News

On Facebook, longtime "Star Trek" production designers Mike and Denise Okuda announced the passing of Jeri Taylor. She was 88.

Jeri Taylor was one of the key producers and writers throughout the 1990s "Star Trek" heyday, having joined the staff of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in its fourth season. Trekkies will tell you that "Next Generation," having already hit its stride, broke into a sprint in its fourth season, producing multiple capital-g great episodes at that time. Taylor's impeccable writing contributions to "Next Generation" were so widely recognized that she was promoted to the role of co-executive producer of the series in its sixth season, overseeing most of the production alongside head honchos Rick Berman and Michael Piller. In the show's seventh season, Taylor became the full-bore showrunner.

Taylor wrote multiple scripts for "Next Generation" and is credited for co-creating the Cardassians, a fascistic species that would go on to...

Alvin Rakoff, the veteran Canadian filmmaker best known for pics like the 1982 feature A Voyage Round My Father starring Laurence Olivier, died in Chiswick, London, October 12 surrounded by his family. He was 97.

Rakoff’s former personal agent confirmed the news with Deadline this morning.

Born on on February 6, 1927, in Toronto Rakoff was the third of seven children. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a psychology degree, Rakoff spent time as a news reporter. His first job as a writer was with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), which later sponsored Rakoff to visit the UK. Within days of arriving, he sold his first fiction script to the BBC. He was soon invited to join the BBC’s director’s training course and, the following year at the age of twenty-six, Rakoff became the youngest producer/director in the BBC drama department.

As Rakoff once recalled: “I trained at the BBC as a director-producer.

Alvin Rakoff, the Canadian director who made films including Say Hello To Yesterday and who helped launch the careers of Sean Connery and Alan Rickman, has died at the age of 97.

Rakoff died on October 12, “peacefully…surrounded by his loving family in the same, beautiful old house in Chiswick he had bought back in 1971”, according to Nick Pourgourides, a long-time representative of the filmmaker.

Rakoff directed 11 feature films across a near 70-year career, including 1969 crime film Crossplot starring Roger Moore and Claudie Lange; 1970 drama Hoffman led by Peter Sellers; and 1971 romantic comedy Say Hello To Yesterday starring Jean Simmons.

He...

Rob Marshall is in talks to direct a film adaptation of Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls,” the classic Broadway musical and 1955 film of the same name, for TriStar Pictures, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.

John Requa and Glenn Ficarra are in talks to write the screenplay with Marshall and John DeLuca. John Goldwyn, Marc Toberoff and Marc Platt are producing with Marshall and DeLuca.

Previously, the studio purchased the rights to the original short stories written by Damon Runyon that inspired the musical, to the Broadway musical book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows and its music by Loesser, as well as the remake rights to the ’55 film “Guys and Dolls” as released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Runyon originally wrote the short stories “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,” “Pick the Winner” and “Blood Pressure” about a gambler and his relationship with a missionary girl.

Rob Marshall is rockin’ the boat!

The “Chicago” director is in talks to helm the remake of “Guys and Dolls” for Sony’s TriStar Pictures. Marshall and John DeLuca will write the script with John Requa & Glenn Ficarra.

John Goldwyn, Marc Toberoff and Marc Platt will produce alongside Marshall and DeLuca, while TriStar president Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi will oversee the project for the studio.

Bill Condon was previously attached to direct the film back in 2021.

Sony purchased remake rights in 2019 for the original Damon Runyon short stories about gamblers and gangsters, as well as the rights to the Broadway musical The studio also acquired remake rights to the previous 1955 film adaptation from the Samuel Goldwyn company.

That version of “Guys and Dolls” starred Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine, and was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the screenplay.

“Guys and Dolls” opened...

Is the musical… back? Much as Hollywood has tried to hide its affinity for song and dance, musicals have been getting made. Wonka was a holiday hit; The Color Purple got Oscar nominations. This fall the Broadway blockbuster Wicked hits the silver screen, and now it seems the time is...

This one has taken awhile, but maybe Lady Luck finally has turned for an updated movie musical of Guys and Dolls. TriStar Pictures has teamed Chicago helmer Rob Marshall to direct a new film adaptation of Frank Loesser’s box office smash hit musical. Marshall and John DeLuca will team with John Requa & Glenn Ficarra to write the script.

John Goldwyn, Marc Toberoff and Marc Platt are producing with Marshall and DeLuca. Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi are overseeing for the studio.

Based on stories by Damon Runyon about gamblers and gangsters in the 1920s and ’30s, Guys and Dolls premiered on Broadway in 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The show has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. The 1992 revival starring Nathan Lane and Faith Prince...

Fred R. Krug, a producer, director and cinematographer who worked on such nature-focused TV programs as Animal World, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and The Magical World of Disney, has died. He was 94.

Krug died June 4 of natural causes at his home in Solvang, California, his daughter, Vivian Krug-Cotton, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A pioneer in wildlife TV documentaries and travel shows, the Swiss-born Krug dined with Picasso, worked with The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl and danced with the Nicholas brothers.

He also collaborated with the likes of Gypsy Rose Lee, Louis Armstrong, Cornel Wilde, Jayne Mansfield, Dana Andrews, Jean Simmons, Agnes Moorehead, Art Linkletter and Tippi Hedren.

Krug’s career took him to the jungles of Peru, Ecuador and Brazil; to India, Zululand, South Africa and the Serengeti in Kenya; to the high country of New Zealand; and to the mountains of Italy.

Friedrich Roy Krug was born on Aug.

Los Angeles, Feb 25 (Ians) The Oscar and Grammy-winning actress-singer Barbra Streisand was feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recently concluded 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“This is such a wonderful award to get because you know in advance you’re going to get it. You don’t have to sit there in a squirm… And if you don’t have to put on such a happy face, ‘I’m so happy to lose!’ Anyway, you all know what I mean”, the legend joked, reports ‘Variety’.

Streisand expressed joy, and revealed that she was proud to be a SAG-AFTRA member for over 60 years, “I can’t believe it. I remember dreaming of being an actress as a teenager, sitting in my bed in Brooklyn with a pint of coffee ice cream and a movie magazine”.

As per ‘Variety’, she dedicated her lifetime achievement speech to the actors among her in the auditorium.

The Oscar heavyweight, Grammy-winning great and all-around icon, Barbra Streisand was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“This is such a wonderful award to get because you know in advance you’re going to get it. You don’t have to sit there in squirm… And if you don’t have to put on such a happy face, ‘I’m so happy to lose!’ Anyway, you all know what I mean,” the legend joked.

Pivoting to more serious matters, Streisand revealed that she was proud to be a SAG-AFTRA member for over 60 years, “I can’t believe it. I remember dreaming of being an actress as a teenager, sitting in my bed in Brooklyn with a pint of coffee ice cream and a movie magazine.”

But in the end, Streisand dedicated her lifetime achievement speech to the actors among her in the auditorium.

Lee Grant, the Oscar-winning actress (“Shampoo”) says she decided after her win to try to direct since good roles for older women were limited. It turns out that was about the halfway point of her 98 year (so far) life. What followed was a narrative feature (“Tell Me a Riddle”) and several documentaries, including “Down and Out in America,” which won an Oscar.

When we last ran our list of the oldest living feature film directors in late 2022, where Grant stood was a mystery. Since her breakout in William Wyler’s “The Detective Story” (1951), her first nomination, her year of birth was unclear. But recently she has clarified that that she was born in 1925. That makes her, to the best of our knowledge, older than any of her peers.

Below are listed the 25 oldest. Since our most recent list, Norman Lear, Robert M. Young (both of who briefly were the oldest...

“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces,” proclaimed former silent film queen Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterwork “Sunset Boulevard.” One of the greatest faces of the era belonged to French actor Albert Dieudonne who starred in Abel Gance’s breathtaking 1927 epic “Napoleon.” With this dark eyes, distinct nose and rock star style hair, Dieudonne channels the infamous French military leader and emperor who conquered most of Europe in the early 19th century until his disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia. Exiled to Elba in 1814, he emerged once again and suffered a massive defeat at Waterloo in 1815. He died in exile six years later at the age of 51.

Dieudonne commands the 5 ½ hour film restored by Kevin Brownlow which features the jaw-dropping triptych finale that is as exciting now as it was 96 years ago. BFI states that the film is “monumental and visionary, the story’s chapters play out...

Piper Laurie, the three-time Academy Award-nominated actress whose seven-decade career including starring roles in the classic films “Carrie” and “The Hustler, has died. She was 91.

Laurie’s death was confirmed by her manager, Marion Rosenberg, in a statement to Variety.

“A beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time,” Rosenberg said.

Laurie also starred in 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God,” for which she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role, one of three Academy Award nominations she received in her career. Her first acting credits were for the 1950 films “The Milkman” and “Louisa.”

Her first Oscar nod came for 1961’s “The Hustler,” an iconic poolhall tale in which she starred opposite Paul Newman, playing his love interest. She also received an Oscar nomination for Brian De Palma’s 1976 Stephen King adaptation “Carrie,” in which she played the overbearing mother of Sissy Spacek’s telekinetic protagonist.

Piper Laurie, who blossomed as an actress only after extricating herself from the studio system and went on to rack up three Oscar nominations, has died. She was 91.

Laurie’s manager Marion Rosenberg confirmed the news to Variety, writing, “A beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time.”

Laurie scored her first Oscar nomination for her work opposite Paul Newman in 1961’s classic poolhall drama “The Hustler,” in which she played an alcoholic who memorably tells Newman’s character, “Look, I’ve got troubles and I think maybe you’ve got troubles. Maybe it’d be better if we just leave each other alone.”

Though she informally retired to raise a family for more than a decade, she returned to film and television in the mid-’70s and racked up an impressive roster of characterizations, including Oscar-nominated turns in “Carrie” and in “Children of a Lesser God,...

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Nearly 20 years after its release, “Howl’s Moving Castle” from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki earned over $3.2 million at the North American box office via its special presentation partnership with GKids and Fathom Events.

The 2004 feature played as part of the annual Studio Ghibli Fest, where classic features from Japan’s Miyazaki-cofounded animation house are screened nationwide. “Howl’s Moving Castle” played in over 1,000 North American theaters Sept. 23–27 and scored the No. 3 box office position on Sept. 27. It was No. 1 in per-screen average.

The next Studio Ghibli Fest presentation is “Spirited Away,” which will screen Oct. 28–Nov. 1 in theaters across North America.

This year marks the third Studio Ghibli Fest. It has generated over $13 million in box office across 10 titles and garnered over $40 million since the annual event’s debut in 2017. Each...

This episode of the Horror TV Shows We Miss video series was Written and Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Adam Walton, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

It’s not weird that we do this one first, right? Shhhh. We don’t have to actually tell anyone. One of you is going to give me shit, aren’t you? I think if we did do Dark Shadows Og, we’d have to do a whole Dark Shadows week. If you want that please send your love notes to the higher ups. That’s said, let’s crank the Joy Division and take a step into the trashy romance novels of horror soaps, Dark Shadows Revival 91. Yes, we’re adding the 91.

Dark Shadows was such an enormous thing. Just mentioning it brings certain folks out of the coffin to lend a pointy ear. My voyage with...

f it was the summer of the megawatt blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” September has turned into a month of sequelitis with “The Nun 2,” “Equalizer 3” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.” Even Kenneth Branagh’s “A Hunting in Venice,” is the third installment in the actor/director’s Hercule Poirot mystery series. It’s all a bit of a snooze. That wasn’t the case 70 years ago this month.

There were some oddball films that were released September, 1953 including “Cat-Women of the Moon” with Sonny Tufts and Marie Windsor and “The Sins of Jezebel” starring Paulette Goddard. But 70 years ago, audiences were introduced to a new wide-screen format and young actress who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s and ‘60s and Clark Gable returning to a role he originated in 1932.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck unveiled the studio’s new widescreen process Cinemascope...

Since concluding its seven-season run on May 23, 1994, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has held up remarkably well. It took a season or two for the series to truly find its footing, but once it did the show not only matched but expanded on the Original Series' intellectually acute exploration of humankind at its very best and absolute worst. "Tng" was especially vital in the late '80s and early '90s as we witnessed the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. There wasn't a show on television at the time that wrestled with our rapidly changing post-Cold War world more thoughtfully or bravely.

One element "Tng" shared in common with Og "Star Trek" was its adherence to an unfussy visual house style that left editors plenty of options as they tore through a 26-episode season order. This was television, where, very rare exceptions, the writers and actors were king.

Michelle Yeoh is more in demand than ever following her Best Actress Oscar win for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but she hasn’t forgotten her friends in the 23rd century.

The actress is beaming up to be part of “Star Trek” once again for a “Star Trek: Discovery” spinoff movie event for Paramount+, titled “Section 31.” Yeoh was part of the recurring cast of “Discovery” since the show launched in 2017, first playing the benevolent Capt. Philippa Georgiou, then spending far more time onscreen as her evil Mirror Universe twin, Empress Georgiou of the Terran Empire.

Empress Georgiou was transported into “our” universe, which, with the Federation and its emphasis on exploration, is as far different from the conquest-minded fascist Terran Empire as anything could be. Except that there’s a secret faction within Starfleet Intelligence called Section 31 which has always embraced an “ends justify the means” approach to preserving the...

Baby Clyde's Oscar Completist Diaries -- Part 2

(If you missed part one read that first!)

When Covid hit I happened to be in Colombia. I wasn’t frolicking on the beach in 90-degree heat or scuba diving in the beautiful clear blue Caribbean Sea but watching the Best Actress nominees of 1969 (That’s what holidays are for right?). Jean Simmons and Liza Minnelli had somehow passed me by over the years and with my new Russian pal I was able to fill in all the gaps. By the time I was back in London and lockdown had kicked in, I’d decided to make a project of it. Using Kevin Jacobson’s And The Runner-Up Is podcast as my companion I started watching every nomination in reverse order from 1969 down to 1927. I rewatched everything I’d already seen and added in the first-time watches along the way, noting everything down...

Olivia Colman has claimed that she almost turned down starring in Great Expectations due to her friendships with Gillian Anderson and Helena Bonham Carter.

The Oscar-winning actor plays Miss Havisham in the forthcoming BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ timeless novel.

Miss Havisham, the bitter, reclusive old heiress who interferes in the life of Pip, has been played by a number of acclaimed actors in past adaptations of the book, including Martita Hunt (in David Lean’s 1946 version), Jean Simmons, Charlotte Rampling, Anderson, and Bonham Carter.

Speaking to BBC News ahead of the new adaptation’s premiere, Colman referred to her friendship with former The Crown co-stars Anderson and Bonham Carter, and was reluctant to take on a role that they had both already tackled.

“I really did struggle with the idea of being compared with my mates,” she said.

“[But] I did want to play [Miss Havisham] so I thought, ‘well, it’s what happens with all actors.

The poster for Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 modern-day, US-set adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is very revealing. There are no bonnets or brooches. The artwork is instead dominated by a recumbent, naked Gwyneth Paltrow – playing Estella – looking towards the camera with an enigmatic expression on her face. Beneath her, you can see the film’s Miss Havisham character, renamed here as Nora Dinsmoor and played by Anne Bancroft. She is not in a dusty wedding dress but looking very much like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, complete with cigarette holder. In the corner, there is a murky image of the convict Magwitch (Robert De Niro), scowling like a heavy from Goodfellas.

For Cuarón, Dickens’ story was at least partly about erotic obsession. Pip (Ethan Hawke), the young lad from a humble background trying to make his way in society, felt much the same way about Estella as Michael Douglas...

The poster for Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 modern-day, US-set adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is very revealing. There are no bonnets or brooches. The artwork is instead dominated by a recumbent, naked Gwyneth Paltrow – playing Estella – looking towards the camera with an enigmatic expression on her face. Beneath her, you can see the film’s Miss Havisham character, renamed here as Nora Dinsmoor and played by Anne Bancroft. She is not in a dusty wedding dress but looking very much like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, complete with cigarette holder. In the corner, there is a murky image of the convict Magwitch (Robert De Niro), scowling like a heavy from Goodfellas.

For Cuarón, Dickens’ story was at least partly about erotic obsession. Pip (Ethan Hawke), the young lad from a humble background trying to make his way in society, felt much the same way about Estella as Michael Douglas...

Wow, a ‘new’ Sam Peckinpah western! While we await the rumored Blu-ray of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid to surface (or was Alex Cox misinformed?), correspondent Darren Gross has come across a watchable web encoding of a Peckinpah TV drama that seems to be more or less ‘lost.’ Good star performances and intense characterizations prove once again that Peckinpah could deliver superior dramatics. The home video companies should do some investigating — there’s a market out there for this one.

The Lady Is My Wife

TV episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater

CineSavant Revival Screening Review

1967 / Color / 1:33 TV / 47 min. / first Aired February 1, 1967 / Not on Home Video

Starring: Jean Simmons, Bradford Dillman, Alex Cord, Begoña Palacios, L.Q. Jones, Roberto Contreras, Alan Baxter, Jim Boles, Billy M. Greene, E.J. André, Billy M. Greene.

Cinematography: Dale Deverman

Art Director: Lloyd S. Papez

Costumes: Kay Hayden

Film Editor: Edward Biery...

Comedy is what we need right now, says Nicholas Hytner, who ran London’s National Theatre for a decade.

It’s fine to have heavy-lifting dramas by Ibsen or Schiller, but boy-oh-boy laughter is an increasingly uplifting necessity.

Which is where Guys & Dolls and James Corden, post his life on The Late Late Show, come in.

Hytner, partnered with longtime executive Nick Starr, now own and control London’s Bridge Theatre and is overseeing a fully immersive revival of the classic Broadway musical Guys & Dolls, choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips (Strictly Come Dancing) and now in early previews.

It stars Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit, Andrew Richardson (A Call to Spy) as Sky Masterson, Celinde Schoenmaker (Rocketman) as Sarah Brown and Marisha Wallace (Aladdin) as long-suffering Miss Adelaide. Cedric Neal plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Also in the cast are Jordan Castle,...

FX announced today (Charles Dickens’ birthday) that it has set a premiere date of March 26 for “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight’s hotly anticipated six-part adaptation of the classic Dickens novel “Great Expectations” starring Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella and Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, with the first pair of episodes showing back to back at launch. The series will stream exclusively on Hulu in the United States and over BBC One in the UK.

Produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, the production is expected to be an Emmy dynamo in the limited series category later this year, poised for likely nominations in series, lead actor (Whitehead), lead actress (Brune-Franklin) and supporting actress (Colman) as well as for its writing and direction. Knight, the prolific British-born writer-director and an original screenplay Academy Award nominee in 2004 for “Dirty Pretty Things,” serves...

Great Expectations

Blu-ray

ITV

1946 / 1.33: 1 / 118 Min.

Starring John Mills, Anthony Wager, Jean Simmons

Written by David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan

Directed by David Lean

David Lean and Noël Coward made four films together in the space of just three years—it was one of the most consequential collaborations in British cinema with Lean, a former editor, finding his footing as director alongside the accomplished Coward, one of England’s preeminent “show-biz hyphenates.” By 1946 Lean was ready to part ways and meet success on his own terms—thanks to his wife Kay Walsh, he already had a project in mind.

In 1939 Walsh shared a studio dressing room with Martita Hunt who was part of a fledging theater group called the Actor’s Company. Hunt convinced Walsh to bring her husband to the opening night of the troupe’s first production, an adaptation of Great Expectations at the Rudolf Steiner House,...

This post contains spoilers for the season finale of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

In the last episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," the U.S.S. Cerritos found themselves under attack by a small armada of Breen warships. The California-class vessel was severely outmatched, and was at risk of being destroyed when a heretofore unseen starship, the U.S.S. Aledo, swooped in, destroyed the attackers and saved the day. The Aledo, it is later revealed, was an experimental Texas-class starship that was run entirely by artificial intelligence. There was no crew on board. The Texas class was the brainchild of one Vice Admiral Buen Amigo (Carlos Alazraqui), who sought to reduce both casualties and any human error in Starfleet by essentially replacing its officers with drones. 

As any good Trekkie knows, creating an artificially intelligent machine is an enormous can of worms on "Star Trek," and giving both A.

Spartacus

Spartacus, 3.10pm, ITV4, Monday, August 29

Sword and sandals epics don't come much more stylish than this tale of slave revolt in Rome from Stanley Kubrick. And heroes don't get much more iconic than Kirk Douglas' Thracian slave with a passion for freedom, with the declaration: "I'm Spartacus!" still holding cultural weight 60 years on. It's not just Douglas who holds the attention, there's plenty of depth in the cast, from Peter Ustinov, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for turn as gladiator dealer Bataitus (Douglas missed out on a nomination), to Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier as scheming senators and Jean Simmons as the love interest. The gladiatorial scenes are where the film really grabs the attention, however, still gripping despite the passage of time and shot with verve by Russell Metty, who also won a cinematography Oscar for his efforts.

The Queen, 8pm, ITV, Tuesday, August...

They were two actors, who happened to briefly meet in the New York office of their mutual manager; the beautiful blonde from Georgia said she initially “hated him,” what with this blue-eyed Greek god looking so damned gorgeous in his seersucker suit. But let’s not kid anybody — it was lust at first sight. When the two of them were cast as understudies in the original Broadway production of William Inge’s Picnic, they’d watch the play together in the wings. During a scene in which the lead characters...

Spartacus Spartacus, 2.10pm, ITV4, Monday, May 2

Few films scream "perfect Bank Holiday viewing" more than this stylish sword and sandals epic from Stanley Kubrick. And heroes don't get much more iconic than Kirk Douglas' Thracian slave with a passion for freedom, with the declaration: "I'm Spartacus!" still holding cultural weight 60 years on. It's not just Douglas who holds the attention in this tale of slave revolt in Rome, there's plenty of depth in the cast, from Peter Ustinov, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for turn as gladiator dealer Bataitus (Douglas missed out on a nomination), to Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier as scheming senators and Jean Simmons as the love interest. The gladiatorial scenes are where the film really grabs the attention, however, still gripping despite the passage of time and shot with verve by Russell Metty, who also won a cinematography Oscar for his efforts.

Two Faces of.

Lisa Hurwitz with Anne-Katrin Titze on Mel Brooks’s original song with composer Hummie Mann for The Automat: “He composed Mel’s films Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving it, and so it was all kind of perfect.”

In the second instalment with The Automat director Lisa Hurwitz we discuss her work with writer and editor Michael Levine, the interview with Colin Powell, Mel Brooks and composer Hummie Mann’s collaborations, the well-chosen clips in her film, including Sylvia Sidney and Peter Lawford, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature, a Jack Benny party, Tweety Bird and The Flintstones at the Automat, an Edward Hopper painting, and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman’s childhood fondness for the baked beans at the Automat.

Lisa will participate in three in-person post-screening Q&As this weekend for the theatrical opening at Film Forum in New York of The Automat.

Mel Brooks recording...

Veteran actor and frequent scene stealer Bruce Davison joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Extra School (2017)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Willard (1971) – Joe Dante’s review, Lee Broughton’s Blu-ray review

Fortune And Men’s Eyes (1971)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Longtime Companion (1989)

Last Summer (1969) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Short Eyes (1977)

The Manor (2021)

Ulzana’s Raid (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review and All-Region Blu-ray review

King Solomon’s Mines (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

Them! (1954) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Tarantula (1955) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Spartacus (1960) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ben-Hur (1959) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,...

“The line must be drawn he-uh!”

Twenty-five years after Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard most emphatically said those words, that moment from the film “Star Trek: First Contact” has become a full-on meme. Multiple clips of it on YouTube have hundreds of thousands of views each. It’s become one of the defining moments for the character. It also means a lot to its director.

“That still holds up as one of my favorite things I’ve ever, ever been involved in as a director,” Jonathan Frakes said.

Frakes, known to fans as Picard’s “Number One,” Commander Riker, has had a very successful career as an actor — and undoubtedly that’s what keeps the fans coming to meet him at “Star Trek” conventions. But he’s had as prolific a career behind the camera, as director of “First Contact” and the follow-up film “Star Trek: Insurrection,” and all over...

Powerhouse Indicator moves forward to their fourth fancy box of noirs from the studio of Harry Cohn, six pictures stretching from the postwar boom to the end of the original classic noir era. This time around we have some notable directors, and a nice selection of stars — Dennis O’Keefe, George Murphy, Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun and Richard Conte. Kim Novak makes her starring debut as a femme fatale; noir icon Richard Conte shines in a movie that marks a turn into a new kind of existential, paranoid thriller. And speaking of paranoid, we again get to lighten up with another selection of theme-appropriate Three Stooges shorts.

Columbia Noir #4

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1948-1957 / B&w + Color / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / Street Date September 27, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / 49.99

Starring: Louis Hayward, Dennis O’Keefe; George Murphy; Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak; Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun; Dennis O’Keefe,...

Academy Award winner Bill Condon will direct a film adaptation of “Guys and Dolls,” the classic Broadway musical and 1955 film of the same name, for TriStar Pictures, according to an individual with knowledge of the project.

John Goldwyn and Marc Toberoff are set to produce the new adaptation for TriStar. Execs Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi are overseeing for the studio.

In 2019, TriStar purchased the rights to the original short stories written by Damon Runyon that inspired the musical, as well as the Broadway musical book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows and its music by Frank Loesser. The studio also bought the remake rights to the 1955 film “Guys and Dolls,” as released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Runyon originally wrote the short stories “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,” “Pick the Winner” and “Blood Pressure” about a gambler and his relationship with a missionary girl. The stories are the...

Bill Condon, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “Chicago,” “Dreamgirls” and Disney’s remake of “Beauty and the Beast,” is taking on another famed movie musical.

Condon has signed on to direct “Guys and Dolls,” an adaptation of Frank Loesser’s Broadway smash. TriStar Pictures, which operates under Sony, acquired rights in 2019 to Damon Runyon’s original short stories about gamblers and gangsters in the New York underworld, as well as the rights to the Broadway musical and Samuel Goldwyn’s 1995 film adaptation.

“Guys and Dolls” opened on Broadway in 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances over three years. It scored five Tony Awards, including the prize for best musical, and has been revived several times since, including a 1992 version with Nathan Lane and Faith Prince. Five years after premiering on the Great White Way, “Guys and Dolls” was made into a successful film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine.

Exclusive: TriStar Pictures long-awaited new retelling of the musical smash hit Guys And Dolls looks to be moving closer to a reality as the studio has tapped Oscar-winner Bill Condon to direct the latest adaptation. Condon had been weighing several projects to take on as his next but over the last month, Guys And Dolls rose to the top of his list following a meeting with the studio on how excited they were to get the project off the ground. TriStar purchased remake rights to the original Damon Runyon short stories in March of 2019 about gamblers and gangsters that inspired the shows, as well as the rights to the Broadway musical with its book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows and its music by Frank Loesser. At the same time, the studio also acquired remake rights to the previous 1955 film adaptation from the Samuel Goldwyn company. John Goldwyn and Marc Toberoff are producing.

Oscar-winning movie musical director Bill Condon has been tapped to direct TriStar’s Guys and Dolls remake.

Set in Depression-era New York, the story centers on a high roller and a small-time gambler as they try to lock down a date and a location for a floating craps game. A 1955 movie adaption featured Frank Loesser’s standards, including “Luck Be a Lady,” and starred Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, Vivian Blaine and Marlon Brando. Guys and Dolls premiered on Broadway in 1950 and won five Tony Awards including best musical. A 1992 revival, starring Nathan Lane and Faith Prince, was nominated for ...

Oscar-winning movie musical director Bill Condon has been tapped to direct TriStar’s Guys and Dolls remake.

Set in Depression-era New York, the story centers on a high roller and a small-time gambler as they try to lock down a date and a location for a floating craps game. A 1955 movie adaption featured Frank Loesser’s standards, including “Luck Be a Lady,” and starred Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, Vivian Blaine and Marlon Brando. Guys and Dolls premiered on Broadway in 1950 and won five Tony Awards including best musical. A 1992 revival, starring Nathan Lane and Faith Prince, was nominated for ...

Move over Queen Elizabeth II? One month after the announcement that “The Crown” actress Emma Corrin , who portrays Diana, the Princess of Wales, would join Olivia Colman in the Drama Actress race at the Golden Globes, the palace intrigue over who will ultimately prevail is reaching a fever pitch. Our current combined odds have both Colman and Corrin earning bids for the critically-acclaimed fourth season of the Netflix drama. Although Colman ranks first over Corrin in fourth place, the race continues to tighten as nominations morning looms.

Colman certainly has an advantage at the Globes, where she’s won for every one of her nominations. After wins for “The Night Manager” and “The Favourite,” Colman is the reigning champion in the Drama Actress category, winning for “The Crown” last year for her first season as Queen Elizabeth. She’ll now have to defend her perfect record against not just “Crown” co-star Corrin,...

To celebrate the release of the 15th Anniversary Special Collector’s Boxset of Howl’S Moving Castle on 21 December, we are giving away one special Christmas Studio Ghibli bundle, with four stunning Steelbook releases of From Up On Poppy Hill, My Neighbours the Yamadas, When Marnie Was There, Only Yesterday and Blu-ray editions of Howl’s Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, The Cat Returns.

Based on the book by British author Diana Wynne Jones and directed by the Oscar®-winning Hayao Miyazaki, the English language cast features Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Emily Mortimer, Josh Hutcherson and Billy Crystal.

Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste, jealous of their friendship, puts a...

Take a look at more footage from the FX/BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean':

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...

...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu,...

Ron Gilbert, an Emmy-nominated producer and partner with David Susskind in the indie production company Talent Associates Ltd that was behind TV series like Get Smart and movies including Straw Dogs and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, died of heart failure December 4 at his Los Angeles home. He was 87.

Talent Associates was a major force in the 1960s and ’70s, producing series including East Side, West Side starring George C. Scott, NYPD, The Glass Menagerie starring Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor and Franklin, Blind Ambition starring Martin Sheen and Get Smart. Gilbert served as executive in charge of production on several shows including Get Smart, the spy comedy that was hatched in the mid-1960s at the then New York-based company by two of its young writers, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. It premiered on NBC in 1965, ran five seasons and established Talent Associates’ L.A. base.

On the feature side, Talent Associates produced Straw Dogs,...

In retrospect, it may have been a mistake to watch the original Archers film production of “Black Narcissus” before screening the limited series “Black Narcissus,” produced for FX and BBC One. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 take on Rumer Godden’s novel is a cinematic landmark of its era, leaning on saturated colors, dramatic music cues and performances so pointed they threatened to draw blood. It’s dated but deliberate, tense and taut with simmering lust. This 2020 update, from writer Amanda Coe and director Charlotte Bruus Christensen, is careful to state that its primary source material is Godden’s book rather than the Archers’ film, and as such, should have more room to play with and develop the story. In practice, though, not even having three hourlong episodes versus a movie less than two hours long quite gives the series much of a personality of its own. Too much...

From the creators of Spirited Away and Ponyo, comes the masterpiece “Howl’s Moving Castle” in a special limited-edition boxset to celebrate the film’s 15th Anniversary, available exclusively on Amazon from 14 December 2020. The special edition is the third in an exclusive collector’s series from Studiocanal following the recent releases of “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”

Based on the book by British author Diana Wynne Jones and directed by the Oscar®-winning Hayao Miyazaki, the English language cast features Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Emily Mortimer, Josh Hutcherson and Billy Crystal.

From Studiocanal: Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste, jealous of their friendship, puts a curse on Sophie and...

Take a look at more new footage from the upcoming BBC drama TV miniseries,"Black Narcissus" (referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir'), based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as 'Sister Clodagh' and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX: 

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

"Black Narcissus", referencing the Caron perfume 'Narcisse noir', is the new BBC drama miniseries, based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, starring the late Diana Rigg as 'Mother Dorothea', Gemma Arterton as "Sister Clodagh and Alessandro Nivola as 'Mr. Dean', premiering November 23, 2020 on FX: 

"... a nun is sent to establish a branch of her order with her fellow sisters in the Himalayas, but struggles to temper her attractions to a 'World War I' veteran..." 

Cast also includes Aisling Franciosi as 'Sister Ruth', Jim Broadbent as 'Father Roberts', Gina McKee as 'Sister Adela', Rosie Cavaliero as 'Sister Briony', Patsy Ferran as 'Sister Blanche', Karen Bryson as 'Sister Philippa', Charlie Maher as 'Con', Dipika Kunwar as 'Kanchi' and Gianni Gonsalves as 'Princess Srimati'. 

"Black Narcissus" was previously adapted in 1947, written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger...

...starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, David Farrar,...

7 random things that happened on this day, September 25th, in showbiz history...

1936 Another reminder that inappropriate racial casting has been with us always and not just for the common and commonly excoriated practices of yellowface or blackface. Ramona opened on this day in movie theaters, a romantic drama starring Loretta Young as a girl who doesn't know she's bi-racial and Don Ameche as the Native American hired hand that she falls for. 

1953 The Actress, a movie about future Oscar winner Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) Written By Ruth Gordon (with Jean Simmons playing her) opens in movie theaters. Spencer Tracy will win the Golden Globe for his performance as her father.

Audrey Hepburn, Last of the Mohicans, Chevy Chase vs Cary Grant and more after the jump...

Perfection is a word used too frequently to describe a movie. But in the case of the 1953 romantic comedy “Roman Holiday,” perfection is not hyperbole. Directed by William Wyler and nominated for 10 Academy Awards, “Roman Holiday” is a gem of a fairy tale.

Audrey Hepburn plays Princess Ann, a young sheltered monarch from a European country bored to tears on a goodwill trip who decides to escape her guardians while in Rome. She ends up falling in love with a handsome American reporter (Gregory Peck). He recognizes the princess on the lam and initially befriends her to get her story only to fall for the winsome young woman. Eddie Albert plays Peck’s carefree, womanizing friend who is a photographer.

“Roman Holiday,” which just made its Blu-Ray debut, was a change of pace for Wyler, who was best known for his dramatic work, having already won Oscars for 1942’s “Mrs. Miniver...