CNN host John King has just announced that legendary talk show host Larry King has confirmed by Twitter that he will end his long-running talk show this fall. No other details were given but King will address the decision this evening on his program. There has been speculation that CNN would not renew King's contract due to plummeting ratings and what many believe is an outdated style of conducting interviews. King's achievements include many memorable sit-downs with legendary actors and politicians, but his penchant for conducting sparse research has often led to criticism that he was conducting lightweight interviews and throwing softball questions. Nevertheless, King's record is among the most impressive in all of TV history and he has been a main figure at CNN since the early days of the network.

UPDATE: On his program this evening, King told guest Bill Maher that it was his decision to quit the show and that he had not been pressured by CNN. He expressed gratitude that the network allowed him to remain on the air for 25 years but said he wanted more time to spend with his wife and kids. King said he would still be affiliated with the network and would host various specials in the future.

Good news: now you can pay to have your intelligence insulted by watching episodes of shlock like The Bachelorette on Hulu.

Hulu, the popular web site that allows viewers to watch recent episodes of major TV series for free, has bowed to pressure from investors and launched an optional pay-per-view service that will cost $10. Here's the kicker: even after paying, you'll still be subjected to the same amount of ads that viewers of the free service have to suffer through. Advertisements are understandable on the free version of Hulu - after all, the viewer isn't paying to watch the episodes. However, one would think that after dropping $10 per month, you would be spared the type of annoying advertisements that have made television viewing virtually unwatchable in recent years. Hulu counters the complaints by saying paid subscribers will have a wider range of episodes to view and that maintaining the ads will keep the subscription price low. Remember in the early days of cable TV how we all naively believed that by paying for service, we would get commercial-free broadcasts? Before long, we were subjected to infernal assaults on our senses as both movies and re-runs of TV series were not only aired with commercials, but were chopped to pieces to accommodate more and more ads. Hulu does offer episodes of some classic, vintage shows but here's hoping the public doesn't fall for the same trap again. Stick with the free Hulu and relish the knowledge that you aren't paying for suffering through those ads. Besides, how brain dead do you have to be to pay to watch episodes of The Bachelorette? - Lee Pfeiffer

Photo: Rick Baker, John Landis, Ray and Peter Jackson with a statue of the famous stop-motion animator. Photo(c) 2010 Mark Mawston. All rights reserved.

To celebrate Ray Harryhausen's 90th Birthday, a special party was hosted at The London Film Museum, which also launched an exhibition of props and artifacts to celebrate the great film legend's career. Friends from within the industry, all famous in their own right, turned up to pay their respects to the great man, including Peter Jackson, John Landis, Terry Gilliam, and SFX make-up supremo, Rick Baker. Cinema Retro was invited to cover the event and our on-the-spot photographer Mark Mawston captured the action. A full report to follow.

Sam Peckinpah’s The Deadly Companions starring Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith has never been released in Germany in any form other than being shown on television, so Retro ‘regular’ Mike Siegel, one of the world’s foremost experts on the renegade director, was more than pleased when his friend Ulrich Bruckner of Koch-media asked him to co-produce a special edition DVD for the German/Austrian market. Koch-media also specialize in rare and niche titles on DVD, with titles including The Sergio Sollima Western box set, Blindman, and special editions of certain Hammer films, to name but a few.

Siegel had just completed and co-produced the very successful German 2-disc special edition on Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. Although Bruckner has since left Koch-media, the label owned the rights to The Deadly Companions and Siegel agreed to supply the bonus materials for this new release, for which a superb new widescreen transfer was utilized. (The same print had been used for the Japanese release DVD, which unfortunately, did not contain any bonus materials).

Siegel produced all the supplements, including a 28-minute featurette about Peckinpah’s early days; Passion & Poetry: The Early Sam, a 16-page booklet, and an extensive gallery featuring over 130 rare posters, lobby cards, stills and pressbooks. He also provided material for the artwork and recorded an audio-commentary. However, the latter is in German only, unlike the featurette, which has an English track.

This new DVD marks the only really worthwhile DVD release of Peckinpah’s debut film as a director, and fans will certainly want to add it to their collections. It is currently available from Amazon.de and various online dealers.