Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton worked together on an album for the first time in 1987. Years before this, though, Harris was growing to be a big fan of Parton. She praised her voice and writing, noting that she could imbue her work with powerful emotions. Harris pointed to one song in particular that nearly brought tears to her eyes. She said it was so good that it almost wasn’t fair.
Emmylou Harris said a Dolly Parton song nearly made her weep
In the early days of Parton’s career, Harris spent so much time publicly praising her that Parton joked she should pay her for the good press.
“I just think she’s a marvelous writer,” Harris said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I mean, if nothing else, she’s a marvelous writer, and an incredible singer, but then she’s also amazing because of the way...
Emmylou Harris said a Dolly Parton song nearly made her weep
In the early days of Parton’s career, Harris spent so much time publicly praising her that Parton joked she should pay her for the good press.
“I just think she’s a marvelous writer,” Harris said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I mean, if nothing else, she’s a marvelous writer, and an incredible singer, but then she’s also amazing because of the way...
- 6/4/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Dolly Parton was proud of building her career on her own terms, but she noted that two other musicians helped her go far. While Parton denied that either of these artists influenced the decisions she made in her career, she said the publicity they gave her didn’t hurt. She joked that they did so much to bring her attention that she should have put them on her payroll.
Dolly Parton said two musicians gave her great publicity
In the 1970s, both Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt recorded versions of Parton’s songs. Their covers were successful — Harris’ version of “To Daddy” hit number three on the country charts — and brought attention to Parton’s writing. Both artists also spoke glowingly about how much they liked Parton.
“They were into my music before I even met either one of ’em,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And I think they’re super.
Dolly Parton said two musicians gave her great publicity
In the 1970s, both Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt recorded versions of Parton’s songs. Their covers were successful — Harris’ version of “To Daddy” hit number three on the country charts — and brought attention to Parton’s writing. Both artists also spoke glowingly about how much they liked Parton.
“They were into my music before I even met either one of ’em,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And I think they’re super.
- 6/2/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before: Some criminals abduct a rich guy’s child and demand a hefty sum to give the youngster back. The “victim” then proceeds to make life hell for the kidnappers. It’s more or less the plot of The Ransom of Red Chief, arguably O. Henry’s best-known work. And like a lot of people who’ve read this enduring staple of school-reading curricula over the decades, you probably got to the final paragraph (“And as dark as it was,...
- 4/19/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Mumbai, July 5 (Ians) Music composer Amit Trivedi, who is known for giving music for films like Dev.D, Queen, Bombay Velvet and Lootera is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his timeless album Lootera. The composer revealed the reason behind the soundtrack garnering so much positive response saying that the album features old school melodies which tug at the heartstrings of the audience.
Lootera, which starred Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead, received immense love from audiences for its storyline and music. The album boasts of six songs including ‘Sawaar Loon’, ‘Ankahee’, ‘Shikayatein’, ‘Monta Re’, ‘Zinda’ and ‘Manmarziyan’.
Lootera’s music has powerful singers crooning these beautiful songs such as Shilpa Rao, Monali Thakur, K. Mohan and Swanand Kirkire along with Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya.
Getting nostalgic about creating music for this beautiful album, Amit Trivedi said: “Time truly flies and it doesn’t feel like it’s been...
Lootera, which starred Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead, received immense love from audiences for its storyline and music. The album boasts of six songs including ‘Sawaar Loon’, ‘Ankahee’, ‘Shikayatein’, ‘Monta Re’, ‘Zinda’ and ‘Manmarziyan’.
Lootera’s music has powerful singers crooning these beautiful songs such as Shilpa Rao, Monali Thakur, K. Mohan and Swanand Kirkire along with Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya.
Getting nostalgic about creating music for this beautiful album, Amit Trivedi said: “Time truly flies and it doesn’t feel like it’s been...
- 7/5/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Mumbai, July 5 (Ians) As the film ‘Lootera’ clocks 10 years of release in Hindi cinema, producer Ektaa R Kapoor says it surpassed all expectations and that it has become a timeless masterpiece even though the movie wasn’t considered as “quintessential entertainment”.
‘Lootera’ starring Ranveer Singh and Sonankshi Sinha is a period romance film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and the second half is based on author O. Henry’s 1907 short story ‘The Last Leaf’.
The film is based in the era of 1950s against the backdrop of the Zamindari Abolition Act by the newly independent India. It revolves around a young con man posing as an archaeologist and the daughter of a Bengali zamindar.
Speaking about ‘Lootera’, Ektaa said: “Ten years ago, when I made ‘Lootera,’ at that time, it wasn’t seen as quintessential entertainment. But I had a vision- a vision of a film that would steal everyone’s heart.
‘Lootera’ starring Ranveer Singh and Sonankshi Sinha is a period romance film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and the second half is based on author O. Henry’s 1907 short story ‘The Last Leaf’.
The film is based in the era of 1950s against the backdrop of the Zamindari Abolition Act by the newly independent India. It revolves around a young con man posing as an archaeologist and the daughter of a Bengali zamindar.
Speaking about ‘Lootera’, Ektaa said: “Ten years ago, when I made ‘Lootera,’ at that time, it wasn’t seen as quintessential entertainment. But I had a vision- a vision of a film that would steal everyone’s heart.
- 7/5/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
For a movie with an expletive in its title, Bucky F*cking Dent sure displays a sentimental streak.
In David Duchovny’s film based on his well-received 2016 novel, a dying, and diehard, Red Sox fan is comforted by his son and friends who make up stories about imaginary victories — and even periodically use a garden hose and sound effects replicating a thunderstorm to make him think that certain games have been rained out. It’s like a modern-day version of the classic O. Henry story “The Last Leaf.”
Fortunately, the film, receiving its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, also features enough caustic, irreverent humor to make its soppier aspects more palatable. Representing Duchovny’s first feature directorial effort since 2004’s House of D, it provides an excellent showcase for the actor’s particular brand of deadpan comedy as the sort of cranky, wisecracking guy who pretends to be taking his last breath,...
In David Duchovny’s film based on his well-received 2016 novel, a dying, and diehard, Red Sox fan is comforted by his son and friends who make up stories about imaginary victories — and even periodically use a garden hose and sound effects replicating a thunderstorm to make him think that certain games have been rained out. It’s like a modern-day version of the classic O. Henry story “The Last Leaf.”
Fortunately, the film, receiving its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, also features enough caustic, irreverent humor to make its soppier aspects more palatable. Representing Duchovny’s first feature directorial effort since 2004’s House of D, it provides an excellent showcase for the actor’s particular brand of deadpan comedy as the sort of cranky, wisecracking guy who pretends to be taking his last breath,...
- 6/11/2023
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This article appears in the new issue of Den Of Geek magazine. Get your copy here.
For fans who loved Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, there’s some good news: the second season isn’t trying to reinvent the show. In fact, in some ways, Strange New Worlds season 2 might feel even more like what the first season promised to be. Debuting just two months after the conclusion of one of the most tightly serialized Star Trek seasons ever, Picard season 3, Strange New Worlds returns with the same goal it had in its first season: to tell throwback, self-contained stories with a different tone, every single week.
But that doesn’t mean the scope is the same. In 2022, Strange New Worlds left two unresolved cliffhangers dangling — the departure of La’an (Christian Chong) and the arrest of Una (Rebecca Romijn) while also hinting at the idea that we will...
For fans who loved Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, there’s some good news: the second season isn’t trying to reinvent the show. In fact, in some ways, Strange New Worlds season 2 might feel even more like what the first season promised to be. Debuting just two months after the conclusion of one of the most tightly serialized Star Trek seasons ever, Picard season 3, Strange New Worlds returns with the same goal it had in its first season: to tell throwback, self-contained stories with a different tone, every single week.
But that doesn’t mean the scope is the same. In 2022, Strange New Worlds left two unresolved cliffhangers dangling — the departure of La’an (Christian Chong) and the arrest of Una (Rebecca Romijn) while also hinting at the idea that we will...
- 5/25/2023
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Rugrats Season 1 aired in 1991, bringing animated joy to its audiences via Nickelodeon. Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lillian introduced a sense of humor into its episodes full of adventure. However, the series also had plenty of jokes and Easter eggs aimed at adults that went right over the heads of its younger viewers. Rugrats Season 1 took a small jab at Donald Trump, which is particularly funny looking back all of these years later.
‘Rugrats’ Season 1 Episode 6 sees Tommy getting kidnapped L-r: Phil, Tommy, Chuckie, and Lillian | Paramount+
Rugrats Season 1 Episode 6 contained two segments titled “Ruthless Tommy” and “Moose Country.” They aired together on Nov. 6, 1991, but it was the former with a Trump joke that ran through the episode.
“Ruthless Tommy” begins with Tommy’s mother, Didi, putting Grandpa Lou in charge of keeping an eye on the baby. He predictably falls asleep, giving Tommy the opportunity to slip...
‘Rugrats’ Season 1 Episode 6 sees Tommy getting kidnapped L-r: Phil, Tommy, Chuckie, and Lillian | Paramount+
Rugrats Season 1 Episode 6 contained two segments titled “Ruthless Tommy” and “Moose Country.” They aired together on Nov. 6, 1991, but it was the former with a Trump joke that ran through the episode.
“Ruthless Tommy” begins with Tommy’s mother, Didi, putting Grandpa Lou in charge of keeping an eye on the baby. He predictably falls asleep, giving Tommy the opportunity to slip...
- 4/7/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Dear M. Night Shyamalan: Are you doing ok?
We completely sympathize if you’re not. Look, the last seven or so years have not been easy for anyone, and no one would blame the Oscar-nominated filmmaker if, like so many of us, his faith in humanity has taken a few massive body blows. It felt as though we were seeing the worst aspects of our fellow citizens on daily display, from the mainstreaming of hatemongering to mask-inspired divisiveness to any collective, non-partisan notion of reality becoming an impossibility. Empathy appeared to be M.
We completely sympathize if you’re not. Look, the last seven or so years have not been easy for anyone, and no one would blame the Oscar-nominated filmmaker if, like so many of us, his faith in humanity has taken a few massive body blows. It felt as though we were seeing the worst aspects of our fellow citizens on daily display, from the mainstreaming of hatemongering to mask-inspired divisiveness to any collective, non-partisan notion of reality becoming an impossibility. Empathy appeared to be M.
- 2/1/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Click here to read the full article.
Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977) may not be as widely known as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) or Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). But it is no less enchanting or enduring than those Christmas TV specials.
Based on the 1971 children’s book by Russell Hoban, it was produced by The Jim Henson Co. and premiered in Canada on the CBC on Dec. 4, 1977, then in the U.S. on HBO one year later. Emmet was technically ambitious, employing new Muppets wizardry that bridged the gap between The Muppet Show, which debuted in 1976, and The Muppet Movie (1979) — including elaborately rigged sets (that had floors) and radio-controlled puppets. The plot, bookended by appearances by Kermit the Frog, follows Emmet and his widowed Ma, residents of Frogtown Hollow, who do odd jobs for residents, some of whom cheat them out of payment.
Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977) may not be as widely known as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) or Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). But it is no less enchanting or enduring than those Christmas TV specials.
Based on the 1971 children’s book by Russell Hoban, it was produced by The Jim Henson Co. and premiered in Canada on the CBC on Dec. 4, 1977, then in the U.S. on HBO one year later. Emmet was technically ambitious, employing new Muppets wizardry that bridged the gap between The Muppet Show, which debuted in 1976, and The Muppet Movie (1979) — including elaborately rigged sets (that had floors) and radio-controlled puppets. The plot, bookended by appearances by Kermit the Frog, follows Emmet and his widowed Ma, residents of Frogtown Hollow, who do odd jobs for residents, some of whom cheat them out of payment.
- 12/24/2022
- by Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Twice-Told Tales
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber
1963 / 1.66: 1 / 120 Min.
Starring Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot, Joyce Taylor
Written by Robert E. Kent
Directed by Sidney Salkow
Released in October of 1963, the first review of Sidney Salkow’s Twice-Told Tales appeared in 1623: “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.” That line from Shakespeare’s King John is a nice summation of Salkow’s horror anthology, an undernourished melodrama that finds its salvation in, no surprise, the reliably entertaining Vincent Price.
Nathaniel Hawthorne used that Shakespearean quip as the title of his own collection of reprinted material, published in March of 1837. The book had a cover price of one dollar, which might have been close to the budget for Salkow’s movie—a remarkably cheap-looking production, even for Admiral Pictures. The company, headed by Grant Whytock with funding from Edward Small, specialized in cutting corners—they even worked their chintzy magic on Roger Corman’s Tower of London,...
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber
1963 / 1.66: 1 / 120 Min.
Starring Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot, Joyce Taylor
Written by Robert E. Kent
Directed by Sidney Salkow
Released in October of 1963, the first review of Sidney Salkow’s Twice-Told Tales appeared in 1623: “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.” That line from Shakespeare’s King John is a nice summation of Salkow’s horror anthology, an undernourished melodrama that finds its salvation in, no surprise, the reliably entertaining Vincent Price.
Nathaniel Hawthorne used that Shakespearean quip as the title of his own collection of reprinted material, published in March of 1837. The book had a cover price of one dollar, which might have been close to the budget for Salkow’s movie—a remarkably cheap-looking production, even for Admiral Pictures. The company, headed by Grant Whytock with funding from Edward Small, specialized in cutting corners—they even worked their chintzy magic on Roger Corman’s Tower of London,...
- 9/24/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
This Star Trek article contains spoilers.
In Act 4, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, the heroine Portia, posing as a male lawyer, begs Shylock the moneylender to spare her love’s friend the “pound of flesh” that he is owed. Her speech goes:
“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.”
It is the quote referenced by the title of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” demonstrating, aside from anything else, that sometimes what you learn in your degree can be relevant to your job. The use of the quote tells us about Pike’s character, what sort of commander he is, and what fuels...
In Act 4, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, the heroine Portia, posing as a male lawyer, begs Shylock the moneylender to spare her love’s friend the “pound of flesh” that he is owed. Her speech goes:
“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.”
It is the quote referenced by the title of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” demonstrating, aside from anything else, that sometimes what you learn in your degree can be relevant to your job. The use of the quote tells us about Pike’s character, what sort of commander he is, and what fuels...
- 7/25/2022
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
“I don’t think there’s any way to tell a ‘Star Trek’ story today without really knowing ‘Star Trek.’
That’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman’s ethos for his work on the franchise. “My first Star Trek convention was 1976,” he said. “I can mount a good defense of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise,’ and sing the theme song.”
If fans have been particularly taken with “Strange New Worlds,” a show set seven years before the start of “The Original Series” and starring a superlative Anson Mount as the Enterprise’s final pre-Kirk captain, Christopher Pike, it’s because the creative team seems especially to care about “knowing ‘Star Trek.’” Not just the lore. But the tone.
It may be set prior to “The Original Series” yet the tone of “Strange New Worlds” calls to mind another storied period of “Trek”: the 1990s, in which there was...
That’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman’s ethos for his work on the franchise. “My first Star Trek convention was 1976,” he said. “I can mount a good defense of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise,’ and sing the theme song.”
If fans have been particularly taken with “Strange New Worlds,” a show set seven years before the start of “The Original Series” and starring a superlative Anson Mount as the Enterprise’s final pre-Kirk captain, Christopher Pike, it’s because the creative team seems especially to care about “knowing ‘Star Trek.’” Not just the lore. But the tone.
It may be set prior to “The Original Series” yet the tone of “Strange New Worlds” calls to mind another storied period of “Trek”: the 1990s, in which there was...
- 7/7/2022
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Click here to read the full article.
In summer 2021, as a surge in Covid-19 cases linked to the delta variant quickly scuttled vacation plans, the satirical HBO series The White Lotus transported viewers to an idyllic Hawaiian setting.
The Emmy contender is the latest in a line of series — from Gilligan’s Island to Baywatch to Lost — taking fans from the couch to the beach, but the show’s exploration of privilege and mystery particularly hearken back to 1970s escapist gem Fantasy Island. Created by Gene Levitt and produced by Aaron Spelling, it premiered 45 years ago, first as a pair of TV movies and then as an episodic series that focused on a mysterious island that made visitors’ wishes come true for a hefty price. Ricardo Montalbán played the suave and enigmatic Mr. Roarke, who ran the resort with sidekick Tattoo (Hervé Villechaize), known for excitedly greeting arriving guests by shouting,...
In summer 2021, as a surge in Covid-19 cases linked to the delta variant quickly scuttled vacation plans, the satirical HBO series The White Lotus transported viewers to an idyllic Hawaiian setting.
The Emmy contender is the latest in a line of series — from Gilligan’s Island to Baywatch to Lost — taking fans from the couch to the beach, but the show’s exploration of privilege and mystery particularly hearken back to 1970s escapist gem Fantasy Island. Created by Gene Levitt and produced by Aaron Spelling, it premiered 45 years ago, first as a pair of TV movies and then as an episodic series that focused on a mysterious island that made visitors’ wishes come true for a hefty price. Ricardo Montalbán played the suave and enigmatic Mr. Roarke, who ran the resort with sidekick Tattoo (Hervé Villechaize), known for excitedly greeting arriving guests by shouting,...
- 6/7/2022
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a ghoulish age when many Americans are resorting to online crowdfunding to finance potentially lifesaving health care, the simple, sorrowful fable spun by “The Gravedigger’s Wife” may not feel as distant to Western viewers as it looks. Charting the increasingly desperate efforts of a poverty-stricken Djibouti family to fund an urgent kidney operation that is cruelly beyond their means, this plaintively moving from other, soapier dramas on the subject.
Though “The Gravedigger’s Wife” is effectively a European production, co-financed by Finland, France and Germany, it feels authentically embedded in the everyday fabric of life on the impoverished outskirts of Djibouti, its perspective free from exoticization or condescension. Neighboring Somalia, where Ahmed was born and raised, has entered it as its international Oscar submission, a further boost to the profile of a film already warmly received on this year’s festival circuit, beginning with a Cannes Critics’ Week premiere. Though...
Though “The Gravedigger’s Wife” is effectively a European production, co-financed by Finland, France and Germany, it feels authentically embedded in the everyday fabric of life on the impoverished outskirts of Djibouti, its perspective free from exoticization or condescension. Neighboring Somalia, where Ahmed was born and raised, has entered it as its international Oscar submission, a further boost to the profile of a film already warmly received on this year’s festival circuit, beginning with a Cannes Critics’ Week premiere. Though...
- 11/20/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Little Rascals Volume 2
Blu ray – The ClassicFlix Restorations
ClassicFlix
1930 / 1.37:1 / 225 Min.
Starring Jackie Cooper, June Marlowe, Margaret Mann
Written by H.W. Walker
Directed by Robert F. McGowan
Religion may be the opiate of the masses but nostalgia runs it a close second. And there’s no narcotic more soothing or transportive than the depression era adventures of Our Gang, a band of pint-sized comedians set loose in the wilds of Culver City. The new release from ClassicFlix, The Little Rascals, Vol. 2, raises the curtain on the gang’s golden age; still topping the bill were Jackie Cooper, Allen Hoskins as Farina, Norman Chaney as Chubby, and Bobby Hutchins as the knee-high Wheezer. Producer Hal Roach continued to micro-manage every pratfall, Robert McGowan retained his position as the Rascal’s preeminent director, and H. M. Walker dreamed up the lion’s share of the scenarios. A former sportswriter, Walker...
Blu ray – The ClassicFlix Restorations
ClassicFlix
1930 / 1.37:1 / 225 Min.
Starring Jackie Cooper, June Marlowe, Margaret Mann
Written by H.W. Walker
Directed by Robert F. McGowan
Religion may be the opiate of the masses but nostalgia runs it a close second. And there’s no narcotic more soothing or transportive than the depression era adventures of Our Gang, a band of pint-sized comedians set loose in the wilds of Culver City. The new release from ClassicFlix, The Little Rascals, Vol. 2, raises the curtain on the gang’s golden age; still topping the bill were Jackie Cooper, Allen Hoskins as Farina, Norman Chaney as Chubby, and Bobby Hutchins as the knee-high Wheezer. Producer Hal Roach continued to micro-manage every pratfall, Robert McGowan retained his position as the Rascal’s preeminent director, and H. M. Walker dreamed up the lion’s share of the scenarios. A former sportswriter, Walker...
- 9/7/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Two years after delivering what many thought — or perhaps feared — to be a valedictory grace note with 2019’s “Pain and Glory” (and one year after the English-language short “The Human Voice” showed that certain authorial voices lose nothing in translation), Pedro Almodóvar has returned with a feature to prove the doomsayers wrong.
A rougher and altogether less cohesive bit of filmmaking than his previous two outings, “Parallel Mothers” instead offers something all the more exciting: The work of an artist who’s reached the top of his craft and asked, “What’s next?”
In this case, the answer comes with a more expressly political conscience, an activist charge the Spanish filmmaker had never before expressed in his work. But as he reflects on the legacy of the Spanish Civil War and the contemporary political debates about exhuming the unrecorded mass graves that still dot the Spanish countryside, Almodóvar hasn’t exactly changed his tune.
A rougher and altogether less cohesive bit of filmmaking than his previous two outings, “Parallel Mothers” instead offers something all the more exciting: The work of an artist who’s reached the top of his craft and asked, “What’s next?”
In this case, the answer comes with a more expressly political conscience, an activist charge the Spanish filmmaker had never before expressed in his work. But as he reflects on the legacy of the Spanish Civil War and the contemporary political debates about exhuming the unrecorded mass graves that still dot the Spanish countryside, Almodóvar hasn’t exactly changed his tune.
- 9/1/2021
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Summer’s here and time is right for dancing … on the deck of a large nautical vessel. During the late Seventies and early Eighties, the radio was dominated by silver-tongued white-dude crooners with names like Rupert and Gerry, emoting over balmy R&b beats, swaying saxes, and dishwasher-clean arrangements. Though it didn’t have a name, the genre — soft rock you could dance to — was dismissed by serious rock fans as fluffy and lame. But thanks to a web series in the mid-2000s, the style — belatedly named “yacht rock...
- 6/22/2021
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
First venturing into the world of Star Trek with J.J. Abrams’ 2009 film of the same name, Alex Kurtzman offered up his latest expansion of an iconic sci-fi universe with the short-form series, Star Trek: Short Treks.
The CBS All Access series consists of live-action and animated shorts, which examine different corners of the ever-expanding Star Trek universe. Centered on characters and themes that have yet to be fully explored, the series has been an opportunity to experiment with story and tone, while bringing new directors into the fold.
At this year’s Emmys, Short Treks became the first Star Trek project to earn a nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series. Inspired in his work by Pixar’s skill in short-form storytelling, Kurtzman was of course pleased to see the series recognized by the TV Academy.
For the EP, the nomination only validates the mission he’s taken on in recent years,...
The CBS All Access series consists of live-action and animated shorts, which examine different corners of the ever-expanding Star Trek universe. Centered on characters and themes that have yet to be fully explored, the series has been an opportunity to experiment with story and tone, while bringing new directors into the fold.
At this year’s Emmys, Short Treks became the first Star Trek project to earn a nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series. Inspired in his work by Pixar’s skill in short-form storytelling, Kurtzman was of course pleased to see the series recognized by the TV Academy.
For the EP, the nomination only validates the mission he’s taken on in recent years,...
- 8/24/2020
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
On TV’s “Fantasy Island” (1977-1984; 1998-1999), guests flew in for what they imagined would be fun and fulfillment but were subjected to what turned out to be hard-won life lessons. Audiences turning up for the new feature film version in the hopes of either fun or fulfillment will similarly go home empty-handed.
If this new movie — referred to in some circles as “Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island” — were a pilot for a TV reboot, it would come off as overwrought and underwritten but still possibly on the right track for a revived anthology series. As a movie, those flaws are magnified to the size of the silver screen, and its contrivances and coincidences come off as even less convincing.
Michael Peña slips into Ricardo Montalban’s white suit (and his silky overpronunciation of “Fahn-tah-see”) as the enigmatic Mr. Roarke, the host of the titular resort where people go to make their deepest wishes come true.
If this new movie — referred to in some circles as “Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island” — were a pilot for a TV reboot, it would come off as overwrought and underwritten but still possibly on the right track for a revived anthology series. As a movie, those flaws are magnified to the size of the silver screen, and its contrivances and coincidences come off as even less convincing.
Michael Peña slips into Ricardo Montalban’s white suit (and his silky overpronunciation of “Fahn-tah-see”) as the enigmatic Mr. Roarke, the host of the titular resort where people go to make their deepest wishes come true.
- 2/14/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Filmmaker Roxanne Benjamin spends a tad too much time on the character-establishing setup during the first act of her “Body at Brighton Rock.” Once she has lured her audience into joining her plucky but ill-prepared protagonist into a secluded area of a picturesque state park, however, the first-time director efficiently ratchets up the suspense — gradually, arrestingly — and doesn’t let up until she springs a final twist that plays like O. Henry by way of Stephen King.
Taken as a whole, her movie resembles nothing so much as an episode of some ’60s anthology series, à la “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” that traditionally spun stories at a measured pace while sustaining tension and raising mortal stakes. Indeed, a judiciously trimmed version of “Body at Brighton Rock” would not have been out of place among the hour-long episodes produced during the 1963 season of the original “The Twilight Zone.”
Karina Fontes is...
Taken as a whole, her movie resembles nothing so much as an episode of some ’60s anthology series, à la “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” that traditionally spun stories at a measured pace while sustaining tension and raising mortal stakes. Indeed, a judiciously trimmed version of “Body at Brighton Rock” would not have been out of place among the hour-long episodes produced during the 1963 season of the original “The Twilight Zone.”
Karina Fontes is...
- 4/16/2019
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
Lance Henriksen is one of those intriguing actors who straddles the line between character actor and leading man. He’s often cast in off-beat roles, but he always manages to be playing some variation of Lance Henriksen. And I’m fully on board with that. Henriksen’s leathery face and gravelly voice always seem to make any movie he’s in better. An interesting thing about Henriksen: over the course of five decades, his characters have taken one hell of a beating. They’ve been shot, stabbed, ripped in half, shot, lit on fire, blown up, hit by a car, shot, electrocuted, and did I mention shot? This month we take a trip to the small screen for the Tales from the Crypt second season episode “Cutting Cards” in which, interestingly enough, Henriksen makes it to the end credits. But he doesn’t exactly make it through unscathed.
Tales from the Crypt...
Tales from the Crypt...
- 3/27/2019
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
Author Anita Shreve, whose books The Pilot’s Wife and The Weight of Water made her a top-seller and were later adapted into films, has died. She succumbed to cancer at age 71, according to her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
Shreve’s oeuvre explored how New England women in crisis handled their affairs. She lived that in her real life as well – Shreve announced her illness last year via Facebook, saying she could not tour for her final novel, The Stars Are Fire, because of a “medical emergency.”
Jordan Pavlin, a Knopf editor, said Shreve’s “writing has touched the lives of millions of readers around the world, and she did some of her most elegant, rich, and unforgettable work in the last years of her life. Her body of work is extraordinary, and her books will continue to be read for generations.”
Born in Dedham, Massachusetts, Shreve graduated from Tufts University...
Shreve’s oeuvre explored how New England women in crisis handled their affairs. She lived that in her real life as well – Shreve announced her illness last year via Facebook, saying she could not tour for her final novel, The Stars Are Fire, because of a “medical emergency.”
Jordan Pavlin, a Knopf editor, said Shreve’s “writing has touched the lives of millions of readers around the world, and she did some of her most elegant, rich, and unforgettable work in the last years of her life. Her body of work is extraordinary, and her books will continue to be read for generations.”
Born in Dedham, Massachusetts, Shreve graduated from Tufts University...
- 3/30/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Novelist John Irving has signed with Gersh, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
Irving won an Oscar in 2000 for adapting The Cider House Rules, his own novel. Other novels of his that have received the big-screen treatment include The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer for Owen Meany (adapted as 1998’s Simon Birch) and A Widow for One Year (made into the 2004 film The Door in the Floor).
Irving’s other accolades include three National Book Award nominations (including a win for Garp) and an O. Henry Award for the 1981 short story “Interior Space.” His...
Irving won an Oscar in 2000 for adapting The Cider House Rules, his own novel. Other novels of his that have received the big-screen treatment include The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer for Owen Meany (adapted as 1998’s Simon Birch) and A Widow for One Year (made into the 2004 film The Door in the Floor).
Irving’s other accolades include three National Book Award nominations (including a win for Garp) and an O. Henry Award for the 1981 short story “Interior Space.” His...
- 6/28/2017
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Spike debuts first trailer for The Mist TV series – While I loved Stephen King’s novella The Mist, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Frank Darabont’s adaptation (I hate the ending – I know many of you love its cheesy Shyamalan/O. Henry twist, but I think it’s dumb…), so I was sort of curious as to how a television series based on the story might look – would it be more like the book or the film? The answer, at least from what we can glean from this new trailer, is neither. Spike’s first trailer plays up the mist itself as a force of horror – not the weird monsters that live inside of it in the film and book. Will the monsters eventually appear during the 10 episode first season? We don’t know yet. All in all, the clip...
Read More...
Read More...
- 4/14/2017
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
No Bad Deed Goes Unpunished at the ‘House on Willow Street’O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” gets a devilish upgrade.
It’s not easy being a kidnapper. Months of planning, a tenuous trust in your cohorts, and a lack of empathy are just the basic requirements, and any slip along the way can lead to missed payouts or jail time. And it only gets worse when the person you abduct isn’t quite the innocent victim you expected.
Four crooks (including You’re Next’s Sharni Vinson) plan to kidnap a young woman with the expectation that her wealthy parents will pay handsomely for her return, but after snatching Katherine (Carlyn Burchell) from her big, spooky home they immediately feel as if something is off. She doesn’t look well leading one of the crew to wonder if maybe they’ve actually rescued the girl from a bad situation.
If...
It’s not easy being a kidnapper. Months of planning, a tenuous trust in your cohorts, and a lack of empathy are just the basic requirements, and any slip along the way can lead to missed payouts or jail time. And it only gets worse when the person you abduct isn’t quite the innocent victim you expected.
Four crooks (including You’re Next’s Sharni Vinson) plan to kidnap a young woman with the expectation that her wealthy parents will pay handsomely for her return, but after snatching Katherine (Carlyn Burchell) from her big, spooky home they immediately feel as if something is off. She doesn’t look well leading one of the crew to wonder if maybe they’ve actually rescued the girl from a bad situation.
If...
- 3/24/2017
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Andrew Haigh’s quiet, two-person relationship tale won a lot of friends last year. A revelation from the past changes everything in the marriage of Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. We read the faces, read the gestures — just like we do in our own close relationships.
45 Years
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 861
2015/ Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 7, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, Dolly Wells, David Sibley.
Cinematography: Lol Crawley
Film Editor: Jonathan Alberts
Production Designer: Sarah Finlay
From the short story by David Constantine
Produced by Tristan Goligher
Written and Directed by Andrew Haigh
Most filmmakers must find a way to chop down 800-page novels and still retain some semblance of the original. Others have the opposite problem, fleshing a short story to fill a feature length movie. The classic example is Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers, which is less than three thousand words in length.
45 Years
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 861
2015/ Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 7, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, Dolly Wells, David Sibley.
Cinematography: Lol Crawley
Film Editor: Jonathan Alberts
Production Designer: Sarah Finlay
From the short story by David Constantine
Produced by Tristan Goligher
Written and Directed by Andrew Haigh
Most filmmakers must find a way to chop down 800-page novels and still retain some semblance of the original. Others have the opposite problem, fleshing a short story to fill a feature length movie. The classic example is Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers, which is less than three thousand words in length.
- 3/7/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“I see dead people.”
It was the plot twist heard around the world when writer-director-producer M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense hit theaters in 1999 and surprised everyone with one of the most shocking reveals in cinematic history. The film, starring Bruce Willis and newcomer Haley Joel Osment, earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Shyamalan. It was also a monster success at the box office, grossing over $672 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, and turned Shyamalan into a household name.
Born in India, raised in Pennsylvania and a graduate of New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Shyamalan followed the success of The Sixth Sense with even more twists and turns over the next two decades. 2000’s Unbreakable -- also starring Willis -- 2002’s Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix and 2004’s The Village -- also with Phoenix -- saw the director reach new heights...
It was the plot twist heard around the world when writer-director-producer M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense hit theaters in 1999 and surprised everyone with one of the most shocking reveals in cinematic history. The film, starring Bruce Willis and newcomer Haley Joel Osment, earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Shyamalan. It was also a monster success at the box office, grossing over $672 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, and turned Shyamalan into a household name.
Born in India, raised in Pennsylvania and a graduate of New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Shyamalan followed the success of The Sixth Sense with even more twists and turns over the next two decades. 2000’s Unbreakable -- also starring Willis -- 2002’s Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix and 2004’s The Village -- also with Phoenix -- saw the director reach new heights...
- 1/18/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Dark Horse Comics announced the release of Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea. Co-written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea follows Hellboy and his encounters with a ghost ship and its dastardly crew. The new graphic novel will be released next May.
Press Release: Milwaukie, Ore., (August 9, 2016) Next spring, Dark Horse Comics will publish an original graphic novel, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea, co-written by legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, co-written and illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Gary Gianni and colored by award-winning colorist Dave Stewart. Following the events of the classic story “The Island,” Hellboy sets sail from the wreckage of a deserted island only to cross paths with a ghost ship. Taken captive by the phantom crew that plans to sell him to the circus, Hellboy is dragged along by a captain who will stop at nothing in pursuit of a powerful sea creature.
Press Release: Milwaukie, Ore., (August 9, 2016) Next spring, Dark Horse Comics will publish an original graphic novel, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea, co-written by legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, co-written and illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Gary Gianni and colored by award-winning colorist Dave Stewart. Following the events of the classic story “The Island,” Hellboy sets sail from the wreckage of a deserted island only to cross paths with a ghost ship. Taken captive by the phantom crew that plans to sell him to the circus, Hellboy is dragged along by a captain who will stop at nothing in pursuit of a powerful sea creature.
- 8/11/2016
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Once upon a time, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were supposed to be Jewish.
Bill and Alice Harford, the decidedly gentile married couple that the actors portrayed in 1999's Eyes Wide Shut, are about as kosher as a bacon milkshake. But when Stanley Kubrick first conceived of adapting Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle in the Seventies, the filmmaker allegedly envisioned the male lead as Woody Allen, a man so Jewish that Shabbat practically observes him.
Kubrick's initial casting idea, which is all but inconceivable to anyone who's seen the finished film,...
Bill and Alice Harford, the decidedly gentile married couple that the actors portrayed in 1999's Eyes Wide Shut, are about as kosher as a bacon milkshake. But when Stanley Kubrick first conceived of adapting Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle in the Seventies, the filmmaker allegedly envisioned the male lead as Woody Allen, a man so Jewish that Shabbat practically observes him.
Kubrick's initial casting idea, which is all but inconceivable to anyone who's seen the finished film,...
- 12/17/2015
- Rollingstone.com
A review of tonight's "Fargo" coming up just as soon as I find out if Joan Crawford had crabs... "Do you really think we'll get out of this mess we're in?" -Lou After being alluded to throughout the season's first four episodes, Ronald Reagan finally appears in the fleshy form of Bruce Campbell (who's having himself quite the fall, between this and "Ash vs. Evil Dead"). Reagan — even more than most American presidents of the TV age, given his acting background — is difficult to portray as anything but a caricature, but Campbell is able to get across the essence of the man whom many Americans believed could finally pull the country out of the morass it was in from Vietnam, Watergate, gas lines, and Jimmy Carter's comments about our national malaise. When he busts out his "shining city on a hill" rhetoric (which the real Reagan famously used in...
- 11/10/2015
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
Tribeca Shortlist is treating us to five nights of free content which starts today and will continue until the big day, Halloween, October 31st. Also: information on the Foreword to Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Apparition and Intrusion Blu-ray details, a trailer for Kill Game, and a new Minutes to Midnight poster.
Tribeca's Fright Fest: Press Release: "Oh, the horror! Tribeca Shortlist, the new curated streaming movie service from Lionsgate and Tribeca Enterprises, has great films in every genre and is now giving us a Halloween treat filled with five nights of free, expertly handpicked movies including macabre masterpieces, suspenseful thrillers and plenty of chills with Fright Fest: http://outtake.tribecashortlist.com/frightfest
Fright Fest will live on Tribeca Shortlist's free editorial site, Outtake, starting today at 6 pm Et/ 3 pm Pt running through October 31st. One new terrifying movie will be added each day at the same time,...
Tribeca's Fright Fest: Press Release: "Oh, the horror! Tribeca Shortlist, the new curated streaming movie service from Lionsgate and Tribeca Enterprises, has great films in every genre and is now giving us a Halloween treat filled with five nights of free, expertly handpicked movies including macabre masterpieces, suspenseful thrillers and plenty of chills with Fright Fest: http://outtake.tribecashortlist.com/frightfest
Fright Fest will live on Tribeca Shortlist's free editorial site, Outtake, starting today at 6 pm Et/ 3 pm Pt running through October 31st. One new terrifying movie will be added each day at the same time,...
- 10/28/2015
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
People of a certain age probably remember being beguiled by those gaudy gross Goosebumps book covers at Scholastic book fairs in elementary school — the raised lettering, the monstrous pets going berserk, the skeletons taking family portraits. People of a slightly older age probably remember their kids coming home with those gaudy gross Goosebumps books, devoid of what teachers call "literary worth" but rife with monsters and maniacs and twist endings that would make O. Henry giggle with glee. Apparently R. L. Stein's series is still beloved, as its cinematic adaptation, starring Jack Black as fictitious imagining of the author, scared $23.5 million out of audiences, taking the top spot at the box office this weekend. Among the big names Goosebumps trumped: Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Matt Damon, and Adam Sandler.The Martian landed in a close second place with $21.5 million, making its domestic cume $143.7 million, while Spielberg's newest...
- 10/18/2015
- by Greg Cwik
- Vulture
To celebrate the October 16th release of the horror anthology Tales of Halloween, Daily Dead spoke to the filmmakers behind the movie to discuss the project, their individual contributions and more.
Best known for his 2006 debut feature, Abominable, Ryan Schifrin wrote and directed “The Ransom of Rusty Rex,” his segment of Tales of Halloween in which two kidnapping thieves get more than they bargained for on their latest job. Schifrin (whose legendary father, composer Lalo Schifrin, contributes a wonderful theme for the anthology), spoke with Daily Dead about working with one his heroes, finding the right tone and his segment’s classical literary roots.
There's an O. Henry story that clearly served as inspiration for your segment, "The Ransom of Rusty Rex." What was it that inspired you to draw from that story while writing your piece?
Ryan Schifrin: I approached this thinking about what I could do that...
Best known for his 2006 debut feature, Abominable, Ryan Schifrin wrote and directed “The Ransom of Rusty Rex,” his segment of Tales of Halloween in which two kidnapping thieves get more than they bargained for on their latest job. Schifrin (whose legendary father, composer Lalo Schifrin, contributes a wonderful theme for the anthology), spoke with Daily Dead about working with one his heroes, finding the right tone and his segment’s classical literary roots.
There's an O. Henry story that clearly served as inspiration for your segment, "The Ransom of Rusty Rex." What was it that inspired you to draw from that story while writing your piece?
Ryan Schifrin: I approached this thinking about what I could do that...
- 10/12/2015
- by Patrick Bromley
- DailyDead
A new collection of short stories from Stephen King, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, will debut on November 3rd. Until then, the official cover art from the upcoming release provides us with a haunting look at what's to come in King's next batch of short works.
Synopsis: "A master storyteller at his best—the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.
Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.
There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality,...
Synopsis: "A master storyteller at his best—the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.
Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.
There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality,...
- 5/28/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
"This Thanksgiving it's not cranberry sauce." Arrow Video is releasing the 1980s Thanksgiving slasher film, Blood Rage, on Blu-ray for the first time in both the Us and UK. Also featured in our latest round-up is the cover art and synopsis for the Free Comic Book Day issue of Wonderland, the dark reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. We also have details on Stephen King's upcoming short story collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
Blood Rage: Scheduled for an August 25th release in the UK and an August 26th release in the Us from Arrow Video, Blood Rage will make its debut on Blu-ray and DVD:
"Synopsis: It’S Not Cranberry Sauce!!!
What do you get if you combine Thanksgiving, American TV star Louise Lasser (Mary Hartman), killer 80s synths and some of the most gruesome special effects in all of slasher history courtesy of Ed (Terminator 2) French.
Blood Rage: Scheduled for an August 25th release in the UK and an August 26th release in the Us from Arrow Video, Blood Rage will make its debut on Blu-ray and DVD:
"Synopsis: It’S Not Cranberry Sauce!!!
What do you get if you combine Thanksgiving, American TV star Louise Lasser (Mary Hartman), killer 80s synths and some of the most gruesome special effects in all of slasher history courtesy of Ed (Terminator 2) French.
- 5/3/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Boccaccio's 14th century masterpiece has inspired artists for centuries, from Chaucer to Shakespeare and from Voltaire to Poe. His classic recounts how seven women and three men, who escaped from a plague-ravished Florence to the countryside, entertain themselves over two weeks, each telling ten stories a piece.
Some of the tales are bawdy, some tragic, numerous are of greed, and many flow forth with tears and laughter only true love can elicit. Here's an unvarnished view of a battered world that's soon to be rejuvenated by the Renaissance, but not yet.
In 1971, the often notorious Pier Paolo Pasolini captured the genius of the work in his Decameron. Licentious, slightly blasphemous, and always vital, his take throws you directly into the tales without the framing device of the narrators. Instantly, you find yourself in the midst of the mayhem of the Middle Ages with its steamy throngs of folks trying to...
Some of the tales are bawdy, some tragic, numerous are of greed, and many flow forth with tears and laughter only true love can elicit. Here's an unvarnished view of a battered world that's soon to be rejuvenated by the Renaissance, but not yet.
In 1971, the often notorious Pier Paolo Pasolini captured the genius of the work in his Decameron. Licentious, slightly blasphemous, and always vital, his take throws you directly into the tales without the framing device of the narrators. Instantly, you find yourself in the midst of the mayhem of the Middle Ages with its steamy throngs of folks trying to...
- 4/20/2015
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
★★★☆☆ Damián Szifron's Wild Tales (2014) is a ferociously dark, hilarious ride that doesn't just mock the corruption and social injustices of modern day Argentina, but also deeply relishes the resort to vigilante violence. His six vignettes' over-the-top bursts of bloodthirsty mayhem, quirky characters and O. Henry-like twists of fate in a cheerfully colourful palette, feel familiar; and no wonder, as this film was produced (and obviously influenced) by Pedro Almodóvar. These slice-of-life tales are only tangentially related in terms of plot, but share the recurrent theme of the breakdown of civilisation, of the underdog citizen relentlessly victimized by the wealthy and powerful.
- 3/26/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Above: Us three-sheet poster for The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, UK, 1933).
The great Charles Laughton may not have been the prettiest of movie stars, but he had a presence that many matinee idols would have killed for (as the current retrospective running at Film Forum will attest). In an era in which glamor was everything, studio marketers may have struggled with how to present Laughton’s unconventional looks and his larger-than-life portrayals of larger-than-life characters (so many monsters, murderers, tyrants, or simply overbearing fathers) to the public. In most of the posters for his most famous film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he is all but a silhouette, a spoiler alert to his monstrous transformation as Quasimodo. And in some posters for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the film for which he won his first Oscar, Henry is made to look more like the Hans Holbein...
The great Charles Laughton may not have been the prettiest of movie stars, but he had a presence that many matinee idols would have killed for (as the current retrospective running at Film Forum will attest). In an era in which glamor was everything, studio marketers may have struggled with how to present Laughton’s unconventional looks and his larger-than-life portrayals of larger-than-life characters (so many monsters, murderers, tyrants, or simply overbearing fathers) to the public. In most of the posters for his most famous film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he is all but a silhouette, a spoiler alert to his monstrous transformation as Quasimodo. And in some posters for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the film for which he won his first Oscar, Henry is made to look more like the Hans Holbein...
- 2/21/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
This may be the most cringe-inducing interview Jimmy Fallon has had in a long while on the Tonight Show, one that had him red in the face for the whole segment. Nicole Kidman went on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for the first time, and for a very good reason: The last time they crossed paths, Kidman had an awful "date" (if one can even call it that) with Fallon. What began as a meet-cute set up by Rick, a mutual friend, quickly devolved into an O. Henry-like disaster. Rick took Kidman, who was game to date Fallon,...
- 1/7/2015
- by Teresa Jue
- EW.com - PopWatch
On the one hand, I respect anyone who can devise a formula that works for them and for an audience, and while I wasn't a huge fan of the film, the first "Horrible Bosses" seemed to connect with audiences three years ago. The appeal of that film, and one that seems like it's pretty smart in its universal appeal, is that we have all had bosses we hate at some point. Watching characters we like get one up on people we hate is something that seems enormously easy to enjoy. My problem with the first film was that it felt like it never really embraced its premise. It wasn't mean enough, and I guess I hoped we'd see them cut loose in "Horrible Bosses 2" and really go for the dark humor the first film promised but soft-pedaled. After all, they were adding to very game performers in the form...
- 11/13/2014
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
Ordell (Mos Def) and Louis (John Hawkes) have planned the perfect kidnapping. Their target is Mickey (Jennifer Aniston), wife to a sketchy businessman named Frank (Tim Robbins) who’s hiding a fortune in a secret bank account. The plan is simple. Kidnap Mickey, tell Frank to pay the ransom if he ever wants to see his wife again and then retire in style. But they never considered the possibility that Frank might not want his wife back. Chronology is a funny thing. The inclination will be (and has been if you check the IMDb page) to label Life of Crime a straight-up rip-off of 1986′s Ruthless People. In actuality though this is an adaptation of Elmore Leonard‘s 1978 novel, The Switch. Keep moving backward and you’ll find that all of these incarnations share an inspiration in O. Henry’s 1907 short story, “The Ransom of Red Chief.” The problem for this film then is how to stand...
- 8/28/2014
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
If O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe collaborated on a love story, it might look something like this juicy bit of ironic gothic romance. I’m “biast” (pro): love the cast
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe collaborated on a love story, it might look something like this juicy bit of ironic gothic romance. It’s 1860s Paris, and Thérèse (Elizabeth Olsen: Godzilla) has been lumbered with her dull, sickly cousin, Camille (Tom Felton: Rise of the Planet of the Apes), in a loveless marriage forced on her by her aunt, Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange: The Vow), as a sort of demented payment for her having raised Thérèse after her father abandoned her when she was little. (That’s right: the cousin she’s married to is more like a brother.
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe collaborated on a love story, it might look something like this juicy bit of ironic gothic romance. It’s 1860s Paris, and Thérèse (Elizabeth Olsen: Godzilla) has been lumbered with her dull, sickly cousin, Camille (Tom Felton: Rise of the Planet of the Apes), in a loveless marriage forced on her by her aunt, Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange: The Vow), as a sort of demented payment for her having raised Thérèse after her father abandoned her when she was little. (That’s right: the cousin she’s married to is more like a brother.
- 5/15/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Watching the new trailer for "Wayward Pines," the new Fox 10-episode thriller from M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense"), I couldn't shake a feeling of deja vu. No, not visions of dead people, but elements that seemed to be ripped from (oh, wait, an homage to) other sources. On the one hand, this could be seen as a salute to a short-lived by deeply influential 1990 cultural touchstone ("Twin Peaks") or a beloved scifi series ("The X-Files") or a serious take on a hit comedy ("The Truman Show"). Or, if you're not a fan of Shyamalan, you could see this as a desperate grab for the good ideas of other people. You be the judge! 1) This looks a lot like "Twin Peaks." Like, a lot. From the police chief mooning over his rum raisin ice cream (shadows of Agent Cooper's pie fixation) to the wacky townspeople to the very premise of...
- 5/12/2014
- by Liane Bonin Starr
- Hitfix
“I like to disappear,” Josh Hartnett jokes after a waiter brings me over to his table from where I was sitting, having overlooked him my first time through Pete’s Tavern. “You walked right past me,” he says, teasing. “When I was younger I learned how to get through this city without anybody noticing. Which is important to me.” Pete’s, on Irving Place, is “the tavern O. Henry made famous,” a gas-lamps-and-bourbon version of a celebrity-obsessed joint, possibly since it opened in 1851. The dark-wood dining room is covered in (usually quite unflattering) framed snapshots of famous Tavern guests, and Ashlee Simpson’s is tacked up next to Hartnett’s table, where he’d arrived early to enjoy a bottle of Pellegrino and a plate of steak fries. Hartnett’s picture is up here, too, somewhere, from a previous visit in a previous decade, when he seemed poised to be...
- 5/4/2014
- by Carl Swanson
- Vulture
It is not unusual to have a Bollywood film inspired by a book.
A few examples are 3 Idiots, which was adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, 7 Khoon Maaf, by Ruskin Bond’s short story Susanne’s Seven Husbands and Lootera by O. Henry’s The Last Leaf and the upcoming 2 States which again is based on Bhagat book.
It is still not unusual for Bollywood to transform stage productions onto the silver screen – for instance the many Shakespeare adaptations such as Omkara, Ram Leela and Maqbool.
However, there is now a Bollywood film that is to be adapted into a theatrical production.
Vishal Bhardwaj, who is famously inspired by Shakespearian tragedies, has been approached by Paris’ Chatelet Theatre to transform the 2013 film Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola on stage.
Does this mean that we will see lead actors Imran Khan or Anushka Sharma on stage? Well,we don’t know but Pankaj Kapur,...
A few examples are 3 Idiots, which was adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, 7 Khoon Maaf, by Ruskin Bond’s short story Susanne’s Seven Husbands and Lootera by O. Henry’s The Last Leaf and the upcoming 2 States which again is based on Bhagat book.
It is still not unusual for Bollywood to transform stage productions onto the silver screen – for instance the many Shakespeare adaptations such as Omkara, Ram Leela and Maqbool.
However, there is now a Bollywood film that is to be adapted into a theatrical production.
Vishal Bhardwaj, who is famously inspired by Shakespearian tragedies, has been approached by Paris’ Chatelet Theatre to transform the 2013 film Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola on stage.
Does this mean that we will see lead actors Imran Khan or Anushka Sharma on stage? Well,we don’t know but Pankaj Kapur,...
- 4/6/2014
- by Aashi Gahlot
- Bollyspice
Welcome to The Last Horror Blog, a biweekly column on all things horror. In the pantheon of great horror-anthology TV series, Monsters sits somewhere in the middle of the pack. The syndicated show ran for three years, filling in for the departed Tales from the Darkside, which was also produced by Richard Rubinstein. Like Tales, Monsters popped into our living room each week with a 30-minute tidbit of terror that often reveled in an O. Henry-esque twist ending. Unlike Tales, which was free to cover the full gamut of the genre, Monsters generally kept true to its name – with each shiver-inducing short featuring some sort of beast. The complete series made its DVD debut this week, allowing fans to finally pitch all those grainy old VHS recordings or shoddy black-market...
Read More...
Read More...
- 2/21/2014
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
Although Lootera failed to seduce the audience, Vikramaditya Motwane’s film got good reviews and the performances of both lead actors, Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, were highly praised. In fact, the film, loosely based on O. Henry’s short story The Last Leaf, allowed the actress to prove her acting skills to those critics who considered her a weak actress.
But that’s not all. As a source told the Times of India, her portrayal of Pakhi, a Bengali girl dying of tuberculosis, caught the eye of a theatre group based in New York and has approached the actress for a Broadway adaptation of The Last Leaf. According to the same source, the play is planned for the coming summer and Sonakshi has not given an answer yet. While Sonakshi remains silent, her spokesperson confirmed the news and said, “Yes, she has got an offer to perform there and...
But that’s not all. As a source told the Times of India, her portrayal of Pakhi, a Bengali girl dying of tuberculosis, caught the eye of a theatre group based in New York and has approached the actress for a Broadway adaptation of The Last Leaf. According to the same source, the play is planned for the coming summer and Sonakshi has not given an answer yet. While Sonakshi remains silent, her spokesperson confirmed the news and said, “Yes, she has got an offer to perform there and...
- 1/15/2014
- by Núria Bonals Hidalgo
- Bollyspice
News finally arrived that the upcoming Broadway revival of Les Misérables has its principal cast intact — with Iran-born musical-theater hunk Ramin Karimloo in his first Broadway role as the bread-stealing Valjean, Tony-nominee Will Swenson (Hair) as staunch Javert, Ghost’s Caissie Levy dreaming a dream of time gone by as tragic heroine Fantine, and Book of Mormon Tony victor Nikki M. James as lovelorn Eponine. Will they duplicate the successes (or in Russell Crowe’s case, non-successes) of their film counterparts, this time without the fish-eye lenses? The spring will tell, but if you live up North and are dying of curiosity,...
- 10/26/2013
- by Jason Clark
- EW.com - PopWatch
It is truly impressive (and a testament to the quickfire storytelling of this show) that Diane Lockhart’s world unraveled as quickly as it did. Do we think Will’s actions represent a dispassionate and reasonable reaction to Diane’s damaging interview or is he driven entirely by self-preservation? Maybe it’s impossible to divorce Will’s self-interest from the firm’s interest at this point. At any rate, to her credit, Diane confesses the nature of the interview she gave Mandy Post to Will immediately. She didn’t even take time to change out of her overly large and symbolic chain necklace. Of course, like the twist of a knife at the end of an O. Henry story, Diane gets a call from Eli’s office saying the interview she gave Mandy was unnecessary and that he and Peter found another way (a.k.a. bullied Justice Ryvlan into...
- 10/14/2013
- by Joanna Robinson
- Vulture
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.