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Spencer Tracy was the two-time Oscar winner starred in a variety of classics before his death in 1967, including nine films opposite fellow legend Katharine Hepburn. Let's take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Tracy pulled off the rare hat-trick of winning back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, first for his performance as a Portuguese sailor in "Captains Courageous" (1937), then for playing a dedicated priest helping wayward youths in "Boys Town" (1938). It's a feat that would only be repeated once more in this category by Tom Hanks ("Philadelphia" in 1993 and "Forrest Gump" in 1994).

Tracy would compete seven more times in the category: "San Francisco" (1936), "Father of the Bride" (1950), "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955), "The Old Man and the Sea" (1958), "Inherit the Wind" (1960), "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961), and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" (1967), which was recognized posthumously.

He's perhaps best remembered for starring in nine films with Hepburn, starting...

Dave Bautista's career might be one of the most interesting in Hollywood. After years as a pro WWE wrestler, Bautista turned his attention to Hollywood. Over the past two decades, Dave Bautista has starred in everything from Guardians of the Galaxy to Riddick and even played a Bond villain in Spectre. But the actor has career aspirations beyond just being an action star, something which was aided by his muscular WWE physique. Now that Bautista is truly looking to branch out, he's named his dream project, and it might be the last thing you'd expect... playing Ernest Hemingway.

During an interview with Polygon, Dave Bautista explained why he's desperate to play Ernest Hemingway on the big screen. "I don't want to be an action star," Bautista began. As part of his quest to distance himself from being typecast in the action genre, Bautista lost a lot of weight to...

Michael Preece, the script supervisor turned director who called the shots on multiple episodes of series including Hunter, Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger, died Thursday. He was 88.

Preece died of heart failure at his Brentwood home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Gretchen Preece-Newman — wife of two-time Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Randy Newman — told The Hollywood Reporter.

Preece directed 19 episodes of NBC’s Hunter from 1984-90 during the show’s first six seasons; 62 installments of CBS’ Dallas from 1981-91 (seasons four through 14), plus the 1997 reunion telefilm War of the Ewings; and 70 episodes of CBS’ Walker, Texas Ranger during its nine-season, 1993-2001 run.

Preece also worked on The Bionic Woman, Barnaby Jones, Fantasy Island, Flamingo Road, T.J. Hooker, The New Mike Hammer, Riptide, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, MacGyver, 7th Heaven and many other series before calling it a career in 2007.

Michael Conway Preece was born in Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 1936. His mother, Thelma, founded...

Greek-Portuguese writer and director Paolo Marinou-Blanco (Empty Hands, Goodnight Irene) screened Dreaming of Lions, his absurdist black comedy film about assisted suicide and euthanasia, in the 10:30 p.m. slot at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival on Friday night. But the cinema in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s Culture Square, its “new home of film,” was packed, and the audience reacted with much applause after experiencing the tragicomic rollercoaster ride that the movie provides.

Brazil’s Denise Fraga (The Other End) leads the cast of the film, which premiered at the recent Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, alongside 2022 European Film Promotion Shooting Star João Nunes Monteiro from Portugal. Asun Planas, Dinarte Freitas, António Durães, Alexander Tuji, Victoria Guerra, Sandra Faleiro, Joana Ribeiro (The Man Who Fell to Earth), and Roberto Bomtempo round out the cast.

Dreaming of Lions is the story of Gilda (Fraga), a terminally...

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"Jaws" is a movie that needs no introduction, made by a director who similarly needs no introduction. Steven Spielberg is one of the most well-known, respected, and popular directors in cinema history. When all's said and done, he may be considered the best to ever do it. Even so, against his incredible body of work which includes classics like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Schindler's List," his major studio debut about a killer shark terrorizing a small town remains one of his finest hours. Even though he was green as a filmmaker, he was ambitious. Case in point, he broke an unwritten Hollywood rule in making his 1975 classic.

In a 2006 interview with the Directors Guild of America, Spielberg reflected on the making of "Jaws," which was famously plagued with issues. The shark, affectionately referred to as "Bruce," was breaking all the time.

Exclusive: The life of legendary author Ernest Hemingway is set to become a ten-part TV drama.

LA’s Avatar Entertainment has secured rights to Mary V. Dearborn’s Ernest Hemingway: A Biography and was at MIPCOM this week shopping the project to buyers. Larry Robinson, Head of Avatar Entertainment, will exec produce the series.

Dearborn’s 750-page biography follows the author’s life from his middle-class childhood in Oak Park, Illinois, to his life as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, his career as a journalist in Chicago, his life among other preeminent authors in Paris and the establishment of Hemingway as the world’s most famous novelists. Gersh represents the Hemingway estate, but Dearborn’s book about the author’s life sit outside of that.

The biography, which has received praise from The Washington Post as “the most fully faceted portrait of Hemingway now available,” extensively...

In early 1950, Ernest Hemingway’s Across the River and Into the Trees was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine before being published as a novel in September of that same year. It was panned. Hemingway was reportedly stung by the negative reception. Only two years later, he would tread similar existential ground (albeit with a very different setting and plot) to much more critical and commercial success with The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway was dead less than a decade later.

His work across novels and short stories has been adapted for film countless times over, yet Across the River and Into the Trees has never properly been rendered onscreen. Until now. Written by Peter Flannery and directed by Paula Ortiz, here is a handsome film that is decidedly modest in its endeavor. The best thing going for it is Liev Schreiber as Colonel Richard Cantwell, the lead of the picture.

The Killers is one of the best crime movies of the 1940s, with a 100% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Hemingway's ability to master large ideas in brief stories is evident in The Killers. The 1946 film version adds mystery and suspense to Hemingway's story, making it a worthwhile and gripping watch.

In the 1940s, famous author Ernest Hemingway had one of his short stories adapted into a movie, and though this film has incredible ratings, it still doesn't have the reputation it deserves. Ernest Hemingway is a prolific writer from the 1920s to the 1950s. His writings, which are famously sparse and understated, remain classics in the literary world. Some of his most famous novels include A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway's distinct style still impacts literature, and his stories live on today, both on the page and on the screen.

The movie To Have and Have Not is a classic Hollywood romance set during World War II, known for its strong onscreen chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The movie is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's book, but it deviates significantly from the original story, focusing more on the romance between the main characters instead of the political themes. The movie was born out of a bet between Hemingway and director Howard Hawks, who believed he could make a good film out of Hemingway's worst book. The bet turned into a rich and promising collaboration, resulting in a beloved film.

The books of legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway gave rise to amazing Hollywood productions, such as the many versions of The Killers and A Farewell to Arms, as well as foreign, independent productions, such as the Russian animated adaptation of the classic The Old Man and the Sea.

For those who haven’t visited Havana and traversed seafront promenade Avenida de Maceo from old Havana to the central business district of Vedado and then on to upscale Miramar, taking in the myriad stories of grandeur, genteel decay, resignation, resilience, and optimism, while hearing strains of rumba, jazz, and nueva trova, and seeing the murals of ‘Commandante’ (Fidel Castro) or ‘Che’, there is an alternative.

Books.

There is a wide array of books, both fiction and non-fiction, by authors new and old, known and unknown, that bring Havana, and Cuba, to life from the times of soldier-turned-dictator Fulgencio Batista to Castro and further.

The focus, though, is more on the days of Mafia dominance, Castro and his revolution, and the Cuban Missile Crisis – the first time the world was on the brink of a nuclear war.

And they span genres from gritty stories of life to crime noir and police procedurals,...

Cinematography retrospectives are the way to go—more than a thorough display of talent, it exposes the vast expanse a Dp will travel, like an education in form and business all the same. Accordingly I’m happy to see the Criterion Channel give a 25-film tribute to James Wong Howe, whose career spanned silent cinema to the ’70s, populated with work by Howard Hawks, Michael Curtz, Samuel Fuller, Alexander Mackendrick, Sydney Pollack, John Frankenheimer, and Raoul Walsh.

Further retrospectives are granted to Romy Schneider (recent repertory sensation La piscine among them), Carlos Saura (finally a chance to see Peppermint frappe!), the British New Wave, and groundbreaking distributor Cinema 5, who brought to U.S. shores everything from The Man Who Fell to Earth and Putney Swope to Pumping Iron and Scenes from a Marriage.

September also yields streaming premieres for the recently restored Bronco Bullfrog, Ang Lee’s Pushing Hands,...

Playing a character in a film who dies by suicide, adapted from a book penned by a famed author who met the same fate, is already a heady experience. But for Liev Schreiber, who tackles the stoically heroic Colonel Richard Cantwell in the big screen version of Ernest Hemingway’s final full-length novel, “Across the River and Into the Trees,” life imitated art — which imitated life — in ways not even Schreiber could have expected.

“One of the things that happened to us in this epic, long shoot [in Venice, Italy] is that my father had found a sarcoma on his leg — a very, very rapid [growing] one,” Schreiber told a crowd gathered for a special screening and premiere of the film, directed by Paula Ortiz, at the Sun Valley Film Festival Thursday night.

“We only had a month left to shoot,” he continued, “and the crew graciously stopped the film and let me go home to Seattle,...

I had the wrong idea about this book. I feel like I say that a lot in this blog, but why not say it if it’s true? We all come into new experiences with expectations and ideas, and we’re all wrong a lot of the time. There’s no shame in saying so.

I expected Good Night, Hem to be a standalone graphic novel about Ernest Hemingway. Since it’s by the Norwegian cartoonist Jason, I thought there might be a genre element of some kind, or that it might be told slyly in some other way: I didn’t expect a straightforward biographical story.

I wasn’t far wrong, but I’d forgotten that Jason had already written about Hemingway and his Paris circle of the 1920s in The Left Bank Gang – well, sort-of, since those characters had the names of the Lost Generation circle but were...

Exclusive: The Ernest Hemingway estate has inked with Gersh for representation as the agency will look to explore opportunities for the author’s work across film, TV and digital media.

Gersh Partner Joe Veltre tells Deadline, “We are thrilled to be working with the Hemingway Estate. Hemingway is a twentieth century icon, and the most important and influential American author of our time. Considering his tremendous literary work and fascinating personal life, we believe there are great opportunities to create future projects that will both honor his work and entertain new audiences in the years ahead.”

The Ernest Hemingway Estate added, “The heirs and descendants of Ernest Hemingway enthusiastically welcome this relationship. As active and involved stewards of Hemingway’s work, we are excited to help foster the creation of fresh adaptations that can be enjoyed by both new and lifelong fans. We feel that modern film and television mediums...

After last year’s Schitt’s Creek tsunami—the series completely dominated the comedy categories and crushed the competition in its final season, including a well-deserved win here for Eugene Levy—it’s more or less back to normal in this category with just five nominees, including several veterans. These include Anthony Anderson, with his seventh consecutive nomination here, as well as William H. Macy who has grabbed his sixth nod for Shameless after sitting the last two years out. Michael Douglas is also back for the third straight year. Overall, though, this is one of the weaker years for comedy categories, but one that has been considerably boosted (thank god) by the new entries, Ted Lasso and Hacks. The latter doesn’t figure in this category, but Mr. Lasso and his kindness brand certainly does. Here is a rundown of the nominees. Scroll down to the end for the predicted...

“The Kominsky Method” saved the best for its third and final season. Ironically, there was never supposed to be a third season of the Chuck Lorre-created comedy starring Michael Douglas as Sandy Kominsky, a Hollywood acting teacher with a messy private life. “I just read the first script of the first season and the writing was so darn good I just wanted to it,” said Douglas during a Deadline Zoom conversation. “It was an original, two-year commitment contract with Netflix.” But Douglas wasn’t ready to let Sandy go. “I kind of pushed for this third season,” he said.

Alan Arkin, who played his long-suffering agent, Bff and conscious, bowed out after the second year. “Alan is a few years older than me. It’s tough doing these shows anyway, moving as quickly as this. I think two seasons was fine for him.” Lorre was also eager for a...

After exploring “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “Country Music,” award-winning documentarian Ken Burns and his frequent collaborator Lynn Novick examined the importance of being Ernest Hemingway in their three-part PBS documentary “Hemingway.” Premiering in April to strong reviews and Emmys buzz, the series weaves Papa’s biography with excerpts from his fiction, non-fiction, and personal correspondence. The series also reviews the mythology around the larger-than-life Hemingway, who penned such classic novels as “The Sun Also Rises,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “The Old Man and the Sea,” to reveal the truth behind the bravado.

Feature film adaptations of Hemingway’s works had mixed results. Hemingway Bff Gary Cooper excelled in 1932’s “A Farewell to Arms” and 1943’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” receiving an Oscar nomination for the latter. John Garfield gave one of his strongest performance in 1950’s superb noir “The Breaking Point,” based...

How impressive is Ken Burns as a documentarian? Think of it like this: In the 1980s, the Brooklyn-born filmmaker earned Oscar nominations for making compelling docs on the history of a pair of inanimate objects. Granted, “Brooklyn Bridge” and “The Statue of Liberty” were films on America’s strength and exceptionalism as much as they were on the landmarks themselves, but those early projects set Burns on a path to utilize the same kind of majestic storytelling to connect with human subjects, whether dead or alive.

From founding father and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson to celebrated humorist Mark Twain to the wrongly convicted Central Park Five, Burns builds on these legacies by also taking the pulse of the entire nation at the time through comprehensive reporting and a respect for the facts that might be skimmed over by other directors with less time to afford. Even when he was...

In many ways, Sophie Jones (Jessica Barr) is a regular teenage girl. She Iikes driving around while playing loud music, she’s not super hyped about school, she struggles to bond with her family, and she’s more than a little boy crazy. But underneath Sophie’s seemingly normal trappings simmers a deep grief: the first time we see her on screen in “Sophie Jones,” she’s burying her nose in her dead mother’s clothes and running her hands through her ashes. Written by both Barrs, “Sophie Jones” tackles a tough two-fer: dramatizing the usual pains of high school, coupled with a pervasive grief that Sophie just can’t shake.

Opening soon after the death of Sophie’s mother, the teenager reasons that she’s coping well enough, at least she’s not cutting herself or drinking or taking drugs. Instead, however, Sophie has turned her attention to the...

Spencer Tracy would’ve celebrated his 119th birthday on April 5, 2019. The two-time Oscar winner starred in a variety of classics before his death in 1967, including nine films opposite fellow legend Katharine Hepburn. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Tracy pulled off the rare hat-trick of winning back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, first for his performance as a Portuguese sailor in “Captains Courageous” (1937), then for playing a dedicated priest helping wayward youths in “Boys Town” (1938). It’s a feat that would only be repeated once more in this category by Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” in 1993 and “Forrest Gump” in 1994).

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

Tracy would compete seven more times in the category: “San Francisco” (1936), “Father of the Bride” (1950), “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955), “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Judgment at Nuremberg...

Never had the Netflix logo been welcomed by Venetian audiences with an applause as rapturous as the one it received when the iconic N popped up to introduce what was rightly billed the cinematic event of the year: Orson Welles’ much-awaited and finally restored The Other Side of the Wind.

It was a moment 48 years in the making. In 1970, Welles grouped together a cast of Hollywood giants to shoot what would turn out to be an eerily auto-fictional farewell opus. Beset by all sorts of financial constraints, the production would stretch, stall, and come to an infamous end. Rejected by major Hollywood studios, partly funded by Iranian production company Apostrophe until the 1979 Revolution — at which point the film effectively became property of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the people of Iran — The Wind would outlive Welles (who passed away in 1985) as an irreparably unfinished last work. Over a thousand reels languished...

Revival culture has had its ups and downs, but here might be the biggest downside for TV fans: acknowledging that once-beloved series were not only better consigned to the past, but haven’t aged well. The latest show to challenge us is “Arrested Development,” and on so many levels, it has proven difficult to enjoy this once-beloved show.

On May 29, just days before the end of Emmys eligibility, Netflix released the first eight episodes of “Arrested” Season 5. Right before that, however, came a now-infamous New York Times interview where the cast (save Portia de Rossi and Michael Cera) opened up about the on-set atmosphere. Inspired by questions regarding star Jeffrey Tambor’s behavior on the “Arrested” set as well as “Transparent,” Jessica Walter said that in her entire career, she’d never been treated as badly as she was treated by the actor. She was even heard audibly crying in the released audio.

On this day (Sept 1st) in showbiz history...

1934 Metro Goldwyn Mayer releases their first animated short, The Discontented Canary. It wasn't Oscar nominated but they soon begin to crash Walt Disney's stranglehold on that particular category back then, with nearly annual nominations (for a time) beginning in 1939 (Peace on Earth) and regular wins in the 1940s thanks largely to the Tom & Jerry series. 

1952 Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is first published. It wins the Pulitzer and gets adapted to the movies twice, the first time as a feature in 1958 with Spencer Tracy and the second time as an Oscar winning Russian animated short in 1999 which was painted on glass. 

1977 Blondie signed their first major record company contract. Whatever happened to that Debbie Harry biopic we were supposed to get? Wasn't it going to star Kiki Dunst or was that just our Tfe fantasy?

2004 Mike Leigh's...

Man versus Nature, Man versus Beast, Man versus Food; all mythical in status to varying degrees and most represented on the silver screen. Of Unknown Origin (1983) tackles the middle myth with a tongue firmly planted in its giant rat infested cheek and is an obsessive tour through a domestic hellscape.

Released in November by Warner Brothers, and produced in conjunction with some of that glorious Canadian tax shelter money (you’re welcome, eh), Of Unknown Origin only made back a quarter of its $4 million budget. It didn’t wow the critics either, although Peter Weller (Robocop) was singled out for his wry performance as the put upon vermin victim.

Bart Hughes (Weller) has it all; the perfect wife (Shannon Tweed, in her feature film debut) and son, a high paying job, and a beautiful brownstone in New York. (Read: Montreal. Tax coin. Beauty.) Wife and child head off for a...

I’m sure most of you have seen the Deadpool short “No Good Deed” by now. The short screens right before Logan starts in the theaters, and Ryan Reynolds released an extended version online. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here and watch it now!

At the very end of the short there is a lengthy scroll of text that speeds by so fast the viewer has no time to read it. Well, now we know what it says! If you haven’t bothered to pause and read through it yourself, you can just read it below.

It’s an essay on Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel The Old Man and the Sea that seems like it was written by Deadpool. The grammar and punctuation are all over the place because that’s what we’d expect from Deadpool, and it’s a very entertaining read.

I have...

Yesterday was a tough one for the Newell family. Actually, the past few months haven’t been easy; my dad is – well, the best way to describe the situation is that my father is a soul trapped in the shell of what was once a healthy, vibrant human being. To be honest, I don’t know why he isn’t dead. And my mom had a stroke about a month ago – and although she’s up and walking around (with the aid of a walker), the energetic and vivacious woman with whom I laughed and fought and loved is gone, too, leaving behind an old lady who is dip-shit batty – though I must admit that some of what she says is pretty funny.

And at least they both are in the same nursing home.

We have spent the last few weeks cleaning out their apartment – especially my brother, who has...

Don’t mess with the one-armed man — did you know that at 56 years, Spencer Tracy could whup Ernest Borgnine to a frazzle? John Sturges knocked this one out of the ballpark and booted his career into high gear. It’s well remembered… but does anyone remember that the subject is the murder of a Japanese-American? It’s a combo social issue film And a tough guy western.

Bad Day at Black Rock

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:40:1 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date January 17, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande, Robert Griffin, Harry Harvey.

Cinematography William C. Mellor

Film Editor Newell P. Kimlin

Original Music André Previn

Written by Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire story by Howard Breslin

Produced by Dore Schary

Directed by John Sturges

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Warning to...

Best Shot 1977 Party. Chapter 1

Islands in the Stream (1977)

Directed by: Franklin J Schaffner

Cinematography by: Fred J Koenekamp

No, dear readers, quit humming.

Though this post is retro it is not about Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers' classic Grammy-winning 80s duet. Islands in the Stream is also the name of a 1977 movie very loosely adapted from a collection of possibly unfinished Ernest Hemingway stories which were released after his death under this title. I regret to inform that I had not even heard of it, the film or the book. The three sections of Hemingway's posthumous book include his previously published "The Old Man and the Sea," something I had heard of. (I'm not an animal.) 

The poster to your left begins with the tagline:

How long has it been since you've seen a really good movie?

Which was maybe not the best marketing tactic in March of 1977 considering what...

“In order to write about life, you must first live it.” – Ernest Hemingway

The first Hollywood film to shoot on location in Cuba since the 1959 revolution, Papa:Hemingway in Cuba is the true-life story of a young journalist who finds a father figure in legendary author Ernest Hemingway. Their relationship began in the late 1950’s when Ed Myers, then a junior reporter at The Miami Herald, wrote a fan letter to his idol. Myers thought he was being pranked when the larger than life Hemingway phoned the newsroom a week later, inviting him to Havana.

”Good letter, kid,” the famous voice growled. ”You like to fish?“

Hidden away at his private estate with his wife Mary, the elusive author mentors Myers in fishing, drinking, and finding his voice while the Cuban Revolution boils up around them. In this turbulent landscape, observing an icon in his twilight years, Myers discovers his strength...

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most important writers of the 20th Century. His brief writing style in his novels “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The Old Man and the Sea” changed literature forever.

Wamg has your passes to the advance screening of the Yari Film Group’s Papa: Hemingway In Cuba.

Directed by the Producer of the Academy Awarding Winner “Crash” and “The Illusionist”, “Papa: Hemingway In Cuba” is a true story about the relationship between Miami journalist Denne Bart Petitclerc (Giovanni Ribisi) and legendary writer Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks).

Set during the Cuban revolution, the film co-stars Joely Richardson and Minka Kelly with a cameo by Hemingway’s granddaughter, Mariel Hemingway. Papa: Hemingway In Cuba was shot on location in Havana and inside Hemingway’s estate, Finca Vigia.

It is the first Hollywood film to be shot in Cuba since 1959.

The upcoming drama opens...

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most important writers of the 20th Century. His brief writing style in his novels “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The Old Man and the Sea” changed literature forever.

Join Ernest Hemingway in Cuba with the new poster and trailer from Yari Film Group’s Papa: Hemingway In Cuba.

Starring Giovanni Ribisi, Adrian Sparks, Joely Richardson and Minka Kelly, the upcoming drama opens in theaters April 29.

Directed by the Producer of the Academy Awarding Winner “Crash” and “The Illusionist”, “Papa: Hemingway In Cuba” is a true story about the relationship between Miami journalist Denne Bart Petitclerc (Giovanni Ribisi) and legendary writer Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks).

Set during the Cuban revolution, the film co-stars Joely Richardson and Minka Kelly with a cameo by Hemingway’s granddaughter, Mariel Hemingway. “Papa: Hemingway In Cuba” was shot on location in Havana and inside Hemingway’s estate,...

Kazakhstan's has announced the film "Stranger" ("Zhat") by Yermek Tursunov as its official submission for the Academy Awards, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. This is not Tursunov's first brush with Oscar, he was short-listed for Best Foreign Film with his nomadic-time drama "Kelin" in 2010-- making it the furthest a Kazakh film has ever made it in Oscar race. His previous film "Shal" (Old Man) was also selected as Kazakhstan's official submission for the Academy Awards in 2013.

"Stranger" is Tursunov's sixth feature and it continues his cinematic exploration of Kazakh nomads eking out a living in the harsh steppes.

Here is the synopsis

Ilyas (Yerzhan Nurymbet), is a young man who survived the famine of the 30s, Stalinist deportation and WWII by retreating in a cave to live off the land, but finds himself battling society in a bid to retain his freedom. His secluded and nomadic life has not prepared him for the dramatic developments in his Soviet-era community, even though he tries his best to connect with the villagers. Produced by Kanat Torebay for Tursunov Film, "Stranger" is based on a screenplay that Tursunov wrote while studying at Moscow's leading film school Vgik.

Yermek Tursunov has represented Kazakhstan in two previous occasions at the Academy Awards. First with the film "Kelin," which follows a young bride as she's taken into the yurt of a young shepherd, played by "Stranger" lead actor Yerzhan Nurymbet in ancient nomadic times. After its Tiff international premiere, "Kelin" went on to screen in Busan, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and Locarno, among many other festivals.

in 2013 his film Shal" (Old Man) was submitted as the country's official entry. The film is loosely inspired by Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea, and depicts life on the modern-day steppes, with an old man trying to herd his sheep across the vast expanse. Interference from city 'hunters' unmoors his well-developed instinct as they evoke the wrath of the local wolves. "Shal" also premiered at Tiff, in 2012.

Yermek Tursunov was born in 1961 in Kazakhstan. He is a novelist, writer and film director. A graduate from the Faculty of Journalism of Kazakh National University, Tursunov written several novels. He won the Grand Prix in Russia's screenwriting competition, the Golden Star prize for his script "Tell Me Who is Your Friend" (Russia), Kazakhstan's National Kulager Prize for Best Film in 2010 for "Kelin" and Best Director in 2012 for "Shal." ...

What would famous novels look like today if made into short video clips? The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park of Illinois can show what three books would look like with their 15-second Instagram renditions of Hemingway’s top titles. The Foundation partnered with ad agency Ogilvy and Mather in Chicago to create the super-short versions of A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. The 15-second video ads contain eye-catching animations and manage to get across the main point of each novel in a compelling (if not slightly humorous) way. According to the foundation, it debuted the Farewell to Arms ad specifically to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the beginning of World War I back in 1914. But the Instagram campaign was made for more than just remembrance. MediaBistro’s Agency Spy notes the Foundation wanted to make Hemingway’s works...

It was a good run, Liam Neeson. The 62-year-old who was Oskar Schindler and Alfred Kinsey spent the last seven years kicking the crap out of much younger bad guys in bone-crushing B-movies, best epitomized by the Taken films. But as of this past weekend, there's a new sheriff in town. Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, one of the biggest movie stars of the past 25 years, and almost always, the coolest guy in the room, delivered his 12th No. 1 film, The Equalizer. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), The Equalizer is a Neeson-ized adaptation of the 1980s CBS detective drama series that starred Edward Woodward.

There’s a special kind of hell for artists who array vigilante revenge-porn in saintly garb, and Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua should go to the front of that damnable line after The Equalizer. Washington plays Robert McCall (as in, “Who ya’ gonna McCall?”), a gentle, paternalistic, self-effacing low-level manager at a Home Depot–like hardware store. He lives in an unadorned apartment and eats by his lonesome every night at the same diner, where he reads the latest in a line of good-mental-hygiene classics of the Western canon. (The aging widower is working on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.) He makes small talk with the regulars, among them Chloë Grace Moretz as Teri, a Russian-born hooker with dreams of being a singer-songwriter. When Teri starts showing up with shiners — and worse — McCall is quietly stricken. He knows the world is full of very bad men,...

After receiving joking acknowledgment in The Wolf of Wall Street last year, awareness of ‘80s TV series The Equalizer is probably now as high as it was ever going to be. It’s hard to imagine any fans of the series clamouring for a film version more than two decades later, and even harder to say whether they’ll approve of Antoine Fuqua’s adaptation, which carries over the names of the series, but little else. A one-man A-Team,the titular Equalizer is Robert McCall, an ex-covert operative with a particular set of skills he uses to atone for a shady past, one hard-luck case at a time.

The original series was set in New York, while the film version has driven a few hours up the I-90 to move the surroundings to Boston. While the change of leading man, from proper Brit Edward Woodward to all-American-ly handsome Denzel Washington,...

Before its regular-joe hero gets bitten by a radioactive equation and becomes the Equalizer, who's sort of the Rain Man of puncturing Russian mobsters' windpipes with corkscrews, Antoine Fuqua's eye-gouging, brain-drilling, crowd-pleasing latest gives you a reel or two to remember what movies felt like back when they were about people. Denzel Washington's Bob McCall toodles about a Home Depot–like store, helping customers, decked out in New Balance shoes and jeans so last-century you'll be looking for pleats. McCall smiles a lot, coaches a co-worker in healthy eating, and playacts he was once one of Gladys Knight's Pips. He declaims a term paper's worth of thoughts about The Old Man and the Sea to his prostitute pal (Chloë Grace Moretz) at a greasy spoon. Surpri...

Over the weekend, film critic A. O. Scott wrote a long essay in The New York Times Magazine that irked me, and I wanted to use my column to unpack some of my feelings about it. If you have opinions about the state of modern pop culture, you might want to join me.

(I’m now going to paraphrase and reduce his arguments to the bones. By all means, read the entire piece for more nuance.)

Scott seems to think that the modern American adult, by his and her refusal to grow up, has had a deleterious effect on the popular arts. He specifically mentions “bromance” movies, like those produced by Judd Apatow, superhero movies, and adults who read young adult (Ya) books like the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games. In his opinion, the success of these genres means that we, as grown-ups, are rejecting our responsibilities.

As...

UK sales agent Amadeus Entertainment has joined the Russian Cinema umbrella stand at Hong Kong’s Filmart, which begins today (March 24).

Amadeus will be presenting the Russian family action-adventure Land Of Good Kids by Olga Kaptur, which was released in Russian cinemas last December.

With musical and dance routines and CG effects, the film focuses on a parents’ wish that their naughty daughter stays in the year passing and a good child appears for the New Year. Magically, their wish comes true.

Amadeus’ other Russian titles include Anton Sivers’ historical drama Vasilisa and Yegor Baranov’s comedy Nightingale The Robber as well as Kazakhstan’s Oscar 2013 entry Old Man (Shal) by Ermek Tursunov, a re-staging of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea in the Kazakh steppes.

The London-based company is among 10 firms operating under the Russian Cinema umbrella, including animation studio Wizart Animation, Timur Bakmembetov’s production-distribution outfit Bazelevs, sales agent Reflexion...

Surreal correspondence reveals intense but 'un-synchronized passion' between the literary and cinema icons

A surreal, graphic letter from Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich, in which the author addresses the film star as "Dearest Kraut" and imagines her "drunk and naked", is set to be auctioned to the public next week.

The pair first met on the New York-bound liner Île de France in 1934 and went on to enjoy a lifelong friendship. Although their letters to each other were full of feeling, they never became lovers, with Hemingway once calling them "victims of un-synchronized passion. Those times when I was out of love, the Kraut was deep in some romantic tribulation, and those occasions when Dietrich was on the surface and swimming about with those marvellously seeking eyes, I was submerged".

In his 1955 letter to Dietrich, signed Papa, the Nobel prize-winning writer responds to her complaints about her Las Vegas show,...

The Old Man, Kazakhstan's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. International Sales Agent: Kazakhfilm Studios

To adapt an already existing material for other media requires capturing the essence of the selected piece and fitting it within the restrictions of the new format. This practice is utterly common, perhaps even inherent, in the film industry nowadays. This translation ,usually from a written work into audiovisual impressions, in the form of a cinematic work, attempts to preserve the story with all its subplots and characters. Therefore, there is not a real transformation of the piece, but rather an expensive, dramatic and graphic interpretation with another point of view. Although adapted for the screen in several occasions before, Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea had not experienced a genuine reinvention. In his latest exceptional work The Old Man (Shal) director Ermek Tursunov does not attempt to just recreate this classic tale, but he reworks it to transmute it into an authentically Kazakh story that takes its pivotal themes from the American author’s writing.

Hardheaded and inflexible elderly man Kasym (Erbulat Toguzakov) is a shepherd living in small town whose livelihood is the unforgiving steppe that surrounds the area. An avid soccer fan, he baptizes his sheep with the names of famous players like Garrincha or Maradona, and enjoys watching matches in a shabby T.V. This, coincidentally, is also his only use for contemporary technology. Kasym’s household consists of his widowed son’s wife and his grandson, the cheeky Erali who he nicknames “Shaitan-bek” (mischievous child). More interested in his video games, the boy pays little attention to his elder’s archaic wisdom, a typical case of tradition vs. modernity. Nevertheless, Kasym believes his old-fashioned practices have helped him and his people survive for centuries, and though he wants something better for Erali, he wishes he would join in his activities. In spite of being rough around the edges, the old man is kindhearted and won’t hesitate to help others. Thus, when his neighbor begs him to take his sheep out into the wild to pasture while he spends time with his family, Kasym is unable to refuse.

Noticeably worn out by age and the labor-intense lifestyle, the man ventures into the icy plains with the herd of sheep and his precious horse “Eagle” and equally seasoned beast that has accompanied him in many adventures. In the untamed territory at the same time, a group of heavily armed arrogant hunters seek to kill wolves despite Kasym’s warning that it is a bad time because female wolves have just given birth. It doesn’t take long for the veteran survivor to realize he is lost. His memory has betrayed him and he must now fight to stay alive. As the rescue mission lead by his young grandson is underway, Kasym finds himself in a duel with Mother Nature and simultaneously with his own internal demons.

Harnessing an instinctive humanity in a deeply passionate role, Erbulat Toguzakov, a non-professional actor, plays the emotionally rugged, yet physically fragile old man with charm and an inspiring desperation to overcome his situation. Embodying the conflicting plight of mankind, which forces the species to struggle between an untamed state and the civilized standards, Kasym is coerced by the environment to return to his basic savage urges. He must renounce to the little comfort he knows and become one with his enemy. The ferocious wolves that haunt him are a token of this duality, in which his nemesis is also his incentive to fight for salvation. Humorous at times, increasingly exhausted, but always honorable, his perseverance is admirable, and made plausible by a stunning performance.

There is an alluring primeval atmosphere that coats the inhospitable terrain and which is explicit in the film’s rustic vistas and ethereal dream sequences. Therefore, the setting becomes as crucial as the protagonist himself. Its intriguing presence takes on a semi-religious quality to which Kasym testifies by stating that his God is in the steppe. Through the brutality of his experience he observes first hand the fragility of life and its miraculous cycle. Tursunov captures the spirit of the Kazakh people and their land with compassionate dignity. The Old Man is a riveting homage that stands out on its own merits, and transmits an animalistic mysticism worthy of a legendary odyssey from a distant land.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

Hot Jennifer Lawrence, Wet Robert Redford: New York Film Critics Awards 2013 winners (photo: Jennifer Lawrence in ‘American Hustle’) A crime drama featuring con men, mafiosi, and FBI agents, the David O. Russell-directed, real-life inspired American Hustle won three New York Film Critics Circle Awards earlier today, December 3, 2013: Best Picture; Best Screenplay for Russell and Eric Singer; and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence for her performance as con man and FBI mole Christian Bale’s steamy, big-mouthed wife. (Full list of Nyfcc 2013 award winners.) Last year, Jennifer Lawrence was the New York Film Critics’ runner-up in the Best Actress category for both The Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook. The latter film, also directed by David O. Russell, earned her the Best Actress Academy Award earlier this year. Besides Jennifer Lawrence, whose The Hunger Games: Catching Fire may turn out to be the biggest 2013 blockbuster in North America,...

For the last few weeks audiences have been flocking to the multiplexes to watch Sandra Bullock alone and adrift in Gravity. This week’s new film is a lot closer to home, since it’s set on planet Earth instead of being set above planet Earth. But it’s just as solitary, since its protagonist is miles from another person (at least Sandy had the charming George Clooney as company for a very brief time) in the middle of the ocean. Oh so it’s a riff on The Old Man And The Sea, you’re thinking. Well sure, there are many elements mixed in with The Life Of Pi, Cast Away, and a smidgen of Jeremiah Johnson, the 1972 classic about a guy wanting to live by himself in the harsh wilderness. Yes, All Is Lost takes a bit of that film’s plot, but more importantly it shares the same leading man,...

It's very, very tempting to refer to Robert Redford's new film as The Old Man and the Sea. But that would be neither accurate nor fair, because All is Lost features an actor who is graceful and empathetic and intelligent and cunning and determined to survive, come what may, in complete ignorance of the number of years he has been breathing air on this planet. In his heyday, Redford carried around a reputation that he was more of a pretty boy than a real actor, someone who coasted to stardom on his good looks and surface charm, never clawing beneath the surface of the characters he played, and stayed at the top because of his winning smile and unwillingness to take risks. To date, he...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

After Sharknado and Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus, Syfy's latest TV film may signal a downhill turn for the frenzy of shark movies

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I'm about to say something that's bound to ruffle a few feathers. I'm going to be dismissive of sharks. And I'm going to do it on the internet. Telling the internet that you're bored with sharks is madness. It's like telling the internet that you're bored with cat gifs, or ironic moustaches, or pretending that everything is either much more or much less sexist than it actually is. It's asking for trouble.

And yet, now that the Syfy channel is making a TV movie about an avalanche full of sharks, this must be said. To use the parlance of this publication, I'm worried we may be reaching "peak shark".

The film is called Avalanche Sharks. It doesn't have a broadcast date yet,...

Hilary Swank knows a good catch when she sees one. Judging from this shot, you might think the Million Dollar Baby star had been in an epic knockdown, drag-out battle worthy of The Old Man and the Sea, as Swank was snapped on Monday holding up a monster fish at Seattle's Pure Food Fish Market. But the 39-year-old actress didn't actually hook the big guy. Rather, she dropped into the store located in the city's world-renowned Pike Place Market to purchase some fresh seafood—including king salmon, king crab, oysters, scallops and mussels—for a dinner party she was throwing. And according to People, Hilary enjoyed her time so much she graciously gave a thumbs up to Pure's super haul...

Following the recent release of their latest album Yes, It’s True, The Polyphonic Spree has now released a music video for “Let Them Be,” a standout track from the album and one drew inspiration from an unlikely source. “Let Them Be is a song I created from looking at images of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea while working on some beats via Garage Band a few days before the recording session to finish the new album,” said band founder Tim DeLaughter. “I basically wrote the music and lyrics for it right there and saved most of it...

Nicole Kidman may not have acted in a movie alongside James Gandolfini, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know what it was like working with him. The late Sopranos star was an executive producer on Hemingway & Gellhorn, last year's HBO film starring Kidman and Clive Owen. "Such a great actor, what a big loss," Kidman said in a statement to E! News. "Sending love and prayers to James' family. He will be greatly missed." Hemingway & Gellhorn tells the story of Ernest Hemingway and his journalist wife Martha Gellhorn. Owen played The Old Man and the Sea novelist with Kidman as Gellhorn. It was premiered a little over a year ago. Directed by Philip Kaufman, the...

★★★★★ American director J.C. Chandor first made a name for himself with 2011 talkathon Margin Call, which strove to present the 07-08 financial crisis to us as if we were, "a small child, or a golden retriever". His follow-up film, All Is Lost (2013) - screening out of competition at this year's Cannes - has almost no dialogue whatsoever. There is a brief monologue (that serves as a prologue) and a couple of expletives, but Sorkin territory this isn't. Robert Redford plays an unnamed solo yachtsman who wakes up one morning to find that his vessel has run into a shipping container; the hull breached and water leaking into his cabin.

Without fuss, Redford's seafarer sets about manoeuvring away from the peril before then repairing his hull. This is made difficult by the fact that he is without electricity - cut off from the outside world, unable to navigate via satellite or even...

Above: Salvatore Giuliano (Francesco Rosi, Italy, 1962)

About a month ago I came across a stunning piece of decorative art masquerading as a 1960s East German poster for the 1940 Thief of Bagdad (see below) which soon became one of the most popular posters on my daily Tumblr. I’d seen the artist’s signature “Gottsmann” before on a poster for Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood and so I dug a little deeper and came up with a small treasure trove of little-known posters.

I discovered that the artist, Werner Gottsmann, died nine years ago at the age of 79. He was born in 1924 in the Ore Mountains on the border of Czechoslovakia, which, after WWII, became part of the German Democratic Republic or East Germany. After the war (during which he was a P.O.W.) he studied painting at the Robert-Schumann-Akademie Zwickau, and graphic design at the Meisterschule für Grafik Berlin...