Just two days after the death of Stan Winston, another major figure of motion pictures passed away on the 17th, dancing star Cyd Charisse. I found her death especially eerie, as I had just written about her a week or so previous, when I mentioned how Cyd and her Marx Bros starring husband Tony Martin … Continue reading
Joseph Cotten was one of America’s finest actors and great treasures, appearing in a variety of important films well regarded today, and yet he is so rarely mentioned in conversations about his craft. It’s always been my feeling that Joseph Cotten was a better actor than Orson Welles, his friend with whom he so frequently … Continue reading
I mentioned briefly the other day, in my short article about Miracle at St. Anne, that I’m a fan of movies about the Second World War. As a child, one of the first movies I really fell in love with was The Great Escape, to the point where I used to carry around a baseball … Continue reading
As you’ll have no doubt heard by now, the great special effects man Stan Winston has passed away. The news comes as a shock, as Stan was still working away on a number of projects. Not too long ago, I remember his name being dropped as a claim of legitimacy upon the new Terminator film … Continue reading
Although Akira Kurosawa is one of the best known and best loved directors in the history of cinema, there are strange gaps in the canon when it comes to writing about his work. For many people, Kurosawa’s filmography begins with Rashomon and ends with Ran. Of course, Kurosawa was directing films from 1943 all the way … Continue reading
The other day I noticed ads on the internet for Invisible Target, a film I’ve had on DVD for quite some time. I assumed the ads were for some kind of internet Asian film shop, but in fact they were for the film itself, which has got a North American DVD release though Dragon Dynasty. … Continue reading
I didn’t think it possible that a new movie by a filmmaker as important as Spike Lee could creep by me, but this one has, until now. A trailer was just put up on Yahoo! Movies for Miracle at St. Anna, his latest film, based on a novel of the same name by James McBride, who … Continue reading
The long praised, little seen, famous Frank Darabont draft of Indiana Jones is now out on the internet. Obviously downloading it would be just terrible and though initial hosts have gone down, it seems hard to stop a torrent of fans who have been baying for this for some time. Ahem. So now the real … Continue reading
Finally, it seems we have some solid information about the new Prisoner TV series that is shooting this year. I first read the news at AICN, though their television reporter wasn’t quite sure if Six Of One was a reliable source. Six of One is the name of the official Prisoner appreciation society (fan club, then) … Continue reading
As you’ve probably read all over the internet in the past month, Ed Norton is not doing press for his new movie The Incredible Hulk, which he is apoplectic about being muscled out of. Except, as Jeremy pointed out in his article about Peter Bart today, he absolutely is doing press. Norton has his nose … Continue reading