BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the U.K. public broadcaster BBC, said on Tuesday that it has named Richard Knight director of audio, BBC Studios Productions, starting in January. Reporting to Ralph Lee, the CEO of BBC Studios Productions, he will join the company amid continued growth in podcasting.
BBC Studios said the move comes as it looks to grow its audio unit “to take advantage of new creative opportunities in the U.K. and globally.” As part of that, it confirmed on Tuesday a previously outlined plan to move selected factual, entertainment and drama audio content from the BBC’s in-house production team to BBC Studios as of April.
“The model was developed to ensure the BBC maximizes the opportunities opened up by the growing global market for podcasts, strengthening the BBC’s public service output and keeping talented people at the BBC,” it said. “It places programs...
BBC Studios said the move comes as it looks to grow its audio unit “to take advantage of new creative opportunities in the U.K. and globally.” As part of that, it confirmed on Tuesday a previously outlined plan to move selected factual, entertainment and drama audio content from the BBC’s in-house production team to BBC Studios as of April.
“The model was developed to ensure the BBC maximizes the opportunities opened up by the growing global market for podcasts, strengthening the BBC’s public service output and keeping talented people at the BBC,” it said. “It places programs...
- 11/7/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The bread and butter of film festivals is the unveiling of new movies. And in the case of the major festivals taking place in the late summer and early fall — Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York — the selections offer a preview of potential Oscar nominees and winners. Remember the eight-minute standing ovation Brendan Fraser received last year at Venice for “The Whale”? It kicked off his comeback and journey to a best Oscar win this year.
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
From The Video Archives Podcast, writer/director Roger Avary and writer/producer Gala Avary discuss a few of their favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Taxi Driver (1976)
Star Wars (1977)
Matinee (1993)
Dune (1984)
Terror On A Train a.k.a. Time Bomb (1953)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Batman (1989)
Yentl (1983)
Nuts (1987)
Spaceballs (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Top Gun (1986)
Cocksucker Blues (1972)
Mijn nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra (1975)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Day Of The Dolphin (1973)
Babylon (2022)
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Carrie (1976)
Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)
Blow Out (1981)
The Matrix (1999)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Killing Zoe (1993)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Tenant (1976)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Bugsy Malone (1976)
Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Rules Of Attraction (2002)
The Sound Of Music (1965)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
Giant (1956)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Babe (1995)
Time Bandits...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Taxi Driver (1976)
Star Wars (1977)
Matinee (1993)
Dune (1984)
Terror On A Train a.k.a. Time Bomb (1953)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Batman (1989)
Yentl (1983)
Nuts (1987)
Spaceballs (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Top Gun (1986)
Cocksucker Blues (1972)
Mijn nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra (1975)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Day Of The Dolphin (1973)
Babylon (2022)
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Carrie (1976)
Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)
Blow Out (1981)
The Matrix (1999)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Killing Zoe (1993)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Tenant (1976)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Bugsy Malone (1976)
Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Rules Of Attraction (2002)
The Sound Of Music (1965)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
Giant (1956)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Babe (1995)
Time Bandits...
- 2/28/2023
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Following the world premiere of “My Neighbor Adolf” on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, Beta Cinema has sold the dark comedy to Vendetta Films, which will bring the Udo Kier and David Hayman starrer to cinemas across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of next year.
Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before.
The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes.
Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before.
The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes.
- 9/12/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Former Eastenders star Ashvin Luximon has died from an aneurysm at the age of 38, his family has confirmed.
He died on 23 July, with the funeral taking place on 11 August.
Luximon is best known for playing Asif Malik (the naughty school friend of Martin Fowler) in the BBC soap from September 1999 to October 2003, appearing in 146 episodes.
His family set up a tribute page and are raising money for various charities in his name.
They said in a statement: “Ash’s unexpected passing has hit us all hard, but we want to take the time to remember his larger than life spirit.
“He loved and was loved by so many. He sang a mean karaoke tune and had a voice loud enough to hear from space! He brought laughter and the best cuddles.
“Please use this space to share thoughts, photos and memories. Please be respectful.”
They added: “As a family we...
He died on 23 July, with the funeral taking place on 11 August.
Luximon is best known for playing Asif Malik (the naughty school friend of Martin Fowler) in the BBC soap from September 1999 to October 2003, appearing in 146 episodes.
His family set up a tribute page and are raising money for various charities in his name.
They said in a statement: “Ash’s unexpected passing has hit us all hard, but we want to take the time to remember his larger than life spirit.
“He loved and was loved by so many. He sang a mean karaoke tune and had a voice loud enough to hear from space! He brought laughter and the best cuddles.
“Please use this space to share thoughts, photos and memories. Please be respectful.”
They added: “As a family we...
- 8/27/2022
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
Beta Cinema has sold the English-language tragicomedy “My Neighbor Adolf” to several major territories. The film stars German actor Udo Kier and Scottish actor David Hayman, and is directed by Israel’s Leon Prudovsky.
All rights for North America have gone to Cohen Media Group, Signature Entertainment has acquired the U.K./Ireland rights, I Wonder took Italy, Lumix Media has South Korea and Tohokushinsha Film took Japan.
The film, set in 1960, centers on Polsky, a Holocaust survivor, who lives in the remote Colombian countryside. One day, when a mysterious old German man moves in next door, he suspects that his new neighbor is Adolf Hitler. Since nobody believes him, he embarks on a mission to uncover the evidence. In order to gather it, however, he will need to come closer to his neighbor than he would like — so close that the two could almost become friends.
Prudovsky has co-written and directed three TV series,...
All rights for North America have gone to Cohen Media Group, Signature Entertainment has acquired the U.K./Ireland rights, I Wonder took Italy, Lumix Media has South Korea and Tohokushinsha Film took Japan.
The film, set in 1960, centers on Polsky, a Holocaust survivor, who lives in the remote Colombian countryside. One day, when a mysterious old German man moves in next door, he suspects that his new neighbor is Adolf Hitler. Since nobody believes him, he embarks on a mission to uncover the evidence. In order to gather it, however, he will need to come closer to his neighbor than he would like — so close that the two could almost become friends.
Prudovsky has co-written and directed three TV series,...
- 5/18/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
In Hollywood, it’s easier to sell a movie if you can say, “It’s like a new take on ___” and fill in the blank with a box office hit. But the films that get nominated for director are usually the result of a singular vision, one that’s hard to pin down and categorize.
Still, just as many Americans love doing DNA searches for their own family, we can trace the genre roots of this year’s director nominees.
“Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh
An acclaimed British director, who earned his first Oscar nomination for a picture filled with action sequences and memorable quotes, earns another for an intimate autobiographical story about a childhood in which encroaching violence casts a shadow. “Belfast”? Sure, but also John Boorman (“Deliverance”) and “Hope and Glory.”
A few directors have earned nominations by focusing on pre-teen children or on the Troubles. But while “Hope and Glory...
Still, just as many Americans love doing DNA searches for their own family, we can trace the genre roots of this year’s director nominees.
“Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh
An acclaimed British director, who earned his first Oscar nomination for a picture filled with action sequences and memorable quotes, earns another for an intimate autobiographical story about a childhood in which encroaching violence casts a shadow. “Belfast”? Sure, but also John Boorman (“Deliverance”) and “Hope and Glory.”
A few directors have earned nominations by focusing on pre-teen children or on the Troubles. But while “Hope and Glory...
- 2/28/2022
- by Stuart Miller
- Variety Film + TV
Vanessa Redgrave and Michael G Wilson have also been honoured.
Hope And Glory director John Boorman, Pressure filmmaker Horace Ové and No Time To Die producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are among those recognised in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List.
UK director Boorman was awarded a knighthood for his services to film. His credits include Point Blank, The Emerald Forest, The General and Queen And Country. He also received a Bafta Fellowship in 2004.
Pioneer of Black British filmmaking Ové, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, has also received a knighthood, for his services to media. The...
Hope And Glory director John Boorman, Pressure filmmaker Horace Ové and No Time To Die producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are among those recognised in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List.
UK director Boorman was awarded a knighthood for his services to film. His credits include Point Blank, The Emerald Forest, The General and Queen And Country. He also received a Bafta Fellowship in 2004.
Pioneer of Black British filmmaking Ové, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, has also received a knighthood, for his services to media. The...
- 1/4/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Film directors have been exploring their own childhood memories on screen for decades, and the honor roll of notable films that have come from that exploration ranges from Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” to George Lucas’ “American Graffiti,” from Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir les Enfants” to Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” to Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” from John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory” to Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” Writer-director-actor Kenneth Branagh has now tried his hand at the genre, and to say that “Belfast” brings out the best in him would be an understatement.
Visually stunning, emotionally wrenching and gloriously human, “Belfast” takes one short period from Branagh’s life and finds in it a coming-of-age story, a portrait of a city fracturing in an instant and a profoundly moving lament for what’s been lost during decades of strife in his homeland of Northern Ireland.
Visually stunning, emotionally wrenching and gloriously human, “Belfast” takes one short period from Branagh’s life and finds in it a coming-of-age story, a portrait of a city fracturing in an instant and a profoundly moving lament for what’s been lost during decades of strife in his homeland of Northern Ireland.
- 9/13/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Until watching Kenneth Branagh’s wistfully autobiographical “Belfast,” I don’t think I realized that one of Britain’s greatest living actors — a talent who’s embodied everything from Henry V to Hercule Poirot, Kurt Wallander to Laurence Olivier — had been born in Northern Ireland. Maybe that’s because his family got out and moved to Reading, England, when he was 9 years old, just as the Troubles were coming to a boil, which spared him the accent and what could have been a premature end.
That escape makes it easy to guess on which side of the nationalist divide the Branaghs found themselves. Though the conflict has been depicted to the point of exhaustion on-screen — typically as an escalating cycle of senseless brutality, complete with preachy “violence begets violence” sermon — “Belfast” avoids many of the clichés in favor of a more personal look back, through child’s eyes. The affectionate...
That escape makes it easy to guess on which side of the nationalist divide the Branaghs found themselves. Though the conflict has been depicted to the point of exhaustion on-screen — typically as an escalating cycle of senseless brutality, complete with preachy “violence begets violence” sermon — “Belfast” avoids many of the clichés in favor of a more personal look back, through child’s eyes. The affectionate...
- 9/5/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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By Doug Oswald
A Japanese Naval officer and an American Marine Corps aviator are marooned on a Pacific island during WWII in “Hell in the Pacific,” available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The film is a virtual silent movie with the exception of the Pacific island sounds of surf, wind, birds and the occasional words spoken by the co-protagonists portrayed by Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin. However, neither understands the other’s language. The film opens with Mifune scanning the horizon for any signs of rescue when he spots a deflated life raft. The rubber raft belongs to Marvin who is hiding in the thick jungle growth nearby. Marvin is able to elude discovery by Mifune, but eventually thirst forces him to reveal himself on the beach.
Mifune captures Marvin after several attempts are made by Marvin to take water from...
By Doug Oswald
A Japanese Naval officer and an American Marine Corps aviator are marooned on a Pacific island during WWII in “Hell in the Pacific,” available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The film is a virtual silent movie with the exception of the Pacific island sounds of surf, wind, birds and the occasional words spoken by the co-protagonists portrayed by Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin. However, neither understands the other’s language. The film opens with Mifune scanning the horizon for any signs of rescue when he spots a deflated life raft. The rubber raft belongs to Marvin who is hiding in the thick jungle growth nearby. Marvin is able to elude discovery by Mifune, but eventually thirst forces him to reveal himself on the beach.
Mifune captures Marvin after several attempts are made by Marvin to take water from...
- 2/24/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Mentoring emerging cinematographers has always been a key mission at the EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival and this year’s online version of the event features a score of streaming master classes and seminars that inform and offer insights from top filmmakers and technology experts.
Streaming through the end of 2020 (online.energacamerimage.pl), the talks and teach-ins are, with rare exceptions, accessible without a password or online Camerimage entry card – unlike the usual live format of master classes at the festival, which invariably sell out if you don’t find a seat at least 20 minutes before the start.
One of the buzziest events from the festival, which officially ran Nov. 13-20, is the virtual career masterclass with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, in which he discusses his remarkable career, leading up to his latest feature, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
The Netflix drama is built around the sensational political...
Streaming through the end of 2020 (online.energacamerimage.pl), the talks and teach-ins are, with rare exceptions, accessible without a password or online Camerimage entry card – unlike the usual live format of master classes at the festival, which invariably sell out if you don’t find a seat at least 20 minutes before the start.
One of the buzziest events from the festival, which officially ran Nov. 13-20, is the virtual career masterclass with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, in which he discusses his remarkable career, leading up to his latest feature, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
The Netflix drama is built around the sensational political...
- 12/18/2020
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Despite amassing more than 70 credits, this year’s recipient of the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award, Philippe Rousselot, shows no signs of stopping. As he tells Variety from his house in Brittany, he just can’t.
“Once you have piled up enough films, the decision is made. They needed to give this award to someone and I am very glad to accommodate,” he jokes. “Other people want us to retire, but it’s never a personal decision among DPs. We never stop working. We can’t get enough of it!”
Counting a BAFTA and two Césars among his many accolades, Rousselot was also nominated for an Academy Award three times, winning for Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1992.
“I was at the Oscar ceremony when ‘Hope and Glory’ was nominated. Of course we didn’t win. I asked John Boorman: ‘What is the importance of this award?...
“Once you have piled up enough films, the decision is made. They needed to give this award to someone and I am very glad to accommodate,” he jokes. “Other people want us to retire, but it’s never a personal decision among DPs. We never stop working. We can’t get enough of it!”
Counting a BAFTA and two Césars among his many accolades, Rousselot was also nominated for an Academy Award three times, winning for Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1992.
“I was at the Oscar ceremony when ‘Hope and Glory’ was nominated. Of course we didn’t win. I asked John Boorman: ‘What is the importance of this award?...
- 11/13/2020
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
The kids of Best Picture nominee Hope and Glory
It's not often that we see child actors recognized in the film awards race. In many regards, that's understandable. Kids aren't known for being the most disciplined of performers and it seems unfair to expect them to deliver complex characterizations, or to embody concepts and ideas that they're still learning. Furthermore, while every acting job is a fruit born out of several people's labor – the actors themselves, directors, writers, editors, sound mixers, etc. – when the performer is as lacking in agency as a child, it's easier to attribute excellence to those other folks' craft. Nonetheless, good work is good work, and we should celebrate the greatness we see on-screen, regardless of how it came to be.
That brings us to 1987, the year of the next Smackdown, and a rare vintage that's stock full of brilliant performances by young artists.
The kids of Best Picture nominee Hope and Glory
It's not often that we see child actors recognized in the film awards race. In many regards, that's understandable. Kids aren't known for being the most disciplined of performers and it seems unfair to expect them to deliver complex characterizations, or to embody concepts and ideas that they're still learning. Furthermore, while every acting job is a fruit born out of several people's labor – the actors themselves, directors, writers, editors, sound mixers, etc. – when the performer is as lacking in agency as a child, it's easier to attribute excellence to those other folks' craft. Nonetheless, good work is good work, and we should celebrate the greatness we see on-screen, regardless of how it came to be.
That brings us to 1987, the year of the next Smackdown, and a rare vintage that's stock full of brilliant performances by young artists.
- 11/7/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival is honoring Oscar-winning French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot this year with its Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award.
Celebrating the art of cinematography and its creators, the festival described Rousselot as “an incredibly versatile cinematographer whose body of work encompasses a wide variety of genres and styles.”
Rousselot, who received an Academy Award for his work on Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1993, has worked with such acclaimed filmmakers as John Boorman (“Emerald Forest”), Neil Jordan (“Interview with the Vampire”), Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons”), Miloš Forman (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”), Tim Burton (“Big Fish”), Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”), Patrice Chéreau (“Queen Margot”), David Yates (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”), Philip Kaufman (“Henry & June”), Jean-Jacques Annaud (“The Bear”) and Shane Black (“The Nice Guys”).
“He has shot independent European artistic films as well as visually impressive Hollywood blockbusters,” the festival added.
Celebrating the art of cinematography and its creators, the festival described Rousselot as “an incredibly versatile cinematographer whose body of work encompasses a wide variety of genres and styles.”
Rousselot, who received an Academy Award for his work on Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1993, has worked with such acclaimed filmmakers as John Boorman (“Emerald Forest”), Neil Jordan (“Interview with the Vampire”), Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons”), Miloš Forman (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”), Tim Burton (“Big Fish”), Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”), Patrice Chéreau (“Queen Margot”), David Yates (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”), Philip Kaufman (“Henry & June”), Jean-Jacques Annaud (“The Bear”) and Shane Black (“The Nice Guys”).
“He has shot independent European artistic films as well as visually impressive Hollywood blockbusters,” the festival added.
- 10/1/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who won an Oscar for Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at respected cinematography festival Camerimage, which will be held in Torun, Poland, and virtually from Nov. 14-21.
The versatile Dp has worked with directors including Robert Redford, Tim Burton, Guy Ritchie, Stephen Frears, Patrice Chéreau, Neil Jordan, Shane Black, Miloš Forman, David Yates, Denzel Washington and Jean-Jacques Annaud.
In addition to his Oscar for A River Runs Through It, Rousselot received Academy Award nominations for his lensing of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory and Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June.
A fan of the work of ...
The versatile Dp has worked with directors including Robert Redford, Tim Burton, Guy Ritchie, Stephen Frears, Patrice Chéreau, Neil Jordan, Shane Black, Miloš Forman, David Yates, Denzel Washington and Jean-Jacques Annaud.
In addition to his Oscar for A River Runs Through It, Rousselot received Academy Award nominations for his lensing of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory and Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June.
A fan of the work of ...
- 9/30/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who won an Oscar for Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at respected cinematography festival Camerimage, which will be held in Torun, Poland, and through virtual presentations from Nov. 14-21.
The versatile Dp has worked with directors including Robert Redford, Tim Burton, Guy Ritchie, Stephen Frears, Patrice Chéreau, Neil Jordan, Shane Black, Miloš Forman, David Yates, Denzel Washington and Jean-Jacques Annaud.
In addition to his Oscar for A River Runs Through It, Rousselot received Academy Award nominations for his lensing of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory and Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June.
A fan of the ...
The versatile Dp has worked with directors including Robert Redford, Tim Burton, Guy Ritchie, Stephen Frears, Patrice Chéreau, Neil Jordan, Shane Black, Miloš Forman, David Yates, Denzel Washington and Jean-Jacques Annaud.
In addition to his Oscar for A River Runs Through It, Rousselot received Academy Award nominations for his lensing of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory and Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June.
A fan of the ...
- 9/30/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Helping you stay sane while staying safe… featuring Leonard Maltin, Dave Anthony, Miguel Arteta, John Landis, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Plague (1979)
Target Earth (1954)
The Left Hand of God (1955)
A Lost Lady (1934)
Enough Said (2013)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Down to Earth (2001)
Down To Earth (1947)
The Commitments (1991)
Once (2007)
Election (1999)
About Schmidt (2002)
Sideways (2004)
Nebraska (2013)
The Man in the Moon (1991)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Casablanca (1942)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
The Night Walker (1964)
Chuck and Buck (2000)
Cedar Rapids (2011)
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
Duck Butter (2018)
The Good Girl (2002)
The Big Heat (1953)
Human Desire (1954)
Slightly French (1949)
Week-End with Father (1951)
Experiment In Terror (1962)
They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)
Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974)
Drive a Crooked Road (1954)
Pushover (1954)
Waves (2019)
Krisha (2015)
The Oblong Box (1969)
80,000 Suspects (1963)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
It Comes At Night (2017)
Children of Men (2006)
The Road (2009)
You Were Never Really Here...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Plague (1979)
Target Earth (1954)
The Left Hand of God (1955)
A Lost Lady (1934)
Enough Said (2013)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Down to Earth (2001)
Down To Earth (1947)
The Commitments (1991)
Once (2007)
Election (1999)
About Schmidt (2002)
Sideways (2004)
Nebraska (2013)
The Man in the Moon (1991)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Casablanca (1942)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
The Night Walker (1964)
Chuck and Buck (2000)
Cedar Rapids (2011)
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
Duck Butter (2018)
The Good Girl (2002)
The Big Heat (1953)
Human Desire (1954)
Slightly French (1949)
Week-End with Father (1951)
Experiment In Terror (1962)
They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)
Ray’s Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (1987)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974)
Drive a Crooked Road (1954)
Pushover (1954)
Waves (2019)
Krisha (2015)
The Oblong Box (1969)
80,000 Suspects (1963)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
It Comes At Night (2017)
Children of Men (2006)
The Road (2009)
You Were Never Really Here...
- 5/1/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Dana Gould, Daniel Waters, Scott Alexander, and Allison Anders.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Destroy All Monsters (1969)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)
Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)
Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)
Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)
Suparpie
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Hello Down There (1969)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
Thirteen Days (2000)
Stalker (1979)
Last Year At Marienbad (1961)
No Exit (1962)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Sleeper (1973)
The Tenant (1976)
Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
La classe américaine (1993)
The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
Soylent Green (1973)
Knives Out (2019)
The Hunt (2020)
Banana Split (2020)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
Animal Crackers (1930)
Monkey Business (1931)
Horse Feathers (1932)
Duck Soup (1933)
A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)
Susan Slade (1961)
My Blood Runs Cold...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Destroy All Monsters (1969)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)
Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)
Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)
Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)
Suparpie
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Hello Down There (1969)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
Thirteen Days (2000)
Stalker (1979)
Last Year At Marienbad (1961)
No Exit (1962)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Sleeper (1973)
The Tenant (1976)
Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
La classe américaine (1993)
The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
Soylent Green (1973)
Knives Out (2019)
The Hunt (2020)
Banana Split (2020)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
Animal Crackers (1930)
Monkey Business (1931)
Horse Feathers (1932)
Duck Soup (1933)
A Night At The Opera (1935)
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)
Susan Slade (1961)
My Blood Runs Cold...
- 3/27/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
As Americans prepare to take a well-deserved day off from work to remember the servicemen and women who have sacrificed their lives for this country during times of war, TheWrap remembered their favorite movies tackling the tough topic.
Some are fun, some are sad, but all are classics that are worth watching this Memorial Day weekend if readers haven’t already. From waging war with aliens to women raging against the military for justice, here are our favorite war stories of all time:
“Independence Day”
While many people pan “ID4” as a cheesy, big-budget Will Smith vehicle, I consider it one of my personal favorite feel-good, proud-to-be-an-American films. I always tear up when Randy Quaid sacrifices his life so his kids can live free from extraterrestrial tyranny. Bill Pullman’s patriotic speech should also be required viewing for High School civics classes.
“The Hurt Locker”
This film deserved a fate...
Some are fun, some are sad, but all are classics that are worth watching this Memorial Day weekend if readers haven’t already. From waging war with aliens to women raging against the military for justice, here are our favorite war stories of all time:
“Independence Day”
While many people pan “ID4” as a cheesy, big-budget Will Smith vehicle, I consider it one of my personal favorite feel-good, proud-to-be-an-American films. I always tear up when Randy Quaid sacrifices his life so his kids can live free from extraterrestrial tyranny. Bill Pullman’s patriotic speech should also be required viewing for High School civics classes.
“The Hurt Locker”
This film deserved a fate...
- 5/27/2019
- by Greg Gilman
- The Wrap
A million American GIs are bivouacked in the English countryside, awaiting debarkation to France… and the green fields are loaded with young English women, whose own men have been off fighting for years. John Schlesinger puts together a good drama, with an excellent cast; he also avoids the expected ‘please wait for me!’ clichés attendant to this subgenre of war film.
Yanks
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. / Street Date , 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera, Wendy Morgan, Rachel Roberts, Tony Melody, Derek Thompson.
Cinematography: Dick Bush
Film Editor: Jim Clark
Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett
Written by Colin Welland, Walter Bernstein
Produced by Joseph Janni, Lester Persky
Directed by John Schlesinger
Director John Boorman got to tell his personal wartime home front story in his warm and funny Hope and Glory, and eight years earlier the...
Yanks
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. / Street Date , 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera, Wendy Morgan, Rachel Roberts, Tony Melody, Derek Thompson.
Cinematography: Dick Bush
Film Editor: Jim Clark
Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett
Written by Colin Welland, Walter Bernstein
Produced by Joseph Janni, Lester Persky
Directed by John Schlesinger
Director John Boorman got to tell his personal wartime home front story in his warm and funny Hope and Glory, and eight years earlier the...
- 2/2/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Wizarding World has continued to expand with the installation of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and this time, J.K. Rowling introduces us to Newt Scamander's brave but rule-abiding Auror brother Theseus. He's a bit of a proto-Percy Weasley type with a sinewy build, head of curly hair, and (mostly) fierce devotion to his job at the Ministry of Magic. Alongside new big names in the magical universe such as Zoë Kravitz and Jude Law, English actor Callum Turner brings the stern wizard to life in the Harry Potter prequel.
Turner has been a creative powerhouse in the entertainment industry, as he's tried out his hand in modeling, television, theater, and film. A London native, he grew up as an only child in a single mother family in Chelsea. His desire to learn about the world beyond the structure of school whisked him outside his hometown and into the...
Turner has been a creative powerhouse in the entertainment industry, as he's tried out his hand in modeling, television, theater, and film. A London native, he grew up as an only child in a single mother family in Chelsea. His desire to learn about the world beyond the structure of school whisked him outside his hometown and into the...
- 11/20/2018
- by Stacey Nguyen
- Popsugar.com
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
A series on Shaw Brothers horror has begun, while the “Bloodthirsty Trilogy” has showings
Long praised as superior to its English-language counterpart, the Spanish Dracula screens with live musical accompaniment.
The 35mm run of Masculin Féminin continues.
Spectacle
The 12-hour “Shriek Show” commences and scars on Saturday.
Quad Cinema
Très spooky: “The Sinister Visions of Jean Rollin” gets underway.
Metrograph
A series on Shaw Brothers horror has begun, while the “Bloodthirsty Trilogy” has showings
Long praised as superior to its English-language counterpart, the Spanish Dracula screens with live musical accompaniment.
The 35mm run of Masculin Féminin continues.
Spectacle
The 12-hour “Shriek Show” commences and scars on Saturday.
Quad Cinema
Très spooky: “The Sinister Visions of Jean Rollin” gets underway.
- 10/19/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Andre Blay, founder of Magnetic Video and the first CEO of 20th Century Fox Video, died August 24 in Bonita Springs, Fla. He was 81.
Known as the father of the home video industry, Blay founded the Magnetic Video Corporation in 1969, which went on to become the first company to release motion pictures on videocassette in 1977. Marking the beginning of an era in which people could bring movies from the theater into their own homes, he also started the Video Club of America, which advertised video cassettes in TV Guide and was the forerunner of video rental stores.
The video cassette business got off the ground when he began paying a yearly fee to 20th Century Fox to license movies from their catalog. They were the first films available on video from a major studio, and the venture was so successful that Fox bought Magnetic Video in 1979 to form 20th Century Fox Video,...
Known as the father of the home video industry, Blay founded the Magnetic Video Corporation in 1969, which went on to become the first company to release motion pictures on videocassette in 1977. Marking the beginning of an era in which people could bring movies from the theater into their own homes, he also started the Video Club of America, which advertised video cassettes in TV Guide and was the forerunner of video rental stores.
The video cassette business got off the ground when he began paying a yearly fee to 20th Century Fox to license movies from their catalog. They were the first films available on video from a major studio, and the venture was so successful that Fox bought Magnetic Video in 1979 to form 20th Century Fox Video,...
- 9/6/2018
- by Margeaux Sippell
- Variety Film + TV
Andre Blay, a home video pioneer who founded the Magnetic Video Corporation in 1969 and ten years later became the first president and CEO of Twentieth Century Home Video, died August 24 in Bonita Springs, Florida. His death was announced by his son Robert.
Blay co-founded Stereodyne Inc. in 1966, an eight-track and cassette duplication company, according to his biography with Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration. Three years later he founded Magnetic, which, according to the alumni bio, was the first marketer of prerecorded videocassettes. In 1979, he sold Magnetic to Twentieth Century Fox and was named president and CEO of Twentieth Century Home Video.
From 1982 to 1986, he was chairman and CEO of Embassy Home Entertainment, then formed Palisades Entertainment Group. At Embassy, Blay greenlighted films including Hope and Glory and Sid and Nancy. He was an executive producer on 1987’s Prince of Darkness and 1988’s The Blob, among others.
Among...
Blay co-founded Stereodyne Inc. in 1966, an eight-track and cassette duplication company, according to his biography with Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration. Three years later he founded Magnetic, which, according to the alumni bio, was the first marketer of prerecorded videocassettes. In 1979, he sold Magnetic to Twentieth Century Fox and was named president and CEO of Twentieth Century Home Video.
From 1982 to 1986, he was chairman and CEO of Embassy Home Entertainment, then formed Palisades Entertainment Group. At Embassy, Blay greenlighted films including Hope and Glory and Sid and Nancy. He was an executive producer on 1987’s Prince of Darkness and 1988’s The Blob, among others.
Among...
- 9/6/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Irish-born stage, film and TV actor’s credits included Brazil, The Sweeney.
Derrick O’Connor, the Irish character actor who played the villain Pieter Vorstedt in Lethal Weapon 2, has died in Santa Barbara, California, from pneumonia. He was 77.
O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1941 and grew up in London. He had lived in the United States since 1990 and most recently lived in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of Santa Barbara, with his wife Mimi.
O’Connor was perhaps best known in the UK and Australia for starring roles in TV shows Stringer, Fox, The Sweeney, and Knockback, and...
Derrick O’Connor, the Irish character actor who played the villain Pieter Vorstedt in Lethal Weapon 2, has died in Santa Barbara, California, from pneumonia. He was 77.
O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1941 and grew up in London. He had lived in the United States since 1990 and most recently lived in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of Santa Barbara, with his wife Mimi.
O’Connor was perhaps best known in the UK and Australia for starring roles in TV shows Stringer, Fox, The Sweeney, and Knockback, and...
- 7/3/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Irish character actor Derrick O’Connor, who portrayed the villain in Lethal Weapon 2 and appeared in three of Terry Gilliam’s films among numerous other credits, has died. O’Connor died Friday of pneumonia in Santa Barbara, his publicist Jane Ayer announced. He was 77.
O’Connor’s decades-long career included memorable film performances in Lethal Weapon 2, roles in Gilliam’s films Time Bandits, Brazil and Jabberwocky, as Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days, as an aspiring buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and in John Boorman’s Hope and Glory.
Widely regarded as a superb actor, O’Connor was noted for often paring down – or fully eliminating – his lines in a scene in order to emphasize the physical aspects of his role – a skill that earned him the admiration of many who directed him, especially Terry Gilliam. In Gilliam’s Time Bandits,...
O’Connor’s decades-long career included memorable film performances in Lethal Weapon 2, roles in Gilliam’s films Time Bandits, Brazil and Jabberwocky, as Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days, as an aspiring buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and in John Boorman’s Hope and Glory.
Widely regarded as a superb actor, O’Connor was noted for often paring down – or fully eliminating – his lines in a scene in order to emphasize the physical aspects of his role – a skill that earned him the admiration of many who directed him, especially Terry Gilliam. In Gilliam’s Time Bandits,...
- 7/3/2018
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Versatile Irish character actor Derrick O’Connor died from pneumonia on June 29 in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 77.
O’Connor was born in Dublin and raised in London. He had lived in the U.S. since 1990 and was most recently living in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of Santa Barbara with his wife, Mimi.
The actor starred in three of director Terry Gilliam’s films: “Time Bandits,” “Brazil,” and “Jabberwocky.” He played the villain Pieter Vorstedt in “Lethal Weapon 2” and worked opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in “End of Days.”
He also appeared in John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” One of his first movie roles came in the 1973 British science-fiction film “The Final Programme.”
His notable U.S. television appearances include “Alias,” “Carnivale,” “Tracey Takes On,” “Monk,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and “Ghost.” In the U.K. and Australia, he was best...
O’Connor was born in Dublin and raised in London. He had lived in the U.S. since 1990 and was most recently living in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of Santa Barbara with his wife, Mimi.
The actor starred in three of director Terry Gilliam’s films: “Time Bandits,” “Brazil,” and “Jabberwocky.” He played the villain Pieter Vorstedt in “Lethal Weapon 2” and worked opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in “End of Days.”
He also appeared in John Boorman’s “Hope and Glory and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” One of his first movie roles came in the 1973 British science-fiction film “The Final Programme.”
His notable U.S. television appearances include “Alias,” “Carnivale,” “Tracey Takes On,” “Monk,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and “Ghost.” In the U.K. and Australia, he was best...
- 7/3/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Derrick O'Connor, the respected character actor who portrayed a vicious South African bad guy in Lethal Weapon 2 and appeared in three films for Terry Gilliam, has died. He was 77.
O'Connor died Friday of pneumonia in Santa Barbara, publicist Jane Ayer announced.
A native of Ireland, O'Connor also stood out as Sarah Miles' neighbor Mac in John Boorman's autobiographical World War II period piece Hope and Glory (1987).
He also played the theologian Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days (1999); Father Everett, a blind superhero's confidante, in Daredevil (2003); and an aspiring buccaneer in ...
O'Connor died Friday of pneumonia in Santa Barbara, publicist Jane Ayer announced.
A native of Ireland, O'Connor also stood out as Sarah Miles' neighbor Mac in John Boorman's autobiographical World War II period piece Hope and Glory (1987).
He also played the theologian Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days (1999); Father Everett, a blind superhero's confidante, in Daredevil (2003); and an aspiring buccaneer in ...
Derrick O'Connor, the respected character actor who portrayed a vicious South African bad guy in Lethal Weapon 2 and appeared in three films for Terry Gilliam, has died. He was 77.
O'Connor died Friday of pneumonia in Santa Barbara, publicist Jane Ayer announced.
A native of Ireland, O'Connor also stood out as Sarah Miles' neighbor Mac in John Boorman's autobiographical World War II period piece Hope and Glory (1987).
He also played the theologian Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days (1999); Father Everett, a blind superhero's confidante, in Daredevil (2003); and an aspiring buccaneer in ...
O'Connor died Friday of pneumonia in Santa Barbara, publicist Jane Ayer announced.
A native of Ireland, O'Connor also stood out as Sarah Miles' neighbor Mac in John Boorman's autobiographical World War II period piece Hope and Glory (1987).
He also played the theologian Thomas Aquinas opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in End of Days (1999); Father Everett, a blind superhero's confidante, in Daredevil (2003); and an aspiring buccaneer in ...
Where Were You in ’42? If you were little Johnnie Boorman in 1940, you might have been squatting in a dank bomb shelter with your Mum and sisters, waiting out an air raid alert. Writer-director Boorman’s personal memory is what for some kids was a glorious time when working-class Brits endured adverse conditions: it’s warm & fuzzy affectionate and frequently hilarious, with a keen eye toward slightly bawdy family humor.
Hope and Glory
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1987 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Sebastian Rice Edwards, Geraldine Muir, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sammi Davis, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Jean-Marc Barr, Ian Bannen, Annie Leon, Jill Baker, Amelda Brown, Katrine Boorman.
Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot
Film Editor: Ian Crafford
Production design: Anthony Pratt
Original Music: Peter Martin
Written, Produced and Directed by John Boorman
John Boorman has directed arty war movies, arty gangster movies and arty art movies,...
Hope and Glory
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1987 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Sebastian Rice Edwards, Geraldine Muir, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sammi Davis, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Jean-Marc Barr, Ian Bannen, Annie Leon, Jill Baker, Amelda Brown, Katrine Boorman.
Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot
Film Editor: Ian Crafford
Production design: Anthony Pratt
Original Music: Peter Martin
Written, Produced and Directed by John Boorman
John Boorman has directed arty war movies, arty gangster movies and arty art movies,...
- 4/24/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By David Kozlowski | 30 June 2017
Welcome to Issue #2 of The Lrm Weekend, a weekly column highlighting cool and unique videos about film, TV, comics, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, animation, and anime. We also want to hear from you, our awesome Lrm community! Share your favorite videos to: @LRM_Weekend and we'll post your Tweets below!
Last Issue: 6.23.17
Why do we love superheroes, martial arts, fantasy, and sci-fi? The big fight scenes, of course. Every week we'll bring you an epic brawl from the recent or distant past -- we want to hear from you, share your favorite fights with us!
Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in Way of the Dragon (1972) Bonus: Chuck Norris Talks About Bruce Lee
The original movie poster from 1972!
What Is It?
If we're going to have a serious, weekly conversation about proper fight scenes, we have to go back to the source...The martial arts fight that...
Welcome to Issue #2 of The Lrm Weekend, a weekly column highlighting cool and unique videos about film, TV, comics, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, animation, and anime. We also want to hear from you, our awesome Lrm community! Share your favorite videos to: @LRM_Weekend and we'll post your Tweets below!
Last Issue: 6.23.17
Why do we love superheroes, martial arts, fantasy, and sci-fi? The big fight scenes, of course. Every week we'll bring you an epic brawl from the recent or distant past -- we want to hear from you, share your favorite fights with us!
Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in Way of the Dragon (1972) Bonus: Chuck Norris Talks About Bruce Lee
The original movie poster from 1972!
What Is It?
If we're going to have a serious, weekly conversation about proper fight scenes, we have to go back to the source...The martial arts fight that...
- 6/30/2017
- by David Kozlowski
- LRMonline.com
Lloyd Kaufman, Troma Entertainment President and creator of The Toxic Avenger, has this week announced the acquisition of Salem Kapsaski’s punk rock musical Spidarlings, with the films World Premiere set for Troma Now on July 1st.
Poverty stricken lovers Eden and Matilda have enough trouble just getting through the days…Their Landlord is trying to terrorize them and strange things seem to be going on at “Juicy Girls”, the place where Matilda works…but when Eden buys a pet spider the real troubles start.
Spidarlings will premiere on Troma Now, Troma Entertainment’s exclusive content streaming service, July 1st!
From the press release:
While creating Spidarlings, Director Salem Kapsaski drew inspiration from his own real life experiences with financial struggles, a ruthless landlord, and relentless threats to his family from an unstable individual. These real life experiences mixed with influences from John Waters, I Love Lucy, Lloyd Kaufman, Peanuts...
Poverty stricken lovers Eden and Matilda have enough trouble just getting through the days…Their Landlord is trying to terrorize them and strange things seem to be going on at “Juicy Girls”, the place where Matilda works…but when Eden buys a pet spider the real troubles start.
Spidarlings will premiere on Troma Now, Troma Entertainment’s exclusive content streaming service, July 1st!
From the press release:
While creating Spidarlings, Director Salem Kapsaski drew inspiration from his own real life experiences with financial struggles, a ruthless landlord, and relentless threats to his family from an unstable individual. These real life experiences mixed with influences from John Waters, I Love Lucy, Lloyd Kaufman, Peanuts...
- 6/14/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
The legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table receives its most impressive screen treatment in Excalibur, from visionary director John Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory).
All the elements of Sir Thomas Malory’s classic Le Morte Darthur are here: Arthur (Nigel Terry) removing the sword Excalibur from the stone; the Round Table’s noble birth and tragic decline; the heroic attempts to recover the Holy Grail; and the shifting balance of power between wily wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson) and evil sorceress Morgana (Helen Mirren).
With Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson in notable early screen roles, Excalibur serves up “one lush, enraptured scene after another.” (The New Yorker)
Order today: po.st/ExcaliburHMV
To win Excalibur on Blu-ray, just answer the following question:
Which of the following 80s films also tells the story of King Arthur? Is it:
a) Sword of the Valiant
b) The...
All the elements of Sir Thomas Malory’s classic Le Morte Darthur are here: Arthur (Nigel Terry) removing the sword Excalibur from the stone; the Round Table’s noble birth and tragic decline; the heroic attempts to recover the Holy Grail; and the shifting balance of power between wily wizard Merlin (Nicol Williamson) and evil sorceress Morgana (Helen Mirren).
With Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson in notable early screen roles, Excalibur serves up “one lush, enraptured scene after another.” (The New Yorker)
Order today: po.st/ExcaliburHMV
To win Excalibur on Blu-ray, just answer the following question:
Which of the following 80s films also tells the story of King Arthur? Is it:
a) Sword of the Valiant
b) The...
- 3/10/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
I still haven’t seen Independence Day: Resurgence, and there’s a good chance I won’t. When 20th Century Fox made the decision not to screen the film for Us press in advance of the film’s opening, they sent a very clear message to anyone paying attention, and it’s a message that I believe more and more studios would love to send to critics, especially on their giant event films: not only do we not need you, but we don’t want you. At all. And it’s true. Studios don’t really need to screen movies for critics. It’s a professional agreement that we all participate in, but more and more often, studios screen later and almost begrudgingly. I am amazed how many times this year alone I’ve had to basically beg to even find out when or if a screening is happening. The...
- 6/27/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
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Legendary stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong talks to us about his work on Highlander, Thor, Catwoman, and what makes a great action scene...
For over 40 years, Andy Armstrong has worked on a huge array of stunts and action sequences in TV and film. From directing 1,000s of extras in Stargate to a full body burn in Danny DeVito's Hoffa, Armstrong's experiences as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and unit director have taken him all over the world.
The brother of Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator and director who famously doubled for Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies, Andy Armstrong's career began when he doubled for Sir John Mills on the 1970s TV series, The Zoo Gang. That early job jumpstarted a life in filmmaking which has taken in three James Bond movies, 90s action (Total Recall, Universal Soldier) and superhero movies (The Green Hornet, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man).
Those 40 years of filmmaking experience are the pillar of Armstrong's book, the Action Movie Maker's Handbook. Intended as a reference for those thinking of starting a career in stunts or action unit directing, it also offers a valuable insight for those outside the industry, too. The book reveals the range of talents required to bring an effective action scene to the screen - organisation, storytelling, an understanding of engineering and physics - and how much input a coordinator and unit director has on how those sequences will look in the final film.
We caught up with Andy Armstrong via telephone to talk about his book and some of the highlights in his career so far. Read on for his thoughts on creating the action sequences in Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man, his hilarious behind-the-scenes memories from the 80s cult classic, Highlander, and what went wrong on the 2004 Catwoman movie...
Your book gave me a new appreciation for what second unit directors and stunt coordinators do. I didn't realise how much design work you do when it comes to action scenes, for example.
Yeah, it is true that a lot of people don't realise how much development goes into action. Especially nowadays, it's such a complex business. That becomes a huge part of it - the technicalities of it and the storytelling part of it. Some things might look great, but when you put them all together they don't necessarily work for that movie. A lot of what I've made a living doing is really creating action that is appropriate for the movie. Because the wrong type of action is just like the wrong costume or the wrong actor or something - it just takes you out of the film.
You get a lot of movies that actually have too much action in them. Then what happens is, you can't appreciate it. It's like a feast where the starter is such a huge meal that you don't even want the main course because you're full. That's like so many action movies - they'd actually benefit from having some of the action taken out of them. I'm always fascinated when you see an audience in an action movie.
When I feel there's too much action in a movie, or it goes on for too long, I always look around in a cinema. It's interesting to see people chatting to each other or doing something else. You should never have that in an action movie. Action should be like sex or violence - you want to be left just wanting a bit more. That gets forgotten in a lot of movies, which are just relentless. Stuff going on the whole time.
What happens then is that, when it comes to something special for the third act, some fantastic fight or something, you can't raise the bar enough, because the bar's been high all the way through the movie. It's a weird thing.
They have to build, action scenes.
They do have to build, absolutely. That's why I do that little graph in the book, which is something I do in every movie, just to work out how much action there should be and where it should go and, on a scale of one to 10, how big it is. It's funny how crude that looks, and yet if you compare it to any of the really great action movies, they'll fit that graph. There'll be something at the opening, there'll be something happening at the end of the first act and into the second act, and there'll be bits and pieces happening in the second act and then a big third act finale. Whether it's a movie made in the 60s or now, that formula of action still becomes the sweet spot.
A lot of these superhero movies, there's some fantastic action going on, but by the end of the movie, nobody cares. You have nowhere to go with it.
Some of them are very long as well.
Far too long. Far, far too long. You're absolutely right. I think any movie, past two hours, has got to be either incredibly spectacular or it's an ego-fest for the filmmakers. Keeping somebody in a seat for more than two hours - you'd better have a really good tale to tell. And I don't think many of these modern ones do - they just have lots of stuff in them.
So what films have impressed you recently in terms of action?
Kingsman, definitely. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, a really good take on it. I loved that it was Colin Firth and not a traditional action hero that's covered in muscles and torn t-shirts and things. And for the same reasons, really, I love the Taken series of movies with Liam Neeson. I loved them, particularly because they're grounded in reality, or set just above reality. Obviously, Kingsman you go more above reality, but they're still grounded with real gravity and real people. It's a bit hypocritical, because I've made a great living doing some superhero movies, but they're not more favourite movies by any chance. I'm very proud of the work I've done on them, but the movies I love aren't even action, really. I haven't seen the third Taken, I need to get that, but I thought the first two Takens were really very cool.
I quite liked both the Red films. I was going to do the second one of those, because the guy who directed the second one is a friend of mine. So I'd have liked to have done that, but they wanted to go with the person they used on the first film. Dean Parisot is a very good friend of mine, I did Galaxy Quest with him. That's one of my favourites.
But a lot of movies I've seen lately, I've been underwhelmed by some of them. It's funny. I like tight little movies. I think it's a shame we've not had more John Frankenheimers making things like Ronin, you know. Great action but well placed - the right action in the right place. Again, grounded in reality, real people.
Do you think stunts go through trends? Obviously, you've recently been doing a lot of wire work on superhero movies lately.
Oh, absolutely. It's kind of gone in a tight full circle, because a few years ago action went fully CG, and then the brief we were given when we did the first Amazing Spider-Man is that they want to get away from that feel, to go more gravity based, more reality. That's what we spent a lot of time doing on that first Spider-Man is the way he jumps around. I based it on real physics.
Some of the stuff on the first Amazing Spider-Man I'm really very, very proud of. We filmed some groundbreaking rig systems and high-powered winches that moved around so there was a proper organic travel when Spider-Man jumps around. It's funny, because when I agreed to do the movie, that was the brief - they want to make Spider-Man's movement much more realistic. I said, "Yes, absolutely, we can do it." But when I came out of the meeting, I have to be honest - I had no idea how the hell we were going to do that.
We did a lot of testing. They were good enough to give us a lot of time to test. One of the things I did was bring in an Olympic gymnast, and I had him swing from three bars, from one bar to the next bar to the next bar, doing giant swings on them. I videoed it, because I knew that something on the original [Sam Raimi] Spider-Man didn't look right. It sounds really obvious in the end, because your eye goes straight to it, but when I brought the gymnast in, I realised that when you see a human swinging, their downward swing is really violent. It gets faster, faster, faster until it nearly pulls the arms out of the sockets, and then as they swing up it gets slower, slower, slower until they get negative. Then they grab the next bar and it happens again. It's the massive variation in velocity that made me realise, "I get it. That's what's real." Then you can tell it's a real guy. When you see Spider-Man and his speed is the same going down as it is going up, even though you haven't analysed it in your mind, you know that it's not right. It's like the five-legged horse syndrome: if you saw one standing in a field, even though you've never seen one in your life, you'd know that it's not something from nature.
It's something I spend a lot of time doing, making things organic and real. In the book you've see a lot of reference to Buster Keaton and things, because I like to go back to that. When you've seen something done for real, then you can make anything as fantastic as you want. But you have to know where the baseline is, where real is, before you start doing something too spectacular. Or what will happen is, even though an audience has never seen an athlete on giant bars, or a guy swinging on a spider web, they'll know instinctively that it looks wrong. We're conditioned to do that - no matter how realistic a dummy in a shop window is, we know as humans that it isn't a real person. Animals know all that - they can spot their own species, they can spot other species and know what they are.
It's why, with a superhero movie, especially, I like to do a bible beforehand, so that you can have a reference. How strong is Spider-Man? Can he throw cars or push a building over? Can he just pick up a sofa? You have to have a yardstick of what people can do. Otherwise it's all over the place. We've seen those movies, where the power of the superheroes [varies]. One minute he gets knocked out by someone in a bar, the next he's pushing a house over.
It has to have some kind of internal logic, doesn't it.
It has to have some kind of logic, no matter how mad that logic is, it has to be consistent. We had it on Thor: how powerful is Thor? How much can he do with a hammer? What happens when the hammer really hits something? You have to have all these mad conversations at the beginning of the movie. If you see someone punch through a building, it's tough to then see that same person slap someone in their face without tearing their head off. You need a yardstick to go to.
I was interested to read what you said about Catwoman, and the idea you had for the big fight.
Yeah, that was a classic case. In the end I was proved right. The movie could have been fantastic. Halle Berry - in the outfit, she could stop traffic. And she was such a perfect choice for Catwoman - she had all the abilities. The movement down, the whole thing. It was such a waste, because the script got crappier and crappier. There was a rewrite every week or so. Each one was worse than the last one. It was like someone was drinking and writing worse and worse versions of it. I feel sorry for Halle as well - I don't think it did her career any good. She's such a trooper anyway.
It's funny, I remember when I saw the first TV commercial for the movie, and I'd been a bit depressed - I don't like leaving movies. I remember coming out, and you always have that second thought as to whether you should have left it or not. But I'm quite strict about only doing good stuff. The interesting thing is, I fought to get the motorcycle sequence in there, and the directors and the producers - none of them wanted it. The moment I saw that first commercial, and it was nearly all motorcycle. I remember shouting at the screen that I was absolutely right. You know when they put that in the trailer that it's the only good thing in the movie! It's very funny.
Why do you think that happens sometimes in these big Hollywood films, where you get this death spiral of script rewrites? You hear about it quite a lot.
Oh, God knows. If you could answer that I think you'd be a gazillionaire. A lot of these rewrites just get worse and worse. It's like cooking, putting this and that in, until you've got this inedible bowl of crap that's like the vision you originally set out to make. That happens so often. I think part of it happens in the main studio system because a lot of films get made by committee. That happens a lot. It didn't happen with some of the greats of the 50s, 60s and 70s, because some of those people were tyrannical, but the movies they made had a personal identity to them.
John Boorman doesn't always make great movies, but he's a great moviemaker and every movie he makes is a John Boorman movie. You look at Excalibur, you look at Deliverance, you look at Hope And Glory, they're all different, you can like them or not like them, but they have a real authority and identity to them. What happens in a studio system is you have a lot of junior executives and they all want to put a comment in there, they all want to use this actor or that actress. In the end, for right or wrong, a film has to have one real author. If it doesn't... there's the old saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. That's what happens to movies. There are so many people in different areas in the studio that want to keep their fingers in the pie.
The big thing about studios is, most studio executives are all eventually going to get fired or run another studio or something. The rule of thumb is, most studio executives want to be just attached to a movie enough that if it's a huge success they can say they were or part of it, and they can point out the bits they changed or suggested or whatever. And if it's a Catwoman, they can distance themselves from it as if it were a disease. That's a real thing - a fine line executives work. Because you can get the blame for a picture that you may have had nothing to do with in some ways, you had no say in it if you were a studio executive, necessarily, and you can also get lots of praise and lots of awards and a million-dollar job at another studio because you're considered to be the guy or girl that brought this or that movie to the studio and it made $300m. It's a funny game, that.
In the end, who knows what's going to be successful? Who'd have thought movies like Fast & Furious would still be successful?
Yeah, there's gonna be eight or nine of them.
It's incredible. Vic [Armstrong] and I were offered, I guess it was three or four, and then they made a change with the action team and they've had the same action team since. But we'd just started Thor so we turned it down. It's funny because they went off and did more and more of those Fast & Furious films and we did the two Spider-Mans and Season Of The Witch and some other things. I think in the end we kind of made the right choice. I'm proud of the stuff I've done.
When you think of how advanced the look of Highlander was - Russell invented that look. The very long lenses, the very wide lenses. Fantastic cuts between things. It's absolutely timeless. I watched it again recently. It's as good now as it was when we made it. And it's a beautiful looking movie.
I'm really proud of the stuff I've done on it. It's amazing to think it's 30 years [old]. There's a lot of funny stories about Highlander. When they hired Sean Connery first of all as Ramirez, it’s funny because it's a Scotsman playing a Spaniard and a Frenchman playing a Scotsman! The funny thing is, Peter Davis and Bill Panzer, the producers, cast Connery - and the movie's called Highlander, so Connery thought he was playing the Highlander!
He got some huge fee, and then they let him know that he's playing Ramirez, this Spanish guy. He went, "Oh fine", but his fee was the same - he got about a million dollars for however many weeks he was on the movie. And then Christopher Lambert, who'd only done Greystoke before, as far as English-speaking movies went, they cast him and hadn't met him. Apparently, when they did Greystoke, he learned his lines parrot fashion - he just learned the line he had to speak. He couldn't speak English. But he's such a lovely guy.
When they first met him and he answered "Yes" to every question, they realised he didn't know what the hell they were talking about. [Laughs] They were in a bar or restaurant, and Peter Davis and Bill Panzer both came outside, and they left him at the table, and said, "He can't fucking speak English!" And they'd already cast him! The deal was done! It was fantastic, you know?
It just shows you. He was so charismatic in that movie. He learned English during the movie and was brilliant.
He's also incredibly short-sighted, Christophe. I did some really cool sword fight sequences with him. He couldn't see the sword! Incredible. His muscle memory and ability to be taught a fight with his glasses on, and then take is glasses off and then shoot was absolutely astounding. I've never met anyone like it. He never missed a beat, and yet he couldn't see - he couldn't see which end of the sword he had a hold of.
You look at those sword fights, and he's better than most stuntmen doing them. Yet he could hardly see his opponent, let alone the sword. Fascinating.
Clancy Brown, who played the villain, he's still a friend. He was fantastic. A couple of funny things happened on that, I think they're in the book. We were doing some car action in New York, and I had cameras on the front of the Cadillac. The Cadillac was my choice - originally it was written as a big four-wheel drive. I wanted something classically American that would slide around.
When we were towing it through town with the cameras on for the close-ups of the two actors, Clancy's there with his slit throat with the safety pins in it and all that, and I would jump off the back of the camera car when we got to a decent bit of road or bridge or something, and I'd turn all the cameras on.
At one point, I was turning the cameras on and the cop who was helping us - or supposed to be helping us in a typical sort of New York, aggressive cop way, said, "If you get off the camera car again, I'm going to arrest you."
Now, meanwhile, the cameras are rolling. I'm not really arguing with the cop, but I'm a bit pissed off to say the least. So I got back on the camera car. But while I'm doing that, Clancy, just dicking around, was [sings] "New York, New York!" And that was just him playing around. It was actually in response to me arguing with a New York cop, really.
Anyway, Russell, when he was putting the chase together, loved that little moment. He'd done all the Queen videos, and that's when Queen came in and saw it, and they loved it. So that's when they re-recorded their version of New York, New York and it became a hit record for Queen.
That's amazing.
It started as a mild confrontation between me and a rather aggressive New York cop! [Laughs] Whenever I see Clancy, we still laugh about it. It wasn't in the script or anything, it was just one of those things.
Andy Armstrong, thank you very much!
Action Movie Maker's Handbook is available from Amazon now.
See related Does it matter whether stars do their own stunts? Speed 2: how a dream sparked one of the biggest stunts ever Olivier Megaton interview: Taken 2, Liam Neeson and stunts Sam Mendes interview: Skyfall, stunts & cinematography Movies Interview Ryan Lambie Andy Armstrong 14 Jun 2016 - 05:40 Highlander Catwoman The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man 2 interview Andy Armstrong movies...
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Legendary stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong talks to us about his work on Highlander, Thor, Catwoman, and what makes a great action scene...
For over 40 years, Andy Armstrong has worked on a huge array of stunts and action sequences in TV and film. From directing 1,000s of extras in Stargate to a full body burn in Danny DeVito's Hoffa, Armstrong's experiences as a stuntman, stunt coordinator and unit director have taken him all over the world.
The brother of Vic Armstrong, the stunt coordinator and director who famously doubled for Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies, Andy Armstrong's career began when he doubled for Sir John Mills on the 1970s TV series, The Zoo Gang. That early job jumpstarted a life in filmmaking which has taken in three James Bond movies, 90s action (Total Recall, Universal Soldier) and superhero movies (The Green Hornet, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man).
Those 40 years of filmmaking experience are the pillar of Armstrong's book, the Action Movie Maker's Handbook. Intended as a reference for those thinking of starting a career in stunts or action unit directing, it also offers a valuable insight for those outside the industry, too. The book reveals the range of talents required to bring an effective action scene to the screen - organisation, storytelling, an understanding of engineering and physics - and how much input a coordinator and unit director has on how those sequences will look in the final film.
We caught up with Andy Armstrong via telephone to talk about his book and some of the highlights in his career so far. Read on for his thoughts on creating the action sequences in Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man, his hilarious behind-the-scenes memories from the 80s cult classic, Highlander, and what went wrong on the 2004 Catwoman movie...
Your book gave me a new appreciation for what second unit directors and stunt coordinators do. I didn't realise how much design work you do when it comes to action scenes, for example.
Yeah, it is true that a lot of people don't realise how much development goes into action. Especially nowadays, it's such a complex business. That becomes a huge part of it - the technicalities of it and the storytelling part of it. Some things might look great, but when you put them all together they don't necessarily work for that movie. A lot of what I've made a living doing is really creating action that is appropriate for the movie. Because the wrong type of action is just like the wrong costume or the wrong actor or something - it just takes you out of the film.
You get a lot of movies that actually have too much action in them. Then what happens is, you can't appreciate it. It's like a feast where the starter is such a huge meal that you don't even want the main course because you're full. That's like so many action movies - they'd actually benefit from having some of the action taken out of them. I'm always fascinated when you see an audience in an action movie.
When I feel there's too much action in a movie, or it goes on for too long, I always look around in a cinema. It's interesting to see people chatting to each other or doing something else. You should never have that in an action movie. Action should be like sex or violence - you want to be left just wanting a bit more. That gets forgotten in a lot of movies, which are just relentless. Stuff going on the whole time.
What happens then is that, when it comes to something special for the third act, some fantastic fight or something, you can't raise the bar enough, because the bar's been high all the way through the movie. It's a weird thing.
They have to build, action scenes.
They do have to build, absolutely. That's why I do that little graph in the book, which is something I do in every movie, just to work out how much action there should be and where it should go and, on a scale of one to 10, how big it is. It's funny how crude that looks, and yet if you compare it to any of the really great action movies, they'll fit that graph. There'll be something at the opening, there'll be something happening at the end of the first act and into the second act, and there'll be bits and pieces happening in the second act and then a big third act finale. Whether it's a movie made in the 60s or now, that formula of action still becomes the sweet spot.
A lot of these superhero movies, there's some fantastic action going on, but by the end of the movie, nobody cares. You have nowhere to go with it.
Some of them are very long as well.
Far too long. Far, far too long. You're absolutely right. I think any movie, past two hours, has got to be either incredibly spectacular or it's an ego-fest for the filmmakers. Keeping somebody in a seat for more than two hours - you'd better have a really good tale to tell. And I don't think many of these modern ones do - they just have lots of stuff in them.
So what films have impressed you recently in terms of action?
Kingsman, definitely. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, a really good take on it. I loved that it was Colin Firth and not a traditional action hero that's covered in muscles and torn t-shirts and things. And for the same reasons, really, I love the Taken series of movies with Liam Neeson. I loved them, particularly because they're grounded in reality, or set just above reality. Obviously, Kingsman you go more above reality, but they're still grounded with real gravity and real people. It's a bit hypocritical, because I've made a great living doing some superhero movies, but they're not more favourite movies by any chance. I'm very proud of the work I've done on them, but the movies I love aren't even action, really. I haven't seen the third Taken, I need to get that, but I thought the first two Takens were really very cool.
I quite liked both the Red films. I was going to do the second one of those, because the guy who directed the second one is a friend of mine. So I'd have liked to have done that, but they wanted to go with the person they used on the first film. Dean Parisot is a very good friend of mine, I did Galaxy Quest with him. That's one of my favourites.
But a lot of movies I've seen lately, I've been underwhelmed by some of them. It's funny. I like tight little movies. I think it's a shame we've not had more John Frankenheimers making things like Ronin, you know. Great action but well placed - the right action in the right place. Again, grounded in reality, real people.
Do you think stunts go through trends? Obviously, you've recently been doing a lot of wire work on superhero movies lately.
Oh, absolutely. It's kind of gone in a tight full circle, because a few years ago action went fully CG, and then the brief we were given when we did the first Amazing Spider-Man is that they want to get away from that feel, to go more gravity based, more reality. That's what we spent a lot of time doing on that first Spider-Man is the way he jumps around. I based it on real physics.
Some of the stuff on the first Amazing Spider-Man I'm really very, very proud of. We filmed some groundbreaking rig systems and high-powered winches that moved around so there was a proper organic travel when Spider-Man jumps around. It's funny, because when I agreed to do the movie, that was the brief - they want to make Spider-Man's movement much more realistic. I said, "Yes, absolutely, we can do it." But when I came out of the meeting, I have to be honest - I had no idea how the hell we were going to do that.
We did a lot of testing. They were good enough to give us a lot of time to test. One of the things I did was bring in an Olympic gymnast, and I had him swing from three bars, from one bar to the next bar to the next bar, doing giant swings on them. I videoed it, because I knew that something on the original [Sam Raimi] Spider-Man didn't look right. It sounds really obvious in the end, because your eye goes straight to it, but when I brought the gymnast in, I realised that when you see a human swinging, their downward swing is really violent. It gets faster, faster, faster until it nearly pulls the arms out of the sockets, and then as they swing up it gets slower, slower, slower until they get negative. Then they grab the next bar and it happens again. It's the massive variation in velocity that made me realise, "I get it. That's what's real." Then you can tell it's a real guy. When you see Spider-Man and his speed is the same going down as it is going up, even though you haven't analysed it in your mind, you know that it's not right. It's like the five-legged horse syndrome: if you saw one standing in a field, even though you've never seen one in your life, you'd know that it's not something from nature.
It's something I spend a lot of time doing, making things organic and real. In the book you've see a lot of reference to Buster Keaton and things, because I like to go back to that. When you've seen something done for real, then you can make anything as fantastic as you want. But you have to know where the baseline is, where real is, before you start doing something too spectacular. Or what will happen is, even though an audience has never seen an athlete on giant bars, or a guy swinging on a spider web, they'll know instinctively that it looks wrong. We're conditioned to do that - no matter how realistic a dummy in a shop window is, we know as humans that it isn't a real person. Animals know all that - they can spot their own species, they can spot other species and know what they are.
It's why, with a superhero movie, especially, I like to do a bible beforehand, so that you can have a reference. How strong is Spider-Man? Can he throw cars or push a building over? Can he just pick up a sofa? You have to have a yardstick of what people can do. Otherwise it's all over the place. We've seen those movies, where the power of the superheroes [varies]. One minute he gets knocked out by someone in a bar, the next he's pushing a house over.
It has to have some kind of internal logic, doesn't it.
It has to have some kind of logic, no matter how mad that logic is, it has to be consistent. We had it on Thor: how powerful is Thor? How much can he do with a hammer? What happens when the hammer really hits something? You have to have all these mad conversations at the beginning of the movie. If you see someone punch through a building, it's tough to then see that same person slap someone in their face without tearing their head off. You need a yardstick to go to.
I was interested to read what you said about Catwoman, and the idea you had for the big fight.
Yeah, that was a classic case. In the end I was proved right. The movie could have been fantastic. Halle Berry - in the outfit, she could stop traffic. And she was such a perfect choice for Catwoman - she had all the abilities. The movement down, the whole thing. It was such a waste, because the script got crappier and crappier. There was a rewrite every week or so. Each one was worse than the last one. It was like someone was drinking and writing worse and worse versions of it. I feel sorry for Halle as well - I don't think it did her career any good. She's such a trooper anyway.
It's funny, I remember when I saw the first TV commercial for the movie, and I'd been a bit depressed - I don't like leaving movies. I remember coming out, and you always have that second thought as to whether you should have left it or not. But I'm quite strict about only doing good stuff. The interesting thing is, I fought to get the motorcycle sequence in there, and the directors and the producers - none of them wanted it. The moment I saw that first commercial, and it was nearly all motorcycle. I remember shouting at the screen that I was absolutely right. You know when they put that in the trailer that it's the only good thing in the movie! It's very funny.
Why do you think that happens sometimes in these big Hollywood films, where you get this death spiral of script rewrites? You hear about it quite a lot.
Oh, God knows. If you could answer that I think you'd be a gazillionaire. A lot of these rewrites just get worse and worse. It's like cooking, putting this and that in, until you've got this inedible bowl of crap that's like the vision you originally set out to make. That happens so often. I think part of it happens in the main studio system because a lot of films get made by committee. That happens a lot. It didn't happen with some of the greats of the 50s, 60s and 70s, because some of those people were tyrannical, but the movies they made had a personal identity to them.
John Boorman doesn't always make great movies, but he's a great moviemaker and every movie he makes is a John Boorman movie. You look at Excalibur, you look at Deliverance, you look at Hope And Glory, they're all different, you can like them or not like them, but they have a real authority and identity to them. What happens in a studio system is you have a lot of junior executives and they all want to put a comment in there, they all want to use this actor or that actress. In the end, for right or wrong, a film has to have one real author. If it doesn't... there's the old saying that a camel is a horse designed by committee. That's what happens to movies. There are so many people in different areas in the studio that want to keep their fingers in the pie.
The big thing about studios is, most studio executives are all eventually going to get fired or run another studio or something. The rule of thumb is, most studio executives want to be just attached to a movie enough that if it's a huge success they can say they were or part of it, and they can point out the bits they changed or suggested or whatever. And if it's a Catwoman, they can distance themselves from it as if it were a disease. That's a real thing - a fine line executives work. Because you can get the blame for a picture that you may have had nothing to do with in some ways, you had no say in it if you were a studio executive, necessarily, and you can also get lots of praise and lots of awards and a million-dollar job at another studio because you're considered to be the guy or girl that brought this or that movie to the studio and it made $300m. It's a funny game, that.
In the end, who knows what's going to be successful? Who'd have thought movies like Fast & Furious would still be successful?
Yeah, there's gonna be eight or nine of them.
It's incredible. Vic [Armstrong] and I were offered, I guess it was three or four, and then they made a change with the action team and they've had the same action team since. But we'd just started Thor so we turned it down. It's funny because they went off and did more and more of those Fast & Furious films and we did the two Spider-Mans and Season Of The Witch and some other things. I think in the end we kind of made the right choice. I'm proud of the stuff I've done.
When you think of how advanced the look of Highlander was - Russell invented that look. The very long lenses, the very wide lenses. Fantastic cuts between things. It's absolutely timeless. I watched it again recently. It's as good now as it was when we made it. And it's a beautiful looking movie.
I'm really proud of the stuff I've done on it. It's amazing to think it's 30 years [old]. There's a lot of funny stories about Highlander. When they hired Sean Connery first of all as Ramirez, it’s funny because it's a Scotsman playing a Spaniard and a Frenchman playing a Scotsman! The funny thing is, Peter Davis and Bill Panzer, the producers, cast Connery - and the movie's called Highlander, so Connery thought he was playing the Highlander!
He got some huge fee, and then they let him know that he's playing Ramirez, this Spanish guy. He went, "Oh fine", but his fee was the same - he got about a million dollars for however many weeks he was on the movie. And then Christopher Lambert, who'd only done Greystoke before, as far as English-speaking movies went, they cast him and hadn't met him. Apparently, when they did Greystoke, he learned his lines parrot fashion - he just learned the line he had to speak. He couldn't speak English. But he's such a lovely guy.
When they first met him and he answered "Yes" to every question, they realised he didn't know what the hell they were talking about. [Laughs] They were in a bar or restaurant, and Peter Davis and Bill Panzer both came outside, and they left him at the table, and said, "He can't fucking speak English!" And they'd already cast him! The deal was done! It was fantastic, you know?
It just shows you. He was so charismatic in that movie. He learned English during the movie and was brilliant.
He's also incredibly short-sighted, Christophe. I did some really cool sword fight sequences with him. He couldn't see the sword! Incredible. His muscle memory and ability to be taught a fight with his glasses on, and then take is glasses off and then shoot was absolutely astounding. I've never met anyone like it. He never missed a beat, and yet he couldn't see - he couldn't see which end of the sword he had a hold of.
You look at those sword fights, and he's better than most stuntmen doing them. Yet he could hardly see his opponent, let alone the sword. Fascinating.
Clancy Brown, who played the villain, he's still a friend. He was fantastic. A couple of funny things happened on that, I think they're in the book. We were doing some car action in New York, and I had cameras on the front of the Cadillac. The Cadillac was my choice - originally it was written as a big four-wheel drive. I wanted something classically American that would slide around.
When we were towing it through town with the cameras on for the close-ups of the two actors, Clancy's there with his slit throat with the safety pins in it and all that, and I would jump off the back of the camera car when we got to a decent bit of road or bridge or something, and I'd turn all the cameras on.
At one point, I was turning the cameras on and the cop who was helping us - or supposed to be helping us in a typical sort of New York, aggressive cop way, said, "If you get off the camera car again, I'm going to arrest you."
Now, meanwhile, the cameras are rolling. I'm not really arguing with the cop, but I'm a bit pissed off to say the least. So I got back on the camera car. But while I'm doing that, Clancy, just dicking around, was [sings] "New York, New York!" And that was just him playing around. It was actually in response to me arguing with a New York cop, really.
Anyway, Russell, when he was putting the chase together, loved that little moment. He'd done all the Queen videos, and that's when Queen came in and saw it, and they loved it. So that's when they re-recorded their version of New York, New York and it became a hit record for Queen.
That's amazing.
It started as a mild confrontation between me and a rather aggressive New York cop! [Laughs] Whenever I see Clancy, we still laugh about it. It wasn't in the script or anything, it was just one of those things.
Andy Armstrong, thank you very much!
Action Movie Maker's Handbook is available from Amazon now.
See related Does it matter whether stars do their own stunts? Speed 2: how a dream sparked one of the biggest stunts ever Olivier Megaton interview: Taken 2, Liam Neeson and stunts Sam Mendes interview: Skyfall, stunts & cinematography Movies Interview Ryan Lambie Andy Armstrong 14 Jun 2016 - 05:40 Highlander Catwoman The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man 2 interview Andy Armstrong movies...
- 6/13/2016
- Den of Geek
John Boorman: "the relationship between memory and imagination is very mysterious.” Photo: Richard Mowe
John Boorman, the British director who made some of cinema’s most seminal films (Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, Leo the Last) has returned to the fray at 82 with Queen And Country, an autobiographical companion piece to his Oscar winning Hope And Glory.
Richard Mowe: How close is the film to your memories of the time and did you almost become an accidental film-maker?
John Boorman: Very close. All the incidents in the film occurred to me and all the characters were people I knew and met at the time. When I came out of the Army I got a job as a trainee film editor. I thought I could be very happy being a film editor for the rest of my life. But then I moved to Southern Television, and there, as a director-editor,...
John Boorman, the British director who made some of cinema’s most seminal films (Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, Leo the Last) has returned to the fray at 82 with Queen And Country, an autobiographical companion piece to his Oscar winning Hope And Glory.
Richard Mowe: How close is the film to your memories of the time and did you almost become an accidental film-maker?
John Boorman: Very close. All the incidents in the film occurred to me and all the characters were people I knew and met at the time. When I came out of the Army I got a job as a trainee film editor. I thought I could be very happy being a film editor for the rest of my life. But then I moved to Southern Television, and there, as a director-editor,...
- 6/5/2015
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Queen and Country is John Boorman’s belated sequel to his autobiographical Hope and Glory (1987). The first film was based on his experiences growing up in the London suburbs during the Blitz. The new one starts in 1952, just as Boorman’s fictional alter ego Bill Rohan is about to begin his National Service. By then, his family had moved to a house on the river Thames, near Shepperton Film Studios.
- 6/5/2015
- The Independent - Film
From anime to pitch-black thrillers, here's our pick of the underappreciated movies of 1987...
Sometimes, the challenge with these lists isn't just what to put in, but what to leave out. We loved Princess Bride, but with a decent showing at the box office and a huge cult following, isn't it a bit too popular to be described as underappreciated? Likewise Joe Dante's Innerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick, Fantastic Voyage.
What we've gone for instead is a mix of genre fare, dramas and animated films that may have garnered a cult following since, but didn't do well either critically or financially at the time of release. Some of the movies on our list just about made their money back, but none made anything close to the sort of returns enjoyed by the likes of 1987's biggest films - Three Men And A Baby, Fatal Attraction...
Sometimes, the challenge with these lists isn't just what to put in, but what to leave out. We loved Princess Bride, but with a decent showing at the box office and a huge cult following, isn't it a bit too popular to be described as underappreciated? Likewise Joe Dante's Innerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick, Fantastic Voyage.
What we've gone for instead is a mix of genre fare, dramas and animated films that may have garnered a cult following since, but didn't do well either critically or financially at the time of release. Some of the movies on our list just about made their money back, but none made anything close to the sort of returns enjoyed by the likes of 1987's biggest films - Three Men And A Baby, Fatal Attraction...
- 5/13/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
John Boorman’s beloved 1987 World War II film Hope and Glory was based on his own experiences as a young boy in London. His alter ego Bill Rohan’s most memorable scene was shouting for joy when Hitler bombs his school, ensuring time off. Now flash forward to 1952 where Boorman picks up Bill’s life as a trainee solider. It was the Cold War and as Boorman says, a time of great upheaval in Britain. Seen through Bill’s eyes, the post war world was a time and place where anything could happen. We spoke with 82-year old filmmaker from London. It’s […]...
- 3/25/2015
- by Anne Brodie
- Monsters and Critics
John Boorman: Memories of Queen and Country
By Alex Simon
John Boorman first made his name as a filmmaker to be reckoned with upon the release of 1967’s Point Blank, one of the seminal films of that decade. Classics such as Deliverance (1972), Excalibur (1981) and The Emerald Forest (1985) followed, with 1987’s Hope and Glory, Boorman’s personal memoir of growing up in Ww II London during the Blitz, being one of his career high points, garnering five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, as well as winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (comedy) and sweeping that year’s BAFTAs in every major category.
2015 finds John Boorman, now 82, releasing what he says might be his swan song as a filmmaker, Queen and Country, the long-awaited sequel to Hope and Glory. The film finds Boorman’s alter ego Bill Rohan (Callum Turner) serving in the British army during the Korean War,...
By Alex Simon
John Boorman first made his name as a filmmaker to be reckoned with upon the release of 1967’s Point Blank, one of the seminal films of that decade. Classics such as Deliverance (1972), Excalibur (1981) and The Emerald Forest (1985) followed, with 1987’s Hope and Glory, Boorman’s personal memoir of growing up in Ww II London during the Blitz, being one of his career high points, garnering five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, as well as winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (comedy) and sweeping that year’s BAFTAs in every major category.
2015 finds John Boorman, now 82, releasing what he says might be his swan song as a filmmaker, Queen and Country, the long-awaited sequel to Hope and Glory. The film finds Boorman’s alter ego Bill Rohan (Callum Turner) serving in the British army during the Korean War,...
- 2/27/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
If any movie is harder to pull off than a sequel or a memoir, it’s the sequel to a memoir, which is what writer-director John Boorman attempts with “Queen and Country,” a look back at his years serving in the British armed forces during the Korean War. (Boorman stayed at home, teaching typing, while most of his fellow trainees were shipped off to combat.) Boorman’s first stab at big-screen autobiography, 1987’s “Hope and Glory,” managed to enchant audiences around the world and rack up an impressive array of awards and nominations. We’ve seen many films that portray the horror and.
- 2/26/2015
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Tour of Duty: Boorman Returns to Autobiographical Elements
Now at 82 years of age, British auteur John Boorman returns with Queen and Country his first feature since 2006. It is a follow-up to one of the director’s most cherished titles, Hope and Glory (1987), which documents war-torn England through the eyes of a child as his family survives the blitz. Though it’s been nearly thirty years, Boorman sets this follow-up chapter only nine years in the future, leaving behind the horrors of WWII for the Cold War ethics of the Korean conflict. Much like he managed with the film’s predecessor, Boorman achieves success by making the film a personal, insular story about a small group of characters’ experiences. The powerful emotional possibilities of the child’s perspective is left behind, now a young man discovering who he wants to be and what values he wishes to cherish. This makes for a more reserved,...
Now at 82 years of age, British auteur John Boorman returns with Queen and Country his first feature since 2006. It is a follow-up to one of the director’s most cherished titles, Hope and Glory (1987), which documents war-torn England through the eyes of a child as his family survives the blitz. Though it’s been nearly thirty years, Boorman sets this follow-up chapter only nine years in the future, leaving behind the horrors of WWII for the Cold War ethics of the Korean conflict. Much like he managed with the film’s predecessor, Boorman achieves success by making the film a personal, insular story about a small group of characters’ experiences. The powerful emotional possibilities of the child’s perspective is left behind, now a young man discovering who he wants to be and what values he wishes to cherish. This makes for a more reserved,...
- 2/24/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
At a retrospective at New York's Film Forum, including the baroque thriller, Point Blank, the Appalachian nightmare, Deliverance, the bizarre, sci-fi adventure, Zardoz, and his epic Arthurian legend, Excalibur, Director John Boorman premiered Queen And Country, the sequel to his semi-autobiographical 1987 opus, Hope and Glory. In a short but sweet chat, Director Boorman spoke with us about the magic of Lee Marvin, directing Mifune, and wrangling the sexual tension between Merlin and Morgana Le Fay. The Lady Miz Diva: You're here for the Film Forum's retrospective of your work, but also for the premiere of your newest film, Queen and Country, the sequel to your 1987 film, Hope and Glory. What brought you back to that autobiographical story now, nearly thirty years later?John Boorman: ...
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- 2/23/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Writing an introduction for the films of John Boorman is to recite a canon of modern cinema classics. From Point Black to Hell in the Pacific through the monuments of Deliverance and Excalibur and the offbeat and beloved Zardoz and The Exorcist II: The Heretic, the filmmaker takes his audiences by the skull and pulls them directly into his extremely visualized film scenarios. Having just completed what he feels may be his last film, Queen and Country, a sequel to his five-time Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Hope and Glory, the eighty-two-year-old director is making the rounds for his latest picture with his producer Kieran Corrigan, their eighth project together. Mr. Boorman loves, lives, eats and breathes cinema, a passion that includes performances by his own children, and a feature documentary by his daughter Katrine on her father, Me and Me Dad. And now, let us meditate on this at second level.
- 2/18/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Writing an introduction for the films of John Boorman is to recite a canon of modern cinema classics. From Point Black to Hell in the Pacific through the monuments of Deliverance and Excalibur and the offbeat and beloved Zardoz and The Exorcist II: The Heretic, the filmmaker takes his audiences by the skull and pulls them directly into his extremely visualized film scenarios. Having just completed what he feels may be his last film, Queen and Country, a sequel to his five-time Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Hope and Glory, the eighty-two-year-old director is making the rounds for his latest picture with his producer Kieran Corrigan, their eighth project together. Mr. Boorman loves, lives, eats and breathes cinema, a passion that includes performances by his own children, and a feature documentary by his daughter Katrine on her father, Me and Me Dad. And now, let us meditate on this at second level.
- 2/18/2015
- Keyframe
Another gray-panther valediction: At 82, John Boorman caps off his unpredictably schizo career with this sequel to 1987's all-this-and-wwii boyhood memoir Hope and Glory, continuing the spry Brit's semi-autobiography into the Fifties. More than anything else, Boorman has always been a mythmaker (even Deliverance has a primal pagan flavor), and has never been deft at comedy, so this relaxed, casually plotted, and often adorable nostalgia-farce wilts with a deficit of raison d'être. There's no Blitz or Arthurian drama here, just killing time. Boorman's alter ego, Billy Rohan (Callum Turner) is now nineteen and drafted into the Army during the Korean War — only to be held at home teaching typing to younger recruits, irritating his neurotically ra...
- 2/18/2015
- Village Voice
The most famous movies made by John Boorman are Point Blank, Deliverance, and Hope and Glory, three disparate, elegantly constructed pictures that almost any director would be proud to have on a résumé. But the movies the 82-year-old Boorman made before, after, and in between those extraordinary benchmarks fill in a grand and much broader story in this unicorn tapestry of a career. Corral his best-known work in the center, if you must. But the only way to understand Boorman, if such a thing is fully possible, is to sharpen your depth of field so that every intricately woven flower slips into focus. In other words, to see the greatness of Boorman is to reckon with the fact that the man who put Sean Connery in a red diaper and swinging hippie brai...
- 2/11/2015
- Village Voice
John Boorman's career is littered with misfires, maybe the price we pay for the huge artistic risks he takes. In between the early triumphs of Point Blank (1967) and Hell in the Pacific (1968) and his masterwork Deliverance (1972) lies Leo the Last, which gets very little love and not even the kind of scornful attention accorded to catastrophes like Zardoz (1974) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).
Maybe this is because bad drama has kitsch value, whereas bad comedy nobody can stand, and Leo the Last appears, at times, to be attempting humor, a surprising choice for Boorman whose very humorlessness can seem a strength in his successful films and a weakness in his failures. There's something heroic about the fact that it apparently never occurred to Boorman that a man having sex wearing full plate armor (Excalibur), Sean Connery in thigh boots, bandoliers and nappy (Zardoz) and Linda Blair doing a musical...
Maybe this is because bad drama has kitsch value, whereas bad comedy nobody can stand, and Leo the Last appears, at times, to be attempting humor, a surprising choice for Boorman whose very humorlessness can seem a strength in his successful films and a weakness in his failures. There's something heroic about the fact that it apparently never occurred to Boorman that a man having sex wearing full plate armor (Excalibur), Sean Connery in thigh boots, bandoliers and nappy (Zardoz) and Linda Blair doing a musical...
- 11/20/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
John Boorman's 1987 film Hope and Glory, about the London Blitz seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, is a favourite in the Rowan-Legg household (seriously, we can all quote it almost verbatim to the point of annoying guests). Partly based on Boorman's own experiences, it was the perfect mixture of humour, family drama and the realities of the difficult homefront life during World War II. So it was with a mixture of great anticipation and trepidation that I sat down to watch his follow up, Queen and Country. I shouldn't have worried; Boorman's keen eye for detail, his strong political convictions, and his lack of fear in being both romantic and politically satirical have not dimished.Set 10 years after the first film, our...
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- 11/14/2014
- Screen Anarchy
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