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Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.

When the “Star Wars” universe imploded earlier this week with the surprising news that Han Solo standalone filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller were leaving the project after completing nearly 75% of principal photography, initial reports immediately fixated on the most likely culprit for the split: disagreements with Lucasfilm head and “Star Wars” super-producer Kathleen Kennedy. While it seems unlikely that the “real” story of what went down behind the scenes — a true “three sides to every story” situation, as producer Robert Evans was fond of saying — will ever come out, Kennedy is at the center of reports about wild demands and on-set clashes.

One thing is clear, however — whatever Lord and Miller were envisioning for their “Star Wars” debut is not what Kennedy had in mind, and while we’re still mourning the “Star Wars” film that will never be, the veteran producer deserves all of the respect that goes with her decision. She’s the one in charge of maintaining the “Star Wars” legacy, and with good reason.

Read More: Ron Howard’s ‘Star Wars’: We Debate the New Choice For Lucasfilm’s Han Solo Movie

As the head of a massive studio and a high-powered producer with a slew of huge credits under her belt (“Indiana Jones” to “Star Wars,” “Lincoln” to “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” and that’s only scraping the top of a stuffed resume), Kennedy is in a rarefied position. That she’s a woman is even more unique, a gate-crasher who has earned her stripes over decades in the business, only to emerge as the principal brain behind the world’s biggest franchise.

Kennedy first entered the entertainment world in a roundabout way, infamously serving as director John Milius’ assistant after she graduated college and putting in some serious time producing a small local TV talk show in her native Northern California. At the time, Milius was producing Steven Spielberg’s “1941,” and Spielberg soon poached her to be his own secretary, a job she was apparently not great at (as it turns out, she couldn’t really type).

But from the start, Kennedy had a lot of compelling ideas, and Spielberg eventually brought her on as a producer. Just two years after their initial introduction, Kennedy co-founded Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment alongside her future husband Frank Marshall. Kennedy’s intelligence was remarkable, and so were her leadership skills, and she was soon named president of Amblin.

Plenty more big gigs followed, including the launching of The Kennedy/Marshall Company with her husband, big-time producing credits on a number of films (a number of which were directed by Spielberg), and her eventual role as co-chair of Lucasfilm alongside George Lucas. Kennedy’s track record is awe-inspiring, including over 92 film and television credits (an intriguing mix of blockbusters and prestige pictures) and eight Oscar nominations for Best Picture. In terms of pure money-making power alone, she’s behind only Spielberg and Marvel mastermind Stan Lee for domestic box office take (nearly $7 billion as of this writing).

After Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, she became both president and brand manager. If it’s “Star Wars,” it goes through her. The homogenization of franchise films is certainly an issue in an industry increasingly interested in churning out tentpoles, but a dedication to cohesion and a larger sense of story are essential elements for such wide-ranging series. That’s what Kennedy is tasked with overseeing, and it’s not always easy.

The Han Solo situation remains a weird outlier in an industry that has seen plenty of strange stuff go down; Kennedy and her cohorts are in mostly uncharted waters, though a similar situation did unspool over at Marvel in 2015. When Edgar Wright left his long-gestating “Ant-Man” after nearly a decade of work on the project, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was believed to have balked at Wright’s burgeoning vision, one that didn’t align with the larger aims of the McU. As with Lord and Miller, Wright left the project due to “creative differences.”

Feige later explained to The Guardian why he made that tough choice: “We sat round a table and we realized it was not working. A part of me wishes we could have figured that out in the eight years we were working on it. But better for us and for Edgar that we figure it out then, and not move it through production.” Feige’s choice was hard enough; Kennedy is almost unfathomable.

As IndieWire’s Anne Thompson noted earlier this week, “Kennedy’s purpose is to stay on course — as Kevin Feige does with Marvel — and keep the ‘Star Wars’ universe humming and intact as it spins into many orbits. She can take responsibility for miscasting in this case, because Lord and Miller are who they are and, once hired, should be able to do what they do.”

She has excelled at that, and while the Lord and Miller exit seems indicative of major behind-the-scenes drama, it may actually point in the opposite direction: that Kennedy is so compelled to do right by the brand that she’ll make a huge change in order to reach the necessary end goal.

Kennedy does still have plenty to learn about navigating the ever-changing waters of franchise filmmaking, in ways that extend beyond whatever led to the Han Solo fallout.

In November of last year, she drew ire over comments about the lack of women directors on “Star Wars” projects. Kennedy explained that, while finding a female director for a “Star Wars” film was a priority, they just hadn’t found someone with the right level of experience just yet — seemingly forgetting how many male directors they’ve employed who also haven’t come to the table with built-in blockbuster credits. At the time, Kennedy said, “We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do ‘Star Wars,’ they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.”

Read More: Han Solo Upheaval: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s ‘Star Wars’ Exit

Later, she attempted to clarify her comments, responding to a question at the “Rogue One” press conference. “That quote was taken out of context,” she said. “As you can imagine, I have every intention of giving somebody an opportunity. So, if somebody actually moves through the process of making movies and wants to make a ‘Star Wars’ movie, and shows that they have actually stepped into the role on that level, of course we’re going to consider a woman. That goes without saying.” Kennedy’s criteria for a “Star Wars” filmmaker still seemed dead-set on only pursuing filmmakers who meet a criteria that sounds reliant on resume credits over passion and skill.

But Kennedy has both — an enviable track record and an obvious affection for the massive series she’s in charge of shepherding through impossible decisions. She’s already installed Ron Howard as the film’s finishing director, and every press release has insisted that the film will come out on time. Will it be worth it? We’ll have to see, but it’s clear that Kennedy will be front and center for whatever the final product looks like. After all, it’s her franchise.

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One of the film projects that I've been looking forward most forward to seeing get made is Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Legend of Conan. Everything That I've heard about the film since it was first announced has been awesome, and I believe that it would have been a cinematic masterpiece.

Today my dreams of seeing this movie have been destroyed. During a recent interview at EW with producer and screenwriter Chris Morgan, he was asked if there were any updates on the project and that's where he revealed that it's dead. He says:

"Not so much. That’s kind of a longer story. At the end of the day, the studio decided that they weren’t gonna make that. I gotta say, it’s honestly a heartbreak. I love that first movie so much, so much, it’s one of my favorite movies. We had Will Beall do a draft on [the Legend of Conan script]. He killed it.

We take a look at new Blu-rays of two ’80s classics.

Shout! Factory’s relatively young collectors label, Shout Select, is something of an odd duck. This is less of a criticism than an observation as their releases so far bear no real discernible through line. We’ve gotten well-deserved Blu-rays of eagerly awaited ’80s classics like To Live and Die in La, Road House, and Midnight Run, but the label has also released/announced titles like Death of a Salesman, The Chinese Connection, and Simon Pegg’s forgettable 2012 film, A Fantastic Fear of Everything. So yeah, there’s something of an odd inconsistency across the catalog.

For now though we’re here to discuss their latest releases, two ’80s films of varying acclaim and renown — John Milius’ Red Dawn and Dennis Hopper’s Colors.

Red Dawn (1984)

A small town in Colorado begins its day like any other until strangers drop from the sky. Soviet...

Simon Brew Feb 8, 2017

The late Patrick Swayze was fond of a practical joke or two - and perhaps his most infamous came on the set of the film Red Dawn...

Here's one of those stories that you may have missed over the years. It always makes me chuckle, and if all goes to plan, I'll find a few more short pieces of this ilk over the coming weeks.

The late Patrick Swayze was fond of a practical joke or two on his movie sets - and one in particular lit a fire beneath his director at the time.

Swayze was making the film Red Dawn, for director John Milius. Milius, a man fond of explosives himself, went to answer a call of nature whilst shooting the film. Unbenownst to him, however, Patrick Swayze had got there first.

As the actor recounted in his memoir, The Time Of My Life, "I...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

Pigeon Kings

Logline: A group of men in South Central Los Angeles find hope through their dedication to the rare sport of somersaulting pigeons.

Elevator Pitch:

Many have heard about pigeon coops and those raising pigeons in the inner cities of America, but many do not know why this subculture has emerged and what its purpose is. That is what “Pigeon Kings” wants to bring to light.

Through the story of these amazing men who have dedicated their lives to the little known sport of competitive rolling pigeons, we show not only this unique subculture but also a story of a...

The Legend of Conan has been in development since 2012 with producer Chris Morgan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I thought for sure by now the movie would have been shot and released, but that's obviously not how things played out. I've heard so many great things about the story, tone, and setting, and I really hope that one day the movie actually gets made. I'm not sure why it's taking so damn long, but /Film recently caught up with co-writer Will Beall who revealed how the film would open, saying:

“It opens with this [hand on the chin]. It’s where you have to. It’s the sequel that we were promised and never got. I’m 11 when my father took me to see Conan the Barbarian which you should never take an 11-year-old kid to. It was a life changing thing. It’s an unbelievable movie. It comes back to [director John] Milius, right? There’s nobody...

Way back in October 2012, it was confirmed that Arnold Schwarzenegger will return for The Legend of Conan. At that time, it was just after the iconic actor left office as California's governor, as he prepared to return to the big screen. Over the last four years, there has certainly been some progress, with a report from last spring claiming that production would start in the fall of 2015. While that hasn't happened yet, there is still a script in play, and one of the writers just revealed the opening scene.

Will Beall (Gangster Squad) co-wrote the script with Chris Morgan, who wrote the last five Fast & Furious movies and is also shepherding the Universal Monsters franchise as well. /Film caught up with Will Beall at the TCA summer tour, where he confirmed that this new movie will begin where the original Conan the Barbarian left off with King Conan sitting on his throne,...

Amanda Milius says the sweeping wide-angle shot of the blazing sun in “The Lotus Gun,” her thesis film from USC, is not an homage to “Apocalypse Now,” for which her father, John Milius, penned the script. “The director of photography came up with that shot, it’s his signature,” the filmmaker recently told IndieWire.

Milius’ intimate knowledge of film – classic and cult – can be seen in every gorgeous shot of “The Lotus Gun,” which she directed and co-wrote. (She shares writing credit with Johnathan Eisenman). Set in a post-apocalyptic desert landscape, “The Lotus Gun” follows Nora (Lauren Avery) – a gun-toting, pot-smoking, anti-hero – and her love, Daphine (Dasha Nekrasova) as they survive alone in the wilderness. When a male intruder from a drug-addled commune absconds with Daphine, Nora must save the day and take revenge.

Read More: What Is The Best Short Film Ever Made? — Critics Survey

“I naturally fantasize about...

With Camera's rolling in New Orleans, Louisiana, John Malkovich joins the cast of Supercon. The comedic feature follows a group of washed up television stars and comic book artists who make their living attending conventions. Down on their luck, the rag tag team hashes a plot to rob the convention and bring justice to a crooked promoter and an overbearing former TV icon.

With a body of work spanning almost three decades, industry legend John Malkovich is one of the most compelling minds in entertainment. His celebrated performances span every genre, and range from roles in thought-provoking independent films to those in big-budget franchises. In addition to being an accomplished actor, Malkovich is also a director, producer, clothing designer, and artist.

The two time Academy Award nominee joins the cast, which includes Mike Epps, Maggie Grace, Russell Peters, Clancy Brown and CariDee English. Supercon is being produced by Gold Star Films...

Guns! Guns! Guns! John Milius' rootin' tootin' bio of the most famous of the '30s bandits has plenty of good things to its credit, especially its terrific, funny cast, topped by the unlikely star Warren Oates. The battles between Dillinger's team of all-star bank robbers and Ben Johnson's G-Man aren't neglected, as Milius savors every gun recoil and Tommy gun blast. Dillinger Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video U.S. 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, John Ryan, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly, John Martino, Roy Jenson, Frank McRae. Cinematography Jules Brenner Special Effects A.D. Flowers, Cliff Wenger Edited by Fred R. Feitshans, Jr. Original Music Barry De Vorzon Produced by Buzz Feitshans Written and Directed by John Milius

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

There it was in the dentist's office, an article in either...

One of the things I enjoyed most from my entire time at Ain't It Cool News was when we reached story #10,000 and I decided to do something special. I wrote a piece about what was at that point my most anticipated potential project, a collaboration between the Wachowskis and John Milius, King Conan: Crown Of Iron, a sequel to what I still consider one of the best films Arnold Schwarzenegger ever made. That was still before Schwarzenegger disappeared into political office for a while, and well before his comeback. So far, I've enjoyed some of the original films he's done since his return like The Last Stand and Sabotage, but I can't say I'm enjoying his sequel work. I thought Terminator Genisys was genuinely dire, and I don't like any of the Expendables movies. I hate the idea of Triplets, which Josh Gad is writing and which sounds like it's still in development.

A look at the list of my favorite movies from 2014 reveals the presence of six extraordinary nonfiction films, and that’s just a taste of the seeming hundreds of docs released last year-- not all of them extraordinary, of course, but all of them indicative of a trend toward the making of the availability of more nonfiction filmmaking than it seems we’ve likely ever seen in this country. And speaking of availability, the six I listed—Ron Mann’s Altman, Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson’s Milius, Orlando von Einsidel’s Virunga, Chaplain and Maclain Way’s The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Stephanie Spray and Pancho Velez’s Manakamana and Errol Morris’s The Unknown Known— were all pictures I caught courtesy of Netflix Streaming. (Virunga was actually produced under the company’s auspices.)

I have a special place in my cinematic heart for nonfiction, both bound between covers and on the screen,...

Harry Callahan’s next adventure originated with John Milius, Hollywood’s favorite gun fanatic, surfer and “Zen anarchist.” Milius wrote B Movies for American International Pictures before breaking through with two Westerns, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Jeremiah Johnson. His knack for macho action and pulpy, colorful dialogue fit Dirty Harry perfectly; Milius wrote his draft in 21 days, receiving a Purdey shotgun as payment.

Though uncredited, Milius claims credit for Harry‘s dialogue, especially the “Do I feel lucky?” monologue. Others, including Richard Schickel, credit Harry Julian Fink with that speech. Clint Eastwood marginalizes Milius’s contributions to the film, admitting “we might have taken a few good items John had in there.” Milius resented this: “Look at the movie and you tell me who wrote that,” he challenged an interviewer.

Milius soon moved past any hurt feelings. After reading several articles on Brazil’s “death...

We’ve been talking about The Legend of Conan movie for quite some time now, but the film has yet to go into production. Last summer producer Fredrik Malmberg predicted that they’d start shooting in the spring of 2015, but clearly that never happened so now he’s got his eye on a fall start instead, soon after Arnold Schwarzenegger finishes promoting Terminator: Genisys: “I think this fall would be perfect. The sooner the better!” [caption id="attachment_464173" align="alignright" width="360"] Image via The Movie Database/caption] On top of that, The Arnold Fans also shared a few quotes from writer Chris Morgan revealing how The Legend of Conan will connect to the 1982 original: “A light-hearted Conan?! Crom! No. Our tone is a logical extension of the character established in the ’82 film…but 30 years later. When we meet him again, Conan has been many things over the course of his life — a thief, a warrior,...

While the upcoming "Terminator Genisys" plans to play about with the continuity and tone of the original "Terminator" franchise, the other classic revival of a Schwarzenegger-led franchise has no such plans.

Speaking with TheArnoldFans.com, "The Legend of Conan" producer/co-writer Chris Morgan and Fredrik Malmberg say that the upcoming new 'Conan' film will both stay true to Robert E. Howard's vision, but also be fiercely loyal to John Milieus' legendary original 1982 film. In other words, don't expect an R-rated film here:

"A light-hearted Conan?! Crom! No. Our tone is a logical extension of the character established in the '82 film...but 30 years later. When we meet him again, Conan has been many things over the course of his life - a thief, a warrior, a pirate, a king, a legend - and is now an older man. Think Unforgiven...with a sword-wielding barbarian.

Milius was a visionary. And a hero of mine.

George Lucas didn't just create the "Star Wars" universe. The filmmaker, who turns 71 on May 14, pretty much created the cinematic universe we live in now, the ones whose cornerstones include the Thx sound system at your multiplex, the Pixar movies that have dominated animation for the past 20 years, and the Industrial Light & Magic special-effects house, whose aesthetic has ruled the Hollywood blockbuster for nearly four decades. He's the pioneer of the effects-driven action spectacle and the conversion from celluloid to digital, the two trends that, for better and worse, have defined Hollywood's output for nearly 20 years.

As ubiquitous as Lucas and his creations loom in our cinematic dreamscapes, there's still a lot that most people don't know about him, from how he got his start to the famous folks who mentored him or were mentored by him, from the size of his fortune to what he plans to do now...

Since Arnold Schwarzenegger started acting again, the one project that I've been most excited about is Legend of Conan, which will serve as a sequel to Conan the Barbarian. The last thing we heard about the film was that it would start shooting sometime this year.

Empire caught up with producer Chris Morgan, and during their discussion he gave an update on where Legend of Conan currently stands. He started off by saying, "I'm super excited! And Arnold is super excited too. It's the perfect movie for him, because it plays into his own journey."

That's definitely a good sign, and the movie is obviously still moving forward! Morgan goes on to say that the latest draft of the script comes from Will Beall, who is the same guy that wrote Gangster Squad. A lot of people didn't like Gangster Squad, but I actually kind of enjoyed it for its unintentional campiness.

Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the T-800 this year, but he's also slated to reprise another of his most iconic roles in the near future - Conan the Barbarian.

Chris Morgan, a producer on the upcoming "Legend of Conan," tells Empire that he can't wait to see the film go forward: "I'm super excited, and Arnold is super excited too. It's the perfect movie for him, because it plays into his own journey."

The film picks up on the ending of John Milius' 1982 original in which a now elderly King Conan takes on one final adventure. Morgan also confirmed that a new scribe has come onboard the currently in development project:

"Andrea Berloff ["Straight Outta Compton"] did a draft, and then we had Will [Beall, "Gangster Squad"] stepped on. I approached him early on in the process, but at the time he was unavailable and couldn't do it.

But then a couple of weeks after he...

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian is one of those rare 1980s movie gems that just kicked a ridiculous amount of ass. Fantasy films weren't as popular back then as they are now, and the fact that they went all-out for a violent R-rated action film is awesome. If they made that movie today, the studio would want it to be cut down to a PG-13 rating, which is kind of sad. I freakin’ love this movie, and one day hopefully we get that Legend of Conan sequel. The last thing I heard was that it would start shooting this year, and I hope that’s still the plan! While we wait for an update, I've put together a list of 15 Fun Facts for Conan the Barbarian that you might not know. Enjoy!

Schwarzenegger had to cut down on his workout routine because his arm and chest muscles were so...

Clint Eastwood is behind the lens of another Oscar contender: American Sniper. Led by Bradley Cooper, the film adapts the biography of Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy Seal Sniper who struggles to reconcile his family life with his four tours in Iraq. Already a critical hit, the film, which is in limited release now and out everywhere Jan. 16, is a shining trophy on Eastwood’s stacked career mantle. Suffice it to say, that mantle is worth perusing.

Not only is the 84-year-old living legend still acting and directing, he also manages to find time to lend a voice to projects by his peers. For a quick refresher on all-things Eastwood, check out his movies streaming on Netflix.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

[Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures]

A classic, and one of the films that cemented Eastwood’s reputation as an American badass. The film follows Frank Morris (Eastwood), a convict transferred to the maximum security prison...

Clint Eastwood is behind the lens of another Oscar contender: American Sniper. Led by Bradley Cooper, the film adapts the biography of Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy Seal Sniper who struggles to reconcile his family life with his four tours in Iraq. Already a critical hit, the film, which is in limited release now and out everywhere Jan. 16, is a shining trophy on Eastwood’s stacked career mantle. Suffice it to say, that mantle is worth perusing.

Not only is the 84-year-old living legend still acting and directing, he also manages to find time to lend a voice to projects by his peers. For a quick refresher on all-things Eastwood, check out his movies streaming on Netflix.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

[Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures]

A classic, and one of the films that cemented Eastwood’s reputation as an American badass. The film follows Frank Morris (Eastwood), a convict transferred to the maximum security prison...

The picture above isn’t a Halloween party shot; it’s a behind the scenes pic from James’ Franco‘s film adaptation of the novel Zeroville. And Seth Rogen isn’t really playing screenwriter and director John Milius. In fact, he’s playing a character called Viking Man… who is a very thinly-disguised representation of Milius. Zeroville features quite a […]

The post Potd: See Seth Rogen as a Version of John Milius in ‘Zeroville’ appeared first on /Film.

Telluride — While press and patrons were hustling into gondolas and over to the Chuck Jones Cinema for the World Premiere of Jean-Marc Vallée's "Wild," the 41st annual Telluride Film Festival was kicking off with a bang at an over-stuffed Werner Herzog Theater for the lead program of this year's schedule: a tribute to Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." The ticket was so hot that well over a hundred pass holders were turned away at the door. In introducing a new Dcp of the original theatrical cut of the film (supervised for Coppola himself), Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy said it was noteworthy the event was unfolding at the Herzog, as "Apocalypse Now" holds a fair share of homages to Herzog's "Aguirre the Wrath of God," which screened at the fest last year to dedicate the new venue. A boat in a tree, a creeping vessel barraged by arrows, the general descent into madness,...

After last week’s onslaught of new stuff, it was perhaps inevitable that this week would be something of a comedown with not much going on. There is some worthwhile new stuff added, the John Milius documentary for one which has debuted on Lovefilm the same time as DVD more or less and, of course, a contender for the worst film of all time. I have used this opportunity to catch up on some titles that were added last week and I didn’t have space for which are definitely worth writing about. I hope you enjoy.

The Host (2013)

Once upon a time, a bright young writer from New Zealand wrote a brilliant and ahead of its time screenplay called The Truman Show which then became a pretty fantastic film and a career peak for Jim Carrey which predicted the world’s obsession with reality television. The year before, his...

The title subject of Milius, the latest documentary about an under-appreciated artist, sums up the film's shortcomings when he grouses, "Like they say, 'Time will dignify anything.'"

While co-directors Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson have roped together an impressive cavalcade of talking heads, they don't spur on their interview subjects beyond stock anecdotes and superficial impressions. So John Milius, the screenwriter of Apocalypse Now and script doctor of Dirty Harry, is presented as a mysterious, volatile genius.

At first, testimonials suggest that Milius's grandiose eccentricities — his Hemingway-esque love of guns, cigars, and burly philosopher-warriors — made him unique. But eventually, everyone from George Lucas to Paul Schrader ...

Larger than life, lusty, and possessed of an air of largesse and love for laughter, filmmaker and writer John Milius - described by the late uber-critic Pauline Kael as a "fascist" - is celebrated in the documentary "Milius." Hollywood’s love/hate with filmmaker John Milius was the subject of this surprisingly emotional doc that made the film festival circuit last year. Lucky for us that Epix will have an all-day tribute for the man who co-wrote and punched up 'Dirty Harry', 'Jaws' and who wrote with Bruno Heller for the missed series, 'Rome' on HBO. Milius is described in detail through touching anecdotes by his family, his college mates who later became the machers of Hollywood, and his peers who...

Premium channel Epix acquired the rights to "Milius," Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson's film about screenwriter, director and controversial Hollywood personality John Milius, ahead of its screening at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival. Today, Epix announced that it will be premiering the film on Saturday, January 11 at 8pm, alongside a day's worth of films written or directed by Milius, including "Apocalypse Now," "Dillinger" and "Red Dawn." The schedule, all times eastern: 9am - Apocalypse Now 11:30am - Red Dawn (1984) 1:30pm - Flight of the Intruder 3:30pm - Dillinger 5:25pm - Apocalypse Now 8pm - Milius 9:45pm - Red Dawn (1984) 11:45pm - Farewell to the King 1:45am - Milius 3:35am - Flight of the Intruder 5:35am - Dillinger "Milius" follows the title filmmaker from his childhood aspirations to join the military to his formative years at the USC Film School and on...

★★★★☆ The outrageous exploits and antics of Hollywood filmmaker John Milius has been the stuff of Hollywood legend for years now, creating an almost mythical-like impression of the Apocalypse Now scribe and Big Wednesday director (The Big Lebowski's mentally-unstable Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak was said to be loosely based on him.) An in-depth portrait of the self-proclaimed "Zen anarchist" now arrives in the form of Milius (2013), Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson's hugely entertaining and fittingly reverential documentary of this larger-than-life, somewhat contradictory figure - "a teddy bear with an AK47".

To mark the release of Milius on 18th November, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

This is the life story of filmmaker John Milius, one of the most influential and controversial film directors of his generation. Made by debut directors Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson, the documentary follows Milius’ childhood aspirations to join the military, his formative years at the University of Southern California Film School, his legendary work on films such as Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Conan The Barbarian, Dirty Harry and Red Dawn, to his ultimate dismissal from Hollywood due to his radical beliefs and controversial behaviour.

Millius turned his hand to writing after he was refused entry to the USmarine-corps because of his chronic asthma. He was able to sell his early screenplays for record amounts and forged a Hollywood career alongside his USC Film School contemporaries Steven Spielberg and George Lucas (both of...

JFK | The Wolverine | Nosferatu | Streets Of Fire | Milius

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As the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy's assassination approaches you'll notice that, for such an important event, Hollywood movies on the subject are pretty thin on the ground. Up until the Zac Efron-led Parkland (which deals more with the effects on peripheral characters and is out on Friday), the only other notable example was this sprawling Oliver Stone epic. Plenty of critics have used adjectives such as belligerent, tenacious and (above all) paranoid when describing the film, but it's more than one man's delusional opus. Stone launches into things head on, with a great cast including a relentlessly blank Kevin Costner and far more flamboyant turns from Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones and Joe Pesci, plus Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald.

Don't go into this expecting answers; the movie is more...

Short Term 12 | Philomena | Thor: The Dark World | Milius | Gloria | Nosferatu The Vampyre | Drinking Buddies | Cutie And The Boxer | Child's Pose | The Nun | The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia | A Nightmare On Elm Stret

Short Term 12 (15)

(Destin Cretton, 2013, Us) Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek. 97 mins

A film that makes you care about people who care about people, this compact indie doesn't have to look hard for drama in a foster care home, whose young workers need help as much as the damaged teens in their charge. The storylines are a little convenient, but it's an emotional watch, and Larson is outstanding.

Philomena (12A)

(Stephen Frears, 2013, UK/Us/Fra) Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. 98 mins

Faith issues, "human interest" and even buddy comedy blend smoothly in this true-life tale of a retired Irish woman's search for her adult son, aided by a sceptical English hack.

Though it would have been easy to walk into the room to interview Milius’ directors Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa with a little trepidation, expecting to be told to go and screw myself upon arrival – fortunately it seems that filmmaker and documentary subject John Milius’ bombastic spirit had not rubbed off on either man.

During the course of our conversation Zak and Joey spoke of meeting Milius for the first time, and being toyed with in typical Milius fashion. From there the discussion spiralled to take in iconic directors and their love of collaboration, the ownership of film, the changing fortunes of the director as the film business evolved, and the possibility of one last hoorah for the one of Hollywood’s most renowned storytellers.

Of all the filmmakers, why Milius?

Joey Figueroa: This project was kind of brought to us, in the sense that one of our producers...

Fantasy invigorates reality in this fond retrospective of the director who embodied the renegade heart of 70s Hollywood

In screenplay terms, they call it a reversal: John Milius, infamous blowhard screenwriter and director, is roused from post-stroke coma when his son plays him Anvil of Crom, the theme from his 1982 Conan the Barbarian. Fantasy invigorates reality, the one unexpected and affecting moment in this love-in retrospective in which the USC film-school graduate is revealed as a fantasist whose macho shtick – ventriloquised in Dirty Harry's "Do you feel lucky?" rant, fossilised by the time he made the Russky-goading Red Dawn in 1984 – emerged largely from his inability to participate in Vietnam because of asthma. Before he became a caricature, Milius personified 70s Hollywood's renegade heart and was airlifted in to supply gonzo energy at key junctures (Apocalypse Now; Quint's soliloquy in Jaws). Judging by the incredible roll call of interviewees here – Spielberg,...

November 1

Drinking Buddies

Director Joe Swanberg

Starring Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson, Olivia Wilde

Running Time 90 mins

Certificate 15

Milius

Director Zak Knutson, Joey Figueroa

Starring John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood

Running Time 101 mins

Certificate 15

Philomena

Director Stephen Frears

Starring Steve Coogan, Judi Dench, Charlie Murphy

Running Time 98 mins

Certificate 12A

Short Term 12

Director Destin Daniel Cretton

Starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jnr, Kaitlyn Dever

Running Time 97 mins

Certificate 15

November 8

Gravity

Director Alfonso Cuarón

Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Running Time 92 mins

Certificate 12A

Seduced and Abandoned

Director James Toback

Starring Ryan Gosling, Alec Baldwin, Diane Kruger

Running Time 98 mins

Certificate 15

November 15

The Butler

Director Lee Daniels

Starring Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker, Vanessa Redgrave

Running Time 132 mins

Certificate 12A

The Counsellor

Director Ridley Scott

Starring Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender

Running Time 117 mins

Certificate 18

Dom Hemingway

Director Richard Shepard

Starring Jude Law, Richard E Grant, Emilia Clarke

Running...

Interview Luke Savage 1 Nov 2013 - 06:22

A chat with the directors of a new documentary charting the career of filmmaker John Milius...

"Are you ready for your round-table with Joey and Zak?"

"Yes, I am, lovely PR person", is my instant reply. Yes, I am. Although that second half is me adding poetic license here. I'm too British to go full-out on the compliments this early into a relationship.

That exchange of pleasantries heralds a welcome interview with directors Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson. They're in town to talk about their documentary Milius, charting the incredible life and career of filmmaker John Milius. It's a very good documentary. So good that I'm not concerned at having to share them with three other interviewers.

And it's so good that I don't mind being a little deflated when I finally get into my first round-table interview. Because there's no table. Nothing. Just...

Directors: Joey Figueroa, Zak Knutson; Starring: John Milius, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, George Hamilton, Paul Schrader, Sam Elliott, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Dreyfuss; Running time: 103 mins; Certificate: 15

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning..."

With a ferocious demeanor as sharp as the iconic movie lines he wrote, John Milius became an 'enfant terrible' amongst studio executives despite his credits including Apocalypse Now, Dirty Harry, Jaws and Conan The Barbarian. The rise and fall of the legendary scribe and script doctor is a narrative worthy of Hollywood itself, laden with potent twists and superbly conveyed in this fascinating documentary.

Milius unfolds chronologically and fuses classic footage from movies alongside archival and newly-recorded interviews with key players, interspersed with candid behind-the-scenes audio and visual recordings. These all combine...

War is hell, for sure, but war can make for undeniably brilliant movie-making. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the ten best

• Top 10 action movies

• Top 10 comedy movies

• Top 10 horror movies

• Top 10 sci-fi movies

• Top 10 crime movies

• Top 10 arthouse movies

• Top 10 family movies

10. Where Eagles Dare

As the second world war thriller became bogged down during the mid-60s in plodding epics like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark, someone was needed to reintroduce a little sang-froid, some post-Le Carré espionage, and for heaven's sake, some proper macho thrills into the genre. Alistair Maclean stepped up, writing the screenplay and the novel of Where Eagles Dare simultaneously, and Brian G Hutton summoned up a better than usual cast headed by Richard Burton (Major Jonathan Smith), a still fresh-faced Clint Eastwood (Lieutenant Morris Schaffer), and the late Mary Ure (Mary Elison).

Parachuted into the German Alps, they have one...

The Selfish Giant | Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa | Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs | Ender's Game | Wolf Children | One Chance | Closed Circuit | Le Skylab | Muscle Shoals

The Selfish Giant (15)

(Clio Barnard, 2013, UK) Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder. 91 mins

In the tradition of Kes, or Fish Tank, this offers a child's-eye view of poverty that's too strong for real-life kids of the same age. Despite the fairytale origins, miracles are in short supply in this Bradford suburb, where two drop-out mates scavenge for opportunities. But the balance between harsh realism and mythical lyricism is beautifully struck, and the two leads really are miraculous.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (15)

(Jeff Tremaine, 2013, Us) Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll. 92 mins

Old-suited Knoxville and his "grandson" take to the road for Borat-style pranks.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (U)

(Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn, 2013, Us) Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte. 95 mins

Food/fauna surrealism part...

If you’re not familiar with John Milius, he’s the Hollywood wunderkind who wrote Apocalypse Now, wrote and directed Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn, and who once demanded to be paid for a rewrite of Dirty Harry in firearms. Somewhere between John Huston and a Wolverine, he’s not an easy man to track down, but filmmakers Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson managed to do exactly that for Milius, their new documentary about his life and Hollywood career.As demonstrated by this clip, which kicks off with Mike Medavoy, United Artists' VP of production at the time of Apocalypse Now, they’ve done more than that: they also tracked down some of his peers to chip in with insights and memories of the man. (Ok, technically Milius is still in the movie business, but we think he’s currently wrestling bears somewhere.) brightcove.createExperiences(); Martin Scorsese and...

Epix has acquired the U.S. rights to the new documentary "Milius," about the writer of "Apocalypse Now" and his fall from Hollywood grace. It will also screen at the Telluride Film Festival. The documentary, which will premiere on Epix and all platforms including EpixHD.com and on Epix apps, looks at the conservative filmmaker who worked on "Jaws," "Conan the Barbarian" and "Dirty Harry" and mentored George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The film says his conservative beliefs -- and the violence of his Soviet invasion film "Red Dawn" -- made it harder and...

Apart from the three sneak screening titles that will stir up the buzz in the coming days, Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s 40th edition of the Telluride Film Festival excels in bringing a concentration of solid docus from the likes of Errol Morris and Werner Herzog who this year cuts the ribbon on a theatre going by his name and introduces Death Row, a pinch of Berlin Film Fest items (Gloria, Slow Food Story, Fifi Howls from Happiness) Palme d’Or winner (this year Abdellatif Kechiche will be celebrated), upcoming Sony Pictures Classics items (Tim’s Vermeer, The Lunchbox), Venice to Telluride to Tiff titles (Bethlehem, Tracks and Under the Skin), the latest Jason Reitman film (Labor Day) and the barely known docu-home-movie whodunit (by helmers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine) The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden which features narration from the likes of Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger and Connie Nielsen.

“Apocalypse Now,” Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam war, has attracted to it maybe the largest corpus of legends and anecdotes of any film ever made. Sort-of an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's “Heart of Darkness,” the production became a slog through natural disasters, directorial megalomania, and latter-day Marlon Brando's sprawling eccentricity. If you are a film student with an idea for a movie set in a jungle, take a quick look at the legends surrounding “Apocalypse Now,” and similar films like those of Werner Herzog, and write a new script, for God's sake. But if you just enjoy stories of hubris and chaos, then by all means dive in. We have here, courtesy of No Film School, a new window on the production, in the fascinating form of the director, Coppola, interviewing the writer, John Milius. Milius is a fascinating figure all to himself, a buddy of Coppola, Lucas,...

(Brian De Palma, 1980, Arrow, 18)

Of the generation of confident, bearded, cine-literate film-school graduates dubbed the Movie Brats who set out to take over Hollywood in the 1970s (Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, Milius, Lucas et al), none was more technically accomplished or referential than Brian De Palma. His work has been prolific and uneven, with mainstream successes like The Untouchables (1987) and Mission: Impossible (1996), and mainstream failures, most notably The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). His best films were made between his version of Stephen King's Carrie (1976) and the Vietnam-set Casualties of War (1989). His most daring films are two brilliant thrillers – Dressed to Kill (1980) and Blow Out (1981).

The Blow Out DVD appeared earlier this year. Dressed to Kill, his masterly homage to Psycho (with major references to Vertigo and North By Northwest), is out this week accompanied by revealing interviews with De Palma, his producer and stars. This ingenious erotic thriller full of unexpected...

Content Film has snapped up international sales rights (excluding Spain) to a documentary about John Milius, the director of Conan the Barbarian and screenwriter behind Apocalypse Now.

Milius, which tells the life story of the Us film-maker and premiered at SXSW, has also been bought by StudioCanal for the UK.

Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa make their feature debut, having previously made behind the scenes documentaries for companies such as Miramax and Disney through their company Chop Shop Entertainment.

The film was produced by Matthew Perniciaro and Kevin Mann of Haven Entertainment, Scott Mosier of Ogb, Inc. and Kenneth Plume.

The deal was negotiated by Toby Melling of Content and Wme Global on behalf of the producers.

The documentary follows Milius’s childhood aspirations from joining the military to his formative years at the USC Film School, his scriptwriting on films such as Dirty Harry, Jeremiah Johnson and Apocalypse Now and his work as director on films...

Paul Verhoeven has stated that he’d like to direct Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Legend of Conan. The two previously worked together on the original Total Recall, with great results.

Here’s Verhoeven:

“If they asked me, I’d certainly love to – let’s put it that way. But I don’t know what the script is. I don’t know what Arnold wants. I’m a big fan in fact of Conan. That’s a great movie and I found that the composer, Basil Poledouris, basically inspired many of my movies [the soundtracks] like Arnold, Robocop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall. The score of Conan is great. The style of editing that (John) Milius used was very beautiful, and Arnold does a great job. He was really the perfect choice.”

There’s no director yet. Hell, the script isn’t even finished, but given their past working relationship I suppose it...

News.

Above: the latest issue of Interiors features an examination of the space and political dimensions of the Palazzo de Congessi in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist.

The Cannes Film Festival has announced their Short Film Competition lineup as well as the 2013 Cinéfondation Selection. Jane Campion will preside over the jury that will award the Short Film Palme d'Or. A.A. Dowd has been hired as the new Film Editor for The Av Club merely a week after leaving Time Out Chicago.

Finds.

Above: one of Martín Sichetti's many incredible film still drawings (I'm sure you can guess where this image is from).

Writing for Transit, Adrian Martin looks at Justin Bieber as auteur—and expresses his preference for the "Beauty and a Beat" music video over Leviathan:

"The camera darts under water, resurfaces. Harsh wind sounds and loud distortion assault the digital camera’s in-built microphone. Drops on...

South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas is truly a unique festival and 2013 was my first full experience despite living here for the past few years. You’ll hear the horror stories of long lines, tough venue locations, overpriced concessions, and the traffic, oh the traffic. Fortunately there are more positives than negatives thanks to the amazing opportunities afforded by a film festival with such a vast range of genre, excellent weather and tacos.

We had the opportunity to see movies about magicians, horror remakes, Disney actresses snorting cocaine off naked bodies, documentaries about punk bands, a Big Ass Spider, and the new Shane Carruth flick which I am still processing. That’s just a taste of what this year’s lineup offered. It’d be a little difficult to only showcase seven films from an overall excellent year, so I’ve taken the Top 7 Most Memorable Moments of SXSW 2013 whether it be trends,...

John Milius began his career at the same juncture as the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, but with a decidedly different course. While Spielberg and Lucas would go on to careers in directing, Milius began writing scripts, such as Magnum Force, Conan the Barbarian, and Apocalypse Now, the latter making the sayings, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" and "Charlie don't surf," ubiquitous with film fans around the world. During the 70s, Milius was pumping out more scripts than just about anyone and had gained a reputation as the writer in Hollywood. Unfortunately, his abilities as a writer would eventually be overshadowed by a bigger-than-life persona, and while his wild escapades endeared to him to many, these same escapades would become his undoing.

In the opening moments of “Milius,” a hellzapoppin’ new documentary about John Milius, a genius tyrant and warrior poet of '70s and '80s mainstream Hollywood who wrote and directed testosterone-soaked epics like “Conan the Barbarian” and “Red Dawn,” Sam Elliott, in the same laid back butterscotch drawl he used to narrate the adventures of The Dude, sums up the filmmaker thusly: “He doesn’t write for women and he doesn’t write for pussies. He writes for men. Because he’s a man.” And as “Milius” (the documentary) elaborates on Milius (the man), this was his biggest strength and his greatest weakness – at some point the persona he fashioned for himself, festooned with his fondness for cigars, right wing politics, and guns, would become too much of a liability, ultimately leading to his undoing. A self-styled renegade who was born in Missouri and grew up in California (his...

In 1984, towards the end of Ronald Reagan's first term as president, John Milius, a gifted, rightwing maverick writer-director, made Red Dawn, a "what-if" thriller in which a division of Soviet and Latin American troops takes over a small Colorado town where they're confronted by a band of local teenage guerrillas. Milius's unfashionable patriotism and old-fashioned regard for honour and heroism, as well as his considerable cinematic gifts, gave the movie a certain distinction – in my eyes at least, though not in those of most colleagues. This remake was embarked on three years ago with Chinese invaders, and after a change in Sino-American relations it was reshot to make North Koreans the enemy. The directorial debut of a well-known specialist in stunt work and second-unit action sequences, it is a foolish, ill-considered undertaking, the unexpected topicality of which makes it all the sillier.

ThrillerAction and adventureNorth KoreaCommunismPhilip French

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