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In 1999, the majority of the testosterone in the United States congregated in Miami, Florida to film Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday." After a pair of commercial disappointments in "Nixon" and "U-Turn," the two-time Oscar-winning director needed a hit, and John Logan's adrenalized football drama was roided-up with box-office potential. Once Stone landed Al Pacino for the role of the embattled head coach, every actor with an athletic physique wanted in.

Jamie Foxx was one of those guys. The comedic dynamo had established himself as a television star via "In Living Color" and "The Jamie Foxx Show," and co-starred with Tommy Davidson in the uproarious sleeper hit "Booty Call." But he wasn't perceived as a serious actor. If anything, he was on track to join the elite class of Martin Lawrence and Chris Tucker as a comedy superstar. This wasn't poverty. Far from it. Both men were guaranteed bank at the box office,...

Will Ferrell was, at one point, about as big of a star as one can hope to find in the world of comedy. Following his legendary stint on "Saturday Night Live," the actor had great success in movies such as "Anchorman" and "Step Brothers" in the first decade of the 2000s. But in 2008, Ferrell led an all-star cast that also included the likes of Woody Harrelson, Andre 3000, Will Arnett, and many other famous comedy faces that audiences know and love in a basketball comedy called "Semi-Pro." It was a movie with all the talent in the world which, unfortunately, didn't quite live up to expectations at the time of its release.

While the film topped the box office on its opening weekend back in March of 2008, it topped out at $44 million worldwide against a reported budget of $55 million. Critics also were not terribly kind to the sports comedy at the time.

With Super Bowl Lvii upon us, we wanted to know what Football (or Football related) movie was your favorite. We compiled a list of scripted movies, so you won’t see the Oscar Winning Documentary Undefeated on the list, but if that is your favorite, please click the other button and let us know why you loved it so much in the comments section.

Favorite Football Film80 For Brady (2023)American Underdog (2021)Paterno (2018)Woodlawn (2015)My All American (2015)Concussion (2015)Balls Out (2014)When The Game Stands Tall (2014)Draft Day (2014)23 Blast (2013)Touchback (2012)The 5th Quarter (2011)The Blind Side (2009)The Longshots (2008)The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008)Leatherheads (2007)The Game Plan (2007)The Comebacks (2007)Gridiron Gang (2006)Facing The Giants (2006)We Are Marshall (2006)Invincible (2006)Two For The Money (2005)The Longest Yard (2005)Friday Night Lights (2004)Radio (2003)Monday Night Mayhem (2002)The Replacements (2000)Remember The Titans (2000)Any Given Sunday (1999)Varsity Blues (1999)Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)The Waterboy (1998)The Garbage...

Season 2 of the Emmy-winning comedy “Hacks,” the debut of Colin Firth’s true-crime drama “The Staircase” and the streaming return of “The Matrix: Resurrections” all await HBO Max subscribers in May. If you’re looking for something new to watch or wondering what’s on HBO Max this month, not to worry, we’ve got the full rundown.

There are several must-watch new TV shows on both HBO and HBO Max this month, new and returning. Acclaimed Jean Smart comedy “Hacks” returns for Season 2 on May 12. As for the new debuts, May sees the premieres for HBO Max’s “The Staircase” on May 5, starring Colin Firth as Michael Peterson in the true-crime limited series, as well as the HBO premiere of Steven Moffat’s (”Doctor Who”) series adaptation of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” on May 15.

New films this month include the streaming return of “The Matrix: Resurrections” and streaming premieres...

With movie theaters fully back up and running, HBO Max no longer has any major film releases to point to with its list of new releases for May 2022. That’s alright though as the streamer is leaning into the HBO side of its branding to offer up some fun TV releases.

The biggest HBO Max original this month is undoubtedly the return of Hacks on May 12. The first season of this comedy starred Jean Smart as a venerated Vegas comedy and Hannah Einbinder as her new millennial assistant. The first batch of episodes was excellent and even won an Emmy or two for its troubles and now season 2 will look to keep up the good vibes.

Premiering on May 15, is The Time Traveler’s Wife. This series adaptation of the 2003 novel (which in turn became a a 2009 movie) keeps up with two star-crossed lovers who can never quite make the timing work…...

Lynn Stalmaster, who was the first casting director to receive an Academy Award, died today at home in Los Angeles. He was 93 and his death was confirmed by Laura Adler of the Casting Society of America.

Stalmaster had a legendary vision for casting. He is credited with moving Dustin Hoffman into The Graduate, Christopher Reeve as Superman, and tabbing the young John Travolta for TV comedy classic Welcome Back, Kotter, among many others.

The November 2016 Governors Awards saw Stalmaster become the first casting director to receive an Academy Award. The honorary Oscar recognized his long and meritorious career.

Stalmaster also had another notable achievement: on Norman Jewison’s 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair Stalmaster became the first casting director to receive a single-card credit in the titles.

Stalmaster has more than 400 casting credits among them such classics as Inherit the Wind (1960), The Great Escape (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), They Shoot Horses,...

Mac Davis, whose music career included recording 20 albums, writing the Elvis Presley hit “In The Ghetto” and starring in films like North Dallas Forty with Nick Nolte and on his own TV show, died Thursday in Nashville. He was 78.

His manager and longtime fried Jim Morey said Davis died after complications from a recent heart surgery.

The Lubbock, Texas-born Davis recorded 20 albums and charted 40 singles and was as prolific a songwriter, with song titles to his credit including “In the Ghetto” and “A Little Less Conversation,” both made famous by Elvis Presley. Other Elvis hits included “Memories” and “Don’t Cry Daddy.” Davis’ songs also included “I Believe in Music,” “Something’s Burning,” “It’s Hard to Be Humble.”

His own singing career took off with another of his own songs, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” which rose to No. 1 on the pop charts which earned him a...

Mac Davis, a pop and country singer who went on to become an actor and host of his own variety show on NBC, has died at age 78. His longtime manager, Jim Morey, posted the news Tuesday night via Facebook.

“He was a music legend but his most important work was that as a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend,” Morey wrote. “I will miss laughing about our many adventures on the road and his insightful sense of humor.” The Country Music Association also confirmed the news via Twitter.

We are heartbroken by the passing of legendary singer-songwriter and former #CMAawards host Mac Davis. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends during this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/nWgkkTLBiQ

— CMA Country Music (@CountryMusic) September 30, 2020

Davis’ songwriting credits include hits like Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto,” “A Little Less Conversation” and “Memories.” He later achieved notoriety on the...

Mac Davis, the singer-songwriter who parlayed pop and country hits into a network TV variety show and acting career, has died. He was 78.

His manager of nearly four decades, Jim Morey, announced Davis’ death on Facebook Tuesday night. “He was a music legend but his most important work was that as a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend,” Morey wrote. “I will miss laughing about our many adventures on the road and his insightful sense of humor.” The Country Music Association later confirmed the news.

Country superstar Kenny Chesney offered his tribute to Davis, saying, “I met Mac as a young artist just starting out on my journey, when he was already a legend and a songwriting hero to me. He welcomed me into his home, and turned that tremendous creative light on me. Even though he’d written ‘In The Ghetto’ for Elvis and had so many incredible hits of his own,...

Mac Davis, the genial singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” penned Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation” and “In the Ghetto” and starred in the football film North Dallas Forty, has died. He was 78.

Davis died Tuesday in Nashville following heart surgery, his longtime manager Jim Morey said in a news release. His family had reported Monday that he was “critically ill” following the surgery.

“Mac Davis has been my client for over 40 years, and more importantly, my best friend,” Morey said. “...

Mac Davis, the genial singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” penned Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation” and “In the Ghetto” and starred in the football film North Dallas Forty, has died. He was 78.

Davis died Tuesday in Nashville following heart surgery, his longtime manager Jim Morey said in a news release. His family had reported Monday that he was “critically ill” following the surgery.

“Mac Davis has been my client for over 40 years, and more importantly, my best friend,” Morey said. “...

There’s no question Hulu wants to get its viewers in the Halloween mood — the streaming service will add a fresh slate of horror movies to its collection once October hits. In addition to watching Jigsaw psychologically torture victims in “Saw,” “Saw 2” and “Saw 6,” audiences will also be able to see the original Hill House in the 1963 thriller “The Haunting.” For those in the mood for a classic, horror favorites from Alfred Hitchcock will also become available come Oct. 1, including “Rear Window,” “Psycho” and “The Birds.”

Anticipated Hulu Originals will also premiere this coming month. Season 2 of “Light as a Feather” will launch on the streamer on Oct. 4, while “Looking for Alaska,” based on John Green’s best-selling novel of the same name, will premiere on Oct. 18.

Scroll through the list below:

Oct. 1

60 Days In: Season 5

Alien Encounters: Season 2-3

American Pickers: Season 19

Basketball Wives La: Seasons 1-5

Biography: The...

Spooky season is upon us, and Hulu is getting into the spirit with a number of horror or Halloween-themed offerings on its October line-up.

Along with Hulu originals like the horror anthology “Into the Dark” and the second season of Stephen King’s “Castle Rock,” the streamer is also offering films from the “Saw,” “Blade” and “Hellraiser” franchises beginning next month. For the more faint of heart, Hulu is also offering three seasons of Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” and the surely adorable “Kids Halloween Baking Championship.”

Not specifically Halloween-themed, but potentially haunting: All six seasons of the original run of “The Hills” will be available to stream on Oct. 1 for those looking to revisit the halcyon days of reality television and questionable late-aughts fashion.

Also Read: Lizzy Caplan's Annie Wilkes Arrives, Causes Mayhem in Hulu's 'Castle Rock' Season 2 Teaser (Video)

Hulu is also debuting all seven...

Every Friday, we’re recommending an older movie available to stream or download and worth seeing again through the lens of our current moment. We’re calling the series “Revisiting Hours“— consider this Rolling Stone’s unofficial film club. This week’s special, Super-Bowl-weekend edition: Dan Epstein on the football-movie classic North Dallas Forty.

Rudely awakened by his alarm clock, Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) fumbles blindly for the prescription drug bottles that line his nightstand. Staggering into the kitchen, he finally locates a couple of precious painkillers, washing them down...

As battle-scarred John Rambo, star and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone uses the post war traumas of real-life war veterans as fuel for a jingoistic revenge fantasy in the mode of Death Wish and Walking Tall. Efficiently directed by Ted Kotcheff, 1982’s First Blood is the quintessential Reagan era action film; the beleaguered Rambo takes up arms against a corrupt Washington state police department and essentially goes to war with his own government. Andrew Lazlo’s beautiful cinematography (utilizing the lush landscapes of British Columbia) recalls Vilmos Zsigmond’s work on The Deer Hunter and Jerry Goldsmith’s thoughtful score conveys an appropriately manly but melancholy mood.

The post First Blood appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

By Todd Garbarini

Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, which opened on Friday, July 18, 1980, had stiff competition at the box office: Airplane!, The Empire Strikes Back, The Shining, Friday the 13th, The Blue Lagoon, The Big Red One, Dressed to Kill, Fame, and The Blues Brothers were all in major release at the time. While Next Movie and did respectable business, it went on to gross even more moola when Universal released is on a double bill with John Landis’s beloved Blues Brothers later. The film picks up sometime after Cheech and Chong’s maiden cinematic outing, Up in Smoke, left off two years earlier. Written by the slapdash and seemingly always high dynamic duo and directed by the latter of the two, Next Movie plays out like their comedy album routines (“Dave” from their self-titled 1971 debut album is one of their best-known and funniest bits) which is exactly...

Over the last few decades – thanks in part to movies and TV shows like Dazed and Confused, Boogie Nights, Anchorman and HBO's Vinyl – there’s been a pronounced pop cultural tendency to reduce the 1970s to little more than a fabulous parade of campy signifiers like mirrored disco balls, brightly-painted muscle cars, platform shoes, bellbottomed jeans, tube tops, Afro hairdos, pornstaches and piles of cocaine.

It's an understandable impulse, of course. (Who doesn't love Afros or piles of cocaine?) But taking such a superficial approach to the seventies means glossing over the grittier,...

Most filmmakers are lucky if they can master one genre in their lifetime, but over the course of a sixty-year career Ted Kotcheff has conquered several. He helmed a grimly funny suspense classic (Wake in Fright); a literate, witty Gregory Peck Western (Billy Two-Hats); fast and funny comedies (Fun with Dick and Jane, Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe); and dramedies where the laughs coexist with unsettling insights into the dark side of the human condition (North Dallas Forty, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz). All of his films are characterized by a vibrant pictorial sense – no one […]...

“I’ve had coaches tell me they’d rather have me go home at night, smoke a bowl, put [my] ass on the couch, play some X-Box, and eat some Cheetos. Rather than being out all night drinking and getting into trouble.” – Scott Fujita on NFL players using marijuana Ever since the film “North Dallas Forty” and “Longest Yard,” we have been acutely aware that painkillers and other recreational dope have been part of the sports landscape.From ShowtimeFormer NFL linebacker Scott Fujita told Jim Rome on this week’s episode of Jim Rome in Showtime this Wednesday at 9 p.m. Et/Pt that the timing of […]...

HitFix's recent spate of "Best Year in Film History" pieces inevitably spurred some furious debate among our readers, with some making compelling arguments for years not included in our pieces (2007 and 1968 were particularly popular choices) and others openly expressing their bewilderment at the inclusion of others (let's just say 2012 took a beating). In the interest of giving voice to your comments, below we've rounded up a few of the most thoughtful, passionate, surprising and occasionally incendiary responses to our pieces, including my own (I advocated for The Year of Our Lynch 2001, which is obviously the best). Here we go... Superstar commenter "A History of Matt," making an argument for 1968: The Graduate. Bullit. The Odd Couple. The Lion in Winter. Planet of the Apes. The Thomas Crown Affair. Funny Girl. Rosemary's Baby. And of course, 2001, A Space Odyssey. And that's only a taste of the greatness of that year. "Lothar the Flatulant,...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. How to decide in the grand scheme of things which film year stands above all others? History gives us no clear methodology to unravel this thorny but extremely important question. Is it the year with the highest average score of movies? So a year that averages out to a B + might be the winner over a field strewn with B’s, despite a few A +’s. Or do a few masterpieces lift up a year so far that whatever else happened beyond those three or four films is of no consequence? Both measures are worthy, and the winner by either of those would certainly be a year not to be sneezed at. But I contend the only true measure of a year’s...

Frank Yablans was president of Paramount during some of the studio’s most golden years from 1971 to 1975. Working under notorious owner Charlie Bludhorn, Yablans’ tenure included such Oscar winners and nominees as The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Paper Moon, Chinatown and Murder On The Orient Express. He died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes this morning, his son, ICM Partners’ Eddy Yablans, told Deadline.

Frank Yablans worked in his early years for Warner Bros, The Walt Disney Company and Filmways and joined Paramount in the late 60s where he spearheaded marketing for Arthur Hiller’s Ryan O’Neal/Ali MacGraw tearjerker Love Story before ascending to the presidency. After leaving Paramount, he went on to a successful career as a producer/exec producer on such films as Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder comedy Silver Streak and Brian De Palma’s The Fury. He also wrote and produced such...

Today on Trailers from Hell, Alan Spencer talks 1982 thriller "First Blood," starring Sylvester Stallone as the legendary Rambo. As battle scarred John Rambo, star and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone uses the post war traumas of real-life war veterans as fuel for a jingoistic revenge fantasy in the mode of "Death Wish" and "Walking Tall." Efficiently directed by Ted Kotcheff ("The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," "North Dallas Forty"), 1982's "First Blood" is the quintessential Reagan era action film; the beleaguered Rambo takes up arms against a corrupt Washington state police department and essentially goes to war with his own government. Andrew Lazlo’s ("Southern Comfort," "Innerspace") beautiful cinematography (utilizing the lush landscapes of British Columbia) recalls Vilmos Zsigmond’s work on "The Deer Hunter" and Jerry Goldsmith’s thoughtful score conveys an...

As battle scarred John Rambo, star and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone uses the post war traumas of real-life war veterans as fuel for a jingoistic revenge fantasy in the mode of Death Wish and Walking Tall. Efficiently directed by Ted Kotcheff (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, North Dallas Forty), 1982's First Blood is the quintessential Reagan era action film; the beleaguered Rambo takes up arms against a corrupt Washington state police department and essentially goes to war with his own government. Andrew Lazlo's (Southern Comfort, Innerspace) beautiful cinematography (utilizing the lush landscapes of British Columbia) recalls Vilmos Zsigmond's work on The Deer Hunter and Jerry Goldsmith's thoughtful score conveys an appropriately manly but melancholy mood.

The post First Blood appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

"Mind-Blowing Psychopaths!" are on their way to Hoboken, New Jersey, as Scavenger Killers has been named Closing Night Film at the 2014 Hoboken International Film Festival.

The special non-competition screening will take place Wednesday, June 4th, at 8pm Et at Middletown’s historic Paramount Theater. Now in its ninth year, the Hoboken International Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious and sought-after film festivals in the country.

Scavenger Killers star Eric Roberts, along with numerous other stars, including several Oscar and Emmy winners and nominees, will be attending the festival at its Opening Night Celebrations and Gala Awards Ceremony.

Can't make it to the fest? Midnight Releasing has a July 1st DVD, VOD, and Digital Download release of Scavenger Killers heading our way.

Release Details

Scavenger Killers will be available across the Us and Canada on a variety of platforms, for the ultimate convenience in viewing. DVD availability is set to include Walmart,...

We return with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. Today’s feature includes teaser trailers for Welcome to My Parlor 2, How to Kill a Zombie, and Kong, Ten Scary Minutes Film contest details, and much more:

Teaser Trailer for Welcome to My Parlor 2 Released: “In 2015… Horror has a new face. Here’s a glimpse into the world of Abel Worthy.”

To learn more, check out the film’s production company’s Facebook and Twitter pages at: http://www.facebook.com/jamtownfilms and http://www.twitter.com/jamtownfilms

———

Kong Teaser Trailer and Cannes Premiere Details: “Billions of years ago on primordial earth, born out of turbulent lava, Kong gets caught in the power struggle between two alien civilizations: One – a highly advanced synthetic-intelligent life form with a ruthless robotic army – seeks to drive the other – a group of determined refugees led by their Chief – to extinction.

We’re back with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. Today’s feature includes a new clip from Preservation, release details for Lfo, App, the first photo from Altergeist, an interview with Felissa Rose, and much more:

First Clip from Preservation: “Actor Christopher Denham takes his second turn in the director’s chair with this finely crafted horror-thriller starring Pablo Schreiber (The Wire, Orange is the New Black), Aaron Staton (Mad Men), and Wrenn Schmidt (Boardwalk Empire). Brothers Sean and Mike Neary, along with Mike’s wife Wit, head out on a hunting trip that doubles as a distraction from their troubles at home. But ignoring the “closed” sign and heading deep into an overgrown nature preserve, they soon find their troubles are only beginning. When all of their gear is stolen, they immediately turn on each other. But the hunted...

A quarter-century ago, Kevin Costner hit a double-play, following up "Bull Durham" with "Field of Dreams" and becoming king of the sports movie. Twenty-five years later, as "Field of Dreams" marks its 25th anniversary (it was released on April 21, 1989), Costner is back with "Draft Day." The movie's about football, not baseball, and Costner's character plays in the executive suite, not on the field, but his mere presence still offers a reminder of great sports movies past.

And after all, isn't nostalgia a key element of sports movies? "Field of Dreams" makes this explicit -- we long for the sports heroes of our childhood, for a supposed long-gone golden age of our preferred sport, as a way of connecting with our past and bridging the generational divide that separates us as adults from our parents. Sports movies offer more than just the drama of winners and losers, or the journey from dream to achievement,...

"Mind-Blowing Psychopaths!" is what the artwork for Scavenger Killers promises, and given the last few weeks we've had around here, we could use a little blowing... mind or otherwise. Okay, scrape your mind up from the gutter and read on!

From the Press Release

Everyone’s heard of the “long arm of the law.” What if there was a homicidal maniac attached to it? Midnight Releasing announces the July 1st DVD, VOD, and Digital Download release of Scavenger Killers, a blood and guts contemporary tale of justice gone very, very wrong.

Scavenger Killers will be available across the Us and Canada on a variety of platforms, for the ultimate convenience in viewing. DVD availability is set to include Walmart, Target, Redbox, and more. On the digital side, the film will be available on all major and minor cable VOD channels as well as major internet platforms including iTunes, Amazon Instant,...

The name director Ted Kotcheff may not be as instantly recognisable as some of his filmmaker contemporaries, but a fertile creative period during the 70s and 80s saw him craft a number of well-received films across a variety of genres – The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (which launched the career of a young, pre-Jaws Richard Dreyfuss), the original Fun with Dick and Jane, North Dallas Forty, Switching Channels and Weekend at Bernie’s.

Arguably, he’s best known for bringing the iconic character of John Rambo into the world with the 1982 ‘Nam-scarred survivalist classic First Blood, but another underappreciated film from his CV is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. 1971’s Wake in Fright was an early addition to the Australian New Wave cinema movement, and remains a vivid and disturbing depiction of the country’s hard-drinking, fiercely masculine subculture of that era. We talked to Kotcheff earlier this month...

New Netflix movies and TV shows are plentiful in February. 

Highlights include:

"Breaking Bad's" final eight episodes (on February 24)"House of Cards" Season 2 (February 14)Showtime's "Queer as Folk" which has been off air since 2005. 

On the movie side of things, new additions to Netflix include:"Mash""The Naked Gun""Sunset Boulevard""Star Trek V: The Final Frontier""Crocodile Dundee 2""Airplane!" 

The full list of everything added:

"Airheads""Airplane!""Airplane 2: The Sequel""Bubba Ho-Tep""City of Men""Cocoon: The Return""The Dancer Upstairs""Death Wish 2""Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry""Down Periscope""Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007""Failure to Launch""Flashdance""From the Terrace""The Good, the Bad and the Ugly""The Hard Way""Harold and Maude""Heartbreakers""Home of the Brave""Intersection""Leap of Faith""A Life Less Ordinary""Marathon Man""Mash""The Naked Gun""North Dallas Forty""Patriot Games""Queer as Folk""Star Trek V: The Final Frontier...

 

Actor Steve Forrest has passed away at the age of 87. The brother of famed actor Dana Andrews, Forrest had a successful career in films and television. A WWII veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, Forrest was discovered by Gregory Peck and appeared in numerous films including Flaming Star, Spies Like Us, The Longest Day, Heller in Pink Tights, North Dallas Forty and Mommie Dearest. He was also a proficient vocalist and golfer. On TV, Forrest enjoyed his greatest success, starring in the short-lived, but fondly remembered British adventure series The Baron. As the titular character in the 1965 show, Forrest played an American antiques dealer living in London who would secretly undertake dangerous international missions in the service of British Intelligence. Forrest also had the lead role in the 1970s hit TV series S.W.A.T.  For more click here...

Los Angeles — Charles Durning grew up in poverty, lost five of his nine siblings to disease, barely lived through D-Day and was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge.

His hard life and wartime trauma provided the basis for a prolific 50-year career as a consummate Oscar-nominated character actor, playing everyone from a Nazi colonel to the pope to Dustin Hoffman's would-be suitor in "Tootsie."

Durning, who died Monday at age 89 in New York, got his start as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, N.Y. When one of the comedians showed up too drunk to go on, Durning took his place. He would recall years later that he was hooked as soon as he heard the audience laughing.

He told The Associated Press in 2008 that he had no plans to stop working. "They're going to carry me out, if I go," he said.

Durning's longtime agent and friend,...

Charles Durning grew up in poverty, lost five of his nine siblings to disease, barely lived through D-Day and was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge.

His hard life and wartime trauma provided the basis for a prolific 50-year career as a consummate Oscar-nominated character actor, playing everyone from a Nazi colonel to the pope to Dustin Hoffman’s would-be suitor in Tootsie.

Durning, who died Monday at age 89 in New York, got his start as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, N.Y. When one of the comedians showed up too drunk to go on,...

Drafthouse Films announced that they will be bringing 1971′s Wake in Fright to Blu-ray and DVD in January. Continue reading for the official release details and cover art:

A schoolteacher gets waylaid in the Australian outback and takes a journey into the heart of darkness in Wake In Fright, a revered and groundbreaking thriller that for 40 years lived only in the memory of its initial viewers. But following its miraculous recovery and restoration, the “lost” film made a triumphant return to screens nationwide this fall. Now it will make its home entertainment debut when Drafthouse Films releases it on high-definition Blu-ray and DVD on January 15, 2013.

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake In Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films of modern Australian cinema. Author Neil Rattigan, in his book about the New Australian Cinema, Images of Australia, called it “a cinematic trip into hell. … No other Australian...

Ted Kotcheff's once lost award-winning film Wake in Fright is getting set to make its long awaited arrival onto DVD and Blu-ray, and believe me, horror fans; this is one trip to the Outback you're really gonna want to take!

From the Press Release

A schoolteacher gets waylaid in the Australian Outback and takes a journey into the heart of darkness in Wake In Fright, a revered and groundbreaking thriller that for 40 years lived only in the memory of its initial viewers. But following its miraculous recovery and restoration, the "lost" film made a triumphant return to screens nationwide this fall. Now it will make its home entertainment debut when Drafthouse Films releases it on high-definition Blu-ray and DVD on January 15, 2013.

Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake In Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films of modern Australian cinema. Author Neil Rattigan, in his book about the New Australian Cinema,...

Better football through chemistry.

This four-word quote from North Dallas Forty says nearly all you need to know about the film. Uttered by aging, battered wide receiver Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) as he receives a numbing injection in his knee -- thus allowing him to limp through another game -- it's one of many cynical quotes in an entirely cynical movie.

The cynicism about professional football is well deserved, at least if you believe novelist Peter Gent's take on his years as a Dallas Cowboy in the 1960s. Gent was none too charitable toward the Cowboys in his 1973 novel North Dallas Forty, on which the film is based. (Gent also co-wrote the script.) He tells a sordid tale of professional football's win-at-all-costs mentality, with greedy team owners and victory-obsessed coaches doping up players so they can play with crippling injuries. It's also a tale of brutish machismo; the players live in a testosterone-fueled,...

by Steve Dollar

Redeemed from a Pittsburgh warehouse days before it was to be incinerated, the negatives of Ted Kotcheff's 1971 beer-soaked Outback misadventure Wake in Fright were painstakingly restored in 2009, marking the return of a long-lost classic. A bare-knuckled saga of madness and mayhem in a land without women but lots of kangaroos, the film details the humiliating transformation of uptight, city-slicker schoolteacher John Grant (Gary Bond) when his holiday trip home from the boondocks gets sidetracked during a stopover in "The Yabba"–a frontier town where, after losing all his money in a frenzied gambling game called "Two Up," he falls in with a crew of local rowdies, including an amazing Donald Pleasance as an alcoholic doctor given to existential pronouncements and bouts of sodomy. Admirers of the movie, whose number include the rocker Nick Cave and director Martin Scorsese, consider it the great lost Australian film, even...

Wake In Fright is a terrifying horror film from 1971 starring Donald Pleasance and directed by Ted Kotcheff (First Blood, Weekend At Bernies, North Dallas Forty) . Never heard of it? You’ll be hearing a lot about it soon. Wake In Fright opens theatrically in New York on October 5 at The Film Forum (NYC), October 19 at The Nuart (La) and will have a national release to follow in major cities after screening at Fantastic Fest 2012 next week (Drafthouse Films). Wake In Fright was based on Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel Wake in Fright. Gary Bond plays a naive young Australian teacher who is tragically unprepared for his new position in the outback. The community he has been sent to is populated almost exclusively by amoral, primitive toughs, more interested in slaughtering kangaroos and sexual carousing than in such niceties as education or propriety. The methodical shattering of Bond’s dearly held values...

The fans are in the seats, the fields have been lined in white and the players are ready for some football action. Can’t you smell it in the air? The early days of Fall are here and we’re in the thick of the hallowed football time of year – high school, college and NFL. Wamg is counting down our 35 favorite football films you need to see before the kickoff of pigskin season. It’s never too early or too late to talk the sport loved by fans everywhere. Many of these true stories can be found on DVD, Blu-ray and Video On Demand. Let us know in the comments section below how you would have ranked your favorite football movies or if we left any on the sidelines.

1. Rudy

“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there...

When the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants kick off the 2012 National Football League season tonight, so begins another epic roller-coaster adventure towards the Super Bowl. Sometimes, football seems like the closest thing America has to a national religion, and some of sports’ greatest and most dramatic moments unfolded on the gridiron, while tens of millions of fans watched on television. No wonder such memorable plays are tagged with nicknames like the Immaculate Reception, the Hail Mary, and the Music City Miracle.

It’s the ultimate team sport, and the game is often breathtaking in its complexity and its brutality.

Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema announced today their acquisition of North American rights to classic Australian thriller Wake In Fright. Alongside Mad Max and Walkabout, Wake In Fright is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal films in the development of modern Australian cinema.     Directed by Ted Kotcheff (Rambo: First Blood, North Dallas Forty), the film tells the story of a British schoolteacher's descent into personal demoralization at the hands of drunken, deranged derelicts while stranded in a small town in outback Australia.  Virtually unseen in the United States and renowned in its home country after years of neglect, Wake In Fright is ripe for rediscovery and returns to cinemas beginning with engagements at Film Forum in New York City on October 5th, The NuArt  in Los Angeles on October 19th and expanding to additional markets before a home video and VOD release in Q1 of 2013. 

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Tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the NFL will welcome its next class of millionaires as the league’s worst teams get the first shot at college football’s biggest stars. Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Baylor’s Heisman-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III are the sure-thing first two picks, as Indianapolis and Washington have made their intentions clear. In fact, the NFL Draft has been so obsessed over by the likes of Espn’s Mel Kiper Jr. that it makes Academy Awards handicapping seem restrained.

So rather than pretend to offer any fresh insight about tonight’s event,...

In October of 2010, Sound on Sight asked me to do my first commemorative piece on the passing of filmmaker Arthur Penn. I suspect I was asked because I was the only one writing for the site old enough to have seen Penn’s films in theaters. Whatever the reason, it was an unexpectedly rewarding if expectedly bittersweet experience which led to a series of equally rewarding but bittersweet experiences writing on the passing of other filmdom notables.

I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...

In Warrior, Nick Nolte plays a recovering alcoholic whose destructive addiction cost him his family, including his two sons, played by Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. In his raging days, Paddy Conlon pushed his boys to be champions — one more than the other, perhaps — and when they enter the world of Mixed Martial Arts fighting, Nolte’s guilt-ridden pop seizes the opportunity to right past wrongs and salvage some sense of family. Characterized by a solemn bearing that masks a volcanic temper, Paddy fits Nolte almost too close for comfort, and it might be the best performance of his career.

Peter Gent, the man who penned the novel that inspired cult 1979 sports movie North Dallas Forty, has died of complications from pulmonary disease.

Gent, a sportsman who played football for the Dallas Cowboys in the late 1960s, died on Friday at his home in Bangor, Michigan. He was 69.

He was drafted by basketball team the Baltimore Bullets after college, but instead chose to follow a short-lived football career with the Cowboys.

His experiences inspired his gritty, breakout 1973 novel North Dallas Forty, which drew praise for exposing the locker room world of the sport.

Gent co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, which starred Nick Nolte, Mac Davis and G.D. Spradlin.

It wasn't his only literary success - Gent also wrote the novels Texas Celebrity Turkey Trot, The Franchise and The Last Magic Summer. He also penned a sequel to his literary debut, North Dallas After Forty.

Movie Fanatic first meets Brad Pitt as we secure our coffee outside the press room at the Toronto Film Festival. As I turn around, there he is: The most famous actor in the world. “How you doing?” he asks in his cooler than cool drawl. As we enter the press conference for Moneyball, there is a sense from the film’s lead that he has truly hit it out of the park with his latest film. He would be spot on.

Once in the interview room we want to know what Pitt’s favorite sports-themed films are and he doesn’t hesitate in his answer. “As a kid I loved The Bad News Bears, we talked a lot about that one. Also North Dallas Forty with Nick Nolte, I think that was the first R-rated movie I snuck into, so it has a special place in my heart,” Pitt said and laughed.

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We've always had a soft spot for Nick Nolte, whose rough exterior always seemed to hide a heart of gold.

After a promising start in 'Rich Man, Poor Man,' 'North Dallas Forty,' 'Who'll Stop the Rain' and his turns in '48 Hrs.' and 'Under Fire,' Nolte's rise in Hollywood was stymied by some bad choices (both on and off the screen), and the gruff-voiced star's career pretty much slowed down after 1986's 'Down and Out in Beverly Hills,' though his performance 10 years later in 'Affliction' was to die for -- reaffirming our belief that this guy can act the hell out of a role when he wants to.

Though not a marquee topper, Nolte is still out there, and he has a buzzworthy role ready to hit the screens in Gavin O'Connor's boxing drama 'Warrior,...

Character actor who portrayed smarmy politicians, sadistic generals and unspeakable authoritarian figures

There is a scene in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather: Part II (1974) that crystallises the entire film career of the character actor Gd Spradlin, who has died aged 90. As the corrupt senator Pat Geary, Spradlin asks the mafia boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) for a bribe, so that he can grant gaming licences to the "family" for several casinos in Nevada. During the meeting, Geary launches into an attack on the Corleones, a name he pronounces with derision. "I intend to squeeze you. I don't like your kind of people. I don't like to see you come out to this clean country with oily hair and trussed up in those silk suits trying to pass yourselves off as decent Americans. I'll do business with you, but the fact is I despise you masquerading in the dishonest way you pose yourself.

Film score fans have long sought a CD re-release of John Scott's music from 1984's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Starring cult favorite Christopher Lambert and directed by Chariots of Fire's Hugh Hudson, the film also introduced screen beauty Andie MacDowell (whose voice in the film was dubbed by Glenn Close).Today, La-La Land Records announced a limited edition release of the soundtrack.From the press release:la-La Land Records presents the premiere CD release of composer John Scott's (The Final Countdown, Shoot To Kill, North Dallas Forty) magnificent...