AppleTV+’s biographical drama series The Big Cigar continues with its action in this week’s episode 4, as political activist Huey P. Newton still faces the threat of arrest from the FBI for a murder that he seemingly did not commit. While his friends, film producer Bert Schneider and his professional partner Steve Blauner, had originally planned to fly Huey to Cuba with the help of a pilot named Tajo, the latter had actually duped them. In The Big Cigar episode 4, Bert and Steve make another attempt to help out their dear friend in the face of unjust harassment from the authorities.
Spoiler Alert
How does Bert Schneider mess up the plan?
The Big Cigar episode 4 begins with Bert Schneider rushing to the restaurant where a violent shooting incident had just taken place, as he can be technically held responsible for the whole ordeal. It was Bert who had arranged...
Spoiler Alert
How does Bert Schneider mess up the plan?
The Big Cigar episode 4 begins with Bert Schneider rushing to the restaurant where a violent shooting incident had just taken place, as he can be technically held responsible for the whole ordeal. It was Bert who had arranged...
- 5/31/2024
- by Sourya Sur Roy
- DMT
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
At one point in the new Apple TV+ miniseries The Big Cigar, Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton (André Holland) attends a party and recalls the time he and film producer Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) tried to write a movie about his life, which would have starred comedian Richard Pryor (Inny Clemons). The key, Schneider explains: “If it’s gonna be a biopic, you have to choose a moment in Huey’s life that means something. Don’t just make it womb to tomb.”
Though The Big Cigar features...
Though The Big Cigar features...
- 5/17/2024
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.
We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.
Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:
‘Do the Right Thing...
It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.
We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.
Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:
‘Do the Right Thing...
- 10/20/2023
- by Anna Tingley and Rudie Obias
- Variety Film + TV
The Monkees may have acted like they were happy-go-lucky band members on the set of their television series. Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones may have even acted friendly toward one another on stage during concerts. However, like with any partnership, some members don’t gel as naturally as others. Here are three ways Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were “partners in silence” as Monkees members.
Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork on the set of ‘The Monkees’ | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Mike Nesmith admits ‘Peter [Tork], and I went our own ways’
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mike Nesmith admitted that he and Peter Tork typically “went our own ways.” He shared his take on their personal and professional relationship. Nesmith explained their estrangement was “known” on the series set.
“They knew Pete, and I went our own ways. This wasn’t a dislike of someone...
Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork on the set of ‘The Monkees’ | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Mike Nesmith admits ‘Peter [Tork], and I went our own ways’
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mike Nesmith admitted that he and Peter Tork typically “went our own ways.” He shared his take on their personal and professional relationship. Nesmith explained their estrangement was “known” on the series set.
“They knew Pete, and I went our own ways. This wasn’t a dislike of someone...
- 3/21/2023
- by Lucille Barilla
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Apple’s upcoming limited series “The Big Cigar” has cast P.J. Byrne in a series regular role, Variety has learned exclusively.
The six-episode series stars André Holland as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. It is based on the Playboy magazine article of the same name by Joshuah Bearman and tells the true story of how Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola), the Hollywood producer behind “Easy Rider,” to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
The cast also includes Tiffany Boone and Marc Menchaca.
Byrne will appear in the series as Steve Blauner. Blauner was a partner of Schneider’s and Bob Rafelson in Bbs Productions and was also well known as the manager of music superstar Bobby Darin. Blauner was previously played by John Goodman in the film “Beyond the Sea.”
Byrne recently appeared in...
The six-episode series stars André Holland as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. It is based on the Playboy magazine article of the same name by Joshuah Bearman and tells the true story of how Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola), the Hollywood producer behind “Easy Rider,” to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
The cast also includes Tiffany Boone and Marc Menchaca.
Byrne will appear in the series as Steve Blauner. Blauner was a partner of Schneider’s and Bob Rafelson in Bbs Productions and was also well known as the manager of music superstar Bobby Darin. Blauner was previously played by John Goodman in the film “Beyond the Sea.”
Byrne recently appeared in...
- 7/6/2022
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
If the action-fueled, hit genre films “Bonnie and Clyde” in 1967 and “Easy Rider” in 1969 were the shotgun blasts whose breakout success opened the filmmaking doors for what became known as “The New Hollywood,” 1970’s “Five Easy Pieces” actually better represented the kind of film that the era’s aspiring young directors, producers, writers and actors were dreaming of making in those heady, hopeful days.
It’s been 50 years since Bob Rafelson’s powerful, perceptive drama about a young man torn between a life of white privilege and high culture in the Northwest and a more earthy, elemental existence in the oilfields of Bakersfield, scored critical raves and four Oscar nominations; for best picture, Jack Nicholson’s lead performance as Bobby Dupea, Karen Black’s supporting turn as his lovely but not exactly Mensa-contending waitress girlfriend Rayette, and Carole Eastman’s still dazzling, still wise and worldly screenplay.
You don’t...
It’s been 50 years since Bob Rafelson’s powerful, perceptive drama about a young man torn between a life of white privilege and high culture in the Northwest and a more earthy, elemental existence in the oilfields of Bakersfield, scored critical raves and four Oscar nominations; for best picture, Jack Nicholson’s lead performance as Bobby Dupea, Karen Black’s supporting turn as his lovely but not exactly Mensa-contending waitress girlfriend Rayette, and Carole Eastman’s still dazzling, still wise and worldly screenplay.
You don’t...
- 9/12/2020
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
The biopic Seberg tells the tragic story of film star Jean Seberg who – along with Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda – gave money and public support for the Black Panthers
Huey P Newton was rowing towards the Cuban coastline in a dinghy with only one oar when it capsized. The leader of the Black Panthers and his girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine, were on the final part of a journey that had been masterminded by the most important production team in the New Hollywood era: Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson and Steve Blauner (Aka Bbs Productions). Five years earlier, the trio had upended the movie industry with Easy Rider. Now they were attempting to do to American life what they had done to Hollywood: brazenly tear up the rulebook and redistribute power.
The producers had clandestinely shuttled Newton to Mexico, then convinced a Colombian smuggler – known only as “the Pirate” – to take the black radical,...
Huey P Newton was rowing towards the Cuban coastline in a dinghy with only one oar when it capsized. The leader of the Black Panthers and his girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine, were on the final part of a journey that had been masterminded by the most important production team in the New Hollywood era: Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson and Steve Blauner (Aka Bbs Productions). Five years earlier, the trio had upended the movie industry with Easy Rider. Now they were attempting to do to American life what they had done to Hollywood: brazenly tear up the rulebook and redistribute power.
The producers had clandestinely shuttled Newton to Mexico, then convinced a Colombian smuggler – known only as “the Pirate” – to take the black radical,...
- 12/5/2019
- by Lanre Bakare
- The Guardian - Film News
Producer of films that expressed the late 60s and early 70s zeitgeist, including Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Hearts and Minds
In the late 60s and early 70s, youth movies identified with the draft-dodging campus rebels disillusioned by their elders and the war in Vietnam. Among the leading lights that embodied the counterculture were the producer Bert Schneider, who has died aged 78, and the director Bob Rafelson. They came together to form Raybert Productions, and then Bbs Productions (with Steve Blauner), which produced several pictures that expressed the zeitgeist, such as Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Drive, He Said (1971) and the Oscar-winning anti-Vietnam war documentary Hearts and Minds (1974).
Schneider was no bandwagon jumper, but a committed leftist, who vigorously opposed the American presence in Vietnam. He was also close to the 1960s political activists Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther party, the African-American radical organisation, and Abbie Hoffman...
In the late 60s and early 70s, youth movies identified with the draft-dodging campus rebels disillusioned by their elders and the war in Vietnam. Among the leading lights that embodied the counterculture were the producer Bert Schneider, who has died aged 78, and the director Bob Rafelson. They came together to form Raybert Productions, and then Bbs Productions (with Steve Blauner), which produced several pictures that expressed the zeitgeist, such as Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Drive, He Said (1971) and the Oscar-winning anti-Vietnam war documentary Hearts and Minds (1974).
Schneider was no bandwagon jumper, but a committed leftist, who vigorously opposed the American presence in Vietnam. He was also close to the 1960s political activists Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther party, the African-American radical organisation, and Abbie Hoffman...
- 12/14/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
DVD Playhouse December 2010
By
Allen Gardner
America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story (Criterion) Perhaps the best DVD box set released this year, this ultimate cinefile stocking stuffer offered up by Criterion, the Rolls-Royce of home video labels, features seven seminal works from the late ‘60s-early ‘70s that were brought to life by cutting edge producers Bert Schneider, Steve Blauner and director/producer Bob Rafelson, the principals of Bbs Productions. In chronological order: Head (1968) star the Monkees, the manufactured (by Rafelson, et al), American answer to the Beatles who, like it or not, did make an impact on popular culture, particularly in this utterly surreal piece of cinematic anarchy (co-written by Jack Nicholson, who has a cameo), which was largely dismissed upon its initial release, but is now regarded as a counterculture classic. Easy Rider (1969) is arguably regarded as the seminal ‘60s picture, about two hippie drug dealers (director Dennis Hopper...
By
Allen Gardner
America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story (Criterion) Perhaps the best DVD box set released this year, this ultimate cinefile stocking stuffer offered up by Criterion, the Rolls-Royce of home video labels, features seven seminal works from the late ‘60s-early ‘70s that were brought to life by cutting edge producers Bert Schneider, Steve Blauner and director/producer Bob Rafelson, the principals of Bbs Productions. In chronological order: Head (1968) star the Monkees, the manufactured (by Rafelson, et al), American answer to the Beatles who, like it or not, did make an impact on popular culture, particularly in this utterly surreal piece of cinematic anarchy (co-written by Jack Nicholson, who has a cameo), which was largely dismissed upon its initial release, but is now regarded as a counterculture classic. Easy Rider (1969) is arguably regarded as the seminal ‘60s picture, about two hippie drug dealers (director Dennis Hopper...
- 12/20/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Fred Weekend Shopping Guide - your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
They rebuilt him… Better… Stronger… Faster… And now, after an interminably long wait, The Six Million Dollar Man (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$239.95) has finally arrived on DVD. As if that weren’t enough, Time Life has delivered the complete 5-season run in one massive set, which includes all 3 pilot films, all 3 reunion films, the Bionic Woman crossover episodes, newly-recorded cast interviews, and alternate syndication edits of the pilots.
(Please support Fred by using the links below to make any impulse purchases - it helps to keep us going…)
They rebuilt him… Better… Stronger… Faster… And now, after an interminably long wait, The Six Million Dollar Man (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$239.95) has finally arrived on DVD. As if that weren’t enough, Time Life has delivered the complete 5-season run in one massive set, which includes all 3 pilot films, all 3 reunion films, the Bionic Woman crossover episodes, newly-recorded cast interviews, and alternate syndication edits of the pilots.
- 12/10/2010
- by UncaScroogeMcD
Imagine for a second that Disney grew weary of raking in piles of cash from the Jonas Brothers. Imagine that, instead of merely cutting them loose (and leaving them to their own disastrous devices, ala Ms. Lohan), Disney went a more subversive route. Imagine Disney casting them in a surrealistic, experimental patchwork of a film that lampooned the vapidity of pop culture and consumerism – and left both the Jonases and their fans feeling totally mindfucked. That’s essentially what happened when Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner – creators of The Monkees – released a film called Head… America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story, is a kickass box set from The Criterion Collection (is there any other kind?) that groups Head with some other films Rafelson, Schneider and Blauner had a hand in. Some of them you might have heard of – Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces...
- 12/8/2010
- by J.L. Sosa
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The Film
Let me begin with a preface. Before watching the Monkees feature Head (1968), I knew virtually nothing about the band. I knew they had a TV show, I knew they were modeled after the Beatles. Yet, my generation had MTV's "2Ge+Her" when it came to a fictional pop band packaged for our amusement. While the Monkees were undoubtedly an influence upon them, the intricacies of that influence escaped most of us. I was drawn to Head because of the talent behind the camera: it was co-written by Jack Nicholson and marked the feature debut of Rafelson, who would direct Five Easy Pieces (1970) two years later. Yet, the Monkees are inseparable from Rafelson's career, who used his revenues from the show, along with those of partners Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner, to form Bbs Productions. Bbs, the subject of the recently released "America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story...
Let me begin with a preface. Before watching the Monkees feature Head (1968), I knew virtually nothing about the band. I knew they had a TV show, I knew they were modeled after the Beatles. Yet, my generation had MTV's "2Ge+Her" when it came to a fictional pop band packaged for our amusement. While the Monkees were undoubtedly an influence upon them, the intricacies of that influence escaped most of us. I was drawn to Head because of the talent behind the camera: it was co-written by Jack Nicholson and marked the feature debut of Rafelson, who would direct Five Easy Pieces (1970) two years later. Yet, the Monkees are inseparable from Rafelson's career, who used his revenues from the show, along with those of partners Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner, to form Bbs Productions. Bbs, the subject of the recently released "America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story...
- 12/7/2010
- by Drew Morton
Chicago – Bbs Productions changed cinema. As the sixties were coming to a close, they jumped on the revolutionary bandwagon and took the cultural zeitgeist to the cinema. With a few other visionaries, they ushered in the most important era of film history and several of their best works have been collected in the amazing Criterion box “America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story.”
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Believe it or not, the creative freedom that exploded across movie screens in the ’70s might not have been possible without The Monkees. Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner (their first initials being Bbs) had created the pop band The Monkees and used that money to found Bbs Productions, a company that thrived on community and creativity. Like any production company, they weren’t all gems but a few definitely were, including some of the most influential works of the era. All seven films...
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Believe it or not, the creative freedom that exploded across movie screens in the ’70s might not have been possible without The Monkees. Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner (their first initials being Bbs) had created the pop band The Monkees and used that money to found Bbs Productions, a company that thrived on community and creativity. Like any production company, they weren’t all gems but a few definitely were, including some of the most influential works of the era. All seven films...
- 12/6/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
by Steve Dollar
Not everything we take for granted in a moviegoing life was always a fait accompli. Though it encompasses seven films released between 1968 and 1971, America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story may feel like a fin-de-siècle time capsule of the Sixties—now variously fossilized, romanticized and idealized—but it's also a jolt. The shotgun blast that ends Easy Rider, the most mythologized film in the collection, may have symbolically killed off an era and its utopian concepts of freedom, but it also signaled the arrival of a surging wave in American movies. The New Hollywood, if you will, emergent with all its anxieties, ambivalences, confusions and candor ratcheted up to a definitive pitch.
The production house as countercultural engine room, Bbs took its name from the first initials of its three principals. Writer-director-producer Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider, who had made a bundle hijacking my childhood with...
Not everything we take for granted in a moviegoing life was always a fait accompli. Though it encompasses seven films released between 1968 and 1971, America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story may feel like a fin-de-siècle time capsule of the Sixties—now variously fossilized, romanticized and idealized—but it's also a jolt. The shotgun blast that ends Easy Rider, the most mythologized film in the collection, may have symbolically killed off an era and its utopian concepts of freedom, but it also signaled the arrival of a surging wave in American movies. The New Hollywood, if you will, emergent with all its anxieties, ambivalences, confusions and candor ratcheted up to a definitive pitch.
The production house as countercultural engine room, Bbs took its name from the first initials of its three principals. Writer-director-producer Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider, who had made a bundle hijacking my childhood with...
- 11/28/2010
- GreenCine Daily
DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
The Complete Metropolis (Blu-ray) I mentioned this title last week, but for some reason the Blu-ray edition got bumped a week and releases toady. By now I'm sure most of you already know my opinion of this title seeing how I discussed it last week and posted my review yesterday, but if noy, click here to get the full rundown. America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story (Blu-ray) Producers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner formed Bbs Productions, which operated between 1968 and 1972, and this box set from Criterion is the result. I have not yet received my review copy and based on what I see online it appears only DVD Beaver has received and reviewed the set. The DVD version hits shelves on December 14.
Just below are the films included. You can get more on each at Criterion right here.
The Complete Metropolis (Blu-ray) I mentioned this title last week, but for some reason the Blu-ray edition got bumped a week and releases toady. By now I'm sure most of you already know my opinion of this title seeing how I discussed it last week and posted my review yesterday, but if noy, click here to get the full rundown. America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story (Blu-ray) Producers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner formed Bbs Productions, which operated between 1968 and 1972, and this box set from Criterion is the result. I have not yet received my review copy and based on what I see online it appears only DVD Beaver has received and reviewed the set. The DVD version hits shelves on December 14.
Just below are the films included. You can get more on each at Criterion right here.
- 11/23/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Here we are with the last Criterion Collection new release announcement for 2010, and there are a couple amazing releases to talk about.
Last week we uncovered that Criterion was in fact prepared to finally release David Cronenberg’s Videodrome on Blu-ray on December 7th. This is the last of the Amazon pre-order announced titles that forced Criterion to reveal their cards a little early. I still haven’t seen the film, and I’m pretty glad that I waited, so that I can see this film in all of it’s high def insanity. While I’m sure there is something charming about watching the film on VHS, given the material, watching a recent fan edit trailer in HD, makes me really excited for the Blu-ray. The cover doesn’t necessarily change up the design much, aside from the color bars on the spine logo.
Now to the main course.
Last week we uncovered that Criterion was in fact prepared to finally release David Cronenberg’s Videodrome on Blu-ray on December 7th. This is the last of the Amazon pre-order announced titles that forced Criterion to reveal their cards a little early. I still haven’t seen the film, and I’m pretty glad that I waited, so that I can see this film in all of it’s high def insanity. While I’m sure there is something charming about watching the film on VHS, given the material, watching a recent fan edit trailer in HD, makes me really excited for the Blu-ray. The cover doesn’t necessarily change up the design much, aside from the color bars on the spine logo.
Now to the main course.
- 9/15/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
As many Criterion fans are surely aware, the cult film Head, starring The Monkees, will soon be released as part of the box set America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story. Preceding this cinematic bonanza by a month, Rhino Handmade will be releasing an expanded 3-cd edition of the film’s soundtrack on October 26, chock-full of previously unreleased goodies and rarities.
While this will certainly appeal more to hardcore Monkees fans than the average Criterion collector, it is worth noting that The Monkees’ music is not without merit, and the Head soundtrack in particular was one of their more adventurous albums.
From the get-go as a pop band manufactured for television in 1966 by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, The Monkees chafed under the control of music coordinator Don Kirshner, who commissioned songs to be written (by professional songwriters such as Neil Diamond, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, and Harry Nilsson) and...
While this will certainly appeal more to hardcore Monkees fans than the average Criterion collector, it is worth noting that The Monkees’ music is not without merit, and the Head soundtrack in particular was one of their more adventurous albums.
From the get-go as a pop band manufactured for television in 1966 by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, The Monkees chafed under the control of music coordinator Don Kirshner, who commissioned songs to be written (by professional songwriters such as Neil Diamond, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, and Harry Nilsson) and...
- 9/10/2010
- by West Anthony
- CriterionCast
This past Monday, Criterion announced their November 2010 titles, and the internet exploded with people complaining about how broke they are going to be this holiday season, as they must own ever single one.
As always, the covers for each DVD/Blu-ray are absolute works of art, worthy of framing above one’s mantle. I’m actually hoping that they allow Sam’s Myth’s Modern Times cover art to find it’s way into their store, despite already have a fantastic poster for sale.
Since I shared a high resolution copy of the recent Darjeeling Limited art last week, I thought it’d be fun to do the same with the November titles as well. One thing that’s particularly interesting about the gruesome Antichrist art, upon closer examination, is the fact that the title is made up of twigs and branches, which might not be noticed in the low...
As always, the covers for each DVD/Blu-ray are absolute works of art, worthy of framing above one’s mantle. I’m actually hoping that they allow Sam’s Myth’s Modern Times cover art to find it’s way into their store, despite already have a fantastic poster for sale.
Since I shared a high resolution copy of the recent Darjeeling Limited art last week, I thought it’d be fun to do the same with the November titles as well. One thing that’s particularly interesting about the gruesome Antichrist art, upon closer examination, is the fact that the title is made up of twigs and branches, which might not be noticed in the low...
- 8/19/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Criterion doesn't make it a habit of disappointing their fans - to call them the greatest and most selflessly wonderful company in the history of human commercialism would be something of an understatement. That being said, their recently announced November line-up of DVD and Blu-rays is pretty incredible, even for them.
Within the span of a few minutes this afternoon, Criterion teased out confirmation of several of their most hotly rumored titles. The biggest bombshell was incontestably a box-set titled "America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story," an anthology of films produced by film pioneers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner that includes Head, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Easy Rider, The King of Marvin Gardens, A Safe Place, and Jack Nicholson's directorial debut Drive, He Said. All titles are receiving new, restored high-definition digital transfers, and all titles are available on blu-ray in glorious 1080p.
Within the span of a few minutes this afternoon, Criterion teased out confirmation of several of their most hotly rumored titles. The biggest bombshell was incontestably a box-set titled "America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story," an anthology of films produced by film pioneers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner that includes Head, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Easy Rider, The King of Marvin Gardens, A Safe Place, and Jack Nicholson's directorial debut Drive, He Said. All titles are receiving new, restored high-definition digital transfers, and all titles are available on blu-ray in glorious 1080p.
- 8/17/2010
- by David Ehrlich
- Cinematical
There is a trend these days amongst some film goers, in which they actively avoid trailers, as well as any kind of plot spoilers regarding upcoming films. I won’t go so far as to say that this is a recent trend, but it has certainly appeared on my radar a lot over the past few years. People want to keep that magic of the surprise, when it comes to upcoming media. At the same time, there is an abundance of information about everything media related thanks to the internet.
One aspect of the Criterion Collection that we all have come to accept, and learn to love in a holiday package opening sense, is their secrecy regarding upcoming releases. We have joked about how they are almost at Apple-like levels of secrecy, and when something gets out, Criterion fans jump on it.
I think we all want to know what...
One aspect of the Criterion Collection that we all have come to accept, and learn to love in a holiday package opening sense, is their secrecy regarding upcoming releases. We have joked about how they are almost at Apple-like levels of secrecy, and when something gets out, Criterion fans jump on it.
I think we all want to know what...
- 8/16/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Dennis Hopper began as a nervous young man reduced to tears by Old Hollywood and became a wild star who transformed and sometimes terrorised his industry. A close colleague remembers a man of genius, humour and real warmth
In 1986 I was commissioned by the recently set up Channel 4 to direct two hour-long documentaries about the Hollywood-based production company Bbs. This was set up by legendary producer, Bert Schneider, director Bob Rafelson and accountant Steve Blauner. They blew a giant hole in the studio-based Hollywood system by making movies for under $1m.
Their best-known productions were The Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens. Dennis had come upon Bbs in the late 1960s via Peter Bogdanovich, who had made a terrific thriller, Targets, about a pathological gunman who killed, without motive, the drivers of cars on motorways.
This was financed by Roger Corman who wanted...
In 1986 I was commissioned by the recently set up Channel 4 to direct two hour-long documentaries about the Hollywood-based production company Bbs. This was set up by legendary producer, Bert Schneider, director Bob Rafelson and accountant Steve Blauner. They blew a giant hole in the studio-based Hollywood system by making movies for under $1m.
Their best-known productions were The Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens. Dennis had come upon Bbs in the late 1960s via Peter Bogdanovich, who had made a terrific thriller, Targets, about a pathological gunman who killed, without motive, the drivers of cars on motorways.
This was financed by Roger Corman who wanted...
- 5/30/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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