In "The Grey Man," the Russo brothers' latest expansive (and expensive) collaboration with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Billy Bob Thornton gets the "and" credit. That's fitting in terms of screentime, but it doesn't capture what Thornton brings to the film. His presence is the skeleton key to unlocking Marcus, McFeely, and the Russos' intentions. Thornton was one of the 1990s most prominent talents, a force in front of and behind the camera — sometimes in the same picture. "The Grey Man" deliberately rips its espionage and quip-to-dialogue ratio from the decade that made Thornton famous. Thornton gets this. He calibrated his whole performance as Donald Fitzroy — from its winking elements to sincerest stretches — knowing what "The Gray Man" is after. It's smooth. It's electric. That's peak Billy Bob Thornton.
Thornton has rarely stopped working or ceased being smooth or electric since his heyday more than two decades ago. He's...
Thornton has rarely stopped working or ceased being smooth or electric since his heyday more than two decades ago. He's...
- 8/21/2022
- by Scott Thomas
- Slash Film
Together, the Coen Brothers have covered a lot of ground as collaborators and co-directors, from stark neo noir (“Blood Simple”) to bluegrass-tinged whimsy to mid-century Hollywood shenanigans. But an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” could only have happened once the pair put their partnership on hiatus, according to Joel Coen in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Coen’s interest in “Macbeth” was first piqued when his wife, Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand, asked him to consider directing her in the play as Lady Macbeth. He ended up not helming that production at Berkeley Rep, which starred McDormand and “Games of Thrones” alum Conleth Hill in 2016. But the seed had been planted for Coen, who began contemplating the story of a murderous couple in cinematic terms.
That plan became clearer after 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” the last film on which the Coens shared a directing credit.
Coen’s interest in “Macbeth” was first piqued when his wife, Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand, asked him to consider directing her in the play as Lady Macbeth. He ended up not helming that production at Berkeley Rep, which starred McDormand and “Games of Thrones” alum Conleth Hill in 2016. But the seed had been planted for Coen, who began contemplating the story of a murderous couple in cinematic terms.
That plan became clearer after 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” the last film on which the Coens shared a directing credit.
- 1/8/2022
- by Mark Peikert
- Indiewire
Henri Bollinger, a five-time president of the Publicists Guild and a fixture for decades at its signature Publicists Guild Award luncheon, died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Fund campus in Woodland Hills of complications from surgery, Deadline has learned. He was 89.
Bollinger’s Hollywood publicity career spanned 60 years. He joined the then-Publicists Guild of America in 1957, the second year of its existence.
Recalling those early years to writer Ed Crane in the Publicists Awards’ 50th anniversary program, Bollinger said, “attendance at General Membership meetings ranged between 150-200 members. In those days you were fined $15 if you missed a meeting [held usually at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel] without a valid reason.”
He served for more than 55 years on the Publicists Awards Committee, which organizes the annual ICG Publicists Awards Luncheon held at the Beverly Hilton. He was chairman of the committee for 37 years, retiring from that position earlier this year, though remaining a committee member.
Bollinger’s Hollywood publicity career spanned 60 years. He joined the then-Publicists Guild of America in 1957, the second year of its existence.
Recalling those early years to writer Ed Crane in the Publicists Awards’ 50th anniversary program, Bollinger said, “attendance at General Membership meetings ranged between 150-200 members. In those days you were fined $15 if you missed a meeting [held usually at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel] without a valid reason.”
He served for more than 55 years on the Publicists Awards Committee, which organizes the annual ICG Publicists Awards Luncheon held at the Beverly Hilton. He was chairman of the committee for 37 years, retiring from that position earlier this year, though remaining a committee member.
- 8/28/2018
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Billy Bob Thornton has returned to TV with the premiere of the second season of “Goliath,” the Amazon Studio’s legal series, for which Thornton won the Golden Globe as Best TV Drama Actor. As Billy McBride, a dishonored lawyer who has a grudge against his old law firm and gets his vengeance against them in Season 1, he now seeks exoneration for the son of a friend (Lou Diamond Phillips) who is being set up on a murder charge.
Although Thornton’s television work has been limited, he is no stranger to TV awards, having won another Golden Globe for his work in FX’s limited series “Fargo,” as well as an Emmy nom and a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.
Still, his great fame has been his work in films, having won an Academy Award for his screenplay for 1996’s “Sling Blade,” as well as Oscar nominations for...
Although Thornton’s television work has been limited, he is no stranger to TV awards, having won another Golden Globe for his work in FX’s limited series “Fargo,” as well as an Emmy nom and a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.
Still, his great fame has been his work in films, having won an Academy Award for his screenplay for 1996’s “Sling Blade,” as well as Oscar nominations for...
- 6/23/2018
- by Tom O'Brien and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Gene Wilder 1933 -2016
In all likelihood, the events of this past week probably didn’t offer any more or less sadness and pain to be distributed among willing and unwilling recipients, a.k.a. all of us currently participating in the game of Life. It’s a strange, unsettling time to bear status as a citizen of the world, wherever it is in that world one happens to call home. But speaking as only one of billions buffeted about by the weirdness of a human condition in which terrorism has started to feel commonplace, and in which the policies of political campaigns are used as flimsy opportunities to stir fear, prejudice and an increasingly volatile mythology of helpless American victimization at the hands of hordes of murderous invaders, the sorrow contained in this past week crested perhaps a little higher than might have even been expected.
Gene Wilder had been...
In all likelihood, the events of this past week probably didn’t offer any more or less sadness and pain to be distributed among willing and unwilling recipients, a.k.a. all of us currently participating in the game of Life. It’s a strange, unsettling time to bear status as a citizen of the world, wherever it is in that world one happens to call home. But speaking as only one of billions buffeted about by the weirdness of a human condition in which terrorism has started to feel commonplace, and in which the policies of political campaigns are used as flimsy opportunities to stir fear, prejudice and an increasingly volatile mythology of helpless American victimization at the hands of hordes of murderous invaders, the sorrow contained in this past week crested perhaps a little higher than might have even been expected.
Gene Wilder had been...
- 9/4/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
I sat down with Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor, director and musician Billy Bob Thornton for Venice Magazine in October of 2001. He had a slate of very diverse projects he was promoting: his first solo music album, "Private Radio," as well as the films "Monster's Ball," "Bandits," and "The Man Who Wasn't There." My strongest memory is of Thornton's quiet intensity and an undercurrent of Southern affability, which came out once he decided you were okay. He seemed to feel that way about me after I shared with him my idolatry of legendary filmmaker Fred Zinnemann, something we shared. I also remember his unusual diet, when our lunch was served. Thornton got the biggest plate of sliced papaya I've seen to date, artfully presented. I got a seafood salad. He looked at my plate, smiled, and told me about the horrible shellfish allergy he'd been saddled with all his life, and how...
- 7/25/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
In his 30-year career as a composer, Carter Burwell’s film scores have run the veritable cinematic gamut. From composing for Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Where the Wild Things Are) to his work being the best parts of the Twilight saga, Burwell’s résumé is sporadic and unconventional, even for a man who makes film music for a living — it’s fitting, given his less-than-conventional roots as a cartoonist for The Harvard Lampoon and later as a vagrant New York punk rocker. Undoubtedly, Burwell’s become best known for the his collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen. Last week, Sound on Sight ranked the films of the Coen Brothers, so what better way to take over The Big Score than with a similarly themed meditation on their work with Burwell? As much as the Coens’ filmography is defined by their trademark cynicism and wit, Burwell’s compositions are...
- 1/30/2014
- by David Klein
- SoundOnSight
Any aspiring screenwriter will tell you that if you are looking for an example of the best writing in cinema today you need look no further than the Coen Brothers. Since their debut, Joel and Ethan Coen have populated cinema with some of the greatest characters ever written. Loveable losers, hard-as-nails hitmen, slimeballs, violent maniacs or oddball lunatics have all come from the same warped minds.
With the release of A Serious Man on DVD imminent, what better time could there possibly be to take a trip through the siblings back catalogue and revisit some of the greatest characters ever committed to film.
M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser – Blood Simple (1984)
It’s 1984 and Joel and Ethan Coen burst onto the cinematic scene with Blood Simple. If you are new to the world of the Coens’ the best place to start is right here. Their debut is immense. It is...
With the release of A Serious Man on DVD imminent, what better time could there possibly be to take a trip through the siblings back catalogue and revisit some of the greatest characters ever committed to film.
M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser – Blood Simple (1984)
It’s 1984 and Joel and Ethan Coen burst onto the cinematic scene with Blood Simple. If you are new to the world of the Coens’ the best place to start is right here. Their debut is immense. It is...
- 3/15/2010
- by Alex Wagner
- FilmShaft.com
Do you remember the movie Stranger Than Fiction? There's a scene where Dustin Hoffman explains to Will Ferrell the difference between comedy and tragedy and has him tally up events that would fit into either genre. The Coen Brother's new film, A Serious Man, seems to live this debate as I can't really tell if it's a dark comedy depicting tragic events or a tragedy with comedic characters. Comedy and tragedy aside, you also have to ask at the end of the day if it's even "good." Is it good? That's where our debate really gets interesting. I saw this movie over a week ago and I still don't feel qualified to give you an answer. So let's just start at the beginning. A Jewish husband with a glorious beard makes his way through the snow and finds his wife at home. After a brief conversation, they realize the man the husband has invited over, as...
- 10/2/2009
- by Josh Radde
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Witih their 1940s-set barbershop thriller, the Coen brothers have made their masterpiece, says Peter Bradshaw
"Didja ever think about hair ?" asks The Barber, played by Billy Bob Thornton, snipping away at a chipmunk-favoured, comic-book-reading little boy, the crown of whose head he has turned into a hypnotic blond whorl. "How it's a part of us? How it keeps on coming, and we just cut it off and throw it away?" His colleague tells him to cut it out: his weird intense talk is going to scare the kid. But the Barber persists. "I'm gonna throw this hair away now and mingle it with common house dirt," he says wonderingly, quietly, apparently on the verge of some kind of breakdown. But then, with an infinitesimally dismissive wince, the Barber waves the thought away and replaces his ever-present cigarette: "Skip it."
All of the power, the understatement and the profound enigma of...
"Didja ever think about hair ?" asks The Barber, played by Billy Bob Thornton, snipping away at a chipmunk-favoured, comic-book-reading little boy, the crown of whose head he has turned into a hypnotic blond whorl. "How it's a part of us? How it keeps on coming, and we just cut it off and throw it away?" His colleague tells him to cut it out: his weird intense talk is going to scare the kid. But the Barber persists. "I'm gonna throw this hair away now and mingle it with common house dirt," he says wonderingly, quietly, apparently on the verge of some kind of breakdown. But then, with an infinitesimally dismissive wince, the Barber waves the thought away and replaces his ever-present cigarette: "Skip it."
All of the power, the understatement and the profound enigma of...
- 10/26/2001
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
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