The Big Cigar, a new limited series on Apple TV+ that debuts on May 17, dramatizes a wild true story from the New Hollywood period of the 1970s.
Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of The Black Panther Party, had befriended a group of countercultural figures ruling Tinseltown at the time.
Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner were part of the generation that brought the values of the 1960s counterculture to the movie business through films such as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, as well as the work of The Monkees.
This also entailed bankrolling and supporting left-wing political causes, including the Black Panthers' work.
But that approach had its limits.
The series, which consists of six episodes lasting about 40 minutes each, was produced by Jim Hecht, an executive producer of Winning Time.
Don Cheadle is among the episode directors.
Revolution and cocaine
Early on in the Big Cigar, Schneider exclaims, “I want to finance the revolution!
Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of The Black Panther Party, had befriended a group of countercultural figures ruling Tinseltown at the time.
Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner were part of the generation that brought the values of the 1960s counterculture to the movie business through films such as Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, as well as the work of The Monkees.
This also entailed bankrolling and supporting left-wing political causes, including the Black Panthers' work.
But that approach had its limits.
The series, which consists of six episodes lasting about 40 minutes each, was produced by Jim Hecht, an executive producer of Winning Time.
Don Cheadle is among the episode directors.
Revolution and cocaine
Early on in the Big Cigar, Schneider exclaims, “I want to finance the revolution!
- 5/17/2024
- by Stephen Silver
- TVfanatic
Reader, you have been lied to! Film history is littered with unfairly maligned classics, whether critics were too eager to review the making of rather than the finished product, or they suffered from underwhelming ad campaigns or general disinterest. Let’s revise our takes on some of these films from wrongheaded to the correct opinion.
In 1972, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Coppola, and William Friedkin were three of the hottest directors in Hollywood thanks to finding the sweet spot between art and box office with “The Last Picture Show,” “The Godfather,” and “The French Connection,” respectively. With their newfound clout, the young auteurs formed The Directors Company, a partnership based at Paramount, where they were given complete creative freedom to make anything they wanted as long as they worked within modest budgets. The first movie the deal yielded, “Paper Moon,” was a hit, Bogdanovich’s third in a row after “Picture Show...
In 1972, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Coppola, and William Friedkin were three of the hottest directors in Hollywood thanks to finding the sweet spot between art and box office with “The Last Picture Show,” “The Godfather,” and “The French Connection,” respectively. With their newfound clout, the young auteurs formed The Directors Company, a partnership based at Paramount, where they were given complete creative freedom to make anything they wanted as long as they worked within modest budgets. The first movie the deal yielded, “Paper Moon,” was a hit, Bogdanovich’s third in a row after “Picture Show...
- 5/15/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
George Lucas’ Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon in no time. There might only be a handful who do know something or the other about the franchise. Star Wars has a vast and loyal fanbase that somehow remembers all the minute details shown in the films and the television series. This is how much the fans love Star Wars and why wouldn’t they? After all, George Lucas poured his heart and soul into it.
George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977)
However, before Star Wars (1977) made waves in the film industry, the director met a roadblock on his way when he decided to screen the film for some of the most renowned personalities in Hollywood. This included Brian De Palma, Alan Ladd, and Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, his film was not met with applause but luckily, his friends were there to help him out of the mess.
George Lucas’ Initial Screening Was Met...
George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977)
However, before Star Wars (1977) made waves in the film industry, the director met a roadblock on his way when he decided to screen the film for some of the most renowned personalities in Hollywood. This included Brian De Palma, Alan Ladd, and Steven Spielberg. Unfortunately, his film was not met with applause but luckily, his friends were there to help him out of the mess.
George Lucas’ Initial Screening Was Met...
- 5/14/2024
- by Mishkaat Khan
- FandomWire
Walton Goggins and Timothy Olyphant starred in Justified for six seasons, but by the end of its FX run, the actors were not on the best of terms.
Goggins first opened up about his fractured relationship with his co-star in Peter Biskind’s book Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV. In a new interview, Goggins once again said he and Olyphant “weren’t talking” by the show’s series finale.
“We had a tough time towards the end of Justified,” Goggins told The Independent. “We were so deep into these people we were playing, and they were so polar opposite at this point in the story… I think we were both obsessed with our own points of view, just carrying the weight of this conflict.”
However, with time passing, the two seem to have mended things, with Goggins reflecting and saying, “I think we just needed to separate,...
Goggins first opened up about his fractured relationship with his co-star in Peter Biskind’s book Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV. In a new interview, Goggins once again said he and Olyphant “weren’t talking” by the show’s series finale.
“We had a tough time towards the end of Justified,” Goggins told The Independent. “We were so deep into these people we were playing, and they were so polar opposite at this point in the story… I think we were both obsessed with our own points of view, just carrying the weight of this conflict.”
However, with time passing, the two seem to have mended things, with Goggins reflecting and saying, “I think we just needed to separate,...
- 5/1/2024
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
Were Justified Stars Not Speaking by End of Series? Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins Each Share POVs
Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder “dug coal together,” but by the end of Justified‘s six-season run, Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins weren’t exchanging many words together — to hear at least one of the actors tell it.
In Peter Biskind’s November 2023 book, Pandora’s Box How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV, Goggins is quoted as saying that he and Olyphant “weren’t talking” by the end of Justified’s run.
More from TVLineAHS: Delicate Finale Delivers Ominous, Abrupt Ending - Grade It!The Veil Review: Elisabeth Moss' Hulu Thriller Spins a Compelling Spy Yarn With a Few...
In Peter Biskind’s November 2023 book, Pandora’s Box How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV, Goggins is quoted as saying that he and Olyphant “weren’t talking” by the end of Justified’s run.
More from TVLineAHS: Delicate Finale Delivers Ominous, Abrupt Ending - Grade It!The Veil Review: Elisabeth Moss' Hulu Thriller Spins a Compelling Spy Yarn With a Few...
- 5/1/2024
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
It’s always nice to see the deserved films get recognition on the night of the Oscars, but there have been a more than few instances when things don’t go as fans imagined. While started as the ceremony to celebrate the best films, over the course of 96 years, there have been several notable snubs, including the Academy’s decision to crown Green Book over BlacKkKlansman.
But the most infamous snub in the Academy’s history, which changed the Award landscape for all the years to come, involves Miramax’s Shakespeare in Love, which defeated Saving Private Ryan.
Harvey Weinstein. Credit: The Graham Norton Show/BBC One
Harvey Weinstein’s Obsession to Taste the Oscar Glory
The 71st Academy Awards wasn’t just the regular yearly celebration of the best films of the year but was the climax of a months-long battle between Miramax and DreamWorks. While campaigning for movies...
But the most infamous snub in the Academy’s history, which changed the Award landscape for all the years to come, involves Miramax’s Shakespeare in Love, which defeated Saving Private Ryan.
Harvey Weinstein. Credit: The Graham Norton Show/BBC One
Harvey Weinstein’s Obsession to Taste the Oscar Glory
The 71st Academy Awards wasn’t just the regular yearly celebration of the best films of the year but was the climax of a months-long battle between Miramax and DreamWorks. While campaigning for movies...
- 3/10/2024
- by Santanu Roy
- FandomWire
Let’s not sugarcoat it — 2023 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for Hollywood.
For starters, obviously, there were the strikes, which for nearly five months turned backlots into ghost towns, costing the industry an estimated $6 billion in lost wages and other collateral economic damage. Then there were the layoffs, beginning at Disney and spreading like an apocalyptic virus to Paramount, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Lionsgate and beyond. Box office, although up a tick from 2022, still lagged far behind pre-pandemic grosses, with even superhero movies like The Marvels tanking. Streamers began pulling back on original content, the incredible shrinking broadcast TV audience continued to miniaturize itself, and there were new fears over the rise of the machines (you know, AI and whether it’ll soon replace your job) — all of which made Hollywood in 2023 feel a bit like one of those doomsday landscapes in Max’s end-of-the-world drama The Last of Us.
For starters, obviously, there were the strikes, which for nearly five months turned backlots into ghost towns, costing the industry an estimated $6 billion in lost wages and other collateral economic damage. Then there were the layoffs, beginning at Disney and spreading like an apocalyptic virus to Paramount, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Lionsgate and beyond. Box office, although up a tick from 2022, still lagged far behind pre-pandemic grosses, with even superhero movies like The Marvels tanking. Streamers began pulling back on original content, the incredible shrinking broadcast TV audience continued to miniaturize itself, and there were new fears over the rise of the machines (you know, AI and whether it’ll soon replace your job) — all of which made Hollywood in 2023 feel a bit like one of those doomsday landscapes in Max’s end-of-the-world drama The Last of Us.
- 1/26/2024
- by Seth Abramovitch, Gary Baum, Kirsten Chuba, Lacey Rose and Joel Stein
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGuy Maddin’s next film, Rumours, recently wrapped production in Hungary. The ensemble piece is led by Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander, who play world leaders who end up stranded in a forest during the annual G7 summit. Maddin has shared a breathless, spoof press release (below) announcing the film, describing the project as “an elevated dramedy and erotico-political threnody cum sylvan moodbank.”Paul Thomas Anderson is also at work on something new. So far, all we know is that his project is set in the present day and will star Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall. Production begins in California later this year.Recommended VIEWINGOne of the most exciting rediscoveries of the 2023 Il Cinema Ritrovato festival was the restoration of David Schickele’s Bushman...
- 1/17/2024
- MUBI
The feelings some of us have about the Sundance Film Festival border on the religious. I don’t mean that we’re a cult; I mean that the force that Sundance represents is a religion worth believing in. By the end of the 1980s, the action/comedy/horror/fantasy grind of Hollywood cinema had become bloated and exhausting. The independent film movement didn’t just reinvigorate American movies. It saved them. When I started going to Sundance in the ’90s, I always felt, despite the winter landscape, that I was going to be reveling in a vast garden of cinema. Each year, I wanted to know: What extraordinary film flowers are going to pop up that will then be spread throughout the land? I’ll arrive with that same question when Sundance 2024 commences this week on Jan. 18.
For years, I wrote about Sundance with a missionary zeal that I knew,...
For years, I wrote about Sundance with a missionary zeal that I knew,...
- 1/15/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here – today – we talk about movie Editors! Not the movies they edited that were legendary but the less legendary ones in between.
Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season.
Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film, O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is.
Highlights include...
Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season.
Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film, O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America’s Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is.
Highlights include...
- 12/28/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Peter Bart: Hollywood Hopes A New Round Of “Fixes” Can Cure Its Malaise Rather Than Prolong The Pain
The consensus is clear: Hollywood feels it must pursue what Bob Iger tactfully (or ominously) calls “some fixes.”
The “fixes” post-strike hopefully will move beyond cutbacks and delays — we’ve already been absorbing their impact. Disney alone has cut 8,000 jobs and $7.5 billion in costs. High-profile movies ranging from Disney’s Snow White to Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 8 to Sony’s Spider-Verse have again been shoved back a year.
More complex “fixes” already are hinted at: Netflix pledges a new approach on content – a “half as many but twice as good” mandate. Its viewers worldwide will be fascinated to see how that plays out.
Other major brands, too, are under scrutiny: The opening numbers for The Marvels dented that legacy. The HBO label once dominated the “for your consideration” ads, but this year’s ads will carry a pleading subtext: If you can’t “consider” it, at least find it.
For industry veterans,...
The “fixes” post-strike hopefully will move beyond cutbacks and delays — we’ve already been absorbing their impact. Disney alone has cut 8,000 jobs and $7.5 billion in costs. High-profile movies ranging from Disney’s Snow White to Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 8 to Sony’s Spider-Verse have again been shoved back a year.
More complex “fixes” already are hinted at: Netflix pledges a new approach on content – a “half as many but twice as good” mandate. Its viewers worldwide will be fascinated to see how that plays out.
Other major brands, too, are under scrutiny: The opening numbers for The Marvels dented that legacy. The HBO label once dominated the “for your consideration” ads, but this year’s ads will carry a pleading subtext: If you can’t “consider” it, at least find it.
For industry veterans,...
- 11/16/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Apple is renowned for its (over)protectiveness. From lowly members of the press (like this reporter) to the top CEOs in media, Apple will go to great lengths to ensure that its IP and other proprietary information remains… well, proprietary. This can be, to put it politely, frustrating.
Or, as Peter Biskind puts it in his new book “Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV,” Apple has a tendency toward “fetishizing secrecy.”
Let’s briefly make a case for The Apple Way. As a $3 trillion company and the world’s largest by market cap, Apple clearly has very valuable secrets to keep close to its vest. Counterpoint: But still.
In his new book, Biskind published what he called a “partial list” of the “securities directives” Apple distributed to creatives behind Apple TV+ content. IndieWire has been given exclusive permission to share the list, which we are told...
Or, as Peter Biskind puts it in his new book “Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV,” Apple has a tendency toward “fetishizing secrecy.”
Let’s briefly make a case for The Apple Way. As a $3 trillion company and the world’s largest by market cap, Apple clearly has very valuable secrets to keep close to its vest. Counterpoint: But still.
In his new book, Biskind published what he called a “partial list” of the “securities directives” Apple distributed to creatives behind Apple TV+ content. IndieWire has been given exclusive permission to share the list, which we are told...
- 11/16/2023
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
The author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls has turned his gaze from Hollywood to prestige television, arguing that a golden age of TV that began with The Sopranos has been ruined by corporate greed
On 10 January 1999, the first episode of a drama about a New Jersey gangster with panic attacks debuted on the US cable channel HBO. The Sopranos ran for six seasons, the final episode being broadcast on 10 June 2007. Across eight years and 86 episodes it came to represent a golden age of TV, when moral complexity, deep characterisation and unprecedented authenticity were common features of a bold new form of televisual storytelling.
It’s this “peak era” that Peter Biskind, the cultural critic and film historian, both celebrates and to some extent mourns in his new book, Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies That Broke Television. Biskind is best known for his eye-opening account of US cinema...
On 10 January 1999, the first episode of a drama about a New Jersey gangster with panic attacks debuted on the US cable channel HBO. The Sopranos ran for six seasons, the final episode being broadcast on 10 June 2007. Across eight years and 86 episodes it came to represent a golden age of TV, when moral complexity, deep characterisation and unprecedented authenticity were common features of a bold new form of televisual storytelling.
It’s this “peak era” that Peter Biskind, the cultural critic and film historian, both celebrates and to some extent mourns in his new book, Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies That Broke Television. Biskind is best known for his eye-opening account of US cinema...
- 11/12/2023
- by Andrew Anthony
- The Guardian - Film News
The Hollywood Reporter thanks the following 322 members of the global film community — listed alphabetically — for taking the time to cast a ballot to help us determine the 100 greatest film books of all time.
Seth Abramovitch
The Hollywood Reporter journalist/It Happened in Hollywood podcast host
Jo Addy
Soho House group film and entertainment director
Casey Affleck
Oscar-winning actor
Rutanya Alda
Author/actress
Stephanie Allain
Filmmaker
Victoria Alonso
Filmmaker/executive
Tony Angellotti
Publicist
Bonnie Arnold
Filmmaker/executive
Miguel Arteta
Filmmaker
Chris Auer
Filmmaker/film professor
John Badham
Filmmaker/film professor
Amy Baer
Executive
Matt Baer
Filmmaker
Lindsey Bahr
Journalist
Ramin Bahrani
Oscar-nominated filmmaker
Cameron Bailey
Toronto International Film Festival CEO/former film critic
John Bailey
Cinematographer/former Academy president
Bela Bajaria
Executive
Sean Baker
Filmmaker
Alec Baldwin
Oscar-nominated actor/author
Tino Balio
Author/film professor
Jeffrey Barbakow
Executive
Michael Barker
Executive
Mike Barnes
The Hollywood Reporter journalist
Jeanine Basinger
Author/film...
Seth Abramovitch
The Hollywood Reporter journalist/It Happened in Hollywood podcast host
Jo Addy
Soho House group film and entertainment director
Casey Affleck
Oscar-winning actor
Rutanya Alda
Author/actress
Stephanie Allain
Filmmaker
Victoria Alonso
Filmmaker/executive
Tony Angellotti
Publicist
Bonnie Arnold
Filmmaker/executive
Miguel Arteta
Filmmaker
Chris Auer
Filmmaker/film professor
John Badham
Filmmaker/film professor
Amy Baer
Executive
Matt Baer
Filmmaker
Lindsey Bahr
Journalist
Ramin Bahrani
Oscar-nominated filmmaker
Cameron Bailey
Toronto International Film Festival CEO/former film critic
John Bailey
Cinematographer/former Academy president
Bela Bajaria
Executive
Sean Baker
Filmmaker
Alec Baldwin
Oscar-nominated actor/author
Tino Balio
Author/film professor
Jeffrey Barbakow
Executive
Michael Barker
Executive
Mike Barnes
The Hollywood Reporter journalist
Jeanine Basinger
Author/film...
- 10/12/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's not unusual for artists to have a complicated relationship with their work. Whether it's a piece that fails to land with viewers or a successful passion project that ultimately gets sucked into the commercial machine, it's an especially tight line for filmmakers to walk. For George Lucas, 1977's "Star Wars" (by 1981 it would be retitled "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope") was the latter: an offbeat, mystical science fiction film that he had spent years developing and for which he had the lowest expectations. After all, the story of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammill) leaving the comfort of his home planet to learn the ways of the mystical Force and befriend a ragtag rebel group facing off against an evil Empire was no sure thing.
"Star Wars" would go on to cast an awfully long shadow, creating a massive franchise and media phenomenon that would tie Lucas up...
"Star Wars" would go on to cast an awfully long shadow, creating a massive franchise and media phenomenon that would tie Lucas up...
- 8/20/2023
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
Fifth-generation Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine” wowed the Cannes jury under president Louis Malle in 1993 — all the way to a Palme d’Or win. But by the time the three-hour epic set in the world of the Peking Opera reached U.S. theaters that year, Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein had cut 20 minutes from the movie that left even Malle puzzled. According to Peter Biskind‘s influential “Down and Dirty Pictures,” Malle said the new version seemed “longer because it doesn’t make any sense. It was better before those guys made cuts.”
At last, “Farewell My Concubine,” the only Chinese-language film ever to win the Palme, is now being returned to theaters in its full 171-minute glory, courtesy of Film Movement Classics. IndieWire exclusively announces that the distributor will release a newly restored 4K version in North American theaters beginning September 22 at Film Forum in New York City.
At last, “Farewell My Concubine,” the only Chinese-language film ever to win the Palme, is now being returned to theaters in its full 171-minute glory, courtesy of Film Movement Classics. IndieWire exclusively announces that the distributor will release a newly restored 4K version in North American theaters beginning September 22 at Film Forum in New York City.
- 8/3/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Cormac McCarthy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who endured decades of obscurity and poverty before film versions of “All the Pretty Horses,” “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road” brought him a wide readership and financial security, died Tuesday in Santa Fe, N.M. His publisher, Penguin Random House, said his son John McCarthy announced his death from natural causes. He was 89.
Extremely reclusive, McCarthy shunned publicity so effectively that one critic observed, “He wasn’t even famous for it.” But Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2008 adaptation of 2005 novel “No Country for Old Men” put him momentarily in the limelight; the crime thriller, which starred Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, won Oscars for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and supporting actor.
While McCarthy’s first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” was published in 1965, commercial success eluded him until his 1992 National Book Award-winning “All the Pretty Horses” and the...
Extremely reclusive, McCarthy shunned publicity so effectively that one critic observed, “He wasn’t even famous for it.” But Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2008 adaptation of 2005 novel “No Country for Old Men” put him momentarily in the limelight; the crime thriller, which starred Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, won Oscars for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and supporting actor.
While McCarthy’s first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” was published in 1965, commercial success eluded him until his 1992 National Book Award-winning “All the Pretty Horses” and the...
- 6/13/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Christopher Walken always disagreed with the mostly negative critical response to 1980's "Heaven's Gate." He plays a supporting role in the legendary flop of a Western, giving one of his most subdued and haunting performances as the morally-conflicted cattle baron enforcer Nate Champion. Walken had only just won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in director Michael Cimino's previous film, "The Deer Hunter," when the pair reunited for "Heaven's Gate." He couldn't have known what he was getting into.
He stands by it, however. As he told IndieWire in 2012, Walken "always thought it was good" and that the hate it received was undeserved. To critics like Vincent Canby of the New York Times, the film was "an unqualified disaster," one with flimsy themes and shoddy craftsmanship unbecoming of a filmmaker with such strong ambition as Cimino. Stories of the movie's troubled production and massive budget had been public knowledge...
He stands by it, however. As he told IndieWire in 2012, Walken "always thought it was good" and that the hate it received was undeserved. To critics like Vincent Canby of the New York Times, the film was "an unqualified disaster," one with flimsy themes and shoddy craftsmanship unbecoming of a filmmaker with such strong ambition as Cimino. Stories of the movie's troubled production and massive budget had been public knowledge...
- 11/20/2022
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
Louise Fletcher, best known for her Academy Award-winning role as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," has died at the age of 88. Fletcher's family confirmed to Deadline through her agent that she died in her sleep at her home in Montdurausse, France, on Friday.
Fletcher was born to deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 23, 1934. She learned to speak and act from her aunt at the age of 8, and attended the University of North Carolina before a cross-country trip left her marooned in L.A. (per Variety). There, she became involved in acting in a professional capacity, appearing on television in guest spots on shows like "The Untouchables," "Wagon Train," and "Perry Mason." However, her filmography soon went dark in 1963 with the film "A Gathering of Eagles."
Fletcher was one of the interviewees in Peter Biskind's book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood,...
Fletcher was born to deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 23, 1934. She learned to speak and act from her aunt at the age of 8, and attended the University of North Carolina before a cross-country trip left her marooned in L.A. (per Variety). There, she became involved in acting in a professional capacity, appearing on television in guest spots on shows like "The Untouchables," "Wagon Train," and "Perry Mason." However, her filmography soon went dark in 1963 with the film "A Gathering of Eagles."
Fletcher was one of the interviewees in Peter Biskind's book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood,...
- 9/24/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Jack Nicholson received the first of his 12 Academy Award nominations for his supporting role in "Easy Rider," a film that tapped into the '60s counterculture to become a watershed for the New Hollywood era. Yet despite its cultural significance and impact on Nicholson's career, "Easy Rider" had a notoriously troubled production, much of which was documented in Peter Biskind's book, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood."
Among other things, "Easy Rider" director and star Dennis Hopper famously pulled a steak knife on actor Rip Torn, who was originally supposed to play lawyer George Hanson, the role that went to Nicholson. Hopper and his costar Peter Fonda also got into a dispute over the film's writing credits, which they shared with Terry Southern. In a 1974 interview with Sight and Sound magazine, Nicholson explained that he only stepped in to act after getting involved...
Among other things, "Easy Rider" director and star Dennis Hopper famously pulled a steak knife on actor Rip Torn, who was originally supposed to play lawyer George Hanson, the role that went to Nicholson. Hopper and his costar Peter Fonda also got into a dispute over the film's writing credits, which they shared with Terry Southern. In a 1974 interview with Sight and Sound magazine, Nicholson explained that he only stepped in to act after getting involved...
- 8/27/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Upon the end of HBO drama "The Sopranos," with the falsetto notes of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" still hanging in the air, executive producer and writer Terence Winter was searching for his next project. The massively popular mafia-centric show had concluded at the top of the TV heap, even called "the greatest pop-culture masterpiece of its day" by Peter Biskind. Its complicated leading man Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was more than the head of an organized criminal clan; he was a husband and a father living in the suburbs, complexities "The Sopranos" explored thoroughly over its six seasons.
Already an Emmy Award-winner for his work on "The Sopranos," Winter was quickly hired by HBO to develop a new series that would fit right in among the network's showy big-budget genre pieces like "Game of Thrones." Upon reading Nelson Johnson's 2002 book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City,...
Already an Emmy Award-winner for his work on "The Sopranos," Winter was quickly hired by HBO to develop a new series that would fit right in among the network's showy big-budget genre pieces like "Game of Thrones." Upon reading Nelson Johnson's 2002 book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City,...
- 8/21/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
In lauding Martin Scorsese's seventh feature film, "Raging Bull," about the life of middleweight champ Jake Lamotta, renowned critic Pauline Kael declared it to be "about movies and about violence" as much as it is about boxing. Scorsese, of "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver," could speak the languages of rage and guilt fluently, but boxing was a whole other issue. So when Robert De Niro handed the director a copy of Lamotta's 1970 memoir, "Raging Bull: My Story," written with Peter Savage and Joseph Carter, Scorsese dismissed the idea of turning into a project.
Peter Biskind expands on the story in his New Hollywood account, "Easy...
The post The Reason Martin Scorsese Nearly Didn't Make Raging Bull appeared first on /Film.
Peter Biskind expands on the story in his New Hollywood account, "Easy...
The post The Reason Martin Scorsese Nearly Didn't Make Raging Bull appeared first on /Film.
- 4/18/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Peter Bogdanovich — whose “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon” solidified his reputation as one of the most important filmmakers in the New Hollywood of the ’70s, but whose personal life threatened to overshadow his career behind the camera — has died, Variety has confirmed. He was 82.
The director also had acting roles on such shows as “The Sopranos,” on which he recurred as Dr. Melfi’s psychotherapist; “The Simpsons”; and as a DJ in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2.”
Wildly prolific and celebrated early on, then mired in hubris-laced scandal when he became involved with two of his leading ladies — the first for whom he left his wife, the second a Playboy centerfold killed by her husband — Bogdanovich nevertheless remained busy directing, writing and acting through his late years, and emerged, like Martin Scorsese, as a scholarly champion of old-school American moviemakers.
Like his peers of the French New Wave,...
The director also had acting roles on such shows as “The Sopranos,” on which he recurred as Dr. Melfi’s psychotherapist; “The Simpsons”; and as a DJ in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2.”
Wildly prolific and celebrated early on, then mired in hubris-laced scandal when he became involved with two of his leading ladies — the first for whom he left his wife, the second a Playboy centerfold killed by her husband — Bogdanovich nevertheless remained busy directing, writing and acting through his late years, and emerged, like Martin Scorsese, as a scholarly champion of old-school American moviemakers.
Like his peers of the French New Wave,...
- 1/6/2022
- by Steve Chagollan
- Variety Film + TV
Legendary movie star, Last Call‘s Bruce Dern, joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies and moments.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Cowboys (1972)
Last Call (2021)
Silent Running (1972)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
The Reivers (1969)
The War Wagon (1967)
Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
The Shootist (1976)
Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949)
Wild River (1960)
Viva Zapata (1952)
Castle Keep (1969)
The Big Knife (1955)
Attack (1956)
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Suspicion (1941)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Trial (1962)
Great Expectations (1946)
The Sound Barrier (1952)
Oliver Twist (1948)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Rko 281 (1999)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Mank (2020)
The Chase (1966)
The Formula (1980)
Shine (1996)
All That Jazz (1979)
A Decade Under The Influence (2003)
Shane (1953)
The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965)
The King Of Marvin Gardens (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
Nebraska (2013)
Twixt (2011)
The ’Burbs (1989)
About Schmidt (2002)
Sideways (2004)
The Descendants (2011)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Charade (1963)
The Truth About Charlie...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Cowboys (1972)
Last Call (2021)
Silent Running (1972)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
The Reivers (1969)
The War Wagon (1967)
Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)
The Shootist (1976)
Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949)
Wild River (1960)
Viva Zapata (1952)
Castle Keep (1969)
The Big Knife (1955)
Attack (1956)
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Suspicion (1941)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Trial (1962)
Great Expectations (1946)
The Sound Barrier (1952)
Oliver Twist (1948)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
Rko 281 (1999)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Mank (2020)
The Chase (1966)
The Formula (1980)
Shine (1996)
All That Jazz (1979)
A Decade Under The Influence (2003)
Shane (1953)
The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965)
The King Of Marvin Gardens (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
Nebraska (2013)
Twixt (2011)
The ’Burbs (1989)
About Schmidt (2002)
Sideways (2004)
The Descendants (2011)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Charade (1963)
The Truth About Charlie...
- 4/6/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Christmas Day is one of the biggest moviegoing days of the year. New holiday release always open by then, and often do so the Friday before. But not the day after.
“The Exorcist” opened on December 26, 1973.
Director William Friedkin, interviewed by Peter Biskind in 1996, was still angry about it, arguing that the studio’s release strategy hurt his film. But “The Exorcist” was a huge hit — it’s the ninth all-time highest domestic grossing sound film, adjusted for inflation — and second only to “Titanic” among Christmas period releases in the past 50 year.
But Friedkin apparently believes it could have been bigger.
Some context: “The Exorcist” was a blockbuster typical of its time, sharing some elements with “The Godfather,” which was released almost two years earlier. They were both based on bestselling novels. Neither cast had stars who could guarantee success. An R rating meant cutting off younger audiences and those who shunned more adult content.
“The Exorcist” opened on December 26, 1973.
Director William Friedkin, interviewed by Peter Biskind in 1996, was still angry about it, arguing that the studio’s release strategy hurt his film. But “The Exorcist” was a huge hit — it’s the ninth all-time highest domestic grossing sound film, adjusted for inflation — and second only to “Titanic” among Christmas period releases in the past 50 year.
But Friedkin apparently believes it could have been bigger.
Some context: “The Exorcist” was a blockbuster typical of its time, sharing some elements with “The Godfather,” which was released almost two years earlier. They were both based on bestselling novels. Neither cast had stars who could guarantee success. An R rating meant cutting off younger audiences and those who shunned more adult content.
- 12/30/2020
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
From Peter Biskind’s account of 70s movie brats to the making of The Big Lebowski, you can now peek behind the silver screen
Peter Biskind
A stone-cold classic from the moment it arrived in 1998. Biskind, a former editor of Premiere magazine, produced a detailed, insightful and immensely readable account of the (until then) relatively neglected achievements of the 70s “movie brats” and their outpouring of masterworks. Both scholarly and popular, Biskind’s book turned a whole new generation on to the Hollywood new wave.
Peter Biskind
A stone-cold classic from the moment it arrived in 1998. Biskind, a former editor of Premiere magazine, produced a detailed, insightful and immensely readable account of the (until then) relatively neglected achievements of the 70s “movie brats” and their outpouring of masterworks. Both scholarly and popular, Biskind’s book turned a whole new generation on to the Hollywood new wave.
- 12/11/2020
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Josh Braun, producer of some of the best documentaries in the world, joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that have influenced him throughout his life.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
- 7/21/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
“Are you here for an affair, sir?”
It’s one of the great lines in The Graduate, a movie that’s nothing but great lines, written by a New Yorker a year older than Mrs. Robinson. Buck Henry, the man who penned the screenplay, plays the officious, condescending hotel clerk, tormenting Dustin Hoffman with a routine question about whether he’s there to attend a wedding reception. It’s a great single-scene breakout role for Buck Henry — he wouldn’t have been comfortable playing one of the participants in the affair.
It’s one of the great lines in The Graduate, a movie that’s nothing but great lines, written by a New Yorker a year older than Mrs. Robinson. Buck Henry, the man who penned the screenplay, plays the officious, condescending hotel clerk, tormenting Dustin Hoffman with a routine question about whether he’s there to attend a wedding reception. It’s a great single-scene breakout role for Buck Henry — he wouldn’t have been comfortable playing one of the participants in the affair.
- 1/9/2020
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
Robert Evans lived a lot of life. From producing some of the most influential Hollywood films of the 1960s and ’70s, to the many criminal entanglements he detailed in his 1994 autobiography “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” Evans’ 89 years on Earth were as epic as his storied movie career.
Evans passed away on October 26, leaving behind a mountain of glorious production credits from “Chinatown” (which earned him a Best Picture Academy Award nomination) to “Rosemary’s Baby” (as a Paramount executive), and he was undoubtedly instrumental in shaping Francis Ford Coppola’s “Godfather” trilogy.
As Peter Biskind wrote in “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,” “Evans was one of the great crash-and-burn stories of the ’70s.” But that’s hardly the case for the many Hollywood luminaries whose careers he helped launch and shape, cultivating relationships with talent (such as his onetime wife Ali MacGraw and Roman Polanski) that he nurtured over the years across multiple projects.
Evans passed away on October 26, leaving behind a mountain of glorious production credits from “Chinatown” (which earned him a Best Picture Academy Award nomination) to “Rosemary’s Baby” (as a Paramount executive), and he was undoubtedly instrumental in shaping Francis Ford Coppola’s “Godfather” trilogy.
As Peter Biskind wrote in “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,” “Evans was one of the great crash-and-burn stories of the ’70s.” But that’s hardly the case for the many Hollywood luminaries whose careers he helped launch and shape, cultivating relationships with talent (such as his onetime wife Ali MacGraw and Roman Polanski) that he nurtured over the years across multiple projects.
- 10/28/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio, Kate Erbland and Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Academy Award-nominated “Chinatown” producer Robert Evans died on Saturday night. He was 89.
From a cocaine-trafficking conviction in 1980 to his connection to the murder of Roy Radin during the making of “The Cotton Club” in 1983, Evans’ life was the stuff of Hollywood legend, as were his credits. Following a brief acting career that pulled him out of his day job of selling women’s clothing, beginning with 1957’s “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Evans took the reins as an executive at Paramount overseeing such films as “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” and “True Grit.” He went out on his own as a producer, beginning with Roman Polanski’s 1974 noir “Chinatown” (which earned him his Best Picture Oscar nomination), followed by “Marathon Man,” “Black Sunday,” “Popeye,” “The Cotton Club,” and more, making him one of the most influential figures of the New Hollywood of the 1970s.
From a cocaine-trafficking conviction in 1980 to his connection to the murder of Roy Radin during the making of “The Cotton Club” in 1983, Evans’ life was the stuff of Hollywood legend, as were his credits. Following a brief acting career that pulled him out of his day job of selling women’s clothing, beginning with 1957’s “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Evans took the reins as an executive at Paramount overseeing such films as “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” and “True Grit.” He went out on his own as a producer, beginning with Roman Polanski’s 1974 noir “Chinatown” (which earned him his Best Picture Oscar nomination), followed by “Marathon Man,” “Black Sunday,” “Popeye,” “The Cotton Club,” and more, making him one of the most influential figures of the New Hollywood of the 1970s.
- 10/28/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Kevin Smith is sharing details about a phone call he received from Harvey Weinstein just one week before sexual harassment claims against the producer rocked Hollywood in 2017.
The actor and filmmaker, 49, revealed in a recent interview with Business Insider that Weinstein, whom he had worked with in the past, called him out of the blue after not speaking for over two decades.
“I said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And he goes, ‘You know, we have Dogma, I just realized, and we got to get it out there again,’ ” Smith recalled.
Dogma — Smith’s 1999 film that starred Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,...
The actor and filmmaker, 49, revealed in a recent interview with Business Insider that Weinstein, whom he had worked with in the past, called him out of the blue after not speaking for over two decades.
“I said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And he goes, ‘You know, we have Dogma, I just realized, and we got to get it out there again,’ ” Smith recalled.
Dogma — Smith’s 1999 film that starred Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,...
- 10/2/2019
- by Eric Todisco
- PEOPLE.com
Screenwriter Mardik Martin, a frequent collaborator with Martin Scorsese on films including “Raging Bull,” “Mean Streets” and “New York, New York,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles at 82.
Born in Iran to an Armenian family and raised in Iraq, where he worked for a film distributor as a teenager, Martin moved to the U.S. to study economics at NYU, then gravitated to the film department, where he met Scorsese in 1961. Soon after, he began working with the director on some of his early films such as the 1964 short “It’s Not Just You, Murray,” then on Scorsese’s feature debut, “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” and documentary “Italianamerican.”
Screenwriter Howard Rodman was among those who recalled his career.
My friend and colleague Mardik Martin died this morning. You may know him for his writing in Mean Streets, Raging Bull, New York New York.
To say that Mardik was...
Born in Iran to an Armenian family and raised in Iraq, where he worked for a film distributor as a teenager, Martin moved to the U.S. to study economics at NYU, then gravitated to the film department, where he met Scorsese in 1961. Soon after, he began working with the director on some of his early films such as the 1964 short “It’s Not Just You, Murray,” then on Scorsese’s feature debut, “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” and documentary “Italianamerican.”
Screenwriter Howard Rodman was among those who recalled his career.
My friend and colleague Mardik Martin died this morning. You may know him for his writing in Mean Streets, Raging Bull, New York New York.
To say that Mardik was...
- 9/12/2019
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Faye Dunaway is having a rough summer.
Once called the worst person in Hollywood by Bette Davis, the Academy Award winner is once again in hot water amid the unfolding disaster of her busted Broadway bow in “Tea at Five.” Last month, she was fired from the Broadway play because of allegedly bizarre behavior including hurling objects at crew members and slapping her wig-fitting team, throwing salad on the floor, and insisting no one wear white to rehearsal because it’s distracting.
Now, according to Page Six, she’s being sued by one of her handlers who alleges she verbally harassed him by calling him a “little homosexual boy.” The plaintiff, Michael Rocha, was tasked with running Dunaway’s errands, helping her take her meds, managing her schedule, and transporting her to and from rehearsals of the play, which is now being recast and mounted in London. Per Rocha’s court papers,...
Once called the worst person in Hollywood by Bette Davis, the Academy Award winner is once again in hot water amid the unfolding disaster of her busted Broadway bow in “Tea at Five.” Last month, she was fired from the Broadway play because of allegedly bizarre behavior including hurling objects at crew members and slapping her wig-fitting team, throwing salad on the floor, and insisting no one wear white to rehearsal because it’s distracting.
Now, according to Page Six, she’s being sued by one of her handlers who alleges she verbally harassed him by calling him a “little homosexual boy.” The plaintiff, Michael Rocha, was tasked with running Dunaway’s errands, helping her take her meds, managing her schedule, and transporting her to and from rehearsals of the play, which is now being recast and mounted in London. Per Rocha’s court papers,...
- 8/16/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
This summer marks multiple 50th anniversary spin-offs of 1969 cultural watersheds, from the first moon landing (Neon’s hit documentary “Apollo 11”) and the Manson family murders (Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) to concert event “Woodstock.”
In the middle of 1969, Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” opened in New York at one theater, ahead of a slow rollout (most of the country did not play the film until September). Now, on the anniversary of the premiere, Fathom Events is bringing it back to over 400 theaters for limited shows on Sunday and next Wednesday.
Decades later, “Easy Rider” is not remembered so much as a great movie–although it did break out Jack Nicholson as a movie star– but more as a shocking commercial success that shook Hollywood’s timbers. The studio reaction to “Easy Rider” changed the industry forever.
Here’s how “Easy Rider” turned into a pivotal Hollywood moment.
In the middle of 1969, Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” opened in New York at one theater, ahead of a slow rollout (most of the country did not play the film until September). Now, on the anniversary of the premiere, Fathom Events is bringing it back to over 400 theaters for limited shows on Sunday and next Wednesday.
Decades later, “Easy Rider” is not remembered so much as a great movie–although it did break out Jack Nicholson as a movie star– but more as a shocking commercial success that shook Hollywood’s timbers. The studio reaction to “Easy Rider” changed the industry forever.
Here’s how “Easy Rider” turned into a pivotal Hollywood moment.
- 7/12/2019
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we explore movies from established stars that flopped at the box office, have been forgotten by time, or remain hidden gems. These aren’t the films that made them famous or kept them famous. These are the other ones.
Today, we talk about one of the movie stars. A man who has been famous for longer than you have been alive. We’re talking Warren Beatty. Conor O’Donnell and I bring on movie nerd and good friend Adam Drosin to discuss McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Fortune, Dick Tracy, and Rules Don’t Apply. Yes, we cheated with a couple of A-Sides in there, but not to worry, we talk about a whole lot more.
Much from the gossipy Peter Biskind book Star is mentioned, along with this 2018 Variety article about the failure of Rules Don’t Apply and the aftermath.
Today, we talk about one of the movie stars. A man who has been famous for longer than you have been alive. We’re talking Warren Beatty. Conor O’Donnell and I bring on movie nerd and good friend Adam Drosin to discuss McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Fortune, Dick Tracy, and Rules Don’t Apply. Yes, we cheated with a couple of A-Sides in there, but not to worry, we talk about a whole lot more.
Much from the gossipy Peter Biskind book Star is mentioned, along with this 2018 Variety article about the failure of Rules Don’t Apply and the aftermath.
- 6/21/2019
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Irwin Winkler has produced approximately 60 movies since 1966, when he got into the business. Among them are Point Blank; They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; the Rocky franchise; The Right Stuff and the Creed movies. Along the way, he became Martin Scorsese's go-to producer, with New York, New York; Raging Bull; The Last Temptation of Christ; Goodfellas; The Wolf of Wall Street; Silence and The Irishman to his credit. He also directed seven films. All in all, his films have been nominated for 52 Oscars, winning 12.
Making movies is hard. Obstacle number one, as he wittily writes in ...
Making movies is hard. Obstacle number one, as he wittily writes in ...
- 5/24/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Updated with reaction. Mark Urman, a prominent figure in the independent film business who headed Paladin Film for the past decade, has died at age 66 after battling cancer.
Word of his passing circulated over the weekend, especially among the many film and media professionals who live (as did Urman) in Montclair, N.J. Urman’s family has so far declined to make a statement. We will update all this as more information comes in.
Early on, Urman worked in publicity for Columbia Pictures and United Artists before joining PR firm Dennis Davidson Associates in the 1980s, where he got some of his first tastes of championing specialty film titles. He spearheaded several publicity campaigns for Miramax and other indie outfits, and later told a few memorable tales about Bob and Harvey Weinstein in Peter Biskind’s 2004 book Down and Dirty Pictures.
Urman would go on to become a noted tastemaker in the sector,...
Word of his passing circulated over the weekend, especially among the many film and media professionals who live (as did Urman) in Montclair, N.J. Urman’s family has so far declined to make a statement. We will update all this as more information comes in.
Early on, Urman worked in publicity for Columbia Pictures and United Artists before joining PR firm Dennis Davidson Associates in the 1980s, where he got some of his first tastes of championing specialty film titles. He spearheaded several publicity campaigns for Miramax and other indie outfits, and later told a few memorable tales about Bob and Harvey Weinstein in Peter Biskind’s 2004 book Down and Dirty Pictures.
Urman would go on to become a noted tastemaker in the sector,...
- 1/14/2019
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
A synagogue massacre. Mail bombs that don’t quite blow. Massed migrants closing on the border. The Senate convulsed by high school sex claims against a Supreme Court nominee.
As we spiral toward the midterm election from hell, a week from Tuesday, this begins to feel less like partisan politics than a descent into chaos, orchestrated by The Joker.
But maybe that’s exactly what it is.
Saturday’s hate killings at a Pittsburgh synagogue for some reason sent me scurrying for a copy of Peter Biskind’s latest book, The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids And Superheroes Made America Great For Extremism. Published in September by the nonprofit New Press, the book is a kind of sequel to Biskind’s earlier look at post-World War II film culture, Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us To Stop Worrying And Love The Fifties.
Finding it wasn’t quite...
As we spiral toward the midterm election from hell, a week from Tuesday, this begins to feel less like partisan politics than a descent into chaos, orchestrated by The Joker.
But maybe that’s exactly what it is.
Saturday’s hate killings at a Pittsburgh synagogue for some reason sent me scurrying for a copy of Peter Biskind’s latest book, The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids And Superheroes Made America Great For Extremism. Published in September by the nonprofit New Press, the book is a kind of sequel to Biskind’s earlier look at post-World War II film culture, Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us To Stop Worrying And Love The Fifties.
Finding it wasn’t quite...
- 10/28/2018
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away, there was a planet called Earth, and on that planet was a country named America, inhabited by a dying breed of humans called "centrists."
These centrists, aka "pluralists," believed in the big tent, home to peoples of different colors, ethnicities and religions. Theirs was an open society, a melting pot where differences were dissolved in a soup of assimilation. There were, however, two tribes of outliers — the far left and far right — who fought against everything the other stood for. Pluralists denounced them as "...
These centrists, aka "pluralists," believed in the big tent, home to peoples of different colors, ethnicities and religions. Theirs was an open society, a melting pot where differences were dissolved in a soup of assimilation. There were, however, two tribes of outliers — the far left and far right — who fought against everything the other stood for. Pluralists denounced them as "...
- 9/14/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Heading to a book party for screenwriter-novelist Tom Epperson’s latest, a South American journalistic thriller called Roberto To The Dark Tower Came, I got to wondering: Will there ever be another great Hollywood book? You know, the kind that makes you catch your breath, slap the beach chair, and gasp, “Did they really do that stuff?”
Mostly, they did—witness the photograph of Robert Towne lounging in the sand with his naked Amazons, as he did some sort of prep for Personal Best, in 1981. The snapshot is tucked in the middle of Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. Published in 1998, it was, for me, the last truly great movie business book. Biskind dished shovel-loads of gossip within a cultural arc, as he told how film greats like Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola and, of course, Towne, reached for...
Mostly, they did—witness the photograph of Robert Towne lounging in the sand with his naked Amazons, as he did some sort of prep for Personal Best, in 1981. The snapshot is tucked in the middle of Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. Published in 1998, it was, for me, the last truly great movie business book. Biskind dished shovel-loads of gossip within a cultural arc, as he told how film greats like Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola and, of course, Towne, reached for...
- 6/9/2018
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: With the 2018 Sundance Film Festival gearing up later this week, what is the best movie to ever have its world premiere at the fest?
Read More:Sundance 2018: 21 Must-See Films At This Year’s Festival, From ‘Wildlife’ to ‘Sorry to Bother You’ Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf), Time Out New York
Best movie ever? That’s hard for me to quantify, but I’ll always remember the long, quiet walk I took at 3am, down icy streets, no one in sight, after I’d just been blown away by “The Babadook.” That was one terrifying night. I’d felt like I’d just seen greatness. Jennifer Kent’s movie would colonize my head,...
This week’s question: With the 2018 Sundance Film Festival gearing up later this week, what is the best movie to ever have its world premiere at the fest?
Read More:Sundance 2018: 21 Must-See Films At This Year’s Festival, From ‘Wildlife’ to ‘Sorry to Bother You’ Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf), Time Out New York
Best movie ever? That’s hard for me to quantify, but I’ll always remember the long, quiet walk I took at 3am, down icy streets, no one in sight, after I’d just been blown away by “The Babadook.” That was one terrifying night. I’d felt like I’d just seen greatness. Jennifer Kent’s movie would colonize my head,...
- 1/15/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Ryan Lambie Jun 26, 2019
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. The '70s and '80s were a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history.
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early '70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists, and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr., had turned it down flat. Science fiction, the thinking went, was box office poison; even Lucas, who'd insisted that Roy Disney himself might have snapped...
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. The '70s and '80s were a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history.
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early '70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists, and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr., had turned it down flat. Science fiction, the thinking went, was box office poison; even Lucas, who'd insisted that Roy Disney himself might have snapped...
- 12/7/2016
- Den of Geek
Hollywood — "Birdman" stars Michael Keaton and Edward Norton popped into the Egyptian Theatre Saturday morning for a conversation on acting in tandem with the on-going AFI Fest. It was an enlightening and at times heady discussion on the particulars of being an actor in show business and of course the unique opportunity of Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film. Early talk circled around each actor's introduction to the business and the moment when it clicked. Keaton, the youngest of seven (though he says nine, as his mother miscarried twice), grew up outside of Pittsburgh and wasn't discouraged at all from being a dreamer. He made his way to Hollywood with maybe $300 in his pocket after doing the comedy circuit in New York, hitting venues like the Improv and Catch a Rising Star and, on the west coast, The Comedy Store and Second City workshops. "You parked cars and tried to figure it out,...
- 11/9/2014
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
There’s a memorable story in Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, a great history of the 1990s indie-film boom, in which an upstart production company, eager to establish its bona fides, promises an absurd amount of money and unheard-of creative control to an in-demand filmmaker with a suddenly hot property to sell. The year is 1989, the company is Miramax, the filmmaker is a then-26-year-old Steven Soderbergh, the property is sex, lies & videotape, and the result was a renaissance. In the ’90s, startling, innovative, and personal films—by directors like Quentin Tarantino, Hal Hartley, Allison Anders, and Whit Stillman—flourished, buoyed by a new marketplace, and a hungry audience, that happily rewarded daring and creativity.Twenty-five years after sex, lies & videotape, it’s hard not to think of a similar scenario that played out much more recently but on a very different screen: Netflix buying the rights to...
- 9/22/2014
- by Adam Sternbergh
- Vulture
“Twenty five years. Makes a girl think.” So said Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot, and she was rarely wrong about anything, except maybe her taste in husbands. Cinematically, an awful lot can happen in 25 years and Hollywood as we know it today, emerged from seismic developments that took place a quarter of a century ago. 1989 was a game-changer; an absolutely pivotal year in the evolution of 21st century Hollywood. Chances are, whatever you watch at the multiplex this weekend will be genetically traceable to that dark, iPad-less, internetless, Jedwardless time. For those of us who are not going gentle into the dark night of their forties, the specific date of this Big Bang was August 11th 1989. That was the day that Batman finally opened in the UK.
I had never seen a line of people actually queuing around the block, except in vintage documentaries about Star Wars, but...
I had never seen a line of people actually queuing around the block, except in vintage documentaries about Star Wars, but...
- 8/11/2014
- by Cai Ross
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The top stories of the week from Toh! Features: 9 Films to See in Theaters or Stream at Home This Weekend, From "I Origins" to "The Immigrant" Career Watch: Stealth Rising Star Jason Clarke Breaks Out in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Akira Kurosawa Talk Film, Writing and "Rhapsody in August" in 1991 Why The Beatles Matter to the Future of Repertory Film Festivals: David Ansen's Departure from Los Angeles Film Festival Signals New Direction for Fest Films That Popped at Karlovy Vary, from Live Bjork and Primal Behavior to Tracking a Revolution Interviews: Debra Granik on the Demand for the Salacious, "for fast, cheap and out of control" "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" Author Peter Biskind Looks Back at the New Hollywood Screen Talk: Festival Updates, Fall Hopefuls, New Openers from Woody Allen to Zach Braff, Fox vs. Time Warner News: Nathan Rabin Is Sorry He.
- 7/19/2014
- by TOH!
- Thompson on Hollywood
After the Academy Award for Best Song was won by ‘It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp’ at the 2006 Oscars, host Jon Stewart quipped, ‘For those of you who are keeping score at home, I just want to make something very clear: Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars; Three 6 Mafia, one.’
If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences specialises in one thing at a sophisticated level no other collaborative body could ever hope to match, it’s giving awards to the wrong people. Sometimes, it almost seems like a deliberate act of petulance. Try finding anyone outside of Robert Zemekis’s immediate family who considers Forrest Gump to be a better picture than Pulp Fiction (one win) or The Shawshank Redemption (IMDb’s Best Film Ever Made; no wins).
In 1999, The 71st Academy Awards became to many people, the apogee of undeserved Oscars and the rabid invective from...
If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences specialises in one thing at a sophisticated level no other collaborative body could ever hope to match, it’s giving awards to the wrong people. Sometimes, it almost seems like a deliberate act of petulance. Try finding anyone outside of Robert Zemekis’s immediate family who considers Forrest Gump to be a better picture than Pulp Fiction (one win) or The Shawshank Redemption (IMDb’s Best Film Ever Made; no wins).
In 1999, The 71st Academy Awards became to many people, the apogee of undeserved Oscars and the rabid invective from...
- 2/27/2014
- by Cai Ross
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and the current co-chairman of the Weinstein Company, pioneered the modern Oscar campaign. Through a mix of big schmoozy events, whisper campaigns, and old-school cold-calling, Weinstein has developed a reputation over the last 25 years for getting award nominations. The results speak for themselves, with his films having secured more than 300 Academy Award nominations to date. So, with the latest Oscar campaign season in full force, we thought we’d look back at the many tricks and schemes Weinstein — the man who once got Shakespeare in Love enough votes to beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture — has deployed to rack up all those nominations.1990— My Left Foot was Harvey’s first big Oscar campaign. Weinstein talked about the experience in Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures: “In those days, the studios had a lock on the Oscars, because none of the...
- 1/29/2014
- by Jesse David Fox
- Vulture
Did you know that Heathers screened in competition at Sundance? Even I wasn’t aware of this (or I’d forgotten), and I swear I’m one of the movie’s biggest fans. It’s not a fact revealed on the DVD commentary, apparently. It’s not even listed among the release dates on IMDb or Wikipedia, both of which tend to include major film festival appearances. The dark teen movie classic didn’t premiere in Park City, but following its debut in Milan, Italy, at the Mifed film market in October 1988, it went on to Sundance (then still known as the U.S. Film Festival) in January 1989, where it faced such features as Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies and videotape (winner of the inaugural audience award), Martin Donovan’s Apartment Zero and Nancy Savoca’s barely remembered True Love, which won the dramatic jury prize (nice going 1989 jury member Jodie Foster!). According...
- 1/5/2014
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Considering I spent the last week on vacation (for the most part), my movie watching was limited... very limited. I did watch Frozen a second time and watched Inside Llewyn Davis on the plane on the way home as I'm just now beginning to rewatch several of this year's films as I put together my top ten list for 2013. However, I did manage to finish a book I've been reading, Otto Freidrich's "amazon asin="0520209494" text="City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s"" and I've now started reading Sam Kashner and Jennifer MacNair's "amazon asin="0393324362" text="The Bad and the Beautiful"", which is centered on Hollywood in the '50s, but it's a decidedly different look than "City of Nets". "City of Nets" is more of a toned down overview of Hollywood in the '40s akin to Peter Biskind's "amazon asin="0684857081" text="Easy Riders, Raging Bulls"" just a little less gossipy.
- 12/22/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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