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Oscar-nominated costume designer Rosanna Norton passed away from bladder cancer on May 7. She was 80.

She was nominated, along with Elois Jenssen, for Best Costumes during the 55th Academy Awards for her work on Tron.

Her genre credits also include Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The ‘Burbs, RoboCop 2, Casper, Messiah of Evil, and Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural.

Other notable work includes Airplane!, The Flintstones, Innerspace, Explorers, Detroit Rock City, Angels in the Outfield, Barb Wire, The Brady Bunch Movie, and Badlands.

While attending UCLA as a painting major, Norton met future husband Bill Norton, who gave her her first costume designing gig on his 1971 film Cisco Pike. She joined the Costume Directors Guild in 1975 and went on to mentor many of its members.

After retiring from the film industry, Norton returned to painting.

The post ‘Carrie,’ ‘Tron’ Costume Designer Rosanna Norton Has...

Costume designer Rosanna Norton, who received an Oscar nomination for the sci-fi classic Tron and also worked on Badlands, Carrie, The Stunt Man and Frankie and Johnny during her four-decade career, has died. She was 80.

Norton died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles of bladder cancer, her granddaughter Mira Gonzalez told The Hollywood Reporter.

Norton also collaborated with Joe Dante on Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), The ‘Burbs (1989) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and with Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker on Airplane! (1980) and Ruthless People (1986).

She worked with Terrence Malick on Badlands (1973), with Brian De Palma on Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Carrie (1976), with Richard Rush on The Stunt Man (1980) and with Garry Marshall on Frankie and Johnny (1991).

She shared her Oscar nom for Steven Lisberger’s Tron (1982) with Elois Jenssen.

The oldest of four kids, Rosanna White was born in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 1944. Her mother, Ann Stanford,...

Rosanna Norton, who was Oscar-nominated for costume design for 1982’s “Tron” and designed Sissy Spacek’s iconic prom dress for “Carrie,” died of cancer May 7 in Los Angeles. She was 80.

Her early costume design credits include Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Brian de Palma’s “Carrie” and “Phantom of the Paradise.”

“We had no money,” she recalled in a video interview about “Carrie.” She found many of the prom outfits in a store in the Valley that was going out of business, she said. But she had Carrie’s simple pale pink satin dress custom-made by a seamstress after changing the color from the original red in the book to create a more striking contrast with the blood that is splashed on Spacek.

“At the time, prom dresses and bridesmaid dresses and things were very fussy. They had all these ruffles and detail and I wanted to do….a bias...

Before the invention of the TiVo and the birth of the streaming era meant that you could watch whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, families gathered around television sets to soak in whatever the networks had programmed for their prime-time blocks. When a new TV show premiered on one of the few channels available, millions of Americans tuned in to see what was in store.

Some of the biggest television show premieres of all time are long-lasting and classic sitcoms, while others have been forgotten over time. In the bygone era of gathering around the TV at a set time, new shows that premiered on the big networks always had a chance to make a splash with audiences.

This Buddy Bounty Hunter Show Didn't Last a Season Grand Slam (1990)

Premiere Date:

January 28, 1990

Number of Viewers:

30.765 million

Number of Seasons:

1

The buddy cop story is a tried and true film and television tactic,...

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Between his big-screen acting debut in Robert Rossen's vastly underrated "Lilith" and his swan song "Welcome to Mooseport," Gene Hackman had a reputation for being a prolific and, at times, nowhere-near-choosy-enough actor given his considerable talents. But when you look over that 40-year career, you don't see an egregious number of turkeys. The Dan Aykroyd buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" or his third go-round as Lex Luthor in "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" are probably the twin nadirs of his career, but mostly Hackman had a propensity to make many mediocre movies watchable. He was the reason you'd find yourself halfway through Nicholas Meyer's ho-hum spy thriller "Company Business" without any real complaints. Could it be better? Absolutely. But it had Hackman.

The movies -- great, average, or garbage -- haven't had Hackman since 2004, which never ceases to stink.

Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, Ali McGraw, Burt Young, Franklyn Ajaye, Brian Davies, Seymour Cassel, Cassie Yates | Written by Bill Norton | Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Convoy is a film that rides on the wave of the trucker and Cb radio craze of the 1970s. Based on the popular country song of the same name by C.W. McCall, the movie attempts to blend action, comedy, and social commentary into one wild, sprawling road adventure. However, its execution leaves much to be desired, and it often feels like it’s unsure of what kind of film it wants to be.

The story revolves around Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald (played by Kris Kristofferson), a stoic and charismatic trucker who finds himself on the run from an overzealous sheriff named “Dirty” Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine). Along the way, Rubber Duck inadvertently inspires a convoy of fellow truckers to follow him,...

Going into "First Blood," director Ted Kotcheff and star Sylvester Stallone surely weren't aware they were making one of the best action movies ever made and crafting an action icon in the process. But they might have had an inkling, considering they were working from David Morrell's 1972 novel of the same name. The book contained the very mix of Hollywood-style bombast and social critique that would define the very first Rambo movie as the innovative outlier it is within the larger canon. Inspired by two harrowing true stories about war veterans, Morrell wrote John Rambo as a killing machine haunted by his experiences in Vietnam. While he could dispatch enemies with preternatural ease, Rambo was also a believably tortured man, with Morrell using his prose to interrogate the very real psychological effects of serving in 'Nam.

That combination of action and analysis made its way into the original script...

Rebooting classic horror movies has almost always invited extremely divisive reception, ranging from being appreciated like the Evil Dead reboots to getting hated on like the Halloween sequels. As a seminal piece of horror media, Salem’s Lot‘s TV series adaptation is still held in great regard, and as the recently released cinematic adaptation of the novel is streaming on Max, a comparative discussion involving these two ventures is inevitable. While the movie doesn’t hold a candle to the series, for better or worse, it follows the novel more closely. Both the adaptations take certain liberties when it comes to a number of crucial moments in the narrative, which either works or doesn’t, depending on the perspective of the viewers.

Spoilers Ahead

Ben’s Trauma and Marsten House’s Significance

Writer Ben Mears and his connection with Marsten House were pivotal in both the original novel and TV series adaptation,...

Isolated small-town horrors tend to offer some of the most captivating, thrilling narratives—a unique atmospheric charm, vivid characters and their belief system, the community spirit, and most importantly, the sensation created by a distinctively cloistered setting—a number of factors help in conjuring a bewitching spooky effect. Legendary horror novelist Stephen King has found tremendous success in this subgenre, and his extensive exploration in this route began with his second novel, Salem’s Lot, published in 1975, which is arguably at the top among his best works. Inspired by classics like Dracula and Nosferatu, King brought modern-day vampire fiction to life and set the story in an idyllic small town that is full of secrets of its own—of both virtues and vices. The result was a revival of vampire fiction in mainstream pop culture, and Salem’s Lot attained popularity of such magnitude that it endured the ravages of time by...

Kris Kristofferson, who attained success as both a groundbreaking country music singer-songwriter and a Hollywood film and TV star, died Saturday at home in Maui, Hawaii. No cause of death was given, but he was described as passing away peacefully while surrounded by family. He was 88.

Said his family in a statement, “It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home. We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.” The statement was offered on behalf of Kristofferson’s wife, Lisa; his eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake; and his seven grandchildren.

Kyle Young, the CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,...

Quick Links American Graffiti Is Now On Prime Video - What It's About How American Graffiti Launched Harrison Ford's Career American Graffiti Is Still Worth Watching Today

Harrison Ford's career heavily involved George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, but they are not the films that he has to thank for his career. Ford's iconic Han Solo character in the multi-billion dollar franchise did make him a household name. However, his first prominent role was in American Graffiti. Ironically, the film is not just Ford's first major project. It is also the first film Lucas ever directed, which is pretty impressive considering American Graffiti changed Hollywood forever.

The impact of American Graffiti was so significant after its release that it even got its own sequel, More American Graffiti. However, Bill. L Norton directed this one instead of George Lucas. Harrison Ford, on the other hand, had a small cameo. The...

Before Star Wars, Harrison Ford had a mysterious role in American Graffiti that perfectly foreshadowed his iconic Han Solo character. Ford's small yet impactful cameo as Bob Falfa in George Lucas's film showcased his rebel demeanor and vehicle prowess, like Solo. American Graffiti's influence on Ford's career highlights the lasting power of his filmography and his collaboration with George Lucas.

Before Harrison Ford starred in 1977's Star Wars as the iconic Han Solo, a previous George Lucas movie brilliantly foreshadowed the actor and director's future collaboration success. Although there are plenty of movies by Star Wars writers not about the series, Lucas's early career is one of the shining examples of breathing life into projects that aren't set in a galaxy far, far away. Furthermore, despite his limited filmography, some of the best movies directed by George Lucas have contributed to cinematic history in ways that continue to...

We took Gene Hackman for granted, and he's making us pay for it.

Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.

Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...

Easy Rider terrifies twenty confused studio executives because they don’t understand it. Hoping to keep their jobs, they rush to hire more longhairs to make movies ‘the kids’ will see. Ex- UCLA film student B.L. Norton parlayed his way into writing and directing on the streets of Los Angeles, with new stars Gene Hackman and Karen Black, and singer-songwriter of the year Kris Kristofferson in his first starring role as a musician forced to deal marijuana by a corrupt cop. A time travel trip back to the City of the Angels circa 1971, it’s realistic and honest, and Kristofferson turns out to have terrific camera presence.

Cisco Pike

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date May 25, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £ 15.99

Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton, Viva, Joy Bang, Roscoe Lee Browne, Severn Darden, Antonio Fargas, Doug Sahm, Allan Arbus,...

Pity the poor gargoyle, second tier (at the very least) in horror iconography, resigned to being stone portents in many a film, but never getting their creepy due. This brings us to CBS’ Gargoyles (1972), a TV movie that aimed to rectify that situation and give these mostly forgotten creatures a chance to shine through the filter of a demented Saturday morning vibe.

Originally broadcast as part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies, Gargoyles had to contend with the ABC Movie of the Week/Marcus Welby M.D. and NBC’s The Bold Ones: The New Doctors/NBC Reports. (Please, if anyone has seen The Bold Ones, hit me up. I need to know these things.) And Gargoyles did make an impact, earning a Primetime Emmy for Makeup from some new up-and-comer named Stan Winston. (We’ll get to him in a bit.)

Let’s grab our TV Guide off...

Wim Wenders with his Paris, Texas stars Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski Photo: Wim Wenders Foundation

The Quad Cinema in New York this Friday will kick off their retrospective, Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton, which has an impressive list of 21 films. Some of the highlights include Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch; John Huston's Wise Blood; Ridley Scott's Alien; John Carpenter's Escape From New York and Christine; Alex Cox's Repo Man; Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas; Robert Altman's adaptation of Sam Shepard's Fool For Love; Howard Deutch's Pretty In Pink; Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ; David Lynch's The Straight Story, and Twister, directed by Michael Almereyda.

Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch stars Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Max von Sydow, and Harry Dean Stanton Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Bill Norton's Cisco Pike, starring Kris Kristofferson in the title role with Gene Hackman,...

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Treat yourself to some science fiction reading, with a bunch of recommend reads from the 1970s...

So many types of science fiction exist, and British Sf writing in the 1970s was often in the business of inventing new types or manipulating the old ones into interesting directions. Astonishing visions were created that reflected back on a changing world where the growth of superpowers jostled with the economic hardships at home. Were we heading in the right direction, as a species? What did it mean to be human, anyway, caught in an explosion of scientific and technological advances?

Some writers gave us space-travelling escapism, and some gave us nightmare thrillers at home. Some gave us alien intelligences and some gave us human stupidities. From the foreseeable future to the end of the universe, here’s a look at eleven incredible British science fiction novels of the 1970s:

Dg...

To mark the digitally restored version of the 35 year old classic movie Convoy on DVD and Blu-ray, we’ve been given three copies to give away on Blu-ray! “Looks like we got ourselves a convoy!”

A mighty convoy of dust-raising trucks heads for a State line in South-West America, led by legendary trucker Martin Penwald, Aka “Rubber Duck” (Kris Kristofferson), who has gathered a vast army together in protest against police corruption and shady politicking. Inspired by C.W. McCall’s hit song of the same name and brilliantly scripted by Bill L. Norton this iconic American film is a pulsating, action-packed tale about freedom and the war of independence being waged on the American highways.

From maverick American director Sam Peckinpah (Cross Of Iron, Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch) Convoy has been fully restored to celebrate its 35th anniversary release and is now available for the first time uncut and on blu-ray.

Over the past few months, we’ve added a weekly Friday feature rounding up the new releases coming to the big screen each week, courtesy of our Mr. Rob Keeling, giving you a taste of all the brilliant(/not so brilliant) films entering your local cinemas at the weekend.

It recently occurred to me to start up a similar weekly feature, instead rounding up all* the films making their way to the shelves of your local video stores (and of course, increasingly, supermarkets) at the start of each week.

There are so many brilliant films often released in close proximity to each other that sometimes it’s just not possible to see everything you want to see on the big screen, not to mention the fact that not all films are released in a nearby cinema (particularly if you live outside of London). I’m a big believer in the...

Code Red has made a name for themselves as a DVD distributor unafraid to take risks, invest in the bizarre, and most certainly, respond to fan interest. Bill Norton Olsen, the fiendish brain behind the label, is famous for telling it like it is, taking on all comers on message boards and via his own forums, defending his product and standing up for the meek uber geeks who delight in his offerings. Norton Olsen is a rare dissenting voice in the DVD vs blu-ray debate, swearing he will never give in to Sony’s new format for a variety of reasons, and he isn’t shy about blasting naysayers who blindly attack what he does send to shelves. . Last year Code Red launched a new series hosted by ex-wwe superstar Maria Kanellis, dubbing it Maria’S B-movie Mayhem. While primarily focusing on double bills (Scream/Barn Of The Naked Dead,...

Rank the week of August 23rd’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Blitz

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #9439

Win Percentage: 51%

Times Ranked: 215

Top-20 Rankings: 5

Directed By: Elliott Lester

Starring: Jason Statham • Paddy Considine • Aidan Gillen • Zawe Ashton • David Morrissey

Genres: Crime • Crime Thriller • Police Detective Film • Thriller

Rank This Movie

The Beaver

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #5199

Win Percentage: 52%

Times Ranked: 858

Top-20 Rankings: 6

Directed By: Jodie Foster

Starring: Mel Gibson • Jodie Foster • Anton Yelchin • Jennifer Lawrence • Zachary Booth

Genres: Comedy Drama • Drama • Psychological Drama

Rank This Movie

Win Win

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2107

Win Percentage: 61%

Times Ranked: 2455

Top-20 Rankings: 6

Directed By: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Paul Giamatti • Amy Ryan • Bobby Cannavale • Jeffrey Tambor • Burt Young

Genres: Comedy Drama • Drama • Sports Comedy • Sports Drama

Rank This Movie

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #5643

Win Percentage: 49%

Times Ranked: 725

Top-20 Rankings:...

Gargoyles, the 1972 TV horror movie starring Cornel Wilde (The Naked Prey) and Jennifer Salt (Sisters) will return to DVD from Hen’s Tooth Video on May 17. The film became an instant cult favorite when it was release, and has been very hard to find on VHS over the years, let alone disc.

There's something demonic under the sand in 1972's Gargoyles.

The story shows Wilde playing an anthropology professor who stumbles on a clan of demonic gargoyles while traveling through a Southwestern desert region. Of course, as they’re gargoyles (adorned in Emmy Award-winning makeup by a team that included a young Stan Winston), they’ve got world domination on their minds.

Originally aired on CBS in the fall of 1972, Gargoyles was released on tape in the late 1980s by the low-budget VHS label Star Classics. Vci issued the film in both VHS and DVD editions in 2003. All have been...

Mike Posner is prepared for flight. With the hot dance/pop album "31 Minutes to Takeoff," and a platinum single "Cooler Than Me" to his credit, the 22 year-old Duke University grad has earned his wings amongst an elite fleet of contemporary young artists. His album debuted at #8 on the Billboard Album Chart and #3 on the Digital Albums Chart, launching Posner head first into America's musical mainstream. Currently on tour in a city near you, MP is knocking out audiences with his smooth-as-silk vocals and high energy performances - and he's loving every cool minute of it. He hates the word "fans," instead calling them "my friends." He has no motto in life, only a few simple rules he picked up from his high school coach, and he firmly believes that the best is yet to come. Mike recently sat down with PopStar to discuss his past, his (surreal) present, and his promise for the future,...

COLOGNE, Germany -- The Hollywood era of Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde and Taxi Driver will be celebrated at next year's Berlin International Film Festival with a retrospective dedicated to American films of the late '60s and early '70s. Titled "New Hollywood 1967-1976: Trouble in Wonderland," the retrospective will screen 66 films spanning the years from Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. In addition to such classics of the era as Terrence Malick's Badlands, Roman Polanski's Chinatown, Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and The Godfather II, the retrospective will include lesser-known titles including Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop and Bill L. Norton's Cisco Pike. The festival also will screen several documentaries from the period, including Robert Kramer's Milestones and D.A. Pennebaker's portrait of Bob Dylan, Don't Look Back.