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Treasure Island is being remade at Disney. Robert Louis Stevenson's beloved 1883 novel will be reimagined by an unexpected duo: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, the filmmakers behind The Peanut Butter Falcon and the upcoming Los Frikis.

Nilson and Schwartz unveiled the Treasure Island reboot news during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote Los Frikis, the duo's based on true events drama about the audacity and resilience of kindred souls facing the challenges of Special Period Cuba in the 1990s. "We’re working on Treasure Island for Disney. It’s an Australian surfer version of Treasure Island, and if they [Disney] ever make it, it would be so fun," said Schwartz. "It has the vibes that we do, and there’s found family, brotherhood, drama and outsider energy." Added Nilson, "It has the patina of the 1970s surf world. It's all there."

Related 'This Is What You Deserve': Keira...

Can a war movie be reassuring in a time of crisis? Each of the films in this excellent collection stress people working together: to repel invaders, escape from or attack the enemy, and just to survive in sticky situations. All are inspirational in that they see cooperation, organization and leadership doing good work. See: the ‘other’ great escape picture, the original account of Dunkirk, and the aerial bombing movie that inspired the final battle in Star Wars. Plus a tense ‘what if?’ invasion tale, and a desert trek suspense ordeal that’s one of the best war films ever. The most relevant dialogue in the set? Seeing the total screw-up at Dunkirk, Bernard Lee determines that England will have to re-organize with new people in key leadership positions, people who know what they’re doing. I’m all for that Here and Now, fella.

Their Finest Hour 5 British WWII Classics

Went The Day Well,...

Though long embraced by parents as family-friendly safe zones, Disney’s live action films were just as often called out for their squeaky clean posturing and regressive world views.

Fair enough – but as Noah Cross growled, “Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough” – and a good number of those mild-mannered entertainments, while not exactly ready for the arthouse, are at least worthy of a second look.

Disney Movie Club has released some of those Baby Boomer perennials in sterling Blu ray transfers – unfortunately available to club members only. Here’s part one in a rundown of the more tantalizing items.

Treasure Island, Davy Crockett,

Old Yeller, Pollyanna

Blu ray

Disney Movie Club

1950, ‘55, ‘56, ‘57, ‘60 / 1. 33:1, 1.85:1 / 96, 93, 81, 83, 134 Min.

Starring Robert Newton, Dorothy McGuire, Hayley Mills, Fess Parker

Cinematography by Freddie Young, Charles P. Boyle, Russell Harlan

Directed by Byron Haskin, Robert Stevenson, David Swift

Treasure Island – 1950

Thanks...

Stars: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney, Patrick Barr, Ernest Clark, Derek Farr, Charles Carson, Stanley Van Beers, Colin Tapley, Raymond Huntley, Hugh Manning | Written by R.C. Sherriff | Directed by Michael Anderson

Many of the classic World War 2 movies are based on real-life battles and events that led to the victory by the allied forces. The Dam Busters is one of the most famous of these, and now with a collector’s edition release to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the raid itself, we can look back and see how the film still holds up.

Focusing on Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave) and the men who flew the raid, The Dam Busters provides a dramatized version of just what it took to destroy the Ruhr Dams. A raid that although it seemed impossible, was managed through the creation of the bouncing bomb.

When looking at the style of Michael Anderson’s 1955 classic,...

"The dramatic true-life story of the men who broke the Nazis' back!" Studiocanal in the UK has debuted a short new trailer for a special re-release screening of The Dam Busters, the 1955 WWII film about British bombers taking out German dams. This action film is regarded as one of the best WWII films, becoming the most popular film in British cinemas in 1955 when it was released. The Dam Busters has been in the news recently, as Peter Jackson has been trying to remake it for a long time. Nothing has come together yet and it's still in development. Studiocanal is hosting a special 4K restoration screening for one night only in May in the UK, with a gala at the Royal Albert Hall that will be broadcast to other cinemas around the UK. The Dam Busters stars Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney, Patrick Barr, Ernest Clark,...

Based on a short story by Graham Greene, this 1942 “what-if?” war film from the venerable Ealing Studios tells the story of a small British village overrun by invading German soldiers whose inhabitants strike back and violently murder their oppressors.The cast is equally venerable including Leslie Banks, Mervyn Johns and Basil Sydney. The director was Alberto Cavalcanti, who headlined that quintessential horror film omnibus, Dead of Night. Barely released in the Us due to its strong content, it is fairly bracing to watch even today. The original trailer is Mia so we’re using the home video release trailer.

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

Ray Harryhausen eases up for his second color Dynamation feature, restricting the stop-motion and instead utilizing traveling mattes to make a more juvenile adventure movie for smaller kiddies. The big draw is the beautiful music score by fantasy favorite Bernard Herrmann.

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1960 / Color / 1:66 & 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring Kerwin Matthews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Sherry Alberoni, Lee Patterson, Gregoire Aslan, Basil Sydney, Peter Bull, Charles Lloyd Pack, Martin Benson, Alec Mango, Doris Lloyd, Joan Hickson, Noel Purcell.

Cinematography Wilkie Cooper

Original Music Bernard Herrmann

Creator of Special Visual Effects Ray Harryhausen

Written by Arthur Ross, Jack Sher based on the book by Jonathan Swift

Produced by Charles H. Schneer

Directed by Jack Sher

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In The 3 Worlds of Gulliver Ray Harryhausen, Charles H. Schneer and Dynamation go tame — unlike...

William Cameron Menzies. William Cameron Menzies movies on TCM: Murderous Joan Fontaine, deadly Nazi Communists Best known as an art director/production designer, William Cameron Menzies was a jack-of-all-trades. It seems like the only things Menzies didn't do was act and tap dance in front of the camera. He designed and/or wrote, directed, produced, etc., dozens of films – titles ranged from The Thief of Bagdad to Invaders from Mars – from the late 1910s all the way to the mid-1950s. Among Menzies' most notable efforts as an art director/production designer are: Ernst Lubitsch's first Hollywood movie, the Mary Pickford star vehicle Rosita (1923). Herbert Brenon's British-set father-son drama Sorrell and Son (1927). David O. Selznick's mammoth production of Gone with the Wind, which earned Menzies an Honorary Oscar. The Sam Wood movies Our Town (1940), Kings Row (1942), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). H.C. Potter's Mr. Lucky...

'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...

Bobby Driscoll played young Jim Hawkins, a cabin boy who finds himself up against Long John Silver (Robert Newton) in the hunt for a cache of treasure. With the help of Squire Trelawney (Walter Fitzgerald), Dr Livesey (Dennis O'Dea) and Captain Smollett (Basil Sydney) plucky Jim sets sail on the creaky tub Hispaniola. The movie marked Disney's first completely live-action film and the first screen version of Treasure Island made in colour.

Joan Fontaine movies: ‘This Above All,’ ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ (photo: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ publicity image) (See previous post: “Joan Fontaine Today.”) Also tonight on Turner Classic Movies, Joan Fontaine can be seen in today’s lone TCM premiere, the flag-waving 20th Century Fox release The Above All (1942), with Fontaine as an aristocratic (but socially conscious) English Rose named Prudence Cathaway (Fontaine was born to British parents in Japan) and Fox’s top male star, Tyrone Power, as her Awol romantic interest. This Above All was directed by Anatole Litvak, who would guide Olivia de Havilland in the major box-office hit The Snake Pit (1948), which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. In Max Ophüls’ darkly romantic Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Fontaine delivers not only what is probably the greatest performance of her career, but also one of the greatest movie performances ever. Letter from an Unknown Woman...

While New Yorkers have plenty of opportunity to see classic films on the big screen, you'll be hard pressed to find a lineup as front to back awesome as the Film Society Of Lincoln Center's "15 For 15: Celebrating Rialto Pictures."

The series honors the reknowned arthouse distribution shingle founded in 1997 that has brought some of the best known (and previously unknown) classics of cinema to American audiences. And the selection here by programmers Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern represents the breadth and scope of the films Rialto has put their stamp on, ranging from the French New Wave ("Breathless") to film noir ("Rififi") to comedy ("Billy Liar") and more. There is something here for everybody and with the series kicking off tonight, we've got a special prize for some lucky readers.

Courtesy of Film Society Of Lincoln Center, we've got a copy of the excellent Rialto DVD...

Went the Day Well? (1942)

Director: Alberto Cavalcanti

Based on Graham Greene’s short story The Lieutenant Died Last

Screenplay by John Dighton

UK , 1942

How many films and TV shows have left you quaking at the thought of your quiet home town being overrun by flesh-eating zombies or sex-crazed vampires? When Ealing Studios released Went the Day Well? in 1942, anxieties were focused on equally fiendish invaders from across the English Channel. You never know, that polite British officer sipping tea in your drawing room, might turn out to be part of the advance party from the Third Reich.

Based on a short story by Graham Greene, Alberto Cavalcanti’s film is set in the idyllic English village of Bramley End (in reality, Turville in Buckinghamshire). A framing device introduces us first to the church warder (played by Mervyn Johns), who sets the scene for the extraordinary events of Whitsun weekend 1942. The...

Actor whose 1940s heyday featured two films as co-star to James Mason

The 1940s was a ripe period for women in British films, when stars such as Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, Valerie Hobson and Jean Simmons had a chance to shine. Although Joyce Howard, who has died aged 88, was never in their league, she had her moments of glory in a relatively short career which lasted from 1941 to 1950. Howard's high spots were the two films in which she co-starred with the up-and-coming matinee idol James Mason: The Night Has Eyes (1942) and They Met in the Dark (1943).

Howard was the ideal foil for the saturnine Mason. In the former film, she is the vulnerable, repressed heroine whose passions are aroused by Mason's brooding, secretive composer, the kind of relationship so beloved of wartime British melodramas. The film, directed by Leslie Arliss, creates a pervasive sense of danger, with the characters...