Entertainment News
Entries from September 2011
Call it a slice of life horror/comedy. Mel Brooks is reuniting with his favorite collaborators to produce Pizzaman. The script tells the story of an innocent man imprisoned in an asylum who takes a job as a pizza delivery man when he is released in order to kill off the people behind his incarceration. Unfortunately for Brooks fans, he will not direct or star in the film- though if history is a guide he might well appear in a cameo. For more click here
Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Sony UK:
The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo is the first film in Columbia Pictures’ three-picture
adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster, The Millennium
Trilogy. Directed by David Fincher (The Social Network)
and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, the film is based on
the first novel in the trilogy, which altogether have sold 50 million copies in
46 countries and become a worldwide phenomenon. The screenplay is by
Steven Zaillian.
Click here to view trailer
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens at cinemas in the
UK on 26th DECEMBER 2011
Click here to view the trailer for Clint Eastwood's eagerly-anticipated new film J. Edgar, the biopic of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
We don't know whether he's joking or not but an eBay dealer has put this photograph from 1870 up for sale for a "Buy It Now" price of only $1,000,000 - that's one million dollars, as Dr. Evil might say. The dealer says he believes it is actor Nicolas Cage and that the Oscar winner has eternal life, reinventing himself every hundred years or so. We admit that the person does bear an uncanny resemblance to Cage but we doubt it's actually him. After all, would you come back from the dead just to star in Drive Angry? For more click here
Hugh Hefner is once again firmly in control of his Playboy empire and is bringing back innovative marketing ideas. For example, the October issue of the magazine will be priced at 60 cents, reflecting its cover price in the 1960s. Hef is tying it all in to the TV premiere of the new series The Playboy Club, which is stirring considerable controversy even before it airs. For more click here
Dustin Hoffman is making his directorial debut with Quartet, a film about relationships between a group of opera singers. He's enlisted some of Britain's top talent, which will surely delight retro movie lovers. Among those scheduled to star: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. Click here for more
Paramount has dropped out of a deal with Warren Beatty for him to write, produce, direct and star in a major film centering on Howard Hughes. Tantalizingly, Beatty says the movie is about the reclusive millionaire but is not a biopic. No reason was given for Paramount dropping the project, but New Regency has picked it up and the studio says the script is terrific. Paramount may have gotten cold feet about working with Beatty. His 1981 epic Reds won him an Oscar for direction but lost enough money to finance another revolution in Russia. Additionally, Beatty works at a glacial pace and doesn't tolerate any interference from studio executives regarding the content of his films or their escalating budgets. His last three films Love Affair, Bulworth and Town & Country were all costly flops, with the latter- a modest modern romance- going far enough over budget that it took seemingly forever to complete. For more click here
Director Tom Hooper, Oscar winner for The King's Speech, will bring a version of the smash hit musical Les Miserables to the big screen. The Victor Hugo novel has been adapted many times previously but this is the first attempt to capitalize on the legendary Cameron Mackintosh stage musical. Hugh Jackman will star as Jean Valjean (great casting!) and Anne Hathaway may be approached for the role of Fantine. Click here for more
A Beatles contract from 1965 indicates the group was well ahead of many other entertainers when it came to being sensitive to the civil rights movement in America. The contract has a clause that insists the group would not perform in front of segregated audiences. Although this would have applied to venues in the South, the clause was inserted into all their contracts as a standard boilerplate demand. The group's other clauses were modest compared to today's greedy stars: they simply wanted electricity and water in their dressing rooms, as well as a few amenities. Click here for more
The 1986 Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun is being retro-fitted for the current 3-D craze and will be reissued theatrically in 2012. The film's director Tony Scott still has to endorse the project. If the strategy works, look for studios to delve into their libraries and invest in 3-D treatment for other older films. For more click here
A major change in U.S. copyright law that was put in place in 1976 is about to take effect- and the results could spell disaster for a record industry already reeling from tremendous drops in revenue. As of 2013 artists who recorded songs released in the year 1978 can apply to have the rights to those songs revert to them. Each successive calender year will advance the year in which artists can apply for the songs from another year. Thus in 2014, artists can demand to be given the copyrights on songs released in 1979. The stipulation is that the artists must apply two years in advance. Thus power players such as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel have already done so. If they prevail, it could mean many millions of dollars more in profits to the artists. However, the record companies intend to fight the law- even though it seems clear cut in favor of the artists. Click here for more
Mel Gibson is making news again. This time he's working with Warner Brothers to produce and possibly direct a movie about Judah Maccabee, an ancient Jewish warrior who Jews credit with liberating the city of Jerusalem. Gibson has seen his career derailed due to a series of high profile scandals some of which had ugly anti-Semitic overtones. The Oscar winner says this has long been a dream project of his but cynics will say that he is using the film as a vehicle to overcome accusations that he is a bigot. Jewish groups have already denounced his motives. More bizarrely, once red-hot screen writer Joe Eszterhaus (Basic Instinct) will author the script. Eszterhaus has seen his career go as cold as ice following the laughable 1995 box-office dud Showgirls. For more click here
UPDATED
The 1986 cult sci fi film Highlander is slated for a remake. The original, which starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, was certainly not a classic but it has developed a loyal following over the years. The film originally died at the boxoffice but home video increased its popularity to the point that it inspired big screen sequels and a TV series. The movie is a sometimes confusing but rather fascinating tale of a Scottish warrior who travels through time to fight evil members of his own clan. For more click here
I’m not sure who wrote the
blog entry in the Highander remake
but it says “The movie is a sometimes confusing but rather fascinating tale of
a Scottish warrior who travels through time to fight evil members of his own
clan.“ I think it was confusing for the writer because there is no time-travel
in Highlander, he’s immortal and has been alive for hundreds of years, those
are flashbacks, not time-travel.- Michael Arnold
Retro Responds:
When it comes to the guilty part, c'est moi! I haven't seen the film since it originally came out, so this should serve as a cautionary tale that we never remember movies as accurately as we'd like to think we do! Thanks for setting the record straight.- Lee Pfeiffer
Many people will think it unlikely but 70s TV icon Henry Winkler has been awarded an honorary Order of the British Empire. Seems that the one-time Happy Days star has been devoting his time to touring the UK educating the public about dyslexia and performing charitable work. Winkler was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult. He is also a prolific author, having written many children's books. For more click here
The world's most popular actor has been cast to co-star in Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming 3-D remake of The Great Gatsby - and chances are you've never heard of him. Amitabh Bachchan is Bollywood's most legendary star, having appeared in 175 movies. This will mark his Hollywood film debut (though the movie is being shot is Australia.) Bachchan, aged 70, has won eleven of India's version of the Oscar and is expected his presence in the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer will significantly increase worldwide boxoffice. Click here for more
The MTV Movies blog has an exclusive brief clip from the forthcoming prequel to John Carpenter's horror classic The Thing, which in itself was a remake of the first version made in the 1950s. Click here to view
Cinema Retro contributing writer Craig Henderson is one of the world's great experts on spy movies and TV series of the 1960s. It was Craig who did yeoman work by analyzing each of the eight Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature films over a three-year period in the pages of our magazine. Craig's spy-related web site For Your Eyes Only is packed with information about his favorite movie and TV genre. Among the gems is an article titled Big Lies About Spies that sets the record straight about some of the most persistent urban legends revolving around U.N.C.L.E., James Bond, The Avengers, Get Smart and Ian Fleming. Click here to read
Click here for a photo slide show of the cast members from the original version of Straw Dogs and their counterparts in the new remake.
On this most sober anniversary of 9/11, perhaps it's appropriate to revisit a time when the World Trade Center had a happier connotation. Artist Dan Meth has compiled a remarkable history of the Twin Towers' appearances in major motion pictures throughout the decades. Click here to view
They're dusting off the Ghostbusters films with a new entry starring Dan Akroyd with Ivan Reitman directing once again. Bill Murray has been invited to be part of the revival but the notoriously finicky star has yet to say whether he will do so. Akroyd says the film will go ahead "with or without" him. For more click here
Netflix, the enormously popular American DVD rental and video streaming service, is facing another blow on top of subscriber backlash regarding recent plan changes and increased fees. The cable channel Starz, which leases its most popular programming to Netflix, is terminating its contract with the company in February. For more click here
By Lee Pfeiffer
The big screen version of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is being hailed as one of the best cinematic spy thrillers ever. Accolades are coming after the film was screened at the Venice International Film Festival. The praise echoes the acclaim given to the 1965 Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, not coincidentally based on a Le Carre novel. The movie eschews the current preference for big, special effects action sequences in favor of - are you sitting down?- character development and dialogue. Pinch me, I must be dreaming! The studio is nervous that a generation weaned on CGI-packed monstrosities might not accept a film that moves at a slow pace but co-star Colin Firth thinks they are underestimating audiences. He knows what he's talking about, having seen his literate Oscar winner The King's Speech become a major boxoffice hit. Incidentally, Tinker was brought to the small screen in 1979 as an acclaimed mini-series starring Alec Guinness. Click here to view trailer For more click here
Last year's hit action movie The Expendables proved that older stars can kick butt on screen and off (the pic grossed $275 million). Now comes good news concerning the sequel: both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis will return, this time in far more extensive roles than their brief cameos in the original film. For more click here
They say that in politics if you want a loyal friend get a dog. The same is true in show biz. Look at the acclaimed screenwriter and director James Toback. Among his early successes was his autobiographical screenplay for The Gambler, an acclaimed 1974 film starring James Caan as a self-destructive man who can't stop his obsessions with betting and high stakes sexual promiscuity. Cut to this week when Toback was informed that the Deadline Hollywood Daily site was reporting that Martin Scorsese plans to remake the film with Leonardo DiCaprio and the movie's original producer Irwin Winkler. Trouble is, no one even bothered to inform Toback and his rebuttal to being dissed on the Deadline Hollywood web site is considered a "must read" in the industry. Click here for more
Writer Arthur Axelman of The Wrap web site recounts a memorable conversation he had with Cary Grant when he was a young agent in 1974. Axelman tried to persuade the legendary star to commit to writing his autobiography but Grant kept refusing, saying his life was too boring. It reminds one of the scene of Grant playing Roger Thornhill in North By Northwest. He finds himself climbing down Mount Rushmore with murderous villains in pursuit. Hanging from the edifice, Eva Marie Saint's Eve asks him why his two former wives divorced him. Thornhill replies, "I think they said I lead too dull of a life!" The fact that Grant could be dismissive of his own career indicates there was plenty of the fictional Roger Thornhill in him. Click here for more.
By Lee Pfeiffer
The sad decline of Burt Reynolds' career and personal life continues. He once shared the honor of being top boxoffice attraction in the world with Clint Eastwood. However, while Eastwood continued to refine his skills as actor and director with off-beat and challenging projects, Reynolds continued to try to milk the same old cinematic cow (i.e corn pone country comedies) long after the craze had passed. His health problems began in the in mid-1980s when he suffered severe consequences from a stunt that went wrong while he was filming City Heat with Eastwood. Rumors abounded that he was suffering from AIDS and the work dried up. He made a comeback of sorts on the small screen in the 1990s with the TV series Evening Shade, which was a modest hit. His big screen comeback in Boogie Nights earned him an Oscar nomination but success was short-lived. He squandered the renewed interest in his career by immediately plunging into low-rent TV crime movies.
Continue reading "BURT REYNOLDS NEEDS DELIVERANCE FROM FINANCIAL WOES"
Despite soaring revenues, there is real concern that the eBay phenomenon may be over. The international auction site has consistently imposed draconian rules and regulations that have driven many of its top sellers to to other venues. Additionally, the primary purpose of the site- to auction goods- has worn thin on many consumers. Some finance experts believe the impact of the site will be greatly negated in the coming years. Click here for more
The British Film Institute has opened a £12 million state of the art storage facility for the nation's film and television archives. The institute, located in a rural setting, can house over 450,000 canisters of film including the precarious rare movies that were processed on nitrate stock. They are the most vulnerable as nitrate can deteriorate to dust as well as pose a significant fire hazard. Click here for more
At age 91 novelist Ray Bradbury is still a major influence in the entertainment world. The acclaimed American novelist is delighted that his most personal work, Dandelion Wine, will be made into a feature film. The semi-autobiographical collection of short stories relate to occurrences in a small town during the summer of 1928. Unlike the fantastic premises of some of Bradbury's work, this one is down-to-earth and sentimental. For more click here
Writer Sean Hood has confirmed that he is working on a screenplay titled Rambo: Last Stand. The flick will (supposedly) be the final entry in the Rambo saga. Sylvester Stallone still has several projects in the works before he can turn his attention to this production. Hood says the script will return Rambo to his roots and eschew the fantastic for a plot along the lines of the original film, First Blood, with some elements of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. Hood should be leery of evoking any image of Eastwood's classic Oscar winner with the Rambo project. Something tells us it won't be favorably compared to that film.
Britain's fabled Pinewood Studios is in such demand by filmmakers that the studio is turning away a traditional source of revenue, TV productions, in favor of expensive, big-screen films. Revenue has been soaring over the past months as major films such as Dark Shadows, Woman in Black, The Iron Lady and Prometheus have gone into production at the studio, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary shortly. Pinewood is also investing in films with small budgets in hopes of finding the next King's Speech, a modestly-budgeted production that has grossed over $135 million to date. The new James Bond flick is expected to lens there later this year. For more click here
(Don't miss Gareth Owen's columns about the history of the studio- Pinewood Past- in every issue of Cinema Retro)
Regular readers of Cinema Retro are familiar with contributing writer Howard Hughes (please no jokes about the name. He's heard them all!). Howard, the author of numerous acclaimed books about classic movies (including the recent Cinema Italiano) has launched his own blog regarding retro cinema: The Filmgoer's Guide. It's chock full of great insights into classic and cult movies. Click here to visit
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