When Paul Thomas Anderson went against the industry grain and cast Adam Sandler as the lead in his fourth feature, "Punch Drunk Love," many people in Hollywood felt the brashly talented filmmaker's ego had inflated to Welles-ian proportions. After the dazzling excess of "Magnolia" (which was more divisive at the time than it is now), there was a sense that he was provoking for provocation's sake. Outside of Steven Seagal, it's possible there wasn't a more critically loathed star in America — and it wasn't just the movies they hated. They detested him. They considered him a charisma vacuum who needed someone as irresistibly lovable as Drew Barrymore to render his presence in a film tolerable.
Anderson shattered these misconceptions. Though Sandler didn't dive headlong into dramas after "Punch Drunk Love," he'd take on a non-comedic part every few years and remind us of his untapped potential — which he fully realized...
Anderson shattered these misconceptions. Though Sandler didn't dive headlong into dramas after "Punch Drunk Love," he'd take on a non-comedic part every few years and remind us of his untapped potential — which he fully realized...
- 12/21/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Damian won Annecy’s top Crystal prize in 2012 for Crulic – The Path Beyond.
French distributor Eurozoom has acquired French rights to Romanian director Anca Damian’s The Island ahead of its screening in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June13-18).
International sales of the film are handled by Brussels-based Best Friend Forever (Bff).
The Paris-based distributor has a long track record in theatrically releasing animated features in France. Past releases include award-winning Japanese titles Your Name by Makoto Shinkai and The Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda as well as Spanish director Salvador Simo’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.
French distributor Eurozoom has acquired French rights to Romanian director Anca Damian’s The Island ahead of its screening in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June13-18).
International sales of the film are handled by Brussels-based Best Friend Forever (Bff).
The Paris-based distributor has a long track record in theatrically releasing animated features in France. Past releases include award-winning Japanese titles Your Name by Makoto Shinkai and The Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda as well as Spanish director Salvador Simo’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.
- 5/9/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Romanian animator Anca Damian’s psychedelic, musical take on the Robinson Crusoe’s story, “The Island,” will be accompanied by an Ar exhibition inviting the audience to further explore its colorful universe, Variety has learned. A board-game based on her seventh feature has also been developed, mirroring its protagonists’ search for paradise in the film.
Set to bow at Rotterdam Film Festival, “The Island” was produced by Aparte Film, with Best Friend Forever handling international sales.
Despite referencing his most famous creation, Damian doesn’t care for Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel, she says. “It was written a long time ago and it has no meaning now. It’s awful. The way Robinson Crusoe thinks that he is saving the so-called ‘savage’… The whole thing is unacceptable.”
The project – her first since 2019’s “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” – was inspired by a concert performed by Ada Milea and Alexander Balanescu, itself based...
Set to bow at Rotterdam Film Festival, “The Island” was produced by Aparte Film, with Best Friend Forever handling international sales.
Despite referencing his most famous creation, Damian doesn’t care for Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel, she says. “It was written a long time ago and it has no meaning now. It’s awful. The way Robinson Crusoe thinks that he is saving the so-called ‘savage’… The whole thing is unacceptable.”
The project – her first since 2019’s “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” – was inspired by a concert performed by Ada Milea and Alexander Balanescu, itself based...
- 1/27/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Stéphane Goël’s documentary merges the past and present of this small island off the coast of Chile
In an age of overconsumption and technological saturation, many yearn for an abstract “simpler” time in the past. Opening on a vessel bobbing on the ocean waves, Stéphane Goël’s Islander takes us on a journey that transcends both the past and the present, effectively dissecting and uncovering many contradictions and preoccupations dormant under this utopian ideal.
At the centre of the documentary is Robinson Crusoe island, west of Chile, and one of the inspirations for Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel. Booming over the magnificent landscape of volcanic mountains is Mathieu Amalric’s evocative narration, as he takes on the role of Swiss aristocrat Alfred von Rodt who bought the island in 1877. Juxtaposed with these ghostly recollections are intimate interviews with Von Rodt’s descendants who are still living there. Also carefully observed...
In an age of overconsumption and technological saturation, many yearn for an abstract “simpler” time in the past. Opening on a vessel bobbing on the ocean waves, Stéphane Goël’s Islander takes us on a journey that transcends both the past and the present, effectively dissecting and uncovering many contradictions and preoccupations dormant under this utopian ideal.
At the centre of the documentary is Robinson Crusoe island, west of Chile, and one of the inspirations for Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel. Booming over the magnificent landscape of volcanic mountains is Mathieu Amalric’s evocative narration, as he takes on the role of Swiss aristocrat Alfred von Rodt who bought the island in 1877. Juxtaposed with these ghostly recollections are intimate interviews with Von Rodt’s descendants who are still living there. Also carefully observed...
- 9/6/2021
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
What started as an alternative to the establishment, to the 9-to-5 work routine, the white picket fence and the routine of a monogamous marriage defined by traditional gender roles soon turned out to be a failed experiment, if we look at some communities which tried to make up their own society. Rather than constituting their own kind of community and trying their own experiment, many artists have approached these ideas through their work. Much like his colleagues, such as Seijun Suzuki or Nobuhiko Obayashi, director Masashi Yamamoto has created a niche for himself during his career, and also experimented with narration and form, with the goal of destroying a sense of unity in the feature film, as he once stated. In his 1988 effort “Robinson’s Garden”, the director combines these tendencies in his work with a story about one of those social experiments, about its rewards and how it can...
- 8/20/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Legendary Entertainment and The Spanish Princess showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham have launched the joint-venture production company Watford & Essex, which is already in development with 10 projects, including a remake of ABC’s 1960s TV series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
The new outfit will be based in Bristol, south-west England, and has hired Christine Healy, the head of production at Catherine The Great producer New Pictures, as its chief operating officer. It will work with Legendary’s TV division, which is behind shows including Amazon’s Carnival Row, to develop projects with international scale. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Frost and Graham’s The Spanish Princess is currently airing on Starz and follows The White Princess and The White Queen. Frost’s other credits include penning the screenplay for Ron Howard’s Jennifer Lawrence movie Zelda, while she has worked on TV shows including The Man in the High Castle...
The new outfit will be based in Bristol, south-west England, and has hired Christine Healy, the head of production at Catherine The Great producer New Pictures, as its chief operating officer. It will work with Legendary’s TV division, which is behind shows including Amazon’s Carnival Row, to develop projects with international scale. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Frost and Graham’s The Spanish Princess is currently airing on Starz and follows The White Princess and The White Queen. Frost’s other credits include penning the screenplay for Ron Howard’s Jennifer Lawrence movie Zelda, while she has worked on TV shows including The Man in the High Castle...
- 11/23/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Legendary Entertainment and “The White Queen” and “Life on Mars” writers/showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham have launched a U.K. drama production company with a slate of 10 projects.
Frost and Graham, whose credits include “Ashes to Ashes,” “The Spanish Princess,” “Doctor Who” and “The Man In The High Castle,” will serve as joint CEOs of Watford & Essex, which will team with Legendary Entertainment’s television division and focus on television production and financing projects for the international market.
Christine Healy has been named COO, joining the venture from New Pictures where she was head of production since 2016.
Watford & Essex’s current list of projects in development include “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” based on
the Irwin Allen television series from the 1960s, developed and written by BAFTA-nominated Chris Lunt and Michael Walker (“Devils”), and “Hail Satan!,” a dark social comedy-drama created by Frost and Graham, in development with U.
Frost and Graham, whose credits include “Ashes to Ashes,” “The Spanish Princess,” “Doctor Who” and “The Man In The High Castle,” will serve as joint CEOs of Watford & Essex, which will team with Legendary Entertainment’s television division and focus on television production and financing projects for the international market.
Christine Healy has been named COO, joining the venture from New Pictures where she was head of production since 2016.
Watford & Essex’s current list of projects in development include “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” based on
the Irwin Allen television series from the 1960s, developed and written by BAFTA-nominated Chris Lunt and Michael Walker (“Devils”), and “Hail Satan!,” a dark social comedy-drama created by Frost and Graham, in development with U.
- 11/23/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The director says the animation’s topic is uncannily in sync with the state of the world today. The only Romanian director to have delivered animated features over the last decade, Anca Damian is currently in production with her newest project, The Island, which she describes as a musical comedy and “an upside-down Robinson Crusoe story”. The film is a co-production between Damian’s Aparte Film, Take Five (Belgium) and Komadoli (France). The screenplay, written by Damian and Augusto Zanovello, shares characters with Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, but in the animation, Robinson is a doctor who isolates himself voluntarily on an island, his seclusion soon to be interrupted by migrants, guards and Ngo representatives. In Damian’s fourth animated feature, Friday is, for example, the sole survivor on a boat which had left Africa for Italy... The vocal cast comprises Alexandru Bălănescu, Ada Milea (both of whom are in charge of the.
New feature projects from Ari Folman, Anca Damian, Karsten Killerich were also presented.
Spanish animator Salvador Simo was voted European director of the year by delegates attending the Cartoon Movie Co-Production Forum in Bordeaux in France this week (March 5-7).
Simo’s feature Bunuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles, which is being handled internationally by Latido, screened as a sneak preview at the forum.
Stuttgart-based sales agent Sola Media was voted European distributor of the year.
Dutch animation studio Submarine was named European producer of the year. The company is involved with four of the projects presented at the...
Spanish animator Salvador Simo was voted European director of the year by delegates attending the Cartoon Movie Co-Production Forum in Bordeaux in France this week (March 5-7).
Simo’s feature Bunuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles, which is being handled internationally by Latido, screened as a sneak preview at the forum.
Stuttgart-based sales agent Sola Media was voted European distributor of the year.
Dutch animation studio Submarine was named European producer of the year. The company is involved with four of the projects presented at the...
- 3/8/2019
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Pete Dillon-Trenchard Jun 10, 2017
Spoilers! We dig into the references and extra details in Doctor Who series 10 episode 9, Empress Of Mars...
This article contains spoilers - pretty much all of them - for Empress Of Mars.
See related Doctor Who: Moffat on budget issues, advice for Chibnall Doctor Who: Phoebe Waller-Bridge is now the joint favourite
The Ice Warriors’ tombs have melted, and so have our hearts. As the Doctor gives Missy a good telling-off for helping to save the day, we turn our attention to the references, callbacks and generally interesting things about tonight’s episode. If we’ve missed something, you know where the comments section is…
Alpha CentaurSQUEE
Usually I take these things roughly in order, but let’s take a moment to let out what the cool kids call a big ‘squee’, or a Russell T Davies-style ‘Hooray!’ for the return, after 43 years,...
Spoilers! We dig into the references and extra details in Doctor Who series 10 episode 9, Empress Of Mars...
This article contains spoilers - pretty much all of them - for Empress Of Mars.
See related Doctor Who: Moffat on budget issues, advice for Chibnall Doctor Who: Phoebe Waller-Bridge is now the joint favourite
The Ice Warriors’ tombs have melted, and so have our hearts. As the Doctor gives Missy a good telling-off for helping to save the day, we turn our attention to the references, callbacks and generally interesting things about tonight’s episode. If we’ve missed something, you know where the comments section is…
Alpha CentaurSQUEE
Usually I take these things roughly in order, but let’s take a moment to let out what the cool kids call a big ‘squee’, or a Russell T Davies-style ‘Hooray!’ for the return, after 43 years,...
- 6/9/2017
- Den of Geek
“You don’t have to have a true story to make a true story movie.”
Noah Hawley’s acclaimed midwestern crime anthology Fargo returns to FX this week, along with my enthusiasm for saying oh yah and you betcha to anyone with the gall to speak to me when I would rather be watching Fargo. In my defence there are not one, but two, gloriously bad Ewan McGregor wigs. Truly, Hawley is doing the Lord’s work. Season three is set in the not too distant past of 2010, and follows the tried-and-true template of a ridiculously stacked ensemble of endearing (and woefully misguided) ne’er do wells gradually bungling their way into a shit show of their own design. As with each of the previous installments, least of all the Coen Brothers’ original 1996 film, the opening of this week’s episode features the following superimposed text:
This is a true story. The...
Noah Hawley’s acclaimed midwestern crime anthology Fargo returns to FX this week, along with my enthusiasm for saying oh yah and you betcha to anyone with the gall to speak to me when I would rather be watching Fargo. In my defence there are not one, but two, gloriously bad Ewan McGregor wigs. Truly, Hawley is doing the Lord’s work. Season three is set in the not too distant past of 2010, and follows the tried-and-true template of a ridiculously stacked ensemble of endearing (and woefully misguided) ne’er do wells gradually bungling their way into a shit show of their own design. As with each of the previous installments, least of all the Coen Brothers’ original 1996 film, the opening of this week’s episode features the following superimposed text:
This is a true story. The...
- 4/20/2017
- by Meg Shields
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Brendon Connelly Apr 20, 2017
The complexity of modern board games lends itself to the big screen. Pandemic: The Movie, anyone?
In the last few years, two potential big-screen adaptions of board games seemed to get a little traction with the Hollywood studios. Several drafts of a Monopoly movie were prepared, and at one point, it even seemed like Ridley Scott might saddle up to shoot the thing. Meanwhile, Adam Sandler orbited around a comedy based upon the brain-curdlingly dull Candy Land.
Now, I can’t tell you how those films would have turned out, and I’m certainly not going to say Monopoly and Candy Land absolutely, definitely should not be movies. But I am happy to say, with 100% certainty and even a bit of simmering frustration, that Monopoly and Candy Land should not be board games.
At least not board games anybody ever plays. Just put the dang things in a museum already.
The complexity of modern board games lends itself to the big screen. Pandemic: The Movie, anyone?
In the last few years, two potential big-screen adaptions of board games seemed to get a little traction with the Hollywood studios. Several drafts of a Monopoly movie were prepared, and at one point, it even seemed like Ridley Scott might saddle up to shoot the thing. Meanwhile, Adam Sandler orbited around a comedy based upon the brain-curdlingly dull Candy Land.
Now, I can’t tell you how those films would have turned out, and I’m certainly not going to say Monopoly and Candy Land absolutely, definitely should not be movies. But I am happy to say, with 100% certainty and even a bit of simmering frustration, that Monopoly and Candy Land should not be board games.
At least not board games anybody ever plays. Just put the dang things in a museum already.
- 2/26/2017
- Den of Geek
MaryAnn’s quick take…
A bland electronic babysitter, suitable only for small children still distracted by bright colors, slapstick cartoon animals, and simplistic wordplay. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
So, a movie for kids — strictly for kids; more on that in a moment — that has already been released all around the world under the title Robinson Crusoe is about to open in the Us as The Wild Life. (It arrives on VOD and DVD in the UK later this month.) Why the title change? Does Hollywood believe that Americans are too ignorant to recognize the name of one of the most classic of classic novels? Are Americans in fact too ignorant to recognize it? (I’m not sure which is worse.) It would be an exaggeration to say that this is even loosely based...
A bland electronic babysitter, suitable only for small children still distracted by bright colors, slapstick cartoon animals, and simplistic wordplay. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
So, a movie for kids — strictly for kids; more on that in a moment — that has already been released all around the world under the title Robinson Crusoe is about to open in the Us as The Wild Life. (It arrives on VOD and DVD in the UK later this month.) Why the title change? Does Hollywood believe that Americans are too ignorant to recognize the name of one of the most classic of classic novels? Are Americans in fact too ignorant to recognize it? (I’m not sure which is worse.) It would be an exaggeration to say that this is even loosely based...
- 9/6/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Summit Entertainment has released a first look trailer for their animated film "The Wild Life," a more animal-centric take on Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe". The film is currently targeting a September 9th release.
The story follows several creatures - a snack-obsessed tapir, an acrobatic pangolin, a chilled chameleon, a commonsensical kingfisher, a ditzy goat and a persnickety echidna. All of them find their lives disrupted when a human washes up on their shore and befriends them.
The story follows several creatures - a snack-obsessed tapir, an acrobatic pangolin, a chilled chameleon, a commonsensical kingfisher, a ditzy goat and a persnickety echidna. All of them find their lives disrupted when a human washes up on their shore and befriends them.
- 3/15/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
In “The War of the Worlds”, writer H.G. Wells posited a Martian culture that would attempt to conquer Earth. In 1938, Orson Welles panicked listeners who thought they were listening to a news broadcast rather than his radio adaptation of Wells’s novel. In 1953 and 2005 came two big screen versions of the alien attack.
In 1964, audiences flocked to cinemas to see Robinson Crusoe On Mars – the sci-fi version of the classic novel by author Daniel Defoe.
Our fascination with the Red Planet is seemingly inexhaustible.
Now comes 20th Century Fox’s The Martian and on Saturday the crew of the International Space Station were treated to an early screening of director Ridley Scott’s latest film. Astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren tweeted out the photos below.
On March 27, Kelly launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to stay aboard the Iss for one year, which is twice as long as typical U.
In 1964, audiences flocked to cinemas to see Robinson Crusoe On Mars – the sci-fi version of the classic novel by author Daniel Defoe.
Our fascination with the Red Planet is seemingly inexhaustible.
Now comes 20th Century Fox’s The Martian and on Saturday the crew of the International Space Station were treated to an early screening of director Ridley Scott’s latest film. Astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren tweeted out the photos below.
On March 27, Kelly launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to stay aboard the Iss for one year, which is twice as long as typical U.
- 9/20/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Prithee, my lord, loosen our corsets and unbutton our breeches. This week has seen a new wave of period drama steam, from Natalie Dormer's BBC film The Scandalous Lady W to the furore about the 'pornographic' new adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
But they're hardly the first shows to bare historical breasts and bottoms. Here's our 9 favourite saucy costume dramas...
Pride and Prejudice
Ooh, Mr Darcy. We'll ease you in gently with the BBC's iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries, fondly remembered for the scene in which Colin Firth's dashing hero takes a dip in the Pemberley lake and emerges to greet his unexpected guests, dripping like a dolphin in a wet T-shirt contest.
While it may have shocked your grandma, this is pretty tame stuff.
Tipping the Velvet
Classic 19th century literature isn't known for its portrayal of lesbian love but Sarah Waters set out to right this...
But they're hardly the first shows to bare historical breasts and bottoms. Here's our 9 favourite saucy costume dramas...
Pride and Prejudice
Ooh, Mr Darcy. We'll ease you in gently with the BBC's iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries, fondly remembered for the scene in which Colin Firth's dashing hero takes a dip in the Pemberley lake and emerges to greet his unexpected guests, dripping like a dolphin in a wet T-shirt contest.
While it may have shocked your grandma, this is pretty tame stuff.
Tipping the Velvet
Classic 19th century literature isn't known for its portrayal of lesbian love but Sarah Waters set out to right this...
- 8/21/2015
- Digital Spy
Ridley Scott’s epic Exodus: Gods And Kings opens in theaters in three weeks.
Jessica Chastain currently stars in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar where she plays a scientist trying to save humanity from extinction.
One year from now, Scott and Chastain, along with Matt Damon, come together in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming sci-fi film The Martian.
“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.”
During her recent visit to The Daily Show, the Oscar-nominated...
Jessica Chastain currently stars in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar where she plays a scientist trying to save humanity from extinction.
One year from now, Scott and Chastain, along with Matt Damon, come together in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming sci-fi film The Martian.
“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.”
During her recent visit to The Daily Show, the Oscar-nominated...
- 11/21/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
As the summer has wound down things got even hotter over at Urban Film Festival, which kicks off Sept 17-21st with this year seeing its strongest presence of Latino content to fill the void the New York International Latino Film Festival behind two years ago. So we decided to show the short filmmakers that feature Latino talent in their films some love in a new edition of ‘LatinoBuzz: Shipwrecked’ to see what they cannot live without! They are given a choice of a Film, Book, Companion from a film and an Album to be stranded with (we’ll deal with logistics another time).
Janine Salinas Schoenberg – "Jenny & Lalo"
Film: ‘Amelie’ - Because it's all I ever want to see when I'm having a bad day.
Book: ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ because few books have ever made me both laugh out loud and sob hysterically.
Album: A mix of my husband Adam Schoenberg's music because it both moves and inspires me. Perfect for island solitude!
Companion: Maria Elena from ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ because she would be fun, spontaneous, and crazy enough to help us survive!
Adel L. Morales – "Missing Grandma"
Album: ‘Paid In Full’ by Eric B. & Rakim. I remember running to Moody’s Record Shop on White Plains Road in the Boogie Down the day after I heard Marly Marl drop it on Wbls for the first time. I picked up the 12-inch single of “Eric B. Is President” (the album didn’t drop right away) and was immediately blown away by the art on the label: a giant brown hand coming down from the skies to drop off pyramids on a nearly deserted earth. I knew from the jump that Rakim was bringing a higher level of thought to the hip-hop game. His conversion to the Nations of God’s and Earths gave him a preacher-like authority, as he stood for my positive energy than anyone before him. The man was a pioneer and a lyrical genius. He was using internal rhymes in his songs while cats were still struggling with end rhymes. Eric B’s beats were dope & got insanely better on their follow-up album, “Follow the Leader.” After I ran home and played that track a bunch, I flipped it over to listen to the B-side, which was “My Melody” and I damn near had a heart attack. I couldn’t believe my ears! Did this Mc and DJ, with the hottest track in the streets, put an even hotter track on the B-side? It was like finding a gold nugget in a riverbed. The greatest rap duo ever in my book.
Book: ‘Random Family’ by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is a fascinating true story of two couples set in the Bronx during the mid-1980’s to late-1990’s. Despite the accurate portrayal of the lives and the cycle of poor choices made by uneducated people, there is a tiny glimmer of hope for the next generation. It makes me hope that someone’s child will eventually figure a way out of the messes created by inner city issues, like the high school drop out rate, teen pregnancy, and drug dealing. It describes in great exactness the time period in which I grew up in the Bronx and allows me to appreciate the courses I travelled to navigate those dangerous waters.
Companion : Sancho Panza from ‘Don Quixote.’ He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty literally or figuratively. He is often the voice of truth when his partner would rather hear anything but. But, it is the ability to keep his master safe from enemies, as well as from himself that seals the deal for me.
Film: ‘Adrift in Tokyo’ by Satoshi Miki is one of my favorite films of all time. I would chose this one to take with me if I was stranded on an island because it encompasses some of the things that I find essential to enjoying life on this planet. Miki is able to do this in both dramatic and comedic ways. It is about making connections with the world around us and with the people in it. Spending time getting to know someone often feels like a lost art in today’s faster-paced world. Characters learn to express emotion and not hide behind “manliness.” They atone for sins they’ve committed and attempt to right the wrongs of their past. This film reminds me that happiness can be found in the tiniest moments of pleasure and this film delivers tons of them as the laughs are frequent and come from the silliest places at the weirdest times.
Jess Dela Merced – "Hypebeasts"
Album: ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ had a lot of influence on me growing up and even more so today. I fall into many daydreams listening to it, imagining scenes to match or pretending some of the songs were soundtracks to my life. All her lyrics are starting to ring true as I grow older and the messages are always getting clearer with each listen. It's one of those albums that you can only fully comprehend once you're old and wrinkly.
Book: ‘Catcher in the Rye’ will always be my favorite book. I identify with Holden so much, not sure if that's a good thing, but if I could make any movie in the world, it would be an adaptation of that book. One day I will find the loophole to get to the rights!
Film: ‘Coming to America’ because I need to stay happy on that island and would probably reenact it word for word to keep myself entertained. Also so I can listen to Sexual Chocolate and Soul Glo repeatedly.
Companion: Any character Robin Williams has played. I guess Genie for obvious reasons.
Daniel Pfeffer – "Milk & Honey"
Album: If I was stranded, I'd bring Coltrane's ‘A Love Supreme’ for it's timeless effect, so whenever I was losing hope of rescue, I'd put that on to calm my nerves, and let me know it all doesn't matter in the end, because the beauty is within and all around you.
Book: My book would have to be ‘Drown’ by Junot Diaz, because it would let me remember where I'm from, the metro area, and what it feels like to have immigrant parents.
Film: I love so many films, but I think one that is just poetry in motion for me would be Spike Lee's ‘He Got Game’. Whenever I was feeling homesick I'd just watch that. Plus the soundtrack is so good on it from the classical to the hip hop, I could be forever entertained!
Companion: No matter where I am in the world, I'd have to ask Shailene Woodley to come along so we could plan a film together, in case we were ever rescued and brought back to civilization.
Cristina Kotz Cornejo – "Hermanas"
Film: I think it would need to be a good comedy, either "Dr. Strangelove," The Pink Panther" or maybe "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam - something absurd to keep me laughing – oh wait, I guess if I have to choose one then it’s The Pink Panther can’t get enough of Peter Sellers!
Book: 1984 by George Orwell to remind me of what the world I left behind is becoming and to make me appreciate the absence of “big brother,” the internet and all the noise of everyday life.
Album: It’s not easy to choose an album but if I had to choose one it would be one of my favorites from childhood, That’s the Way of the World by Earth Wind and Fire. It will keep me busy dancing and singing the nights away in paradise.
Companion: Ellen Ripley from Alien because with her there I would be sure to eventually get off the island although 1984 will make me want to stay put, oh the dichotomy of life!
Javier Melero De Luca – "Silencio Chino"
Ok, the question puts me in survival mode, not in a curatorial one. I am going to need entertainment to cope with solitude on an island!!
Film: ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ So many IMDb people could not be wrong. It would remind me that a lot of men dream of being on an island anyway. ("The Lives of Others" if the previous was not available).
Companion: Someone hot and resourceful like Lara Croft, I could try and hit on her, maybe even have an offspring.
Book: No doubt, The Lord of the Flies. Deep, insightful, metaphorical and well written. Useful on the island too.
Album: Tough call but I would go for Gently Disturbed by Avishai Cohen. They’re Venezuelan folk music meets Israeli jazz. Just mind-bending. P.S. Can't i just grab mi iPad before crashing on the island???
Geoffrey Guerrero – "J-1"
Album: If I was stranded on a deserted island I would need to have the Buenavista Social club album because their rich Latin rhythms and passionate songs of romance and love would make life more enjoyable and welcoming. And, being stranded in said island, anything with some latin beats and conga drums goes a long way in making life a little easier.
Companion: If I had to choose a companion from the movies it would have to be two companions: Eva Mendez and Gina Rodriguez. After a long day of cutting wood and preparing dinner, there's no other people I would rather have at my side than these 2 gorgeous young ladies. Who knows, maybe I'll get a back massage if I'm lucky.
Book: The one book I must have on this island is Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," because if I'm gonna be stuck on an island I need to know there's a chance I'll survive. Some people say life is all about survival of the fittest and this book is a powerful story of a man stranded on an island for many years and by some miracle he survives and escapes the island in one piece. Which I think we'd all agree would be the ideal situation if stranded on such an island.
Film: "Amores Perros" or "Rabia."
Dennis Shinners – "Barrio Boy"
Film: "Stand By Me", "Titanic", "The Empire Strikes Back" (original release) or the "Alien" box set, just keeping the first two films. They are all about friendship and survival.
Album: I'd love to cram a ton of music onto an iPod, but if not allowed, it would be Prince's "Purple Rain". Why? Well, it's Prince's "Purple Rain"! Probably my favorite album of all time, though it's really tough to narrow down a favorite, let alone a fave Prince record. I'd try to sneak The Cure's "Disintegration", U2's "The Joshua Tree", Biggie's "Ready to Die" and a Jobim record (for sunset listening) by customs too.
Book: I've got way more music than books so I might trade this for a Nirvana, Velvet Underground, Peter Gabriel or Smashing Pumpkins album, but at the risk of sounding cliche or obvious, "The Catcher In the Rye". This way I'll always have a piece of New York City with me.
Companion: Samwise Gamgee from "Lord of the Rings". He's beyond loyal and cooks too, which will come in handy.
Albert Espinosa – "Pitahaya"
Album: ‘Great Escape’ by Blur because each song is incredible.
Film: ‘Good Will Hunting’. The Death of Robin Williams deeply affected me profoundly.
Book: ‘Tuesdays with Morrie.’ This book changed my life.
Companion : Leo of the series ‘Red Band Society’. Red band society, Fox's series is like my life as a child. It’s my autobiography. I am very happy for the coincidence between the release of the series and the festival.
Laila Petrone Peynado – "Your Love"
Album: Anita Baker – ‘Giving You the Best that I Got.’ I love her voice and each song on this album has accompanied me through different stages of my life. If I had been a singer, I would have been honored to have had her voice and career.
Book - Paulo Coelho – ‘Eleven Minutes.’ You're right there with the protagonist. The storyline, the way it is written, compels you to imagine it visually.
Film : ‘Mo' Better Blues.’ It's a movie I can watch over and over again, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, and the soundtrack by the amazing Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence Blanchard is just wonderful.
Companion : Marcello Mastroianni. Marcello was one-of-a-kind actor and I could spend hours talking to him about his experiences working with some of the most influential directors and movies of our time.
Wu Tsang - "You're Dead to Me"
Album : I'm not into albums much, but I'd have several of my favorite underground DJ's, like DJ Total Freedom, Nguzunguzu and Juliana Huxtable create an original mix for me. My island soundtrack would feature lots of traditional Banda music, which I love. I've shot several of my films in Mexico, and Banda always brings me back, like a snapshot of a moment in time. Maybe I could have my mix delivered to the island by drone.
Book: A written retrospective on Rainer Werner Fassbinder would be ideal. I figure if I can't watch movies at least I can read about them and visualize them in my mind, on a loop. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is my favorite. It's considered to be Fassbinder's masterpiece, but I'm always drawn to characters who let their hearts rule their heads. It's that blend of realism and romanticism, loneliness and love that would inspire and buoy me with no other constant but the waves lashing the shore.
Companion: My favorite character is always changing. But this week it's Sarah Linden from ‘The Killing.’ I guess I can relate to her troubled lonely existence. She's super flawed but also so powerful and talented, and deep down has a lot of heart and passion buried under that tough facade. I think we'd enjoy coping with our existentialism and creating our own mythology together on that island.
Jonathon Dillon – "Celluloid Dreams"
Album: Without a doubt, Louis Armstrong "The Definite Collection". I can say without a doubt Louis Armstrong is one of my favorite musicians of all time. When I hear that deep raspy voice I can't help but let all my worries fade away and transport to what life must have been like in the '30s.
Film: People laugh when I say this, but the film I define as one of the most perfectly executed pieces of cinema created is "Back to the Future." Head to tails, frame by frame, everything has purpose and continually pushes the story. Although Zemeckis has gone on to do other projects that he has received more acclaim for (i.e. "Forrest Gump"), I feel like I always watch "Back to the Future" and see something else he did that I didn't catch before that makes me stop and marvel at the film as a whole.
Book: Would graphic novels count? I grew up looking at comic books before I could even read, the visual imagery said it all, and the artwork would be just spell binding. I actually wanted to be a comic book artist as a kid, but then realized I couldn't sketch to save my life. I would lean towards Frank Miller's "Wolverine" or even Alan Moore's "Watchmen." If it had to be a book I'd probably want something on "How to Survive on an Island"....
Character: This is tough, and maybe I'm cheating, but the first feature I did the lead female protagonist was Katherine Parker (played by Rebecca Welsh). She was strong, independent, and above all, a survivor. I've always loved films with strong female characters, hence probably why I fell in love with this one from the moment of reading her on the page. And as they say, you are only as strong as the woman next to you. Honorable mention would obviously go to Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen in "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and just about any of James Cameron's heroines.
Check out these filmmakers and many others at www.urbanworld.org
Written by Juan Caceres , LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
Janine Salinas Schoenberg – "Jenny & Lalo"
Film: ‘Amelie’ - Because it's all I ever want to see when I'm having a bad day.
Book: ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ because few books have ever made me both laugh out loud and sob hysterically.
Album: A mix of my husband Adam Schoenberg's music because it both moves and inspires me. Perfect for island solitude!
Companion: Maria Elena from ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ because she would be fun, spontaneous, and crazy enough to help us survive!
Adel L. Morales – "Missing Grandma"
Album: ‘Paid In Full’ by Eric B. & Rakim. I remember running to Moody’s Record Shop on White Plains Road in the Boogie Down the day after I heard Marly Marl drop it on Wbls for the first time. I picked up the 12-inch single of “Eric B. Is President” (the album didn’t drop right away) and was immediately blown away by the art on the label: a giant brown hand coming down from the skies to drop off pyramids on a nearly deserted earth. I knew from the jump that Rakim was bringing a higher level of thought to the hip-hop game. His conversion to the Nations of God’s and Earths gave him a preacher-like authority, as he stood for my positive energy than anyone before him. The man was a pioneer and a lyrical genius. He was using internal rhymes in his songs while cats were still struggling with end rhymes. Eric B’s beats were dope & got insanely better on their follow-up album, “Follow the Leader.” After I ran home and played that track a bunch, I flipped it over to listen to the B-side, which was “My Melody” and I damn near had a heart attack. I couldn’t believe my ears! Did this Mc and DJ, with the hottest track in the streets, put an even hotter track on the B-side? It was like finding a gold nugget in a riverbed. The greatest rap duo ever in my book.
Book: ‘Random Family’ by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is a fascinating true story of two couples set in the Bronx during the mid-1980’s to late-1990’s. Despite the accurate portrayal of the lives and the cycle of poor choices made by uneducated people, there is a tiny glimmer of hope for the next generation. It makes me hope that someone’s child will eventually figure a way out of the messes created by inner city issues, like the high school drop out rate, teen pregnancy, and drug dealing. It describes in great exactness the time period in which I grew up in the Bronx and allows me to appreciate the courses I travelled to navigate those dangerous waters.
Companion : Sancho Panza from ‘Don Quixote.’ He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty literally or figuratively. He is often the voice of truth when his partner would rather hear anything but. But, it is the ability to keep his master safe from enemies, as well as from himself that seals the deal for me.
Film: ‘Adrift in Tokyo’ by Satoshi Miki is one of my favorite films of all time. I would chose this one to take with me if I was stranded on an island because it encompasses some of the things that I find essential to enjoying life on this planet. Miki is able to do this in both dramatic and comedic ways. It is about making connections with the world around us and with the people in it. Spending time getting to know someone often feels like a lost art in today’s faster-paced world. Characters learn to express emotion and not hide behind “manliness.” They atone for sins they’ve committed and attempt to right the wrongs of their past. This film reminds me that happiness can be found in the tiniest moments of pleasure and this film delivers tons of them as the laughs are frequent and come from the silliest places at the weirdest times.
Jess Dela Merced – "Hypebeasts"
Album: ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ had a lot of influence on me growing up and even more so today. I fall into many daydreams listening to it, imagining scenes to match or pretending some of the songs were soundtracks to my life. All her lyrics are starting to ring true as I grow older and the messages are always getting clearer with each listen. It's one of those albums that you can only fully comprehend once you're old and wrinkly.
Book: ‘Catcher in the Rye’ will always be my favorite book. I identify with Holden so much, not sure if that's a good thing, but if I could make any movie in the world, it would be an adaptation of that book. One day I will find the loophole to get to the rights!
Film: ‘Coming to America’ because I need to stay happy on that island and would probably reenact it word for word to keep myself entertained. Also so I can listen to Sexual Chocolate and Soul Glo repeatedly.
Companion: Any character Robin Williams has played. I guess Genie for obvious reasons.
Daniel Pfeffer – "Milk & Honey"
Album: If I was stranded, I'd bring Coltrane's ‘A Love Supreme’ for it's timeless effect, so whenever I was losing hope of rescue, I'd put that on to calm my nerves, and let me know it all doesn't matter in the end, because the beauty is within and all around you.
Book: My book would have to be ‘Drown’ by Junot Diaz, because it would let me remember where I'm from, the metro area, and what it feels like to have immigrant parents.
Film: I love so many films, but I think one that is just poetry in motion for me would be Spike Lee's ‘He Got Game’. Whenever I was feeling homesick I'd just watch that. Plus the soundtrack is so good on it from the classical to the hip hop, I could be forever entertained!
Companion: No matter where I am in the world, I'd have to ask Shailene Woodley to come along so we could plan a film together, in case we were ever rescued and brought back to civilization.
Cristina Kotz Cornejo – "Hermanas"
Film: I think it would need to be a good comedy, either "Dr. Strangelove," The Pink Panther" or maybe "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam - something absurd to keep me laughing – oh wait, I guess if I have to choose one then it’s The Pink Panther can’t get enough of Peter Sellers!
Book: 1984 by George Orwell to remind me of what the world I left behind is becoming and to make me appreciate the absence of “big brother,” the internet and all the noise of everyday life.
Album: It’s not easy to choose an album but if I had to choose one it would be one of my favorites from childhood, That’s the Way of the World by Earth Wind and Fire. It will keep me busy dancing and singing the nights away in paradise.
Companion: Ellen Ripley from Alien because with her there I would be sure to eventually get off the island although 1984 will make me want to stay put, oh the dichotomy of life!
Javier Melero De Luca – "Silencio Chino"
Ok, the question puts me in survival mode, not in a curatorial one. I am going to need entertainment to cope with solitude on an island!!
Film: ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ So many IMDb people could not be wrong. It would remind me that a lot of men dream of being on an island anyway. ("The Lives of Others" if the previous was not available).
Companion: Someone hot and resourceful like Lara Croft, I could try and hit on her, maybe even have an offspring.
Book: No doubt, The Lord of the Flies. Deep, insightful, metaphorical and well written. Useful on the island too.
Album: Tough call but I would go for Gently Disturbed by Avishai Cohen. They’re Venezuelan folk music meets Israeli jazz. Just mind-bending. P.S. Can't i just grab mi iPad before crashing on the island???
Geoffrey Guerrero – "J-1"
Album: If I was stranded on a deserted island I would need to have the Buenavista Social club album because their rich Latin rhythms and passionate songs of romance and love would make life more enjoyable and welcoming. And, being stranded in said island, anything with some latin beats and conga drums goes a long way in making life a little easier.
Companion: If I had to choose a companion from the movies it would have to be two companions: Eva Mendez and Gina Rodriguez. After a long day of cutting wood and preparing dinner, there's no other people I would rather have at my side than these 2 gorgeous young ladies. Who knows, maybe I'll get a back massage if I'm lucky.
Book: The one book I must have on this island is Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," because if I'm gonna be stuck on an island I need to know there's a chance I'll survive. Some people say life is all about survival of the fittest and this book is a powerful story of a man stranded on an island for many years and by some miracle he survives and escapes the island in one piece. Which I think we'd all agree would be the ideal situation if stranded on such an island.
Film: "Amores Perros" or "Rabia."
Dennis Shinners – "Barrio Boy"
Film: "Stand By Me", "Titanic", "The Empire Strikes Back" (original release) or the "Alien" box set, just keeping the first two films. They are all about friendship and survival.
Album: I'd love to cram a ton of music onto an iPod, but if not allowed, it would be Prince's "Purple Rain". Why? Well, it's Prince's "Purple Rain"! Probably my favorite album of all time, though it's really tough to narrow down a favorite, let alone a fave Prince record. I'd try to sneak The Cure's "Disintegration", U2's "The Joshua Tree", Biggie's "Ready to Die" and a Jobim record (for sunset listening) by customs too.
Book: I've got way more music than books so I might trade this for a Nirvana, Velvet Underground, Peter Gabriel or Smashing Pumpkins album, but at the risk of sounding cliche or obvious, "The Catcher In the Rye". This way I'll always have a piece of New York City with me.
Companion: Samwise Gamgee from "Lord of the Rings". He's beyond loyal and cooks too, which will come in handy.
Albert Espinosa – "Pitahaya"
Album: ‘Great Escape’ by Blur because each song is incredible.
Film: ‘Good Will Hunting’. The Death of Robin Williams deeply affected me profoundly.
Book: ‘Tuesdays with Morrie.’ This book changed my life.
Companion : Leo of the series ‘Red Band Society’. Red band society, Fox's series is like my life as a child. It’s my autobiography. I am very happy for the coincidence between the release of the series and the festival.
Laila Petrone Peynado – "Your Love"
Album: Anita Baker – ‘Giving You the Best that I Got.’ I love her voice and each song on this album has accompanied me through different stages of my life. If I had been a singer, I would have been honored to have had her voice and career.
Book - Paulo Coelho – ‘Eleven Minutes.’ You're right there with the protagonist. The storyline, the way it is written, compels you to imagine it visually.
Film : ‘Mo' Better Blues.’ It's a movie I can watch over and over again, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, and the soundtrack by the amazing Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence Blanchard is just wonderful.
Companion : Marcello Mastroianni. Marcello was one-of-a-kind actor and I could spend hours talking to him about his experiences working with some of the most influential directors and movies of our time.
Wu Tsang - "You're Dead to Me"
Album : I'm not into albums much, but I'd have several of my favorite underground DJ's, like DJ Total Freedom, Nguzunguzu and Juliana Huxtable create an original mix for me. My island soundtrack would feature lots of traditional Banda music, which I love. I've shot several of my films in Mexico, and Banda always brings me back, like a snapshot of a moment in time. Maybe I could have my mix delivered to the island by drone.
Book: A written retrospective on Rainer Werner Fassbinder would be ideal. I figure if I can't watch movies at least I can read about them and visualize them in my mind, on a loop. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is my favorite. It's considered to be Fassbinder's masterpiece, but I'm always drawn to characters who let their hearts rule their heads. It's that blend of realism and romanticism, loneliness and love that would inspire and buoy me with no other constant but the waves lashing the shore.
Companion: My favorite character is always changing. But this week it's Sarah Linden from ‘The Killing.’ I guess I can relate to her troubled lonely existence. She's super flawed but also so powerful and talented, and deep down has a lot of heart and passion buried under that tough facade. I think we'd enjoy coping with our existentialism and creating our own mythology together on that island.
Jonathon Dillon – "Celluloid Dreams"
Album: Without a doubt, Louis Armstrong "The Definite Collection". I can say without a doubt Louis Armstrong is one of my favorite musicians of all time. When I hear that deep raspy voice I can't help but let all my worries fade away and transport to what life must have been like in the '30s.
Film: People laugh when I say this, but the film I define as one of the most perfectly executed pieces of cinema created is "Back to the Future." Head to tails, frame by frame, everything has purpose and continually pushes the story. Although Zemeckis has gone on to do other projects that he has received more acclaim for (i.e. "Forrest Gump"), I feel like I always watch "Back to the Future" and see something else he did that I didn't catch before that makes me stop and marvel at the film as a whole.
Book: Would graphic novels count? I grew up looking at comic books before I could even read, the visual imagery said it all, and the artwork would be just spell binding. I actually wanted to be a comic book artist as a kid, but then realized I couldn't sketch to save my life. I would lean towards Frank Miller's "Wolverine" or even Alan Moore's "Watchmen." If it had to be a book I'd probably want something on "How to Survive on an Island"....
Character: This is tough, and maybe I'm cheating, but the first feature I did the lead female protagonist was Katherine Parker (played by Rebecca Welsh). She was strong, independent, and above all, a survivor. I've always loved films with strong female characters, hence probably why I fell in love with this one from the moment of reading her on the page. And as they say, you are only as strong as the woman next to you. Honorable mention would obviously go to Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen in "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and just about any of James Cameron's heroines.
Check out these filmmakers and many others at www.urbanworld.org
Written by Juan Caceres , LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 9/10/2014
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
The Curiosity rover has begun snooping about for evidence of life on Mars. I’ll be watching those pictures closely for evidence of wine on Mars. Paul Mantee’s character in Robinson Crusoe on Mars could have used a little martian vino, be it red or white.
Had Daniel Defoe’s earthbound Crusoe known he would be marooned for 28 years, he might have tried making some wine - if only for sacramental purposes. The 18th-century Crusoe got religion by reading the Bible while stranded. Imagine what he could have accomplished, inspired by a couple of issues of Wine Spectator.
Hollywood’s version of the desert island is Mars in the 1964 film billed as “scientifically authentic.” That must have referred to the Technicolor process, because little else seems to be very realistic. Tfh says the movie does borrow effects from “War of the Worlds” and “Destination Moon,” and the presentation is 1964-moderne,...
Had Daniel Defoe’s earthbound Crusoe known he would be marooned for 28 years, he might have tried making some wine - if only for sacramental purposes. The 18th-century Crusoe got religion by reading the Bible while stranded. Imagine what he could have accomplished, inspired by a couple of issues of Wine Spectator.
Hollywood’s version of the desert island is Mars in the 1964 film billed as “scientifically authentic.” That must have referred to the Technicolor process, because little else seems to be very realistic. Tfh says the movie does borrow effects from “War of the Worlds” and “Destination Moon,” and the presentation is 1964-moderne,...
- 8/14/2014
- by Randy Fuller
- Trailers from Hell
Hadrian's wall, Culloden, the poll tax, Jacob Rees-Mogg: yes, England has inflicted an awful lot of angst and pain on Scotland down the centuries – but, look, we still don't want you to leave
1 Sorry for calling every last one of you "Jock". We now know it's offensive, especially if you're a woman.
2 So sorry for the years of heartless Conservative governments that you never voted for that ripped the heart out of the Scottish mining, steel and shipbuilding industries, butchered public services and imposed an unwonted, dismal neo-liberal ethos on a land to which such a callous political and economic philosophy was inimical.
3 And for making you guinea pigs for Margaret Thatcher's disastrous poll tax, inflicting it on you a year before England and Wales, and then – somehow! – forgetting to backdate the rebate for the tax when it was abolished in the early 90s.
4 Sorry for the 1746 Dress Act that banned tartan,...
1 Sorry for calling every last one of you "Jock". We now know it's offensive, especially if you're a woman.
2 So sorry for the years of heartless Conservative governments that you never voted for that ripped the heart out of the Scottish mining, steel and shipbuilding industries, butchered public services and imposed an unwonted, dismal neo-liberal ethos on a land to which such a callous political and economic philosophy was inimical.
3 And for making you guinea pigs for Margaret Thatcher's disastrous poll tax, inflicting it on you a year before England and Wales, and then – somehow! – forgetting to backdate the rebate for the tax when it was abolished in the early 90s.
4 Sorry for the 1746 Dress Act that banned tartan,...
- 2/20/2014
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Just before Christmas, an artist named Claude Robinson prevailed at Canada's Supreme Court in a case that has lasted nearly two decades and illustrates some nuance around materials assumed to be in the public domain. Story: Hollywood's Top 10 Legal Disputes of 2013 The dispute stretches back to the 1980s when Robinson and his company developed an educational children’s television show, “The Adventures of Robinson Curiosity,” inspired from Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel, Robinson Crusoe, as well as from his own life experiences. After drawing up characters, sketches and storyboards, the artist pitched various producers. Then, in 1995, Robinson flipped on the television and
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- 12/31/2013
- by Eriq Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The tough guy starred in the sci-fi classic "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" and played Det. Al Corassa on TV's "Cagney & Lacey."
Paul Mantee, a burly, tough-guy actor who starred in the 1964 sci-fi cult classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars and on TV's Cagney & Lacey as Det. Al Corassa, has died. He was 82.
A longtime resident of Malibu who wrote columns for the local newspaper, Mantee played the health inspector on a 1994 episode of Seinfeld, "The Pie;" had a recurring role as Commander Clayton on Hunter, the police drama that starred Fred Dryer; and appeared as Cornell, a henchman for Catwoman who disguises himself as Batman to frame the Caped Crusader for a robbery in a 1967 storyline that saw the villainess go back to college.
Mantee died Nov. 7, The Malibu Times reported.
In Paramount's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Byron Haskin’s adaptation of the Daniel Defoe novel, Mantee has top billing, playing the shipwrecked Cmdr.
Paul Mantee, a burly, tough-guy actor who starred in the 1964 sci-fi cult classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars and on TV's Cagney & Lacey as Det. Al Corassa, has died. He was 82.
A longtime resident of Malibu who wrote columns for the local newspaper, Mantee played the health inspector on a 1994 episode of Seinfeld, "The Pie;" had a recurring role as Commander Clayton on Hunter, the police drama that starred Fred Dryer; and appeared as Cornell, a henchman for Catwoman who disguises himself as Batman to frame the Caped Crusader for a robbery in a 1967 storyline that saw the villainess go back to college.
Mantee died Nov. 7, The Malibu Times reported.
In Paramount's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Byron Haskin’s adaptation of the Daniel Defoe novel, Mantee has top billing, playing the shipwrecked Cmdr.
- 11/11/2013
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Review by Sam Moffitt
Some movies stay with you. People are constantly amazed that I can remember so much about movies but also what theatre I saw them in and under what circumstances. Movies can be like songs in the memory, where you were physically and mentally and emotionally the first time you heard a song and how it takes on much more meaning than the musicians ever intended. The same with books, I recall at what point in my life I read certain books and where I was at the time. And so, it’s the same with movies, for me anyway.
In 1966 my Father entered John Cochran Veteran’s Hospital in St. Louis, on North Grand, for brain surgery. He never walked out of there. We were visiting Dad before the surgery, at eleven years old I was already a die hard Movie Geek. I used to beg my parents,...
Some movies stay with you. People are constantly amazed that I can remember so much about movies but also what theatre I saw them in and under what circumstances. Movies can be like songs in the memory, where you were physically and mentally and emotionally the first time you heard a song and how it takes on much more meaning than the musicians ever intended. The same with books, I recall at what point in my life I read certain books and where I was at the time. And so, it’s the same with movies, for me anyway.
In 1966 my Father entered John Cochran Veteran’s Hospital in St. Louis, on North Grand, for brain surgery. He never walked out of there. We were visiting Dad before the surgery, at eleven years old I was already a die hard Movie Geek. I used to beg my parents,...
- 2/11/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It's been called the 'dustbin of London' and the 'armpit of the world' – but there are efforts afoot, on TV and in the country's art galleries, to redeem Essex's reputation
We need to talk about Essex. Surely no county has been so systematically defined and reduced. Simon Heffer's now-infamous Daily Telegraph editorial published in 1990 named the vomiting Thatcherites he encountered at Liverpool Street station as examples of "Essex Man". At around the same time, Chigwell provided the setting for the upwardly mobile prison widows in Birds of a Feather. More recently, of course, there has been Buckhurst Hill and Brentwood's "structured reality" pantomime, The Only Way is Essex. And while Channel 4's Educating Essex, filmed in Harlow, was funny and sensitive, its title seemed to imply that to teach an Essex kid anything was a novel idea.
The fact that Essex is maligned is hardly news. "It has...
We need to talk about Essex. Surely no county has been so systematically defined and reduced. Simon Heffer's now-infamous Daily Telegraph editorial published in 1990 named the vomiting Thatcherites he encountered at Liverpool Street station as examples of "Essex Man". At around the same time, Chigwell provided the setting for the upwardly mobile prison widows in Birds of a Feather. More recently, of course, there has been Buckhurst Hill and Brentwood's "structured reality" pantomime, The Only Way is Essex. And while Channel 4's Educating Essex, filmed in Harlow, was funny and sensitive, its title seemed to imply that to teach an Essex kid anything was a novel idea.
The fact that Essex is maligned is hardly news. "It has...
- 1/24/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Athens resembles a necropolis in the latest film from the talented Yorgos Lanthimos – and now he has upped sticks for London. It's not abandonment, he insists
Yorgos Lanthimos sits at the table outside a pub, bundled up in jacket and fleece, his breath visible in the autumn air. While he talks, I can't decide what's more telling: the fact that Lanthimos, the most talented Greek director of his generation, has just made a film about dead people; or the fact that he's now quit Greece to live in Britain instead.
Maybe he grew weary of his role as a coal-miner's canary. For now, more than ever, it's tempting to view Lanthimos's gloriously grotesque, off-kilter pictures as an ongoing autopsy of contemporary Greece – a portrait of a nation on the cusp of collapse. His 2005 debut, Kinetta, was an acid drama about the thrill of homicide; 2009's Oscar-nominated Dogtooth was a nail-bitingly...
Yorgos Lanthimos sits at the table outside a pub, bundled up in jacket and fleece, his breath visible in the autumn air. While he talks, I can't decide what's more telling: the fact that Lanthimos, the most talented Greek director of his generation, has just made a film about dead people; or the fact that he's now quit Greece to live in Britain instead.
Maybe he grew weary of his role as a coal-miner's canary. For now, more than ever, it's tempting to view Lanthimos's gloriously grotesque, off-kilter pictures as an ongoing autopsy of contemporary Greece – a portrait of a nation on the cusp of collapse. His 2005 debut, Kinetta, was an acid drama about the thrill of homicide; 2009's Oscar-nominated Dogtooth was a nail-bitingly...
- 11/12/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Restored on 35mm and with a new score, this ambitious piece tells us much about the director and his methods
"It's a very important piece of cinema history, which was not known until Saturday night," says David Robinson, director of the Giornate del Cinema Muto, the annual silent film festival in Pordenone, north Italy. He's talking about a film that is just 12 and a half minutes long, but one that sheds light on the man he calls the "first artist of the cinema": Georges Méliès, director of hundreds of magical films, many of which have been lost.
Méliès's best known film is, of course, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, but Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoé, the newly discovered film, is an even more ambitious work; a landmark in the history of narrative cinema.
It is also a piece that illuminates much about Méliès's tragic personal life. Making a hit...
"It's a very important piece of cinema history, which was not known until Saturday night," says David Robinson, director of the Giornate del Cinema Muto, the annual silent film festival in Pordenone, north Italy. He's talking about a film that is just 12 and a half minutes long, but one that sheds light on the man he calls the "first artist of the cinema": Georges Méliès, director of hundreds of magical films, many of which have been lost.
Méliès's best known film is, of course, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, but Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoé, the newly discovered film, is an even more ambitious work; a landmark in the history of narrative cinema.
It is also a piece that illuminates much about Méliès's tragic personal life. Making a hit...
- 10/11/2012
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
The Marxist historian reclaimed and popularised the value of popular culture – something so integral to our lives today it seems bizarre it was ever denigrated
The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.
More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm...
The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.
More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm...
- 10/2/2012
- by Jonathan Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: Reading of the Oberhausen Manifeso before the West German press.
In 1962, twenty-six West German filmmakers—including writers, directors, producers, and an actor—declared the Oberhausen Manifesto at the 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the manifesto, the festival organized the retrospective “Provoking Reality: Mavericks, Mouvements, and Manifestos,” in which they screened nearly forty short films by the manifesto’s signatories. (Earlier this year, Daniel Kasman wrote about several of the retrospective's shorts in his report from the festival, "Manifestations".) This week, the Museum of Modern Art will also screen a selection of them from September 27th through the 30th. Out of these new films, a Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film) emerged to counter the established film industry and the conventional German entertainment of the 1950s.
Above: The 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival.
After the Allies defeated Germany in World War II and subsequently partitioned the country,...
In 1962, twenty-six West German filmmakers—including writers, directors, producers, and an actor—declared the Oberhausen Manifesto at the 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the manifesto, the festival organized the retrospective “Provoking Reality: Mavericks, Mouvements, and Manifestos,” in which they screened nearly forty short films by the manifesto’s signatories. (Earlier this year, Daniel Kasman wrote about several of the retrospective's shorts in his report from the festival, "Manifestations".) This week, the Museum of Modern Art will also screen a selection of them from September 27th through the 30th. Out of these new films, a Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film) emerged to counter the established film industry and the conventional German entertainment of the 1950s.
Above: The 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival.
After the Allies defeated Germany in World War II and subsequently partitioned the country,...
- 9/26/2012
- MUBI
Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century and with good reason. Apart from the beauty of the planet’s dramatic red colour, early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life have often inspired writers to take on either the possibility that Mars could be colonized by humans or would be incapable of sustaining human life – thus the idea that Martians would one day invade our planet. With the release of Andrew Stanton’s sweeping action-adventure John Carter (a film based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs and set on Mars), I’ve decided to list a few films which also revolve around the mysterious and exotic planet that might be worthy of your time.
#1- Total Recall
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
The premise for Total Recall, a film based on a Philip K. Dick short story ( ‘We Can Remember...
#1- Total Recall
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
The premise for Total Recall, a film based on a Philip K. Dick short story ( ‘We Can Remember...
- 3/10/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Are found footage movies a cheap-to-make fad, or are they a natural extension of classic storytelling? Here’s Ryan’s view of a divisive genre…
The finest storytellers are confidence tricksters. It’s their ability to convince us that what they’re telling us is real that makes their tall tales so engrossing – they blur the lines between fiction and reality, to the point where are brains struggle to see the join between one and the other.
This is why so many novels and short stories were written in the first person, or incorporated real-world events: their writers wanted to convince their readers that what they were reading was fact, even as the stories span off into unreality. Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe as a first-person account of a castaway. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was written in the style of a traveller’s work of non-fiction,...
The finest storytellers are confidence tricksters. It’s their ability to convince us that what they’re telling us is real that makes their tall tales so engrossing – they blur the lines between fiction and reality, to the point where are brains struggle to see the join between one and the other.
This is why so many novels and short stories were written in the first person, or incorporated real-world events: their writers wanted to convince their readers that what they were reading was fact, even as the stories span off into unreality. Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe as a first-person account of a castaway. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was written in the style of a traveller’s work of non-fiction,...
- 2/3/2012
- Den of Geek
Last year, the New Zealand Film Archive and the National Film Preservation Foundation announced that they'd discovered a tinted print of The White Shadow (1924), "an atmospheric melodrama starring Betty Compson, in a dual role as twin sisters — one angelic and the other 'without a soul.' With mysterious disappearances, mistaken identity, steamy cabarets, romance, chance meetings, madness, and even the transmigration of souls, the wild plot crams a lot into six reels." As David Sterritt noted in that announcement, though he was only 24 at the time, "Alfred Hitchcock wrote the film's scenario, designed the sets, edited the footage, and served as assistant director to Graham Cutts, whose professional jealousy toward the gifted upstart made the job all the more challenging."
Today, Farran Nehme, Marilyn Ferdinand and Roderick Heath have announced that their third For the Love Film blogathon, running from May 13 through 18, will be a fund-raising drive to rouse up...
Today, Farran Nehme, Marilyn Ferdinand and Roderick Heath have announced that their third For the Love Film blogathon, running from May 13 through 18, will be a fund-raising drive to rouse up...
- 2/1/2012
- MUBI
Writer/director Andrew Barker is a man with a mission. For his first feature film, the stunning and gut-wrenching A Reckoning (review here), his mission is to get the film out to the fans who so desperately want to see this movie and for good reason - it's excellent!
From the seeds of an encounter with an abandoned Raf base in Nottingham, England, Barker came up with the story of a lone man (Leslie Simpson) and the questions people will be discussing and debating long after the film is over: Is this a post-apocalyptic film? Has The Man removed himself from society and now prefers to live like a hermit? Or is The Man simply insane?
Dread Central recently interviewed this amazing director to try and get some more insight into his polarizing film which very few have seen…yet.
DC: Hello, Andrew, and thank you for taking time to...
From the seeds of an encounter with an abandoned Raf base in Nottingham, England, Barker came up with the story of a lone man (Leslie Simpson) and the questions people will be discussing and debating long after the film is over: Is this a post-apocalyptic film? Has The Man removed himself from society and now prefers to live like a hermit? Or is The Man simply insane?
Dread Central recently interviewed this amazing director to try and get some more insight into his polarizing film which very few have seen…yet.
DC: Hello, Andrew, and thank you for taking time to...
- 4/27/2011
- by thebellefromhell
- DreadCentral.com
Robinson Crusoe on Mars Directed by: Byron Haskin Written by: Daniel Defoe (novel), John C. Higgins, Ib Melchior Starring: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin and Adam West With a title like Robinson Crusoe on Mars [1], it's easy to lump in Byron Haskin's [2] quiet and deliberate survival film with sci-fi b-movie fare like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians [3] or Mars Needs Women [4]. While I don't think it's so horrible to hold company with goofy films such as those, Robinson Crusoe on Mars certainly excels beyond Saturday Matinee fare and gives us an interesting spin on a classic tale, resulting in a film that's both entertaining and scientifically accurate (sort of). The film is a sci-fi retelling of Daniel Defoe's original novel, Robinson Crusoe [5], substituting a tropical island for a harsh Martian landscape. When Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper (played by Paul Mantee [6]) and his co-pilot Colonel Dan McReady (a pre-Batman...
- 1/13/2011
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
The first thing that came to my mind after only a few minutes of watching Criterion's new Blu-ray transfer of Robinson Crusoe on Mars was Forbidden Planet. This isn't exactly a mind-blowing revelation. In fact it's a rather elementary observation at best, which is exactly where my knowledge of old school sci-fi films lies.
I like old school science fiction, but I don't have the patience to search out the quality amongst the crap. I'm a huge fan of the original "Star Trek" television series, I enjoyed Forbidden Planet and had fun with director Byron Haskin's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, but Haskin's original War of the Worlds did very little for me. I know in some circles this is probably considered blasphemy, but if it helps any Steven Spielberg's remake, while I admit to enjoying it when I saw it the first time in theaters, hasn't been a...
I like old school science fiction, but I don't have the patience to search out the quality amongst the crap. I'm a huge fan of the original "Star Trek" television series, I enjoyed Forbidden Planet and had fun with director Byron Haskin's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, but Haskin's original War of the Worlds did very little for me. I know in some circles this is probably considered blasphemy, but if it helps any Steven Spielberg's remake, while I admit to enjoying it when I saw it the first time in theaters, hasn't been a...
- 1/11/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
This modern-day tale of deception, which purports to be a documentary, is one of the year's most intriguing pictures
The most highly regarded American film in a year that has seen the fifth anniversary of YouTube is also the most topical: The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook. But just as widely discussed and altogether more controversial is the low-budget movie Catfish, which purports to be a documentary about an encounter involving Facebook between people from very different social backgrounds. It cost something like $30,000 to make, and on a limited release has taken $3m at the box office, which makes it a phenomenon of Blair Witch Project dimensions.
At the centre of Catfish is Yaniv Schulman, known as Nev, a young, New York-based photographer specialising in pictures of dancers. He receives an email from Angela Faccio, a housewife in smalltown Michigan, sending him a naive but rather...
The most highly regarded American film in a year that has seen the fifth anniversary of YouTube is also the most topical: The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook. But just as widely discussed and altogether more controversial is the low-budget movie Catfish, which purports to be a documentary about an encounter involving Facebook between people from very different social backgrounds. It cost something like $30,000 to make, and on a limited release has taken $3m at the box office, which makes it a phenomenon of Blair Witch Project dimensions.
At the centre of Catfish is Yaniv Schulman, known as Nev, a young, New York-based photographer specialising in pictures of dancers. He receives an email from Angela Faccio, a housewife in smalltown Michigan, sending him a naive but rather...
- 12/19/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael Caton-Jones's 1995 yarn trod a Braveheart-like path in its attempt to ennoble another Scottish folk hero. Unfortunately, where context was needed, they inserted sudsy romance
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Entertainment grade: D+
History grade: D
Robert Roy MacGregor, known as Rob Roy, was an outlaw and a folk hero at the time of the Jacobite risings.
International relations
Hairy, sturdy-thighed Highlanders swarm manfully through the glens, hunting cattle thieves. Meanwhile, the English-accented Scottish aristocracy – the Duke of Montrose (John Hurt) and his fictional sidekick Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) – mince around in lace and curly wigs. "It is years, your grace, since I buggered a boy," simpers Cunningham. "I thought him a girl at the moment of entry." So far, so Braveheart: the baddies are English and queer, the goodies are Scottish and ruggedly hetero. And by "Scottish", the film means "American". There's even an irrelevant subplot about one...
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Entertainment grade: D+
History grade: D
Robert Roy MacGregor, known as Rob Roy, was an outlaw and a folk hero at the time of the Jacobite risings.
International relations
Hairy, sturdy-thighed Highlanders swarm manfully through the glens, hunting cattle thieves. Meanwhile, the English-accented Scottish aristocracy – the Duke of Montrose (John Hurt) and his fictional sidekick Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) – mince around in lace and curly wigs. "It is years, your grace, since I buggered a boy," simpers Cunningham. "I thought him a girl at the moment of entry." So far, so Braveheart: the baddies are English and queer, the goodies are Scottish and ruggedly hetero. And by "Scottish", the film means "American". There's even an irrelevant subplot about one...
- 1/14/2010
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, now playing in a one-man outdoor spectacle play in Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West, just northwest of Sheep's Meadow) - performances continue Sunday, September 20 - Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27 - all shows at 4:30Pm. The show also played this summer in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
- 8/28/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, is now playing in a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer, following its premiere in both Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West, just northwest of Sheep's Meadow) - performances continue August 22, and 29, at 4:30Pm.
- 8/19/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, is now playing in a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer, following its premiere in both Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West, just northwest of Sheep's Meadow) - performances continue August 8, 15, 22, and 29, at 4:30Pm and Brooklyn's Prospect Park (5th Street, Next to Litchfield Villa) August 9 and 16 - at 4:30Pm.
- 8/7/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, is now playing in a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer, following its premiere in both Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West, just northwest of Sheep's Meadow) - performances continue August 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29, at 4:30Pm and Brooklyn's Prospect Park (5th Street, Next to Litchfield Villa) August 2, 9 and 16 - at 4:30Pm.
- 7/30/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, is being performed as a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer. The show takes take place in both Central Park (July 25 & 26, August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29) and in Prospect Park (August 2, 9 and 16) performances begin at 4:30 pm on both days, and the performance runs an hour.
- 7/22/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, will be performed as a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer, with premiere performances beginning Saturday, July 11th at 4:30Pm in Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West) and Sunday, July 12th at 4:30Pm at Brooklyn's Prospect Park (5th Street Next to Litchfield Villa).
- 7/6/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Life on a Desert Island" - an interactive guide to surviving the wilderness and respecting the environment, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 classic story of Robison Crusoe, will be performed as a one-man outdoor spectacle play this summer, with premiere performances beginning Saturday, July 11th at 4:30Pm in Central Park (68th Street and Central Park West) and Sunday, July 12th at 4:30Pm at Brooklyn's Prospect Park (5th Street Next to Litchfield Villa).
- 6/29/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
If Daniel Defoe were alive and writing today, his works would more than likely be either science fiction space explorations, or about international intrigues. Defoe was the action/adventure writer of his day, and so his Robinson Crusoe translates down through time to our generation in a story that pits man against the elements as well as other humans in a story of survival. Robinson Crusoe was not written for children, it was a tale of adventure inspired by the experiences of a real life shipwrecked sailor Alexander Selkirk. As Defoe in his time re-imagined Selkirk.s actual experiences to turn them into the novel Robinson Crusoe, Defoe.s work has been re-tooled to appeal to our modern ideas of the shipwreck...
- 5/26/2009
- by June L.
- Monsters and Critics
NBC's newest adventure series has had a rocky journey. The network believed in the Crusoe TV show enough to give it lots of promotion but saddled it with a Friday timeslot, one of the least-watched nights of television. Did the series ever have a chance for survival?
Crusoe is based on the 1719 Robinson Crusoe novel by Daniel Defoe. The series follows the adventures of a young man, Robinson Crusoe (Philip Winchester), who leaves his wife, Susannah (Anna Walton), and children to go to the high-seas in search of riches to settle his impending debts. Crusoe ends up stranded on a remote island where he befriends a native named Friday (Tongayi Chirisa). While trying to find a way off the remote island, the two must battle the elements and intruders for survival. Crusoe also features Sam Neill, Sean Bean, Mia Maestro, Mark Dexter, Emma Barnett, Jake Curran, James Lauren, James Middlemarch,...
Crusoe is based on the 1719 Robinson Crusoe novel by Daniel Defoe. The series follows the adventures of a young man, Robinson Crusoe (Philip Winchester), who leaves his wife, Susannah (Anna Walton), and children to go to the high-seas in search of riches to settle his impending debts. Crusoe ends up stranded on a remote island where he befriends a native named Friday (Tongayi Chirisa). While trying to find a way off the remote island, the two must battle the elements and intruders for survival. Crusoe also features Sam Neill, Sean Bean, Mia Maestro, Mark Dexter, Emma Barnett, Jake Curran, James Lauren, James Middlemarch,...
- 11/28/2008
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
An Italian couple have been forced to change the name of their son from Friday - Venerdi - to Gregorino. The Cassation Court ordered the couple, known as Mara O and Roberto G, to rename their son after the saint's day on which he was born to save him from bullying. The boy's name, taken from the Daniel Defoe novel Robinson Crusoe, is "likely to limit social interaction and create insecurity", (more)...
- 10/24/2008
- by By Simon Reynolds
- Digital Spy
Premieres tonight on NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET77:00 p.m. Ct Everyone’s got a reason for being drawn to the Robinson Crusoe story in its varied iterations, whether it be for the philosophical considerations of man’s tenuous self-sufficiency, or the stories’ meticulous descriptions of how an ingenious soul survives isolation. Me, I’ve always liked the contraptions. Thanks more to the Crusoe-esque Swiss Family Robinson (and the Disney version thereof) than to Daniel Defoe’s original novel, an elaborate array of huts, booby traps and rudimentary gadgets have become a major part of a lot of Crusoe narratives; and the fantasy of living in a big treehouse stocked with improbable doo-dads still appeals to the part of me that used to turn cardboard boxes, blankets and old toys into my imaginary superhero headquarters. It’s because of that treehouse fantasy that I was initially excited by...
- 10/17/2008
- avclub.com
In a David Blaine inspired effort to promote their newest series Crusoe, NBC will build a giant treehouse in Midtown Manhattan in anticipation of the show's October 17 debut. The treehouse will be located on Broadway and 51st Street.
Variety reports that NBC is funding a 24-hour webcam stream capturing the goings-on in the treehouse. The feed will be available at www.savecrusoe.com. During the event, polls and contest giveaways will take place, and series stars Philip Winchester (Crusoe) and Tongayi Chirisa (Friday) will make appearances.
Crusoe is the latest adaptation of Daniel Defoe's classic novel about a British man shipwrecked on a deserted island. Crusoe is accompanied by native friend Friday, and the two team together against cannibals, wild beasts, militias and the forces of nature. On the island, Crusoe builds a breathtaking treehouse in the forest to evade his enemies.
In addition to the island events, the...
Variety reports that NBC is funding a 24-hour webcam stream capturing the goings-on in the treehouse. The feed will be available at www.savecrusoe.com. During the event, polls and contest giveaways will take place, and series stars Philip Winchester (Crusoe) and Tongayi Chirisa (Friday) will make appearances.
Crusoe is the latest adaptation of Daniel Defoe's classic novel about a British man shipwrecked on a deserted island. Crusoe is accompanied by native friend Friday, and the two team together against cannibals, wild beasts, militias and the forces of nature. On the island, Crusoe builds a breathtaking treehouse in the forest to evade his enemies.
In addition to the island events, the...
- 10/13/2008
- by Josh Wigler
- Comicmix.com
We have plenty clips from NBC's "Crusoe" adventure starring Philip Winchester, Anna Walton, Mark Dexter, Sam Neill, Sean Bean. The show has a 2-hour-long series premiere on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 8/7 c on NBC, Airs Fridays, 8/7C. Adapted from Daniel Defoe's revered book, the series comes from Power, Muse and Moonlighting Films. The series promises fast-paced action and hopefully remain faithful to the beloved story. Philip Winchester of "Flyboys" starring James Franco, takes the role of Crusoe.
- 10/10/2008
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Sam Neill, Sean Bean and Joss Ackland have joined the cast of NBC's action series Crusoe.
The project, based on Daniel Defoe's novel, chronicles the adventures of the dashing and resourceful castaway Crusoe (Philip Winchester) and his companion Friday on a desert island while looking in flashbacks at Crusoe's life before he embarked on the ill-fated voyage.
Among the flashbacks are Crusoe's tragic childhood with a widower father (James Bean), the relationship with the love of his life, Susannah (Anna Walton), and his efforts to launch a business under the watchful eye of family friend, Jeremiah Blackthorn (Neill).
Crusoe, written by Stephen Gallagher (Eleventh Hour) and directed by Duane Clark (CSI: NY), will be filmed in the U.K., South Africa and the Seychelles.
Power Entertainment is producing, with Justin Bodle, Michael Prupas and Genevieve Hofmeyr exec producing.
The project, based on Daniel Defoe's novel, chronicles the adventures of the dashing and resourceful castaway Crusoe (Philip Winchester) and his companion Friday on a desert island while looking in flashbacks at Crusoe's life before he embarked on the ill-fated voyage.
Among the flashbacks are Crusoe's tragic childhood with a widower father (James Bean), the relationship with the love of his life, Susannah (Anna Walton), and his efforts to launch a business under the watchful eye of family friend, Jeremiah Blackthorn (Neill).
Crusoe, written by Stephen Gallagher (Eleventh Hour) and directed by Duane Clark (CSI: NY), will be filmed in the U.K., South Africa and the Seychelles.
Power Entertainment is producing, with Justin Bodle, Michael Prupas and Genevieve Hofmeyr exec producing.
- 5/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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