contribution at Cannes in 1981 and received an Oscar nomination for best cinematography.

Dragonslayer follows Galen Bradwarden, a young wizarding apprentice who must help a village that is being terrorized by a dragon. The king has been sacrificing young, virgin women to appease the dragon. Galen will find an unexpected wealth of courage and use the magical amulet that grants him powers to defeat the dragon.

Dragonslayer was released in theaters in 1981. Dragonslayer is directed by Matthew Robbins with a script penned by Robbins and Hal Barwood. Dragonslayer stars Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre, and Albert Salmi.

Related: Guillermo del Toro Has Already Found His Next Stop Motion Project

Screen Rant spoke with director Matthew Robbins about Dragonslayer being remastered and released on 4K Ultra HD. Robbins shares some of his favorite memories from making the movie and what it was like to create the new commentary for Dragonslayer with Guillermo del Toro. He also reveals some of the influences on the movie,...

Besides being one of the most imaginative movies of the 1980s, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits also leaves a lot of questions with its surprising ending. Released in 1981 to mostly positive reviews, the film was praised for its cleverness, and it launched what would be known as Gilliam's "Trilogy of Imagination" throughout the 1980s. It deftly blends history with fantasy and even includes broad philosophical commentary filtered through the filmmaker's signature sense of humor. Even if it was overshadowed by other fantasy epics of the decade, Time Bandits went on to become a cult classic in its own right.

Time Bandits is a pleasant mixture of children's film, fantasy, and sci-fi, and yet it has its own style and tone that is unmatched by any other work, excluding Gilliam's own. The self-contained fantasy film isn't based on any other material, and that reliance on imagination is essentially the heart of its story.

Harry Lime in "The Third Man" is one of cinema's greatest villains and certainly not the kind of person you'd want to spend much time with in real life. He's a sociopathic black marketeer whose cynical line in diluted penicillin causes untold suffering and death to his many child victims. Yet, played with typical charm and devilment by Orson Welles, he is simply irresistible. Even on repeat viewing with full knowledge of his heinous activities, it's impossible not to be captivated by him from the moment he first appears in a doorway with an incorrigible smirk spread across that big moon of a face.

Lime is onscreen for less than 10 minutes but he may be Welles' greatest performance as an actor, tapping into the elusive enigma of the multi-faceted artist and self-proclaimed charlatan. After leaving the U.S. for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1947, he took the role for money,...

Hugh Hudson, a British filmmaker who debuted as a feature director with the Oscar-winning Olympics drama “Chariots of Fire” and later made such well-regarded movies as “My Life So Far” and the Oscar-nominated “Greystoke,” has died at age 86.

Hudson’s family issued a brief statement announcing that he died Friday at a hospital in London “after a short illness.”

Read More: Cody Longo, ‘Days Of Our Lives’ And ‘Hollywood Heights’ Actor, Dead At 34

A London native, Hudson started out as a documentary editor and producer and also worked in television advertising before finding work in feature films in the late 1970s as a second-unit director on Alan Parker’s “Midnight Express”. In 1981, producer David Puttnam asked Hudson to direct “Chariots of Fire”, which starred Ben Cross and Nigel Havers as British athletes of contrasting religions and backgrounds at the 1924 Olympics.

With its inspirational plot and sentimental theme music by the Greek composer Vangelis,...

The death far too young of Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, on January 12 at age 54 came as a shock. She had attended the Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 10 along with her mother Priscilla to cheer on Austin Butler, who won the Best Film Drama Actor trophy for his portrayal of Lisa Marie’s father and Priscilla’s onetime husband in Baz Luhrmann‘s musical biopic “Elvis.” At the Globes, Butler concluded his acceptance speech with a shout-out to the two women “for opening your hearts, your memories, your home to me.” Just two days later, Lisa Marie would be gone, the exact cause of death not yet determined.

Butler has been nominated for a SAG Award for Best Actor and is an overwhelming favorite to earn a bid at the Academy Awards when nominations are announced next Tuesday. At present, Butler is the third choice...

Los Angeles, Jan 16 (Ians) Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95.

A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.

Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.

Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by...

Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95. A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.

Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.

Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by Krishna Shah in his Indo-American movie,...

Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” has died. She was 95.

According to Italian news agency Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No cause of death has been cited. In September she had had surgery to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held last year in September, though she did not win.

After resisting Howard Hughes’ offer to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and popular favorite.

Her first American movie, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 film noir spoof “Beat the Devil,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The same year she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread,...

Edyth “Edie” Landau, producer of The David Susskind Show and Long Day’s Journey Into Night as well an executive at National Telefilm Associates, died in her home on December 24, 2022. She was 95.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Jo Mersa Marley Dies: Reggae Artist & Bob Marley's Grandson Was 31 Related Story Marcus Coloma Did Not Film Final 'General Hospital' Scenes "Due To Health Issues"

The producer was born on July 15, 1927, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. After graduating college she moved to New York City to pursue a career in entertainment where she became an executive at National Telefilm Associates, a company run by Ely Landau, who Edie ended up marrying.

Edie became Executive Vice President of the company, overseeing the station’s original programming including the anthology drama series The Play of the Week, The Mike Wallace Show, The David Susskind Sho, and Open End.

She and...

Edyth “Edie” Landau, a producer who oversaw original programming like “The David Susskind Show” and the anthology series “The Play of the Week” during her tenure as executive vice president of the National Telefilm Associates, died in her home Saturday. She was 95.

Other series under Edie’s purview as EVP included “The Mike Wallace Show,” “Open End,” “The Bishop Queen Show” and “One Night Stand.” She remained at the television production company until 1961.

Born on July 15, 1927 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. to a Jewish family, Edie moved to New York in 1948 to embark on a career path in entertainment. She first served as a production coordinator on radio shows like “Gangbusters” and “Mr. District Attorney” before moving into her executive position at National Telefilm Associates. At the time, the company was a start-up run by the late producer Ely Landau, who Edie ultimately married.

Edie continued to collaborate with her husband to produce original projects,...

Halloween is over, but we keep the horror movie recommendations coming your way all year long with our Best Horror Movie You Never Saw video series. Today’s new episode takes a look back at the 1972 film Tales from the Crypt (watch it Here), which was inspired by the same EC Comics series that also inspired the popular HBO series. You can find out all about it by checking out the video embedded above!

Directed by Freddie Francis from a screenplay written by Milton Subotsky, Tales from the Crypt has the following synopsis:

When people in a tourist group get lost within ancient catacombs, they meet the sinister Crypt Keeper, who tells them each their fate. The creepy figure’s macabre stories involve Joanne Clayton, a wife dabbling in murder, and Grymsdyke, a retired sanitation worker targeted by his suspicious neighbors. Among the other characters is adulterer Carl Maitland, who...

Click here to read the full article.

Ian Whittaker, the British actor turned Oscar-winning set decorator known for his work on such films as Alien, Howards End, Tommy and Anna and the King, died Oct. 16 of prostate cancer, The Guardian reported. He was 94.

Whittaker also served as set dresser on Charlie Chaplin’s A Countess From Hong Kong (1967), James Clavell’s To Sir, With Love (1967), Tony Richardson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and as art director on Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer (1969) and Derek Jarman’s The Tempest (1979).

He collaborated with director Ken Russell on nine features, from the 1971 releases The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend and The Devils to Tommy (1975), Lisztomania (1975) — both featuring The Who’s Roger Daltrey — and the Rudolf Nureyev-starring Valentino (1977).

Whittaker received his Oscar — shared with his production designer Luciana Arrighi, with whom he...

Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback) has been tapped to lead the ensemble cast of Time Bandits, Apple’s TV series adaptation of the beloved Terry Gilliam-directed movie, co-written, directed and executive produced by Taika Waititi (Our Flag Means Death), Joining Kudrow as series regulars are Kal-El Tuck (Unseeing Evil), Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up), Tadhg Murphy (Conversations With Friends), Roger Jean Nsengiyumva (You Don’t Know Me), Rune Temte (Eddie the Eagle), Kiera Thompson (Martyrs Lane) and Rachel House (Heartbreak High). The casting announcement also confirms the official series greenlight for the project, which had been in development at Apple since 2019.

Waititi directs the first two episodes of the 10-episode series, co-produced by Paramount Television Studios, Anonymous Content’s AC Studios and MRC Television. It’s described as a comedic journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an eleven-year-old history nerd.

Kudrow plays Penelope...

I for one will never tire of them: those assorted candy boxes with always one or two disagreeable sorts to spit out, but overall filled with enjoyable treats. And so it goes in the movies as well; call them horror portmanteaus, omnibuses, or lotsashortstogether, they offer outrageous highs littered with occasional lows that offer a sugar rush once the box is done. Tales from the Crypt (1972) is one of my favorite examples of a horrific sampler.

This Amicus production was given a release by Twentieth Century Fox in its native UK, and by Cinerama Releasing Corporation in the US, and did quite well on both sides of the pond. Cinerama got the jump in March, with the UK afforded spookier seasonal vibes that September. Critics were kind to this latest from the studio that gave us Torture Garden and The House That Dripped Blood, and spotlit Peter Cushing in perhaps his most poignant role.

This week on Fantasizing About Fantasy Films, we're taking a deep dive into one of the strangest films ever to emerge from Disney - Dragonslayer - a co-production with Paramount Pictures that ranks as one of the darkest sword and sorcery movie of the eighties. Peter MacNicol (Ghostbusters 2!) stars as a young wizarding apprentice set to kill a terrifying dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative. Directed by Matthew Robbins, the great Ralph Richardson co-stars with Caitlin Clarke, with cutting-edge…...

Actor David Morse joins Josh and Joe to talk about his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Slaughter Rule (2002)

Dancer In The Dark (2000)

A History Of Violence (2005)

The Indian Runner (1991)

Inside Moves (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Death Wish (1974) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

The Virtuoso (2021)

The Crossing Guard (1995)

Prototype (1983)

Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann (1991)

Seven Beauties (1975)

Swept Away (1974)

Mimic (1997)

Hannibal (2001)

Mean Streets (1973)

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

The Godfather Part II (1974) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

Being There (1979) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary

The Ghost of Peter Sellers (2018)

A Shot In The Dark (1964) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Papillon (1973)

Straight Time (1978) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Straw Dogs (1971) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Wait Until Dark (1967) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Catch 22 (1970) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Desperate Hours (1990)

The Bounty...

Chadwick Boseman was officially nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards this year for his role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Along with the announcement marking Boseman's first-ever Oscar nomination, this also makes the late actor the seventh performer to be posthumously nominated in either the Best Actor or Supporting Actor categories in Academy Award history.

In the past, Peter Finch posthumously won the Best Actor award for his role in the 1976 movie Network. The Dark Knight star Heath Ledger also posthumously won Best Supporting Actor for his memorable performance as the Joker. Finch had previously been nominated for Sunday Bloody Sunday while Ledger was up for Brokeback Mountain, but neither had took in the win on those occasions.

Hollywood legend James Dean was also nominated twice for Best Actor following his death in 1955, with one for East of Eden and another for Giant. Two-time Oscar winner Spencer Tracy...

Chadwick Boseman’s Best Actor Oscar nomination this morning for Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps the seventh time that an actor has received such a posthumous honor in either the Best Actor or Supporting Actor category from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Boseman’s turn as ambitious cornet player Levee, who raises tensions with the white record label management and spars with his fellow jazz band members in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps his first Oscar nomination. Boseman’s nom today was one of five received by the George C. Wolfe directed feature.

Boseman, who made a huge splash as T’Challa in Disney/Marvel’s three-time Oscar winning $1.34 billion grossing feature Black Panther in 2018, died at 43 on Aug. 28, 2020, after a long, quiet battle with colon cancer. His death left the industry shocked and in despair. Not only did the actor play notable Black...

Before Monday morning, the late actor Chadwick Boseman had somehow never been nominated for an Academy Award, despite his astonishing performances as Jackie Robinson in 2013’s “42” and as James Brown in 2014’s “Get on Up” — not to mention his iconic role as the superhero T’Challa in 2018’s “Black Panther.”

That was finally rectified with Boseman’s nomination for best actor as an ambitious jazz trumpeter in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” It also puts Boseman, who died from colon cancer in August at 43, in one of the rarest and most bittersweet Oscar categories: the posthumous acting nominee.

Deceased nominees are not all that uncommon at the Oscars; there have been 79 in total before this year. But prior to Boseman, only seven actors had ever earned Academy Award nominations after their deaths.

The first posthumous acting nominee, Jeanne Eagels, didn’t technically receive an official nomination — the second Academy Awards...

I’ve been a professional awards journalist for more than 30 years and I often keep falling for an old, sentimental assumption. When scanning a list of nominees to make predictions and a dead body suddenly pops up – especially the ghost of someone who was beloved and respected across Hollywood – I’m tempted to pick that contender, thinking: Oh, come on! How can voters fail to give their old pal one last hug?

But beware: that kind of thinking often comes back to haunt you later. At recent Emmys, you would’ve lost your shekels if you’d bet them on two tempting posthumous nominees: Fred Willard or Carrie Fisher. The Emmy is an industry peer-group award just like the Oscar and so it sometimes holds a lesson for film-award fans.

SEELatest Oscar Best Actor predictions by 30 Experts

Now we Oscar pundits must brutally ask ourselves a tough question: Is Chadwick Boseman...

20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020

The actor and writer, who wrote an episode of Doctor Who for Rigg, recalls the joy of seeing her flit effortlessly between serious drama and outrageous camp

Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembered by Lisa Beattie FrelinghuysenRead the Observer’s obituaries of 2020 in full

A mid-week matinee. The theatre echoes with the thin, tinny whistling of the audience’s hearing aids. In the shadowed wings, there’s discussion of a much-loved and respected actor. The younger cast members are full of admiration. “I mean, a lovely man, darling,” whispers Diana Rigg as she breezes past me to make her entrance. “But breath like a serpent.”

What first met you was the presence. Diana sailed into a room like a galleon, draped in a stylish shawl, the blond bob framing those famous cheekbones. We were performing together at the Old Vic in Samuel Adamson’s version of All About My Mother,...

Only eight actors in history have been nominated for Oscars posthumously. Only 12 actors have been nominated twice in the same year. Chadwick Boseman, sadly, could make history this Oscar season by winding up on both of those lists.

The actor, who died in August of this year after a battle with colon cancer that he hadn’t publicly disclosed, has been considered a solid Best Supporting Actor contender for months for his role in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” And with initial press screenings of George C. Wolfe’s Broadway adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” taking place this week, Boseman makes a formidable case for Best Actor attention as well.

The role he plays in “Ma Rainey,” a volatile trumpet player named Levee, led to a 1985 Tony Award nomination for Charles S. Dutton in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. That category is the Tonys...

As the Oscar season continues to unfold, a new question has been answered for the upcoming awards circuit. Netflix has confirmed to Variety that it will campaign the late Chadwick Boseman in the lead actor category for his role in the upcoming “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson, the film takes place in 1927 Chicago, where tensions rise between Ma Rainey, her ambitious trumpeter Levee, and the white management determined to control her music.

Academy Award winner Viola Davis (“Fences”) plays the “Mother of the Blues” and will also campaign for best actress. The rest of the cast, including Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts and Taylour Paige, will all campaign in the supporting categories. There has only been one film in Oscar history to manage more than two Black acting nominations from a film: 1985’s “The Color Purple.”

The 1984 original Broadway production,...

Daniel Walber's series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

Olivia de Havilland was in nine films that were nominated for the Oscar for Best Production Design. It’s not the record, but it’s quite something. I’ve covered three of them: Hold Back the Dawn, My Cousin Rachel and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. But none of those actually won the award, so I still have some work to do. I haven’t got time for Gone with the Wind, and The Adventures of Robin Hood can wait a few weeks until our 1938 celebration, so I dove into The Heiress.

I hope you’re ready to think deeply about embroidery.

Granted, I’m not entirely sure director William Wyler was thinking deeply about his protagonist’s favorite pastime. The emphasis on Catherine Sloper’s (de Havilland) stitching can feel like little more than shorthand for “spinster” status.

In 1964, Jack Warner published his autobiography, “My First Hundred Years in Hollywood,” and amusing as the title may have been (much of the book is equally sardonic), he fell far short of the century mark. Ironically, the actor who ought to have earned that title was Olivia de Havilland, having reached the age of 104 before her death this weekend — ironic not only because de Havilland scored a legal victory over Warner Bros. that changed how the studio system operated, but also because the character for which she is best remembered, as Melanie in “Gone With the Wind,” expires before the end credits.

“I am sure we have both forgotten what happened twenty years ago,” Warner wrote in his memoir, referring to the 1943 court battle that “established once and for all — and this was probably good for everyone concerned — that no studio could tie up a player longer than seven calendar years,...

Alice in Wonderland

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1933 / 1.33:1/ 76 min.

Starring Charlotte Henry, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper

Cinematography by Bert Glennon, Henry Sharp

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Written by Harvey Kurtzman with art by Jack Davis, Mad‘s 1954 parody of Alice in Wonderland stands as a succinct critique of Paramount Pictures’s 1933 adaptation. The film stars crowd pleasing performers like Cary Grant and W.C. Fields yet manages to be one of the most uniquely disturbing studio pictures ever made.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, the movie began production in 1932, the centennial of Lewis Carroll’s birth. Carroll’s classic was ripe for Paramount – the studio on Melrose was ground zero for absurdist humor in the early ’30s. McLeod had just wrapped the Marx Brothers’ sublime Horse Feathers while the Mankiewicz-scripted Million Dollar Legs was released the same year – both...