Toronto - On movie set visits, occasionally journalists won't get the chance to talk to directors at all. Sometimes the directors are artistes, too far down the cinematic rabbit hole to engage in casual chit-chat with the fourth estate. Sometimes the directors merely glorified puppets, but the producers are happy to put themselves forward instead. And sometimes the directors are friendly, smart and well-adjusted, but making movies is such complicated work that they can't spare more than two minutes for a smile-and-wave, lest the production between to teeter like an ill-formed game of Mouse Trap. Guillermo del Toro plays by his own rules. It's mid-March on the Toronto set of Legendary/Universal’s "Crimson Peak" and del Toro is literally lifting the roof off of his production to let a small group of reporters see the inner-workings of his Victorian haunted house drama. Actually, over the course of a lengthy day on set,...
- 7/17/2014
- by Daniel Fienberg
- Hitfix
When I heard that Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook was making a gothic thriller with a supernatural edge called Stoker, I assumed that it was going to be about Bram Stoker, the author of the ultimate gothic novel, Dracula. Apparently not though, but if the recently released poster is any indication, it still looks pretty gothic.
The image comes to us via The Film Stage, and has an appropriate atmospheric edge to it. Characters are entangled in hand-drawn vines, along with a coffin, owls, a piano, a skull and … are those shoes? Ok. On the whole, very intriguing.
Equally intriguing is Stoker‘s plot: Mia Wasikowska plays a young woman who loses her father in an auto accident. Cue the arrival of her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode),who moves in and promptly begins raising suspicions with his charm. Add to that an emotionally unstable Mommy in the form of Nicole Kidman,...
The image comes to us via The Film Stage, and has an appropriate atmospheric edge to it. Characters are entangled in hand-drawn vines, along with a coffin, owls, a piano, a skull and … are those shoes? Ok. On the whole, very intriguing.
Equally intriguing is Stoker‘s plot: Mia Wasikowska plays a young woman who loses her father in an auto accident. Cue the arrival of her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode),who moves in and promptly begins raising suspicions with his charm. Add to that an emotionally unstable Mommy in the form of Nicole Kidman,...
- 10/30/2012
- by Lauren Humphries-Brooks
- We Got This Covered
Actor who became a prolific TV director
Peter Hammond, who has died aged 87, moved from acting to become a prolific TV director, contributing to series including The Avengers, Granada's Sherlock Holmes series and Inspector Morse. It was with The Avengers in 1961 that he first made his mark. Hammond and his colleague Don Leaver directed 19 of the opening 26 episodes of the series between them and were largely responsible for creating its distinctive look in its pre-film days.
Hammond established himself as a quick worker who still managed to bring flair to his episodes. He developed a trademark style in which the confines of the small studio spaces would be enlivened by "foreground interest" and scenes would be distorted or heightened by being shot through glass or caught in the reflection of a mirror. This distinctive visual effect would reappear in productions as diverse as the studio-bound Three Musketeers (1966) and Dark Angel,...
Peter Hammond, who has died aged 87, moved from acting to become a prolific TV director, contributing to series including The Avengers, Granada's Sherlock Holmes series and Inspector Morse. It was with The Avengers in 1961 that he first made his mark. Hammond and his colleague Don Leaver directed 19 of the opening 26 episodes of the series between them and were largely responsible for creating its distinctive look in its pre-film days.
Hammond established himself as a quick worker who still managed to bring flair to his episodes. He developed a trademark style in which the confines of the small studio spaces would be enlivened by "foreground interest" and scenes would be distorted or heightened by being shot through glass or caught in the reflection of a mirror. This distinctive visual effect would reappear in productions as diverse as the studio-bound Three Musketeers (1966) and Dark Angel,...
- 1/2/2012
- by Dick Fiddy
- The Guardian - Film News
Craig Updegrove's designed the poster for the Anchorage International Film Festival, opening today and running through December 11.
"Peter Kosminsky has earned that rare accolade for a director of television drama: a retrospective at the BFI." In the Telegraph, Jasper Rees notes that Kosminsky is "a pretty much unique figure in contemporary television who has devoted his career to giving the powerful sleepless nights. Tony Blair's sofa cabinet all hated The Government Inspector. The NHS was excoriated in Innocents, his drama about Bristol heart surgeons. The MoD weren't big fans of his early documentary about the Falklands. Laws have been rewritten thanks to Kosminsky's zest for asking awkward questions in front of millions of viewers." Peter Kosminsky: Making Mischief opens today and runs through December 22. On a somewhat related note — it's about British television, anyway — for Film Quarterly, Mark Fisher looks back at Andrew Davies's A Very Peculiar Practice,...
"Peter Kosminsky has earned that rare accolade for a director of television drama: a retrospective at the BFI." In the Telegraph, Jasper Rees notes that Kosminsky is "a pretty much unique figure in contemporary television who has devoted his career to giving the powerful sleepless nights. Tony Blair's sofa cabinet all hated The Government Inspector. The NHS was excoriated in Innocents, his drama about Bristol heart surgeons. The MoD weren't big fans of his early documentary about the Falklands. Laws have been rewritten thanks to Kosminsky's zest for asking awkward questions in front of millions of viewers." Peter Kosminsky: Making Mischief opens today and runs through December 22. On a somewhat related note — it's about British television, anyway — for Film Quarterly, Mark Fisher looks back at Andrew Davies's A Very Peculiar Practice,...
- 12/2/2011
- MUBI
Production designer behind the deadly gadgets used by James Bond – and his foes
The production designer Syd Cain, who has died aged 93, was one of many behind-the-scenes professionals elevated to something like prominence by the worldwide interest in the James Bond films. An industry veteran who began work in British cinema as a draughtsman in 1947, contributing to the look of the gothic melodrama Uncle Silas, Cain is credited on a range of film and television projects, but remains best known for his work in various design capacities on the 007 series, from Dr No in 1962 to GoldenEye in 1995.
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Cain served in the armed forces in the second world war, surviving a plane crash and recovering from a broken back. Working at Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire in the 1940s and 50s, he moved up from uncredited draughtsman (on Adam and Evelyne, The Interrupted Journey, You Know What Sailors Are...
The production designer Syd Cain, who has died aged 93, was one of many behind-the-scenes professionals elevated to something like prominence by the worldwide interest in the James Bond films. An industry veteran who began work in British cinema as a draughtsman in 1947, contributing to the look of the gothic melodrama Uncle Silas, Cain is credited on a range of film and television projects, but remains best known for his work in various design capacities on the 007 series, from Dr No in 1962 to GoldenEye in 1995.
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Cain served in the armed forces in the second world war, surviving a plane crash and recovering from a broken back. Working at Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire in the 1940s and 50s, he moved up from uncredited draughtsman (on Adam and Evelyne, The Interrupted Journey, You Know What Sailors Are...
- 12/2/2011
- by Kim Newman
- The Guardian - Film News
Fascinated by stories of her mysterious estranged Uncle Silas and his portrait, Maud Ruthyn soon finds herself under his care when her father suddenly dies unexpectedly. With a blind devotion to her “Papa”, Maud is unwilling to believe unnerving rumours about her uncle and is unruffled by his challenging of her father's will. But as days pass on her Uncle's estate, Maud becomes a prisoner locked in a room and everyone seems to scheme against her. There are soon very few people she can trust, with the exception of the Gamekeeper's daughter, Peg; the inaccessible maid, Mary, and her equally difficult to reach, Aunt Monica.
Before her father's demise in the first episode, there are already signs life will not be easy for the young heiress. Cousin Monica's warning for Maud to not be frightened but “be on [her] guard” indicates there'll be a turn in events. The introduction of the...
Before her father's demise in the first episode, there are already signs life will not be easy for the young heiress. Cousin Monica's warning for Maud to not be frightened but “be on [her] guard” indicates there'll be a turn in events. The introduction of the...
- 6/2/2011
- Shadowlocked
Network DVD have announced the UK DVD release of the classic horror series Mystery and Imagination on July 5th 2010. This critically acclaimed and extremely popular anthology series presents a selection of Gothic tales by legendary 19th Century writers: Robert Louis Stevenson’s nihilistic The Suicide Club, Sheridan le Fanu’s Uncle Silas plus Edgar Allen Poe to name but a few, not to mention a most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Famous faces and well – known names lend this most chilling collection of tales authenticity and truth. Ian Holm, Denholm Elliot and Patrick Mower are among the many who turn in powerhouse performances for each of the six specially commissioned, featured-length TV plays. Freddie Jones’s performance as the demented pie-maker, Sweeney Todd, lingers in the memory long after the credit has rolled and the television turned off!
This release contains every remaining episode of Mystery and Imagination,...
Famous faces and well – known names lend this most chilling collection of tales authenticity and truth. Ian Holm, Denholm Elliot and Patrick Mower are among the many who turn in powerhouse performances for each of the six specially commissioned, featured-length TV plays. Freddie Jones’s performance as the demented pie-maker, Sweeney Todd, lingers in the memory long after the credit has rolled and the television turned off!
This release contains every remaining episode of Mystery and Imagination,...
- 6/10/2010
- by Phil
- Nerdly
British actress Jean Simmons earned an Oscar nomination early in her career for her portrayal of Ophelia in Laurence Olivier’s 1948 production of Hamlet. Years later she starred as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the 1991 remake of the Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows.
Simmons was born in Crouch Hill, London, England, on January 31, 1929. She began studying dance in the early 1940s, and made her film debut in 1944. She made an impression as Estrella, the spoiled young lady, in David Lean’s 1946 film adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectation, and her performance in Hamlet (1948) established her as a star.
Simmons continued her career as the passionate slave girl Kanchi in 1947’s Black Narcissus, and was Caroline Ruthyn in the 1947 Gothic horror Uncle Silas (aka The Inheritance). She starred in the 1952 screen adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion with Alan Young and Victor Mature, and co-starred with Richard Burton...
Simmons was born in Crouch Hill, London, England, on January 31, 1929. She began studying dance in the early 1940s, and made her film debut in 1944. She made an impression as Estrella, the spoiled young lady, in David Lean’s 1946 film adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectation, and her performance in Hamlet (1948) established her as a star.
Simmons continued her career as the passionate slave girl Kanchi in 1947’s Black Narcissus, and was Caroline Ruthyn in the 1947 Gothic horror Uncle Silas (aka The Inheritance). She starred in the 1952 screen adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion with Alan Young and Victor Mature, and co-starred with Richard Burton...
- 2/12/2010
- by Harris Lentz
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
British-born film star known for her roles in Great Expectations and Spartacus
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
- 1/24/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
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