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David O. Selznick was a demanding producer who often interrupted pitches and then bullied filmmakers once their movies started shooting. I wonder how impresarios of his era — Selznick, Sam Goldwyn or Darryl F. Zanuck — would have coped with the unruly YouTubers, TikTokers, Instagrammers or superstar influencers crowding today’s marketplace.

Or how they’d deal with esteemed filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón, who today are re-inventing and re-structuring their craft to fit the ecocentrics of streamerville?

In a maze of memos, Selznick told George Cukor, then King Vidor, that they lacked the pizzazz to turn Gone With The Wind into a hit. Would he have instructed Passthatpuss to trim his act or Todd Phillips to pull the tunes from Joker 2?

The bottom line, I suppose, is that pop culture has moved to a new rhythm and only sentimentalists worry about the creative debris along the way.

Cuarón’s confounding seven-part...

After spending months talking about his long-nurtured dream project, Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola embraced the chance to depart from promo tour talking points.

Calling Megaloplis “a great adventure,” Coppola affirmed with a smile in accepting his DGA Honor on Thursday night, “I decided tonight I wouldn’t say anything I’ve been saying.”

After being given the award by his granddaughter, Gia, Coppola said he was delighted to spin yarns about “how the Director’s Guild was founded.” While he didn’t do so in linear fashion, the 85-year-old filmmaker had the audience in the palm of his hand as he recounted giants of cinema and his personal touchstones, paying tribute to masters like Billy Wilder, King Vidor and Samuel Goldwyn.

When he met Jean Renoir, Coppola recalled, the French filmmaker gave him a “beautiful smile” and shook his hand “like he was welcoming me to this profession that he loved so much.

Jay Kanter, the high-powered Hollywood agent who represented Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe and served as the inspiration for Jack Lemmon’s character in the classic Billy Wilder film The Apartment, died Tuesday. He was 97.

Kanter died at his home in Beverly Hills, a spokesperson for the Independent Artist Group announced. His son Adam Kanter is a partner at Iag.

A favorite of mighty Music Corporation of America mogul Lew Wasserman, Kanter also spent seven years in England in the 1960s greenlighting European movies for Universal, produced films including the Elizabeth Taylor-starring X, Y and Zee (1972) and had a long business relationship with Alan Ladd Jr. at Fox and MGM.

When Brando was slumming around Paris after breaking out on Broadway in Streetcar Named Desire in the late 1940s, Kanter‚ then an McA junior agent, received a call from producer Stanley Kramer saying he wanted to hire...

Seit mehr als 75 Jahren vergibt die Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation den Pioneer Award. Als erst zweite Frau nach Elizabeth Banks wird in diesem Jahr „Barbie“-Regisseurin Greta Gerwig damit geehrt.

Greta Herwig wird im September von der Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation mit dem Pioneer Award geehrt (Credit: Imago / Bestimage)

Bei ihrem jährlichen Dinner ehrt die Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation „Barbie“-Regisseurin Greta Gerwig mit dem Pioneer Award. Gerwig wird die Auszeichnung, die die Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation seit mehr als 75 Jahren an Mitglieder der Filmbranche verleiht, die sich durch außergewöhnliche Führungsqualitäten, Verdienste um die Gemeinschaft und philanthropisches Engagement auszeichnen, beim jährlichen Dinner der Organisation am 25. September entgegennehmen. Gerwig ist erst die zweite Frau nach Elizabeth Banks, die den Pioneer Award erhält.

„Greta Gerwig ist eine dynamische Filmemacherin mit einer außergewöhnlichen Vision, die das Publikum überall unterhält und inspiriert“, erklärt Jeff Goldstein, President...

Greta Gerwig has been tapped to receive this year’s Pioneer of the Year Award. She’s only the second female director to receive the prestigious honor after Elizabeth Banks.

She’ll be feted at the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s annual dinner on Sept. 25 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

All three of the films Gerwig has written and directed solo — Barbie, Lady Bird and Little Women — landed Oscar nominations for best picture, while Gerwig herself received Oscar nominations for best director and best original screenplay for Lady Bird, best adapted screenplay for Little Women and best adapted screenplay for Barbie.

Last year, Barbie, which Gerwig co-wrote with Noah Baumbach for Warner Bros., became the first film from a solo female director to gross more than $1 billion at the global box office.

A tradition for more than 75 years, the Pioneer of the Year award recognizes members...

The Barbie filmmaker is 2024’s Pioneer of the Year recipient. Greta Gerwig will be bestowed with the 75th honor at the September 25th ceremony at the Beverly Hilton by the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation (Wrmppf).

The Pioneer of the Year Award is bestowed upon esteemed and respected members in the motion picture industry whose leadership, service to the community, and commitment to philanthropy are exceptional. All proceeds raised at the event benefit Wrmppf’s Pioneers Assistance Fund which provides financial assistance and supportive counseling to individuals in the motion picture distribution and exhibition community in times of need.

“Greta Gerwig is a dynamic filmmaker with extraordinary vision who entertains and inspires audiences everywhere,” said Jeff Goldstein, President of Warner Bros. Domestic Distribution and Co-Chairman, Pioneer of the Year Dinner.

“The Will Rogers Pioneers Assistance Fund is proud to celebrate Greta’s achievements and present her with the 2024 Pioneer of the Year Award,...

Is there an issue more contentious in Hollywood than facial hair? Frankly, yes. But it's still fun to talk about. Throughout the history of the industry, stars' choice of facial adornment have caused no end of issues for studio executives. Such was the case with Gregory Peck and 1950's "The Gunfighter," in which he donned a majestic mustache that then-20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck claimed he would have paid $25K to shave. Sadly, however, Zanuck was out of the country when the film shot, and only discovered the offending stache upon his return. According to the exec, it was this precise element that was to blame for the film failing to meet box office expectations.

This is but one facial hair-related debacle in the annals of Hollywood lore. What about when some sort of facial fuzz is actually required for a role? Well, in the '90s,...

Long before the Disney/Fox merger of 2019 created 20th Century Studios, there was 20th Century Fox. One of the original big five studios, 20th Century Fox was founded as 20th Century Pictures in 1935 by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck. The latter of the two was a former Warner Bros. executive and noted pervert, who, as The Daily Beast has pointed out, was one of the chief architects of the notorious casting couch culture that produced so much of the murk in which golden age Hollywood operated. But despite what The New York Times has described as his "well documented" proclivity for flashing women, he also seemed to be pretty good at running a studio — at least for most of his career.

One particular aspect of his personality that helped in that regard was his attention to detail, as described in Scott Eyman's 2021 book "20th Century Fox -- Darryl F.

One could probably write a fairly substantial tome on the history of mustaches in Hollywood. Nothing seems to court controversy in the film industry quite like a hirsute upper lip. Modern audiences will no doubt jump to Henry Cavill's magnificent "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" 'tache, which received a touching obituary on this very site back in 2018 after Cavill shaved it off. That particularly controversial cookie duster caused no shortage of issues for Joss Whedon and his reshoots of "Justice League," which infamously included a shot of Cavill with a shoddily-rendered, CGI bald upper lip. But that's just the latest mustache-related debacle to befall Hollywood.

Back in 1978, Gene Hackman had to be duped into shaving his mustache for "Superman," by a particularly crafty Richard Donner. Then, in the 90s, Kurt Russell went over-the-top with his "Tombstone" mustache, prompting director George P. Cosmatos to negotiate with the actor over the exact,...

The 1970 war epic "Tora! Tora! Tora!" takes place from August 1939 to December 1941, dramatizing the wartime events that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film alternately follows the American and the Japanese military during the same 29-month period, with the American sequences directed by Richard Fleischer and the Japanese sequences directed by Kinji Fukusaku (of "Battle Royale" fame) and Toshiro Masuda. 20th Century Fox ultra-producer Darryl F. Zanuck conceived of the project, as he wanted to give a proper telling of both sides of Pearl Harbor while also wanting to partially exonerate the American military (which had previously been blamed for its inability to prevent the attack).

Planning and shooting "Tora!" took an amazingly long amount of time. Pre-production wrangling lasted about three years, with principal photography taking an entire eight months. To make sure the Japanese segments would be handled by a master, Fox hired Akira Kurosawa to co-direct.

The sibling Bond movie producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have been tapped to receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, writer-director Richard Curtis will be feted with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and composer-producer Quincy Jones and casting director Juliet Taylor will receive honorary Oscars at the 2024 Governors Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.

The 15th annual Governors Awards — honorees for which were determined as the last move of the Academy’s 2023-2024 board of governors, which changed following recent board elections — will be presented at a ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 17.

“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s board of governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. “The selection of Michael G.

For only the second time in its 15 year history there is no actor among the honorees for this year’s select group receiving the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Governors Awards. The AMPAS Board Of Governors have chosen to give Academy Honorary Awards to music legend Quincy Jones and veteran Casting Director Juliet Taylor, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to British writer/director Richard Curtis, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The awards ceremony, always a highlight in the very long Oscar season will take place on Sunday November 17, 2024 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.

You have to go back to the 4th Governors Awards in 2012 to find a group that did not include at least one actor among its recipients. That year the honorees were documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, director/stuntman Hal Needham, AFI founder and producer/filmmaker George Stevens Jr.,...

John Wayne, who died of cancer in 1979, wasn't really known for his gentleness or commitment to open-minded, multicultural thinking. Every few years, the internet rediscovers Wayne's infamously racist, misogynist 1971 Playboy Magazine interview, and are offended afresh. He used the three-letter F-word to describe the characters in "Midnight Cowboy," calling it "perverted," before actually saying out loud  "I believe in white supremacy." He also ranted about how in the heyday of his career, there were more white people in movies. 

This interview didn't really expose anything the public didn't already know about Wayne, a man who used antisemitic slurs when talking to Richard Nixon, and who allegedly tried to storm the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to interrupt Sacheen Littlefeather's speech about how Westerns hurt the public's perception of Native Americans. One can only imagine what Wayne would have thought of Haysi Fantayzee's bawdy 1982 single "John Wayne is Big Leggy.

The Hollywood Blacklist ruined dozens of lives. United States-based artists who were sympathetic to, or even curious about, communism were demonized as traitors to their country and, due to hysterical pressure from The House Committee on Un-American Activities (aka Huac), banned from working in the industry. Disgraced and unemployed, blacklisted individuals were forced to leave the country if they wanted to continue working or, if they could not afford to relocate, find a line of work where being an alleged communist wasn't frowned upon. This latter option was, of course, dismally unlikely. The mental and financial burden of being completely shunned from one's industry was so unbearable that it led actor Philip Loeb to die by suicide.

This put Hollywood at war against itself. Anyone suspected of having communist ties was pressured to come clean and, if they wanted to continue working, name names (a cowardly practice savaged by films...

Note: This article discusses sexual misconduct and abuse.

As much as I roll my eyes at Joe Russo blaming Marvel's pandemic-era box office woes on the children, he's right about one thing: Hollywood, like the world at large, is at a crossroads at the time of this writing. Superhero films, which have been the bread and butter of the industry for most of the 21st century, are no longer a reliable draw. We also find ourselves in a curious place where franchise fatigue seems to be settling in, yet it remains challenging for anything that isn't based on an IP to find financial success. At the same time, the growing popularity of smaller and scrappier fare from studios like A24 could point to a way forward.

It's a lot like the 1960s, when you think about it. By the end of that decade, the American New Wave was in full swing.

The studio once known as 20th Century Fox is a younger entity than the other major Hollywood Studios. It was founded in 1935 out of the ashes of Fox Film, compared to Warner Bros (1923), Universal Pictures (1912), Paramount Pictures (1912), Columbia Pictures (1923), and Disney (1923) — the latter being the new parent company of 20th Century Studios.

Still, Fox waited only seven years to take home the top prize at the Oscars. At the 14th Academy Awards, held in 1942, Fox's film "How Green Was My Valley" won Best Picture, presented to Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. That wasn't the only prize "Valley" won that night: it also got Best Director (John Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Arthur Miller), and finally Best Art Direction -- Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.

One of the films that "Valley" beat that night was "Citizen Kane" (which got only Best Original Screenplay for director Orson Welles and his co-writer Herman J.

The 36th annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony will take place on February 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, five days before the start of the Berlinale.

Last season’s ceremony honoured Oppenheimer with the top prize, The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures.

The PGA is a strong indicator of Oscars success, with 16 out of the last 24 Darryl F. Zanuck winners going on to claim the best picture Oscar.

Key dates for the 36th annual Producers Guild Awards season appear below:

Eligibility period

January 1, 2024-December 31, 2024 for theatrical features; animated features; documentary features; television series/specials; streamed or televised features; sports,...

Buddy Adler was just two years into his brief reign as the Head of Production for 20th Century Fox in 1958 when producer Walter Wanger brought him an epic project that could potentially pull the then-struggling studio out of its box office slump. The film wound up soaring so far over budget that Fox would be forced to sell 180 acres of its Los Angeles backlot to Alcoa just to stay financially afloat.

Had Adler made "Cleopatra" on his own terms, the title role would've been a sensibly priced production toplined by one of the studio's affordable contract stars (e.g. Joan Collins or Joanne Woodward). Wanger, however, had outsized dreams. He saw the historical drama as a Hollywood epic for the ages. He believed in its potential to dominate the box office and win scores of Academy Awards. He wanted Elizabeth Taylor, arguably the most popular movie star on the planet,...

Cass Warner, filmmaker, author and granddaughter of Harry Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros., has died. She was 76.

Her death was announced by her son and Yellowstone actor Cole Hauser on his Instagram page. “Her kindness, love, humor and amazing spirit will be missed by not only my family but the world. You have touched so many,” he wrote.

Cass’ grandfather, Harry Warner, was the eldest Warner brother, a Polish immigrant who co-founded the studio in 1923 after jumping into the early days of movie mania in 1905 with brothers Sam, Albert and Jack. The foursome created a cinematic powerhouse, a dream factory that was the social conscience of Hollywood, one that churned out timely and topical films about the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, the Red Scare and more.

Harry’s daughter, Betty Warner Sheinbaum, wrote of her father as “a very serious man. He was the company’s conscience and driving force.

Jack Warner had been shouldering in on credit from one of his studio’s top producers. At least that’s what Hal Wallis may have told you after the 1944 Academy Awards when Jack Warner accepted the Casablanca Oscar that some felt should have been palmed by Wallis, the Warner Bros. film’s producer. But who should accept the best picture award? Today it’s the producers, but during Hollywood’s Golden Age it was sometimes the producer, sometimes the studio chief.

Wallis had been with the company for many years, first joining the studio in 1923, their first year of incorporation. Soon, Wallis was managing essential Warner films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1937), Dark Victory (1939), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, of course, Casablanca (1942). Despite being released in late 1942, Casablanca didn’t go into wide release until early 1943 and wasn’t...

Universal’s Oppenheimer won the top prize at Sunday’s (February 25) 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures follows Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards triumph in the cast category and cements Christopher Nolan’s global blockbuster as the one to beat at the Academy Awards come March 10.

The PGA is a reliable indicator of the eventual best picture Oscar winner, with 15 out of the last 23 PGA Darryl F. Zanuck Award winners going on to win the best picture Oscar.

Last season saw...

“Oppenheimer” continued to steamroll its path to Oscar glory on Sunday night, claiming the top prize at the 2024 Producers Guild of America Awards.

Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Chuck Roven and their producing team took home the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, which recognizes excellence in producing for a theatrical feature film. The prize has become perhaps the most important precursor to nabbing the Academy Award for best picture.

Thomas told the crowd that many may not know that Nolan, the film’s writer and director, excelled most in his role as producer: “He’s absolutely brilliant, we’ve worked on 12 films now.”

Nolan himself noted that he and Thomas had never won the Zanuck award, despite previous nominations. “Every time we’ve been in this room, we’ve felt so much support,” he said.

Another unstoppable awards force which won big at this weekend’s Screen Actors Guild Awards — Hulu’s...

The Producers Guild of America announced the winners of several categories of their 35th Annual PGA Awards on Thursday night, including their nods for innovation short form awards.

The team for Body of Line won the PGA Innovation Award, and the team for Succession: Controlling the Narrative won for outstanding short form program.

The winners were announced during the PGA’s annual west coast celebration, at Members restaurant in West Hollywood. The celebration is the second in a week’s worth of bi-coastal events which will culminate with the PGA Awards next week.

Earlier this week, the guild awarded the team behind Beckham (season one) with the outstanding sports program award and the Sesame Street (season five, episode three) team with outstanding children’s program.

The PGA Innovation Award recognizes the production of a noteworthy, impactful new media program that significantly elevates the audience’s viewing experience. In alphabetical order,...

She’s the reason that rising female stars are often called “the It girl.” She starred in the first movie to win an Oscar for best picture. By 1930, she’d made in 45 movies in six years. By 1933, after struggles with men and mental illness, Clara Bow’s Hollywood career was over.

There’s been a surge of interest in the legendary actress who straddled the silent and sound eras this week after Taylor Swift revealed the tracklist for her upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” The last song on Side D is titled “Clara Bow.”

A native of Brooklyn, Bow grew up in poverty and got her start in pictures after she won a contest sponsored by a magazine. Her prizes were “an evening gown, a trophy and a promise to help the aspiring young actress gain entrée into the film industry,” according to Bow’s biography from Turner Classic Movies.

Director Martin Scorsese and Lily Gladstone on the set of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+)

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has weighed in on the best of 2023, with nominees announced in feature films, animated films, TV series/specials, limited/anthology series, television or streamed films, and documentaries. The annual Producers Guild Awards are one of the best indicators of what film will take home the Best Picture Oscar, with the guild reporting 15 of their last 20 winners have won Academy Awards.

Last year’s winner Everything Everywhere All at Once not only won Best Picture, but also picked up six additional Oscars in the Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), and Best Editing categories.

Winners will be announced during the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards set for Sunday, February 25, 2024 at The Ray Dolby Ballroom,...

On Friday, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) revealed its list of nominations for the 2024 PGA Awards.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award (the award most informative about the best picture Oscar race. 15 of the previous 20 winners have gone on to win the Academy Award) included the following nominees: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. In the animated category, The Boy and the Heron, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Elemental received nods.

On the television side, in the drama category, The Crown, The Diplomat, The Last of Us, The Morning Show and Succession received nominations, while Barry, The Bear, Jury Duty, Only Murders in the Building and Ted Lasso were nominated. For limited series, All the Light We Cannot See, Beef,...

Nominations for the 2024 Producers Guild of America Awards have been announced with the surprise of two international titles — Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” — the first time two international titles have been nominated by the guild.

The lineup includes many of the Oscars’ usual suspects as voting for nominations is underway. Rounding out the noms are “American Fiction,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives” and “Poor Things.”

After being shut out of the SAG nominations, indie distributor A24 is the only studio to land two films in the top category with “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest.”

When the Academy expanded its best picture lineup from five to 10 nominees in 2009, the PGA duplicated the move. Since then, the guild has averaged eight of its 10 nominees translating to an Oscar Best Picture nod. However, last year saw only seven,...

35th Annual Producers Guild Awards takes place on February 25.

The Producers Guild Of America (PGA) has unveiled its feature and TV nominations, with non-us contenders The Zone Of Interest and Anatomy Of A Fall in contention alongside the likes of Oppenheimer, Killers Of The Flower Moon, and Past Lives.

The full list of nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures includes Barbie, American Fiction, The Holdovers, Maestro, and Poor Things.

The PGA picks are often a strong indicator of the titles likely to experience Academy Awards glory. Last year’s nominees fielded seven eventual Oscar nominees.

35th Annual Producers Guild Awards takes place on February 25.

The Producers Guild Of America (PGA) has unveiled its feature and TV nominations, with awards season heavyweight Oppenheimer in the mix alongside Killers Of The Flower Moon, Anatomy Of A Fall, The Zone Of Interest, and Past Lives.

Recognition for Anatomy Of A Fall and The Zone Of Interest marks the first time the Guild has nominated international films.

The full list of nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures includes Barbie, American Fiction, The Holdovers, Maestro, and Poor Things.

The PGA picks are...

The nominations for the 2024 Producers Guild of America Awards have been unveiled ahead of the annual ceremony, set to take place on February 25.

In the Theatrical Motion Picture category, films like “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things,” and “The Zone of Interest” are the contenders.

Formally known as the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, the accolade has historically been considered a strong prognosticator for the Best Picture Oscar, with 15 of the previous 20 winners going on to win the biggest honors at the Academy Awards.

In the Animated Theatrical Motion Picture category, “The Boy and the Heron,” “Elemental,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” are in the running.

As previously announced, documentaries “American Symphony,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “The Disappearance of Shere Hite,...

Studio takeovers have been the talk of the town in Hollywood for some time. It’s been less a discussion of if control will be ceded to new companies and more a conversation about who is buying, and why. Will it be studios taking over other studios, or, perhaps, tech giants elbowing further into the industry?

This week the megadeal fever was kickstarted again as it was floated that Warner Bros. Discovery has expressed interest in a tie-up with Paramount Global, following a meeting between Warners CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish in New York last Tuesday. Such a merger would be historic, especially since the rolling back of the 1948 consent decrees that ended in major studios divesting in their theater chains.

Given that such a merger would (once again) reshape the Hollywood landscape, it’s worth remembering the first time Warner Bros. was involved in a mega...

Imagine if you will a line of dominoes that increase in size as they move left to right. A man stands behind the smallest domino, poised to knock it forward, which will instigate a chain reaction leading to the largest domino toppling over. This "domino theory" illustration helps to visualize the causal interconnection between a seemingly innocuous event in the past and a monumental event in the present or near future. It's especially handy when attempting to understand how 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck's mother getting a cold in 1908 led indirectly to the creation and broad success of the comedy procedural series "Bones" in 2005. And not because "Bones" was a Fox show. The connection is much more serpentine and intriguing.

You see, when the Wahoo, Wisconsin-born Sarah Louise Zanuck caught a hard-to-shake chill in the latter years of the 20th century's first decade, she thought it'd...

The movie industry gave the late Erik Lomis — the bold and shrewd studio distribution chief who released hundreds of movies during his career — a fitting sendoff Wednesday night.

Lomis, who died suddenly in March at age 64, posthumously received the 2023 Will Rogers Pioneer of the Year Award during an emotional and touching ceremony at The Beverly Hilton on Oct. 4. And, in a surprise for those attending, Philadelphia Eagles’ radio announcer Merrill Reese narrated a tribute reel shown before team Eagles mascot Swoop presented the Pioneer Award to Lomis’ widow, Patricia Laucella (the Philly born and raised Lomis was a diehard Eagles fan).

Patricia Laucella

“Your instinct and inspiration never led you astray. I’m honored to have worked so closely with you,” said Creed series star and Creed III director Michael B. Jordan via video (the MGM threequel was the last film Lomis released in theaters before his death).

The long list of filmmakers,...

Joan Collins, now 90, has had a storied movie and television career. She rose to fame in 1952 after appearing in the British film I Believe In You. Collins moved her career to the United States, believing that after several years in the British film industry, she had a handle on how the business worked. After a serendipitous meeting with Marilyn Monroe over martinis, Joan Collins learned she had underestimated just how predatory Hollywood was. In a recently published essay, Collins recalled the chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe and how she warned her about the dark side of Hollywood.

Joan Collins said Marilyn Monroe warned her about the Hollywood ‘wolves’

Joan Collins penned an article for The Daily Mail earlier this month. In the article, the starlet opened up about the predatory nature of Hollywood and exactly how she learned about it. She said she met Marilyn Monroe when she was new to the scene.

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...

Frank Sinatra had a healthy and robust love life. The blue-eyed crooner romanced several stunning women and married multiple times. While many people remember his marriage to Mia Farrow, he was also married to another starlet. Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner were married for several tumultuous years, and their romance began with shooting out streetlights.

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra’s first meeting involved guns

While most people who are romantically interested in each other test things out with dinner and a movie, that was a bit too boring for Gardner and Sinatra. According to Vanity Fair, the couple’s romance began with a wild drunken night out that ended at the police station in Indio, California.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner | CBS via Getty Images

Gardner and Sinatra met at a party hosted by Darryl Zanuck, an entertainment executive. The stars were both drunk when they decided to leave the party together.

“How did I become Tom Joad? I used to write for a living.”

Tom Joad was the hapless farmer in The Grapes of Wrath who fled the Dust Bowl to find a better life in California. The man who cited him this week is a successful screenwriter who’s been walking the picket line and asked that I not use his name.

While the cast of pickets might not mirror John Steinbeck’s characters in his great novel, still “the rhetoric of this strike has taken on a ‘rich against the poor’ obsession,” in the words of one studio CEO.

The bargaining jargon once focused on residuals, but now it’s about “land barons” and “tone-deaf greedy bosses” (the words of SAG-AFTRA’s Fran Drescher). Little wonder polling shows only 7% of the public siding with the “bosses.” The “class warfare” has passed the 100-day mark, with L.A. city workers joining in Tuesday.

Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation (Wrmppf) is honoring one of their biggest champs this year with a posthumous recognition: late MGM and United Artists Distribution Boss Erik Lomis. The honor will be recognized at the October 4 dinner at The Beverly Hilton.

Lomis, who was a force in getting movie theaters back open as Covid quelled, and a proponent of the theatrical window with the release of the 007 title No Time to Die, passed away suddenly at 64 on March 22. Lomis was also known for his relentless and passionate fundraising for Will Rogers.

Lomis hosted last year’s Pioneer dinner which honored James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

A tradition for more than 75 years, the Pioneer of the Year Award is bestowed upon esteemed and respected members in the motion picture industry whose corporate leadership, service to the community and commitment to philanthropy are exceptional. All proceeds...

Late Hollywood movie distributor Erik Lomis is being honored posthumously with this year’s Will Rogers Pioneer of the Year Award.

The industry has been looking for a way to pay tribute to Lomis, who died suddenly in March and was a champion of the theatrical business.

The honor will take place Oct. 4 at The Beverly Hilton. Proceeds from the event go to the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation Assistance Fund, which supports individuals in the theatrical entertainment community dealing with illness, injury or a life-changing event.

“We are honored to celebrate Erik’s life and recognize his achievements in the motion picture industry with the Pioneer of the Year Award,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Paramount Pictures and Wrmppf past president and chairman. “His distinguished leadership and contributions to the film business, along with his tremendous advocacy, generosity and support of humanitarian causes and philanthropic endeavors,...

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ “Cleopatra,” which opened in New York on June 12, 1963 and in Los Angeles a week later, was not a flop. In fact, the 243-minute film was a box office champ making $26 million at the box office, $6 million more than the Cinerama epic “How the West was Won.” But being the most expensive movie of its time — the budget ended up being around $44 million which would be around $429.5 million in 2023 — it took a long time to recoup its staggering costs. The film was such a drain on Twentieth Century Fox, the studio ended up having to sell nearly 300 acres of its backlot. That acreage was transformed into Century City.

The budgets started to soar when the original production with Elizabeth Taylor, who asked for and received $1 million for her services, Peter Finch as Julius Caesar, Stephen Boyd as Marc Antony and veteran filmmaker Rouben Mamoulian as director, stopped production...

The Warner brothers — Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack — were different from Hollywood’s other movie moguls in the industry’s early years. They were shrewd, brash, outspoken and passionate in ways that deviated from the industry norm. The most publicly consistent brother was Harry, a stoic businessman and proud immigrant. Sam was the technical visionary who was gone too soon. Albert largely avoided the public eye, although he served as a loyal ambassador to the family brand. Jack was the wild child, the entertainer, the sometimes unpredictable one.

Those talents served them well during a transitional time for what would become the filmed entertainment industry. The year 1903 marked that transition, moving from what historian Tom Gunning calls a “cinema of attractions,” based on simple spectatorship of an event, to narrative storytelling, which allowed audiences to get lost in what they saw onscreen. There was only one way to test the...

A year ago, Beat the Devils author Josh Weiss introduced the world to Morris Baker, an L.A. police detective living in an alternate history 1950s in which Joseph McCarthy was president. All sorts of things are worse under McCarthy, with hatred and paranoia at the forefront of America. Now the book has spawned a sequel that delves more into the Hollywood of an imagined past.

Sunset Empire arrives Tuesday, and finds Morris Baker living as a private investigator seeking to solve a missing person’s case as the Korean War rages on. The missing person? Henry Kissinger.

Morris Baker is personal for Weiss, who loosely based the character off of his late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor.

“While the world of Morris Baker takes place in an alternate timeline, the core takeaway is how blind hatred endures via endless cycles that we as a species seem doomed to repeat until the end of time,...

One of the most time-consuming aspects of being a cinephile is worrying about the health and longevity of TCM. The venerable broadcast television channel dedicated to classic Hollywood cinema has grown since its 1994 launch into a kind of preservationist and enthusiast's empire that includes an annual film festival, an original film distribution arm, a releasing imprint, and a slew of diverse programming initiatives (not to mention a wine club). TCM certainly seems to be in better health than most entities dedicated segments of the film ecosystem that are -- by virtue of not being focused on the biggest, brightest, latest thing -- not exactly profit drivers. It has survived both a massive merger between AT&T and its parent company, Time Warner, and a subsequent divestment of AT&T and acquisition by Discovery in all but five years, after all.

But the brand's new overlord, Warner Bros. Discovery, shelving completed films...

There were numerous superstars during the silent era from the clown princes of comedy Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to such dramatic and action icons as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish. One was a good boy — the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. Not only is Rin Tin Tin, aka Rinty, credited with saving Warner Bros., but Hollywood lore also insists he, not Emil Jannings, was the first Best Actor Oscar winner.

With Warner Brothers celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s time to look at the Rinty phenomenon and its place in Hollywood history.

Rinty wasn’t the first canine star. Blair, the pet collie of British director Cecil Hepworth, headlined his 1905 thriller “Rescued by Rover.” The film was so popular it had to be shot twice because the...

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ won the top prize at the 2023 PGA Awards. Other winners at the Producers Guild of America awards ceremony include ‘Navalny’, ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’, ‘The Bear’ and ‘The White Lotus’.

Daveed Diggs kicked off the show with opening comments. ‘Pinocchio’ was the first winner of the night, presented by Hacksa Hannah Einbinder, as del Toro noted it was “a fantastic year for animation, every artist in this category is trying to push it,” once again emphasising that animation is an art form for audiences beyond children, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

B.J. Novak presented the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television to Mindy Kaling, recalling their early days together at ‘The Office’ and their careers since. “She knows a lot about producing now but she was great at it even before she did, because she’s a great producer for the same reason that many people,...

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Navalny, The White Lotus among winners.

As the Oscar season marathon nears the end, A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once has struck a crucial blow, taking the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) top feature award on Saturday night (February 25).

The Daniels’ sci-fi adventure beat a 10-strong field led by seven Oscar nominees to prevail in the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures contest.

One week after a disappointing Bafta haul, this will bring renewed confidence to the Everywhere… camp heading into Sunday’s SAG Awards where the newly-anointed...

On Saturday, the Producers Guild of America gathered at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles to hand out the 2023 PGA Awards.

While the ceremony honors the achievements of producers across media, meaning awards were given out to series like “The White Lotus” and “The Bear,” the documentary “Navalny,” and animated feature “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” its theatrical film award, which was won by “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” is the one all eyes were on.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures is often seen as a bellwether for the Best Picture Oscar, as 23 of the last 33 winners have gone on to win the Academy Award. In the room to accept were executive producers Jonathan Wang, Daniel Kwan, and Daniel Scheinert (the latter two also wrote and directed the hit multiversal dramedy from A24). The PGA Award win solidifies their status as frontrunners...

The 34th annual Producers Guild Awards named A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once its best picture Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, capping a week of nominees celebrations honoring the PGA’s best in motion pictures and TV.

Everything Everywhere, the Oscar leader with 11 nominations, only added to its awards-season momentum by winning the PGA’s marquee Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. The nominees list also included Warner Bros’ Elvis, Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick, and Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

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“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been named the best-produced film of 2022 at the Producers Guild Awards, which were held on Saturday evening in Los Angeles.

The freewheeling indie film won in a category that also included the formidable blockbusters “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The PGA had been a must-win awards show for “Top Gun,” and the fact that “Everything Everywhere” won is reminiscent of the low-budget “Coda” winning this award last year on its way to an unlikely Oscar Best Picture win.

The Producers Guild is also the only other awards show apart from the Oscars that uses the preferential or ranked-choice system of counting the votes in its top category. That system is designed to find a consensus choice, and the biggest question surrounding “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been whether it was too polarizing to win under that system.

The...

The 2023 Producers Guild of America Awards are underway at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

A strong bellwether for the Oscars’ top prize, seven of this year’s best picture nominees are recognized by the guild in the film category: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár” and “Top Gun: Maverick.”

This marked the first year the PGA nominated four sequels, which also included “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

Actor-producer Tom Cruise will be honored with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award, which recognizes a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in motion pictures. The Selznick Award has a distinguished history with past recipients including such legendary producers as Steven Spielberg, Barbara Broccoli, Mary Parent, Brian Grazer, David Heyman and Kevin Feige.

Four of the five PGA nominees are...